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A GUIDE TO 
 UNITED STATES HISTORY 
 
a guide to 
 United States History 
 
 FOR YOUNG READERS 
 
 BY 
 HENRY WILLIAM ELSON 
 
 AUTHOB OP "history OF THE UNITED STATES," "SIDK LIGHTS 
 
 ON AMERICAN HISTORY," "SCHOOL HISTORY OF 
 
 THE UNITED STATES," ETC. 
 
 New York 
 THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 
 
E^T^ 
 
 COPYEIGHT, 1909 AND 1910, BY 
 
 THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 
 
 ES' 
 
 THE TBOW PKESS, NEW YOBK 
 
 ©CI.A368274 
 
3 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Introductory 11 
 
 II. How Europe Found America .... 15 
 Columbus — The Voyage. 
 
 III. Exploring the New World .... 33 
 
 Ponce de Leon — Ferdinand de Soto — The Indian 
 Queen — The Mississippi — La Salle and Louisiana. 
 
 IV. The First Settlers 36 
 
 The Father of the English Colonies — The Lost Col- 
 ony. 
 
 V. The Permanent Colonies 41 
 
 The "Mayflower" — New York — William Penn and 
 the Quakers — The Walking Purchase — The Story 
 of Georgia. 
 
 VI. A Long Struggle for a Continent . . 54 
 
 The Buried Plates — Boyhood of a Great Man — The 
 Story of Regina Hartman — End of the Long War. 
 
 VII. Beginnings of the Revolution ... 70 
 Spirit of the Americans — A Fight for a Valley. 
 
 VIII. Victory in the End ...... 80 
 
 Brandywine — Lydia Darrah — Valley Forge — 
 France to the Rescue — Franklin — A Valiant French- 
 man — A Trip to the South — A Tale of Two Preach- 
 ers — King's Mountain — An Affair at Yorktown. 
 
 3 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FACINQ 
 PAQB 
 
 Columbus Before Isabella .... Frontispiece 
 
 \^ 
 The Landing of the Pilgrims 42 
 
 Puritans Going to Church 52 
 
 The Boston Tea Party 72 
 
 The Battle of Lexington 78 
 
 The Taking of Fort Ticonderoga, New York, 1775 . 92 
 
 The Death of Captain Lawrence, on the Chesapeake, 1813 126 
 
 Perry's Victory on Lake Erie 132 
 
 Mexican News 192 
 
 The Last Moments of John Brown 254 
 
 \^ 
 
 The Battle of Gettysburg 260 
 
 \y 
 
 The Monitor and the Merrimac, 1862 268 
 
 The Siege of Vicksburg 274^ 
 
 The Alabama and the Kearsage 308 
 
 The Battle of Manila Bay 340 
 
 Topographical Map of the Panama Canal .... 360 
 
A GUIDE TO 
 UNITED STATES HISTORY 
 
A GUIDE TO 
 
 UNITED STATES HISTORY 
 
 FOR YOUNG READERS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 DID you ever see a coral island? If not, you 
 have heard or read of these strange islands 
 that rise out of the sea. The coral is a tiny creature 
 of the sea, with a very low form of life and with 
 no power of movement from one place to another. 
 It feeds on what is brought it by the waves. With 
 myriads of its kind, probably far beneath the sur- 
 face, it lives its little life and dies. Its porous body, 
 having gathered lime from the water, becomes hard 
 like stone, and to this is attached the next genera- 
 tion of coral, and so on and on. The growth con- 
 tinues for perhaps hundreds of years, when at last 
 it rises to the surface of the water. Then come the 
 birds and the waves with soil and seed, and at length 
 we have a beautiful island with trees and flowers, 
 and even the homes of men — all built on the petrified 
 bodies of the tiny coral of the sea. 
 
 History is like a coral growth. Every generation 
 of men is built up on the achievements of the pre- 
 ceding. The civilization of the present rests entirely 
 on the past. There are few things indeed that we 
 
 11 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 use in our everyday life for which we are not in- 
 debted to the past. If you sit down to write a letter, 
 the pen you use, the chair on which you sit, and the 
 clothes you wear are the product of machinery that 
 took centuries to develop, and the alphabet you use 
 is the inheritance of thousands of years. If you 
 read a poem or study science, you are simply gath- 
 ering up the wisdom of the past. The poem may 
 have been written yesterday, but the poet himself is 
 a product of the past. He has doubtless read the 
 writings of Homer and of David, of Virgil, of 
 Dante and of Shakespeare, and of many others, 
 and each has played a part in making the poem 
 what it is. 
 
 Man's mental powers have not grown or developed 
 in historic times. We are no greater than were our 
 ancestors. We live more comfortably than they only 
 because we have added to what they bequeathed us. 
 Each generation adds a little to what it receives from 
 the past, and thus the conditions of the present rest 
 on the accumulated inheritance from the ages. Were 
 it possible to erase or destroy the past, man would 
 be reduced to the lowest state of savagery, to the 
 condition of the lower animals — without tools, or 
 clothing, or language, or traditions. 
 
 A record of the past we call History. But history- 
 is more than a record of the past; it is a study of 
 humanity, the greatest of all studies, and is second 
 only to the study of the human life in our own times, 
 in which we are all unconsciously engaged every 
 day. 
 
 12 
 
Introductory 
 
 No one can pretend to be educated who is not to 
 some extent a student of history. 
 
 The most interesting of all history to you and to 
 me is the history of our own great land. It is the 
 story of the life of our ancestors and of the growth 
 of institutions which we enjoy. 
 
 The history of America is one of absorbing inter- 
 est to all. Here had lived for unknown ages the 
 wild man of the forest and of the plains. He dwelt 
 in contentment with his family and his tribe amid 
 the rude surroundings of his home. He chased the 
 deer and the buffalo and fought with his enemy in 
 battle. He knew nothing of the civilized life of 
 lands that were far away. 
 
 At length the white man came from across the seas 
 and began to clear away the forest and to build 
 homes. The Indians were crowded toward the west 
 and cities rose where the forest had waved above their 
 wigwams. For nearly two hundred years the white 
 man's colonies grew and strengthened, when they 
 rose against the mother land, and, after a long and 
 weary war, won their independence and founded a 
 nation. The new nation became the home of the 
 oppressed from every land. It increased rapidly in 
 population, in wealth, and in extent of territory, 
 and, though still in its youth, it is now one of the 
 greatest nations of the world. What American is 
 not proud of our vast country ? and who can be con- 
 tent without a good knowledge of its history ? 
 
 In this book I shall aim to tell you something 
 about great events and leading characters. I shall 
 
 13 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 also give many incidents and adventures which are 
 not found in the school histories, though by so doing 
 I must leave out much that is easily found in other 
 books. My purpose in giving considerable space to 
 the adventures, daring deeds, and mode of life of the 
 pioneers is not merely to make the narrative more 
 attractive to the reader, but to reproduce the spirit 
 of those times and to emphasize the debt we owe to 
 those early settlers. 
 
 The object of the book is to awaken in the reader 
 a greater love of the history of our country, to foster 
 a keener desire to know the sources and the growth 
 of our civilization, to stimulate to more extensive 
 reading of the story of our great land — all of which 
 tend to a more wholesome growth of good citizenship. 
 
 14 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 
 
 YOU can pick up a morning newspaper and read 
 about what happened the day before on the 
 opposite side of the earth. 
 
 In view of this fact, it seems strange that a little 
 more than four hundred years ago half the land area 
 of the globe was unknown to the inhabitants of the 
 other half. For many centuries most people had be- 
 lieved that the earth was flat, that it was in the cen- 
 ter of the universe, and that the sun and moon made a 
 revolution around it every day — ^just as they seem 
 to do. 
 
 When you look up the sky seems higher directly 
 above you than at the horizon, and it was probably 
 this appearance that led the people of Europe to be- 
 lieve that Europe was the center of all things. They 
 also thought that they themselves were the most im- 
 portant people in the world. But then, perhaps, every 
 people think themselves a little better than those of 
 any other nation. 
 
 It was not until after the discovery of America 
 that Copernicus taught the world that the sun is in 
 the center of a great system, known as the Solar 
 System, and that the earth is one of the planets that 
 
 15 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 revolve about the sun. But for many centuries before 
 the time of Copernicus educated people in Europe 
 believed the earth to be a sphere ; and yet there were 
 some puzzling questions. How could anybody live 
 on the opposite side of the world, where they would 
 have to walk with their heads do^vnward ? It was 
 believed that since the earth is round, like an apple 
 or an orange, it must slope downward in all direc- 
 tions, and if a ship went too far down the slope it 
 would never be able to get back. For this reason 
 mariners were careful not to sail too far from 
 home. 
 
 Copernicus lived more than two hundred years 
 before the time of Isaac ]*^ewton, who discovered the 
 law of gravity by which the earth holds all loose 
 bodies on its surface and keeps them from falling 
 away from it. It was believed that men could not 
 live on the sides or bottom of the earth, but only on 
 top. Then there were other strange belief f in those 
 days. One was that around the middle of the earth 
 there was a torrid belt so hot that the seas boiled 
 with fury and that no man or animal could live 
 there. Another was that there was a gigantic bird 
 so powerful that it could seize a ship in its talons 
 and fly away with it into the air. 
 
 For hundreds of years these wild fancies were 
 believed by vast numbers of people ; but most of them 
 were given up before America was discovered. By 
 this time most people had come to believe that the 
 earth was round, and it began to dawn on the minds 
 of some that one might reach the eastern coast of 
 
 16 
 
How Europe Found America 
 
 Asia by sailing westward. To do this became the 
 more desirable when, in 1453, the terrible Turk cap- 
 tured Constantinople and refused to permit the Eu- 
 ropean traders to pass bj that route to Asia, as they 
 had been doing. But who would venture on such a 
 dangerous journey across the Sea of Darkness, as 
 the Atlantic was called ? Its dark waves rolled on 
 and on forever. Where was the man who would risk 
 his life in trying to cross it? 
 
 Columbus 
 
 There was only one such man, and his name was 
 Christopher Columbus. He was bom in the beauti- 
 ful Italian city of Genoa, on the northern shore of 
 the Mediterranean. Many a time, when a boy, he 
 would sit on the green banks and watch the ships 
 come and go. His eyes would follow the white sails 
 dancing before the wind as the vessels plowed through 
 the sparkling water, and Columbus resolved that he 
 would become a sailor when he grew to be a man. 
 
 But he did not wait till he was a man. At the 
 age of fourteen he launched out on the vocation of 
 his life and became a sailor. 
 
 By the time he reached manhood he was a skillful 
 mariner. Sometimes he engaged in sea fights. On 
 one occasion he commanded a vessel which engaged 
 in a death duel with another. After they had fought 
 for some hours both vessels took fire, and Columbus 
 saved his life by leaping into the water and swim- 
 ming to shore, six miles away. 
 
 17 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 The Mediterranean must have seemed too small 
 for Columbus, for he left his home and went to 
 Portugal, and later to Spain. He studied geography 
 and navigation, and made voyages down the coast of 
 Africa. At one time he sailed far into the north, 
 to the coast of Iceland. Here he may or may not 
 have heard about Lief Ericson, who, five hundred 
 years before, had found a land which he called Vin- 
 land far across the western seas. 
 
 Columbus thought and thought about finding Asia 
 by sailing across the Atlantic to the west. He fully 
 believed that it was possible to do so, and was willing 
 to risk his life in making the attempt. But such a 
 great undertaking required money and ships and 
 men, and Columbus did not have them. He applied 
 to the King of Portugal for aid, but the king thought 
 him a dreamer, and refused to help him. He then 
 went to Spain and laid his plans before the king and 
 queen, Ferdinand and Isabella. They put him off 
 for several years, then finally decided to help him in 
 making the attempt. Whether they did this only to 
 get rid of him, or whether they believed that he might 
 make some important discoveries, it is difficult to say. 
 
 The Voyage 
 
 One bright morning, at the break of day, in August, 
 1492, three small vessels launched out upon the sea 
 from the port of Palos, Spain. The commander of 
 this tiny fleet was Christopher Columbus. He and 
 his crew were starting out on one of the strangest 
 
 18 
 
How Europe Found America 
 
 voyages ever made. They knew not where they were 
 going. They supposed the earth to be round, but did 
 not know, and in these three frail vessels they were 
 starting out to cross a vast sea that no one else, as 
 far as they knew, had ever crossed. No wonder they 
 broke into sobs and wails as their friends waved them 
 good-by from the receding shore. It was generally 
 believed that they were setting out on a journey from 
 which none would return. 
 
 For many weeks they glided through the waves 
 toward the west. The weather was fine, but the men, 
 one hundred and twenty in all, were filled with terror 
 and superstitious fears. The vast expanse of water 
 seemed boundless and fathomless. Every day they 
 expected something dreadful to happen. Ear from 
 friends and home, they seemed to be in another 
 world. There was but one undaunted soul, and that 
 was Columbus. 
 
 At length the men determined to turn back, but 
 Columbus would listen to nothing of the kind. He 
 promised them great riches if they should succeed. 
 He threatened to put the leaders in chains if they 
 did not obey him. Again and again they thought 
 they sighted land, but it proved to be only banks of 
 clouds lying low on the horizon. 
 
 This increased their fears. They felt that they 
 were in a world of enchantment, and that the signs 
 of land were delusions alluring them to destruction. 
 
 But at last, nearly ten weeks after they had left 
 Palos, the signs of land were unmistakable — ^birds in 
 the air that never reach midocean, a branch of thorn 
 
 19 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 with berries on it, and floating weeds that grow only 
 on land. 
 
 On the night of October 11th, Columbus, watching 
 from the deck of his ship, saw a flickering light far 
 away on the horizon. It moved here and there, and 
 seemed like a torch carried by a man. ]^ot an eye 
 was closed in sleep that night on the little vessels. 
 Every eye was strained in the outlook for land, and 
 at daybreak, behold ! there lay a verdant shore about 
 six miles away. We can only imagine the joy of the 
 sailors at the sight of land after their dreary voyage 
 over the dark, deep sea. 
 
 Columbus and a few of his oflBcers went ashore 
 and took possession of the new lands in the name of 
 the King and Queen of Spain. He shed tears of 
 emotion, returned thanks to God for his success, and 
 bowed down and kissed the ground. 
 
 As the Spaniards came ashore they saw human 
 beings gazing in silent wonder. Columbus believed 
 that he had reached the East Indies, and he called 
 the natives Indians, a name which was later ap- 
 plied to all the native inhabitants of the 'New World. 
 The Indians, on seeing the Spaniards landing, ran 
 away and hid themselves ; but presently came forth 
 again and stood wondering at their strange visi- 
 tors. 
 
 The place of landing was an island in the West 
 Indies, which Columbus called San Salvador, but 
 which is now called Watling's Island. The Span- 
 iards cruised about for several weeks and discovered 
 many islands, among them the great island of Cuba. 
 
 20 
 
How Europe Found America 
 
 But Columbus was greatly puzzled. He thought he 
 had reached the coast of China or of Japan. He had 
 heard of the wonderful rivers and towered cities of 
 China, but here he found none of these. He found 
 waving forests and blooming flowers and naked sav- 
 ages. He bore with him a letter of greeting from 
 the King and Queen of Spain to the Emperor of 
 China. But no emperor could he find. Poor Colum- 
 bus ! Little did he dream that China was ten thou- 
 sand miles away, and that between him and that 
 country a vast ocean rolled, far greater than the one 
 that he had crossed. 
 
 When Columbus returned to Spain he was received 
 by the king and queen with great honor. Thousands 
 of people crowded the streets of the cities to see the 
 great discoverer pass by. In the following years Co- 
 lumbus made three more voyages to the lands he had 
 discovered. On the last of these voyages he discov- 
 ered the mainland of South America, at the mouth 
 of the Orinoco River. Still thinking he was in Asia, 
 Columbus believed this to be one of the great rivers 
 mentioned in the Bible as flowing from the Garden 
 of Eden. 
 
 Many others were soon making voyages to the new 
 lands, and one day, when some one said that it was 
 not such a great thing to have made the discovery, 
 it is said that Columbus took an egg and asked, who 
 could make it stand on end. Several tried and failed. 
 He then took the egg and cracked the shell, and stood 
 it on end. 
 
 " It is quite easy," he said, '' when you know how ; 
 21 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 and so it is easy to make discoveries after I have 
 shown the way." 
 
 Columbus died in 1506, and to the day of his 
 death he never knew that it was not the coast of Asia, 
 but a vast new continent which he had discovered. 
 
 The New World should have been called by the 
 name of Columbus, but another was to receive this 
 honor. Americus Vespucius was one of the many 
 who made voyages across the Atlantic. He cruised 
 along the coast of South America, and wrote a little 
 book about it. It was believed that Americus had 
 discovered a continent, while Columbus had discov- 
 ered only a few islands, and the New World was 
 called America. 
 
 22 
 
CHAPTER III 
 EXPLORING THE NEW WORLD 
 
 EUROPE had found America, a vast land of un- 
 known bounds. But of what use could America 
 be if unoccupied by civilized man ? Certainly of no 
 more use than coal or iron before it is brought out of 
 the earth by the miner. 
 
 First comes the discoverer ; then the explorer. An 
 explorer is one who traverses a new country and finds 
 out what he can about it. Within half a century 
 after Columbus had made his great discovery a great 
 many explorers came to America. They traversed 
 vast regions in North and South America. 
 
 Some of the explorers came to hunt for gold ; some 
 came for the love of adventure; others to win new 
 territory for their native land, and still others to con- 
 vert the Indians to Christianity. The explorers were 
 Spanish and Portuguese and French and English, 
 though at first there were very few English. I sup- 
 pose most of them thought more about adventure than 
 anything else. Boys enjoy sport that has in it an 
 element of danger, such as coasting on a steep hill, 
 riding an untamed colt, playing football and the like. 
 And men are much like boys. They like dangerous 
 sport, and for those who enjoyed such sport here was 
 
 23 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 a great opportunity. The explorers had to encounter 
 wild Indians and wild animals, to climb rugged 
 mountains and to wade through vast swamps. A 
 great many of them never returned to their homes; 
 they found a grave in the wilderness. Some of them 
 made splendid discoveries, for which they will ever 
 be remembered. 
 
 You have no doubt heard about Balboa, who dis- 
 covered the Pacific Ocean, which he called the South 
 Sea, and of Magellan, who was the first to sail around 
 the world. But we shall give the rest of this chapter 
 to two or three other famous explorers. 
 
 Ponce de Leon 
 
 The first of these is the story of Ponce de Leon 
 (pronounced P6n-tha-da-La-on). His first name was 
 Juan or John, but it is seldom used. 
 
 Ponce de Leon was a famous cavalier in the Span- 
 ish wars against the Moors, before Columbus discov- 
 ered America. He was chivalric and brave, and 
 loved the din and danger of the battle field. When 
 Columbus came to America on his second voyage 
 Ponce came with him. About fifteen years later he 
 was made governor of Porto Rico. You will remem- 
 ber that Porto Rico belonged to Spain until our war 
 with that country in 1898, when it became the 
 property of the United States. 
 
 While Ponce was in Porto Rico he heard a 
 strange story that somewhere in the Bahama Islands 
 there was a fountain of youth, a gushing spring of 
 
 24 
 
Exploring the New World 
 
 sparkling water which would restore youth to the 
 aged who bathed in it. Ponce was a sensible man in 
 most respects, but he believed this story. His brow 
 was becoming wrinkled and his hair silvered with 
 age. What a wonderful thing it would be if he could 
 find this enchanting spring that would bring back 
 the blithe step and the golden locks of boyhood ! As 
 the story went, this fountain was surrounded by 
 magnificent trees bearing golden fruit which was 
 gathered by beautiful maidens. The story reminds 
 one of the Garden of Hesperides believed in by the 
 ancients. 
 
 In the spring of 1513 Ponce de Leon started out 
 to find the magic fountain. He sailed among the 
 Bahamas, and bathed in the waters of every fountain 
 he found; but youth did not return. At length he 
 left the islands and came to a land of splendid trees 
 and blooming flowers. The air was laden with per- 
 fume. He named the place Florida, and it still bears 
 that name as one of the States of our Union. Here 
 for many days he searched for the magic spring, but 
 he searched in vain. He met with an old Indian 
 woman who was so bowed and wrinkled that she 
 seemed to be a hundred years old. I fancy that 
 Ponce thought that if there were a fountain of youth 
 in that country she had never made use of it. He 
 gave up the search and returned to Porto Rico. 
 
 Soon after this Ponce de Leon set sail for Spain. 
 He told King Ferdinand that he had discovered a 
 beautiful island covered with flowers, and the king 
 made him governor of " the Island of Florida," for 
 
 25 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 he believed it to be an island. A few years later 
 Ponce made another voyage to Florida, and in a fight 
 with the Indians he received a mortal wound. He 
 was carried to Cuba, where he soon died, and thus 
 ended the career of the one who made a pathetic 
 search for the fountain of youth and could not find it. 
 
 Ferdinand De Soto 
 
 Our next story is about Ferdinand De Soto, the 
 man who discovered by accident the great river that 
 divides the United States in the middle, and thus he 
 won more fame in American history than he de- 
 served. 
 
 De Soto, like Ponce de Leon, had been trained in 
 all the chivalry of Spain. He was a splendid rider 
 and swordsman. He loved adventure, and had come 
 to America, like many a Spanish youth, because he 
 loved adventure and to search for gold. With Pizarro 
 he aided in the conquest of Peru, and won a large 
 fortune as his share of the spoils. But he spent his 
 money with a lavish hand on his return to Spain, 
 and soon saw that he must replenish his fortune. His 
 thoughts turned again to America. He obtained per- 
 mission of the king to conquer Florida, and he set 
 out, thinking that gold could be found there as it had 
 been found in Peru. 
 
 It was in the spring of 1539 that De Soto, with 
 an army of nearly six hundred men, approached the 
 coast of Florida. As the ships drew near the flowery 
 land the men shouted and sang for joy. Here was 
 
 26 
 
Exploring the New World 
 
 the land that seemed to them a paradise, abloom with 
 perpetual spring. And they believed also that it must 
 be a land of gold, and that they would soon return 
 to Spain laden with riches. But their dream was 
 rudely dispelled when, on the morning after they 
 landed, they were awakened by a shower of arrows 
 from a horde of Indian warriors. Thus began the 
 fateful journey of De Soto and his men in the wil- 
 derness, a journey from which many of that gay com- 
 pany were destined never to return. 
 
 For some months the Spaniards marched north- 
 ward through grand forests of oak and pine, through 
 prairies and dismal swamps. They came to many 
 deserted Indian villages, the Indians having fled into 
 the forest at the approach of the Spaniards. When 
 the Spaniards found Indians and made known the 
 object of their search, the Indians usually informed 
 them that gold could be found farther on — a trick to 
 get rid of the Spaniards that usually was successful. 
 
 The Indian Queen 
 
 After many months of weary marching, De Soto 
 heard that far to the north there was a rich and 
 powerful Indian nation called Cofachiqui that was 
 ruled over by a queen, a beautiful girl of eighteen 
 years. De Soto determined to direct his way thither. 
 After a long march of several weeks they encamped 
 on the bank of a river. It is now supposed that this 
 was the Savannah River, and that this spot was Sil- 
 ver Bluff, in Barnwell County, South Carolina. 
 
 27 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 From the spot where the Spaniards had pitched 
 their tents for the night they presently heard the 
 barking of dogs and the shouts of playing children 
 on the opposite bank of the river. Eagerly they 
 awaited the morning, and at dawn they beheld an 
 Indian village with many of the inhabitants, men, 
 women, and children, standing on the bank gazing 
 at their strange visitors. The horses, the bright ar- 
 mor, and the glittering swords of the Spaniards 
 seemed very wonderful to the red children of the 
 forest, as they had never seen such things before. 
 
 This was the land of Cofachiqui, the nation 
 governed by the beautiful queen, and she was stand- 
 ing with her people, gazing in silent wonder at the 
 Spaniards. At length she sent several of her war- 
 riors in a canoe across the river. As they ap- 
 proached they called out : " Do you come for peace 
 or war ? " 
 
 De Soto had with him an interpreter, a Spaniard 
 who could speak the Indian language, and he an- 
 swered : 
 
 " We come for peace. We need food, and beg your 
 assistance." 
 
 De Soto told the men that he was anxious to meet 
 their queen, and they rowed back and made this fact 
 known to her. Presently four warriors approached 
 the water's edge bearing a kind of hammock called a 
 palanquin (pal-an-keen), and from it stepped the 
 queen, who was now rowed across the river. 
 
 As she came up to De Soto he was much impressed 
 by her quiet dignity, her rich robes, and her great 
 
 28 
 
Exploring the New World 
 
 beauty. Through his interpreter he conversed with 
 her for some time. As a token of friendship she 
 threw around his neck a string of costly pearls, and 
 he gave her a gold ring set with a ruby. She offered 
 him the use of half the houses in the village if he and 
 his army chose to stay for a time, and De Soto ac- 
 cepted the kind offer. 
 
 It was not long until the Spaniards made known 
 the object of their journey, and the queen informed 
 them that there was a great deal of gold in her terri- 
 tories, and not far from the village. She sent men 
 to bring specimens. Spanish hopes now rose to the 
 highest pitch. The men decided to load themselves 
 with the precious metal and return to Spain. But 
 their dream was soon dispelled, for the specimens 
 proved to be a worthless alloy of copper, and the 
 Spaniards again in sorrow turned their eyes to the 
 wilderness. 
 
 On leaving the land of Cofachiqui, De Soto com- 
 pelled the young queen to accompany him to the bor- 
 ders of her territory. This was his custom whenever 
 he could get possession of a chief, and his object was 
 to prevent attacks, for he knew that an Indian tribe 
 would not attack him while he held their ruler. In 
 this instance it seemed cruel to do so, after the queen 
 had been so kind to him. But the queen was treated 
 with the highest respect. She was carried along in 
 a palanquin by her own warriors, and several of her 
 maids walked by her side. After they had marched 
 a day or two this dusky maid of the forest proved 
 herself a true Indian, as well as a queen. She sud- 
 
 29 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 denlj leaped from her seat, darted into the forest 
 with the fleetness of a deer, and was soon lost to view. 
 The Spaniards searched for her, but thej never saw 
 nor heard of her again. She probably returned to 
 her ov\m people on the banks of the Savannaii River. 
 
 The Mississippi 
 
 The wandering in the wilderness by De Soto and 
 his army continued for more than three years. Many 
 a time they met hostile Indians and fought fierce bat- 
 tles. In each battle they lost a few of their number, 
 and the army gradually decreased. One of these 
 battles proved a dreadful blow to the Spaniards. It 
 was the battle of Mobile in southern Alabama. This 
 was one of the greatest battles fought between the 
 white and red races. The Spaniards killed thousands 
 of Indians in this battle and destroyed one of the 
 most powerful tribes in the South; but their own 
 loss was very heavy. Many of the men and horses 
 were killed and nearly all the survivors were 
 wounded. All their baggage, food, and medicine 
 were destroyed. 
 
 After this destructive battle De Soto never seemed 
 to be himself. His jovial spirits were gone. Many 
 of his men wanted to return to civilization, but he 
 refused to listen to such proposals. He seemed to 
 prefer to die in the wilderness rather than to return 
 without the gold he sought. They met many friendly 
 Indians. With one tribe they remained several 
 weeks, and when about to depart one of the Span- 
 
 30 
 
Exploring the New World 
 
 iards, who had fallen in love with the chief's daugh- 
 ter, wished to remain with the Indians. He did so, 
 and married the daughter. 
 
 Two years had passed. De Soto's army became 
 smaller and smaller. The bright uniforms with 
 which the men had started were reduced to tatters, 
 and at length they had to clothe themselves in skins 
 of wild animals. Aimlessly they wandered from 
 place to place, knowing and caring but little whither 
 they went. 
 
 In the spring of 1541 they first came in sight of 
 the Mississippi River. It was probably at a point 
 near the boundary between the present States of Ten- 
 nessee and Mississippi. The channel was a mile and 
 a half in width, and great quantities of driftwood, 
 logs, and whole trees were floating on its bosom. For 
 countless ages the great river had rolled, unknown 
 before to civilized man. 
 
 It was this discovery that gave De Soto a name in 
 American history ; but he did not appreciate his find. 
 He regarded the river as an obstacle to his march 
 rather than an important discovery. The men built 
 barges and, crossing the river, made a detour into 
 what is now Arkansas and Missouri. This detour 
 required a year — a year of hardship and disaster — 
 and they returned to the Mississippi in the spring of 
 1542. At this time De Soto was attacked by a fever, 
 and he soon saw that he must die. The end came on 
 May 21st, and his burial place was the great river 
 with which his name has ever been linked. In a 
 casket made of a hollow oaken log the body was laid, 
 
 31 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 and at midnight it was rowed to the middle of the 
 river and reverently lowered into the water. 
 
 More than half the army had perished. The sur- 
 vivors floated down the Mississippi to the gulf and 
 reached a port in Mexico, and thus ended the most 
 notable exploring expedition in American history. 
 
 La Salle and Louisiana 
 
 Our third and last story of the explorers is about 
 a Frenchman, who lived more than a hundred years 
 after the time of De Soto. He was Robert Cavalier 
 de La Salle (Lah Sal), and his name is linked with 
 the Mississippi Eiver more than any other except 
 that of De Soto. 
 
 You would probably think that a hundred years 
 was long enough time to have explored all the terri- 
 tory in ^orth and South America, but the business 
 of exploring an unknown continent is too great to be 
 done in a day, or even in a century. In fact, there 
 are parts of Alaska, the Hudson Bay country, and 
 South America that are not known to this day. There 
 are Indian tribes that have never yet seen or heard 
 of white men. One hundred and fifty years after the 
 time of Columbus no man had much idea of the size 
 of North America. Here is a story of La Salle that 
 shows how little they knew in his time. In 1669 — 
 one hundred and seventy-seven years after Columbus 
 had discovered America — La Salle floated down the 
 Ohio Eiver, for what purpose do you suppose ? For 
 the purpose of searching for the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 32 
 
Exploring the New World 
 
 Every schoolboy or schoolgirl who has studied geog- 
 raphy now knows that the Ohio does not empty into 
 the Pacific; but La Salle did not know this, and he 
 went down as far as the Falls of the Ohio, where 
 Louisville now stands, in the hope of finding the 
 Pacific, 
 
 Ten years later we find La Salle in Canada, among 
 the Great Lakes, preparing for a greater journey. 
 He was one of the many Frenchmen who had come 
 to America to explore new lands for the French king, 
 or to preach the Gospel to the Indians. No hardship 
 was too great for these daring men. They swam icy 
 rivers, endured cold and hunger, and lived on almost 
 nauseous food in their perilous journeys through the 
 wilderness. The Indians if well treated were usu- 
 ally friendly, sometimes too friendly for the comfort 
 of their guests. 
 
 One Frenchman describes a dinner he had with the 
 Indians. His host meant to be very kind and polite. 
 He fed the Frenchman with a spoon — meal boiled in 
 grease. The second course was fish, and the host 
 picked the bones from it, cooled it by blowing, and 
 then rolled it up in mouthfuls and tucked them into 
 his guest's mouth with his fingers. He was about to 
 serve the next course, consisting of boiled dog, in the 
 same way, but from some cause the Frenchman had 
 lost his appetite. 
 
 We return to our story of La Salle. He was a 
 man of heroic mold, and no man in the history of 
 America has shown a more dauntless courage, a more 
 unyielding determination. We have seen that he 
 
 33 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 went down the Ohio River in the hope of finding the 
 Pacific Ocean. On his return to Canada he heard 
 from the Indians and French explorers that there 
 was a greater river far west of the lake region which 
 flowed southward. He came to believe that this 
 great river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico. It now 
 dawned on the mind of La Salle that the great work 
 of his life should be to sail down this majestic river 
 and take possession of its vast basin in the name of 
 France. 
 
 He went to France and secured from the king per- 
 mission to carry out his project. But when he re- 
 turned to Canada he found that he had bitter enemies, 
 who attempted to thwart him at every turn. He col- 
 lected supplies for his long journey, and his enemies 
 destroyed them. They sunk his boat in Lake Erie; 
 they stirred up the Indians against him; twice they 
 poisoned him, but he recovered. Four or five times 
 La Salle made the journey on foot between the Il- 
 linois River and Montreal, in preparing for his 
 greater journey. After three or four years of in- 
 credible toil and discouragements he started down the 
 Mississippi with a few companions. 
 
 For many weeks they floated with the current. 
 Sometimes for days they gazed upon the silent banks 
 and saw no human being. Again they saw natives 
 on shore staring in speechless wonder upon these men 
 of another race of which they had never heard. La 
 Salle on several occasions stopped at Indian villages, 
 made friends of the Indians, and secured food. 
 
 It was in April, 1682, after a long and lonely 
 34 
 
Exploring the New World 
 
 journey, that La Salle reached the mouth of the river. 
 He gave the great valley through which it flowed the 
 name of Louisiana, in honor of the French king, 
 Louis XIV, and took possession in the name of 
 France. 
 
 The dream of this heroic explorer was to build up 
 a mighty French empire in the Mississippi Valley. 
 Some years later he founded a colony on the gulf 
 coast, but the colony perished, and La Salle was 
 killed by one of his men. And his dream of per- 
 manent French dominion in America was not real- 
 ized, but the name of La Salle will ever fill a large 
 place in the pioneer history of America. 
 
 35 
 
CHAPTER lY 
 THE FIRST SETTLERS 
 
 AFTER the discoverer and the explorer comes the 
 - settler ; that is, the colonist who makes his home 
 in the new country. Some think the discoverer and 
 the explorer have a harder task than the colonist, but 
 I am not sure of that. 
 
 The discoverer and the explorer, it is true, suffer 
 great hardships and encounter great perils; but if 
 they survive, they return to their homes and receive 
 the praise and honor of their countrymen. But the 
 settler, who is usually poor, migrates to a new coun- 
 try and does not expect to return to the home of his 
 childhood and the friends he leaves behind. He does 
 not expect to win fame. He knows that there are 
 years of toil before him ere he can hope for the ordi- 
 nary comforts of life. There are perils of the forest 
 — the wild animal and the hostile Indian. And 
 disease is far more prevalent in a new, unsettled 
 country than in an old one. 
 
 But even to move to a settled country across 
 three thousand miles of sea requires a good deal 
 of courage. There are a great many immigrants 
 from Europe coming to our country every year. If 
 you could spend a day at Ellis Island, in New York, 
 
 36 
 
The First Settlers 
 
 you would probably see thousands of these people 
 landing from the ships. Most of them look very 
 poor; their clothing is of the coarsest material, and 
 their baggage is tied up in bundles. We are apt to 
 look down on these people, but I do not think we 
 should. The great majority of them are good people, 
 honest and industrious, and they have done a brave 
 thing in leaving their homes and coming so far in 
 the hope of doing better for themselves and their 
 children than they could do in the old country. Then 
 we must remember that we are all descendants of 
 immigrants, and perhaps our ancestors were as poor 
 and as unattractive as these people seem to us. 
 
 We must now get back to our early settlers, and 
 we shall begin with 
 
 The Father of the English Colonies 
 
 It is a strange fact that the man who is known as 
 the father of the English colonies in America never 
 succeeded in planting a permanent colony. His 
 name was Walter Ealeigh (Raw ley). He lived in 
 the time of Queen Elizabeth, who was sometimes 
 called " good Queen Bess." The queen was quite 
 fond of Walter Raleigh, and showed him many 
 favors. 
 
 Their friendship came about in this way : One day 
 when the queen was crossing a muddy street Raleigh 
 threw his cloak in the mud for her to step on, so that 
 she would not soil her shoes. She was much pleased 
 at his gallantry, though she had never seen him be- 
 
 37 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 fore. When she reached her palace she sent for " the 
 young man with a muddy cloak." He was soon 
 found and brought into her presence — and a fine- 
 looking young man he was. The queen was so 
 pleased with him that she made him one of her court- 
 iers, a member of her household. Some time after 
 this she knighted him, as the English say; that is, 
 she made him a Sir, and ever afterwards he was 
 known as Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 
 Sir Walter was not contented living at the queen's 
 court doing nothing all his life. He wanted to do 
 something useful for his country, and his mind 
 turned to colony planting in America. 
 
 England claimed as her own the whole of ISTorth 
 America because John Cabot had sailed from Eng- 
 land in 1497 and discovered it — five years after Co- 
 lumbus had made his first great voyage. Columbus 
 had discovered only islands, while Cabot had discov- 
 ered the continent. England therefore claimed the 
 continent by right of discovery. 
 
 Now Raleigh thought that ITorth America would 
 be just the place to found colonies, and he hoped to 
 see a great new English nation built up in America. 
 He reminds us of La Salle, who, as we have seen, 
 spent his life trying to found a French nation in 
 America. 
 
 The Lost Colony 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh made five separate attempts to 
 found a permanent colony on the Atlantic coast of 
 North America, but not one of them became a per- 
 
 38 
 
The First Settlers 
 
 manent settlement. We shall notice only one of 
 these settlements. It is known as " the lost colony." 
 
 It was in the year 1587 that Raleigh sent a colony 
 of one hundred and fifty settlers. Seventeen of them 
 were women. The governor of the colony was John 
 White, and his daughter and her husband, Mr. Dare, 
 were among the colonists. The name of the country 
 was Virginia, which was very much larger than the 
 State of Virginia is now. The part of Virginia to 
 which they went is now North Carolina. 
 
 The colonists bade their friends a fond good-by as 
 they sailed away from the coast of England. For 
 about two months they were on the sea — from May 
 to July, 1587. We can imagine what joy filled their 
 hearts when they came in sight of land. They landed 
 on Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina. 
 
 As they came to the shore they were delighted with 
 the singing birds and the fragrance of flowers and 
 the sweet-scented magnolia trees. A few weeks later 
 a girl baby was born to Mrs. Dare, the daughter of 
 Governor White. They named her Virginia, after 
 the country, and thus Virginia Dare was the first 
 English child born on the soil of the United States. 
 What became of her and the rest of the settlers no- 
 body ever knew, as we shall see. Governor White 
 soon sailed back to England to bring more supplies. 
 But when he reached England he found that war ex- 
 isted between that country and Spain, and his return 
 was long delayed. 
 
 It was the next year, 1588, that the King of Spain 
 sent a great fleet, known as the Armada, to conquer 
 
 39 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 England. The English met the Armada with true 
 courage. They burned some of the Spanish ships, 
 sunk some of them, and drove the rest away. 
 
 The war with Spain made it impossible for Sir 
 Walter Raleigh to send supplies to his colony on 
 Roanoke Island until three years after Governor 
 White had returned, and at last when the governor 
 crossed the ocean again he found Roanoke Island 
 deserted. There stood the cabins which he had 
 helped to build, but they were empty, and silence 
 reigned all around. 
 
 Where were his little grandchild, Virginia Dare, 
 and her mother and the rest of the colony ? Nobody 
 could tell. It was not believed that they were mur- 
 dered by the Indians, as no bodies or bones were 
 found. It was thought that they probably gave up 
 hope of their friends returning, and went to the 
 Indians for food and remained among them. In the 
 years following, several searching parties were sent 
 to hunt for these settlers, but without success, and 
 tliis colony is known in history as " the lost colony 
 of Roanoke." 
 
 40 
 
CHAPTER V 
 THE PERMANENT COLONIES 
 
 AS we have noticed, it is a very diflSeult thing to 
 colonize a new country. Not only did our early 
 settlers have to encounter wild animals and wild 
 men, they had also the heavy task before them of 
 clearing away the forests and building homes. They 
 found no well-built cities with paved streets and elec- 
 tric lights, no employers ready to give them a salary 
 for their services. They found not a house nor a 
 barn, not a fence nor a bridge. All these things they 
 had to make for themselves. No wonder that many 
 of the colonies failed. We can never be too grateful 
 to our ancestors who made America a fit place to 
 live in. 
 
 The first permanent colony was planted just twenty 
 years after the lost colony had settled on Roanoke 
 Island. It was called the Virginia colony. It built 
 the village of Jamestown on the James River, both 
 town and river being given the name of the King of 
 England, who was James I. This was in 1607, and 
 three hundred years afterwards, in 1907, an exposi- 
 tion was held at the place to commemorate the found- 
 ing of the first permanent English colony. 
 
 But even this colony came very near not being a 
 permanent one. The settlers found life in the wil- 
 
 41 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 derness very hard. At times they were at the point 
 of starvation. Several hundred people had settled 
 about Jamestown, but a great many died of disease 
 and for want of food, and no doubt the colony would 
 have perished but for the energy of one brave man, 
 John Smith. You have no doubt heard the story of 
 John Smith and Pocahontas, the Indian girl. 
 
 After Smith returned to England affairs grew 
 worse, and more than four hundred of the colonists 
 died in one winter. There were but sixty left, and 
 these determined to return to England in four little 
 boats which they had. Sadly they floated down the 
 river intending to embark on the sea next morning. 
 But behold ! next morning there were three ships 
 sweeping up the bay. It was Lord Delaware coming 
 with more colonists and a year's supply of food. He 
 took the disheartened Virginians back with him to 
 Jamestown, and they began anew; and Virginia, the 
 firstborn of the United States, was born again. 
 
 Never after this did the people of Virginia think 
 of abandoning their colony. They built houses and 
 cleared farms. The woodman's ax rang out among 
 the trees, and the shouts and laughter of children 
 told of happy homes. As the years passed Virginia 
 grew into a great colony and later into a great State. 
 
 The " Mayflower " 
 
 You have no doubt read about the Mayflower, the 
 little ship that bore the little band of Pilgrims to 
 Massachusetts in 1620. 
 
 42 
 

 C3 
 
 
The Permanent Colonies 
 
 The Pilgrims had left England — some of them — 
 nearly twelve years before they came to America, 
 and had gone to live in Holland because of religious 
 persecution. They were not permitted to worship 
 God in their own way in England, and on this ac- 
 count they went to Holland, and later came to Amer- 
 ica. They were called Pilgrims because of their 
 wanderings. 
 
 One hundred and two persons embarked in the 
 , Mayflower — men, women, and children. One died 
 on the sea and one was bom, so that there was the 
 same number when they landed as when they started. 
 They were all poor people. They borrowed money 
 to pay their expenses across the ocean, and those who 
 had nothing to pay their creditors engaged to work 
 several years to discharge their debt. 
 
 Perhaps not one of the Pilgrims expected ever 
 again to see their native land, and few of them ever 
 did. 
 
 They had chosen a bad time of year for their jour- 
 ney, and in consequence they had to spend a long 
 winter on the bleak New England coast before they 
 could raise crops for food. One day when some of 
 the men went ashore to explore, the spray of the 
 waves blew on them and froze until their clothes 
 looked like coats of iron. They chose a place called 
 Plymouth for their home, and day after day the men 
 went ashore to build cabins while the women and 
 children remained on the ship. 
 
 But the saddest thing about the Plymouth colony 
 was that disease attacked them, and about half of 
 
 43 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 them died the first winter. Most of those who sur- 
 vived the first dreadful winter lived to be old. One 
 of them named Mary Cushman, who was a little girl 
 when she came in the Mayflower, lived seventy-nine 
 years after she reached America. 
 
 For several years the Pilgrims found it very diffi- 
 cult to make a living. There were plenty of game in 
 the forest and fish in the sea and streams; but the 
 men had never been hunters nor fishermen, and we 
 can imagine that they were awkward with the gun 
 and rod. They would probably have starved if some 
 friendly Indians had not taught them how to raise 
 corn. 
 
 Chief among these was an Indian named Squanto. 
 Several years before this some wicked traders on the 
 coast had stolen Squanto, carried him across the sea 
 to Spain, and sold him into slavery; he was rescued 
 by an Englishman and brought back to his own coun- 
 try, and he ever afterwards had great love for the 
 English. When he heard of the English colony at 
 Plymouth he came and offered to help the settlers in 
 any way he could. He taught them many things 
 about fishing, and how to raise corn. 
 
 One of these Mayflower Pilgrims was Miles Stan- 
 dish, a soldier by profession. Whenever the settlers 
 needed protection from hostile Indians or others, 
 Standish was the one to lead the men against the 
 enemy, and an excellent protector he was. 
 
 There is an interesting story about Miles Stan- 
 dish. He fell in love with one of the young ladies 
 named Priscilla, and wanted to marry her. But he 
 
 44 
 
The Permanent Colonies 
 
 was a bashful sort of a fellow, and, though he was 
 not afraid of bullets and swords, he seemed afraid 
 to tell Priscilla that he loved her. So he sent his 
 friend, John Alden, to tell her. John went and told 
 the girl how his friend Miles loved her, and wished 
 to marry her. But behold ! Priscilla liked John 
 himself better than Miles, and — probably you know 
 how the story came out. If not, I suggest that you 
 read Longfellow's poem entitled, " Miles Standish." 
 
 It would be interesting to remain longer with the 
 Pilgrims, but we must bid them adieu. The colony 
 was increased from time to time by newcomers from 
 England, and for seventy-one years after the landing 
 of the Mayflower it remained a separate colony, 
 when it was joined to the greater colony of Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 
 We should be glad to notice some of the other New 
 England colonies — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode 
 Island, and others — but our space will not permit. 
 Let us cross to the Hudson Valley and see what is 
 going on there. 
 
 New Yoek 
 
 Of the thirteen colonies which became States at the 
 time of the Revolution, all except two were founded 
 by English people. These two were New York, 
 founded by the Dutch, and Delaware, founded by the 
 Swedes. 
 
 New York was at first called New Netherland, 
 and the City of New York was called New Amster- 
 dam. They were first settled by the Dutch. Some 
 
 45 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 people say Dutch when they mean German. The 
 Dutch are the people of the Netherlands, or Holland, 
 which is the largest state in the Netherlands. 
 
 Henry Hudson had discovered the river that bears 
 his name in 1609, only two years after the founding 
 of the colony of Virginia. About fifteen years after 
 Hudson had sailed up the river, the Dutch made a 
 settlement on Manhattan Island, which is now cov- 
 ered by the great City of New York. 
 
 In the forty years of Dutch control New Amster- 
 dam had four governors, often spoken of as the Four 
 Dutch Governors. The last of the four, and the most 
 interesting, was Peter Stuyvesant. He had been a 
 soldier, and had lost a leg in battle. He was a cross 
 old fellow with a will of iron, and he would not allow 
 the people to have any voice in their own government. 
 He threatened to hang on the highest tree anyone 
 who refused to accept his decisions. 
 
 In spite of the efforts of the crabbed old governor 
 to keep the people in subjection there was a great 
 deal of disorder on Manhattan Island. Almost every 
 day drunken sailors and drunken Indians staggered 
 along the streets of the village. Governor Stuyvesant 
 would not permit anyone to trade without license 
 from him; he interfered with religious worship; he 
 quarreled with the English in New England, with 
 the Swedes in Delaware, with the Indians on all 
 sides, and with his own people at home. 
 
 At length the people grew so tired of the governor's 
 despotism that they petitioned the governraent of 
 Holland to permit them to have a share in the law- 
 
 46 
 
The Permanent Colonies 
 
 making. The petition was granted, and a legislature 
 was elected; but when it met, the governor sat with 
 them, and the loud stamping on the floor of his 
 wooden leg warned them when matters were not go- 
 ing to suit him. 
 
 By and by war broke out between England and 
 Holland. The English were anxious to conquer New 
 l^etherland and make an English colony of it, be- 
 cause it separated New England from the South, and 
 now came the opportunity. 
 
 It was in 1664. A small English fleet sailed up 
 New York Bay. Its commander sent a letter to 
 Stuyvesant and demanded the surrender of New Am- 
 sterdam, but the old Dutch governor tore the letter 
 to pieces; he fretted, and fumed, and swore, and 
 stamped his wooden leg harder than ever. But all 
 to no purpose. His own people would not fight for 
 him, and he had to give up. New Amsterdam was 
 now given the name of New York, in honor of the 
 Duke of York, the brother of the King of England. 
 
 During the forty years of Dutch rule a great many 
 Dutch people had settled in the Hudson Valley. They 
 were a religious, good-natured people, who worked 
 hard and lived in great contentment. They dwelled 
 in low wooden or brick houses with sanded floors and 
 high steep roofs. To avoid the loneliness of the wil- 
 derness, several farmhouses were built near together, 
 and on summer evenings the men, smoking long 
 Dutch pipes, the women knitting or sewing, would 
 sit out of doors and converse with one another while 
 the children gamboled and played around. No people 
 
 47 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 in America were more Happy and contented than 
 these rustic Dutch people of the Hudson Valley. 
 
 William Penn and the Quakers 
 
 The Quakers, a religious sect, first called them- 
 selves Friends. They came to be called Quakers he- 
 cause they said men should tremble and quake on 
 account of their sins. 
 
 William Penn was the son of a very prominent 
 man in England, and when, as a student at Oxford, 
 he joined the Quakers his father was very angry, for 
 the Quakers were a poor and despised people. In the 
 hope of winning William away from the new sect 
 his father sent him to travel in Europe that he might 
 see strange things and meet with many great people, 
 but without effect. He was thrown into prison for 
 preaching on the streets of London ; his father threat- 
 ened to disinherit him; the king refused to receive 
 him at court on account of his religion, but William 
 was unmoved, and he remained a Quaker to the end 
 of his days. 
 
 William Penn determined to plant a Quaker 
 colony in America. He secured a great tract of 
 land, and it was named Pennsylvania (Perm's for- 
 est). In 1682, the same year in which La Salle 
 floated down the Mississippi, Perm made his first 
 voyage to America. He had become widely known 
 in England for his high character, and when it was 
 discovered that he was about to found a colony in 
 America many came to join the new colony. He 
 
 48 
 
The Permanent Colonies 
 
 sent the first settlers in 1681, and himself followed 
 the next year in the ship Welcome. There were 
 about a hundred on board the Welcome, and one^ 
 third of them died of smallpox while on the voyage. 
 
 Soon after arriving on the banks of the Delaware, 
 Penn began to lay out the city of Philadelphia, which 
 soon became the largest city in America, and so con- 
 tinued until after the Revolution. In the autumn 
 of the same year he met the Indians under an elm 
 tree on the Delaware above the town and made with 
 them his famous treaty. 
 
 The chiefs sat around on the ground in a semi- 
 circle while Penn stood near and made a speech, call- 
 ing them friends and brothers. He made a pledge 
 to live in peace and friendship with them. The 
 chiefs were greatly pleased, they grunted their as- 
 sent, and one of them declared that they would " live 
 in love with William Penn and his children as long 
 as the sun and moon give light." 
 
 This treaty was not written, it was only spoken, 
 but it remained unbroken until long after those who 
 had made it had passed away. 
 
 Por many years after this when an Indian wished 
 to pay the highest compliment to a white man he 
 would say, " He is like William Penn." 
 
 The Walking Purchase 
 
 William Penn made various bargains with the 
 Indians for the purchase of their lands. One of 
 these is known as the Walking Purchase. The agree- 
 
 49 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 ment was that Perm was to receive a tract of land 
 extending as far from the Delaware as a man could 
 walk in three days. Penn and a few friends, with 
 a body of Indians, walked leisurely for a day and a 
 half, covering about thirty miles. As he needed no 
 more land at this time the matter was left to be fin- 
 ished at some future time. 
 
 Long after Penn's death the other day and a half 
 was walked out, and in a very different spirit. The 
 three fastest walkers that could be found were em- 
 ployed, and each was to receive five hundred acres of 
 land. One of these three was a famous hunter named 
 Edward Marshall. One day the sheriff of Bucks 
 County said to him : 
 
 " Ed, we want three strong men to walk out the 
 Indian purchase. Eive hundred acres and five 
 pounds in money for each man. Will you go ? " 
 
 " I never liked an Indian," answered Marshall. 
 " They think no white man can hunt. Yes, I'll 
 go." 
 
 The other two walkers were Solomon Jennings 
 and James Yeates. At sunrise on September 19, 
 1737, the men started. A large crowd followed 
 them, but the walkers soon left all behind, except a 
 few Indians. They walked as fast as they could, 
 crossing hills and streams. They were not allowed to 
 run and jump over a brook until they had walked to 
 the edge of it. 
 
 At night they were very tired; but next morning 
 they started again for the last half-day's walking. 
 Two of them were too weary to finish. One, James 
 
 50 
 
The Permanent Colonies 
 
 Yeates, fell by the way, limp and helpless, and died 
 three days later of sheer exhaustion. 
 
 Marshall alone held out till noon. In the day and 
 a half he had walked sixty-one miles. 
 
 The Indians were greatly chagrined at having to 
 give up more land than they had expected to do when 
 they made the original bargain many years before. 
 Ever after this they hated Marshall, and a band of 
 them murdered his wife and children — all but one 
 boy, who crawled under some beehives and was saved. 
 
 The Story of Georgia 
 
 It would be very interesting to relate the story of 
 each one of the American colonies, but if we did so 
 our book would become too large. It would be in- 
 teresting to note the coming of John Winthrop, who 
 founded the city of Boston ten years after the land- 
 ing of the Pilgrims, the founding of Maryland by 
 Lord Baltimore, and of various other colonies, but 
 we must pass them by. 
 
 We noticed the founding of Virginia, the first per- 
 manent colony. Let us notice the last one, Georgia. 
 These two colonies were founded one hundred and 
 twenty-six years apart — one in 1607, the other in 
 1733. 
 
 James Oglethorpe was a great man in England. 
 He was a member of Parliament for a great many 
 years. 
 
 In those days it was the custom to put a man in 
 prison if he could not pay his debts. Some of the 
 
 51 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 prisoners for debt were honest, industrious people 
 who had been unfortunate. While in Parliament 
 Oglethorpe conceived the idea of taking a number of 
 these unfortunates to the wilderness of America and 
 to found a new colony. 
 
 Parliament voted money to aid the project, and it 
 was not long until Oglethorpe with thirty-five fam- 
 ilies set sail upon the sea for the coast of America. 
 
 They landed at the mouth of the Savannah River 
 and founded a town to which they gave the name of 
 the river. They called the colony Georgia, after the 
 name of the King of England, George II. The next 
 year a shipload of Protestant emigrants from Salz- 
 burg, Germany, arrived in Georgia; and a little 
 later a company of Scotch Highlanders came. 
 
 Oglethorpe made a treaty with an Indian chief 
 named To-mo-chi'-chi. The chief gave him a buffalo 
 skin with an eagle painted on it. He told Oglethorpe 
 that the buffalo denoted strength, for the English 
 were as strong as a beast; and the eagle denoted 
 speed, for the English were as swift as a bird. 
 
 In 1734 Oglethorpe made a trip to England, and 
 took with him the chief and his wife. When they 
 reached London the Indians excited great curiosity 
 among the people. They were dressed in scarlet and 
 gold, and taken to visit the king in his palace. 
 
 The Indian chief made a speech before the king 
 and handed him a bunch of eagle feathers. The king 
 answered in a gracious speech, and assured the chief 
 that the Indians would be weU protected by the 
 English. 
 
 52 
 
3 
 o 
 
 o 
 O 
 
The Permanent Colonies 
 
 James Oglethorpe lived to be very old. He lived 
 till after the War of the Kevolution, and saw the 
 colony he had founded become a State in our Union. 
 When the war was in progress he was offered the 
 position of commander of the British army against 
 the colonies, but he refused. His sympathies were 
 with the Americans, and when the war was over, and 
 John Adams was sent as our first minister to Lon- 
 don, this grand old man was the first to congratulate 
 him on the winning of American independence. 
 
 53 
 
T 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 A LONG STRUGGLE FOR A CONTINENT 
 
 HE continent was North America, and the 
 -■■ struggle was between two of the greatest na- 
 tions of Europe — England and France. 
 
 Erance had chosen the north, the St. Lawrence 
 Valley, for her settlements; the English settled far- 
 ther south along the Atlantic coast, as we have seen. 
 But neither country was satisfied with these condi- 
 tions; each would have liked to have the whole con- 
 tinent, and would have crowded the other off alto- 
 gether if it could have done so. 
 
 During our colonial youth there were several wars 
 between these two great nations. In America these 
 early wars took the names of the English sovereigns 
 of the times, as King William's War, Queen Anne's 
 War, King George's War. 
 
 The last and by far the greatest of the colonial 
 wars was the French and Indian War, from 1755 to 
 1763. To give a full history of that war here would 
 be impossible, but we can give some things that will 
 no doubt interest you and lead you to read other 
 books on the subject. One of our leading historians, 
 Francis Parkman, has written several interesting 
 volumes on this war. 
 
 54 
 
A Long Struggle for a Continent 
 
 The Buried Plates 
 
 The French and Indian War began with a dis- 
 pute about the ownership of the Ohio Valley, the vast 
 country drained by the Ohio River. 
 
 This valley of " The Beautiful River " is now the 
 home of millions of people. Then it was a wild 
 region covered with forests, awaiting the coming of 
 the pioneer. Deer and buffalo roamed among the 
 hills, bears inhabited the forest, and the wild turkeys 
 flocked along the streams unscared by civilized man. 
 Here and there was an Indian tribe with its rude 
 village of huts or wigwams, and a few daring white 
 men — hunters or fur traders — had penetrated this 
 boundless wilderness, where at night the hoot of the 
 owls and the barking of wolves could be heard around 
 their lonely camp fires. 
 
 The English claimed the whole of the Ohio Val- 
 ley; but the French declared that it was theirs, as 
 part of the Mississippi Valley, explored by La Salle. 
 And the French decided to clinch their claim by a 
 singular means. 
 
 A Frenchman named Celoron de Bienville was 
 sent by the governor of Canada down the Ohio with 
 a company of Canadians and Indians in canoes. He 
 was to bury a plate of lead at the root of a tree near 
 the mouth of a river flowing into the Ohio. On this 
 plate, in stamped letters, was a statement that the 
 country belonged to France. 
 
 The plate buried at the mouth of the Muskingum 
 River was found fifty years later by some boys in 
 
 55 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 swimming. It had been laid bare by the rains and 
 freshets. The plate buried at the mouth of the Great 
 Kanawha was found by a boy ninety-seven years 
 after it had been placed there by Celoron. It is now 
 in a museum at Richmond, Virginia. 
 
 Celoron had with him an interpreter named Jon- 
 caire, who was a half-breed, the son of a Frenchman 
 and an Indian squaw. Most of the Indian tribes 
 along the Ohio were unfriendly to the French, and 
 Celoron would send Joncaire ahead to make friends 
 of the Indians. This was not always easy to do. At 
 the mouth of the Scioto there was a hostile tribe of 
 Indians, and when Joncaire went to them bearing a 
 flag they shot it full of holes. They then surrounded 
 him with savage yells, brandishing their knives. 
 Some wanted to kill him on the spot, but at length 
 they let him go, and the party managed to get past 
 this tribe without being fired on. 
 
 Celoron found English traders here and there, and 
 warned them to get off French territory forthwith. 
 They promised to do so, but broke their promise as 
 soon as the French were gone. 
 
 The French buried the last of their leaden plates 
 at the mouth of the Great Miami, and returned over- 
 land to Montreal, having traveled twelve hundred 
 leagues. Celoron reported to the governor that he 
 found the Indians devoted to the English, and very 
 ill disposed toward the French. 
 
 This was very discouraging to the French, but 
 what was more discouraging was a move made by the 
 English about the same time. The Ohio Company 
 
 56 
 
A Long Struggle for a Continent 
 
 was formed, and a beginning made to settle in the 
 Ohio Valley. A famous woodsman named Chris- 
 topher Gist was sent to explore. He traversed the 
 Ohio wilderness, and on his return reported that the 
 Indians were very well disposed toward the English. 
 
 Boyhood of a Geeat Mai^ 
 
 One of the young men who took an active part in 
 the French and Indian War became in later years 
 the leader in a greater war, and is now known as the 
 Father of his Country. 
 
 Nearly a hundred years before this time a wealthy 
 Englishman named John Washington came to Vir- 
 ginia and purchased a large plantation on the banks 
 of the Potomac. His great grandson, whose name 
 was George, was born in Westmoreland County in 
 that colony on February 22, 1732, one year before 
 the last colony, Georgia, was founded. 
 
 George Washington was the only son of his mother, 
 but he had two half-brothers, much older than him- 
 self. Both of them were members of the Ohio Com- 
 pany which was mentioned above. Both had been 
 sent to England to be educated, and George would 
 have been sent also but for the sad fact that his father 
 died when he was eleven years old. He attended pri- 
 vate schools and secured a fair education, but he 
 never went to college. 
 
 As a boy George was very fond of sports. He was 
 an excellent horseman and marksman. He was taller 
 and stronger than most boys of his age, and it was 
 
 57 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 not an easy thing for his companions to excel him at 
 anything on the playground. 
 
 By the time he was seventeen he would some- 
 times ride far over the country in company with a 
 young friend of the same age, a son of Lord Fair- 
 fax of England. The two boys would often remain 
 away from home for several days riding horseback 
 among the mountains fifty miles or more from home. 
 Sometimes they would build a camp fire and spend 
 the night by it; and on several occasions they spent 
 the night with the Indians. Whether they could un- 
 derstand the Indian language, or the Indians could 
 understand theirs, I am not able to say ; but they got 
 along somehow, and no doubt enjoyed their experi- 
 ence. 
 
 While yet a boy George decided that he would 
 like to become a sailor in the hope that some 
 time he might become an officer in the king's 
 navy. His mother was very unwilling to see her 
 boy go to sea. She thought of the long dreary voy- 
 ages of the sailing vessels, of the dangers of the 
 mighty deep, of the rough men with whom he 
 would associate; but at last she consented that he 
 might go. 
 
 All was ready for the first voyage. The ship was 
 at the wharf, the trunk was packed, and George ran 
 into the house to bid his mother good-by. He found 
 her in tears. 
 
 " Can you leave me, my dear boy ? " cried the 
 mother. 
 
 George was deeply moved. He threw his arms 
 58 
 
A Long Struggle for a Continent 
 
 about her and said : *^ No, mother, I cannot leave 
 you; I shall not go to sea." 
 
 The trunk was brought back, and George gave up 
 his cherished desire for the sake of his mother. 
 
 Lawrence Washington, the elder of the half-broth- 
 ers, was very fond of George. He was a man of frail 
 health, and he made a trip to the West Indies in the 
 hope of regaining his strength, and took George with 
 him. While in the West Indies George took the 
 smallpox, and for some time hovered between life 
 and death. When he recovered they came back to 
 Virginia, and not long afterwards Lawrence Wash- 
 ington died. He had inherited his father's estate, as 
 it was the law in Virginia at that time that the eldest 
 son should inherit the estate of his father. 
 
 Lawrence left a little daughter, a sickly child, but 
 no sons, and he had made a will leaving his estate to 
 her if she survived, and if not, it was to go to George. 
 
 A few years later the little girl died, and at the 
 age of twenty-one George Washington became one of 
 the richest landholders in America. 
 
 It was about this time that the French and Indian 
 War broke out. The governor of Virginia wanted to 
 send a message far up into northern Pennsylvania, 
 hundreds of miles through the wilderness, and, when 
 asked whom he would send, replied: 
 
 " I shall send George Washington ; he is the brav- 
 est man in the colony." 
 
 And so he did. George took with him the skillful 
 hunter, Christopher Gist, who had gone to explore 
 the Ohio Valley a few years before. 
 
 59 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 When the war opened Washington proved himself 
 one of the bravest of the brave. He was with Gen- 
 eral Braddock in the famous battle near Pittsburg, 
 then called Fort Duquesne (Du Kane'). Here Brad- 
 dock was killed and Washington had several horses 
 shot under him, but escaped unhurt. 
 
 The war lasted several years, and many are the 
 stories of daring deeds, of hairbreadth escapes, and 
 of Indian massacres. Here is one that you will find 
 interesting, though it is sad. 
 
 The Story of Regina Hartman 
 
 I have told you about the founding of Philadelphia 
 by William Penn and the Quakers. But the Quak- 
 ers were not the only people that came to Pennsyl- 
 vania. 
 
 One bright day in June, 1694, twelve years after 
 Perm's arrival, the Quakers were surprised to see a 
 company of strange people landing from a vessel in 
 the Delaware. 
 
 " Who are these peculiar people in strange attire 
 and of foreign language ? " asked the Quakers. 
 
 They were Germans who, like many other Euro- 
 peans of that period, were seeking a home in the 
 wilderness of the New World. The leader of the 
 Germans was a college graduate, and many of them 
 were educated. The English soon learned to like 
 them, for they saw that the newcomers were a strong, 
 industrious and self-reliant, and deeply religious peo- 
 ple. 
 
 60 
 
A Long Struggle for a Continent 
 
 The Germans settled north of Philadelphia, up the 
 Lehigh and Schuylkill valleys, and in the course of 
 half a century there were many thousands of them 
 in Pennsylvania. Their descendants are still called 
 the Pennsylvania Grermans, and sometimes, incor- 
 rectly, the Pennsylvania Dutch. 
 
 The Indians of the Ohio Valley, as we have 
 noticed, were mostly favorable to the English, but 
 in Pennsylvania and many other places they were 
 hostile to the English and Germans, and many an 
 innocent farmer and his family fell victims to the 
 cruel tomahawk. The Indians, in making raids 
 among the white settlements, were in the habit of 
 killing the adult members of a family and carrying 
 the children away with them and adopting them into 
 their tribes. !Now we are ready for the story of 
 Regina. 
 
 John Hartman was a German farmer who had 
 come with his little family from the Fatherland and 
 settled in a fertile valley among the hills near the 
 place where Orwigsburg now stands. The family 
 consisted of the parents and four children — two boys 
 and two girls. The boys were George, almost a 
 young man, and Christian, the baby, a chubby boy 
 of five or six years. The two girls were Barbara, 
 about twelve, and Regina, aged ten years. They were 
 pious Lutheran people, and, though their nearest 
 neighbors were far away, they were happy in their 
 lonely home. 
 
 One morning in the autumn of 1754, after Mr. 
 Hartman had read as usual from the large German 
 
 61 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Bible brought with them from across the sea, and 
 they had all knelt in prayer, they made their plans 
 for the day. 
 
 Mrs. Hartman was to ride on horseback some miles 
 across the country to get a bag of flour from the mill, 
 and little Christian was to go with her. Mr. Hart- 
 man and George went to the field to work, and the 
 two girls remained at the house to prepare dinner. 
 
 Little Christian sat before his mother on the horse, 
 and as they passed the field he waved his little fat 
 hand and called a cheery " Good-by, papa; good-by, 
 George." 
 
 At noon Barbara called the workers to dinner by 
 a blast of the old tin horn. As they sat eating, the 
 faithful family dog Wasser came running into the 
 house in great fright. Mr. Hartman was alarmed, 
 for he knew that no common foe could frighten 
 Wasser. He rose and went to the door. Then came 
 the sharp crack of a rifle, and he fell dead at his own 
 threshold. George was bewildered. He sprang to 
 the door, when another shot laid him dead across the 
 body of his father. 
 
 The next moment fifteen yelling, hideous Indian 
 warriors crowded into the house. Wasser leaped and 
 caught one of them by the throat and brought him 
 down, but the noble dog was soon killed with a toma- 
 hawk. The Indians then ate the dinner that the 
 little girls had prepared, after which they took the 
 terrified girls and led them to a field. Here they 
 found tied to the fence a dear little girl only three 
 years old. Her name was Susie Smith ; her parents 
 
 62 
 
A Long Struggle for a Continent 
 
 had been murdered by these same Indians but a few 
 hours before. Some of the Indians now returned 
 and set fire to the house and barn, and all the fruit 
 of the toil of John Hartman, his own body and that 
 of his son George were laid in the ashes. 
 
 Toward evening Mrs. Hartman and her little boy 
 returned from the mill. As they came to the top of 
 a little hill and looked for the house, Mrs. Hartman 
 was bewildered. She thought possibly they had 
 taken a wrong road. But there was the huge pine 
 tree that stood near the house. There could be no 
 mistake. Just then the little boy cried : " Mutter, 
 wo ist unsere Hans?" ("Mother, where is our 
 house? "). 
 
 The awful truth now sank into the soul of this 
 good German woman. She saw the rising smoke; 
 she knew the Indians to be hostile; her family and 
 her home were destroyed. 
 
 We cannot attempt to describe the deep sorrow of 
 Mrs. Hartman — the long years that she mourned for 
 those who were gone, her unwearied efforts to learn 
 of the children that were taken captive by the red 
 men, and her deep and abiding faith in God, a belief 
 that He had a meaning to her great sorrow which she 
 could not fathom. The neighbors built her a little 
 house, and she lived alone with her boy, who was a 
 great comfort and solace to her. 
 
 The Indians forced the captive girls to go with 
 them. In a day or two Barbara fell sick. At night 
 she moaned with a raging fever. Regina was per- 
 mitted to bring her water and comfort her as best 
 
 63 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 she could as she lay on the damp ground. Next 
 morning Barbara could not walk. The Indians mo- 
 tioned to Regina to carry her on her back. This she 
 tried to do, but sank under the burden. 
 
 The Indians consulted for a moment, when one of 
 them walked up to the sick girl and sank his toma- 
 hawk into her brain. As Regina watched the quiver- 
 ing body of her sister till it was still in death, who 
 can imagine her feeling of loneliness ? The body 
 was afterwards found by friends of Mrs. Hartman 
 and carried back to the old home for burial. 
 
 This was a great relief to the bereaved mother. If 
 only Regina, too, were dead, if it were not the will 
 of God that she return alive; if only she could see 
 the green grass wave above the tomb of her darling 
 child, what a burden would be lifted from her break- 
 ing heart. But to think of this little one growing up 
 wild like her captors, of forgetting her lonely mother 
 and the language of her childhood — all this weighed 
 like lead on the heart of this noble mother, and it 
 bowed her down with inexpressible grief. 
 
 Eegina, after the death of her sister, clung to little 
 Susie. On they tramped for many days, going they 
 knew not where. At length they came to an Indian 
 village, and here they ended their journey. To their 
 infinite delight the two girls were permitted to re- 
 main together. They were assigned to an old Indian 
 squaw, who lived alone in her wigwam at the edge of 
 the village. 
 
 Regina was given the name Sawquehanna, which 
 means " The White Lily." She had to grind corn, 
 
 64 
 
A Long Struggle for a Continent 
 
 to gather whortleberries, and wait on the old woman 
 in many ways. 
 
 Years passed away, and Regina felt that she was 
 forgetting her native language. Often she would go 
 out alone and repeat the Lord's Prayer and the 
 Creed, as she had learned them long ago, and she 
 would sing the religious songs she had learned in 
 German that she might not forget the language. One 
 of these songs began : 
 
 Allein, und doch nicht ganz allein bin ich. 
 (Alone, and yet not all alone am I) 
 
 But as she grew to womanhood she almost forgot 
 this, too, and she lost the power to pronounce her own 
 name, Eegina. 
 
 Her remembrance of the home of her childhood 
 — the little cabin among the trees, the happy family, 
 the blessed, good face of her mother, the awful scenes 
 of that dreadful last day — these seemed like a strange 
 dream, and the meaning of it all she could not un- 
 derstand. 
 
 But at last the cruel war was over. When peace 
 came the Indians were obliged to restore all the white 
 children they had stolen, of whom there were several 
 hundred. 
 
 Hope began to rise in the heart of Mrs. Hartman. 
 Officers came and persuaded her to make the trip to 
 Carlisle, Pennsylvania, as many other bereaved par- 
 ents were doing, because there were many unclaimed 
 children there who had been rescued from the Ind- 
 ians. 
 
 65 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Mrs. Hartman went to Carlisle. The children 
 were placed standing in a line as the parents passed 
 along trying to identify them. Now and again a 
 shout of gladness arose and everybody cheered, as 
 some one recognized a long-lost child. Mrs. Hart- 
 man burst into tears. She had failed to find her lost 
 Eegina. 
 
 Again she passed along scanning every girl. There 
 was a tall Indian-looking girl, a young woman, whom 
 the good mother looked at intently. It was nearly 
 ten years since her daughter had been stolen. She 
 must be almost a woman now. Might this not be 
 she ? The girl returned the gaze for some minutes. 
 There was no recognition, and the weeping mother 
 passed on. She now prepared to go home in deeper 
 sorrow than she had known since that awful day. 
 
 The officer in charge asked her if there was no 
 mark or sign on her daughter's body by which she 
 might recognize her, " No, not one." 
 
 " Is there no song that you used to sing to her ? 
 Songs linger long in the mind." 
 
 " Yes," said the mother, " we used to sing many 
 German songs together." 
 
 " Try it." And Mrs. Hartman walked again be- 
 fore the line and sang in a low, tremulous voice: 
 
 Allein, und doch nicht ganz allein bin ich. 
 
 There was a shout from the tall Indian-looking 
 girl. She joined in the song and leaped to her 
 mother's arms. 
 
 Mrs. Hartman cried in a faint, gasping tone, " O 
 66 
 
A Long Struggle for a Continent 
 
 my God ! my daughter, my Kegina ! " Everyone 
 present shed tears of joy. 
 
 But Susie Smith still stood in the line, unclaimed ; 
 her parents were dead. Mrs. Hartman and Regina 
 decided that she must go with them and live with 
 them. So she did, and we can imagine the joy of 
 that home-coming. 
 
 A few years later Christian Hartman, now a man, 
 was married to Susie Smith. A happy family in- 
 deed it was, and when a girl baby was born, they 
 named her Regina. 
 
 End of the Long Wae 
 
 War is a dreadful thing, but it sometimes brings 
 good results. The Revolution brought independence 
 and the Civil War overthrew slavery. So the French 
 and Indian War had its good results. It settled the 
 long quarrel between two great European nations, 
 and decided that the future United States should be 
 English, and not Erench. 
 
 For two or three years at the beginning of the war 
 the French were successful everywhere. Then came 
 a change in the British ministry. William Pitt, the 
 greatest Englishman of his time, came into power, 
 and his management of the war soon turned the tide. 
 
 Pitt designed not only to secure the Ohio Valley, 
 but to conquer all Canada, and put an end to French 
 rule in ^NTorth America. He had wonderful success. 
 He sent an army against Fort Duquesne, near which 
 Greneral Braddock had been defeated and slain, and 
 
 67 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 captured the fort. The place was then called by his 
 name, and the great city that has grown up on the 
 spot bears the name of Pittsburg. 
 
 Finally, Pitt determined to send an army against 
 the great stronghold of Canada, the city of Quebec. 
 The French had already been entirely driven from 
 the Ohio Valley, and Pitt knew that if they should 
 lose this important city on the St. Lawrence, they 
 could not hope to retain any foothold in America. 
 
 General James Wolfe, a brilliant young com- 
 mander, was chosen to lead the army against Quebec. 
 Wolfe was the son of an army oflBcer, and from child- 
 hood he had learned the arts of war. While a very 
 young boy he became known for daring deeds. 
 
 Now, when he was chosen to command against 
 Quebec, he seemed to have a presentiment that he 
 would never return alive to his native land. Bidding 
 his aged mother an affectionate good-by, he sailed to 
 Canada and took command of the army. 
 
 As the time of battle drew near, Wolfe kept re- 
 peating the stanza in Gray's Elegy: 
 
 The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 
 All that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 
 
 Await alike the inevitable hour; 
 The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 
 
 The French had also a splendid commander at 
 Quebec, the Marquis de Montcalm — the greatest 
 Frenchman that ever set foot on American soil. 
 
 The final death struggle for possession of the city 
 came in September, 1759. The English scaled the 
 
 68 
 
A Long Struggle for a Continent 
 
 heights to the Plains of Abraham and opened fire. 
 The battle was short and furious, and both the chief 
 commanders were among the slain. 
 
 Wolfe hurried here and there amid the hail of 
 bullets encouraging his men. Twice wounded, he 
 would not give up, when a third ball pierced his 
 breast, and he fell to rise no more. As he lay dying 
 he continued giving commands, and when told that 
 the French were fleeing and the battle was won, he 
 declared that he then could die in peace. 
 
 Montcalm was equally brave, and when mortally 
 wounded and his physician informed him that he 
 could live but a short time, he declared that it was 
 better that he should not live to see the surrender of 
 Quebec. 
 
 Soon after the fall of Quebec the war came to a 
 close. When the treaty of peace was made, all 
 Canada came into the possession of England, and 
 that country holds it to this day. 
 
 But France lost not only Canada and the Ohio 
 Valley ; she also lost Louisiana, the vast region that 
 had been secured by La Salle. Louisiana was now 
 ceded to Spain as her fee for having helped France 
 during the war. 
 
 The greatest and most far-reaching result of the 
 French and Indian War was not the land cessions, 
 but the fact that the language and civilization of the 
 future United States were determined by it. That 
 the new nation to be born in the near future was to 
 be English, and not French, was decided on the 
 Plains of Abraham. 
 
 69 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 BEGINNINGS OF THE REVOLUTION 
 
 OUR colonial period is sometimes called the 
 childhood of the United States. The colonies 
 came of age, and then, like a young man of twenty- 
 one, struck out for themselves independent of the 
 parent. 
 
 We call the change of government the Revolution, 
 which means a turning around, as a wheel turns or 
 makes a revolution. We also speak of the war as 
 the Revolution, though, more strictly speaking, it was 
 the change of government that was the Revolution. 
 
 We seem now to be an old-established nation. The 
 oldest man living cannot remember when our nation 
 was established; but our colonial period was a good 
 deal longer than our national period has been. A 
 man might have been born in Massachusetts or Vir- 
 ginia, lived to be a great grandfather, and yet have 
 died long before the Revolution. 
 
 During all this long period the colonists lived as 
 British subjects and were contented, for England had 
 left them alone for the most part, and they governed 
 themselves pretty much as they pleased. How long 
 this condition would have continued had not a quar- 
 rel arisen between the two, it is impossible to say. 
 
 70 
 
Beginnings of the Revolution 
 
 At any rate, the two peoples quarreled; they 
 fought, they separated, and then, as two independent 
 nations, they became good friends again. 
 
 The quarrel came about unexpectedly on both 
 sides. England did not really wish to offend the 
 colonies, though she was quite ready to show them 
 their dependent condition. In America there was no 
 conspiracy with the object of winning independence. 
 Everybody seemed contented to remain under Brit- 
 ish authority, just as the people of Canada are now. 
 
 But up rose a quarrel, which soon came to blows. 
 Then neither side was willing to yield, and they kept 
 on fighting until all their former friendship had dis- 
 appeared. There was nothing then to do but fight 
 to a finish, and if America won, it would mean entire 
 separation; if England won, it would mean Amer- 
 ica's entire submission to England's will. 
 
 What was it all about? 
 
 After the French and Indian War England had 
 a heavy war debt, and she decided to tax the col- 
 onists. But the colonists declared that England had 
 been well paid for her trouble in obtaining the Ohio 
 Valley and Canada; and besides, the colonists had 
 never been taxed, except by their own legislatures, 
 and they would submit to nothing of the kind. 
 
 " Taxation without representation is tyranny," 
 they declared. 
 
 As the colonies sent no representatives to the Eng- 
 lish Parliament, they held that the Parliament had 
 no right to tax them. 
 
 William Pitt, that great Englishman who had so 
 71 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 ably managed the French and Indian War, took the 
 side of the colonists. He declared that Parliament 
 had no right to tax them. " I am glad that America 
 has resisted/' he said. 
 
 But the obstinate king, George III, and his Par- 
 liament would not listen to Pitt. They went ahead, 
 and in 1765 passed the Stamp Tax law; that is, an 
 act by which the Americans should purchase stamps 
 made in England to be used on all sorts of public 
 documents — deeds, wills, marriage licenses, and the 
 like. But the Americans refused to buy the stamps, 
 and they beat the stamp agents and drove them out 
 of the towns. 
 
 Parliament then repealed the Stamp law, but put 
 a tax on tea just to show the Americans that it had 
 the power to tax them when it wanted to. 
 
 But the Americans refused to buy the tea, and a 
 company of Bostonians, dressed up as Indians, 
 boarded the tea ships in Boston harbor and dumped 
 the tea into the water. 
 
 This made George III so angry that he scarcely 
 knew what to do. He closed the port of Boston and 
 sent an army to America. " They will be lions," 
 he declared, " while we are lambs ; but if we take the 
 resolute part, they will undoubtedly prove very 
 meek." But George III didn't know what he had 
 undertaken. He found out his mistake in a short 
 time. 
 
 The people in all the colonies rose in defense 
 of Massachusetts. A congress was called to meet 
 in Philadelphia. A volunteer army gathered around 
 
 72 
 

 CD 
 
Beginnings of the Revolution 
 
 Boston. It was not long until things began to 
 happen. 
 
 Spirit of the Americans 
 
 In April, 17^5, the British commander sent an 
 army to destroy military stores at Concord, sixteen 
 miles from Boston. But the people were roused by 
 Paul Revere, who galloped out at midnight and 
 shouted, " The British are coming, the British are 
 coming ! " 
 
 JSText day, April 19th, occurred the first battle of 
 the Revolution — the battle of Lexington. The Brit- 
 ish destroyed the stores at Concord, but they came 
 near being destroyed themselves. The farmers fired 
 on them from behind the fences, trees, bushes, and 
 bowlders, as they ran back to Boston, and the road 
 was strewn with redcoats along the way. 
 
 This battle roused the New England farmers, 
 when the news reached them, as nothing had ever 
 done before. Israel Putnam left his plow in the 
 field, hurried to his house to say good-by to his 
 family, and started for Boston. Matthew Buell, a 
 Connecticut farmer, did the same thing. John Stark, 
 of New Hampshire, was sawing logs at his mill in 
 his shirt sleeves, and he started for the scene of con- 
 flict without a coat and without going to the house. 
 On the way he gathered an army of twelve hundred 
 men. Nathaniel Greene came from Rhode Island 
 with a thousand followers ready to give their lives 
 for their country. 
 
 But this was not all. The women did their share. 
 73 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Mrs. Draper, the wife of a farmer near Dedham, 
 Massachusetts, urged her husband and their sixteen- 
 year-old boy to go, and when they had gone said to 
 her daughter: 
 
 " Kate, we have work to do, too. There will be 
 hundreds of men passing here within a few days. 
 They will be hungry. We must feed them." 
 
 The great outdoor oven was soon in operation. All 
 that day, all night, and the next day the two women 
 and a servant worked. They soon had a large stock 
 of provisions ready. They made a long rough table 
 of boards, and loaded it with bread and cheese and 
 cider. Hundreds of would-be soldiers came along 
 and partook of Mrs. Draper's bountiful store. Some 
 of them, though half starved with their long walk, 
 were so anxious to fight the British that they could 
 scarcely be persuaded to stop long enough to satisfy 
 their hunger. 
 
 The people took the leaden weights of their clocks 
 and window shades, spoons and leaden dishes, and 
 sent them to the army to be melted into bullets ; many 
 women sent their blankets and even their own flan- 
 nel clothing to be made into men's shirts. 
 
 A lady in Philadelphia wrote : " My only brother 
 I have sent to the camp with my prayers and bless- 
 ings, and had I twenty sons and brothers, they should 
 all go. I have retrenched all extra expenses, have 
 drunk no tea since Christmas, and spend my time 
 making clothing for the soldiers." 
 
 So it was all over the colonies. The people were 
 so roused against the British oppression that they 
 
 74 
 
Beginnings of the Revolution 
 
 were willing to make any sacrifice for liberty. 
 Patrick Henry, of Virginia, had said in a great 
 speech, " I know not what course others may take, 
 but as for me, give me liberty or give me death." 
 
 Could George III have glanced over America at 
 this time he must have seen that one of the two 
 courses lay before him — to make peace with Amer- 
 ica as best he could, or to make war upon a continent. 
 
 Meantime the battle of Bunker Hill had been 
 fought, and George Washington had been sent from 
 Philadelphia to take control of the army. He met 
 the army under a great elm tree at Cambridge, near 
 Boston. 
 
 Some months later he one night took his army up 
 Dorchester Heights, where he could throw cannon 
 balls among the British ships in the harbor. 
 
 General Howe, who was now the English com- 
 mander, saw that he was caught in a trap. He of- 
 fered to leave the harbor if the Americans would 
 refrain from firing on his ships. Washington agreed, 
 and Howe sailed away with his army and went to 
 Halifax, Nova Scotia. 
 
 The people of Boston, who had been penned in the 
 city for many months, laughed and cried for joy; 
 they shouted and yelled, threw their hats in the air, 
 and hugged one another in the streets. 
 
 " Where's Howe ? " was often jovially asked. 
 
 " Gone to Halifax," was the answer. And to this 
 day we sometimes hear the expression, " Gone to 
 Halifax." 
 
 75 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 A Fight for a Valley 
 
 The valley was the Hudson Valley, which was set- 
 tled by the Dutch, as we have seen before. But now 
 there were a great many English living there, too — 
 or, it is better to say Americans from this time on. 
 
 Howe had gone to Halifax, but no one thought he 
 would stay there. No one believed that the war was 
 over. Where would Howe land when he came back ? 
 Not at Boston, of course, because there were a few 
 cannon and men still on Dorchester Heights. 
 
 Washington thought Howe would come to New 
 York, and he felt so sure of it that he hurried his 
 army thither to meet him. 
 
 Sure enough, here came Howe and his army. 
 Washington's men met them and fought like heroes. 
 They had a fierce battle on Long Island and another 
 on White Plains. But they were not so successful 
 as they had been at Boston. Washington had to give 
 up New York, and the British occupied the big city 
 and held it to the end of the war. 
 
 Then Washington had to flee across New Jersey, 
 but he struck a telling blow at Trenton, and captured 
 a thousand of the enemy. 
 
 The fight for the Hudson Valley came in 1777. 
 The British thought that if they could get control of 
 it, and thus separate New England from the other 
 colonies, they would stand a much better chance to 
 win in the end. 
 
 General John Burgoyne was chosen by the Eng- 
 lish to conduct the campaign. He led an army of 
 
 76 
 
Beginnings of the Revolution 
 
 ten thousand men down from Canada by way of 
 Lake Champlain. 
 
 But the Americans were not to be caught napping. 
 They soon had an army under General Schuyler 
 (Ski'-ler) moving up the Hudson to meet Burgoyne. 
 At first the American army was not large enough to 
 meet the British, and Schuyler, instead of offering 
 battle, impeded the enemy's progress by rolling great 
 bowlders in the road and felling trees across it. 
 
 Burgoyne had a hard time of it indeed ; he couldn't 
 march more than a mile a day. Schuyler had good 
 reason to wait and delay battle. His army was in- 
 creasing every day. The farmers with their old flint- 
 lock guns were coming in by the hundreds and join- 
 ing the American army. 
 
 Burgoyne had to get all his supplies from Canada, 
 and sometimes his soldiers were hungry. I^ow there 
 was at Bennington, a town in Vermont some miles 
 away, a large store of American goods — food and 
 ammunition — and Burgoyne decided that he must 
 have them. 
 
 He sent a force of about seven hundred men to 
 make the capture. But there was one thing that Bur- 
 goyne did not know, or had forgotten — that John 
 Stark was in the neighborhood. 
 
 Stark had done noble service at Bunker Hill and 
 at Trenton, and now, when he heard that Burgoyne 
 had sent a force to capture the stores at Bennington, 
 he soon had more than a thousand Green Mountain 
 Boys to defend them. 
 
 " They are ours to-night, boys, or Molly Stark is 
 77 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 a widow," Molly was his wife, and she did not be- 
 come a widow that night. 
 
 Fierce and short was the battle, and when it was 
 over more than six hundred British troops were 
 prisoners of war. Burgoyne didn't get the stores at 
 Bennington. 
 
 The British army was greatly weakened and dis- 
 couraged by this blow at Bennington. Several hun- 
 dred Indians had joined it, but now they began to 
 desert — to steal away and return to their forest homes 
 • — for they believed that nothing but disaster awaited 
 the British army. 
 
 And so it proved. Burgoyne's men were faithful 
 and brave, but the odds against them were too great. 
 The American farmers had flocked in until twenty 
 thousand men stood ready to fight for their country 
 and liberty. General Schuyler had been replaced by 
 General Gates as the American commander. 
 
 At last, after two hard battles had been fought, 
 the British gave up and surrendered. The whole 
 army were made prisoners of war. 
 
 A few days before the surrender one of the British 
 commanders. General Fraser, was mortally wounded. 
 As he lay dying he requested that he be buried on a 
 green hill near the river at the hour of twilight. His 
 friends did as he had requested, and as the little 
 band gathered sadly about the grave of their fallen 
 comrade, the deep voice of the chaplain who read the 
 service was rendered more awful and impressive by 
 the roar of the American artillery in the distance. 
 
 After the British had laid down their arms they 
 78 
 
'^^^ 
 
Beginnings of the Revolution 
 
 were no longer treated as enemies. The wife of one 
 of the generals who had accompanied him through 
 the campaign wrote afterwards that the Americans 
 had treated their captives with great kindness. " In- 
 deed," she declared, " they behaved like persons of 
 exalted minds, who determined to bury all recollec- 
 tions of their own injuries in the contemplation of 
 our misfortunes." General Burgoyne, who had de- 
 stroyed Schuyler's beautiful country house, said to 
 Schuyler, " You show me much kindness though I 
 have done you much injury." 
 
 " That was the fate of war," answered the gallant 
 American. " Let us say no more about it." 
 
 The surrendered army was sent first to Boston and 
 afterwards to Virginia, and not till the end of the 
 war did the men go back to England. 
 
 The surrender of Burgoyne is considered the turn- 
 ing point in the long war. From this time on it was 
 generally believed on both sides of the Atlantic that 
 the Americans would win in the end, and become an 
 independent nation. 
 
 79 
 
CHAPTEE YIII 
 
 VICTORY IN THE END 
 
 \ GREATER event than the surrender of Bnr- 
 ■^^- goyne took place in Philadelphia the year be- 
 fore. The Continental Congress had met in that 
 city and voted a Declaration of Independence; that 
 is, a declaration that England should no longer have 
 any control over the colonies — that they should 
 henceforth be an independent nation. The old Lib- 
 erty Bell rang out the glad tidings, and the people 
 shouted and cheered for joy. 
 
 Post riders were sent to Virginia, to New England, 
 and to all parts of the country to proclaim the great 
 news. When the news reached New York a leaden 
 statue of George III was torn down and melted into 
 bullets. 
 
 But the Declaration of Independence did not bring 
 independence. Nothing but long years of warfare 
 could do that. The people knew this. They knew 
 that it meant great suffering, vacant chairs at the 
 family fireside, widowed mothers and fatherless chil- 
 dren. But they took no step backward — they pressed 
 on to the mark till the prize was won. 
 
 When the news of the great declaration reached 
 the soldiers in the field they rejoiced exceedingly. 
 
 80 
 
Victory in the End 
 
 Before this they hardly knew what they were fight- 
 ing for. 
 
 Bkandywine 
 
 While the Hudson Valley was the main seat of 
 war General Washington held his army in New Jer- 
 sey to watch Howe, who remained with his army in 
 the city of New York. But in midsummer Howe 
 sailed away to the Chesapeake, and Washington 
 marched across New Jersey and Pennsylvania to 
 meet him. 
 
 In September, 1T77, the two armies met on the 
 banks of the Brandywine, a little stream in southern 
 Pennsylvania. A desperate battle was fought, known 
 as the battle of Brandywine. Washington was de- 
 feated. His army was much smaller than that of his 
 enemy, and he was obliged to retreat toward Phila- 
 delphia. 
 
 Howe followed, and Washington saw that he could 
 not save the city. Late in September Howe occupied 
 the American capital. But a week or so later he had 
 to fight the Americans again at Germantown. Nei- 
 ther side won much of a victory. Howe went back 
 to the city, and Washington encamped at White 
 Marsh, not far away. 
 
 Lydia Dakrah 
 
 While Washington was at White Marsh, Howe 
 planned to make an unexpected night attack on the 
 Americans, but his plan miscarried, and here is how 
 it happened: 
 
 81 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Lydia Darrah was the heroine who saved probably 
 hundreds of lives that night. She and her husband 
 and children lived in a house just across the street 
 from where General Howe had his headquarters in 
 Philadelphia, and the British oflBcers often came to 
 her house for consultation. 
 
 One day an officer told her that he and his friends 
 wished to occupy the usual upper room in her house 
 that night, and said that he wanted all the family 
 to go to bed early and the doors locked while he was 
 in the house. After the consultation was over, he 
 would wake her so that she could lock the door again 
 when they were gone. 
 
 Lydia could not understand why such secrecy was 
 enjoined, and the thought troubled her. But she car- 
 ried out the order. The family retired early. Lydia 
 let the officers in and retired to her room. But she 
 could not sleep. She thought about the mystery of 
 the night meeting of the officers, and feared that there 
 was something serious in the wind. She rose from 
 her bed and crept softly to the door of the room where 
 the men were, applied her ear to the keyhole, and lis- 
 tened for some time. 
 
 At first she could distinguish nothing in the din 
 of voices, but presently all became silent, and one 
 man began to read a paper. It disclosed a plan to 
 march secretly from the city on the night of Decem- 
 ber 4th, catch Washington unprepared, and attack 
 him at daybreak. 
 
 The meeting soon broke up. Lydia stole back to 
 her room and threw herself on the bed. Presently 
 
 82 
 
Victory in the End 
 
 the officer came and knocked on her door. ISTo an- 
 swer. Again and again he knocked. At length she 
 got up and came to the door, rubbing her eyes as if 
 she had been roused from a profound slumber. She 
 let the officers out, locked the door again, and re- 
 turned to her room. For a long time she was in deep 
 thought. How many hundreds, perhaps thousands, 
 of lives of her countrymen she might save if only she 
 could get word to Washington of the intended attack. 
 But whatever was to be done must be done quickly, 
 for it was only two days till the attack was to be 
 made. 
 
 But it was a perilous business to play the informer. 
 'No one could pass the British lines without a wi-itten 
 permit, and anyone caught as a spy must suffer 
 death. Such are the rules of war. And yet the re- 
 sponsibility of Lydia Darrah was awful. How could 
 she refuse to save many lives, even at the risk of her 
 own? She spent a sleepless night, and by daylight 
 her mind was made up. 
 
 In the morning she said to her husband, " We need 
 flour, and I must go to Frankfort to-day and get a 
 bag." 
 
 " Who is this person who wants a pass ? " said the 
 British officer, an hour later. 
 
 " Lydia Darrah," was the answer. 
 
 " Let me see — Lydia Darrah ? Oh, yes, she lives 
 over there. We often use her house. She's a good 
 woman. Yes, give her the pass. Certainly." 
 
 A little later Lydia was speeding through the 
 snowy streets toward Frankfort. Ere noon she met 
 
 83 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 a horseman sent out by Washington (such as he al- 
 ways had on the road) to get information. She told 
 him her secret. He thanked her and galloped away 
 toward the army at White Marsh. That evening 
 Lydia trudged into her home looking innocent 
 enough, with a bag of flour on her shoulder. 
 
 Next night the British army marched silently out 
 of the city and made ready for a grand surprise and 
 assault. But when Howe came near he found Wash- 
 ington's army in a strong position, cannon mounted, 
 men with loaded muskets drawn up in battle line. 
 
 It was the British that were surprised. Howe led 
 his men back without firing a gun, crestfallen, and, 
 as one of his officers said, " feeling like a parcel of 
 fools." And they never knew the part played by 
 Lydia Darrah. 
 
 Valley Foege 
 
 A valley among the hills, some twenty miles from 
 Philadelphia, on the banks of the winding Schuyl- 
 kill, is known as Valley Forge. It was here that 
 General Washington led his army, and here they 
 spent a cold, severe winter, while the British occu- 
 pied comfortable homes in Philadelphia. 
 
 A great many of the American soldiers wore cloth- 
 ing that was little better than rags. Many were with- 
 out shoes or blanlvcts. The first thing they did was 
 to build cabins to shelter them. The cabins were 
 one story in height, and each was made to accommo- 
 date twelve men. Their tables were made of rough 
 
 84 
 
Victory in the End 
 
 boards, but there was very little to put on them. 
 Often the men sat down to a meal of nothing but salt 
 herring and potatoes. 
 
 Many of the farmers round the country refused to 
 bring in their produce in fear that they would never 
 be paid for it. Others were more patriotic. One 
 farmer down in Delaware said he would rather drive 
 his cattle to Washington as a gift than to sell them 
 to Howe for a thousand dollars in gold. 
 
 Some of the soldiers had homes and families in 
 Philadelphia, and their wives would sometimes pass 
 through the British lines in the guise of market 
 women and bring baskets of provisions to their hus- 
 bands in camp. One, Mrs. Knight, made a practice 
 of doing this all winter through, passing the British 
 lines many a time unsuspected. 
 
 One more story — one that has never before been 
 put in print — and we leave Valley Forge. There was 
 a little negro girl, seven years old, who was a slave 
 in a family two or three miles from Valley Forge, 
 for Pennsylvania had slaves in those days. Her 
 name was Mary Macdonald. 
 
 The soldiers often tramped about the country in 
 small groups and asked the farmers for something to 
 eat. The owner of Mary Macdonald and his wife 
 were very kind people and good patriots. They would 
 have a few loaves of bread extra each day, and cook 
 a little more meat and vegetables than the family 
 needed that they might feed the hungry soldiers. 
 
 Mary would stand at the window and watch, and 
 when she saw them coming shi' would run and get 
 
 85 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 the things prepared for them. One day when the 
 family was away, and she was keeping house, two or 
 three men came, and she went to get them food, but, 
 lo! the cupboard was bare. She then thought of a 
 basket of chestnuts which she had gathered in the 
 fall, and asked them if they would like a handful of 
 chestnuts. 
 
 " Yes," they answered, " anything that is good to 
 eat." 
 
 She ran and got a handful for each. They were 
 so pleased that she did the same for others day after 
 day until her little store was gone. 
 
 The most interesting feature of this story is that 
 Mary Macdonald related it to the author of this book 
 one hundred and twenty-five years after the event. 
 He asked her many questions, and became convinced 
 that she was telling the truth. She probably lived 
 longer than anyone else in America or England who 
 passed through the days of the Revolution. She died 
 a few years ago at the Home for Aged Colored 
 People, in Philadelphia, at the great age of one hun- 
 dred and thirty-five years. 
 
 Feance to the Rescue — Fkanklin 
 
 In the midst of the suffering through the hard 
 winter at Valley Forge there came to the war-broken 
 soldiers a bit of news that cheered their hearts as 
 nothing had done since the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence. They yelled and shouted themselves hoarse 
 with joy. 
 
 86 
 
Victory in the End 
 
 It was that France had recognized the independ- 
 ence of the United States, and had made a treaty of 
 alliance with us. That meant immediate war be- 
 tween France and England. It meant that England 
 would henceforth have two nations to fight instead 
 of one; and it meant that American success in the 
 end seemed now a certainty. 
 
 Why France did this is not of much importance. 
 It could not have been because of her love for the 
 Americans. She had met them but little except as 
 enemies on the field of battle, in the French and 
 Indian War. It could not have been her love of 
 liberty, for France was not a country of liberty at 
 that time. Perhaps it was her hatred of England, 
 for she was still smarting under the loss of Canada 
 and the Ohio Valley. 
 
 If a big boy abuses a little boy on the playground 
 and another big boy comes along and takes the little 
 boy's part, he will win the little boy's heart, what- 
 ever his motives. And so France won the American 
 heart. We have not forgotten to this day, and we 
 should never forget, the aid given us by this great 
 European power during the dark days of the Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 But if there is any one person to thank above all 
 others for this French treaty, it is not a Frenchman, 
 but an American — Benjamin Franklin. Long be- 
 fore the Revolution, Franklin was famous all over 
 Europe, and he was the only American who was well 
 known abroad. The reader, of course, knows of the 
 early life of Franklin — the story of the whistle, of 
 
 87 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 his great desire for books, his apprenticeship in 
 Boston to his brother as a printer, his running away 
 to New York, where he walked the streets in search 
 of work till he was weary and hungry ; his tramping 
 across New Jersey to Philadelphia, which became his 
 home. 
 
 Franklin became famous for his studies in science, 
 especially for his discovery of electricity, and for 
 Poor Richard's Almanac, which he began publishing 
 in the year in which Washington was born. 
 
 When the men of the Revolution wanted a special 
 messenger to go to France to try to persuade the 
 French king to recognize America, their eyes turned 
 to Franklin. He went to Paris, and was received 
 almost like a king. Everybody had heard of him 
 before. They had read his trite sayings and heard 
 of his inventions and discoveries. When he reached 
 Paris the people shouted him a glad welcome, and 
 the king received him with marked honor. Indeed, 
 Franklin became the rage for a time in Paris. Frank- 
 lin badges were worn by fashionable ladies. Franklin 
 hats and Franklin this and that were seen in the store 
 windows. But Franklin soon got down to business. 
 He labored in season and out of season for more than 
 a year to secure the recognition of the independence 
 of America. 
 
 Victory came at last. The surrender of Burgoyne 
 in October, 1777, led the French king to believe that 
 the Americans would gain the final victory, and that 
 it would be safe to enter into an alliance. He told 
 Franklin that he was ready. The treaty was con- 
 
 88 
 
Victory in the End 
 
 eluded in February, 1778, and the news reached 
 America and Valley Forge late in the winter. 
 
 A Valiant Feenchman 
 
 The French alliance reminds us of one Frenchman 
 in particular whom we must not pass by unnoticed. 
 He was a young nobleman of wealth and high station 
 — the Marquis de Lafayette. 
 
 Sitting one day at dinner in Germany where also 
 sat a brother of the King of England, Lafayette 
 heard his friend tell of the war his brother was car- 
 rying on with his colonists in America. Lafayette 
 had an inborn love of liberty, and when, by further 
 inquiry, he found that the Americans were fighting 
 in the glorious cause of human freedom, he resolved 
 to go to their assistance. 
 
 He applied to the French king, Louis XVI, for 
 permission to take part in the American war, but 
 the request was refused. This was before the king 
 had made the treaty with America, and he did not 
 wish at this time to offend England. 
 
 Lafayette, however, secretly purchased and fitted 
 out a vessel, intending to go without consent. Prob- 
 ably he knew that the king at heart did not object, 
 but only pretended, in order to keep peace with Eng- 
 land. Lafayette sent his ship to a port on the coast 
 of Spain, and was on the way to board it when the 
 English minister at Paris insisted that he be arrested 
 and detained. Lafayette was thereupon arrested by 
 the king's order and imprisoned in southern France. 
 
 89 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 From this prison our hero escaped in the guise of 
 a workman. He blackened his face, put on false hair, 
 and with a large board on his shoulder walked past 
 the guards as a colored laborer. A carriage was in 
 waiting, and ere long he was speeding for the bound- 
 ary of Spain, which was not many miles away. 
 When the keepers of the prison discovered that their 
 prey had escaped, they sent riders on swift horses to 
 overtake him ; but they were too late, for as they 
 came in sight of the fleeing carriage it crossed the 
 line into Spain, and they dared not make the arrest 
 outside of France. 
 
 Lafayette soon reached his vessel, and they put to 
 sea. The captain did not know whither they were 
 going, and when well out at sea Lafayette ordered 
 him to steer for the United States. He refused, de- 
 claring that the English cruisers would capture them 
 before they were half way across the Atlantic. 
 
 Lafayette then in a stern voice said : 
 
 " This is my vessel. I command you to steer for 
 the American coast. If you do not I will put you 
 in irons." 
 
 The man then obeyed, and a few weeks later they 
 landed on the coast of South Carolina. 
 
 After boarding the Victory (for this was the name 
 of his ship), Lafayette, writing a last adieu to his 
 wife, used these noble words: "From love to me, 
 become a good American. The welfare of America 
 is closely bound up with the welfare of mankind." 
 
 Lafayette joined the staff of Washington, who 
 soon came to love him almost as a son. He served 
 
 90 
 
Victory in the End 
 
 valiantly through the war, and returned with high 
 honor to his native land, with the consciousness of 
 having done a noble service in the holy cause of 
 liberty. 
 
 Half a century later, when the United States had 
 become a rich and mighty nation, and when La- 
 fayette was an old man, he came to America again, 
 to visit the people he had fought for in his youth. 
 
 He was welcomed with honor and splendor such 
 as no other foreigner has ever received from the 
 American people. Congress voted him $200,000 and 
 a whole township of land in Florida, not as a gift, 
 but (as they courteously put it) as part pay for his 
 service in the Kevolution. 
 
 A Teip to the South 
 
 Let us make an excursion to the South and see 
 what they are doing there. 
 
 We left Washington and his faithful army at Val- 
 ley Forge. But in the spring the British left Phila- 
 delphia and moved across New Jersey to New York. 
 Washington followed and overtook them at Mon- 
 mouth, New Jersey, where a heavy battle was fought. 
 The British then went on to New York, and Wash- 
 ington lingered near to watch them. 
 
 So meager was the success of the British at the 
 North that they decided to try their fortune in the 
 South. An army was sent to Georgia. It soon cap- 
 tured the city of Savannah and overran the whole 
 State of Georgia. A year or two later the city of 
 
 91 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Charleston and the whole State of South Carolina 
 fell into British hands. 
 
 The patriot army had been captured at Charles- 
 ton, and it seemed that the patriot cause was dead in 
 that section. 
 
 But it was not dead. Thousands of devoted pa- 
 triots were true to the cause of liberty during these 
 dark days, and only waited an opportunity to strike 
 a blow for their country. 
 
 I shall relate two or three incidents to show the 
 devotion of the Southern people to the cause of the 
 Revolution. 
 
 There was an old gentleman named John Gaston 
 who lived near the Catawba River, in South Caro- 
 lina. He was a patriot to the core. He often sent 
 his son fifty miles to get a newspaper so as to keep 
 track of the war. His sons and nephews, who were 
 as true to the cause as himself, met one night at his 
 house to confer as to how they could best serve their 
 country. 
 
 While talking together a messenger came running 
 to the house and told of a fearful massacre of a band 
 of Americans by some British cavalry near a place 
 called Waxhaw. The young men grasped each other 
 by the hand and vowed that they would suffer death 
 rather than submit to the invaders. 
 
 A few miles away the British had a force of two 
 hundred men in a strong position known as Rocky 
 Mount. From here they sent agents to old Mr. Gas- 
 ton to persuade him to take the oath of submission 
 to the king, for they had heard that his influence 
 
 92 
 

 O 
 
 p 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 -a 
 Eh 
 
I 
 
Victory in the End 
 
 was so great that he could control the whole neigh- 
 borhood. The only answer of the old man was 
 "Never!" 
 
 Soon after this he heard that the enemy were plan- 
 ning a raid on his house and plantation. He called 
 his sons and nephews together, and they sent word 
 to the young men of the neighborhood. In a few 
 hours there were thirty-three stalwart young Amer- 
 icans, clad in hunting shirts, deer-skin caps and moc- 
 casins, each with a knife in his belt and a rifle on 
 his shoulder, ready to strike a blow in the cause of 
 freedom. 
 
 The old man stood in his door and waved them a 
 proud good-by as they crept noiselessly along an 
 Indian trail to where the British were encamped. 
 Swiftly and hard they struck, and the enemy, out- 
 numbering them seven or eight to one, were thrown 
 into hopeless confusion, and those who were not killed 
 or wounded ran for their lives. 
 
 This has been called the first blow struck for the 
 recovery of South Carolina. 
 
 The young men remained in the field fighting the 
 enemy wherever they could. Soon after this the aged 
 Mr. Gaston heard that the British intended to come 
 in force to take him, dead or alive. He mounted a 
 horse, bade his wife and grandchild good-by, and 
 rode into the forest to a place of safety. Scarcely 
 had he gone when the British came. Mrs. Gaston 
 and her grandchild had hidden in a near-by thicket, 
 where they crouched in terror till the marauders were 
 gone. They carried off everything they could; but 
 
 93 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Mrs. Gaston had taken with her the family Bible, 
 and it is preserved by her descendants to this day. 
 
 A Tale of Two Peeacheks 
 
 In the wilderness of South Carolina, not a great 
 many miles from Rocky Mount, there was a settle- 
 ment of Scotch-Irish, a congregation who had come 
 to America with their pastor, Rev. William Martin, 
 but seven years before. 
 
 So devoted to their religion were they that they 
 built a log church before many of them had built 
 their own cabins, living in tents in the mean time. 
 Here they would meet on Sundays — men, women, 
 and children — taking their Bibles with them and 
 looking up every passage to which the minister re- 
 ferred in his sermon. 
 
 Their sympathies were all with the Americans in 
 the war, though few of them had gone to join the 
 army. When they heard of the Waxhaw massacre 
 they were horrified, but waited to hear the opinion 
 of their good pastor before taking any action. 
 
 Sunday came, and the whole neighborhood gath- 
 ered at the log meetinghouse. Everybody was stirred 
 up over the news from Waxhaw. Men stood in little 
 groups discussing the approaching danger. At length 
 the Rev. Mr. Martin arrived. He was a large, power- 
 ful man, learned and eloquent, with a voice that rang 
 far out in the forest when he preached. On this day 
 his words seemed more eloquent than ever before. 
 
 He told how their forefathers in Scotland had 
 94 
 
Victory in the End 
 
 fought for their liberty ; how the Scriptures approved 
 the rising of a people against wicked rulers ; how the 
 Lutherans at the time of the Reformation had to 
 fight for their existence. 
 
 " Talk and angry words will do no good. We 
 must fight." 
 
 The services over, a fierce look of determination 
 marked every face — of the women as well as the men. 
 After a long consultation among the men they went 
 to their homes. Here is a sample of how they broke 
 the news to the women. One William Anderson, 
 walking home with his wife, was silent for a long 
 time. His wife spoke first: 
 
 " I think, William, that little Lizzie and I can 
 finish tending the crops," and William answered : 
 
 " I am glad o' that, Nancy ; I was silent, for I 
 didna ken how to let you know it, but to-morrow 
 morning I leave home." 
 
 In fact, all the able-bodied men of the congrega- 
 tion had agreed to meet next morning. That night 
 Nancy Anderson rose soon after midnight and spent 
 the remaining hours baking bread and biscuits 
 and packing a bag of food for her husband to take 
 with him. The men met at the appointed time, and 
 enlisted in the service, many of them remaining un- 
 der arms until the enemy was driven out of the State. 
 
 The other instance of a preacher and the war is 
 more famous than the one given above. The minis- 
 ter was John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, pastor of 
 a large German Lutheran church at Woodstock, Vir- 
 ginia. 
 
 95 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Washington knew Pastor Muhlenberg well, knew 
 the mettle of the man, and asked him to accept a 
 colonel's commission in the army. The offer was 
 accepted, but for a time the matter was not made 
 public. 
 
 Some time after this, one Sunday after Mr. 
 Muhlenberg had preached an eloquent sermon to a 
 large congregation, he stepped out from the pulpit 
 and declared that there was a time for everything — 
 a time to preach and a time to fight. 
 
 " And now is the time to fight ! " 
 
 So saying he threw off his ministerial robe and 
 stepped forth in a full colonel's uniform. 
 
 He ordered drums to be beaten for volunteers, and 
 it was not long until he had three hundred men of 
 his own congregation under arms and ready for the 
 field. They were led into battle by their pastor — a 
 good example of combining religion and patriotism. 
 
 Pastor Muhlenberg became a major-general, and 
 served under Washington for several years. His 
 regiment, the Eighth Virginia, known as the " Ger- 
 man regiment," was noted for its great steadiness 
 and courage in battle, and it often received the high- 
 est praise from the commander-in-chief. 
 
 King's Mountain 
 
 There were many battles fought in the South, but 
 here we shall notice only one — the battle of King's 
 Mountain — and a strange sort of battle it was. 
 
 At the beginning of the war the battle of Lexing- 
 96 
 
Victory in the End 
 
 ton was fought on the American side by men who 
 had not been soldiers, though most of them became 
 soldiers afterwards. King's Mountain was fought 
 by men who were not enlisted soldiers either before 
 or after the battle. 
 
 The South country had been dreadfully ravaged 
 by the royal armies, and the patriots were greatly 
 discouraged. But when the cause of liberty seemed 
 dark indeed there was a sudden change. 
 
 Lord Cornwallis sent Colonel Ferguson, in the 
 autumn of 1780, with twelve hundred men, to ravage 
 the Carolinas and gather in Tory sympathizers, and 
 the news of the raid spread up the mountain slopes 
 and beyond. In that back country lived hundreds of 
 mountaineers — bold, brave men who were accus- 
 tomed to fighting Indians and killing wild animals. 
 
 When these men heard of Ferguson's raid they 
 determined to go after him. So eager were the men 
 to go that a few hundred of them had to be drafted 
 to stay at home to guard the settlements. 
 
 More than a thousand of these hardy backwoods- 
 men seized their muskets and poured over the moun- 
 tains in search of Ferguson's army. Others joined 
 them along the way, and they were thirteen hundred 
 strong when they reached the enemy. A motley 
 crowd they were — pioneer farmers, mountain ran- 
 gers, Indian fighters, and hunters. Each man wore 
 a sprig of hemlock in his hat. Dressed in their hunt- 
 ing shirts, they were fearless and boiling with pa- 
 triotism, and every man was a dead shot with a rifle. 
 
 As they passed by a farmhouse they found a man 
 97 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 in the cellar whom Ferguson had left there to spy 
 on the Americans. He was dragged out and told that 
 the only way to save his life was to turn spy on the 
 other side. He did so, and informed the patriots 
 of the movements of the British. When asked how 
 they could identify Eerguson, he at first refused to 
 tell ; but, seeing his life in danger, exclaimed, " He 
 wears a large check shirt over his uniform." 
 
 Ferguson had posted his men on a spur of King's 
 Mountain, not far from the boundary between the 
 Carolinas. Here the mountaineers foimd him on 
 October 7, 1780, and a desperate battle was soon in 
 progress. 
 
 The Americans surrounded the hill and attacked 
 the enemy from all sides. Again and again they 
 surged up the slope and were driven back. But they 
 always came again, and at last the British were worn 
 out and could fight no longer. 
 
 Hundreds of them lay bleeding on the ground, the 
 victims of the sharpshooters' bullets, while the Amer- 
 ican loss was slight. 
 
 Ferguson was a man of foolish valor. He refused 
 to give up when he knew that he was beaten. He 
 struck down with his sword a flag of truce raised by 
 one of his men. He then made a fatal dash through 
 the American lines for liberty. But the patriots re- 
 membered the " large check shirt over the uniform." 
 They had heard of his cruelty in ravaging the coun- 
 try, and now was their opportunity. Five rifles were 
 leveled at the dashing Briton, and he fell pierced by 
 five mortal wounds. 
 
 98 
 
Victory in the End 
 
 The remnant of his army then gave up and became 
 captives. The victory of King's Mountain was com- 
 plete. The men who won it hied themselves back to 
 their crude civilization beyond the mountains. They 
 had struck one telling blow for liberty, and never 
 again was the patriot cause at so low an ebb as it had 
 been before. 
 
 Soon after the victory at King's Mountain Gen- 
 eral Nathaniel Greene arrived in the South with an 
 army, and to him the South was chiefly indebted for 
 clearing that section of the fearful raids of the 
 enemy. Several hard battles were fought, the last 
 being at Eutaw Springs on September 8, 1781. 
 
 In this battle the brave young cavalry leader, 
 Colonel William Washington, a relative of the com- 
 mander-in-chief, was wounded and taken prisoner. 
 
 He was carried to Charleston and placed in a hos- 
 pital. As he lay here day after day slowly recover- 
 ing from his wounds, he was attracted by a beautiful 
 young lady who came daily to the hospital and moved 
 about like a ministering angel among the suffering 
 men, speaking words of comfort and encouragement 
 to all. She was Jane Elliot, a rich young woman 
 who had given much of her property to found hos- 
 pitals and aid the suffering patriots. 
 
 Colonel Washington came to admire and then to 
 love Jane Elliot, and two years later, when the cruel 
 war was over, they were married. Probably the 
 brave young officer never regretted that he was 
 wounded and captured at Eutaw Springs. 
 
 One more story of the Carolinas. There was a 
 99 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 widow with two sons, Robert and Andrew, aged fif- 
 teen and thirteen years. When the British raiders 
 came through their neighborhood both the boys shoul- 
 dered arms and went out to meet the enemy. Though 
 Andrew was but thirteen, he was as tall as a man and 
 as brave as a lion. 
 
 Both the boys were captured by the enemy. While 
 confined in a farmhouse a British officer ordered 
 Andrew to clean his boots. Andrew refused, say- 
 ing: 
 
 " I am a prisoner of war, and claim to be treated 
 as such." 
 
 The officer then struck him with his sword, and 
 would have killed him, had not the boy saved his life 
 by throwing up his hand ; but he received a deep 
 wound in the hand and another in the head. Tlie 
 boys were taken to Camden and thrust into a loath- 
 some prison with many others, where they had to 
 sleep on the damp ground. 
 
 The mother was one of the noblest of women. She 
 had spent her strength and health serving the pa- 
 triots. Now she made a long journey to Camden to 
 seek the release of her boys. When she arrived both 
 had taken the smallpox. She succeeded, and they 
 started for home. Andrew walked the entire dis- 
 tance without hat or shoes while suffering with 
 smallpox. Robert, too ill to walk, rode on horse- 
 back. A few days after they reached home Robert 
 died. Andrew recovered. 
 
 Some months later the mother made another long 
 trip to relieve some prisoners, leaving Andrew with 
 
 100 
 
Victory in the End 
 
 friends. When asked why she sacrificed so much, she 
 answered, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 
 of the least of these, ye have done it unto me," 
 
 Never again did Andrew see his mother. She died 
 of a fever far from home, was buried by strange 
 hands, and her grave was never found by her sorrow- 
 ing son. 
 
 Don't forget this boy Andrew. He was a remark- 
 able boy. We shall meet him again. Fifty years 
 after these events he was President of the United 
 States. 
 
 An Affair at Yoektown 
 
 Yorktown was a village on the coast of Virginia, 
 and with a brief notice of what took place there 
 we shall pass on from the Revolution to something 
 else. 
 
 Cornwallis was greatly crippled by the British dis- 
 aster at King's Mountain. He had lost the rich prize 
 for which he had labored for two or three years — 
 the control of the Carolinas. Instead of trying to 
 win back this territory he moved northward into Vir- 
 ginia. Here he found our young Frenchman, La- 
 fayette, who disputed every step of his progress. 
 Lafayette's army was too small to give battle, but by 
 quick movements it greatly annoyed and harassed 
 the enemy. At one time the British commander 
 thought he had Lafayette cornered, and he expected 
 to capture his whole army. 
 
 " The boy cannot escape me," he declared. But 
 the boy did escape. He had been schooled too long 
 
 101 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 under Washington to be outwitted. In August, 
 1781, Cornwallis occupied Yorktown. 
 
 He left Washington, after the battle of Monmouth, 
 near New York, where he remained for nearly three 
 years guarding the Hudson Valley, which General 
 Clinton threatened to invade. Suddenly Washing- 
 ton saw a chance to make a brilliant stroke. He 
 joined his army with an army of Frenchmen who 
 had been sent over to help the Americans, and started 
 for Virginia to capture Cornwallis. In order to keep 
 Clinton in ignorance of his intentions, he guarded 
 his secret so carefully that his own men did not know 
 where they were going until they had almost reached 
 the Delaware. 
 
 Cornwallis would have escaped by sea, but there 
 was a French fleet in the bay. And he might have 
 escaped by land, but here was Lafayette's army, now 
 swelled to eight thousand men, lying across the 
 peninsula. Late in August Washington arrived, 
 and Yorktown was soon surrounded. The artillery 
 was mounted, and day and night the boom of cannon 
 swelled and rolled over the doomed city. The Brit- 
 ish at last saw that there was no escape, that there 
 was nothing left but to surrender, and on October 
 17th, precisely four years after the surrender of Gen- 
 eral Burgoyne, a white flag, a token of surrender, 
 was seen waving above the British works at York- 
 town. 
 
 Thus ended the long War of the Revolution. 
 America had won, and two years later a treaty of 
 peace was made in which the British Government 
 
 102 
 
Victory in the End 
 
 acknowledged the independence of the United States, 
 Long and loud were the shouts and rejoicings of the 
 people, though at many a fireside there were vacant 
 chairs, and in many a home there were broken-down 
 men. Such was the price that our forefathers paid 
 for the liberty we now enjoy. 
 
 103 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 SETTLEMENT OF THE OHIO VALLEY 
 
 rpi HE long war was over and the people felt a sense 
 -*■ of freedom as never before. But there was a 
 great problem still before them — the problem of self- 
 government, the problem of forming a solid union. 
 It was in 1787 that a convention met in Philadelphia 
 and framed the Constitution which is still our su- 
 preme law of the land. But the account of this great 
 event we shall leave the reader to glean from other 
 books and turn our attention for the moment to the 
 settlement of the West. 
 
 We have noted that the great valley of the Ohio 
 had been in part explored by La Salle and by Chris- 
 topher Gist. It had been fought over by France and 
 England, and again by England and the colonies. 
 Now at last it had become a permanent possession 
 of the American people. 
 
 Soon after the close of the war there was a great 
 movement toward the settling of this vast wilderness ; 
 but first there were thousands of the red children of 
 the forest roaming over the hills and valleys of Ohio, 
 and these had to be dealt with. You have doubtless 
 read of the defeat of St. Clair and of the victory of 
 Wayne at the battle of Fallen Timbers. But before 
 
 104 
 
Settlement of the Ohio Valley 
 
 these events came the lonely pioneer, the hunter and 
 Indian fighter, who paved the way for the settler. 
 Let us follow the fortunes and misfortunes of one of 
 these as a sample of all. The most famous of the 
 early Indian fighters was Daniel Boone ; but we shall 
 choose one whose career though not so well known 
 is still more exciting. 
 
 The Stoey of Simon Kenton 
 
 Simon Kenton was a Virginia boy, brought up 
 on a farm with almost no education. One of the 
 playmates of his childhood was a girl of about his 
 own age, the daughter of a neighboring farmer. 
 When they grew older they became engaged to be 
 married. But the girl, while visiting Alexandria, 
 met a man who became Simon's rival for her affec- 
 tions. 
 
 One night the two men met at a party. A quarrel 
 arose between them and the Alexandrian drew a 
 sword and threatened to kill his rival. 
 
 Kenton, though only seventeen, was a powerful 
 youth, more than six feet tall. He was angered be- 
 yond control when the man drew a sword on him. 
 He leaped forward, wrested the sword from his ene- 
 my's hand, threw it away, caught him round the 
 body, whirled him in the air as though he had been 
 a child, and dashed him to the ground head down- 
 ward. 
 
 The man lay unconscious and apparently lifeless. 
 Everyone thought that his neck was broken. It was 
 
 105 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 midnight. Simon thought of a hangman's noose or a 
 prison cell, and he fled to the forest, and for eleven 
 years not a word was heard of Simon Kenton. 
 
 He went to the wilds of Kentucky and Ohio, be- 
 came a companion of Daniel Boone, and within a 
 few years was one of the most daring Indian fighters 
 in the early history of the country. 
 
 One day he saw some settlers floating down the 
 Ohio, and, discovering that they were from his own 
 home county in Virginia, began asking them ques- 
 tions about this and that family, and at length about 
 the Kentons. 
 
 " The Kentons? Yes, we know them. They are 
 excellent people, but they are old and poor now. 
 Their son ran away from home many years ago and 
 they have never been the same since. He thought 
 he had killed a man, but the man got well. The peo- 
 ple round there think Kenton was not to blame." 
 
 Kenton became excited as he listened to this 
 speech. He exclaimed: "I am Simon Kenton. I 
 thank God that my father and mother are still alive 
 and that I am not a murderer." 
 
 Soon after this Simon made a journey to the home 
 of his childhood to comfort and aid his aged parents. 
 He seemed to them as one risen from the dead. 
 
 Not long, however, could he remain in so quiet a 
 place. Nothing could satisfy his roving spirit but 
 the wild life, the unrestrained freedom of the wilder- 
 ness. We soon find him again on the banks of the 
 Ohio. 
 
 A few only of the adventures of Simon Kenton 
 106 
 
Settlement of the Ohio Valley 
 
 among the Indians can be given in this narrative. It 
 was the time of the Revolution, and as the Indians 
 had nearly all sided with the English the American 
 pioneers felt justified in killing them when they 
 could. 
 
 On one occasion Kenton and two other scouts 
 named Clark and Montgomery went to spy on an 
 Indian village near the Little Miami River, as the 
 whites intended to make a raid on the village. They 
 crept up at night and found out just what they had 
 come to discover. They were ready to start back 
 when the temptation to steal some horses became too 
 strong to be resisted. They took seven or eight 
 horses — all the village had — and set out for Ken- 
 tucky. In the morning the Indians missed the horses 
 and started afoot on the trail. For two days and 
 nights the race kept up, the Indians only a few hours 
 behind. When Kenton and his companions reached 
 the Ohio they found it high and threatening, and the 
 horses refused to enter the water. No amount of 
 urging could avail, and the three men encamped for 
 the night. 
 
 Next morning at daybreak they were greeted by 
 a volley of rifle shots from the near-by thicket. The 
 Indians were upon them. Montgomery was shot 
 dead on the spot, Clark escaped, and Kenton was 
 taken prisoner. Great was the joy of the savages in 
 capturing Kenton. They knew him as a dangerous 
 man and this was not his first offense as a horse thief. 
 
 They tied him on the back of a wild, vicious colt 
 and drove it, without a bridle, through the forest 
 
 107 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 before them. Kenton's face was soon a mass of blood 
 from the scratchings of the branches of trees. He 
 was taken to Old Chillicothe, a famous Indian town. 
 Here he received every demonstration of rage and 
 hatred, for no one in all the Ohio Valley was better 
 known or more hated than Kenton. They tied him 
 to a stake intending to burn him to death. But as a 
 kitten toys with a mouse before killing it, the In- 
 dians refrained from applying the torch and spent 
 the night in torturing him. They pelted him with 
 stones, lashed him with whips, and burned him with 
 hot irons. Next morning he was unbound and made 
 to run the gantlet. 
 
 The Indians, men, women, and children, arranged 
 themselves in two lines each armed with a club, a 
 tomahawk, or hatchet, and, as the pioneer ran be- 
 tween the lines, each one would strike at him. When 
 Kenton reached the end of the line he fell uncon- 
 scious and was carried to a cabin and thrown into a 
 comer. 
 
 When the Indians discovered that he was not dead 
 they decided to defer his execution, and, in a spirit 
 of brotherly kindness, to loan him to other towns. 
 They had not had such fun in many a day, and a 
 good thing ought to be passed around. 
 
 Kenton was taken to the various villages and ac- 
 tually ran the gantlet seven times and yet escaped 
 with his life. Three or four times he was tied to the 
 stake to be burned, but in each instance something 
 changed the intention of the savages. At length an 
 Englishman requested that Kenton be given over to 
 
 108 
 
Settlement of the Ohio Valley 
 
 him that he might be taken to the British commander 
 at Detroit. This the Indians agreed to only on the 
 condition that he be sent back. The Englishman 
 promised, but did not keep his word. Kenton re- 
 mained at Detroit over winter — the same winter that 
 Washington spent at Valley Forge. 
 
 In the summer, his wounds having healed, he 
 planned with two captive Kentuckians to escape. 
 With great adroitness they secured three guns 
 and some ammunition and escaped in the night. 
 Thirty days later, after many daring adventures, 
 they appeared at Louisville, Ky. 
 
 Again Kenton engaged in his occupation of hunt- 
 ing Indians. And a few days later he was again 
 taken captive. On this occasion he gained his free- 
 dom in a curious way. 
 
 When at Detroit some years before an English 
 officer had presented him with a lens or sunglass 
 with which to light his pipe, and Kenton always car- 
 ried it with him. Now when he was bound to the 
 stake, and it seemed that he must surely die, a new 
 idea occurred to him. He knew of the great super- 
 stition of the Indians and determined to make 
 the most of it. As a last request he begged that he 
 might smoke his pipe a few minutes before death. 
 The request was granted, and when an Indian 
 brought him fire to light his pipe Kenton waved him 
 off, saying: " No, I will call upon the sun." 
 
 He then held the glass to the sun and lit the pipe. 
 The Indians were astonished, and when their pris- 
 oner made motions to the sun and set fire to the 
 
 109 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 leaves they were beside themselves with amazement. 
 Kenton then called the chief to come instantly and 
 unbind his ankles. The Indian could not disobey such 
 a man. He loosed the thongs, and while doing so 
 Kenton burned a blister on his wrist. Kenton now 
 hinted that he would call upon the sun to destroy 
 them if they did not flee to the forest. A few min- 
 utes later he was alone, a free man. 
 
 We have only touched in these pages upon the re- 
 markable career of Simon Kenton. He lived to fight 
 through the War of 1812, and in his old age Con- 
 gress granted him a pension. He became a member 
 of the Church and died a devout Christian in 1836, 
 at the age of eighty-one years. 
 
 The Story of Rufus Putnam 
 
 General Rufus Putnam has been called the 
 " Father of Ohio." He was the founder of the first 
 permanent white settlement in that State — at Mari- 
 etta, in 1788. 
 
 General Putnam was a very interesting figure in 
 our early history. He and his cousin. General Israel 
 Putnam, served through the French and Indian War 
 and the Revolution. 
 
 Rufus was left an orphan at an early age, and his 
 education was sadly neglected. When an old man 
 he wrote for his children the story of his life with 
 his own hand. This writing still exists, and here I 
 shall give a page or two from it, with the language 
 and spelling exactly as he made it. 
 
 110 
 
Settlement of the Ohio Valley 
 
 " I am the youngest Son of Elisha Putnam, who 
 was the third Son of Edward, grandson of John Put- 
 nam, who settled at Salem in 1634 — My Mother's 
 Maiden name was Susanna Fuller, daughter of Jona- 
 than Fuller of Danvers — 
 
 " I was born on the 9th of April 1Y38, at Sutton in 
 Massachusetts in 1745 at the age of Seven Years and 
 two months, I became an orphan by the death of my 
 Father. From his death to September 1747 I lived 
 with my grandfather Fuller, to this time I was 
 keept at School as much as Children usually were at 
 that day, and could read pritty well in the bible — 
 
 " In September 1747 I went to live with my Step 
 Father, Capt. John Sadler (at Upton) and continued 
 with him untill his death (in September or October 
 1753) 
 
 " during the six year I lived with Capt. Sadler, I 
 never Saw the inside of a School house, except about 
 three weeks, he was very illiterate himself, and took 
 no Care for the education of his family, but this was 
 not all I was a ridicule of, and otherwise abused for 
 my attention to books, and attempting to write, and 
 learn Arethmatic, however, amidst all those discour- 
 agements I made Some advances in writeing and 
 Arethmatic, that is I could make Letters that could 
 be under stood, and had gon as far in Arethmatic as 
 to work the rule of three (without any teacher but 
 the book) — Oh, my Children beware you neglect not 
 the education of any under Your Care as I was neg- 
 lected. — 
 
 " In March 1754 I was bound apprentice To Dan- 
 Ill 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 iel Matthews of Brookfield to the Mill wights trade; 
 by him my education was as much neglected, as by 
 Capt. Sadler, except that he did not deny me the use 
 of a Light for Study in the winter evenings. I 
 turned my attention Chiefly to Arethmatic, Geog- 
 rapty, and history; had I ben as much engaged in 
 Learning to write well with Spelling, and Gramer, 
 I might have ben much better qualified to fulfill the 
 duties of the Succeeding Scenes of Life, which Li 
 providence I have ben called to pass through. I 
 was zealous to obtain knowledge, but having no 
 Course to pursue, — hence neglecting Spelling and 
 Gramer when young I have Suffered much through 
 life on that account." 
 
 Further on the writer states that while he was liv- 
 ing with his stepfather he earned a few pennies now 
 and then by watering horses for travelers, and that 
 with them he bought ammunition. He then shot 
 quail, sold them and with the proceeds purchased a 
 spelling book and an arithmetic — so great was his 
 desire to learn. 
 
 At the close of the Revolution Congress was un- 
 able to pay many of the soldiers for their services. 
 It was suggested, therefore, that they be paid in land 
 along the Ohio River. Rufus Putnam became great- 
 ly interested in this subject, and he was the first to 
 offer his services in leading a band of settlers to the 
 valley of the Beautiful River. 
 
 One night he and his friend, Benjamin Tupper, sat 
 up all night making plans for a western settlement. 
 
 112 
 
Settlement of the Ohio Valley 
 
 They decided to call a meeting at the tavern known 
 as the Bunch of Grapes, in Boston. At this meeting, 
 held in March, 1786, a new Ohio company was 
 formed. One of the directors of this company, the 
 Rev. Manasseh Cutler, preacher, lawyer, doctor, and 
 statesman all in one, was chosen to carry their proj- 
 ect before Congress. This he did, and the result was 
 the famous Ordinance of 1787 for the government 
 of the Northwest Territory. He also obtained a 
 land grant for the new company in southeastern 
 Ohio. 
 
 The following year Putnam gathered together a 
 number of people who were willing to seek their 
 fortunes in the West. They started for their new 
 home in the winter so as to be ready to plant crops 
 in the early spring. Over the snowy AUeghanies 
 they made their way on sleds and moving wagons. 
 For the women and children it was a dreary winter 
 indeed, but most of the men had been in the war and 
 were acquainted with exposure and hardship. Some 
 of them had spent the winter at Valley Forge, some 
 had been in the famous march to Yorktown. 
 
 Reaching a point on the Youghiogheny near Pitts- 
 burg they encamped for the remainder of the win- 
 ter and the men fell to building a boat so as to make 
 the rest of the journey by water. Soon they had a 
 little bark forty feet long, which they named the 
 Mayflower, after the more famous vessel of the Pil- 
 grim Fathers. 
 
 On the first day of April Putnam and his little 
 band embarked on the river. This part of the jour- 
 
 113 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 ney was delightful. The green hills and bursting 
 buds betokened the opening of spring, and the pil- 
 grims sang and shouted for joj as their little boat 
 glided down the blue waves of the Ohio. 
 
 They reached the mouth of the Muskingum on 
 April 7, 1788, and here was to be their home. Three 
 years before, Fort Harmar had been built here and 
 its little garrison would be a protection to the new 
 settlement. The number of people landed from the 
 Mayflower was forty-eight. The men were soon busy 
 felling trees and building a blockhouse on one of 
 the huge Indian mounds near the river. In this the 
 women and children were to be sheltered until homes 
 could be built. The men were strong and used to 
 the woods, and in one week after they landed four 
 acres had been cleared, and by the first of June 150 
 acres were planted in corn. Log cabins rose among 
 the trees and the families were soon settled in them. 
 The men held meetings for political purposes in a 
 large tent which they brought from the East, and 
 which had been captured from the British at the 
 time of Burgoyne's surrender. 
 
 Wild game there was in abundance, and this was 
 the chief food of the new colony. 
 
 A town was laid out east of the mouth of the 
 Muskingum and was named Marietta, in honor 
 of the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, in recog- 
 nition of what France had done for us in the Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 Seldom anywhere has a colony been so happily 
 founded as that at Marietta. Every member enjoyed 
 
 114 
 
Settlement of the Ohio Valley 
 
 good health and there was not a lawbreaker among 
 them. Others came from the East, and in a few 
 years Marietta was a prosperous village of several 
 hundred inhabitants. 
 
 General Rufus Putnam lived to be very old — 
 lived to see the Ohio Valley settled by hundreds of 
 thousands of people — and to the day of his death he 
 was one of the prominent men of the great valley, 
 honored and loved by all. He was one of the first 
 trustees of the Ohio University at Athens; he helped 
 form the first constitution of Ohio; he was the foun- 
 der of the first Sunday school west of the Alleghany 
 Mountains. This last came about through a dream. 
 
 Putnam dreamed that he was standing in a large 
 public hall when he saw near him a long procession 
 of children. Asking a bystander what it meant, he 
 was answered, "These are the children of the Sun- 
 day school." This was in 1817, and before the year 
 was past Putnam had founded a Sunday school. Two 
 others were founded within a year, and one day the 
 three schools were joined together for a picnic, and 
 as the children marched singing to the banks of the 
 Muskingum, Putnam looked on and with tears in his 
 eyes exclaimed, " This is the fulfillment of my 
 dream." 
 
 Another story related of Putnam is the following: 
 One evening in the year 1812 some missionaries 
 from New England, on their way to the Indian coun- 
 try, stopped their boat at Marietta to spend the 
 night with a friend, William Slocomb, who lived in 
 the town. While there they expressed a desire to 
 
 115 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 see General Putnam, of whom they had heard so 
 much. 
 
 Mr. Slocomb went with them to his house, where 
 they were graciously received. In the course of con- 
 versation the general asked: " Have you plenty of 
 fresh meat for your journey ? " They confessed they 
 had none. Putnam then turned to Mr. Slocomb and 
 said: 
 
 " !N^ow I see through the whole mystery. I have 
 an ox that has been fattening for a year, and for sev- 
 eral months I have tried to sell him, but could not. 
 I now understand the reason: The Lord has designed 
 him for this mission family. I will have him killed 
 and dressed by eight in the morning, and do you have 
 barrels and salt ready at the boat for packing what 
 cannot be used fresh." And it was done as he di- 
 rected. 
 
 Putnam died in 1824 at the ripe age of eighty-six. 
 He will ever be remembered as the founder of a com- 
 monwealth, as one of the most worthy among the 
 nation builders. 
 
 The Romance of "Western Migration 
 
 Within a few years after the founding of Marietta 
 the fever for moving westward spread over the At- 
 lantic States like an epidemic. Reports from those 
 who had settled in the Ohio Valley were glowing 
 with enthusiasm. The thin soil of New England was 
 contrasted with the soil of Ohio, where " corn grew 
 so tall that a man had to reach up, instead of down, 
 
 IIG 
 
Settlement of the Ohio Valley 
 
 to pick an ear from the stalk," where wild game was 
 still plentiful, and where land could be purchased for 
 little money. 
 
 The tide of emigration was soon in motion, and 
 farther south there was a similar movement to Ken- 
 tucky, Tennessee, and the cotton fields of Alabama 
 and Mississippi. 
 
 It must be remembered that there were no rail- 
 roads, and the wagon roads in many sections were 
 little other than the old Indian trails somewhat im- 
 proved. The journey from New England was long 
 and laborious indeed, requiring many weeks, and the 
 majority of the movers never again saw nor expected 
 to see their friends and kindred whom they left 
 behind. 
 
 The canvas-covered moving wagon was the usual 
 vehicle. A farmer, haAong sold all his goods which 
 he could not take with him, would load the remainder 
 on the wagon, leaving room for himself and his fam- 
 ily, and start on the long journey through the wilder- 
 ness. At night they would sleep in the wagon, after 
 having eaten their supper, which was prepared over 
 a camp fire. 
 
 The journey, however, was not so lonely as one 
 might imagine. There were many movers. During 
 the height of migration (the years following the War 
 of 1812) the main roads were literally strung with 
 movers, and there was scarcely an hour in the day 
 that several wagons did not pass a given point. At 
 Easton, Pa., 511 wagons bearing 3,000 people passed 
 in one month. At Zanesville, Ohio, fifty wagons, 
 
 117 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 going farther West crossed the Muskingum in one 
 day. 
 
 But many of the movers were too poor to afford 
 wagons, and they walked. A man from Rhode Island 
 and his twelve-year-old son pulled a little cart with 
 two younger children in it, while his wife, carrying 
 a baby, with seven other children, walked behind. 
 In this way they tramped several hundred miles. 
 One man is said to have pushed a wheelbarrow from 
 the Atlantic Coast to Ohio, his wife and children 
 trudging behind him. 
 
 Movers to points along the Ohio usually went by 
 way of Pittsburg and from there took the easier 
 method, the water route. As in the case of Rufus 
 Putnam and his pilgrims in the Mayflower, they 
 floated down the Ohio, in flatboats and various sorts 
 of river craft, to the place of their destination. 
 
 Life in the Wilderness 
 
 The early settlements in many places went through 
 two or three stages. First came the Indian hunter 
 and trader — such men as Daniel Boone and Simon 
 Kenton — who made no pretense of settling at any 
 particular place. 
 
 Next came the squatter, who lived in the forest 
 because he loved it, and because he did not enjoy the 
 surroundings of civilized life. He may or may not 
 have had a wife and family. Finding a place that 
 pleased him, he would make it his temporary home. 
 He had a few tools and household goods. He lived 
 
 118 
 
Settlement of the Ohio Valley 
 
 chiefly by hunting and fishing, but perhaps cleared 
 an acre or two of ground and raised a little corn and 
 vegetables. His clothing was made of the skins of 
 wild animals. But he had no title to the land, and 
 when the real settlers came he gave up his home and 
 pushed farther into the forest. Neither this class 
 nor the first mentioned was very numerous. 
 
 The third class became the real settlers of the 
 country — those that we have noticed in such num- 
 bers in the moving wagons. These were the men 
 that built the commonwealths. They were not, like 
 the trader and the squatter, trying to flee from civil- 
 ization; they brought it with them and fostered it 
 in every way. 
 
 They purchased their lands of the Government, 
 or of some land company, paying two or three dollars 
 an acre for it on the installment plan. Then came 
 the long journey in the moving wagon. 
 
 The first year in the new home is a hard one. The 
 settler begins clearing the land and building a cabin, 
 the family still making the moving wagon their 
 sleeping place. The cabin is built of logs notched at 
 the ends, is about ten feet in height, with a roof of 
 clapboards and a plank floor. There is one door and 
 one window. The door is of rough boards, hung on 
 leather hinges, and opposite the door is a great open 
 fireplace, the chimney being built on the outside with 
 lath, plastered with mortar. The windowpanes are 
 not glass but greased paper. 
 
 The pioneer farmer clears several new acres each 
 year. He calls his neighbors for miles around to 
 
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A Guide to American History 
 
 his " logrollings " and repays them by a similar 
 service. Great quantities of good timber are burned 
 because the farmer cannot use nor sell it. 
 
 As the years pass other settlers come in; a school- 
 house and church are built; a town is laid out and 
 a railroad is constructed. In a quarter of a century 
 the whole community is transformed and the wilder- 
 ness comes to blossom as the rose. 
 
 The old settler has added hundreds of acres to his 
 original farm; his children settle on the farm, or 
 enter the business or professional world. He spends 
 the evening of his days amid peace and plenty, and 
 he gathers his grandchildren about him and tells 
 them of the days of long ago when he made the long 
 journey in the moving wagon, and when the wolves 
 howled around his lonely cabin in the wilderness. 
 
 We must not think for a moment that pioneer life 
 was all toil and hardship. The pioneers had a way 
 of being happy without the many comforts that we 
 enjoy. They often turned work into play. For ex- 
 ample, the logrolling day was made a day of fun 
 and frolic. Men and boys for miles around would 
 gather, each with a " handspike," and as they piled 
 the logs and set fire to them they would sing and 
 halloo till the woods rang, and often the women and 
 girls would gather at the same home on the same day 
 and spend the time quilting and making the meals 
 for the logrollers. After supper the young people 
 would play games till far into the night. But log- 
 rolling was not the only attraction. There were 
 the sugar-makings in the spring, the apple-parings 
 
 120 
 
Settlement of the Ohio Valley 
 
 and corn-huskings in the fall, at which the young 
 people would come together and spend the night in 
 merrymaking. 
 
 Home life on the frontier was not without its at- 
 tractions. A family was usually large and each 
 member appreciated the companionship of the others. 
 Sometimes the whole family, parents as well as chil- 
 dren, would go to the woods and spend the day gath- 
 ering nuts. They ate their dinner on the grass under 
 some big shade tree. At evening they returned with 
 bags and baskets filled with rich hickory nuts, chest- 
 nuts, hazelnuts and beechnuts. 
 
 During the long winter evenings the family sat 
 around the great fireplace, the younger children sit- 
 ting on the floor playing with their toys, the older 
 ones reading, plaiting husk mats, or cracking nuts 
 and telling stories, the father mending shoes or har- 
 ness, the mother spinning flax, and the grandmother 
 (if they were so fortunate as to have a grandmother) 
 knitting stockings. Sometimes the stillness from 
 without was broken by the shriek of some wild crea- 
 ture in the forest, and the family clung closer to- 
 gether and thanked the Lord for the protection of 
 their cabin. 
 
 For two or three months in winter the children at- 
 tended school, some of them having two or three 
 miles to go to the log schoolhouse. 
 
 One of the finest and most prosperous cities of the 
 Central West is Indianapolis. The first schoolhouse 
 built in that city, about 1820, was of unhewn logs 
 with a great fireplace at one side. It had one long 
 
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A Guide to American History 
 
 window, a log being removed for the opening and 
 greased paper used instead of glass. The desks 
 were made of heavy planks and the seats of large 
 saplings split in halves, with wooden legs. 
 
 School-teachers were few, and some of them knew 
 less than fifth-grade pupils know now. Sometimes 
 the schoolhouse was vacant all winter for want of a 
 teacher, and sometimes there were but three or four 
 weeks of school. 
 
 The schools were not free, as now. Each pupil 
 had to pay two or three dollars a quarter as tuition, 
 and in this way the teacher was paid for his services. 
 If a patron could not pay in money the teacher would 
 sometimes accept corn or poultry or 'coon skins as 
 tuition. Indeed, in some places on the frontier 
 money was so scarce that other things passed as 
 money. 
 
 In Tennessee, while that State was still a Terri- 
 tory, the legislature made a very curious law about 
 money. There was very little real money in Tennes- 
 see, not enough to do business with, and a law was 
 passed that other things be used as money. For ex- 
 ample, a pound of sugar must pass for a shilling, and 
 a raccoon skin or fox skin for a shilling and three- 
 pence. Two fox or 'coon skins equaled a gallon of 
 rye whisky. One gallon of peach brandy equaled 
 one yard of linen, or three shillings. The highest 
 denomination was the beaver, the otter, or the deer 
 skin, which passed for six shillings each. It was not 
 stated what the skin of a wild cat or a bear was 
 worth. 
 
 122 
 
Settlement of the Ohio Valley 
 
 The governor, all public officers, and school-teach- 
 ers had to be paid in this money. 
 
 The soft money was kept in large jugs and the 
 hard money in wooden boxes, and to save opening the 
 box to count the money every time it changed hands, 
 the tail of each coin was left sticking out from under 
 the lid. Sometimes a counterfeiter would fill a box 
 with 'coon skins having otter's tails tacked on them, 
 and thus deceive the unwary. 
 
 123 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 SOME INCIDENTS OP THE SECOND WAR WITH 
 ENGLAND 
 
 WE have had two wars with England, the Revo- 
 lution and the "War of 1812, so called because 
 it began that year. Frequently since 1812 we have 
 had serious disputes with that country, but without 
 coming to blows, and it is the sincerest hope of every 
 true American and every true Briton that never 
 again will the two nations engage in war with each 
 other. 
 
 Perhaps there are still a few Americans who 
 would like to see the United States give the British 
 one good thrashing for the way they treated us in 
 the past, and then settle down to permanent peace; 
 but I think they are very few. It would be a crime 
 against civilization for these two mighty English- 
 speaking nations ever again to engage in war. Their 
 disputes and differences should be settled by arbitra- 
 tion, that is, by conferring and agreeing to compro- 
 mise. If aU the nations would adopt such a rule war 
 would become a thing of the past. 
 
 Impressment of Seamen 
 
 One of the chief causes of the War of 1812 was 
 the impressment of seamen. For a long time Great 
 
 124 
 
The Second War with England 
 
 Britain was at war with France and many of her 
 seamen deserted her ships, because of hard service 
 and not very great love for their country. Most of 
 them found service in American vessels, and when 
 England needed them and called for them to come 
 back they refused to do so. 
 
 The British Government then asked the United 
 States to give them up that they might be forced to 
 go back. But the United States refused to do this, 
 because many of them wished to become, and some 
 had become, American citizens. America always 
 permitted and even encouraged foreigners to come 
 to our shores to make this country their home, and 
 to become citizens, and it would have been unfair to 
 make an exception to these English sailors. But our 
 Government did offer to make an agreement to ex- 
 change deserters from the navies. 
 
 England refused to agree to this, and declared 
 that she would force the men back even if she had 
 to take them right off our ships. 
 
 And so the impressment business began. An Eng- 
 lish warship would stop an American ship at sea and 
 force the whole crew to march before the British 
 officers, who would pick out this man and that man, 
 pronounce them English deserters, and force them 
 into their own ships. 
 
 This occurred a great many times and was kept up 
 for many years; and the worst thing about it was 
 that an American was often taken by mistake. Per- 
 haps the British did not intentionally make this mis- 
 take, but they were very careless in picking out their 
 
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A Guide to American History 
 
 men, and hundreds of Americans who had never been 
 in England were impressed into the British navy. 
 
 Our Government protested and cried out against 
 the practice, but England seemed to think that we 
 were too weak to defend ourselves and went right 
 on. One old Revolutionary soldier wrote a bitter 
 complaint to Congress, stating that his sons had been 
 impressed into the British service and that if such 
 was the kind of liberty he had fought for he would 
 rather be without it. 
 
 The worst instance of impressment occurred in 
 1807, when the British war vessel, the Leopard, fired 
 on the American vessel, the Chesapeahe, killing three 
 men and wounding eighteen. The captain of the 
 Leopard then forced five of the Chesapeake^ s crew 
 into his own ship, and three of them afterwards were 
 proved to be Americans. 
 
 This outrage was denounced in every part of the 
 Union. Many Americans were in favor of imme- 
 diate war with England, but President Thomas Jef- 
 ferson and Congress did not think we were ready for 
 that yet. War is a very serious thing. 
 
 About four years after this the American people 
 were treated to a bit of news of a very different na- 
 ture. Here it is: 
 
 A British warship, cruising in American waters, 
 was said to have impressed an American citizen 
 named Diggio. When the people heard that such a 
 thing had happened right on our coast they flared 
 up in anger. It must be remembered that the 
 Americans were getting bolder and more conscious 
 
 126 
 
CO 
 1—1 
 00 
 
 
 
 c3 
 
f 
 
The Second War with England 
 
 of their power to defend themselves. The cruel 
 business had gone on long enough. The Govern- 
 ment officers thought so, too, and a huge war vessel, 
 the President, was sent out to find the English ship 
 and rescue Diggio. 
 
 The President sighted an English ship, and sup- 
 posed it to be the guilty one. But it was evening, and 
 the captain of the President, not being able to see 
 the name, called through a trumpet, " What ship is 
 that? " The answer was a shot from the stranger. 
 
 This opened the way. The President began firing 
 in earnest with one broadside after another. The 
 strange vessel returned the fire, but in fifteen min- 
 utes was silenced and disabled. It proved to be the 
 Little Belt, a smaller ship than the President. What 
 was the result of the battle? One boy was slightly 
 wounded on the President and twelve men lay dead 
 and twenty-one wounded on the deck of the Little 
 Belt. The dishonor of the Chesapeake affair had 
 been wiped out, and the American people rejoiced 
 over the event. 
 
 This was about the end of the impressment of 
 seamen. The war soon came, and never since that 
 war has England attempted to impress a man from 
 an American ship, and we venture to predict that 
 she never will. 
 
 The Two Hulls 
 
 Hull the elder was an uncle of Hull the younger. 
 The elder Hull was a man of sixty; the younger was 
 forty. Each played a prominent part in the War 
 
 127 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 of 1812. One was a brigadier general, the other 
 was captain of a warship. 
 
 General William Hull had been an officer in the 
 Revolution, and after 1805 was governor of the Ter- 
 ritory of Michigan. When the war came President 
 Madison made him commander of the American 
 forces at Detroit. He did not desire the honor, but 
 accepted it to please the President. 
 
 Now it happened that the British commander 
 in Canada was a man of great vigor and ability. 
 This was General Isaac Brock. When Brock heard 
 that Hull was at Detroit he determined to lead 
 an army thither and attack him. On he came 
 with an army of 1,300, nearly half of whom were 
 Indians. 
 
 In the war of the Revolution General Hull had 
 been a brave soldier, but now his courage began to 
 fail. He knew that the food in the fort could not 
 last more than a month, that the woods were full of 
 hostile Indians, and that there was no American 
 force within hundreds of miles to come to his aid. 
 Perhaps he would have cared little for his own life, 
 but there were women and children in the fort, and 
 among them was his own daughter. 
 
 Hull sat with his back against a rampart in deep 
 dejection. Then suddenly a cannon ball from a Brit- 
 ish battery fell in the fort and killed four men. 
 Hull's courage was now entirely gone. He raised a 
 white flag, and General Brock took possession of 
 Detroit and all Michigan. We shall see a little later 
 that England was not destined to keep Michigan and 
 
 128 
 
The Second War with England 
 
 add it to Canada, and how it was recovered by the 
 United States. 
 
 The story of the other Hull is far more pleasing to 
 American readers. 
 
 Captain Isaac Hull commanded the Constitution, 
 one of our finest warships. 
 
 Off the Atlantic coast there were many English 
 vessels. One of them was the Guerriere, a fine 38-gun 
 frigate. A London paper had boasted that no Amer- 
 ican ship could cope with the Guerriere, and her 
 own captain had challenged any one of our vessels 
 to a duel. 
 
 Captain Hull knew about this and was quite will- 
 ing to accept the challenge. One day while cruising 
 in the Atlantic, about 800 miles east of Boston, he 
 sighted the Guerriere, and each vessel recognized the 
 other as a mortal foe, and here upon the rolling deep 
 they prepared for a duel to the death. 
 
 The vessels swung round each other till they came 
 within range of the heavy guns, when both opened 
 with broadsides. For nearly an hour the deadly con- 
 flict raged. The British vessel suffered far more 
 than the American. At last when her mainmast fell 
 and she was a helpless wreck, her captain gave up 
 the contest and surrendered the vessel. Seventy-nine 
 of his men had fallen and only fourteen Americans. 
 Captain Hull took the surviving British to his own 
 ship as prisoners, set fire to the Guerriere, and sailed 
 for Boston. This fight took place on August 19, 
 1812, just three days after Captain Hull's unhappy 
 uncle had surrendered Detroit. 
 
 129 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 A few weeks later, while a great banquet was be- 
 ing held in Boston in honor of Captain Hull, a mes- 
 senger entered the hall with a British flag in his 
 hand, and great was the excitement of the people 
 when they found that he was a messenger from Com- 
 modore Decatur, who sent to tell of the capture of 
 a fine English vessel by him, in a fight similar to 
 that between the Constitution and the Guerriere. 
 
 Perry's Victory on Lake Erie 
 
 One day in the autumn of 1812 a man from Erie, 
 Pa., named Daniel Dobbins, came to the White 
 House in Washington to speak to the President on a 
 very important matter. His story was the following: 
 
 In the spring of the same year he and two friends, 
 being engaged in the lake trade, made a voyage far 
 up into the lake region and were captured by the 
 British. As they were being brought from the north 
 they witnessed a scene never to be forgotten — noth- 
 ing less than the surrender of Detroit and all Michi- 
 gan to an army of British and Indians, the Ameri- 
 cans under General William Hull yielding without 
 firing a gun. 
 
 A little later he and his friends had escaped and 
 returned to Erie, whereupon the commanding offi- 
 cer there had sent him to relate the matter to the 
 President and to suggest that a fleet be built to sweep 
 the British from the lakes. 
 
 Daniel Dobbins returned to Erie a few weeks later, 
 and the building of the fleet was begun. The com- 
 
 130 
 
The Second War with England 
 
 o-" 
 
 mander chosen for it was a young naval officer, a 
 native of Rhode Island, who, being a son of a naval 
 officer, had spent much, of his life on the sea — Oliver 
 Hazard Perry. 
 
 Perry soon made things move at Erie, but the task 
 before him was a hard one. The timber for the 
 ships was still standing in the woods; the guns, the 
 cordage, the canvas, and other equipments had to be 
 dragged on sleds through the deep snow for hun- 
 dreds of miles from New York, Philadelphia, and 
 Pittsburg. Eifty ship carpenters were brought from 
 the East. The work was pushed day and night and 
 by the next summer the new-bom fleet was ready for 
 service. 
 
 There was on Lake Erie a small British fleet com- 
 manded by Commodore Barclay, a brave officer who 
 had fought under Nelson at Trafalgar. He would 
 have destroyed Perry's ships unfinished, but for a 
 bar in the lake where the water was too shallow for 
 him to cross. But this he would do : he would watch 
 until Perry finished his fleet and came out in the 
 open lake and then attack him. He waited and 
 waited; but one Sunday in August he accepted an in- 
 vitation to spend the day with a rich Canadian, and 
 was absent two or three days. During that time 
 Perry, with Herculean effort, succeeded in crossing 
 the bar, swung out into the lake and stood ready to 
 meet the enemy. 
 
 When Barclay found out what had happened he 
 seemed to have changed his mind; he fled westward, 
 and it took Perry a month to find him. But he did 
 
 131 
 
A Guide to American History- 
 find him — on September 10, 1813 — and then was 
 fought the famous battle of Lake Erie. 
 
 The battle began at noon, and before sunset of that 
 day the British had no fleet on Lake Erie. 
 
 At first it seemed that the English would win. 
 Perry in his flagship, the Lawrence, had to fight four 
 of the enemy's vessels at the same time. They were 
 all much crippled; but the noble Lawrence was en- 
 tirely disabled. Of her crew of 103 men, 83 lay 
 dead or wounded on the deck. Her rigging was shot 
 to pieces. Perry fired the last gun with his own 
 hand, and then, with his young brother, but twelve 
 years old, and a few sailors, escaped in an open boat 
 to the next largest vessel, the Niagara. This ship 
 was uninjured, while most of the British ships were 
 already badly crippled, and Perry sailed among them 
 attacking them right and left with great fury. 
 
 About three o'clock the British raised the white 
 flag and surrendered, and the battle of Lake Erie was 
 over. 
 
 Before the smoke of battle had cleared away Perry 
 sat down and wrote the famous dispatch to General 
 William Henry Harrison, who was then commanding 
 in northern Ohio. 
 
 " We have met the enemy and they are ours." 
 
 This battle did great things for America. It gave 
 us the control of the lakes and opened the way for 
 the recovery of Michigan, which soon followed ; it 
 greatly encouraged the people and awakened in them 
 a determination to continue the war until the last 
 
 132 
 
o 
 
 b 
 
 o 
 
 
The Second War with England 
 
 foe was driven oif, and it did one thing more; it 
 made Oliver Hazard Perry a national hero and gave 
 him an immortal name in American history. 
 
 A Famous Victory 
 
 The war continued imtil the close of the year 
 1814, about two and a half years in all. As we have 
 noticed, Michigan was recovered through Perry's vic- 
 tory on Lake Erie. 
 
 At Queenstown Heights, on the Niagara River, a 
 hard battle was fought in which the American gen- 
 eral, Winiield Scott, was taken prisoner and the 
 brave British commander, General Brock, was killed. 
 The British captured and partly burned the Ameri- 
 can capital, but were repulsed before Baltimore. 
 
 When the war had dragged on for more than two 
 years and neither side was gaining any great advan- 
 tage, both desired peace, and commissioners were 
 sent by each country to Ghent, Belgium, to arrange 
 a treaty. 
 
 Why the British should have sent a great fleet with 
 20,000 men to the Gulf of Mexico at the same time 
 that they sent men to Ghent to make peace is not 
 easy to understand; but that is just what they did. 
 How this army succeeded, or rather how it failed, we 
 shall see. 
 
 The British army was commanded by General 
 Pakenham, a brother-in-law of the Duke of Welling- 
 ton, the hero of Waterloo. 
 
 The people of New Orleans were in a flutter of 
 133 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 excitement and fear when they learned that Paken- 
 ham was in the gulf and was hastening toward their 
 city. Few were the soldiers of the city, and not a 
 man there to command an army. But the news soon 
 spread that General Jackson had come, and there 
 was a quick change in the people. 
 
 Jackson — you will remember him as the boy An- 
 drew who was captured in time of the Revolution, 
 and who walked forty miles while suffering with 
 the smallpox — Jackson was a man of prodigious en- 
 ergy. He soon had the city in a condition for de- 
 fense. A small army of about 3,500 men were soon 
 gathered, and it was time, for the British were 
 coming. 
 
 On the morning of January 8th the great battle 
 of !N^ew Orleans was fought. Jackson had thrown 
 up an embankment a mile long and his men fought 
 from behind it. 
 
 At break of day the scarlet line of the British 
 was seen advancing, and the Americans held their 
 fire until the enemy was within range of the can- 
 non. Then burst forth the terrific roar of artillery 
 and the enemy was mowed down like grass before 
 the reaper's scythe. But the gaps were filled with 
 living men, and on they came again and still again. 
 
 When the British came within musket range the 
 infantry opened, and the whole American breastwork 
 was a line of fire. 
 
 General Pakenham, seeing his men waver, rode to 
 the front and, waving his hat in the air, cried : " For 
 shame, remember that you are British soldiers." 
 
 134 
 
The Second War with England 
 
 His right arm was shattered by a musket ball, but he 
 kept on cheering his men. Next moment he was 
 pierced through the body by two bullets, and at the 
 same time his horse was killed by a bursting shell. 
 Rider and horse fell together. The falling con>man- 
 der was caught by loving hands and borne to the 
 rear, and a few minutes later he was dead. 
 
 The British soon fled. The battle was over and 
 the city was saved. Seldom has an army received so 
 fearful a defeat as the English received on that day. 
 Their loss was about 2,600 while the American loss 
 was next to nothing — about twenty-one men. 
 
 A few days after the battle the British (what was 
 left of them) went back to their ships and sailed 
 away and were seen no more on the shores of Louisi- 
 ana. The city of New Orleans rejoiced exceedingly 
 over the great victory. The people erected a trium- 
 phal arch in the public square and received Jackson 
 and his army with great enthusiasm. 
 
 Among the many incidents of the battle one of the 
 most touching was that of the little bugler. A boy 
 of fourteen years, on the British side, was a bugler, 
 that is, one who blows a bugle during the battle to 
 cheer the soldiers. This boy climbed a tree and sat 
 among the branches throughout the battle blowing his 
 horn. The ground around the tree was torn with 
 cannon balls and bullets; the branches were shot 
 off near him, but the lad was unhurt. After the 
 battle he was taken to the American camp, where he 
 was shown every kindness, some throwing their arms 
 around the gallant little soldier. 
 
 135 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 A strange thing occurred after the battle. As the 
 Americans were walking over the ground offering 
 aid to the wounded, several hundred British soldiers 
 rose up unhurt from among the dead and wounded. 
 Thej explained that when they saw that they had 
 no hope of winning they dropped down, pretending 
 to be dead, and thus saved their lives. 
 
 The one regrettable thing about the battle of New 
 Orleans was that it was unnecessary, and all the 
 bloodshed might have been prevented. The treaty 
 of peace was signed in Belgium three weeks before 
 the battle took place. But there was no Atlantic 
 cable and no telegraph, and several weeks must pass 
 before the news of the peace could be known in 
 America. The British, however, could blame only 
 themselves for this drastic defeat. They should not 
 have sent an army to America at a time when peace 
 negotiations were going on. 
 
 The War of 1812 was over, and the American peo- 
 ple felt no little pride in the fact that they had at 
 least held their own for two and a half years against 
 one of the greatest nations of the earth. Never after 
 this did Great Britain attempt to impress American 
 seamen. Never after this was it a reproach to be an 
 American, for America henceforth was respected by 
 all nations. 
 
 136 
 
CHAPTEK XI 
 
 IMPROVEMENT IN TRANSPORTATION 
 
 ONE of the greatest of man's civilizing forces is 
 the means of travel and transportation. What 
 would it mean to us if there were no railroads con- 
 necting the Atlantic States with the vast valley of 
 the Mississippi and the far-off Pacific Coast? How 
 could we get along without steam navigation on 
 river, lake, and ocean, to say nothing of the bicycle, 
 the automobile, and the electric car? 
 
 Such was the condition one hundred years ago. 
 And it is a strange fact that there was almost no im- 
 provement in the means of transportation for two 
 thousand years before the year 1800. All our won- 
 derful progress has come in the past hundred years. 
 
 The Eirst Road Makers 
 
 In colonial days the country roads were usually 
 along the lines of the Indian trails, and the Indians 
 had in many cases followed the paths made by the 
 buffaloes. The buffalo was therefore our first road 
 maker. 
 
 When the white man came he drove out the buf- 
 faloes and the Indians and adopted their beaten 
 
 137 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 paths as his roads. Many of our country roads to- 
 day were first buffalo paths, then Indian trails, 
 through the forests. The white man had an ax, a 
 tool that neither the Indian nor the buffalo had used. 
 With this he widened the road, first for the horse- 
 back rider and then for the wagon. 
 
 N^ow imagine that you are carried back to the 
 time of the French and Indian War, or before, and 
 you wish to travel from New York to Boston. You 
 get into an old-time stagecoach, with a number of 
 other passengers. Your trunk is fastened on top of 
 the coach. The seats are probably without backs. 
 The horses are so jaded and worn that you feel that 
 you ought to get out and help them pull their load. 
 The harness is made of twisted rope. 
 
 At three o'clock in the morning a bugle blast from 
 the driver's horn warns you that he is ready to start. 
 The road is rough with stumps of trees and bowlders. 
 Now and then the coach sticks in a quagmire and you 
 must get out and help lift it. 
 
 After eighteen hours of such hardship you are put 
 down at an inn or tavern. The fare here is not what 
 you would find at a third-rate hotel of to-day. It is 
 doubtful if you will have a separate room in which 
 to spend the night. The room is probably a large 
 one with half a dozen beds, and you take your 
 chance among the rest. Five or six days are re- 
 quired for the journey between the two cities. 
 
 The coming of the stagecoach was quite an event 
 in the villages through which it passed. The people 
 of the towns and country had little to divert them 
 
 138 
 
Improvement in Transportation 
 
 from the monotonous life of the forest, and men, 
 women, and children would gather to see the stage 
 come in, to hear the latest news, and to get a glimpse 
 of the strangers who were passing through. 
 
 As the years passed the roads were made better, 
 and at length turnpikes were constructed, at first be- 
 tween the big cities, and later across the Alleghanies 
 to the Ohio Valley. The Cumberland Road, often 
 called the !N'ational Pike, from Washington to Van- 
 dalia, Illinois, cost millions of dollars, and was more 
 than thirty years in building. It was completed in 
 1838. There are now hundreds of miles of turnpikes 
 in various parts of the country, but a vast number of 
 country roads are still very much in need of im- 
 provement. 
 
 Coming of the Steamboat 
 
 The great routes of transportation before the Rev- 
 olution were the rivers and bays. But for these the 
 people would have seen little of each other and 
 would have seemed far apart indeed. However, with 
 only sails and oars the progress was slow, and to 
 take a cargo up a river was next to impossible. 
 
 For thousands of years sails and oars alone had 
 been used, but the nineteenth century was to bring a 
 wonderful change. The steam engine had been in- 
 vented for thirty or forty years, but not until 1807 
 was it successfully used in water navigation. In that 
 year Robert Fulton succeeded with the Clermont on 
 the Hudson River. It was a clumsy vessel indeed, 
 
 139 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 compared with the splendid river steamers of our 
 day; but the people thought it wonderful. 
 
 When Fulton was ready to launch the Clermont 
 thousands of people gathered on the shore to witness 
 the strange spectacle, most of them believing that 
 the effort would end in failure. The boat, one hun- 
 dred and thirty feet in length, moved out into the 
 river and ran against the current at the rate of four 
 miles an hour. In thirty-four hours it was at Albany, 
 one hundred and fifty miles up the river. The Cler- 
 mont was described as a " monster moving on the 
 waters defying wind and tide, breathing flames and 
 smoke." It was said that on some of the vessels met 
 by the Clermont the crews were so scared that they 
 shrank from the sight and called on Providence to 
 protect them from the monster that vomited fire and 
 smoke. 
 
 The success of the steamboat was now assured, but 
 it was not till after the War of 1812 that they began 
 to multiply rapidly. By 1820 there were many 
 steamers in Eastern waters — on the Hudson, the 
 Delaware, the Ohio, and the Mississippi. 
 
 When the colonists came to America from Europe 
 they were usually two or three months on the sea. 
 No one then dreamed of the magnificent " ocean 
 greyhounds " that now speed through the waves at 
 twenty miles an hour and cross the Atlantic in five 
 days. 
 
 The size of ocean vessels has changed even more 
 than the speed. Columbus first crossed the Atlantic 
 in the Santa Maria, a ship of about ninety tons; 
 
 140 
 
Improvement in Transportation 
 
 the Welcome that brought William Penn was about 
 the same size. Compare them with the Lusitania, 
 recently built in Glasgow, with a displacement of 
 forty-five thousand tons and a speed that enables her 
 to cross the Atlantic in less than five days. 
 
 Artificial Rivees 
 
 Wonderful were the advantages of navigation by 
 steam. Along the seacoast and the rivers it greatly 
 reduced freight and passenger rates and cheapened 
 all kinds of products of the farm and factory. But 
 great numbers of the people did not live on or near 
 the seacoast or the rivers. How could these get the 
 direct benefit of water navigation? In one way only 
 — by making artificial streams, or canals. 
 
 The first canal in the United States was the Dis- 
 mal Swamp Canal, in Virginia and North Carolina. 
 It was completed while Washington was President. 
 But the real era of canal building did not begin till 
 after the War of 1812. 
 
 The most famous and important of all canals in 
 this country is the Erie Canal. It connects the Hud- 
 son River and Lake Erie, and is 363 miles long. It 
 was sometimes called " Clinton's Big Ditch," because 
 Governor Clinton, of New York, had done so much 
 toward constructing it. 
 
 It required the labor of thousands of men for 
 eight years to finish the great work. The waters of 
 Lake Erie were turned into it, and in October, 1825, 
 it was thrown open with a great celebration. 
 
 141 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 A tandem fleet of five boats traversed the whole 
 course from Buffalo. There being no telegraph or 
 railroad, the news that the fleet had started was car- 
 ried in a singular way. There was a line of cannon 
 placed a few miles apart, from Buffalo to New York 
 City. The first of these was fired, and as soon as 
 the sound reached the next it was fired, and so on 
 through the whole course. In an hour and a half 
 the news had reached New York City. 
 
 On the fleet there were two eagles, a bear, two 
 fawns, two Indian boys, and other things typical of 
 the country before the coming of the white man. 
 The procession was greeted along the route at every 
 town with shouts and music and firing of guns. 
 When it reached New York, Governor Clinton 
 poured two kegs of water, brought from Lake Erie, 
 into the bay and declared that our Mediterranean 
 Seas were henceforth in communication with the 
 Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 Great was the advantage of the Erie Canal. It 
 raised the value of land all along the route, but 
 cheapened almost everything else. Hundreds of 
 canal boats were soon in service, carrying furniture, 
 tools, and salt westward, and returning with loads 
 of lumber, grain, and furs. The price of transpor- 
 tation fell to one tenth of what it had been before. 
 The whole Lake Region was benefited by the Erie 
 Canal. Farmers in Ohio and Indiana could buy 
 furniture and tools for half what they had cost 
 before, and they found a far better market for their 
 produce. 
 
 142 
 
Improvement in Transportation 
 
 Other States were seized with the canal craze, on 
 account of the great success of the Erie. Pennsyl- 
 vania built a canal from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, 
 except for a short distance across the mountains. 
 Ohio joined the waters of Lake Erie and the Ohio 
 River by a canal from Cleveland to Portsmouth. 
 Other States were equally affected by the craze ; but 
 while this was at its height another impulse seized 
 the people. They found a method of transportation 
 far superior to the canal. 
 
 The Railkoad 
 
 N^ature had thrown a great mountain barrier be- 
 tween the Eastern seaboard and the broad river valley 
 of the West. If the country was to hold together 
 something must be done to overcome this obstruction 
 to trade. To transport heavy goods across the moun- 
 tains in wagons was too expensive; to send them East 
 by way of the Ohio, the Mississippi, the gulf and 
 the ocean was costly and perilous; to build canals 
 across the mountains was next to impossible. The 
 answer to the problem came in the building of rail- 
 roads. 
 
 A hundred years ago a journey from Philadelphia 
 to Columbus, Ohio, meant several weeks of hardship 
 in a lumbering stagecoach. Now the journey can be 
 made in a luxurious sleeper in twelve hours, with 
 the comforts of home. 
 
 The first great railroad of the country, the Balti- 
 more and Ohio, was begun on July 4, 1828. In 
 
 143 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Pennsylvania, in New York, in South Carolina, and 
 other States railroads were soon under construction. 
 But the work was slow, and in 1830 there were but 
 thirty-six miles in the whole country. Five years 
 later, however, there were several hundred miles of 
 railroad. 
 
 At first the motive power was not the steam en- 
 gine, but horses and even sails. In Pennsylvania the 
 State built the railroad, and anyone who had a car 
 could use it by paying toll. The road from Phila- 
 delphia to Columbia, for example, consisted of but 
 one track, and there were turnouts or switches, so 
 that two cars going in opposite directions could pass. 
 But it often happened that they met between the 
 turnouts, and then there was a dispute and sometimes 
 a fist fight to decide which driver would back his 
 load to the switch and let the other pass. There 
 was also another source of trouble. A steam en- 
 gine would overtake a horse car going in the same 
 direction. Sometimes the driver of the car would 
 refuse to turn out at the next switch to let the engine 
 pass. 
 
 When it was seen that steam engines and horse 
 cars could not conveniently be used on the same road, 
 a long dispute ensued as to which should be aban- 
 doned, and it was finally decided that the horse car 
 must be given up. It was later decided that not the 
 State, but private companies, should own the rail- 
 roads, and nearly all the railroads in the United 
 States are now owned by companies. 
 
 After 1840 railroad building was pushed rapidly. 
 144 
 
Improvement in Transportation 
 
 In 1853 New York was connected by rail with 
 Chicago, and two years later with St, Louis. In 
 1869 the first transcontinental railroad was finished, 
 and since then one can travel by this means from 
 ocean to ocean — from Boston to San Francisco. 
 
 145 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 ODDS AND ENDS 
 
 fXlHIS chapter will be devoted to a notice of sev- 
 -*• eral characters and events of the first half of 
 the nineteenth century that are important but prob- 
 ably not very well known to the average reader. 
 
 Albeet Gallatin 
 
 The majority of Americans of this generation 
 know but little of the life of Albert Gallatin, and yet 
 he was a very prominent man for a long period in 
 American history. He was no doubt the most dis- 
 tinguished European-born citizen in the history of 
 the country. 
 
 Albert Gallatin was born in Geneva, Switzerland, 
 in 1761. His people were somewhat prominent and 
 possessed some wealth, but both his parents died 
 before he was nine years old. He was then put in 
 a boarding school, and here he remained till he was 
 eighteen. At this time the War of the Revolution 
 was going on in America. Albert's grandmother was 
 a friend to the Landgrave of Hesse, who was fur- 
 nishing soldiers — the Hessians — to the English king 
 for the American war. She was anxious that her 
 
 146 
 
Odds and Ends 
 
 grandson should win military honors, as some of his 
 ancestors had done, and applied to the Landgrave 
 for a commission for him as an officer in one of the 
 regiments to be sent to America. 
 
 When Albert was informed of this he declared, 
 " I will never serve a tyrant," and his grandmother 
 gave him a sharp cuff on the ear. 
 
 Albert was of a romantic turn. He had heard 
 much of America — of the vast unexplored wilderness 
 — and he decided to come to the United States not 
 to engage in the war, but to see, to explore, to enjoy 
 the wild life, and probably to make the new land his 
 home. 
 
 With a young companion as ardent as himself he 
 set out and reached Boston in the spring of 1Y80. 
 The first winter they spent among the pines on the 
 frontier of Maine, where they tracked the moose 
 and explored the streams and lakes to their hearts' 
 content. 
 
 One day they came to an inn, and the landlord, 
 seeing that they were foreigners, asked : 
 
 " From France, eh ? " 
 
 " IS^o" answered Gallatin, " we are not from 
 France." 
 
 " From Germany ? " 
 
 " iN"©." 
 
 " From Spain ? " 
 
 " 'No, not from Spain." 
 
 " Well, then, where on earth are you from, or 
 what are you ? " asked the landlord. 
 
 " I am a Swiss," answered Gallatin. 
 147 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 " A Swiss, a Swiss," said the landlord, " who are 
 the Swiss, one of the lost tribes of Israel? " 
 
 The next year young GaUatin taught French in 
 Harvard College, and a year later we find him on his 
 way to the West. He had heard of the rich lands 
 of the Ohio Valley, and thither he bent his steps. 
 On the way he spent some months at Richmond, Va., 
 and here he made many friends, among whom were 
 Patrick Henry, governor of the State, and John 
 Marshall, afterwards chief justice of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States. 
 
 On coming of age Gallatin received a sum of 
 money from his father's estate, and when he reached 
 the Ohio he purchased several thousand acres of land 
 along that river in Virginia and Pennsylvania. On 
 a hill where the view of mountain and valley was 
 magnificent he built a house and called the place 
 Friendship Hill. But what is a home without a mis- 
 tress? Gallatin knew what he was about. He went 
 back to Richmond and married a beautiful girl and 
 took her to his forest home on Friendship Hill. 
 
 Here amid the beauties that nature had so lav- 
 ishly thrown around them the young couple began 
 life and everything seemed to promise happiness for 
 long years. 
 
 But their joy was of short duration. "Within a 
 few months death stole the lovely bride and the 
 young husband was left disconsolate and alone. So 
 great was his sense of loneliness that he thought of 
 returning to the home of his childhood in Switzer- 
 land. But at length he came to be interested in poli- 
 
 148 
 
Odds and Ends 
 
 tics and in this he found his true vocation. He was 
 elected to the Pennsylvania legislature and at once 
 took the lead in that body. 
 
 But there was one act of his life that he always 
 regretted. He took part in the Whisky Insurrection 
 of western Pennsylvania. This he afterwards ac- 
 knowledged to be a " political sin " of which he re- 
 pented. At the same time it was Gallatin who coun- 
 seled that the people yield and obey the laws instead 
 of rising in open rebellion. 
 
 In December, 1795, Gallatin became a member 
 of Congress, in the Lower House, where he served 
 several terms. He was without exception the ablest 
 member of the House, and its leader as long as he 
 served in it. 
 
 When Jefferson became President he chose Galla- 
 tin secretary of the treasury, and he made a happy 
 choice, for there was no man in the country more 
 fitted for this responsible position in the Cabinet. 
 For fourteen years Mr. Gallatin filled this office, and 
 he then resigned only because President Madison 
 wanted him to go to Ghent, Belgium, as a commis- 
 sioner to arrange peace at the close of the War of 
 1812. The writing of the treaty was almost wholly 
 the work of Gallatin. 
 
 When James Monroe became President, in 1817, 
 he asked Gallatin to enter his Cabinet and again 
 become secretary of the treasury, but Gallatin de- 
 clined. He was then chosen as our minister to 
 France, where he served for some years, and later 
 he was minister to England. 
 
 149 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 As Gallatin grew old he desired above all things 
 to quit public life. He retired to his home at Friend- 
 ship Hill, but was soon asked by the President to 
 become again minister to France. He declined, and 
 later he refused to become a member of the Panama 
 Congress of 1826. After he had passed his eighty- 
 second year he was invited to become secretary of 
 the treasury, but of course declined. 
 
 He lived to be eighty-eight, and spent his last 
 years studying the language and habits of the In- 
 dians, a subject that was always of great interest 
 to him. His faithful wife (for he had married a 
 second time) passed away in 1848, and the next year, 
 at the home of his son-in-law on Long Island, Albert 
 Gallatin breathed his last, after a long life of great 
 usefulness and honor. 
 
 Dolly Madison 
 
 There was, in the early years of the Revolution, a 
 wealthy Quaker named John Payne who lived in 
 Virginia and held slaves. But he disliked slavery 
 and decided to set his slaves free and move to Phila- 
 delphia. He had a daughter named Dolly, a beau- 
 tiful girl, who was yet a child when they reached the 
 Quaker city. 
 
 Dolly was a favorite everywhere. She was not 
 only beautiful, she was most vivacious, witty, and 
 entertaining. As she approached womanhood she 
 won the heart of a rich young man named John 
 Todd, and they were engaged to be married. But 
 
 150 
 
Odds and Ends 
 
 by and by Dolly's father lost his fortune and found 
 himself a poor man. This misfortune did not seem 
 to change Dolly's spirit, but the next time she saw 
 John Todd she told him that she had changed her 
 mind and had decided never to marry. 
 
 ]^ow John was a sagacious fellow and he thought 
 he knew where the trouble lay. He told Dolly that 
 her loss of fortune did not affect him in the least, 
 that she was just the same to him as if she had a 
 million, and so forth. John won the day — and the 
 girl, too. They were soon married. 
 
 Now came three years of happy married life and 
 the birth of two little boys. Then came a dreadful 
 calamity. 
 
 Philadelphia had an awful scourge of yellow fever, 
 and thousands were swept into the grave. Among 
 the victims were John Todd and one of his baby 
 boys. The bereaved wife lay at death's door for 
 days, but recovered. 
 
 Time passed and the poisonous disease disappeared. 
 The heart of youth cannot be wounded beyond re- 
 pair. Dolly recovered her spirits, her wit, her joy- 
 ous nature. 
 
 James Madison was a member of Congress of 
 national fame. He was a middle-aged bachelor from 
 Virginia. Congress at that time met in Philadelphia. 
 One night Mr. Madison saw Dolly, now a rich widow 
 of twenty-two. He was so charmed that he asked a 
 mutual friend, Aaron Burr, to seek for him an in- 
 troduction. She had heard a great deal of Mr. 
 Madison, and did not object to meeting him. The 
 
 151 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 next evening was set. Then she wrote to a friend 
 as follows : 
 
 Dear Friend : Thou must come to me this evening ; Aaron 
 Burr says that the great little Madison has asked to be 
 brought to me this evening. 
 
 Mr. Madison came, and the vivacious widow took 
 his heart by storm. A few months later they were 
 married and the bride became Dolly Madison — the 
 name by which she is known in history. 
 
 During the eight years of the Presidency of 
 Thomas Jefferson he was a widower and Mrs. Dolly 
 Madison was looked upon as the first lady of the 
 land, as her husband was secretary of state. 
 
 Mr. Madison himself was then elected President, 
 and his charming wife graced the White House as 
 few women have ever done. Foreign diplomats, vis- 
 itors from abroad, government officials and every- 
 body admired and honored this lovable woman. 
 
 Let us notice one incident of her White House ex- 
 perience. It was in the time of the war — in August, 
 1814. A British army had landed near Washington 
 and was approaching the city and there was no suf- 
 ficient American army to protect it. President Mad- 
 ison with some officers went out to Bladensburg, and 
 there before night, on August 24th, a battle was 
 fought. 
 
 At noon Mrs. Madison wrote her sister: 
 
 I have been turning my spyglass in every direction and 
 watching with unwearied anxiety, hoping to discover the 
 approach of my dear husband and his friends; but, alas I I 
 cannot see them. 
 
 152 
 
Odds and Ends 
 
 At three o'clock she wrote: 
 
 Three o'clock — will you believe it, my sister? We have 
 had a battle near Bladensburg, and here I am still within 
 sound of the cannon. Mr. Madison comes not. May God 
 protect us. Two messengers covered with dust came to bid 
 me fly; but here I mean to wait for him. 
 
 At a later hour, however, Mrs. Madison did fly, 
 and did not know until next day that her husband 
 was safe. She had carefully packed in wagons the 
 most valuable articles in the White House. When 
 the men were ready to start she informed them that 
 there was one thing more that must be taken — the 
 large picture of General Washington, made by a 
 famous artist. The men declared that the British 
 were coming and there was no time to unscrew the 
 large frame from the wall. But Mrs. Madison de- 
 clared that they must save the picture, and she or- 
 dered that the frame be broken and the canvas taken 
 out and rolled. This was done, and that fine picture 
 of the Father of his Country still exists — thanks to 
 Dolly Madison. 
 
 She fled to the country and spent the night with 
 friends. That night the British burned the White 
 House and other public buildings, and from that 
 time to the close of the administration the President 
 and his wife had to live in a rented house. 
 
 When Mr. Madison ceased to be President he re- 
 tired to his plantation in Virginia. Here he grew 
 old, and for years before his death he was an invalid, 
 scarcely able to leave his house. His wife had been 
 accustomed from girlhood to gay society, but now 
 
 153 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 she gave up all that and devoted her whole time 
 and energy to caring for her decrepit husband, and 
 it was her buoyant, joyous nature that soothed him 
 as nothing else could have done. 
 
 He died in 1836, the last of the framers of the 
 Constitution. Mrs. Madison was twenty-one years 
 younger than her husband, and she lived many years 
 after his death. After spending some months in ar- 
 ranging his papers she moved to Washington, where 
 she spent the remainder of her life among loving 
 friends. 
 
 But there was one deep sorrow that weighed on 
 her life. Her only child, the boy who had escaped 
 the yellow fever when his father and little brother 
 had died, gave his aged mother no comfort. He was 
 a worthless spendthrift, and followed evil ways. 
 When he should have been her greatest comfort he 
 was the one burden on her soul that nothing but 
 death could remove. 
 
 One night as she sat listening to a friend reading 
 from the Gospel of St. John she sank in her chair, a 
 victim of apoplexy. For two days she lingered, and 
 waking now and then she would hold out her arms 
 to embrace the loving friends that stood around, and 
 thus in death she was the same fond, loving friend 
 that she had always been. 
 
 A YisiTOB FEOM France 
 
 In a former chapter we noticed the coming of the 
 brave young Frenchman, Lafayette, to aid the Amer- 
 icans in their long struggle for liberty. Almost fifty 
 
 154 
 
Odds and Ends 
 
 years had passed since then, and now he was an aged 
 man with silver hair and wrinkled brow; but his 
 heart was ever young and his love of liberty never 
 grew cold. 
 
 Many were the experiences of Lafayette during 
 those fifty years. France had passed through a revo- 
 lution far more bloody than ours, and he was always 
 found on the side of human liberty. Five years he 
 spent in an Austrian prison because of his principles, 
 and he had lost his fortune. 
 
 He accepted the invitation of President Monroe 
 to visit the people for whom he had fought in his 
 youth, and landed in New York in August, 1824. 
 
 He was received with the boom of cannon, the 
 ringing of bells, and the shouts of the people. Great 
 festivals were held in his honor in the cities of the 
 East — New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. But the 
 rising "West was not satisfied that he spend his whole 
 time in the East; the people in all the States urged 
 that he pay them a visit, and he did so. From Wash- 
 ington he passed through "Virginia, paid a visit to the 
 aged ex-President, Thomas Jefferson, and proceeded 
 through Georgia to New Orleans. 
 
 In every city and village he was given a welcome 
 by the people, and especially by the school children, 
 who marched in lines carrying flowers and banners. 
 
 He went up the Mississippi in a steamboat, the 
 Mechanic, and met with a serious accident. The 
 Mechanic struck a snag in the river and sank within 
 a few minutes. The passengers escaped drowning, 
 but lost all their baggage. Lafayette lost his car- 
 
 155 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 riage and many valuable papers. He passed up the 
 Ohio River to Pittsburg and from there across the 
 country to Lake Erie. He then returned to New 
 York by way of the Erie Canal and the Hudson 
 River. In one hundred days he had visited seven- 
 teen States, having traveled five thousand miles. 
 
 The one thiug that pleased the famous French gen- 
 eral above all things was to meet the old soldiers of 
 the Revolution. There were not many of them left, 
 but here and there he found one, tottering with age. 
 In New York he had a long talk with Colonel Wil- 
 let, a veteran in his eighty-fifth year. The two had 
 borne arms together on the battle field, and had often 
 slept in the same tent when in camp. What a joy 
 it was to meet again and talk over those days of long 
 ago! 
 
 Lafayette spent several months in Washington, 
 and Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House, intro- 
 duced to him all the members of Congress, and 
 Congress, as we have seen before, voted him a large 
 sum of money. 
 
 He visited the tomb of Washington at Mt. Ver- 
 non, and was the guest of honor at the laying of the 
 comer stone of the Bunker Hill Monument. 
 
 It was fifty years to the day after the famous bat- 
 tle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1825) that this corner 
 stone was laid. Never had Boston experienced such 
 a gala day. The coming of the dawn was greeted 
 with the roar of cannon. The people gathered in un- 
 counted thousands, and when the procession moved 
 through the streets, with the distinguished Erench- 
 
 156 
 
Odds and Ends 
 
 man as the honored guest, the people who lined the 
 streets cheered with great enthusiasm. 
 
 When they reached the place where the monument 
 was to be reared the first ceremony was to introduce 
 the few survivors of the famous battle to the hon- 
 ored guest, after which he laid the corner stone with 
 his own hands. He was then asked to take a seat re- 
 served for him under a pavilion, but he refused, 
 saying: 
 
 " No, I belong there among the survivors of the 
 Revolution and there I must sit." 
 
 The oration was given by America's greatest ora- 
 tor, Daniel Webster, and this was one of the greatest 
 orations of his life. 
 
 A few months later Lafayette sailed for his native 
 land in a Government vessel, the Brandywine, which 
 was named after the battle in which he had been 
 wounded, in 177Y. !No other foreigner has ever 
 been received with such a welcome in this country as 
 that which was given to Lafayette. 
 
 A Bloodless Duel 
 
 In the early years of our Republic the practice of 
 fighting duels was widespread. A man who felt him- 
 self insulted by another would send a challenge to 
 the other to meet him on the " field of honor," as 
 they called it. Duelling was not confined to the 
 ruffians and rowdies; it was engaged in by nearly 
 every class. Often a duel ended with no harm to 
 either side; but sometimes it ended in a tragedy. 
 
 157 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 The great American statesman, Alexander Hamil- 
 ton, was killed in a duel by Aaron Burr, Vice-Presi- 
 dent of the United States. Stephen Decatur, a 
 famous naval officer, was slain in the same way by a 
 fellow officer. But the duel here to be described 
 turned out happily, no one being hurt. It was be- 
 tween two leading statesmen — Henry Clay and John 
 Randolph. 
 
 Henry Clay is well known; John Randolph was 
 a member of Congress from Virginia. He served at 
 least twenty-five years and was known as the witti- 
 est man ever in Congress. He and Henry Clay 
 fought a duel, and both came out whole. Here is 
 how it occurred. 
 
 It was in 1826. John Quincy Adams was Presi- 
 dent of the United States, and Henry Clay was Sec- 
 retary of State. They had arranged to send dele- 
 gates to the Panama Congress, which was held that 
 year. But many members of our Congress were 
 very much opposed to this, and some of them said 
 sharp things about it. Randolph was one of these, 
 and he made a speech in the Senate in which he 
 referred to Adams and Clay as " the Puritan and the 
 blackleg." 
 
 Clay was very angry when he heard this and he 
 sent Randolph a challenge to a duel. Randolph did 
 not want to fight Clay, least of all to wound or kill 
 him. In fact, he rather liked him. True, he had 
 called him a blackleg in a speech, but Randolph 
 often used such terms in a reckless way and did not 
 expect them to be taken too seriously. As a gen- 
 
 158 
 
Odds and Ends 
 
 tleman was not expected to refuse a challenge, Mr. 
 Randolph accepted. 
 
 Each man chose a " second," that is, a friend to 
 make all arrangements. JSTow these seconds did not 
 wish to see either Claj or Randolph hurt, so they 
 dallied with the subject for one reason or another, 
 thinking that Mr. Clay would cool down and no duel 
 be fought. A whole week passed in this way, but 
 Clay made no sign of relenting. Then the seconds 
 devised a plan by which they hoped to make the 
 duelists miss each other. The signal to shoot was 
 this : " One, two, three, fire, stop." Neither was to 
 fire his pistol before he heard the word " fire," nor 
 after he heard the word " stop." The seconds de- 
 cided to count so fast that there would hardly be time 
 to fire, or at least no time to take careful aim. 
 
 The company, including Senator Benton, the 
 famous Missourian, drove across the Potomac to the 
 Virginia side, on April 8, 1826. Randolph had said 
 to Benton that he would fire his pistol in the air and 
 not at Mr. Clay, but he changed his mind. They 
 met in a dense wood and stood ten paces apart. The 
 signal was given, and the scheme worked well. The 
 count was so fast that the duelists had little time to 
 take aim. Both fired and both missed. 
 
 They then reloaded to try again. While they 
 were doing this Randolph said aside to Senator Ben- 
 ton that he would not fire at Clay again, that he 
 would not kill him for all the wealth of the United 
 States. The signal was given again; Clay fired and 
 the bullet passed through Randolph's coat. Ran- 
 
 159 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 dolph then shot his pistol into the air, threw it to the 
 ground and said: " I do not fire at you, Mr. Clay." 
 He then walked toward Clay with extended hand. 
 This was too much. Clay's anger was gone in an 
 instant. He threw his pistol to the ground and went 
 to meet Randolph, who said with mock seriousness: 
 " Mr. Clay, you owe me a new coat." 
 " I'm glad the debt is no greater," said Clay, and 
 the two men engaged in a hearty, old-fashioned hand- 
 shake. 
 
 Inaugfration of " Old Hickory " 
 
 Again we meet with the one whom we saw as a 
 boy in the Revolution walking forty miles while suf- 
 fering with the smallpox. We met him also at the 
 battle of New Orleans, in January, 1815. Now for 
 the third time here he is — Andrew Jackson, often 
 called " Old Hickory." 
 
 He came to be called by this nickname in this 
 way: One time during the War of 1812 he was lead- 
 ing an army home after a campaign, a distance of 
 several hundred miles. It was a body of infantry, 
 that is, foot soldiers. The general himself had three 
 good horses, but he loaned these to sick men who 
 could not walk and himself walked with the rest. 
 As they were plodding along some one said, " The 
 general is tough," and another answered, "x\s tough 
 as hickory." From this he came to be called " Old 
 Hickory," and the name clung to him through life. 
 
 Andrew Jackson was often called the people's 
 President. He was the first (but not the last) of our 
 
 160 
 
Odds and Ends 
 
 Presidents to rise from the ranks of the common\ 
 people. All who came before him were from well- 
 known or wealthy families. Washington was one of 
 the richest landowners in America ; John Adams was 
 a famous lawyer and a signer of the Declaration of 
 Independence; Jefferson's father owned thousands of 
 acres of land in Virginia, and Madison and Monroe 
 were from families of the same class. But Jackson 
 rose from the ranks of the poor and imknown. 
 
 After a hot contest in 1828 Jackson defeated John 
 Quincy Adams and was elected President of the 
 United States. A few weeks later his beloved wife 
 died. His age was then sixty-one, but his friends 
 declared that he aged twenty years in a night be- 
 cause of her death, so great was his attachment to 
 her, and it was said that from this time, as long as 
 he lived, he never went to bed at night without look- 
 ing at her picture. 
 
 Soon after her funeral he started on his long, 
 laborious journey from Nashville, Tenn., to Wash- 
 ington. He went by way of the Cumberland and 
 Ohio Rivers to Pittsburg by steamboat, and at every 
 town and every landing the people shouted him 
 a royal welcome. He reached the capital city some 
 weeks before the 4th of March, and when that day 
 came the city was crowded with vast throngs of peo- 
 ple who had come to see the people's man made 
 President. One eyewitness wrote that it seemed 
 that half the nation had rushed at once into the 
 capital. 
 
 March 4th was one of the clearest, balmiest days 
 161 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 in the spring. Jackson walked to the capital, and 
 when he appeared before the multitude, " the peal 
 of shouting," says the writer above quoted, " that 
 arose rent the air, and seemed to shake the very 
 ground." 
 
 When the chief justice, John Marshall, adminis- 
 tered the oath of office Jackson bowed his head and 
 the crowd grew reverently silent. The ceremony 
 over, the new President rode on horseback to the 
 White House, the crowd following in all kinds of 
 vehicles, and thousands on foot, walking, running 
 helter-skelter and shouting themselves hoarse. At 
 the White House they were treated to orange punch 
 — barrels and tubs full of it. 
 
 So dense was the crowd that at one time Jackson 
 was pinned against the wall and could not move. He 
 was rescued by a number of his friends, who caught 
 hands and pressed the people back. The rabble had 
 full sway. They stood on the costly sofas and the 
 damask-satin-covered chairs with their muddy boots, 
 and accidentally broke a fine chandelier. 
 
 What did Jackson say to all this? Did he get an- 
 gry? He had a very decided temper, as we well 
 know, but it did not appear on that day. He sim- 
 ply said, " Let the boys have a good time once in 
 four years," and probably he never said anything 
 that gives more insight into the cause of his great 
 popularity. 
 
 162 
 
Odds and Ends 
 
 A Captain of the Black Hawk War 
 
 In the first place, the Black Hawk War was a very- 
 small, insignificant affair, and scarcely deserves to be 
 mentioned in American history. 
 
 In the second place, the captain here referred to 
 was not much of a captain after all. He never had 
 any military training worth mentioning before this 
 war, nor during this war, nor afterwards. He never 
 was in a battle, never had a gun fired at him, and 
 never shot at an enemy. It is true that blood was 
 drawn on this midsummer campaign against the 
 Indians in 1832 ; blood was drawn on this very cap- 
 tain we are writing about, as he himself afterwards 
 asserted on the floor of Congress, but not by the en- 
 emy; it was drawn by mosquitoes. 
 
 Why all this about a war that was hardly a war at 
 all, and about this officer who was hardly an officer 
 ataU? 
 
 Well, here is the reason: When a man becomes 
 great and famous we like to look back to his boyhood 
 and see what he was then. The fame of this man 
 came to fill the world, and it still does. He was 
 probably the most notable world figure of the nine- 
 teenth century. His name was Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 At this time Lincoln was a young man of twenty- 
 three. He had lived in three States — Kentucky, In- 
 diana, Illinois. He was a man of many occupations : 
 a farmer, a rail splitter, a postmaster, a storekeeper, 
 a surveyor, a river boatman, and now a soldier. 
 
 163 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 When Black Hawk, chief of the Sac Indians, 
 broke a treaty with the whites and moved his tribe 
 across the Mississippi into Hlinois, the governor of 
 that State called for volunteers. The young men be- 
 gan to enlist, and one of the first was Abraham Lin- 
 coln. In his own neighborhood there was a consid- 
 erable number of volunteers, but they had no officer 
 to lead them, and they decided to make one. They 
 chose as their captain the most popular one among 
 them — Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 He knew no more than the rest of them about 
 military tactics, but with a natural self-confidence 
 that later carried him through a far greater war he 
 assumed the command, collected his men, and they 
 started on foot for the seat of war. One day as they 
 were marching along, two abreast, they came to a 
 fence with a turnstile which would admit of only 
 one passing through at a time. ITow the commander 
 did not know what words a military officer uses to 
 make his men break ranks. So he shouted : " This 
 company is dissolved for two minutes; it will form 
 in line again on the other side of the fence." 
 
 Tor many days this company marched on. At 
 length it joined the main army, some 2,500 men. 
 But no enemy was to be found. The Indians were 
 wise enough to keep out of the way. Perhaps they 
 had heard of the gallant company from Hlinois, with 
 the tall, black-haired captain who was ready for any 
 emergency, even to marching his men single file 
 through a turnstile. Many of the volunteers grew 
 restless and wanted to go home, and several hundred 
 
 164 
 
Odds and Ends 
 
 of them were discharged. Among those who volun- 
 teered to remain was Captain Lincoln. 
 
 Among the officers in this war was another future 
 President, Zachary Taylor. And there was a gallant 
 young cavalry officer from Mississippi who had mar- 
 ried a daughter of Zachary Taylor, In his bright 
 uniform he sat gracefully on his horse. Whether he 
 noticed the tall, awkward-looking improvised captain 
 from Illinois I cannot say. They may have seen 
 each other, but probably did not meet or converse. 
 And they never met afterwards, but the time came 
 when they heard and knew a very great deal about 
 each other. The name of the young cavalry officer 
 was Jefferson Davis. 
 
 We shall not pretend to give a history of this little 
 war. Our purpose is simply to give an episode in 
 the life of Lincoln which is not widely known. The 
 army made a detour into Wisconsin and there were 
 a few slight battles, but Captain Lincoln did not hap- 
 pen to be present at any of them. He therefore 
 never experienced the exhilaration, the fear, or 
 whatever it may be, of a soldier under fire. 
 
 The war continued but three months. Black 
 Hawk promised to be good — to keep on his own side 
 of the river, and kept his promise. Some time after 
 this Black Hawk made a tour of the East and visited 
 the great cities of the Atlantic slope. When he saw 
 what a vast power the United States was he knew 
 that it would be utter folly for the scattered Indian 
 tribes to make war on such a mighty people. 
 
 Years later when Abraham Lincoln was serving 
 165 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 in Congress he made a humorous speech about his 
 experience in the Black Hawk War. Here are a few 
 words from it: 
 
 " By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know that I 
 am a military hero? Yes, sir, in the days of the 
 Black Hawk War I fought, bled, and came away — 
 I had a good many bloody struggles with the mos- 
 quitoes; and although I never fainted from loss of 
 blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry." 
 
 A Cakbiage Drive in Englaot) 
 
 It is not my purpose to say much about this car- 
 riage drive, but rather to use it to introduce two 
 prominent American citizens — Martin Van Buren 
 and Washington Irving. Mr. Van Buren had been 
 a United States senator and later was elected gov- 
 ernor of New York. He resigned the governorship 
 to enter the Cabinet of President Jackson as secre- 
 tary of state. After he had served in the Cabinet 
 for about two years a position opened to him that he 
 thought he would like better. The American min- 
 ister to England resigned and Van Buren was ap- 
 pointed to fill the place. President Jackson was 
 always very friendly to Van Buren and granted him 
 every favor that was in his power. 
 
 He made this appointment in the summer of 1831, 
 when Congress was not in session. The Senate must 
 pass judgment on such appointments, but if they are 
 made when that body is not in session the one ap- 
 pointed may accept the office and serve till the next 
 
 166 
 
Odds and Ends 
 
 session of Congress, when the Senate must vote on 
 the appointment. 
 
 Mr. Van Buren did not wait for the December 
 meeting of Congress. He accepted the mission and 
 sailed for London, arriving there in September. On 
 reaching the English metropolis he met Washington 
 Irving, the famous American author, whose books 
 he had often read and of whom he had heard a great 
 deal. Irving had been abroad for many years. He 
 had recently come from Spain, where he had finished 
 his " Life of Columbus " and " Conquest of Gra- 
 nada." He now met Mr. Van Buren, and the two 
 became fast friends. He introduced the new minis- 
 ter to the high social life of London. No other 
 American knew the great city so well or was so popu- 
 lar among all classes in England. 
 
 "Washington Irving was born in New York in 
 April, 1783, a few months before General Washing- 
 ton disbanded his army there, and was one of the 
 first to receive his name. At the age of twenty- 
 six he became famous by publishing his humorous 
 " Knickerbocker History of New York," and he was 
 the first American writer to gain a reputation in 
 Europe. 
 
 Irving was at the height of his career at the time 
 he met Van Buren in London. After the two men 
 had spent some weeks in London society they de- 
 cided on a carriage drive to various famous places. 
 Van Buren knew almost nothing of English rural 
 life except what he had learned from Irving's wri- 
 tings. He had read "The Sketch Book" and 
 
 167 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 " Bracebridge Hall," and now it was the joy of 
 his life to visit the scenes therein described with the 
 very author who had described them. They visited 
 Oxford and Stratford, the birthplace of Shakespeare ; 
 Kenilworth and Warwick Castle and Newstead 
 Abbey and many other places famed in song and 
 story. At Stratford they stopped at a little inn 
 called the Red Horse and found there the same 
 obliging little landlady who had been described by 
 Irving in his " Sketch Book." I wonder if there is 
 any boy or girl reading this book who has not read 
 the "Sketch Book" or "Bracebridge Hall?" 
 
 After this delightful drive the two friends re- 
 turned to London and again entered the social life 
 of the great city. But one day in February, 1832, 
 Mr. Van Buren received a bit of news from America 
 which astonished him. He heard that the United 
 States Senate had refused to confirm his appoint- 
 ment as minister to England. He had made enemies 
 in the Senate and they now thought to end his pub- 
 lic career at a stroke; but such things often turn out 
 differently from what is intended. The American 
 people thought the Senate had dealt too harshly with 
 Van Buren, that it only showed a spiteful feeling in 
 rejecting his appointment to London, and they pro- 
 nounced their verdict later. We all know the 
 rest of the story. Van Buren, after a tour on the 
 Continent, returned to America, and before that 
 year — 1832 — had closed he was elected Vice-Presi- 
 dent, and four years later. President of the United 
 States. 
 
 168 
 
Odds and Ends 
 
 Irving also returned to his native land and made 
 his home near Sleepy Hollow on the Hudson. Here 
 he grew old, dying in 1859, and here he was buried. 
 
 A Sad Ending to an Excuesion Paety 
 
 Martin Van Buren, as we have noticed, succeeded 
 Jackson as President of the United States; but he 
 was defeated in 1840 by the candidate of the Whig 
 party, William Henry Harrison. The Whigs were 
 greatly elated over their victory, but their joy was 
 short. Mr. Harrison died exactly a month after his 
 inauguration. John Tyler, who had been elected 
 Vice-President, now became President But we 
 must get to our story. 
 
 It was February 28, 1844. There was a new 
 Government vessel, the Princeton, lying in the Poto- 
 mac below the capital. The captain was Commodore 
 Stockton and he was very proud of his ship. He in- 
 vited about a hundred people to take an excursion 
 with him down the river and among the guests were 
 President Tyler, the members of his Cabinet and 
 their families, and several senators and representa- 
 tives. 
 
 A gay company it was, shouting and laughing as 
 they steamed down the river. There was a great 
 gun on board, called the Peacemaker, throwing a 
 225-pound shell, and this gun was fired several times 
 as the vessel glided through the water. There were 
 on board Mr. Gardiner, of Virginia, and his daugh- 
 ter, to whom President Tyler (now a widower) was 
 
 169 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 engaged to be married; also the aged Mrs. Dolly 
 Madison, whom all America delighted to honor. 
 
 As they were returning up the river, toward even- 
 ing, and after they had partaken of a repast, the 
 guests were invited to come on deck and witness one 
 more salute to be fired from the Peacemaker. All 
 came hurrying up and a crowd was soon gathered 
 about the huge cannon. There was a long stretch of 
 the river below and the people looked to see the ball 
 skim the surface of the water. All was ready; the 
 match was applied. There was a deafening roar. 
 The gun had burst and nearly a dozen people lay 
 dead and many more wounded on the deck. All on 
 the left side of the gun were killed or maimed, as 
 it had exploded on that side. Those on the right 
 and in the rear were knocked senseless, but recov- 
 ered. 
 
 President Tyler had been called away a moment 
 before the explosion and thus he escaped; but Mr. 
 Gardiner, the father of his betrothed, was among the 
 dead. Two members of the Cabinet, Mr. Upshur, 
 secretary of state, and Mr. Gilmer, secretary of the 
 navy, were killed. Senator Benton, who had stood 
 behind the gun, was unconscious for some time, but 
 was not seriously injured. 
 
 Morse and the Telegraph 
 
 One of the most astonishing inventions of modern 
 times is the electric telegraph, and the name of Sam- 
 uel F. B. Morse will ever be connected with it. A 
 
 lYO 
 
Odds and Ends 
 
 hundred years ago it required a month or more for 
 news to cross the Atlantic Ocean ; now it requires but 
 a moment. The overthrow of Napoleon at Water- 
 loo occurred on June 18, 1815, and the fact was not 
 known in America till late in July or the first of 
 August. The crowning of King Edward VII took 
 place on August 9, 1902, and the fact was printed in 
 American newspapers within the same hour. All 
 this from the telegraph. 
 
 Professor Morse was born in Massachusetts, in 
 1Y91. After graduating at Yale in 1810 he went to 
 England to study art. He became famous as an 
 artist and was elected Professor of the Art of Design 
 in the University of the City of New York. He also 
 became interested in electricity, and the idea of the 
 telegraph came to him while crossing the Atlantic in 
 1832. Two or three years later he had telegraph 
 wires in a room in the university and the results 
 were conclusive proof that the invention was success- 
 ful. Morse then applied for a patent and also ap- 
 plied to Congress for a grant of money to build an 
 experimental line from Washington to Baltimore; 
 but nothing was done for him at the time. He then 
 went to Europe and tried to interest foreign govern- 
 ments, but had no success. Morse was now reduced 
 almost to his last dollar and again he came to Con- 
 gress for assistance. He had been granted the privi- 
 lege to set up a line in the lower rooms of the 
 Capitol and the members of Congress could hardly 
 believe their senses when they were enabled to con- 
 verse with one another from the different rooms. 
 
 171 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 And yet when a bill came up to grant the inventor 
 $30,000 there was much opposition, and many were 
 the shafts of ridicule aimed at him. One member 
 moved that an appropriation be made to construct a 
 railroad to the moon. Another declared that all 
 magnetic telegraphs were miserable chimeras, fit for 
 nothing. 
 
 During this debate Morse stood leaning against 
 the railing in great agitation. To a friend he said, 
 placing his hand on his head : " I have an awful head- 
 ache — I have spent seven years and all I had perfect- 
 ing this invention. If the bill fails I am ruined — I 
 have not money enough to pay my board bill." 
 
 The bill was laid over till the last day of the ses- 
 sion and there were more than a hundred other bills 
 to be considered that day. Morse gave up hope and 
 went to his room. Next morning, deeply depressed 
 in spirits, he was about to start for ISTew York when 
 he heard that the bill to grant him $30,000 to estab- 
 lish a telegraph line to Baltimore had passed Con- 
 gress about midnight. We can only imagine the 
 feelings of Professor Morse at this great news. His 
 fortune was made. Now he could show the world 
 what he had done. 
 
 This was in 1843. The line to Baltimore was fin- 
 ished by the next year. When ready for use Pro- 
 fessor Morse asked Miss Ellsworth^, a young daugh- 
 ter of the commissioner of patents, to name the first 
 sentence to be transmitted. She chose a sentence 
 from the Bible, "What hath God wrought!" and 
 who could suggest a more appropriate one? No hu- 
 
 172 
 
Odds and Ends 
 
 man invention seems more the work of the Divine 
 Hand than the telegraph. 
 
 At the time when the line was finished the Demo- 
 cratic convention was in session in Baltimore and 
 the first practical message ever sent by telegraph was 
 the news that James K. Polk had been nominated 
 for the Presidency. 
 
 Everybody was soon convinced that the telegraph 
 was a thing of immeasurable usefulness. Morse be- 
 came the hero of the hour. He had done the world 
 a service that can never be forgotten and his name 
 is placed among the immortals. He lived to be old 
 — lived to see his invention in use in every civilized 
 land, to see the Old and 'New Worlds connected by 
 cable laid on the bottom of the sea. He lived to en- 
 joy the unbounded gratitude of his countrymen and 
 to receive special honors from almost every monarch 
 in Europe. 
 
 The Creole Affair 
 
 The Creole was a slave ship, plying between Nor- 
 folk, Va., and New Orleans. She left Norfolk 
 in November, 1841, with 135 slaves on board. One 
 of them was a mulatto named Madison Washington. 
 He had some time before run away from his master 
 in Virginia, had crossed the Northern States by 
 means of the " Underground Railroad " and taken 
 up his abode in Canada, where the laws of England 
 made him free. 
 
 But Washington was very unhappy in Canada be- 
 cause he had left his wife in slavery. At length he 
 
 173 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 determined to find his way back to Virginia, to res- 
 cue his wife and take her with him to Canada, It 
 was a dangerous thing to attempt, for if he were 
 caught he would certainly be sold to some trader 
 and taken to the far South, from which he could 
 never hope to return. This was usually the punish- 
 ment for a slave who attempted to escape or to aid 
 in the escape of others. Washington knew this, but 
 he was so disconsolate without his life companion 
 that he dared to make the long journey to attempt 
 her rescue. 
 
 His worst fears were realized. He was recognized 
 and seized and sold to the far South. 
 
 The brig Creole was about to start with its human 
 cargo on a long voyage to New Orleans. Madison 
 was one of the slaves on board when the vessel left 
 Norfolk. In deepest dejection he brooded over his 
 bitter fate and thought he would rather die than 
 wear his life out on one of the great plantations, un- 
 der the lash of the overseer, and never see his 
 friends again. Then in desperation he conceived a 
 plot to conspire with some of his fellow slaves to kill 
 the masters of the vessel, to seize it and steer for the 
 coast of Africa. 
 
 They had been some days at sea and were nearing 
 the Bahama Islands. Washington had eighteen of 
 the slaves in his plot and one night, armed with 
 knives and handspikes, the nineteen rose in mutiny, 
 rushed to the cabin where the officers, their wives 
 and children were asleep, and began their murderous 
 work. One of the slave owners was killed and the 
 
 174 
 
Odds and Ends 
 
 captain of the brig was severely wounded, but most 
 of them escaped with little or no injury. 
 
 The blacks soon had control of the vessel, and they 
 told the wounded captain that they would spare him, 
 his wife, and his children, if he would steer for Li- 
 beria, on the coast of Africa. He agreed to do what- 
 ever they asked, but convinced them that there was 
 not enough food and water on board to take them 
 halfway across the ocean. He was then ordered to 
 steer for a British port in the "West Indies. He did 
 so, and a day or two later they landed at the town 
 of Nassau. 
 
 Here they were in the hands of British authorities 
 and on British soil, and a law of England was that 
 any slave who sets foot on British soil is from that 
 moment free. All but the nineteen mutineers were 
 therefore given their freedom, but the nineteen were 
 held for further consideration. The American au- 
 thorities demanded that they be sent to the United 
 States to be tried for murder and mutiny, but the 
 British officials refused to give them up until they 
 could get orders from London. This required some 
 time, and meantime Daniel Webster, who was then 
 secretary of state, wrote to London demanding that 
 the men be given up. 
 
 The British Government considered the matter 
 and decided that, as no treaty between the two na- 
 tions covered this ground, and that, as a slave had 
 right to kill his master to obtain his own freedom, 
 the men should not be given up. Whereupon the 
 nineteen mutineers were also given their liberty. 
 
 175 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 TEXAS AND OREGON 
 
 rriHE United States had grown greatly in extent 
 ■*■ of territory since the close of the Revolution. 
 The greatest single increase came through the Louisi- 
 ana Purchase in 1803. What was then known as 
 Louisiana was many times larger than the State that 
 is now known by that name. It comprised all the 
 States on the west bank of the Mississippi and a few 
 others. 
 
 iN^ext to Louisiana our great accessions of territory 
 (not counting Alaska) were California, which we 
 shall treat in our next chapter, and Texas and Ore- 
 gon, the subject of this chapter. 
 
 Revolution in Texas 
 
 The first white settlers in Texas were Spanish 
 Catholic missionaries, who built missions there 
 about two hundred years ago. Texas was then a 
 part of Mexico and Mexico belonged to Spain. In 
 1824 Mexico set up a republic and won its inde- 
 pendence from Spain. Texas was one of its north- 
 ern provinces. It was then almost uninhabited, ex- 
 cept by Indian tribes. 
 
 176 
 
Texas and Oregon 
 
 The Mexican Government was anxious to have 
 Texas settled and it offered large grants of land al- 
 most for nothing. One of the first to secure a land 
 grant was Moses Austin, an American citizen. But 
 he died before he could carry out his project of 
 planting a colony in Texas. Thereupon his son, 
 Stephen F. Austin, carried out the purpose of his 
 father. He soon had a flourishing colony in the 
 valley of the Brazos River, and the echoes of the 
 settlers' ax were heard in the forest -where they had 
 never been heard before. Stephen F. Austin vt^as a 
 great-hearted, kindly man. It is said that every 
 child in the colony would run to him and climb on 
 his knee as readily as on its father's. He has been 
 called the Father of Texas. The capital of the State 
 bears his name. 
 
 Austin's colony was founded in 1821, and after 
 that other settlers came rapidly, a great many of 
 them from the United States. This alarmed Mex- 
 ico; she feared too many Americans would create a 
 sentiment in favor of seceding from her and joining 
 the United States, and the fear was well founded. 
 
 In the early thirties there was open war between 
 Mexico and Texas. There were two reasons for this. 
 First, because Mexico put Texas under military gov- 
 ernment; second, because Mexico, having freed her 
 slaves, wanted Texas to do so too; but many of the 
 Texans were from our slave States and they refused 
 to do this. 
 
 For several years bands of lawless men of each 
 party traversed the lonely wilderness for hundreds 
 
 177 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 of miles and when they met they fought. Many 
 were their bloody encounters. By 1835 the Texans 
 were in open revolt and the next year they declared 
 their independence and set up the Republic of Texas. 
 Of the sixty men who signed the Declaration of In- 
 dependence fifty-three had been born in the United 
 States. 
 
 Two notable figures now come upon the scene. 
 One is Santa Anna, the President of Mexico, a no- 
 torious character who called himself the " N^apoleon 
 of the West." The other man was Sam Houston, who 
 became the first President of the Republic of Texas. 
 
 In the spring of 1836 there were two events that 
 are still famous in the history of Texas. One was 
 the massacre of the Alamo; the other was the battle 
 of San Jacinto, and they were very different in their 
 results. 
 
 The Alamo was a stone fort near San Antonio that 
 had been built for a mission nearly a hundred years 
 before. One morning in the spring of 1836 the 
 people of the village were surprised by the approach 
 of an army of Mexicans several thousand strong, led 
 by Santa Anna himself, the Napoleon of the West. 
 There was a small army of Texans, not 200 men, 
 who stationed themselves in the Alamo determined 
 to fight to the last. Among them was David Crock- 
 ett, known as " Davie " Crockett. 
 
 Let us turn aside for a moment to notice this re- 
 markable man. He was born in a wretched cabin 
 in Tennessee. His father was a miserable drunkard 
 and was cruel to his family. When Davie was but 
 
 1Y8 
 
Texas and Oregon 
 
 twelve years old his father hired him to a Dutchman 
 to help drive a herd of cattle 400 miles on foot and 
 the little fellow was to make his way back alone as 
 best he could. How he obtained food and crossed 
 rivers I do not know, but a few months later he 
 reached his father's cabin safe and sound. Long 
 before he was of age he left home, plunged deeper 
 into the wilderness and became a famous hunter. 
 He had many a thrilling adventure. During the 
 War of 1812 he served in the Indian campaigns 
 under General Jackson and was one of the most dar- 
 ing soldiers in the army. 
 
 Davie Crockett was a good story teller, was very 
 witty and full of original sayings. He could not 
 read or write, but he was very popular and his 
 friends induced him to be a candidate for the legis- 
 lature. He consented and enjoyed the excitement of 
 the campaign. He said, " When I goes electioneer- 
 ing, I goes fixed for the purpose. I've got a deer- 
 leather suit of clothes with two big pockets. I puts 
 a bottle of whisky in one and a twist of tobacker in 
 the other and starts out." He was elected to the 
 legislature and after serving for a time announced 
 himself for Congress. He was elected to Congress 
 three times, serving six years in all. 
 
 In Congress Davie Crockett attracted much at- 
 tention. He knew nothing about lawmaking, but 
 his original wit and his wild, uncultured ways of 
 the frontier attracted attention and made him many 
 friends. One day when a speaker in the House 
 strayed from his subject Crockett exclaimed that he 
 
 179 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 was " barking up the wrong tree," an expression that 
 we sometimes hear to this day. 
 
 President John Quincy Adams invited Crockett 
 among many others to a formal dinner and here is 
 in part Crockett's description of his experience : 
 
 " I went to dinner and walked all around the long 
 table looking for something that I liked. At last I 
 took my seat beside a fat goose and helped myself to 
 as much of it as I wanted. I hadn't took more'n 
 three bites when I looked away and when I looked 
 back, my plate was gone, goose and all. I seed a man 
 walkin' off with it. I said. Hello, Mister, bring 
 back my goose. After that whenever I looked away, 
 I held on to my plate with my left hand. When we 
 was all done a man came along with a great glass 
 thing. It was stuck full of little glass cups with 
 something in them that looked good. I says. Mister, 
 bring that thing here — let's taste what you got. I 
 found they was mighty sweet and so I took six of 
 them." 
 
 The newspaper stories about how Crockett acted 
 in Washington were too much even for the back- 
 woodsmen who had elected him, and when he stood 
 for a fourth election, he was defeated by a man who 
 had more training in good manners. This was gall- 
 ing to Crockett. He left Tennessee and went to 
 Texas, and we find him at the Alamo. This brings 
 us back to our story. 
 
 When Santa Anna surrounded the Alamo with his 
 army and decided to take it by storm — ^that is, by one 
 grand assault — there were but 188 men in it. They 
 
 180 
 
i 
 
 Texas and Oregon 
 
 fought like demons and slew hundreds of Mexicans, 
 but the odds were too great. At length every Texan 
 but six was slain. These six were taken alive, and 
 among them was Davie Crockett. They were 
 brought before Santa Anna, and he, with a wave of 
 the hand, said, " Kill them, every one of them." 
 
 At this Crockett sprang like a tiger at the throat 
 of Santa Anna, but a dozen swords were thrust into 
 him and he fell dead without a groan. The other 
 five were also dispatched and not a man was left of 
 the brave defenders of the Alamo. 
 
 " Remember the Alamo " 
 
 At this point we must notice another Texan, still 
 more remarkable than Crockett — General Samuel 
 Houston. He was born in Virginia, but his parents 
 moved to the wilds of Tennessee where the boy grew 
 to manhood. Their home was near a tribe of the 
 Cherokee Indians and Sam learned to love them 
 almost better than his own race. Many a day he 
 spent chasing the deer with the Cherokees, or play- 
 ing their games with them. Like Davie Crockett, he 
 served in the war against the Creeks under Jackson, 
 and was in the famous battle of the Horseshoe. 
 Here he was wounded by an arrow which stuck in 
 his thigh. He asked a comrade to pull it out, but 
 the man, after trying, declared that he could not. 
 " Draw it out or I will strike you with my sword," 
 cried Houston. The man did so, tearing the flesh 
 with the barb. General Jackson then ordered Hous- 
 
 181 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 ton to the rear, but he refused to go. He rushed to 
 the front, to the thickest of the fight, where, later 
 in the day, he was struck down by two bullets in 
 the shoulder. He was carried from the field and for 
 many weeks his life was despaired of. 
 
 At the age of twenty-five Houston went to ^Rash- 
 ville to study law. In 1823 he was elected to Con- 
 gress, and after serving two terms, he was elected 
 Governor of Tennessee. 
 
 While governor the old inclinations of his boy- 
 hood gained control of him. He resigned the ofiice 
 and fled to the Cherokee Indians. For several years 
 he lived with the Cherokees, wearing their garb and 
 entering into all their ways of life. In 1832 he 
 left them and went to Texas. This was really the 
 beginning of his career. He was a signer of the Dec- 
 laration of Independence of Texas, and was then 
 chosen commander of her armies. He won the battle 
 that gave Texas her freedom, became the first Presi- 
 dent of the Republic of Texas and, after her ad- 
 mission into our Union, was one of the first to be 
 sent to the United States Senate from the new State. 
 Here he served for many years and when he retired 
 in his old age to his adopted State, he was again 
 elected governor. Then came the Civil War. Gov- 
 ernor Houston was opposed to the secession of the 
 State, but Texas seceded in spite of him. He was 
 then deposed from his office and he retired to his 
 home in Walker County, where he died in the same 
 month that witnessed the fall of Vicksburg and the 
 battle of Gettysburg— July, 1863. 
 
 182 
 
Texas and Oregon 
 
 " Eemember the Alamo " was the cry of the Tex- 
 ans after they heard of that brutal massacre. Hous- 
 ton had a small army, probably a few more than 
 seven hundred men. Santa Anna's numbered at 
 least eighteen hundred. But a few weeks after the 
 Alamo the two armies came together and the most 
 important battle ever fought in Texas was the re- 
 sult — the battle of San Jacinto. 
 
 It was the morning of April 21. Santa Anna had 
 led his army across the Buffalo Bayou near its junc- 
 tion with the San Jacinto River and here he came 
 face to face with the army of Houston. The Texans 
 had but two small pieces of artillery called the 
 " Twin Sisters." A volley from these caused Santa 
 Anna to fall back out of sight to form in battle line. 
 Houston now sent Deaf Smith, a celebrated Texas 
 spy, with two or three others to destroy a bridge 
 over the bayou over which the Mexicans had come. 
 This done, the Mexicans had no means of escape in 
 case of defeat. Houston then led his men in three 
 columns silently toward the enemy. When within 
 seventy yards the Texans shouted their battle cry, 
 " Remember the Alamo ! " and made an impetuous 
 dash toward the unprepared Mexicans. The latter 
 were soon in utter confusion. They started to run 
 to cross the bridge, but found it burned to ashes. 
 Many then leaped into the bayou and were drowned. 
 Many were taken captive, some scattered and hid in 
 the prairie. 
 
 Among the last was Santa Anna himself and next 
 morning he was found lying in the grass with a blan- 
 
 183 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 ket over his head, like an ostrich that hides its head 
 in the sand. When taken to General Houston he 
 said: 
 
 " I am General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, a 
 prisoner of war at your disposal. You can afford 
 to be generous; you have conquered the Napoleon 
 of the West." 
 
 General Houston at first intended to put his cap- 
 tive to death on account of his treatment of the 
 Texans at the Alamo; but it was decided that the 
 Mexican President could have his freedom on the con- 
 dition that he would do three things — restore all 
 captured property, order all Mexican troops from the 
 soil of Texas, and promise never again to take up 
 arms against its people. Santa Anna did this and 
 Texas was free. The Republic of Texas was estab- 
 lished as an independent nation and was recognized 
 by the United States and several European countries. 
 General Sam Houston became its first President. 
 
 Texas Joins the Sisteehood 
 
 During the next nine years Texas was an independ- 
 ent republic, though the war with Mexico dragged 
 on in an irregular way. Santa Anna could not, or 
 at least did not, fully keep his promise. Meantime 
 there was a great deal of planning and intriguing 
 going on both in Texas and in the United States 
 with the view of making Texas one of the States of 
 our Union. It would be needless to give here the 
 history of this intriguing. 
 
 184: 
 
Texas and Oregon 
 
 A great many people of the North opposed the an- 
 nexation of Texas, because it was sure to become a 
 slave State and they were not in favor of increasing 
 the number of slave States. But President Tyler was 
 very much in favor of annexation, as also was his 
 secretary of state, Mr. Upshur. But while the plans 
 were maturing Mr. Upshur was killed, as we have 
 noticed, by the bursting of the great gun on the 
 Princeton. The next secretary of state was a man of 
 world-wide fame — John C. Calhoun of South Caro- 
 lina. He was also greatly in favor of annexation 
 and in April, 1844, a secret treaty of annexation was 
 made with Texas. This was laid before the Senate, 
 but that body rejected it, and the Texas question 
 was left over and became the chief issue in the presi- 
 dential campaign of 1844. 
 
 In that campaign James K. Polk of Tennessee 
 was nominated for President by the Democrats, who 
 favored annexation; and Henry Clay by the Whigs, 
 who opposed it. Mr. Clay might have been elected 
 had it not been for his " Alabama Letter." In the 
 midst of the campaign, when his party was talking 
 against annexation. Clay wrote a letter to a friend in 
 Alabama saying that he was not specially opposed to 
 annexing Texas and that if the matter could be taken 
 out of politics he would be glad to see Texas come 
 into the Union. This letter, which was printed in 
 the newspapers, was not in agreement with Whig 
 doctrine and it cost Mr. Clay many votes and per- 
 haps the Presidency itself. 
 
 The campaign of 1844 was an exciting one. It 
 185 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 was the last fight for the great office by Henry Clay, 
 the gallant " Harry of the West/' the " Mill boy of 
 the slashes." And he lost this time as he had lost 
 before. Polk was elected President and Texas, the 
 " Lone Star State," became a member of the Union 
 within the following year. 
 
 Texas is by far the largest State in the Union, a 
 grand domain, an empire in extent But the trou- 
 bles did not cease with annexation. There was a 
 boundary dispute with Mexico that brought on war 
 before it was settled. This we shall notice in our 
 next chapter. 
 
 Oeegon in the Early Days 
 
 In 1845 the term Oregon had a much more ex- 
 tensive meaning than now. It included what is now 
 the great States of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and 
 a large part of southwestern Canada. 
 
 From time immemorial this vast country had been 
 occupied only by Indian tribes. But the time was 
 now come when it was to become the home of civilized 
 man. In 1792 Captain Robert Gray, in the ship 
 Columbia, first discovered the mouth of the great 
 river of the Northwest, sailed up it for thirty miles 
 and gave it the name of his ship, the Columbia. 
 
 When Thomas Jefferson became President he sent 
 out the Lewis and Clark expedition to cross the con- 
 tinent to the Pacific Northwest. With about thirty 
 men they started on their tour in the spring of 1804 
 and after a year and a half of travel through the 
 
 186 
 
Texas and Oregon 
 
 unbroken wilderness, reached the Pacific Coast. 
 Here they spent a winter in log cabins of their own 
 building, after which they returned to the United 
 States, 
 
 Both the United States and England claimed the 
 great Oregon country. The claim of the United 
 States was based chiefly on the Lewis and Clark 
 expedition and the earlier discovery of the Columbia 
 by Captain Gray. But this was not enough. There 
 must be actual occupation of the country in order to 
 hold it. And this began with the fur trader. Mr. 
 Lewis in his published journal had shown what 
 great opportunities there were for the fur trade in 
 the Northwest. One of the first to respond was John 
 Jacob Astor, a merchant prince of New York who 
 was known in every seaport of the world. He sent 
 out a party who founded a town at the mouth of the 
 Columbia and named it Astoria. Soon after this a 
 company of men went up the Columbia to found 
 another trading post and at the place where the 
 Snake River flows into it they found a stake driven 
 into the ground and bound around it was a paper 
 with this statement : " Know hereby that this coun- 
 try is claimed by Great Britain." This reminds us 
 of the plates buried along the Ohio by the French 
 before the French and Indian War, as we have no- 
 ticed in a preceding chapter. 
 
 When the War of 1812 came the Hudson Bay 
 Company, a great English fur-trading company, got 
 possession of Astoria and for some years the whole 
 Columbia Valley was under British control. But 
 
 187 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 the final ownership of the country was not yet de- 
 termined. Accordingly, a " joint occupation " was 
 arranged between the United States and England in 
 1818. By this, Americans or Englishmen could set- 
 tle or trade in Oregon as they liked. This plan was 
 continued for many years, hut the time came when 
 the ownership of the country must be settled. 
 
 After the fur trader, the next class of white men 
 to go to Oregon were the missionaries. A pretty 
 story is related about the beginnings of mission work 
 in Oregon. Four Indians were sent by one of the 
 Oregon tribes to far-away St. Louis to see General 
 Clark whom they remembered as having visited their 
 country (in the Lewis and Clark expedition) to ask 
 for " the white man's book of heaven," as they called 
 the Bible. They had heard of the Bible and the 
 white man's religion from the fur traders. Two of 
 these Indians died in St. Louis and one of the re- 
 maining two died on the way back. 
 
 This pathetic story was published in many re- 
 ligious papers and it soon began to bear fruit. The 
 various churches began to send missionaries. The 
 best known of these is Marcus Whitman, who, after 
 spending some time in Oregon, returned to the East 
 for the purpose of awakening a greater interest in 
 the work. He went back again with a number of 
 helpers and ere long there were several flourishing 
 Indian missions in Oregon. The Indians were 
 taught religion and also to read and write, to till the 
 soil and to raise stock. 
 
 The older Indians as well as the children were 
 188 
 
Texas and Oregon 
 
 t3^ 
 
 gathered in classes and taught small portions of the 
 Bible that had been translated into their language 
 and printed on a little printing press. 
 
 The next class to go to Oregon was the permanent 
 settlers. Great interest in that distant land had been 
 spreading for some time and in 1838 an emigration 
 society was formed in Massachusetts. Meetings 
 were held in towns and cities to enlist settlers and 
 many were found ready to go. In 1843 what was 
 kno^vn as " The great migration " took place. 
 
 In one company that left Missouri there were a 
 thousand people who drove before them five thou- 
 sand animals. At night they turned the animals 
 loose to graze and made a circular inelosure with 
 the wagons. In this circle they pitched their tents 
 and built fires. After supper they retired to the 
 tents and wagons for the night, a few men remain- 
 ing on guard all night. At four in the morning the 
 sharp crack of a rifle announced that sleeping time 
 was over. In a few minutes all were up preparing 
 breakfast and sixty men would start out to drive in 
 the horses and cattle, some of which had strayed 
 perhaps two miles. 
 
 Soon the day's journey was begun and, but for a 
 short rest at noon, they jogged along till the shades 
 of evening brought them again to the camp fire. It 
 took more than a hundred days for this company to 
 reach their new home on the Pacific Coast. 
 
 The saddest tragedy in the history of Oregon re- 
 mains to be told. There is no nobler figure in the 
 early history of that country than Marcus Whitman, 
 
 189 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 the missionary. He was also a physician and in 1847 
 when the measles broke out among the children he 
 attended them, white and Indian children alike, with 
 the same self-sacrifice that he had always shown. 
 The white children recovered rapidly while many 
 of the Indian children died. This led the Indians 
 to believe that Whitman was a sorcerer and was 
 causing their children to die. They conspired to 
 kill him. One day they seized him, his faithful 
 wife and seven other persons and put them to death 
 with horrible tortures. These superstitious red men 
 did not know that they were murdering their best 
 friend. The tribe that committed the deed was made 
 to suffer severely at the hands of the white settlers. 
 
 " FlFTY-FOUB FOKTY OR FlQHT " 
 
 Oregon extended as far northward as the line of 
 fifty-four degrees and forty minutes north latitude, 
 to the boundary of Alaska, which belonged to Rus- 
 sia. Several times the Americans offered to settle 
 the boundary line at forty-nine degrees, the same as 
 the northern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase. 
 But England refused and insisted on the Columbia 
 River as the boundary. 
 
 The years passed and the country began to fill up 
 with settlers, as we have noticed. The settlers were 
 nearly all Americans and they cried loudly for the 
 protection of their Government. 
 
 Such was the condition at the opening of the pres- 
 idential compaign of 1844. Now it was thought that 
 
 190 
 
Texas and Oregon 
 
 as the country was filling up with Americans and as 
 England had refused to accept the line of forty-nine, 
 she should not have any of the Oregon country and 
 that the United States should claim it all. The 
 Democrats, who had nominated Mr. Polk, thereupon 
 made a campaign cry, " Fifty-four forty or fight," 
 which meant that we should fight England unless 
 she left to us all of Oregon, to fifty-four forty. 
 
 Mr. Polk was elected, but whether that campaign 
 cry had much to do with the result or not is not 
 known. At any rate, when Polk became President 
 he gave up the hope of making the line fifty-four 
 forty because England refused to yield. Nothing 
 less than a war would have secured the whole country 
 for either nation, and neither England nor the 
 United States wished to go to war on account of 
 Oregon. Indeed, America had good reasons for not 
 going into a war with England at that time, for a 
 war was brewing on the south, with Mexico. 
 
 Accordingly, the two nations agreed to divide the 
 Oregon country at forty-nine, each taking about 
 half. Our portion, since divided into three great 
 states — Oregon, Washington, and Idaho — is a region 
 of wonderful possibilities. It is divided north and 
 south by the Cascade Mountains, with such grand 
 peaks as Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams ; and east and 
 west by the majestic Columbia River. For fruit 
 and grain raising and for timber this great region 
 is difficult to parallel. 
 
 191 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 THE MEXICAN WAR AND CALIFORNIA 
 
 THE American people love peace better than war 
 and it is seldom that we engage in war. The 
 only foreign war we had between that with England 
 in 1812 and our war with Spain in 1898 was the 
 Mexican War, which began in the spring of 1846 
 and continued for a little more than a year. The 
 war came on account of a boundary dispute between 
 Texas and Mexico. The Americans won all the bat- 
 tles and Texas gained her point in making her 
 southern boundary the Rio Grande River. 
 
 But the chief result of the war was the acquiring 
 of California from Mexico by the United States. 
 California, like Oregon, had a larger meaning than 
 it has now. It included the present State of that 
 name and also Arizona, Nevada and parts of Utah 
 and iN'ew Mexico. The events of the Mexican War 
 cluster about the names of two men — Zachary Taylor 
 and Winfield Scott — and we shall treat it by giving 
 a short biography of each. 
 
 Zachary Taylor 
 
 One of the heroes of the Mexican War, afterwards 
 President of the United States, was Zachary Tay- 
 
 192 
 
Mexican News. 
 
The Mexican War and California 
 
 lor. He was born in Virginia in 1784. His father, 
 who had been a soldier in the Revolution, moved with 
 his family to Kentucky when the boy was but one 
 year old. This was in the early days when nearly 
 all of Kentucky was a dense wilderness and the 
 farm on which Mr. Taylor settled had to be cleared 
 of timbers before it could be used for raising crops. 
 It was in Jefferson County near the Ohio River and 
 here the boy Zachary grew to manhood, laboring on 
 the farm in summer or hunting wild game in the 
 forest and attending school sometimes a month or 
 two in winter. To this outdoor life he attributed 
 his splendid robust health when he became a man. 
 
 There was a famous Indian hunter along the Ohio 
 named Lewis Wetzel, who could load his gun while 
 running. He was known far and near among the 
 Indians as a man who could shoot while his gun was 
 empty. One day not a great way from where the 
 Taylors lived Wetzel was pursued by four Indians 
 and he shot them all, one at a time, loading his 
 gun while running. It was said that a number of 
 young pioneers, including Zachary Taylor, then 
 engaged Wetzel to teach them to load a gun while 
 running. 
 
 When Zachary Taylor was twenty-four years old 
 he left the farm and entered the army. He was sent 
 to iN'ew Orleans where he took the yellow fever but 
 recovered with long and careful nursing. He served 
 through the War of 1812 and attracted wide at- 
 tention for defending a fort on the Wabash River 
 in Indiana against an Indian attack. Taylor had 
 
 193 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 fewer than fifty men and the Indians, several hun- 
 dred in number, stormed his little wooden fort for 
 seven hours, hut were driven off. 
 
 Many were the adventures of General Taylor dur- 
 ing the long years he spent with the army, but we 
 cannot recount them here. We must hasten on to 
 the Mexican War. 
 
 When this war was seen to be coming Taylor was 
 sent to southern Texas with a small army, and after 
 winning two trifling battles here and capturing Mat- 
 amoros at the mouth of the Rio Grande, he moved 
 up that great river to Monterey. Monterey was one 
 of the strongest fortified cities in Mexico. The cita- 
 del and the bishop's palace and many of the stone 
 houses were manned with troops. It was September, 
 1846, when General Taylor opened his batteries on 
 the city, though he knew it would require a bloody 
 siege to capture it. 
 
 A large majority of Taylor's men were volunteers, 
 men of other occupations, who had never been in bat- 
 tle. The first hour of the first battle must be a fear- 
 ful time for any man. 
 
 One man, afterwards describing his thrilling ex- 
 perience at Monterey, declared that when first the 
 bullets came whizzing around him his impulse was 
 to run away as fast as he could, but seeing that no 
 others were running he stood still almost paralyzed 
 with fear. Then a man was shot down by his side. 
 He sprang to his comrade's assistance, but seeing 
 that the man was killed and beyond the reach of aid, 
 his next impulse was to avenge his death. All fear 
 
 194 
 
The Mexican War and California 
 
 left him in an instant. He seized his musket, rushed 
 to the front and fought like a veteran. 
 
 General Taylor was a man of common habits. He 
 refused to wear the uniform and lived among his 
 men faring as they fared. He was rugged and pow- 
 erful, kind-hearted and humane, but fearless in bat- 
 tle. He often rode along the fighting lines where 
 the bullets whizzed around like hail. He was nick- 
 named " Rough and Ready." His war horse was 
 a splendid gray called " Old Whitey." At Monterey 
 as he was riding along the line some one shouted, 
 " Silence ! here comes old Zach, hurrah for old Zach ! 
 Three cheers for old Rough and Ready," and three 
 tremendous cheers rent the air. 
 
 Monterey was soon taken and Zachary Taylor was 
 soon known throughout the United States as one of 
 the great heroes of modern times. 
 
 Here let us relate an incident of a young man not 
 yet known to the world, a young man who was to play 
 a great part in a greater war — U. S. Grant. A reg- 
 iment was near the heart of the city fighting des- 
 perately when it was discovered that they were run- 
 ning short of powder. The officer in command 
 wished some one to go back and report the fact to 
 General Taylor, but so dangerous was the task that 
 he did not command any one to go. He called for 
 a volunteer and Grant volunteered. On one side of 
 the street through which he must pass were hun- 
 dreds of Mexicans with muskets. Grant evaded 
 them by hanging to one side of his horse. He threw 
 one arm over the horse's neck and with one foot on 
 
 195 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 the cantle of the saddle he swung his body down on 
 the horse's side while the horse ran at its highest 
 speed. The daring young soldier performed his 
 task and came out without a scratch. 
 
 'Not long after the capture of Monterey General 
 Taylor heard news from Washington that made him 
 very unhappy. He was informed that he must give 
 up two thirds of his army to General Winfield Scott, 
 who was to lead an army into Mexico by way of Vera 
 Cruz. Taylor yielded to his superiors like a true pa- 
 triot ; but it was a bitter medicine to take. Here he 
 was left in the heart of a hostile country with only 
 a fraction of his former army; but strange to say, 
 his greatest victory was yet before him. 
 
 ISTow again we meet Santa Anna, the one we met 
 ten years ago at the Alamo and San Jacinto. He 
 was again President of Mexico and when he heard 
 that Taylor was left in such a weakened condition, 
 he collected an army of 20,000 Mexicans and went 
 against him. The two armies met at Buena Vista, 
 among the mountains. Taylor's army was only one 
 fifth as large as the Mexican army. 
 
 As the Mexican thousands were defiling around 
 the base of the mountain, their bayonets gleaming in 
 the sun, a horseman was seen galloping from their 
 ranks bearing a white flag. He rode up to General 
 Taylor and handed him a letter. It was a summons 
 from Santa Anna to surrender his little army and 
 save it from being cut to pieces and annihilated. 
 The answer was in substance, " General Taylor never 
 surrenders." This was on Washington's birthday, 
 
 196 
 
The Mexican War and California 
 
 1847. Next day the battle of Buena Vista was 
 fought. 
 
 Nobly and valiantly the little army fought from 
 morning till night. At times it seemed that they 
 would be overwhelmed by the Mexican legions, but 
 in the end they won the day and held their ground. 
 The Mexicans decamped during the night, leaving 
 their dead and wounded. 
 
 For some hours in the afternoon General Taylor 
 occupied a commanding height in view of both 
 armies. With his right leg thrown over the pommel 
 of the saddle he sat on Old Whitey and watched 
 every movement, his face changing between hope and 
 fear as the fortunes of his army seemed to waver 
 between defeat and victory. When he saw that the 
 day was won tears of joy rolled down his cheeks. 
 This was Taylor's last battle of the war. But his 
 fortune was made and within two years the Ameri- 
 can people called him to the highest office within 
 their power to bestow. 
 
 Zachary Taylor was President but sixteen months 
 when death claimed him, and as the funeral proces- 
 sion, with its nodding plumes and mournful music, 
 passed through the streets of Washington, Old 
 Whitey was led behind the bier bearing an empty 
 saddle. 
 
 WiNFiELD Scott 
 
 Like Zachary Taylor, Winj&eld Scott was bom in 
 Virginia and was two years his junior. As a youth 
 he studied law, but later decided to be a soldier. 
 
 197 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 We have seen Scott in the War of 1812, and shall 
 here relate one other incident of that conflict. 
 
 It was at the battle of Queenstown Heights where 
 the American army was defeated. General Scott 
 wished to surrender his force. They were crouched 
 under a cliff near the Niagara River. Scott sent 
 several men, one after another, with a flag of truce 
 to the British commander, but all were shot or cap- 
 tured by the Indians. He then determined to go 
 himself. Tying a white handkerchief to his sword, 
 he took two men and crept up among the crags. 
 Presently two big Indians, after firing several shots 
 at them, ran and sprang upon them, Scott tried to 
 explain to them the protection of a flag of truce, but 
 they refused to understand and drew their knives. 
 At that moment a British officer rushed forward and 
 prevented a tragedy. 
 
 Scott was taken to a village as a prisoner of war 
 and confined in an inn. In a little while a message 
 came to the sentinel that some one at the outer door 
 wanted to see the " Tall American." Scott was a tall 
 man and it was known that the message was for him. 
 He went to the door and there stood the same two 
 Indians that had tried to assassinate him while un- 
 der the crags carrying a flag of truce. One of the 
 Indians, a huge chief, asked the " Tall American " 
 how many wounds he had received when under the 
 crags, holding up his fingers to show how many 
 times they had shot at him. He seized Scott by the 
 arm to turn him around to look for shot marks. 
 Scott was very indignant at such liberty and threw 
 
 198 
 
The Mexican War and California 
 
 the savage off with great force, saying, " Off, you 
 villain ! You fired like a squaw ! " 
 
 The Indians then drew their weapons and cried, 
 " We kill you now." This is what they had come 
 to do. Scott saw his peril, and seeing some prisoners' 
 swords stacked near by, he seized one and held it 
 ready to thrust. He knew he could kill one of the 
 Indians, but the other would then doubtless kill him. 
 The Indians hesitated, all three standing in the most 
 tragic attitude with upraised weapons, when a British 
 officer came by. Understanding the situation at a 
 glance, he cried, " The guards ! " and seizing one 
 Indian by the arm, pointed his pistol at the other. 
 The Indians then turned on him, and Scott, deter- 
 mined to save the officer's life as well as his own, was 
 about to thrust his sword when the guards, who had 
 heard the call, rushed up with fixed bayonets. The 
 Indians were taken away and Scott was molested no 
 more. He was taken to ISTova Scotia as a prisoner, 
 but was later exchanged and did splendid service 
 again before the close of the war. 
 
 We must now hasten on to the Mexican War. 
 Nearly forty years Scott had been in the army when 
 this war broke out. His rank was higher than that 
 of Taylor, and after Taylor had taken Monterey 
 Scott came down and took a large part of his army, 
 as we have noticed. He gathered an army of 12,000 
 and sailed for Vera Cruz. 
 
 Reaching the harbor early in March, 184Y, he 
 began to bombard the city. For two weeks the roar 
 of artillery day and night, the screaming of shells 
 
 199 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 through the air and their bursting on the streets of 
 the city, made a scene of terrific grandeur. On 
 March 29th the invading army marched through the 
 streets and the American flag waved over the public 
 buildings of Vera Cruz. 
 
 The next thing was to march overland to the City 
 of Mexico, the ancient city of the Montezumas, to 
 march over the winding roads among the towering 
 mountains by the same route taken by Cortez on a 
 similar errand three hundred years before. But be- 
 fore Scott reached the summit of the mountains, he 
 met the enemy and fought a terrific battle. Santa 
 Anna, after his defeat by Taylor at Buena Vista, 
 had gathered his broken army and now stood in the 
 way to dispute the march of General Scott. The two 
 armies met under the shadow of a lofty hill called 
 Cerro Gordo. 
 
 Now occurred one of the great battles of the war — 
 the battle of Cerro Gordo. The result was, as usual, 
 an American victory. Santa Anna lost nearly half 
 his army, most of whom were made captives. Santa 
 Anna himself was almost captured. He started to 
 flee in his carriage, but it was overturned, and he 
 escaped astride a mule, leaving in the carriage his 
 wooden leg, for he had lost a leg in battle some years 
 before. 
 
 Scott swept on up the mountains, capturing every 
 town in the way, and in midsummer reached the sum- 
 mit of the Cordilleras, 8,000 feet above the sea. 
 Then began the descent toward the City of Mexico. 
 In August several hard battles were fought, and in 
 
 200 
 
The Mexican War and California 
 
 September the ancient city of the Montezumas yield- 
 ed to the conquerors from the North. The war was 
 over and Mexico lay prostrate before the armies of 
 the United States. 
 
 The Golden State 
 
 One of the greatest of our forty-six States is Cali- 
 fornia, called the Golden State. At the time of this 
 war it was an almost uninhabited region and belonged 
 to Mexico. Oregon, as we have seen, had been partly 
 settled before our second war with England — at a 
 time when California was as little known as central 
 Africa. But the time came when California, in a 
 race with Oregon, won first honors, and never since 
 then has Oregon overtaken her southern sister. 
 
 In 1846 California was a wild region covered by 
 gigantic forests, with a lonely settlement here and 
 there. The two most prominent men in California 
 were John C. Fremont and John A. Sutter. Fre- 
 mont was destined to become far more prominent in 
 the future. Ten years later he became the candidate 
 of a great political party for President of the United 
 States. Now he was an explorer of the far West. 
 He had led a small band of sixty men (with 200 
 horses) over the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific 
 Coast. 
 
 Sutter was a Swiss by birth, and had been in the 
 continental wars of Europe. Receiving from the 
 Mexican Government a large tract of land in Cali- 
 fornia, he built a fort on it and called it by his own 
 
 201 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 name — Sutter's Fort. He had several hundred men 
 in his employ, many being Indians, and owned thou- 
 sands of head of sheep and cattle. When Fremont 
 came to the Sacramento Valley he was entertained 
 at Sutter's Fort. He later decided to make a tour 
 of the North, to traverse the dense wilderness to 
 Oregon. 
 
 Fremont and his party set out from California 
 to Oregon in the spring of 1846. After many days' 
 traveling they reached the shore of Great Klamath 
 Lake, and here in the region of gigantic forests and 
 snow-clad mountains they had an experience that 
 none of them ever forgot. They saw two white men 
 approaching them on horseback. The men proved 
 to be agents of the United States Government and 
 had traveled thousands of miles to bear dispatches 
 to Fremont and letters from his family, whom he 
 had not seen for a year. 
 
 That night as Fremont remained awake to re-read 
 his letters, while his men all lay asleep around their 
 camp fires, he heard a strange commotion among their 
 horses near by. He went to them, but the animals 
 grew quiet and he went back, finished his reading 
 and fell asleep. An hour or two later one of the 
 party. Kit Carson, the famous explorer and mountain 
 climber, was awakened by a gurgling sound and a 
 groan. It was the groan of a man receiving a toma- 
 hawk in his brain. There was no mistake. The 
 Indians were upon them, how many they never knew. 
 The men were all awake in an instant. They sprang 
 to their feet and seized their weapons. The fight 
 
 202 
 
The Mexican War and California 
 
 was short and bloody. Several of the Indians were 
 killed, the rest driven off. Three or four of the 
 white men were killed. 
 
 A few days later Kit Carson was saved from death 
 by the voluntary act of a horse. It was Fremont's 
 noble charger named El Toro del Sacramento. An 
 Indian sprang from the bushes but ten feet away 
 and drew his bow on Carson, who leveled his gun and 
 pulled the trigger. The gun missed fire. Fremont 
 was at hand with his horse. He touched the animal 
 and it seemed to understand. It sprang upon the 
 savage and bore him to the ground, and the hatchet 
 of a Delaware Indian, who belonged to Fremont's 
 party, did the rest. 
 
 Before Fremont had gone far into Oregon he was 
 urged to return to California to protect the American 
 settlers there, as the Mexicans had grown hostile. 
 He turned back and in a month all northern Cali- 
 fornia was under his control. Southern California 
 was also soon under American control. From New 
 Mexico came General Stephen W. Kearny, sent by 
 the United States to carry the flag to California, and 
 from the sea came Commodore Stockton in a war 
 vessel. The whole land, from the crest of the Rock- 
 ies to the waves of the Pacific, with little fight- 
 ing or bloodshed, fell into the hands of the United 
 States. 
 
 The secret object of the war was to secure the Cali- 
 fornia country for the United States, and this object 
 was now gained. We are all proud of California, 
 grand, fertile, beautiful land of perpetual spring that 
 
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A Guide to American History 
 
 it is; but few Americans are proud of the way in 
 which we secured it. 
 
 A few months after Scott entered the Mexican 
 capital with his army, a treaty of peace was made 
 between the two countries. Mexico received the sum 
 of $15,000,000 and the United States received the 
 whole California country. This was afterwards di- 
 vided into several States and Territories. 
 
 But the history of California had only begun. 
 Mexico discovered too late that the land she had 
 ceded was a land of gold. In the employ of John A. 
 Sutter was a man named James W. Marshall. One 
 day as they were digging a mill race on a branch of 
 the American River, near the base of the Sierra 
 Nevada Mountains, Marshall found little shining 
 particles in the water that proved to be gold. The 
 news soon spread and men in all walks of life left 
 their occupations and hastened to the gold fields. 
 Ships from every country were headed for the Pacific 
 Coast. From the eastern States some came by way 
 of Panama and the sea ; others crossed the plains and 
 the Rocky Mountains to the land of gold. 
 
 Thousands of men were soon searching the valleys 
 and the mountains for the hidden treasure. Some 
 gained fortunes, others met only disappointment, and 
 returned home broken in health, or found a lonely 
 grave in the wilderness. California grew in popula- 
 tion as no other country had done, and within two 
 years it entered the Union as a State. 
 
 204 
 
CHAPTEE XV 
 A BATCH OF BIOGRAPHIES 
 
 A GREAT writer had said that history is noth- 
 -^^^ ing more than an aggregation of biographies, 
 and there is much truth in the saying. No one can 
 understand history without a knowledge of the chief 
 figures in public life, their motives and achievements. 
 The lives of the greatest characters in our history — 
 such as Washington, Franklin, Webster and Lincoln 
 — are well known to every reader, or may easily be 
 procured from any library. But there are many 
 who may not have played a leading part in the great 
 movements of history, but whose careers were none 
 the less important and interesting. It is not so easy 
 for the reader to procure biographies of this class. 
 We, therefore, devote this chapter to a notice of a few 
 of them, beginning with two notable foreigners. 
 
 Jenny Lind 
 
 One of the memorable incidents of the year 1850 
 was the coming to America of Jenny Lind, the 
 " Swedish Nightingale," or the " Queen of Song," 
 as she was often called. 
 
 Jenny Lind was bom at Stockholm, Sweden, in 
 205 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 1820. Her parents were very poor. In fact her 
 father was not very industrious and her mother was 
 obliged to earn most of the living by teaching. 
 
 Jenny was a lovable child, with sparkling blue 
 eyes and yellow wavy hair, though she was not con- 
 sidered beautiful. She was a singer almost from in- 
 fancy, and when at play she sang with the gayety of 
 a bird. Long afterwards she said of her childhood: 
 " I sang with every step I took and with every jump 
 my feet made." She had a pet cat with a blue rib- 
 bon around its neck, and she sang to the cat hour 
 after hour. 
 
 One day as she sat singing to her cat a lady from 
 the Royal Opera House was passing by and heard 
 the sweet, birdlike voice from the widow of their 
 humble cottage. She was struck with the marvelous 
 sweetness of the child-voice, the most wonderful she 
 had ever heard. She made the acquaintance of the 
 family, and said to Mrs. Lind that her daughter 
 should by all means be educated for the stage. 
 
 Mrs. Lind, however, had a prejudice against the 
 stage and would not give her consent. But it was 
 afterwards arranged that Jenny be educated at the 
 expense of the Government. After several years of 
 hard study and severe training, she made her dehui 
 at the Royal Opera, at Stockholm, as a public singer. 
 It was March 7, 1838, and all her life thereafter 
 she held this date in sacred memory. She was timid 
 and by no means sure of success when she went before 
 the great audience that assembled to hear her, but 
 after the first note all fear was gone. She knew her 
 
 206 
 
A Batch of Biographies 
 
 power. Years afterwards she said ; " I got up that 
 morning one creature; I went to bed another crea- 
 ture. I had found my power." The people were wild 
 with enthusiasm over her wonderful voice, and her 
 fame soon spread to foreign lands. In the great 
 cities of Europe, Berlin, Vienna, London, she was 
 called to sing and the crowds that gathered blocked 
 the streets for many squares. No greater reception 
 could have been given a queen. 
 
 Not only was Jenny Lind the greatest singer of 
 her age; she was also a woman of the noblest and 
 purest type. It was said that she had the manners 
 of a princess, the simplicity of a child, and the good- 
 ness of an angel. She earned vast sums of money 
 and gave much more than half of it to the poor. She 
 was a devout Lutheran, and her religion was deep as 
 life itself. She declared that she took more pleasure 
 in giving her money to the needy than in receiving 
 the applause of the multitudes. Mendelssohn, the 
 great composer, declared that he had never met in 
 his life so noble, so true and real an art nature as 
 Jenny Lind. Hans Christian Andersen, the famous 
 fable writer, said that through Jenny Lind he first 
 became sensible to the holiness of art. 
 
 The fame of this great singer spread to America 
 and Mr. P. T. Bamum secured her services for a 
 tour of the United States. Bamum was noted for 
 his humbugs, but in this instance he did a true ser- 
 vice for the American people. Vast crowds of people 
 Jined the streets of New York city to greet the won- 
 derful singer when she first landed. The tickets for 
 
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A Guide to American History 
 
 the first concert were sold at auction, and some of 
 them brought more than $600. Jenny's share of the 
 first concert amounted to $10,000, and she gave 
 every dollar of it to the charities of the city. 
 
 As she proceeded from city to city the people gath- 
 ered in uncounted thousands to see her pass along 
 the streets and her concert halls were always packed. 
 In Rochester, N. Y., there were some who bought 
 standing room in a building across the street from 
 the concert hall. It was said that any one who heard 
 the voice of Jenny Lind continued to hear it ring in 
 his ears to the end of his life. There was a pathetic 
 something in her voice that moved an audience to 
 tears — not tears of sadness, but of emotion. 
 
 The great kindness of heart of Jenny Lind and her 
 deep religious nature were as remarkable as her sing- 
 ing. In America she not only gave a great stimulus 
 to the study of music, she also left a chain of char- 
 ities wherever she went. She loved to help the poor 
 whenever she could. Many are the stories of her 
 kindness. Here are a few: 
 
 In Boston a working girl came to the ticket office, 
 threw down three dollars and said, " There goes half 
 a month's savings, but I must hear Jenny Lind." 
 The ticket agent told Jenny of the incident and she 
 asked if he would know the girl again when he saw 
 her. He answered that he would, and she said, 
 " Please, then, give her this twenty-dollar bill for 
 me." 
 
 At Bath, England, she saw an aged woman at the 
 door of an almshouse and spoke to her, as she often 
 
 208 
 
A Batch of Biographies 
 
 did to the unfortunate. The woman said, " I have 
 lived a long time in the world, and I desire nothing 
 before I die but to hear Jenny Lind." 
 
 " And would it really make you happy ? " asked 
 the stranger. 
 
 " Aye, that it would, but poor folks such as us 
 can't go to the playhouse, and I shall never see her." 
 
 " Don't be so sure of that. Let us go into the 
 house." As they entered and sat down Jenny sang 
 one of her sweetest songs. The old lady was moved 
 to tears and her visitor said, " Now you have heard 
 Jenny Lind," and took her departure. 
 
 In one city she heard of a young man who had 
 intended to attend her concert, but fell sick and could 
 not do so. She made a long journey through the 
 city to find him. She found him lying on a couch 
 and his wife sitting by. She introduced herself and 
 told them her errand. She had come to sing for 
 them — and did so. 
 
 Jenny Lind's share of her earnings in America 
 reached about $175,000, most of which she gave 
 away. The American school children presented her 
 with a beautiful patchwork quilt. This she admired 
 very much and declared that she wished to have it 
 buried with her. She spent the last years of her life 
 in England, singing only now and then, always for 
 charity, spending most of her time in religious work 
 among the poor and wretched. Her beautiful life 
 came to a close in 1887, and the patchwork quilt, 
 which she had kept nearly forty years, was buried 
 with her, as she had requested. 
 
 209 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Loms Kossuth 
 
 Another foreigner visited our shores in 1851 and 
 attracted almost as much attention as Jenny Lind — 
 Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot. Kossuth 
 was born in 1802 and was of noble descent. While 
 still a young man he became widely known as an 
 unselfish and fearless advocate of reform in politics. 
 
 Hungary was oppressed by the Austrian Govern- 
 ment and Kossuth denounced the oppression with 
 overpowering eloquence. He was thrown into prison 
 by the tyrants who ruled over his country because 
 he was a lover of liberty and had the courage to 
 say so. For three years he languished in prison 
 and on his release he again took up the cause of his 
 people. 
 
 The year 1848 was a notable year in Europe. 
 There were revolutions (risings of the people for 
 change of government) in various countries and 
 among them was Hungary. The people of that coun- 
 try determined to throw off the Austrian yoke, and 
 one of the leaders of this movement was Louis Kos- 
 suth. He was then a member of the Hungarian Diet, 
 or Congress. Lie declared with burning eloquence 
 that his people must strike for independence and 
 they did. Kossuth was made dictator with absolute 
 power. He soon had a large army in the field — too 
 large to be overcome by the Austrians. It seemed 
 that Hungary was about to win its entire independ- 
 ence, and this would have made Kossuth a Washing- 
 
 210 
 
A Batch of Biographies 
 
 ton in history. But at this point Austria called on 
 Russia for aid and the Czar sent a great army against 
 the Hungarians. 
 
 Thus ended the hopes of Hungarian independence. 
 Kossuth fled from his native land and took refuge 
 in Turkey. The Austrian Government demanded 
 that the Sultan of Turkey should give up Kossuth. 
 The object was to bring him back and put him to 
 death for treason and rebellion. 
 
 Strange it seems to us that a man who gives his 
 life to the holy cause of liberty should be the object 
 of persecution in any country. When Austria and 
 Russia demanded that this noble man be given over 
 to the hands of his deadly enemies, England and the 
 United States became interested and encouraged the 
 Sultan not to yield. President Fillmore then invited 
 Kossuth to visit America and sent a Government 
 vessel to bring him. Austria did not like such a pro- 
 ceeding, of course, but the American people did not 
 care whether Austria liked it or not. 
 
 Kossuth first went to England, where he was re- 
 ceived with the highest honor by all classes of society. 
 He then crossed the Atlantic and reached the United 
 States in December, 1851. 'No other foreigner, ex- 
 cept Lafayette and Jenny Lind, had ever received 
 such an ovation as that given to Kossuth. People 
 recalled the dark days of our own Revolution, when 
 our fathers had fought in the glorious cause of liberty 
 and won, while Kossuth had failed. The heart of 
 the nation went out to him. The streets of the cities 
 were thronged with multitudes wherever he went. 
 
 211 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Kossuth hats and Kossuth overcoats became the fash- 
 ionable craze. 
 
 In 'New York a great street parade was preceded 
 by a mass meeting at Castle Garden and followed by 
 an immense banquet, presided over by William Cul- 
 len Bryant, the poet. Kossuth visited many cities 
 and in each he addressed large crowds of people. He 
 was a man of wonderful eloquence, and he spoke the 
 English language as fluently as his own. 
 
 But in the end his visit was a disappointment. 
 His great object was to enlist the aid of our Govern- 
 ment in defending down-trodden Hungary. This 
 would have been against our policy, as laid down 
 in Washington's proclamation of neutrality. Our 
 course had always been to take no part in the wars 
 and broils of Europe which did not concern our in- 
 terests, and we could not make an exception in the 
 case of Hungary. Kossuth had a long talk about 
 the matter with Henry Clay and other leading 
 statesmen, but received little encouragement. 
 
 After spending several months in America, the 
 great Hungarian returned to Europe, but not to his 
 own land. He made his home in Turin, in northern 
 Italy. Here he spent the evening of his life, study- 
 ing and writing on the subject of human government, 
 the undying flame of liberty ever burning in his 
 soul. He died in 1894 at the great age of ninety-two 
 years. The world has not forgotten him, and it 
 never will. 
 
 The career of this grand old man was by no means 
 a failure. He was an example to the world of a 
 
 212 
 
'A Batch of Biographies 
 
 high-born patriot to whom liberty was dearer than 
 life itself. And further, it was largely through his 
 efforts and principles that Hungary later secured 
 a larger degree of liberty than she enjoyed at the 
 time of his exile. 
 
 Lewis Cass 
 
 Though not very well known to the ordinary reader 
 of to-day, Lewis Cass was in his day one of the most 
 prominent men in America. Like many of our lead- 
 ing men he was a descendant of ancestors who came 
 to !N'ew England early in our colonial period. His 
 father served under Washington and was in nearly 
 all the battles fought on northern soil. He married 
 and settled in Exeter, ^. H., in 1781, and the follow- 
 ing year Lewis was bom. 
 
 In after years Lewis said to his friends that he 
 literally saw the United States born. It will be re- 
 membered that the framers of the Constitution de- 
 cided that it should go into operation if nine States 
 ratified it, and New Hampshire was the ninth State 
 to do so. 
 
 " It was in the summer of 1788," said Cass, " that 
 l^ew Hampshire ratified the Constitution, and the 
 day was one of great rejoicing by the people. My 
 mother held me in her arms at a window from which 
 I saw the bonfires in the streets and heard the shouts 
 of the people." 
 
 In the early nineties Mr. Cass left his little family 
 for a time to serve in the Indian wars in Ohio, under 
 General Anthony Wayne. Here he, like many an- 
 
 213 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 other, became fascinated with the attractions of the 
 frontier ; he went back to New Hampshire and moved 
 with his family to Ohio. Lewis was a lad of seven- 
 teen when he came to Marietta and joined the colony 
 that had been founded by Rufus Putnam. Here he 
 soon began the study of law. 
 
 The family moved up the Muskingum and located 
 on a farm near Zanesville. Lewis also came to that 
 city, then a little frontier village, with streets lined 
 with stumps and underbrush, and began the practice 
 of his profession. He was the first lawyer to be ad- 
 mitted to the bar in the newly formed State of Ohio. 
 The frontier lawyer in those days had no easy time. 
 Frequently Lewis Cass traveled on horseback or on 
 foot through the forest to some distant county seat 
 to try a case. He also spent much of his time on his 
 father's farm. One day a friend from the East came 
 to see him and found him pounding com in a hollow 
 stump near his father's door. In the absence of a 
 mill the pioneer would reduce his com to meal in 
 this way. 
 
 Lewis Cass was elected to the State legislature 
 while still a very young man, and an occasion soon 
 arose by which he attracted national attention. It 
 was at this time that Aaron Burr was hatching his 
 plot along the Ohio River to sever the Union, as was 
 believed, and to set up a new nation in the West. 
 And it was Cass who drew up a resolution in the 
 legislature, which was passed, to seize Burr's boats 
 at the mouth of the Muskingum. This was done by 
 the State militia, and President Thomas Jefferson 
 
 214 
 
A Batch of Biographies 
 
 acknowledged that it was the first blow struck against 
 Burr's conspiracy. 
 
 President Jefferson did not forget the part played 
 by young Cass in the legislature and soon afterwards 
 appointed him a United States marshal. 
 
 A few years later came the War of 1812. Early 
 in the spring of that year Ohio raised three regiments 
 of soldiers and Lewis Cass was made a general and 
 put in command of one of them. He was sent North 
 with his regiment to join General Hull, who was in 
 command of Detroit. A few days before this a little 
 vessel, steaming up the Detroit River to bring pro- 
 visions to Hull, was captured by the British, who 
 occupied Fort Maiden on the east bank of the river. 
 It was decided to send a man from Detroit to the 
 British fort to ask for the release of the prisoners 
 who had been captured with the American vessel. 
 
 General Cass was chosen for the task. He crossed 
 the river and approached the British fort bearing a 
 flag of truce. Met by the guards, he was asked what 
 was his errand. He told them and they blindfolded 
 him and led him within the fort to the commanding 
 officer. A custom of warfare is to blindfold a man 
 who goes on an errand within the enemy's lines, so 
 that he cannot carry any important information back 
 to his people. 
 
 Cass was not successful in securing the release of 
 the prisoners, and soon after his return to Detroit 
 the American army crossed the river to attack Fort 
 Maiden. Cass and the other young officers were very 
 eager for the attack, but Hull seemed afraid, and 
 
 215 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 after hovering about for a few days, led his army 
 back to Detroit. Cass was filled with disgust at such 
 action, and this was increased tenfold when, a short 
 time afterwards, Hull surrendered Detroit and all 
 Michigan to the British, without striking a blow. 
 Cass declared that he would never hand over his 
 sword to a British officer and broke it across a stone. 
 
 When the people of Ohio and Kentucky heard of 
 the disgraceful surrender they were furious, and the 
 young men volunteered in such numbers that they 
 could not all be accepted in the army. The result 
 was that the British could hold Michigan but little 
 more than a year, when it came again in the posses- 
 sion of the United States. General Cass was then 
 appointed Governor of Michigan, and he held the 
 position for eighteen years. 
 
 A more vigorous governor than General Cass 
 proved to be could not be found. Many of the set- 
 tlers were French and their methods of farming were 
 so crude that they were on the point of starvation 
 half the time and Congress had to appropriate money 
 to aid them. Cass did all in his power to induce 
 more American settlers to come to Michigan ; but in 
 some way the people of the East had come to believe 
 that Michigan was a barren, uninhabitable country, 
 and few would venture to remove thither. This false 
 impression kept Michigan back for many years, but 
 when the people discovered the truth, that southern 
 Michigan was one of the finest farming regions in the 
 United States, they settled there in large numbers 
 and in 1837 Michigan became a State of the Union. 
 
 216 
 
A Batch of Biographies 
 
 While Governor of the Territory Cass had to deal 
 with Indian tribes on all sides. He made many 
 treaties with them and usually kept them in a friend- 
 ly spirit. He made many long journeys through the 
 wilderness to learn about the country and to make 
 himself acquainted with the wants of the natives. 
 He was borne across lake and stream in Indian ca- 
 noes, and often he spent the night in their wigwams 
 and ate of their scanty meals. On one of these trips 
 he went far into the Northwest, almost to the source 
 of the Mississippi. On this tour he had an exciting 
 experience. 
 
 Near the head of Lake Michigan Cass wished to 
 make a treaty with an Indian tribe; but the tribe 
 was hostile and claimed allegiance to England. In 
 a long parley with the chiefs Cass told them that 
 they were on American soil and that he intended to 
 place a garrison there. The chiefs were angry. They 
 withdrew and after a short consultation came out of 
 their tents and raised a British flag in an open place 
 in view of Cass and his party. This meant defiance, 
 and an attack was imminent. Cass now did a bold 
 thing. He walked unarmed right to the British flag, 
 hauled it down and trampled on it. The Indians were 
 so amazed at so brave an act by a man whose party 
 numbered scarcely one tenth of their own that they 
 could not attack him. In fact they signed the treaty 
 just as he dictated it. For years afterwards the 
 members of Cass's party told of this deed as the brav- 
 est they had ever witnessed. 
 
 But we must hurry on. So honest and so able 
 217 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 had the governorship of Cass been that he was called 
 higher. In 1831 he became secretary of war in the 
 Cabinet of President Jackson. Here he served with 
 much ability for five years. But his health began 
 to decline. He had spent many years in the active, 
 wild life of the Michigan forests and now he found 
 the confining office work in Washington irksome. 
 Twice he offered to resign from the Cabinet, but 
 the President refused to let him go. But in 1836 
 he determined to leave the Cabinet and President 
 Jackson offered to make him minister to France. 
 This offer he accepted, and in the autumn of that 
 year he arrived in Paris. Here he remained for sev- 
 eral years and became an intimate friend of the 
 French king. While in Paris Cass wrote a very 
 interesting book entitled " France, its King, Court, 
 and Government." 
 
 When General Cass returned to the United States, 
 in 1842, he was received with much popular applause 
 in Boston, New York and other cities. He had be- 
 come one of the most popular leaders in the nation 
 and was widely spoken of for the Democratic nomina- 
 tion for the Presidency in 1844. But Mr. Polk of 
 Tennessee was nominated and Cass entered the 
 United States Senate. In that body he became a 
 leader from the start, and before the next four years 
 had passed he was looked upon as the leading Demo- 
 crat of the country. 
 
 In 1848 he was nominated for the Presidency, 
 but owing to the great popularity of old " Kough and 
 Ready " Zachary Taylor, Cass was defeated. He 
 
 218 
 
A Batch of Biographies 
 
 continued in the Senate nearly ten years longer, when 
 he was called in 185 Y to enter the Cabinet of Presi- 
 dent Buchanan. This was his last public service, 
 after which he retired to Detroit to spend the evening 
 of his life, where he had spent so many years of his 
 young manhood. He was a stanch friend of the 
 Union during the Civil War and rejoiced at its close 
 that the country was not divided. He died in 1866 
 at the age of eighty-four years. 
 
 Four years after Cass's defeat for President in 
 1848 he had again been urged for the nomination, 
 but was defeated in convention by a man from his 
 native State of New Hampshire, to whom next we 
 turn our attention. 
 
 Fkanklest Pierce 
 
 Some of our Presidents will fill but an obscure 
 place in history as compared with the more promi- 
 nent ones. We do not always elect our greatest 
 statesmen to the great ofBce ; but then it must be re- 
 membered that no ordinary man could be elected at 
 all, or even nominated by a great party. 
 
 Franklin Pierce was one of our less prominent 
 Presidents who has not left a great name in history. 
 He was the son of a soldier of the Revolution and 
 was born in New Hampshire in 1804, His father 
 rose to prominence and was twice elected Governor 
 of the State. 
 
 The boy Franklin received his first lessons in pa- 
 triotism sitting at the family hearthstone listening 
 
 219 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 to his father and his Revolutionary comrades talk 
 over the joys and sorrows of a soldier's life — the 
 march and the camp fire, the bugle call to battle, and 
 at last the home-coming after the long war was over 
 and independence had been won. 
 
 Franklin's mother was a Christian woman of the 
 highest character, and she instilled into her boy a 
 spirit of gentleness, courtesy, and manliness that char- 
 acterized him through life. In 1820 he entered Bow- 
 doin College, and as a student he was always win- 
 ning and popular and stood high in his class. Among 
 his fellow students were IS'athaniel Hawthorne and 
 Henry W. Longfellow. After graduating he applied 
 himself to the study of law, and soon after being ad- 
 mitted to the bar he was sent to the State legislature. 
 Here he served a few years, when, at the age of twen- 
 ty-nine, he was elected to Congress, and after serving 
 four years in the House, he was elected to the United 
 States Senate. 
 
 Pierce entered the Senate at the beginning of the 
 Presidential term of Martin Van Buren, March 4, 
 1837. He was then only thirty-three, the youngest 
 man in the Senate. The great leaders in the Senate 
 at that time were Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John 
 C. Calhoun, Thomas H. Benton, and James Buchan- 
 an. Among such men the young senator from New 
 Hampshire could not expect to make much of a fig- 
 ure. Pierce never became a great leader, but he was 
 a hard worker, a fluent speaker, and always courteous 
 to an opponent. He was a faithful adherent of the 
 Democratic Party. 
 
 220 
 
A Batch of Biographies 
 
 Mr. Pierce did not remain many years in the Sen- 
 ate. He resigned owing to the failing health of his 
 wife. Soon after this he declined a nomination for 
 governor of New Hampshire, and when Mr. Polk 
 became President, in 1845, he offered Mr. Pierce a 
 place in his Cabinet ; this offer was also declined. 
 
 But when the Mexican War broke out Pierce heed- 
 ed the call of his country. He had heard much about 
 warfare, as we have seen, when a boy, listening to 
 his father and the neighbors talking about the Revo- 
 lution. ISTow he volunteered and the President soon 
 appointed him a general. He set out for Mexico in 
 May, 184T, to join General Scott. But Scott had 
 already captured Vera Cruz and fought the battle of 
 Cerro Gordo, and was now far on his mountain 
 journey toward the City of Mexico. 
 
 With an army of 2,400 men General Pierce landed 
 on the Mexican coast and began his march up the 
 steep and rugged mountains. The weather was so 
 hot that they could not endure the tropical sun at 
 midday. They would begin their march at daybreak 
 and after several hours' marching they would stop 
 for five or six hours in the middle of the day, then 
 resume their journey in the evening. Several times 
 the army was fired on by Mexican mountain rangers, 
 and at one time a musket ball passed through the rim 
 of General Pierce's hat. 
 
 General Scott knew that Pierce was coming with 
 reenforcements and waited for him at the town of 
 Puebla. Here Pierce joined him on August Y, and 
 Scott decided to advance on the City of Mexico. 
 
 221 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 The next item on the programme proved to be a 
 sharp battle at Contreras, in which General Pierce 
 almost lost his life. The irrepressible Santa Anna 
 whom we have met in Texas, at Buena Vista, and at 
 Cerro Gordo, now confronted the Americans with an 
 army. As Pierce was riding at the head of his troops 
 over a rough place in the face of the enemy's fire, his 
 horse fell among the rocks and almost crushed its 
 rider. He was severely hurt and stunned. An offi- 
 cer ran to his assistance, and as he was carrying the 
 general to the shelter of a rock, a shell buried itself 
 at their feet and exploded, covering them with stones 
 and sand. The general's horse had broken its leg 
 and had to be killed. But an hour later, when he was 
 partially recovered from the shock, he was assisted 
 in mounting another horse and a few minutes later 
 he was again in the hottest of the battle, where he 
 remained to the end of the day. 
 
 That night Pierce slept on an ammunition wagon 
 while his men lay down on the wet ground, soaked 
 by a dashing rain. At one o'clock in the morning he 
 received orders from General Scott to put his brigade 
 in a new position and be ready to reopen the battle 
 at daybreak. There was no more sleep that night 
 for Pierce and his army, and the fight was renewed 
 with great vigor in the morning. While the battle 
 was raging Pierce met General Scott, who, seeing that 
 he was still suffering greatly from his fall, said to 
 him, 
 
 " Pierce, my dear fellow, you are badly injured. 
 You are not fit to be in the saddle." 
 
 222 
 
A Batch of Biographies 
 
 " Yes, General, in a case like this I am," answered 
 Pierce. 
 
 Scott looked at him for a moment and said, " Gen- 
 eral Pierce, you are rash. I fear we shall lose you. 
 It is my duty to order you back to Florida." 
 
 But Pierce pleaded so earnestly to be permitted 
 to remain that his chief consented. Again he rode 
 into the battle, but before night he was found lying 
 by a ditch almost unconscious from pain and fatigue. 
 Some soldiers started to carry him to a place of 
 safety, but he said faintly, 
 
 " 1^0, let me lie here where I can see all." 
 
 This was at the battle of Cherubusco, one of the 
 bloodiest of the war. The Americans won and the 
 war was soon over. General Pierce slowly recovered 
 and a few months later we find him again with his 
 wife and child among the peaceful hills of New 
 Hampshire. 
 
 A few years later — in 1852 — ^these two soldier- 
 friends, Winfield Scott and Pranklin Pierce, became 
 opposing candidates for the Presidency of the United 
 States. Scott was nominated by the Whigs and 
 Pierce by the Democrats. Pierce was a very popular 
 man. He had made friends on every side and he 
 was elected by a very large majority. 
 
 A few days before the inauguration, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Pierce met with a great sorrow. Their only child, 
 a bright and lovable boy of ten years, was killed in 
 a railroad accident, right before their eyes, while 
 they themselves narrowly escaped the same fate. 
 
 As President, Franklin Pierce soon began to lose 
 223 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 his popularity. One cause was that he made too 
 many promises which he could not fulfill. Another 
 was that on the great slavery question that agitated 
 the country he seemed to sympathize with the South. 
 The people of the North lost confidence in him, and 
 the South, seeing that his popularity was on the 
 wane, was not at all enthusiastic for his renomina- 
 tion. The Democrats believed that, in order to win 
 the election of 1856, it would be necessary for them 
 to carry Pennsylvania, and they felt that there was 
 but one man in the party, himself a Pennsylvanian, 
 who could win in that State. That man was 
 
 James Buchanan 
 
 Another of our Presidents who cannot be placed 
 in the highest rank was James Buchanan. For more 
 than forty years Mr. Buchanan had been in public 
 life when he was nominated for the highest office in 
 the land, in 1856. He was born in a cabin in 1791 
 near Mercersburg, Pa., on the eastern slope of the 
 Alleghany Mountains, in a " romantic spot where 
 the towering summits rose grandly all around." 
 
 James's father was Scotch-Irish, he had come to 
 America after the Revolution, had married a farmer's 
 daughter and settled in this lonely spot. When 
 James was eight years old the family moved to the 
 town of Mercersburg, where James was placed in 
 school. He was a bright boy and learned rapidly. 
 At the age of fourteen he was sent to Dickinson Col- 
 lege, at Carlisle. At college he showed unusual tal- 
 
 224 
 
A Batch of Biographies 
 
 ent and had no superior in application to his studies. 
 In 1809 he was graduated with the highest honors 
 of his class. Three years later he became a lawyer 
 and settled in Lancaster. Here he rose in his profes- 
 sion and soon became one of the leading lawyers in 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 In 1820 James Buchanan was elected to Congress 
 from his district and was reelected regularly until 
 he had served ten years. In Congress he was faith- 
 ful and industrious, but never spectacular. When 
 General Jackson became President he appointed Mr. 
 Buchanan Minister to Russia, where he remained 
 four years and returned to the United States. 
 
 Almost immediately after his return he was elected 
 to the United States Senate. 
 
 As a debater in the Senate he was always to be 
 found on the side of President Jackson. He was a 
 strong debater, but was not a great national leader, 
 as compared with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and 
 John C. Calhoun. 
 
 When James K. Polk became President, in 1845, 
 he chose Mr. Buchanan for the foremost place in his 
 Cabinet, that of secretary of state. In this office 
 Buchanan served during the whole of Polk's admin- 
 istration. 
 
 The secretary of state had control, under the di- 
 rection of the President, of all foreign relations, and 
 during these four years there were several great ques- 
 tions to be settled. One of these was the making 
 of the treaty with Mexico at the close of the war, and 
 another was the settling of the Oregon boundary with 
 
 225 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 England. Buchanan managed these matters with 
 much ability and to the satisfaction of everyone. 
 
 When Franl^lin Pierce became President he ap- 
 pointed Mr. Buchanan Minister to England and for 
 the next four years he made his home in London. 
 Here he enjoyed life and was very popular in the 
 high political and social circles of the British metrop- 
 olis. 
 
 But with all the high positions j&lled by James Bu- 
 chanan up to this time, he was to enjoy still higher 
 honors. When his party was ready to choose a can- 
 didate for President in 1856, it turned spontaneously 
 to Buchanan. 
 
 The fierce conflicts of the preceding four years had 
 weakened every other leading Democrat; but Bu- 
 chanan, being absent from the country, had not suf- 
 fered from this cause and his popularity was not di- 
 minished. He was nominated by the convention and 
 the newly founded Republican party nominated John 
 C. Fremont for President. 
 
 Buchanan won in the election and the next four 
 years he spent in the White House in Washington. 
 He was a bachelor, and the mistress of the White 
 House during the four years was his accomplished 
 niece, his adopted daughter, Harriet Lane. While 
 he was Minister to England she was always with him 
 and by her wit and beauty she attracted much atten- 
 tion. Queen Victoria showed special preference to 
 Miss Lane. In Paris and other cities where she 
 went with her uncle she was called the girl queen. 
 Oxford University bestowed on Mr. Buchanan the 
 
 226 
 
A Batcli of Biographies 
 
 degree of Doctor of Laws (and on the poet Tenny- 
 son the same day), and when Miss Lane entered 
 the hall the whole student body rose and cheered. 
 
 In the White House Harriet Lane came near 
 reaching the social height attained by the famous 
 Dolly Madison. Warships, societies, articles of ap- 
 parel and ornament were given her name. It has 
 been said, and is probably true, that no other young 
 woman in the country had ever received equal honor 
 with Harriet Lane. While she was mistress of the 
 White House the Prince of Wales, now King Ed- 
 ward VII of England, visited this country and was 
 entertained by the President and his accomplished 
 niece. And he spoke highly of the charming grace 
 of his popular hostess. 
 
 But notwithstanding all this, the Presidency of 
 Mr. Buchanan was not very successful. The great 
 slavery subject, including the troubles in " Bleeding 
 Kansas," kept the country in a turmoil, and Presi- 
 dent Buchanan, though a ^Northern man, generally 
 gave his sympathies to the slave holders. When the 
 Southern States began to secede from the Union, Bu- 
 chanan was in a dilemma. He quibbled and hesi- 
 tated not knowing what to do, and thus he lost the 
 respect of both sides. But when the war broke out, 
 after his term of office was over, he was heartily in 
 favor of saving the Union at any cost. 
 
 Haeeiet Beechee Stowe 
 The most popular book ever written in America 
 was written by a woman. The woman was Harriet 
 
 227 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Beecher Stowe and the book was " Uncle Tom's 
 Cabin." She was bom in Litchfield, Ct, in 1811. 
 Her father was the famous preacher, Lyman Beecher, 
 and her brother was the more famous Henry Ward 
 Beecher. 
 
 When Harriet was but four years old a great sor- 
 row, the death of her mother, came into her young 
 life. In after years she fondly recounted the few 
 little incidents about her mother which she remem- 
 bered. Among other things she remembered was the 
 funeral — ^the weeping friends in mourning, the sub- 
 dued conversation, the uncontrollable grief of her 
 father, the black hearse with its nodding plumes that 
 bore the loved one away to her last resting place. 
 Little Henry Ward was too young to understand, and 
 he continued his innocent, frolicking play in igno- 
 rant joy. 
 
 Mrs. Beecher left several sons, and her wish that 
 all of them enter the ministry was carried out. And 
 they all testified in later life that all through their 
 childhood and youth they were strengthened against 
 the temptations of evil by the sacred memory of 
 their departed mother. 
 
 Soon after her mother's death Harriet was taken 
 by an aunt to her home for a long stay. They trav- 
 eled all day in a wagon and arrived after dark at a 
 little white farmhouse. This was to be her home 
 for many months. Here she listened every evening 
 to the broken voice of her good, white-haired grand- 
 mother reading from her Bible and prayer book; 
 here, with the coming of spring, she strolled over 
 
 228 
 
A Batch of Biographies 
 
 the grassy fields and sand hills, as happy as the birds 
 which she imitated in their songs of gladness. 
 
 At length Harriet was taken back to her home at 
 Litchfield, and two years after her mother's death she 
 had a stepmother, whom she described in later years 
 as a sweet, lovable woman, a true mother in every re- 
 spect. Harriet was sent to the academy in Litchfield 
 as soon as she was old enoilgh to be admitted, and at 
 the age of twelve she wrote an essay, which was read 
 at a public exhibition. The subject was certainly an 
 unusual one for a child : " Can the Immortality of the 
 Soul be proved from the Light of I^ature ? " Her 
 father, who was present at the reading, could scarcely 
 believe that his little daughter had written it. 
 
 Sometimes, in the golden October days, Harriet ac- 
 companied her father and brothers on long excursions 
 to the woods to gather nuts, and sometimes to a fish- 
 ing lake where she was often as successful as they and 
 on her return home displayed her string of fish in 
 triumph to everyone she saw. 
 
 Of books Harriet had few in girlhood. Her father 
 was a Puritan of the strict kind, and his library con- 
 tained little aside from learned works on theology. 
 Harriet one day found an old copy of " The Arabian 
 Nights," a treasure that gave her many a day of en- 
 tertainment. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott was at this time writing his 
 novels, but few of the Puritans approved of reading 
 novels of any kind, and at first Sir Walter was barred 
 from the Beecher home. But one day Dr. Beecher 
 said to his children: 
 
 229 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 " You may read Scott's novels, if you like. I have 
 always disapproved of novels as trash, but in these 
 there are real genius and culture. Yes, you may 
 read them." 
 
 And they did read them. In one summer the 
 Beecher children went through " Ivanhoe " seven 
 times. 
 
 Lord Byron was a prominent British poet at this 
 time. Harriet one day came in possession of " The 
 Corsair," one of his poems, and for many hours, 
 she entertained herself with it. Dr. Beecher was 
 also a great admirer of Byron's genius, and when 
 the word came that Byron had died in Greece, the 
 family was deeply moved. " Oh, I'm sorry Byron 
 is dead! I did hope he would live to do some- 
 thing for Christ," said Dr. Beecher. He also ex- 
 pressed deep regret that he could not have seen the 
 poet while he lived and presented to him his views 
 of religious truth. This deep religious conviction, 
 coupled vsrith admiration for genius, pervaded the 
 whole Beecher family. 
 
 When Harriet was about fourteen she was sent to 
 Hartford to school. She began the study of Latin 
 and within a year she translated some of the poems 
 of Ovid into English verse. The work was consid- 
 ered very creditable and was read publicly at the 
 final exhibition. She also wrote a drama at this 
 time which showed great maturity of mind for one 
 of her age. She was at this period intensely anxious 
 to become a poet. 
 
 For some years Harriet was quite unhappy. She 
 230 
 
I 
 
 A Batch of Biographies 
 
 looked -within and brooded over herself. She was 
 naturally gay and joyous, but the morbid feature of 
 the Puritanic religion took a deep hold on her, and 
 her fear that she was incapable of being sufficiently 
 sorrowful for her sins gave her great uneasiness. 
 But by the time she was twenty she had a new awak- 
 ening. Her eyes were opened to new light. She re- 
 solved that she would not sit in a corner and brood ; 
 she would go into society; she would spend her en- 
 ergy in being kind to others; she would force her- 
 self to forget the unpleasant ihings of the past and 
 remember only the good. Henceforth she was happy 
 and cheerful. 
 
 After fifteen years' service in Litchfield, her father 
 was called to a prominent church in Boston. Here 
 he remained but six years, when he was called to 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, to become president of Lane Semi- 
 nary, just founded in that city. Harriet went also 
 to Cincinnati with the family intending to teach 
 school. They went by stage to Wheeling, where they 
 took a river boat to their new place of abode. They 
 moved into a house on Walnut Hills, now one of 
 the fine residence sections of the city. Of the house 
 in which they lived Harriet wrote to a friend in 
 Connecticut : " The house we are at present inhabit- 
 ing is the most inconvenient, ill-arranged, good for 
 nothing and altogether to be execrated affair that 
 was ever put together," About her little four-year- 
 old brother Jamie, she humorously writes: 
 
 " Speaking of the temptation of cities, I have much 
 solicitude on Jamie's account lest he should form 
 
 231 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 improper intimacies, for yesterday we saw him par- 
 ading by the house with his arm over the neck of a 
 great hog, apparently on the most amicable terms; 
 and the other day he actually got on the back of one 
 and rode some distance." 
 
 Harriet was soon busy teaching in the Queen City, 
 but it was not long until she found her true occupa- 
 tion. The Western Magazine offered a prize of fifty 
 dollars for the best story; she entered the contest 
 and won easily. From this time she wrote many 
 short stories and sketches. One of her dearest friends 
 in Cincinnati was Mrs. Eliza Stowe, a bright young 
 woman of about her own age and wife of Prof. Cal- 
 vin E. Stowe and with her and her learned husband 
 Harriet spent many a happy hour. 
 
 In 1834, after two years in her new home, Harriet 
 Beecher made a trip to New England to see her 
 brother Henry Ward graduate at Amherst College. 
 When she returned to the West she found Professor 
 Stowe in the deepest sorrow. His young wife had 
 died. Harriet extended to him her genuine sym- 
 pathy and it seemed to relieve his loneliness to talk 
 with her, the bosom friend of his departed wife. 
 Their friendship grew and two years later they were 
 married. Thus Harriet Beecher took the name of 
 Harriet Beecher Stowe, the name by which she be- 
 came known throughout the world. Soon after his 
 marriage Professor Stowe was chosen by the Ohio 
 legislature to go to Europe to study the school sys- 
 tems abroad for the benefit of the public schools of 
 Ohio. He answered the summons, and, not able to 
 
 232 
 
A Batch of Biographies 
 
 take his young wife with him, they were separated 
 for a time. 
 
 It was about this time that Mrs. Stowe began seri- 
 ously to study the slavery question. Just across the 
 Ohio from Cincinnati was Kentucky, a slave State, 
 and she had been a guest on a large estate where she 
 saw many phases of slave life. One of the students 
 of Lane Seminary had lectured in the South against 
 slavery and had made some converts. Among them 
 was James G. Birney, who freed his slaves, moved 
 to Cincinnati and started an anti-slavery paper. The 
 sympathizers with slavery in Cincinnati were very 
 numerous, and they incited a mob which broke into 
 Mr. Birney's printing office and destroyed his press. 
 Mrs. Stowe had received runaway slaves into her 
 own home; she had heard the woeful cry of an op- 
 pressed race, and all these things had sunk deeply 
 into her soul. 
 
 N^ow came a change in the life of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Stowe. Several children had been bom to them and 
 their salary was too small to make ends meet. For 
 seventeen years Professor Stowe had served Lane 
 Seminary, then came a call to a professorship from 
 Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, Me., from which he 
 had graduated. He accepted and moved East. 
 
 It was soon after reaching Brunswick that the 
 great life work of Mrs. Stowe began — the writing 
 of " Uncle Tom's Cabin." Amid many household 
 cares the story shaped itself in her mind and was 
 written in weekly installments and first published 
 as a serial in the National Era of Washington. It 
 
 233 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 came out in book form in March, 1852, Within a 
 few days ten thousand copies were sold and more 
 than three hundred thousand within a year. 
 
 Soon after the book was published Mrs. Stowe was 
 in Brooklyn, at the home of her brother, Henry Ward 
 Beecher. Jenny Lind was again singing in New 
 York. Hearing of Mrs. Stowe's presence, she sent 
 her an autograph note, enclosing tickets to her con- 
 cert. Mrs. Stowe answered in a note of thanks and 
 a copy of " Uncle Tom's Cabin." She attended the 
 concert and afterwards wrote of the great Swedish 
 singer : " We have heard Jenny Lind, and the af- 
 fair was a bewildering dream of sweetness and beauty. 
 . . . She had the artless grace of a little child, 
 the poetic effect of a wood nymph. . . . She is a 
 noble creature." 
 
 In " Uncle Tom's Cabin " we have a picture of 
 slave life, of an institution of the past, that can be 
 found nowhere else. Who can read of the pathetic 
 life and death of Uncle Tom and of little Eva, of 
 the brutal Legree, of the philosophic indolence of 
 St. Clair, of the irrepressible Topsy — who can read 
 these characters as Mrs. Stowe sketched them and 
 ever forget the picture ? 
 
 The book sold rapidly in England and public meet- 
 ings were held in many English towns and addresses 
 adopted and sent to the author. The book was trans- 
 lated into every modern European language and was 
 sold by the hundred thousands. Mrs. Stowe wrote 
 many other books, but none to compare with this in 
 popularity. She made several trips to Europe and 
 
 234 
 
A Batcli of Biographies 
 
 was received with high honors in every class of soci- 
 ety. She rejoiced to see the downfall of slavery and 
 received many congratulations for the part she had 
 played in bringing freedom to a downtrodden race. 
 Mrs. Stowe lived to a serene old age, dying in 1896 
 at the age of eighty-five years. Her last years were 
 spent in Hartford, Ct., and in Florida where also 
 she maintained a home. 
 
 Salmon Portland Chase 
 
 One of the strong characters during the Civil War 
 and the years just preceding was Salmon P. Chase, 
 who was born in New Hampshire in 1808. When 
 the boy was but nine years old his father died, leav- 
 ing a widow and ten children, some of whom were 
 grown. The younger children, among them Salmon, 
 were kept in school. 
 
 Salmon had an uncle. Philander Chase, who was 
 a bishop in the Episcopal Church. He was located 
 in Ohio, and after going to England to raise funds, 
 he founded Kenyon College at Gambler, Ohio. In 
 1820 he took little Salmon, now a boy of twelve 
 years, to this new State on the frontier. At Worth- 
 ington, near Columbus, the bishop had a school and 
 Salmon spent two years here doing farm work and 
 attending school. 
 
 At the end of this time Bishop Chase was elected 
 president of Cincinnati College and he took his 
 nephew with him to Cincinnati where he entered 
 the college as a student. A year later, however, the 
 
 235 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 bishop resigned his oflBce and Salmon returned to 
 his home in New Hampshire. He then entered 
 Dartmouth College, which was near his birthplace, 
 and was graduated in 1826. 
 
 After his graduation Chase went to Washington 
 City to start a private school, a " select classical 
 school," but when he came to open it there was but 
 one pupil. 
 
 Chase was discouraged and, as he had an uncle, 
 another brother of his father, in the United States 
 Senate, he applied to him for a government clerk- 
 ship. The uncle advised him never to enter the gov- 
 ernment service and offered him fifty cents to buy a 
 spade — a hint probably that he had better work on 
 a farm than to become a government clerk. 
 
 But the youth made no use of the spade. He suc- 
 ceeded in his school project and for three years he 
 taught successfully in the capital city, living in the 
 family of William Wirt, attorney-general of the 
 United States. Those early years in Washington 
 were useful to young Chase, as he learned much of 
 national affairs and met many public men, though he 
 little dreamed that many of his later years would be 
 spent in high official life in that city. 
 
 Chase had a laudable ambition to be somebody of 
 importance in the world, but at times he seemed to 
 despair of the future. We find in his diary the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 " I am almost twenty-two, and have, as yet, at- 
 tained but the threshold of knowledge. I have 
 formed but few settled opinions, and have examined 
 
 236 
 
A Batcli of Biographies 
 
 but few subjects. . . . The end of the year has 
 come around and finds me almost in the very spot 
 I was at its commencement. I have learned little 
 and have forgotten much, and, really, to conclude 
 the future from the past, I almost despair of making 
 any figure in the world." 
 
 Having read law for a time Chase was admitted 
 to the bar and decided to go West and grow up with 
 the country. He chose Cincinnati as his adopted 
 home, where he had spent a year as a student while 
 a boy. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1830, 
 and opened a law office in the Queen City. Then, 
 like many a young lawyer, he sat down to wait for 
 clients. After a long wait one came and gave him 
 fifty cents for writing a deed. But the next one that 
 came borrowed the fifty cents and Chase never saw 
 it again. 
 
 Mr. Chase, however, became one of the leading 
 lawyers of the city within four or five years after 
 he first opened his office. He made a fortunate hit 
 by publishing in three volumes " The Laws of Ohio." 
 Of course such a work could not have brought him 
 much money; but it did something better, it made 
 its author known to every judge and every prominent 
 lawyer in the State and to a great many jurists out- 
 side the State. 
 
 In 1834 Mr. Chase married a lovely girl named 
 Catherine Jane Garniss, but a year and a half later 
 she died, leaving him a little daughter. He was 
 greatly devoted to the child, but she died at the age 
 of four and the fond father was left disconsolate. 
 
 237 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Chase was a man of such a strong, positive nature 
 that he could not keep from taking sides on the slav- 
 ery question. As we noticed in the case of Harriet 
 Beecher Stowe, Cincinnati was on the border of slave 
 land and scarcely any of its people could hold a neu- 
 tral ground on this great subject. Lane Seminary, 
 of which Dr. Beecher was president, became a hotbed 
 of slavery discussion, and in 1834 the trustees de- 
 cided that the students should not discuss the ques- 
 tion. But many of them refused to obey and left 
 the seminary. 
 
 Many of the students were downright abolition- 
 ists and they made frequent excursions into Ken- 
 tucky to preach their doctrines and make converts. 
 And frequently they succeeded. One of the men 
 converted was a Mr. John Van Zandt, a Kentucky 
 farmer, who set his slaves free, crossed the river into 
 Ohio, and bought a farm. Later he harbored fugi- 
 tive slaves in his house and for this he was arrested 
 and thrown into prison. Where was there a lawyer 
 with courage enough to defend Van Zandt in an un- 
 popular cause ? One was found in Salmon P. Chase. 
 
 Mr. Chase had been leaning toward the anti-slav- 
 ery cause for some years. He had made enemies 
 and lost business; but he knew no fear. He now 
 took up the Van Zandt case, and after making his 
 plea, as he was leaving the court room one of the 
 judges remarked: 
 
 " There goes a young man who has ruined him- 
 self to-day," and perhaps everyone present believed 
 the same thing. 
 
 238 
 
A Batch of Biographies 
 
 He lost the case and carried it to the Supreme 
 Court, where he lost again. Perhaps the justice of 
 the higher court had the same opinion as the Cincin- 
 nati judge had expressed, l^o one dreamed that Mr. 
 Chase himself would fill the place of Chief Justice of 
 the United States, hut so it turned out. 
 
 Another instance in which Chase became interested 
 was the case of a young slave woman named Matilda, 
 whose owner was a Missouri planter. She was so 
 light in color that she could easily pass for a white 
 woman. One day as she and her master were going 
 down the Ohio by boat the vessel stopped at Cincin- 
 nati, and Matilda slipped away and was soon lost in 
 the streets of the city. She found employment in 
 the house of Mr. Birney, whose printing press had 
 been destroyed by the mob. Here she remained for 
 nearly a year, when she was found by an agent of 
 her owner. Mr. Chase was engaged to defend her 
 in the trial, but he lost the case and Matilda was 
 taken back into slavery. Soon after this she was 
 " sold down the river," that is, to the far South, and 
 she was probably never again heard of by those who 
 had known her before. 
 
 Mr. Birney was then arrested for harboring a fugi- 
 tive, which was against the law, and Mr. Chase was 
 engaged to defend him. He lost in the lower court, 
 but won in the supreme court of Ohio. 
 
 In many such cases Chase became interested. He 
 was the most prominent anti-slavery worker in Ohio. 
 He received hundreds of letters from all parts of the 
 country asking his advice — from runaway slaves or 
 
 239 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 from masters who wished to set their slaves free. 
 He became known as the " attorney-general of the 
 fugitive slaves." But his side was the unpopular 
 one and he lost many of his best friends and a great 
 deal of practice that he might have had. 
 
 Our chapter is becoming too long and we must close 
 by giving simply an outline of Chase's later life. In 
 1849 he was elected to the United States Senate and 
 then really began his great career. He was one of 
 the leaders of that body from the start. In 1856 he 
 became Governor of Ohio, and after four years in this 
 position he reentered the Senate. This was the time 
 of the beginning of the Civil War and President 
 Lincoln asked Chase to enter his Cabinet as secretary 
 of the treasury. He was one of the great financiers 
 of our history. 
 
 In 1864 Chase left the Cabinet and soon after- 
 wards Lincoln appointed him Chief Justice of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, a position 
 which he held till his death in 1873. 
 
 240 
 
CHAPTEK XVI 
 THE DECADE BEFORE THE WAR 
 
 TT is not our purpose in this book to enter deeply 
 ■*■ into questions of politics and of government. 
 But some notice of the events just preceding the great 
 Civil War will be necessary to an understanding of 
 the war itself. 
 
 The events of this period were of a stirring nature, 
 but they are not well known to the average American 
 citizen, perhaps for the reason that the war itself 
 which followed overshadowed and eclipsed the years 
 that had preceded. A lofty hill may look small if 
 it stands near a mountain. 
 
 The one great subject of this period was slavery. 
 It absorbed the people's attention everywhere. It 
 was heard from the pulpit and the rostrum and in the 
 legislative halls. The newspapers and magazines 
 were full of the subject and books were written on it. 
 
 We were the last of the great nations to do away 
 with slavery. A hundred years before this time al- 
 most all the countries of Europe had slaves, but all 
 had set them free; so had Mexico and the countries 
 of South America. Slavery still existed in the south- 
 em United States, and on account of it there was an 
 unceasing quarrel between that section and the North. 
 
 241 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 The South wished to extend slave territory, but 
 the North believed slavery to be wrong and opposed 
 its extension. So came the quarrel, and later the 
 war — the greatest civil war in history. 
 
 Lopez and Walker 
 
 In August, 1851, a vessel named the Pampero, 
 launched out from the harbor of New Orleans into 
 the Gulf of Mexico on a strange mission. It was 
 a time of peace throughout the Western Hemisphere, 
 but the Pampero carried 500 armed men. Their 
 commander was a man past fifty, with a strange 
 glare in his eye, and with a notable record behind 
 him. 
 
 It was Narisco Lopez. He was a native of Vene- 
 zuela and had fought in the war between that coun- 
 try and Spain. Next we find him in Spain fighting 
 in the Carlist War. That being over, he spent a 
 few years in Cuba; but a quiet life did not suit the 
 adventurous Lopez. He began to plot for a revolu- 
 tion in Cuba, an uprising against Spain. The Cu- 
 bans did not readily respond and Lopez came to the 
 Southern States and planned an expedition to Cuba. 
 
 Many of the slaveholders were eager for more 
 slave States, and what a fine, big one Cuba would 
 make. Lopez made them believe that the Cubans 
 would rise against Spain, if they had a bold leader, 
 and would gladly join the United States. From the 
 slaveholders he collected money for this expedition. 
 
 It is true that Lopez had tried this same thing 
 242 
 
The Decade Before the War 
 
 the year before, on a smaller scale, and had not been 
 successful ; but he felt sure of success now. Secretly 
 they prepared so that the Government officials would 
 not detect them, and in August, 1851, they swung 
 out into the gulf and spread their sails for Cuba, 
 
 In a day or two they landed on the island; but 
 the natives did not rise up to welcome them. They 
 moved toward the interior, and were soon attacked 
 by a Spanish army. The Cuban people joined with 
 the Spaniards and Lopez and nearly all his army 
 were captured. Most of them, including Colonel 
 Crittenden, son of a famous United States senator, 
 were put to death. Lopez himself, on the first day 
 of September, was garroted (choked to death with the 
 garrote, an iron collar) in the public square in Hav- 
 ana in the presence of thousands of people. 
 
 William Walker was another filibuster, more vi- 
 sionary, perhaps, than Lopez, and he engaged in the 
 same kind of business with the same result. He 
 was an American adventurer, bom in Tennessee. 
 He was a kind of Jack of all trades, a restless spirit 
 who had one great passion — ^the extension of slave 
 territory. 
 
 With a small band of kindred spirits he sailed 
 from California in 1855 for Nicaragua. In a short 
 time he gained control of the country, having put its 
 president to death. He then proclaimed laws es- 
 tablishing slavery, though slavery had been abolished 
 in that country for thirty-two years. 
 
 Walker held the government for two years, but 
 gradually lost power. At length he was captured 
 
 243 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 by an American war vessel and carried to New York 
 for trial; but be was acquitted and was soon on bis 
 way back to Central America. Tbis time be was 
 overpowered on tbe coast of Honduras and fell into 
 tbe bands of tbe commander- of a Britisb war vessel. 
 He was tben banded over to tbe natives, wbo made 
 sbort work of bim. He was sbot to deatb. His 
 expedition, like tbose of Lopez, resulted in notbing, 
 except tbat it stirred up tbe slavery question and 
 brougbt bis own deatb. Tbus ended tbe filibuster- 
 ing expeditions. 
 
 The Passing of Two Great Men 
 
 Two of tbe ablest statesmen in American bistory 
 were Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. Tbeir 
 names are often linked togetber. Botb entered pub- 
 lic life wben young men and eacb served bis country 
 till tbe coming of old age. Botb were leaders of 
 tbe same great party — tbe Wbig party. Tbey were 
 usually, but not always, friendly to eacb otber. Clay 
 was a great party leader; Webster was a great law- 
 yer and orator. Botb passed away tbe same year — 
 1852. 
 
 Henry Clay was a party leader of great popularity 
 and tbe founder of tbe Wbig party. He was a can- 
 didate for President tbree times, but eacb time missed 
 tbe great prize. He was secretary of state in Mon- 
 roe's Cabinet and served in tbe House and Senate 
 for many years. 
 
 Seldom indeed in our bistory bas a public man 
 244 
 
The Decade Before the War 
 
 had such a faithful, lifelong following as Henry 
 Clay, and the fact that he never became President 
 does not detract from his fame. 
 
 When the Whig convention met in Baltimore in 
 the early summer of 1852 the great founder of the 
 party lay dying in Washington. Scarcely a week 
 after the convention had adjourned the news was 
 flashed over the land that Henry Clay had passed to 
 the great beyond. He had reached the age of sev- 
 enty-five and his strength had been failing for some 
 years, yet the news of his death came as a shock to 
 his hosts of friends, who were loath to give up their 
 beloved leader. 
 
 Sad and slow was the funeral procession which 
 moved to the mournful music through the streets 
 of Washington, and thousands were the mourners. 
 After being taken through the various cities of the 
 East, where great multitudes viewed the remains, the 
 body was carried across the Alleghanies and laid to 
 rest in Kentucky, which had been Clay's adopted 
 State since his early manhood. 
 
 Daniel Webster was a few years younger than 
 Clay. The two men were very unlike. Webster 
 was not a party leader, nor did he win a large follow- 
 ing. He was a splendid orator and a profound law- 
 yer and the people admired and praised him, but 
 they did not love him as they loved Clay. 
 
 Webster, too, aspired to the presidency of the 
 United States, but never received the nomination of 
 his party. He was deeply disappointed when the 
 Whig convention of 1852 nominated Scott instead of 
 
 245 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 himself. His feelings were deeply wounded as he 
 thought his party had not treated him as he deserved : 
 but in July, some time after the convention, he vis- 
 ited Boston and the great reception given him by 
 the people soothed his feelings. 
 
 He lived at Marshfield, a little town on the coast 
 south of Boston, and here he spent most of the sum- 
 mer of 1852 as his health was failing steadily. In 
 May he had been thrown from his carriage and was 
 many weeks recovering from the shock; besides, a 
 fatal disease was preying on his life. In September 
 he failed rapidly, and he and his friends knew that 
 recovery was impossible. 
 
 Day after day he lay on his bed by the open 
 window listening to the deep roar of the sea and 
 watching the ceaseless rolling of the crested waves. 
 His nights were sleepless and restless. During his 
 last days he talked freely with his friends about his 
 approaching departure. He declared that he had a 
 profound belief in the truth of the Christian relig- 
 ion. 
 
 One beautiful Indian summer day in October, as 
 the setting sun's golden rays were dancing upon the 
 water, the dying statesman gazed for the last time 
 through the open window. Long he looked and then 
 turning to his friend he said " I shall die to-night," 
 and ere the coming of the morning his life went out 
 with the ebbing of the tide. 
 
 Webster had requested that there be no public 
 demonstrations at his funeral, and his request was 
 observed. By the farmers of the neighborhood his 
 
 246 
 
The Decade Before the War 
 
 hocly was carried to the little cemetery near his 
 home, and there by the sounding sea, which he had 
 always loved so well, it was laid to its final rest. 
 
 The Undergrotind Railroad 
 
 Most of this chapter must be devoted to features 
 of the slavery question, for it was this that kept the 
 people in a turmoil during the whole period we are 
 treating. 
 
 In 1850 the Fugitive Slave law was passed, by 
 Avhich a runaway slave could be caught in any of the 
 free States and taken back to his master. The worst 
 feature of this law was that any bystander was 
 obliged to help catch a fleeing negro if called on to 
 do so. A great many people felt that they ought to 
 aid the slave in escaping, but the law commanded 
 them to aid the pursuer. And thousands decided to 
 obey conscience and not the law of their country. 
 Hence came the Underground Railroad. 
 
 It was not a real railroad, under or above ground. 
 It was merely a system of helping slaves who were 
 trying to escape from bondage. The slave hunters 
 so often lost all trace of the fugitives that they de- 
 clared there must be an underground railroad some- 
 where. 
 
 When a slave ran away to try to gain his free- 
 dom, he usually aimed to get to Canada, because 
 there the laws of England made him free. A great 
 many succeeded, but very few would have done so 
 had they not been helped along the way by " con- 
 
 247 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 duetors," or " station agents " of the Underground 
 Railroad. These were farmers or others who fed 
 and sheltered the fleeing blacks in their homes or 
 sometimes in a haymow or coal mine. Certain towns 
 and farmhouses were called stations. The negroes 
 often traveled at night and remained hidden away at 
 one of the stations during the day. In this way 
 hundreds of them gained their freedom. But some- 
 times they were caught and then their lot was made 
 harder than before. 
 
 But it must be remembered that a great many of 
 the slaves did not wish to be free. Many were kind- 
 ly treated by their masters and preferred to stay 
 with them. Others were too ignorant to know what 
 freedom was. 
 
 Nevertheless many did want to be free, and most 
 people in the North believed that if a man were held 
 in bondage for no crime, he ought to have his free- 
 dom if he wished it — and they were willing to aid 
 him if they could. 
 
 There were many lines of the so-called Under- 
 ground Railroad through the free States. A few 
 examples of slave catching, or attempted slave catch- 
 ing, will be interesting. 
 
 There was a slave woman, almost white, who had 
 escaped and made her home in Philadelphia. Tier 
 name was Harriet Tubman. She would make an 
 excursion to Virginia, or Maryland, gather a com- 
 pany of blacks and pilot them to Philadelphia. Some- 
 times she would accompany them to Canada. This 
 woman is said to have made seventeen trips to the 
 
 248 
 
The Decade Before the War 
 
 slave States and rescued scores of her race. She 
 would carry babies in baskets and keep them quiet 
 with drugs. Harriet Tubman came to be called the 
 " Moses of her people." During the Civil War she 
 was employed in the Northern armies as a scout and 
 
 spy- 
 
 A good example to illustrate the working of the 
 Underground Road was the case of Tom and Jenny, 
 in northeastern Ohio. Tom and Jenny were a col- 
 ored man and his wife who had escaped from slavery. 
 They traveled on foot toward Canada, leisurely, as 
 they thought all danger of recapture was past and be- 
 cause they had two children so young that they had to 
 be carried most of the way. After spending a night 
 at the little town of Bloomfield they started on the 
 following morning. 
 
 Next day two horsemen stopped at the tavern of 
 the same town and while at supper they asked the 
 waitress if any colored folks had passed that way. 
 " Yes," was her answer, " a man and his wife and 
 two children." The men seemed greatly pleased, 
 and after inquiring the direction in which the fugi- 
 tives had gone, they decided to remain at the tavern 
 overnight, as they were sure of an easy catch next 
 day. The girl now saw that the men were slave 
 hunters and became alarmed for the colored people 
 whom she had innocently betrayed. She hurried to 
 Mr. Harris, the tavern keeper, and told the whole 
 story. 
 
 Harris was not long deciding what to do. He se- 
 cretly secured two strong horses and a covered wagon. 
 
 249 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Then he found two strong men, John Weed and Jim 
 Green, and told them what he wanted. " Hide them 
 in the wagon and bring them back to Bloomfield, and 
 we will decide what to do then," said Harris. The 
 two slave hunters went to bed while John Weed and 
 Jim Green started north at a good round pace and 
 drove all night. 
 
 ISText morning the slave hunters had to have their 
 horses shod, and Mr. Barnes, the blacksmith, had 
 more bad luck while shoeing those horses than he had 
 ever had before. He broke some nails and drove 
 others amiss. One shoe was too small and had to 
 be taken off; he mislaid this and that, and in fact he 
 spent most of the forenoon shoeing the horses. Prob- 
 ably he had received a wink from Harris. 
 
 That night the two slave hunters stopped at a little 
 town, at the same tavern with Jim Green and John 
 Weed. In a bam near by were the blacks and next 
 morning they saw through the cracks their pursuers 
 saddle their horses and canter away to the IS^orth. 
 But their prey had found the Underground Railroad 
 and disappeared. Green and Weed brought their 
 load back to Bloomfield. The men of the town then 
 came together with saws and axes and went to the 
 middle of a deep forest owned by Mr. Harris. Here 
 they built a cabin half a mile from any road and 
 here the colored family was safely lodged. They 
 were fed by the people of Bloomfield, and in this 
 cabin they remained till the next spring, when they 
 proceeded on their way to Canada. 
 
 One more example will show the great hardships 
 250 
 
The Decade Before the War 
 
 endured sometimes by a slave to obtain his freedom. 
 The case is that of a young negro named Henry 
 Brown, of Richmond, Va. He devised a novel plan 
 to get to a free State and it came near proving fatal 
 to him. He stowed himself in a wooden box, which 
 was then sent by express to Philadelphia. His posi- 
 tion was very much cramped, but he believed that 
 he could endure it till he reached his destination. 
 With a few biscuits and a bladder of water, he had 
 a friend nail up the box securely and start it on 
 its way. 
 
 A telegram was then sent to the underground 
 agents at Philadelphia, " Your case of goods is 
 shipped and will arrive to-morrow morning." The 
 box was marked " This side up with care." 
 
 But the expressmen were not always careful to ob- 
 serve this, and part of the time Brown had to rest 
 on his head. 
 
 The journey required twenty-six hours. Arriv- 
 ing in Philadelphia, the box was soon taken to a 
 private room by those who had watched for it. They 
 tapped on the box and heard a faint voice from 
 within, " All right, sir." 
 
 Quickly the box was opened with saw and ham- 
 mer and Henry Brown was taken out, stiff and half 
 dead. But having revived in a short time, he said 
 that he had decided, if he came through alive, the 
 first thing he would do would be to sing the fortieth 
 Psalm. All about him grew solemnly silent and he 
 sang, beginning with the words, " I waited patiently 
 for the Lord ; and he inclined unto me, and heard my 
 
 251 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 cry." Henry Brown was henceforth known to his 
 friends as Henry Box Brown. 
 
 Deed Scott and John Brown 
 
 In the later fifties these two names — Dred Scott 
 and John Brown — were on every tongue and were 
 familiar to every section of the United States — all 
 on account of the slavery agitation. 
 
 Dred Scott was a slave, the property of Dr. Emer- 
 son of Missouri, an army surgeon. The doctor took 
 Dred with him to Illinois and afterwards to the ter- 
 ritory that became Minnesota, as he happened to be 
 stationed at these places by order of the Government. 
 Dred had, with his master's consent, married a wom- 
 an of his own race, who was also a slave of Dr. Emer- 
 son. The Scotts had two children. 
 
 After the doctor had returned to Missouri, Dred 
 brought suit in the courts for his freedom and that 
 of his family, on the ground that he had been held 
 in bondage on free soil, contrary to law. After go- 
 ing through the lower courts in Missouri, the case 
 was carried to the Supreme Court of the United 
 States — and hence we have the famous " Dred Scott 
 Decision." 
 
 Chief Justice Taney pronounced the decision 
 (though his colleagues did not all agree with him) 
 that Dred was still a slave and that a negro had no 
 right to sue in the courts. 
 
 This decision caused great agitation all over the 
 North. Many believed that if the slaveholders were 
 
 252 
 
The Decade Before the War 
 
 thus permitted to retain their human property on 
 free soil, it would not be long until all the free 
 States would become slave States. They were doubt- 
 less needlessly alarmed. 
 
 Dred Scott was given his freedom after the court 
 had decided against him ; but the excitement over the 
 decision was not allayed and in the end it did the 
 cause of slavery harm, as it awakened more and more 
 opposition to it in the l^orth. 
 
 Now a few words about John Brown. When a 
 boy of thirteen John Brown accompanied his father 
 while hauling supplies for the army in Ohio and 
 Kentucky, in the War of 1812. 
 
 For some days Mr. Brown and the boy stayed at 
 the home of a rich Kentucky planter, who had a 
 slave, a bright colored boy about John's age. While 
 John was treated with great kindness the slave boy 
 was scolded and cuffed without cause. This differ- 
 ence in their treatment made a deep impression on 
 John Brown. Why should this boy, who happened 
 to be black and to be bom in slavery, be so treated ? 
 And why such a hopeless life of bondage before him ? 
 At this time a mortal life-long hatred of slavery stuck 
 deep into the soul of John Brovm. 
 
 As he grew to manhood he vowed over and again 
 that he would give his life to fighting this institution 
 which he despised. As the years passed he had a 
 family of his own, and, in imitation of the father of 
 Hannibal, the ancient Carthagenian general, he had 
 his sons take an oath that they, too, would spend 
 their lives fighting slavery. 
 
 253 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 When his sons were grown and he was past middle 
 age serious trouble between the free State and slavery 
 people broke out in Kansas and Brown went thither 
 to battle for freedom. But it was a little later, in 
 1859, that Brown did the one thing that made him 
 famous. 
 
 With a company of about twenty, several of whom 
 were his sons, he swooped down one night on Har- 
 per's Ferry, in Virginia, and captured the Govern- 
 ment arsenal, after overpowering the guards. Many 
 shots were iSred and several were killed on each side, 
 two being Brown's sons. When the news of the at- 
 tack was learned at Washington, Government troops 
 were sent and Brown, with his followers who re- 
 mained alive, was overpowered and placed under 
 arrest. 
 
 Brown's intention was to seize the arms and am- 
 munition of the arsenal, escape to the mountains, 
 and to call upon the slaves to follow him and secure 
 their freedom by force. A practical man of well- 
 balanced judgment would have known that such an 
 attempt could not succeed. 
 
 Brown was tried for murder in the courts of Vir- 
 ginia, was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. 
 He spent the time till his execution in the greatest 
 serenity of mind, rejoicing that he was permitted 
 to die in a good cause. When on his way to the 
 scaffold he had two or three silver quarters in his 
 pocket and these he handed to negroes, and it is said 
 that he stopped to kiss a negro baby in its mother's 
 arms. 
 
 254 
 
^^juglj^ 
 
 I ~ ■ti'iiiiin*^ * 
 
 The Last ^loments of John Brown. 
 
The Decade Before the War 
 
 John Brown has been denounced as a villain and 
 praised as a hero. He was neither. He was a mis- 
 guided fanatic, and probably the truth is that on this 
 one subject of slavery he was insane. 
 
 Closing this chapter with a more pleasing subject, 
 we shall proceed to the stirring times of the Civil 
 War. 
 
 The First Atlantic Cable 
 
 One day, in the year 1854, a wealthy retired mer- 
 chant, while sitting in his office in New York in 
 deep study, was thrilled by a thought which he after- 
 wards compared to an electric shock. 
 
 The man was Cyrus W. Field and the thought 
 that came to him was that a cable telegraph line un- 
 der the Atlantic Ocean might be constructed. Mr. 
 Field afterwards found that he was not the first to 
 conceive the idea of a submarine cable, but he was 
 the first to put it into practice. He was not a 
 dreamer who thinks and never acts. He set about 
 with great diligence to form a company and raise 
 money to try the experiment. 
 
 Mr. Field was a public-spirited citizen, always 
 ready to do anything in his power for the public 
 good. He reflected what an advantage to civiliza- 
 tion it would be if Morse's great invention could be 
 used between countries on opposite sides of the ocean. 
 He soon had a company formed and a large sum of 
 money raised. He then went to England and laid 
 his project before the Queen, the Government, and 
 the wealthy men of London. His success was greater 
 
 255 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 than he had expected. The British Government of- 
 fered to furnish money and vessels for laying the 
 cable, and the United States also passed an act to 
 aid Mr. Field. 
 
 It was decided that the cable be laid from St. 
 Johns, ISTewfoundland, to the coast of Ireland, where 
 the Atlantic is only about 1700 miles wide. The 
 ends were to be connected by land telegraph with 
 'New York and London. 
 
 A submarine cable is made by inclosing several 
 strands of fine copper wire in a covering of gutta 
 percha. Around this is a layer of tarred jute and 
 then the whole is inclosed in a shield of galvanized 
 iron wires. The water never penetrates to the inner 
 copper wires, which carry the electric current. 
 
 Mr. Field ordered the cable made. When finished 
 it was placed in two ships, the Niagara, an American 
 vessel, and the Agamemnon, a British vessel. The 
 Niagara was to use up its cable first and then, in 
 mid-ocean, the part carried by the Agamemnon was 
 to be spliced to it. On the Niagara were Mr. Field 
 and Professor Morse, the inventor of the telegraph. 
 
 Slowly the vessels moved out from the coast of 
 Ireland, the cable unrolling from a large cylinder 
 and dropping to the bottom of the sea. Great was 
 the anxiety of Mr. Field, who had scarcely slept 
 for several days, in anticipation of success to his proj- 
 ect. The feeling of the whole company, said the eye 
 witness, was one of solemnity and awe. Everyone 
 seemed to feel that a great event in the world's his- 
 tory was about to take place. 
 
 256 
 
The Decade Before the War 
 
 One hundred miles and everything was going 
 swimmingly. Another hundred and still another 
 they sailed from Ireland, without incident. But 
 before they had gone another fifty miles the cable 
 parted and the end fell to the bottom of the ocean. 
 This was in August, 1857. 
 
 The disappointment was keen to all who had been 
 interested in the great project. Many believed that 
 this failure was final and that a trans-Atlantic cable 
 was but a dream. Wot so with Mr. Field. He knew 
 no such word as fail. The summer was well-nigh 
 spent and no further attempt could be made that 
 season. But scarcely had Mr. Field landed when 
 he set to work to repair the damage, with a view of 
 trying again the next year. 
 
 Again he tried and failed, and still again; but 
 Mr. Field would not give up. He was convinced 
 that success was certain if they only had pluck 
 enough to stick to it. 
 
 It was decided that this time the two ships pay 
 out the cable at the same time, while sailing in op- 
 posite directions. Accordingly, they began in the 
 middle of the ocean, spliced their cable, and one 
 sailed east and the other west. 
 
 At last, the effort was crowned with success. The 
 Niagara reached the coast of l^ewfoundland and the 
 Agamemnon the coast of Ireland on the same day — 
 the 4th of August, 1858 — and almost the same hour. 
 The great work was done and it seemed successful 
 in every respect. President Buchanan and Queen 
 Victoria exchanged messages of congratulation. Cy- 
 
 257 
 
A Guide to 'American History 
 
 rus W. Field was hailed in all circles as the great 
 hero of the age. 
 
 For nearly four weeks the cable worked well. 
 Some 730 messages, about 10,000 words, were flashed 
 under the sea between the two hemispheres. Then 
 suddenly the cable ceased to work, and not another 
 message was sent for eight years. 
 
 Here indeed was a supreme test of the metal of 
 Mr. Field. But he was equal to it. More than a 
 million dollars had been literally sunk in the depths 
 of the Atlantic's waves. Could Mr. Field again in- 
 terest the public and raise the necessary funds. He 
 felt surer of success than at first, because he had 
 learned by his failures. But soon came the Civil 
 War and there was little opportunity to interest the 
 American public. Mr. Field thereupon went to Lon- 
 don and again he found the British Government 
 eager to aid him. 
 
 The next attempt was made in the summer of 1865. 
 One vessel only was employed — the Great Eastern, 
 the largest vessel afloat at that time. For 1200 miles 
 it paid out the cable from the Irish coast, when again 
 it snapped and sank to the bottom. Field now be- 
 came desperately determined, and the next year the 
 Great Eastern was again plowing through the At- 
 lantic's billows rolling off a new cable at the rate of 
 118 miles a day. 
 
 Success at last! For some days before the Great 
 Eastern was due at Heart's Content, Newfoundland, 
 the shore was lined with hundreds of people, watch- 
 ing every speck that loomed above the watery horizon. 
 
 258 
 
The Decade Before the War 
 
 At length the huge vessel hove in sight — on July 27, 
 1866 — and before night of that day, Cyrus W. Field 
 sent to l^ew York and Washington the following 
 message : " We arrived here at nine o'clock this morn- 
 ing. All well. Thank God, the cable is laid, and 
 is in perfect working order." 
 
 Not long after this the Great Eastern returned 
 to mid-ocean, where the cable of the year before 
 had been broken, and with grappling hooks succeeded 
 in finding the end of it. This was spliced and com- 
 pleted to !Newfoundland. Thus before the end of 
 the year 1866 two Atlantic cables were in working 
 order and both have been in operation from that day 
 to the present. 
 
 The completion of this great work marks an epoch 
 in history. This vast improvement in the transmis- 
 sion of news would have come some time, to be sure, 
 but the world might have been many years longer 
 without it, but for the untiring efforts, the indomit- 
 able determination of one of America's most distin- 
 guished citizens, Cyrus W. Field. 
 
 259 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 THE GREAT WAR 
 
 A CIVIL war is one between the different parts 
 of, or classes of people in, the same country. 
 It is like a family quarrel, and is the most deplor- 
 able of all wars, for neighbor often fights against 
 neighbor, brother against brother, father against son. 
 In France there were nine civil wars in a period 
 of thirty-six years, beginning in 1562. 
 
 The greatest of all civil wars was that in the 
 United States, between the North and the South, 
 beginning in 1861. For many years the ISTorth and 
 South had been growing apart, chiefly, almost solely, 
 on account of slavery. Fifteen of the Southern 
 States had slaves ; all the Northern States were free. 
 The South wished to extend slavery into the terri- 
 tories, and thus secure more slave States. The peo- 
 ple of the North opposed this, because they believed 
 slavery to be an evil to society as a whole and a 
 wrong to the individual slave. Thus the two great 
 sections of the country grew further and further 
 apart; the bonds of sympathy between them were 
 severed one by one until they seemed more like ene- 
 mies than friends. 
 
 Then came the election of Lincoln to the presi- 
 260 
 
3 
 
 O 
 
 03 
 
 pq 
 
The Great War 
 
 dency in 1860, followed by the secession from the 
 Union of several States in the South. For years 
 secession had been threatened, and now for the first 
 time it was carried out in deep earnest. The cause 
 or pretext for this move was that the newly elected 
 President and his party were unfriendly to slavery 
 and opposed to its extension into the Territories. 
 
 When Lincoln was inaugurated, March 4, 1861, 
 seven States had left the Union and had set up a 
 government of their own, which they called " The 
 Confederate States of America." 
 
 In the ISTorth, feeling was very much divided. 
 Some thought the South was only trying to play a 
 game of bluff, and would soon come back into the 
 Union of its own accord. A great many of the 
 people thought it would be better to have the Union 
 permanently divided than to engage in civil war. 
 Among these was Horace Greeley, the great New 
 York editor, who said, " Let the Southern sisters 
 depart in peace." But a majority of the Northern 
 people were unwilling to see the Union broken up, 
 even if it had to be preserved by war. 
 
 Such was the condition of affairs when Abraham 
 Lincoln stood on the eastern steps of the Capitol 
 before a vast crowd of people, to deliver his inaugu- 
 ral address. It was not known what position he 
 would take on the great question before the country. 
 With this one man rested the secret and on him 
 lay the duty of deciding whether there would be 
 war or disunion. Seldom in history had such re- 
 sponsibility rested on one man. 
 
 261 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Lincoln's address was not defiant, but it was posi- 
 tive, and no one could mistake its meaning. He told 
 the people of the South that the ills they were flying 
 from had no real existence, as he had no thought of 
 disturbing their institution of slavery. He told them 
 that they had no oath registered in heaven to destroy 
 the Union, while he should have a most solemn one 
 to protect it. This meant war if the South would 
 not give up its purpose of destroying the Union. 
 
 Soon came the firing on Fort Sumter, and the 
 great war was begun. It continued just four years, 
 and on the fourth anniversary of the fall of Fort 
 Sumter, April 14, 1865, the day on which the be- 
 loved President was shot, there was a celebration at 
 the historic fort, and Major Anderson raised over 
 the ruined walls the same flag that he had been 
 forced to haul down four years before. 
 
 The Wae in a N'utshell. 
 
 The military operations of the Civil War may 
 be divided for convenience into three periods. It 
 is needless for the ordinary reader to study the de- 
 tails of battles and of the movements of armies, but 
 a knowledge of the general campaigns and their pur- 
 poses is useful, and is not diflScult to acquire and 
 to remember. 
 
 One who reads the history of the war without 
 system or knowledge of the object of the various 
 campaigns will soon find his knowledge hopelessly 
 mixed in his mind. On the other hand, if one has 
 
 262 
 
The Great War 
 
 a fixed outline or system in mind, with its mean- 
 ing, all his subsequent reading on the subject will 
 contribute to his intelligent knowledge of it. His 
 mind will gather up additional items and stow them 
 in their proper places. Without pretending to give 
 here a history of the war, we shall attempt to fur- 
 nish the outline. 
 
 First Period. — This may be said to extend from 
 the firing on Fort Sumter in April to the close of 
 the year 1861. 
 
 There were simultaneous movements in two States 
 a thousand miles apart — Virginia and Missouri. In 
 each there was a serious battle in midsummer — Bull 
 Run and Wilson's Creek — and a minor engagement 
 in the autumn at Ball's Bluff. All resulted in Con- 
 federate victories. 
 
 A side movement of the period consisted of sev- 
 eral successful naval expeditions dovra. the Atlantic 
 coast, the only Union victories of the year except 
 those of McClellan in western "Virginia. 
 
 This period is characterized by unreadiness on 
 both sides and an absence of definite plans, by Union 
 defeats, by great public excitement, and by bugle 
 calls for men and the marshaling of great armies. 
 
 Second Period. — The second period extends from 
 the beginning of 1862 to July 4, 1863. This year 
 and a half was characterized by great battles, by 
 war on a gigantic scale, by a gradual rise of the 
 fortunes of the ITorth, ending with the highly im- 
 portant simultaneous Union victories at Vicksburg 
 and Gettysburg. 
 
 263 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 There were two seats of war — Virginia and the 
 Mississippi Valley — and there was a twofold object 
 of the ISTorth — to capture Richmond and to open 
 the Mississippi. But the armies east and west did 
 not work in concert for want of a competent com- 
 mander in chief. 
 
 The Army of the Potomac, under its successive 
 commanders — McClellan, Pope, Bumside, Hooker, 
 and Meade — failed wholly to reach its goal, met with 
 many disasters, but won notable victories at Antie- 
 tam and Gettysburg. 
 
 The Army of the "West was more steadily success- 
 ful. Beginning with a great victory at Fort Donel- 
 son, February, 1862, it opened the Mississippi to 
 Vicksburg by one of the greatest flank movements 
 in the history of warfare, covering a year and five 
 months, and, being supported from below by Parra- 
 gut, it gained control of the whole course of the 
 river. 
 
 The side movements of this period were numerous 
 and some of them of great magnitude, such as that 
 of Buell and Bragg in Kentucky, the Pea Pidge 
 campaign in Arkansas, Sherman's expedition up the 
 Ked River, Morgan's raid in Indiana and Ohio, and 
 the like. 
 
 Third Period. — This extends from the 4th of 
 July, 1863, to the end of the war. It is character- 
 ized by the fact that the Northern armies east and 
 west were under the control of one competent com- 
 mander in chief, resulting in the great final double 
 movement which ended the war. 
 
 264 
 
The Great War 
 
 Preliminary to this movement came the extensive 
 operations around Chattanooga, preceded by the tre- 
 mendous battle of Chickamauga. After this General 
 Grant became commander in chief of all the armies 
 east and west. He then planned the great double 
 movement. Himself taking command of the Army 
 of the East, Grant chose the strongest of his corps 
 commanders, W. T. Sherman, to command in the 
 West. 
 
 Grant's immediate goal was to capture Lee's army 
 and Richmond; Sherman's was to cut the Confed- 
 eracy into two parts by a grand sweep to the coast, 
 thence to move northward through the Carolinas, and 
 eventually to join Grant in Virginia. 
 
 It was believed that if either of these movements 
 were successful the Confederacy must collapse and 
 the war come to an end. Both were successful. 
 Sherman had traversed about three fourths of his 
 proposed route when Lee surrendered to Grant and 
 Eichmond fell. Johnston then surrendered to Sher- 
 man and the war was over. 
 
 Lincoln in the Wae 
 
 The greatest figure in the war was President Lin- 
 coln. No other can be mentioned in the same class. 
 It is true that he had reached the highest oflSce in 
 the gift of the people before the war began, but it 
 was his management of the war that gave him his 
 abiding fame and places his name with that of Wash- 
 ington as one of the two greatest figures in American 
 history. 
 
 265 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 The recent celebration of the centenary of Lin- 
 coln's birth has been pronounced the most sincere 
 and universal ever given any man in the history 
 of the world. 
 
 Since Lincoln's death his fame has been rising, 
 and probably a hundred years hence it will be greater 
 than it is now. Lincoln had many critics and ene- 
 mies during the war, and indeed very few recog- 
 nized the full stature of his ability. But the more 
 you examine into his words and actions the greater 
 he seems. Let us briefly examine what may be con- 
 sidered the three greatest acts of his life. 
 
 rirst among these was his management of the 
 Trent affair. Captain Wilkes, in October, 1861, 
 hailed the British steamer, the Trent, in West In- 
 dian waters, and forcibly took from her decks Mason 
 and Slidell, who had been sent to Europe in the 
 interest of the Confederacy by President Jefferson 
 Davis. Wilkes brought the two men to the United 
 States, and the people in all parts of the country 
 applauded and rejoiced at the clever capture. Con- 
 gress joined in the general rejoicing, and extended 
 Captain Wilkes a vote of thanks. The Cabinet was 
 also jubilant, but not Lincoln. He was serious and 
 noncommittal. 
 
 Meantime, England flew into a rage. She de- 
 clared that Wilkes had no right to stop one of her 
 vessels at sea; she demanded the release of the two 
 prisoners, and began to collect her fleet and mobilize 
 her armies. 
 
 The American people — a great majority of them 
 266 
 
The Great War 
 
 — said : " Let her come on ; it is cowardly to back 
 down and yield to her demands." Even the secretary 
 of state, Seward, declared that we could defeat Eng- 
 land and the South together. 
 
 Lincoln did not see the matter in that light. He 
 knew that if we declared war against England at 
 that time, that country would join the South, would 
 break the blockade, and would pour her armies and 
 munitions of war into the South. And, amid the 
 rejoicing of the people, Lincoln removed all danger 
 of another war by quietly acceding to the British 
 demand and releasing the prisoners. Was it coward- 
 ice ? !Not at all. The act was that of a cool-headed, 
 far-sighted statesman, who, in acting for millions of 
 people, felt a sense of responsibility that an ordinary 
 citizen cannot feel. This act of Lincoln was one of 
 the most masterly strokes of statesmanship produced 
 by the nineteenth century. 
 
 Another notable achievement of the great war 
 President is found in his dealing with the border 
 States. There were fifteen slave States, but only 
 eleven of them seceded from the Union. The re- 
 maining four were called border States. They were 
 Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware. Had 
 these seceded, it is doubtful if the Union could have 
 been saved. Lincoln knew this, and from the first 
 he set about it with great skill to prevent their 
 secession. 
 
 When the Kentucky Legislature called upon him 
 to regard that State as neutral and requested him 
 to keep the armies off its soil, he quietly answered 
 
 267 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 that he would do as they desired in as far as it 
 was convenient to do so. It was a strange request 
 for a member of the Union to make, and a rash 
 President would have answered defiantly and prob- 
 ably have driven the State into the Confederacy. 
 
 Again, when many were clamoring for emancipa- 
 tion of the slaves and denouncing Lincoln for being 
 so slow, he waited and let them rail as they chose. 
 He knew that the border States, all being slave 
 States, might yet be driven out of the Union if he 
 should be hasty in striking at slavery. He often 
 met with the members of Congress from the border 
 States and urged them to abolish slavery of their 
 own accord, promising them that he would recom- 
 mend that the Government pay the slaveholders for 
 their slaves. In various other ways Lincoln kept the 
 good will of the border States, and no doubt it was 
 chiefly due to him that they did not secede. 
 
 A third great act of Lincoln's life was his issuing 
 the Emancipation Proclamation — at the right time. 
 It is true that the idea was not original with him. 
 Thousands of people thought of it at the same time, 
 and many urged him to act long before he acted. 
 Had he been hasty he would have offended the 
 border States. He let his critics abuse him and 
 Avaited. When he felt that the border States were 
 reasonably sure to remain in the Union, when he 
 saw that public opinion was ready to support him, 
 he issued the great document. 
 
 The proclamation did not free the slaves nor cause 
 the South to lay down its arms, and Lincoln knew 
 
 268 
 
00 
 
 -a 
 
 c3 
 
 
The Great War 
 
 that it would not. The Declaration of Independence 
 did not bring independence. It simply decided what 
 the people were fighting for, and it took several 
 more years of warfare to really get what they wanted. 
 So with the Emancipation Proclamation. It put 
 the war on a new basis. Before it was issued, the 
 war was fought for one purpose only — to save the 
 Union. After this it was fought for two purposes 
 — to save the Union and to free the slaves. If the 
 war had closed before January 1, 1863, when the 
 proclamation was to go into effect, slavery would 
 have continued in the South. That result would 
 have been unfortunate, for slavery would probably 
 have caused trouble in the future, as it had in the 
 past. It was a glorious thing for the future of the 
 country that disunion and slavery were crushed to- 
 gether. And the credit for bringing about these two 
 momentous victories is due chiefly to the consum- 
 mate skill of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 • Siege of Vicksbueg 
 
 As stated before, we shall make no attempt to give 
 a detailed history of the war, but here let us make 
 an exception and take a look at one of the scores 
 of military operations, choosing the siege of Vicks- 
 burg as our subject. 
 
 Vicksburg, some four hundred miles above 'Nevr 
 Orleans, is beautifully situated in a bend of the 
 Mississippi, on a bluff about two hundred feet above 
 the river. Early in the war it was fortified by the 
 
 269 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Confederates, and along the side of the hill over- 
 looking the river v^ere placed tier upon tier of bris- 
 tling cannon. It was considered very important to 
 the Confederates to retain control of the lower Mis- 
 sissippi, that they might continue to draw men and 
 supplies from Arkansas and Texas for the armies 
 of the East. 
 
 Vicksburg was indeed a veritable Gibraltar of the 
 South, a sentinel watching day and night the rolling 
 tide of the mighty river. As long as the South could 
 hold this great fortress the States of the Southwest 
 would not be cut off from their sisters of the East, 
 but with the fall of Vicksburg into the hands of 
 the North, the lower course of the river could not 
 long be held. 
 
 At the opening of the war there was a great rising 
 of the men of the !N^orthwest, not only to save the 
 Union but also to save the river. Should the South 
 succeed in the war, this great artery of trade, their 
 own beloved river, would flow for a thousand miles 
 through a foreign land. The thought of this they 
 could not endure, and they determined to prevent 
 it by force of arms. And it was known at the l^orth 
 that to capture Vicksburg was to capture the Missis- 
 sippi. Thus we see how important to both sides 
 was this powerful stronghold. 
 
 From the beginning one great object of the Union 
 army in the West was to open the Mississippi. To 
 this end General Grant collected an army at Cairo, 
 111., moved up the Tennessee River, and captured 
 Fort Donelson in February, 1862. In April was 
 
 270 
 
The Great War 
 
 fought the terrific two-day battle of Pittsburg Land- 
 ing, or Shiloh. 
 
 The object of the campaign seemed yet far away, 
 and for more than a year after Shiloh no great vic- 
 tory marked the progress of the Union arms. In 
 the early spring of 1863 General Grant determined 
 to bend his energies toward the capture of Vicksburg. 
 Many attempts were made to get near, and at last, 
 about the middle of May, the Union army coiled 
 itself like an anaconda about the doomed city, and 
 began one of the most famous sieges in history. 
 
 Within the city were penned the regular inhabi- 
 tants and an army of about 40,000 men. This army, 
 commanded by General Pemberton, made a brave 
 and desperate resistance. 
 
 Grant decided to make a grand assault, in the 
 hope of scaling the Confederate embankments and 
 capturing the city by storm. This was done on the 
 22d of May. For many hours the boys in blue 
 fought like madmen to win the prize; they surged 
 up the embankment again and again, but the boys 
 in gray drove them back with fearful slaughter. 
 The cannon from the surrounding hills and from 
 the gunboats were answered by the booming cannon 
 on the Confederate ramparts. The roll of musketry 
 was so continuous that no ear could distinguish one 
 shot from another. Human blood flowed like rain, 
 and when evening came the Union army had lost 
 3,000 men. 
 
 It was now evident that the works could not be 
 carried by storm, and the Union army settled down 
 
 271 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 to a regular siege. For six weeks the bombardment 
 ■was kept up and the besieging army was ever tight- 
 ening its coils. The soldiers dug tunnels, rolled 
 barrels of powder into them, and exploded them in 
 the hope of making a breach in the Confederate em- 
 bankments, but all without effect. Midsummer ap- 
 proached, and it seemed that the prisoners in the city 
 would never yield. 
 
 Let us take a glance within. How were the people 
 faring? The roar of battle was unceasing day and 
 night, and the screaming shells from the gunboats 
 in the river rose in grand curves over the city, burst- 
 ing in midair or on the streets, wrecking houses or 
 tearing great holes in the earth. 
 
 One family was about to go to the dining room 
 and sit down to supper when a bombshell dropped 
 through the roof to the dining room, where it burst 
 and tore everything to pieces. The china and fur- 
 niture were shattered to fragments and a great hole 
 was torn in the floor. The maid had gone into the 
 kitchen a moment before, and thus her life was saved 
 and no one was hurt. That family spent the next 
 night in a hole in the ground. 
 
 The people, seeing that their lives were not safe 
 in their homes, burrowed into the ground like moles 
 or rabbits. The whole city was honeycombed with 
 caves, and in these dismal places the people ate and 
 slept while the battle raged above the ground. In 
 one large subterranean den sixty-five people found a 
 home. Babies were kept in store boxes, in straw, 
 or wrapped in blankets. 
 
 272 
 
The Great War 
 
 But it was not all gloom in these caverns. Some- 
 times the inmates danced and sang and told stories; 
 then again they were terrified at the near bursting 
 of a shell, which would tear the ground above them 
 and perhaps shatter the clay walls of their homes. 
 But it happened that in all the long siege no one 
 was killed in these underground abodes. 
 
 The people did not remain all the time in these 
 caverns. Sometimes when the sound of the cannon 
 seemed to lull they would go out and stroll around, 
 but when the artillery began firing again they would 
 run for their holes like frightened rabbits. An Epis- 
 copal rector came out at a certain hour every day 
 and held service in a little church, and it was al- 
 ways filled with worshipers. Only once was the 
 sacred edifice struck during service, and then no one 
 was hurt. 
 
 As the weeks passed the food supply began to run 
 low in Vicksburg. The army and the people were 
 put on short rations, then shorter and shorter, until 
 there was nothing to eat except mule meat and a 
 kind of bread made of cornmeal and ground beans. 
 Even these were becoming exhausted, and as the 
 month of June came to a close it was evident to all 
 that the city must surrender to the Federal army. 
 It was hunger, and nothing else, that forced the brave 
 defenders to give up at last. 
 
 On the 3d of July, at two o'clock in the morning, 
 a white flag was seen waving above the rampart. The 
 cannon ceased to roar, and in the afternoon of that 
 day Generals Grant and Pemberton met under an 
 
 273 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 oak tree and arranged for the surrender of the city. 
 Thirty-seven thousand men were made prisoners of 
 war, and the inhabitants emerged from their dens 
 and caverns and began to repair their dilapidated 
 homes. 
 
 This important victory, together with the Union 
 victory at the battle of Gettysburg, which happened 
 at the same time, is considered the turning point of 
 the great war. From this time on it was not diffi- 
 cult to see that disimion would not succeed and that 
 slavery in the United States must perish. 
 
 274 
 
B 
 
 J2 
 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 ANECDOTES AND STORIES OF THE WAR 
 
 TPVURING the long war there was much suffering, 
 ■*— ' and too often there was cruelty; but there are 
 many bright spots on the dark pages of the war his- 
 tory. Deeds of heroism unsurpassed, kindness to a 
 fallen foe, friendship between enemies, ludicrous and 
 humorous situations — these and many other things 
 must be included in the history of the great Civil 
 War. 
 
 Feiendlt Enemies 
 
 "When the war first broke out, and for some time 
 afterwards, there was a feeling of personal hostility 
 between the soldiers of the two sides. A man in blue 
 uniform was treated with indignity if he fell into 
 the hands of the enemy, and the same was true of the 
 man in gray. But the conditions were changed long 
 before the war was over. The men of each side came 
 to respect their enemies. They often talked and 
 joked across the line when no battle was in progress. 
 Pickets of the different sides would often meet and 
 spend the night together in the most friendly com- 
 panionship. 
 
 When the opposing armies were encamped on op- 
 275 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 posite sides of the Little Rapidan River, in Virginia, 
 sometimes even the officers in bathing would meet 
 and shake hands in the middle of the stream. The 
 men often traded, Southern tobacco usually being 
 bartered for I^orthern coffee. Sometimes men scan- 
 tily clad would swim across the river, merely to pay 
 a friendly visit to the enemy. 
 
 One day the Southern general, J. B. Gordon, was 
 riding along his lines, when at one point he noticed 
 unusual commotion, and asked: 
 
 " What's the matter here ? What is this confu- 
 sion about ? " 
 
 " IsTothing at all, general, it is all right," answered 
 the men. 
 
 As he was about to ride on he noticed the tall 
 weeds on the river bank shaking. He wheeled his 
 horse about and asked: 
 
 " What's the matter with those weeds ? " 
 
 " Nothing, general, nothing." 
 
 " Go break them down and let me see." 
 
 The men did so and here lay a man so nearly un- 
 dressed that it could not be told by his uniform 
 which side he belonged to. 
 
 " Where do you belong ? " asked the officer. 
 
 " Over yonder," the man replied, pointing to the 
 Union army across the river. 
 
 " And what are you doing here ? Don't you know, 
 sir, that there is war going on in this country ? " 
 
 " Yes, general ; but we are not fighting now, and 
 I didn't think it any harm to come over and visit 
 the Johnnies a little while." 
 
 276 
 
Anecdotes and Stories of the War 
 
 The Union men always spoke of the Confederates 
 as Johnnies, and the Confederates called them Yan- 
 kees, or Yanks. 
 
 General Gordon could hardly keep from laughing, 
 but pretended to be very stem, and said to the Yan- 
 kee : " I'm going to teach you that we are at war. 
 I'm going to send you to Richmond as a prisoner." 
 
 The man turned pale. Then the Johnnies spoke 
 up : " Don't send him to prison, general ; we invited 
 the Yank over, and promised to protect him." 
 
 Gordon then turned to the trembling Yank and 
 said : " ISTow, if I permit you to go, will you promise 
 me, on the honor of a soldier " 
 
 The man did not wait till the general had fin- 
 ished. He shouted, " Yes, general," and leaped into 
 the water like a bullfrog, and swam to the Union 
 side of the river. 
 
 This incident is taken from General Gordon's 
 " Reminiscences of the Civil War," and here is an- 
 other from the same: 
 
 When General Longstreet was besieging Knoxville, 
 Tenn., a number of his troops made a brave dash 
 to capture a fort, but were beaten back. As they 
 fled they leaped into a deep ditch to escape the 
 shower of bullets. From this they could not hope 
 to get out before night without incurring the greatest 
 danger. The sun was boiling down on them. They 
 were out of water and almost famished with thirst. 
 
 A young soldier offered to go for water, though 
 he took his life in his hands. He succeeded in reach- 
 ing the river, filled several canteens, and threw them 
 
 277 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 over his shoulder. He saw a score of muskets lev- 
 eled at him. How could he hope to get back alive ? 
 But he was determined to risk the attempt. He 
 started to run. The men in the fort were struck 
 with admiration at his bravery. They fired not a 
 shot. They raised a shout and cheered and cheered 
 until the youth had reached his comrades in the ditch. 
 
 Here is a story told by Major Nelson, of Indiana : 
 He was on picket duty and it was late in the night 
 when a Confederate picket, not far away, called to 
 him : " Hello there, Yank ! Have you got any cof- 
 fee?" 
 
 " Yes ; come over and share it with us," answered 
 IsTelson. 
 
 " We would like to, but there are too many of us 
 — fourteen of us on this post." 
 
 " Come, anyhow. Bring all the Johnnies with 
 you. We'll divide with you." 
 
 Until two o'clock in the morning the Blue and 
 the Gray mingled together, drank coffee, and told 
 stories. When the Johnnies left, they said: 
 
 " Good night, Yanks. You've been awfully kind 
 to us. Hope you'll have a good rest. We are going 
 to give you battle to-morrow." 
 
 The Little Deummek Boy 
 
 One of the most pathetic tales of the war comes 
 from Missouri. A woman from East Tennessee, 
 whose husband had espoused the Union cause and 
 had been killed by the enemy, came, with her little 
 
 278 
 
Anecdotes and Stories of the War 
 
 son, to Missouri in search of her sister, who lived 
 in St. Louis. She intended to seek employment, 
 and she thought also that her hoj, who was twelve 
 years of age, might be useful to the army as a drum- 
 mer. At Camp Benton, in Missouri, she applied 
 to the captain and told her story, asking that her 
 boy be taken into the service as a drummer. The 
 captain was about to declare that so small a boy 
 could not be accepted when the little fellow spoke 
 out: 
 
 " Captain, don't be afraid ; I can drum. I 
 drummed for Captain Hill in Tennessee." 
 
 This was said with so much decision and confi- 
 dence that the captain changed his countenance. 
 " Very well, my lad, we'll give you a trial. Ser- 
 geant, bring the drum and order the fifer to come 
 forward." 
 
 The fifer was an angular, bony man, over six feet 
 in height. He had been a miner in the West. He 
 looked down as if amused to think of this little 
 fellow becoming his chum. He then straightened 
 himself up, put his fife to his lips and played one 
 of the most difficult selections he could find. The 
 captain listened carefully, and when the piece was 
 finished he turned to the mother and said : " I will 
 take your son, madam. What is his name ? " 
 
 " Edward Lee," answered the mother, " and we 
 call him Eddie. And oh, captain, if he is not 
 killed " 
 
 Here she broke down and, turning to her boy, 
 threw her arms around him and covered his face 
 
 279 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 with kisses. Again she recovered herself and said: 
 " You will bring him back, captain, won't you ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes ; we are to be discharged in six weeks. 
 Of course we will bring him back to you." 
 
 Eddie soon became a favorite with every man in 
 the company. When any of the " boys," as soldiers 
 usually call one another, went out foraging and came 
 in with peaches, melons, and such things, Eddie's 
 share was always set aside first. 
 
 The company was soon ordered from Rolla to 
 Springfield. In the march they had to cross swamps 
 and ford streams, and it was amusing to see the 
 long-legged fifer wading through mud and water with 
 Eddie on his back. 
 
 It was in August, 1861. The Union army, com- 
 manded by General Lyon, encountered the enemy in 
 force on the banks of a little stream called Wilson's 
 Creek, where a hard battle was fought on the 10th. 
 The Union forces fought bravely, but were driven 
 back, and their brave commander was killed. Their 
 hearts sank within them when the word was passed 
 along, " General Lyon is killed." 
 
 Where was our little drummer boy ? Let us finish 
 the story in the words of the one man, a member of 
 Eddie's company, who alone could tell the story with 
 authority. 
 
 " That night I was detailed for guard duty, my 
 turn of guard closing with the morning call. When 
 I went out with the officer as relief I found that 
 my post was upon a high eminence that overlooked 
 the deep ravine in which our men had engaged the 
 
 280 
 
Anecdotes and Stories of the War 
 
 enemj. It was a dreary, lonesome beat. The moon 
 had gone down in the early part of the night, while 
 the stars twinkled dimly through a hazy atmosphere, 
 lighting up imperfectly the surrounding objects. Oc- 
 casionally I would place my ear near the ground and 
 listen for the sound of footsteps, but all was silent 
 save the far-off howling wolf that seemed to scent 
 upon the evening air the banquet that we had been 
 preparing for him. The hours passed slowly away, 
 when at length the morning light began to streak 
 along the eastern sky. Presently I heard a drum 
 beat up the morning call. At first I thought it came 
 from the camp of the enemy across the creek, but 
 as I listened I found that it came up from the deep 
 ravine. For a few minutes it was silent, and then 
 as it became more light I heard it again. I listened 
 — the sound of the drum was familiar to me — and 
 I knew that it was our 
 
 Drummer boy from Tennessee; 
 Beating for help the reveille. 
 
 " I was about to desert my post to go to his as- 
 sistance when I discovered the officer of the guard 
 approaching with two men. We all listened to the 
 sound, and were satisfied that it was Eddie's drum. 
 I asked permission to go to his assistance. The 
 officer hesitated, saying that the orders were to march 
 in twenty minutes. I promised to be back in that 
 time, and he consented. I immediately started down 
 the hill through the thick undergrowth, and upon 
 reaching the valley I followed the sound of the drum 
 
 281 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 and soon found him, seated upon the ground, his 
 back leaning against the trunk of a fallen tree, while 
 his drum hung upon a bush in front of him, reach- 
 ing nearly to the ground. As soon as he discovered 
 me he dropped his drumsticks and exclaimed: 
 
 " ' Oh, corporal, I am so glad to see you ! Give 
 me a drink,' reaching out his hand for my canteen, 
 which was empty. 
 
 " I immediately turned to bring him some water 
 from the brook that I could hear rippling through 
 the bushes near by when, thinking I was about to 
 leave him, he commenced crying, saying : ' Don't 
 leave me, corporal; I can't walk.' I was soon back 
 with the water, when I discovered that both of his 
 feet had been shot away by a cannon ball. After 
 satisfying his thirst, he looked up into my face and 
 said: 
 
 " ' You don't think I will die, corporal, do you ? 
 This man said I would not; he said the surgeon 
 could cure my feet.' 
 
 " I now discovered a man lying in the grass near 
 him. By his dress I recognized him as belonging 
 to the enemy. It appeared that he had been shot 
 through the bowels, and had fallen near where Eddie 
 lay. Knowing that he could not live, and seeing 
 the condition of the boy, he had crawled to him, 
 taken off his buckskin suspenders, and corded the 
 little fellow's legs below the knee, and then laid 
 down and died. While Eddie was telling me these 
 particulars I heard the tramp of cavalry coming 
 down the ravine, and in a moment a scout of the 
 
 282 
 
Anecdotes and Stories of the War 
 
 enemy was upon us and I was taken prisoner. I 
 requested the officer to take Eddie up in front of 
 him, and he did so, carrying him with great ten- 
 derness and care. 
 
 " When we reached the camp of the enemy the 
 little fellow was dead." 
 
 Self-sacrifice and Devotion 
 
 There was a young soldier from Massachusetts 
 named Broad, who deserves a place among the he- 
 roes for his noble self-sacrifice. 
 
 It was in the Virginia campaign in 1864. His 
 company was fighting from behind an embankment, 
 when one of their number ventured too far out and 
 was struck by a solid shot, his leg being nearly torn 
 from his body. He rolled down the bank, in plain 
 view of his comrades and of the enemy, and was 
 unable to rise. The lifeblood was spurting from 
 his wound, and he must soon bleed to death if not 
 cared for. If only he could receive surgical atten- 
 tion his life might be saved; but with the bullets 
 flying around like hail it was a most dangerous task 
 to attempt his rescue. 
 
 The captain looked at his men as though saying 
 with his eyes, " Who will volunteer to save our 
 comrade ? " At this moment young Broad stepped 
 forward and said: 
 
 " I have neither wife nor child to suffer if I am 
 killed. I will save him, if God gives me the 
 strength." 
 
 283 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 He then leaped over the bank, seized his wounded 
 comrade, and hurried back amid the whizzing mis- 
 siles. The men cheered and the surgeon soon 
 stanched the gushing blood. As they gathered 
 around Broad to congratulate him on his heroism 
 they saw a deadly pallor on his face, and he faintly 
 said: 
 
 " I hope I have saved my friend's life, but I have 
 lost my own." 
 
 He had been shot through the body, and died 
 within the hour. 
 
 The story of Colonel Ellsworth attracted wide at- 
 tention at the beginning of the war. Ephraim El- 
 mer Ellsworth was a young man of much promise, 
 and a favorite of President Lincoln. He was made 
 colonel of a regiment, and in May, 1861, was sent 
 to take possession of Alexandria, a town in Virginia 
 not far from Washington. 
 
 Descending the Potomac in boats, the troops landed 
 at daybreak, and were soon in possession of the town. 
 Ellsworth sent a company of men to seize the tele- 
 graph station, and to make sure that the work be 
 done quickly and well he accompanied them. Aa 
 they passed the Marshall House, a hotel kept by a 
 man named Jackson, they saw a Confederate flag 
 waving over the roof. 
 
 " We must have that flag," cried Ellsworth, as he 
 rushed into the hotel. 
 
 Followed by two or three of his men, he sprang 
 up the stairs to the roof and seized the flag. As he 
 was coming down and was but a few steps from the 
 
 284 
 
Anecdotes and Stories of the War 
 
 lower landing he found himself looking into the muz- 
 zle of a double-barreled shotgun but six feet away. 
 It was in the hands of Jackson, the hotel propri- 
 etor. Ellsworth had no time for self-defense. In 
 an instant the gun was discharged full at his breast. 
 He pitched forward to the floor below, falling with 
 a heavy thud on his face. Scarcely a second passed 
 when Francis Brownell, one of Ellsworth's men, shot 
 Jackson directly in the face, and he fell lifeless by 
 the side of the man he had slain but a moment 
 before. 
 
 There were many instances during the war of 
 women fighting in the ranks without their sex being 
 known. Here we give one instance of this kind : 
 
 A young lady lived in Chicago with her brother, 
 who was her only living relative. Soon after the 
 war opened the brother shouldered a musket and went 
 to the front, leaving his sister alone. She was phys- 
 ically strong and rather above the average size of 
 women. Moreover, she was extremely patriotic and 
 anxious to do something for her country. She de- 
 termined to make an effort to get into the ranks as 
 a private soldier, and succeeded in doing so. 
 
 .Taking the name Frank Stephens, she donned tlie 
 male uniform, entered one of the Illinois regiments, 
 and soon proved herself a true soldier. In one re- 
 spect she proved herself equal to any man in her 
 regiment — in bravery. When a battle was raging, 
 Frank Stephens was always at her place of duty. 
 In everything else she remained the modest, respect- 
 able woman that she had always been. Her language 
 
 285 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 was so pure and her ways so gentle that she won the 
 esteem of every man in her company, none of them 
 suspecting for a moment that Frank was a woman. 
 
 One day, as the army was marching through Ala- 
 bama, Frank went into a house to ask for something 
 to eat. Presently two Confederates crept out from 
 under a bed and ordered her to surrender. She was 
 taken to Atlanta, Ga., and shut up in a prison. From 
 this she made a desperate effort to escape. The guard 
 called on her to halt, but she ran on, paying no at- 
 tention to the order. He then shot and wounded 
 her severely in the leg. She was then taken to a 
 hospital, where she disclosed her sex to one of the 
 matrons. Receiving the kindest attention, she slowly 
 recovered from her painful wound, and, being ex- 
 changed, returned to her home in Chicago. Here 
 she met her brother, who had also just returned 
 from the war. They had lost track of each other, 
 and neither knew until this meeting that the other 
 was alive. 
 
 Gbneeal Polk in a Predicament 
 
 Leonidas Polk was a noted Southern general, a 
 graduate of West Point. He was also a clergyman, 
 and for twenty years before the war was Episcopal 
 Bishop of Louisiana. At the battle of Perryville, 
 in Kentucky, October, 1862, he had a singular ex- 
 perience. 
 
 The battle had continued during the day, and it 
 was now evening, almost dark. A new battery, un- 
 
 286 
 
Anecdotes and Stories of the War 
 
 der Polk, had just come into action when he oh- 
 served a body of men, whom he supposed to be Con- 
 federates, firing directly at them. " Dear me ! this 
 is very sad, and it must be stopped," said the gen- 
 eral. Looking about for a member of his staff and 
 finding none, he decided to go himself and put a 
 stop to the firing. 
 
 Riding up to the colonel, he demanded in angry 
 tones why they were firing on their own friends. 
 
 " I don't think there can be any mistake about it ; 
 I am sure they are the enemy," answered the colonel. 
 
 " Enemy ? Why, I only just left them myself. 
 Cease firing, sir ! What is your name ? " 
 
 " I am Colonel y of Indiana. And pray, sir, 
 
 who are you ? " 
 
 Polk now realized, to his astonishment, that he 
 was among enemies. His wits did not desert him. 
 He saw that the only hope of saving himself from 
 death or capture was to brazen it out. He wore a 
 dark blouse, which partly covered his gray uniform, 
 and this, with the approaching night, proved his 
 salvation. Riding close up to the colonel, he shook 
 his fist at him and shouted: 
 
 " I'll show you who I am, sir. Cease firing this 
 instant ! " 
 
 The colonel hesitated and the Southern general 
 rode slowly along the line until he came to a copse. 
 He then put spurs to his horse and galloped back 
 in safety to his own lines. 
 
 About a year and eight months after this incident 
 General Polk was killed at Pine Mountain, near At- 
 
 287 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 lanta, his body being torn to pieces by a cannon 
 ball. 
 
 The Peesident's Letter to Mrs. Bixby 
 
 Por tender sympathy and simple beauty of ex- 
 pression no letter of condolence in the English lan- 
 guage will surpass the one sent by President Lincoln 
 to Mrs. Bixby. She was a widow about sixty years 
 of age, and resided in Boston. She had six sons in 
 the war, five of whom were killed in battle. When 
 the facts were published in the newspapers and when 
 it became known that Mrs. Bixby was poor, a con- 
 siderable sum of money was raised and carried to 
 her by General Schouler. Some time later she re- 
 ceived from President Lincoln the following remark- 
 able letter, which deserves to be placed among the 
 
 classics : 
 
 Washington, 21st !N'ov., 1864. 
 
 Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of 
 the War Department a statement of the Adjutant 
 General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of 
 five sons who have died gloriously on the field of 
 battle. 
 
 I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words 
 of mine which should attempt to beguile you from 
 the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot 
 refrain from tendering you the consolation that may 
 be found in the thanks of the republic they died to 
 save. 
 
 I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the 
 anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the 
 
 288 
 
Anecdotes and Stories of the War 
 
 cherished memory of the loved and the lost, and 
 the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid 
 so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. 
 Yours, very sincerely and respectfully, 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 Mrs. Bixby 
 
 289 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 AFTERMATH OF THE WAR 
 
 Like a hurricane or an earthquake, a war leaves 
 desolation in its trail. The cost of the Civil War in 
 human life and treasure was incalculable, but per- 
 haps it was worth all it cost. It crushed the spirit 
 of disunion and overthrew the blighting institution 
 of slavery. And it did more — it opened the way 
 for a feeling of common brotherhood between the 
 !N'orth and the South such as had not existed before 
 since the fovmding of the government. 
 
 This feeling did not come suddenly at the close 
 of the war. First came the troublous days of Re- 
 construction, or the bringing back of the straying 
 sisters into the family of the Union. This required 
 several years and engendered much bitterness of feel- 
 ing on both sides. The most conspicuous figure in 
 Reconstruction times was Andrew Johnson. 
 
 Andebw Johnson 
 
 Several of our Presidents, beginning with Andrew 
 Jackson, rose by their own genius and industry from 
 the ranks of the poor and unknown. Andrew John- 
 son was one of these, and in addition to his poverty 
 he was illiterate, scarcely being able to read when 
 
 290 
 
Aftermatli of the War 
 
 he reached manhood. He was of the class of " poor 
 whites " in the South whose condition was little 
 better than that of the negro slaves. He was born 
 in Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina, in 1808. 
 When he was but five years old his father lost his 
 life while trying to rescue a friend from drowning, 
 and his mother was obliged to support herself and 
 her boy with the labor of her hands. 
 
 Andrew was a ragged street urchin until he reached 
 the age of ten, when he was apprenticed to a tailor. 
 There were other boys in the shop, and a benevolent 
 man often came in to entertain the boys by reading 
 to them. Andrew became greatly interested and was 
 seized with an intense desire to learn to read. At 
 spare moments he studied the alphabet and soon 
 learned it by heart. Then he sought help in learn- 
 ing how to pronounce the printed words. It was 
 not long until he could read, though only with much 
 diflSculty. 
 
 Johnson became a good tailor and began business 
 for himself. While quite a young man he was mar- 
 ried to a most estimable young lady, who had a fair 
 education. Johnson's marriage became the turning 
 point in his life. His wife became his teacher and 
 her pupil applied himself with the utmost diligence. 
 She instructed him in the evenings, and during the 
 day she often read to him as he sat on his bench at 
 work. They had moved to Greenville, Tenn., and 
 there the young tailor soon became one of the lead- 
 ing men, and was elected mayor of the town at the 
 age of twenty-two. 
 
 291 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Johnson learned very rapidly under the direction 
 of his wife, and soon had a good working education. 
 When he entered politics and began to make public 
 speeches he astonished his friends with his eloquence 
 and his rapid flow of language. He was elected to 
 the legislature of his adopted State, and served in 
 it several years. In 1843, when Johnson was thirty- 
 five, he was elected to Congress, and after a service 
 of ten years in the House he was chosen Governor of 
 Tennessee. As governor he served two terms — four 
 years — and then was chosen to represent his State 
 in the United States Senate, and here we find him 
 at the outbreak of the war. 
 
 In every position Johnson had filled he proved 
 himself an honest, fearless, capable man. He usually 
 championed the cause of the laborer, when occasion 
 offered, but he won the good will of all classes. 
 
 In 1861 there came a crisis in Andrew Johnson's 
 life. He was one of the twenty-two senators from 
 the eleven seceded States. All the rest resigned their 
 seats; Johnson alone remained true to the Union. 
 He was not unfriendly to slavery. In fact, he had 
 himself become a slaveholder, and was ever ready to 
 defend the institution ; but he despised secession and 
 disunion. As the war progressed Johnson became 
 convinced that slavery, which had caused the war, 
 should be abolished, and he worked henceforth to 
 that end. 
 
 President Lincoln was greatly attracted by Mr. 
 Johnson, and appointed him military governor of 
 Tennessee. Johnson accepted, and reached !N^ash- 
 
 292 
 
Aftermath of the War 
 
 ville in March, 1862, about a month after the fall 
 of Fort Donelson. Tennessee at this time, and for 
 many months thereafter, was a battle ground. John- 
 son had a hard time of it. His life was threatened 
 over and over again. At one time a surging mob 
 was thirsting for his blood, and he kept the angry- 
 men at bay by the fierce, defiant glare of his eye. 
 
 Johnson's bold course, his unswerving stand for 
 the Union, had attracted the attention of the whole 
 country, and especially of President Lincoln. When 
 the Republican party met in national convention in 
 1864, and renominated Mr. Lincoln for President, 
 it was thought that for second place on the ticket 
 a man from the South should be chosen, and the 
 eyes of all turned to Johnson. He was nominated 
 by a large majority, and the ticket was triumphantly 
 elected. At the inauguration on March 4, 1865, an 
 untoward event occurred which sent a shiver through 
 the whole country. When Johnson took the oath of 
 office as Vice-president and made his address, he 
 reeled and talked in such a manner as to show that 
 he was intoxicated. Many people jumped to the 
 conclusion that he was a drunkard, and were filled 
 with dread when they thought of the possibility of 
 his becoming President. But Lincoln was not 
 alarmed. He said : " Andy made a slip the other 
 day, but there's nothing to fear. Andy is not a 
 drunkard." 
 
 Lincoln was right. The fact was, Johnson had 
 been sick for weeks. His physicians advised him 
 not to attend the inauguration at all; but as he in- 
 
 293 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 sisted on going, they gave him a stimulant, which in 
 his weakened condition proved too much. 
 
 A few weeks after the inauguration came the most 
 dreadful tragedy in American history — the assassi- 
 nation of President Lincoln. He was shot on the 
 night of April 14th, about ten o'clock, and died the 
 next morning at twenty-two minutes past seven. At 
 ten o'clock the same forenoon Andrew Johnson was 
 sworn into the great office, the third " accidental " 
 President up to that time. 
 
 A President on Tkial 
 
 In ordinary times Johnson might have made a 
 good President. He was able and honest. But these 
 were not ordinary times. The feeling of bitterness 
 between the two sections rose again to fever heat after 
 the actual fighting was over. Moreover, Johnson 
 with all his honesty and ability was tactless and 
 egotistical. Not many months after taking the oath 
 as President he had a serious quarrel with Congress. 
 
 The trouble came about over a disagreement con- 
 cerning Reconstruction, and it grew more acute 
 month by month. Congress passed laws over the 
 President's veto, some of which seemed devised for 
 the purpose of annoying him. The President, on the 
 other hand, denounced Congress in the most bitter 
 terms, apparently forgetting the dignity attached to 
 his office. He made a trip to Chicago in 1866 for 
 the purpose of attending the comer-stone laying of a 
 monument to Stephen A. Douglas. While on this 
 
 294 
 
Aftermath of the War 
 
 journey he made speeches in Cleveland, St. Louis, 
 and other cities bitterly denouncing the leaders in 
 Congress, declaring that some of them ought to be 
 hanged. This was extravagant language indeed for a 
 chief magistrate to use with reference to other high 
 officials of the Government, But it did his cause far 
 more harm than good. Many people who had been 
 inclined to sympathize with Johnson were repelled 
 and turned away by his violence and his want of 
 dignity. 
 
 Congress was furious. The President became an 
 object of hatred to a large majority of its members, 
 and one of the laws they passed to annoy him was the 
 Tenure of Office law. By this law an official ap- 
 pointed by the President could not be dismissed by 
 him without the consent of the Senate. This took 
 from the President a great deal of his power. But 
 Johnson did not believe the law was constitutional 
 and refused to be bound by it. In defiance of the 
 Senate he dismissed from his Cabinet his Secretary 
 of War, Mr. Edwin M. Stanton. 
 
 This act of the President brought on a crisis. Por 
 more than a year Congress had been watching for an 
 opportunity to strike a telling blow at Johnson, and 
 on the very day on which Stanton was dismissed a 
 resolution was brought in the House that " Andrew 
 Johnson, President of the United States, be im- 
 peached of high crimes and misdemeanor." Two 
 days later it was passed by a large majority and thus 
 for the first and only time in American history a 
 President was impeached. 
 
 295 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 You may often hear people say that Johnson was 
 not impeached. If so, it is probably because they 
 do not fully understand the meaning of the word. 
 What they mean is that he was not deposed from 
 oflBce. An impeachment is a public accusation of an 
 officer by a vote of the Lower House of Congress. 
 It is like an indictment of an accused person by a 
 grand jury, after which the accused must stand trial 
 before a petit jury, or a judge. 
 
 In case of an impeachment of the President he 
 must stand trial before the Senate as the jury. 
 
 The impeachment of President Johnson was in 
 February, 1868, and he must now undergo a trial 
 before the Senate. This was by far the most famous 
 trial in the history of the United States. The whole 
 nation was interested and even in Europe the public 
 eagerly watched every step in its progress. 
 
 The trial was properly begun on March 30th, and 
 continued for six weeks. Salmon P. Chase, chief 
 justice of the Supreme Court, was the presiding 
 officer, the members of the Senate constituted the 
 jury, while the accusation was presented by certain 
 members of the Lower House who had been chosen 
 for the purpose. The President was defended by 
 lawyers of national reputation, chief of whom was 
 William M. Evarts of New York. There were fifty- 
 four Senators and a two-thirds vote or thirty-six were 
 necessary to convict the President. 
 
 Intense was the interest in the great trial through- 
 out the country, especially when the time came for 
 the vote of the Senate to be taken. The Senate 
 
 296 
 
Aftermath of the War 
 
 chamber was crowded and outside surged a restless 
 multitude. Telegraph operators sat at their places, 
 ready to flash the news to the waiting throngs in 
 every part of the Union. 
 
 To the witness stand were summoned men of na- 
 tional fame — members of the Cabinet and generals of 
 the Army. There were several charges against the 
 President, the most important being that he had 
 violated the law in dismissing Mr. Stanton from his 
 Cabinet. And it was believed that if he were not 
 convicted on this charge he would probably escape 
 conviction on all the others, and so it proved. 
 
 As the time for the first ballot drew near, the ex- 
 citement throughout the country became more in- 
 tense. On May 16th the first ballot was taken and 
 it was found that thirty-five of the Senators had 
 voted against Mr. Johnson, and nineteen had voted 
 to acquit him. The President had thus escaped be- 
 ing deposed from his office by a single vote. 
 
 At first a wave of disappointment overspread the 
 country at Johnson's acquittal ; but on a sober second 
 thought the people began to see that his conviction 
 would have been a bad precedent, ^or could it be 
 forgotten that Johnson had risen by his own force 
 and energy from the humblest walks of life, and that 
 all through the war he was a brave and dauntless 
 defender of the Union. The storm over, Johnson 
 quietly served out his term, and was succeeded in the 
 great office the following March by General Grant. 
 Johnson then retired to his home in Tennessee. 
 Early in the year 1875 he was elected from that 
 
 297 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 State to the United States Senate, but he died in 
 July of the same year, and his stormy career was 
 over. 
 
 After the trial was over Mr. Stanton resigned 
 from the Cabinet and retired from public life. He 
 died the next year, 1869, after being honored by an 
 appointment to the Supreme Court by President 
 Grant. 
 
 Had Johnson been deposed from the Presidency 
 the office would have been filled to the end of the 
 term, March 4, 1869, by Senator Benjamin Wade of 
 Ohio, as he was President of the Senate. Wade thus 
 became one of the three men in our history who 
 each came within a single vote of reaching the great 
 prize and yet missed it. The other two were Aaron 
 Burr and Samuel J. Tilden. 
 
 Maximilian in Mexico 
 
 The attempt to set up an Old World monarchy in 
 Mexico was not exactly caused by our Civil War; 
 but it is certain that no such attempt would have been 
 made had there been no war in this country. And 
 it is equally certain that the downfall of the Mexican 
 Empire was brought about by the interference of the 
 United States, after the Civil War had ended. 
 
 Louis Napoleon III, nephew of the great Napo- 
 leon who had died in 1821 on the island of St. Hel- 
 ena, was now Emperor of Prance. He had little 
 ability in comparison with his great namesake. He 
 knew that his popularity in France was waning and 
 
 298 
 
Aftermath of the War 
 
 he looked about for something spectacular to do in 
 order to win applause and strengthen his tottering 
 throne. Here was Mexico, badly governed and ap- 
 parently inviting intervention. Why not send an 
 army to Mexico, since the United States is at war and 
 unable to enforce the Monroe Doctrine ? Why not set 
 up an empire there ? What a monument it would 
 be to the genius of this ambitious Napoleon ! 
 
 The French monarch was not a statesman. Un- 
 able to manage smaller affairs at home, he had 
 dreams and visions of dazzling the world with great 
 undertakings in foreign lands. A wiser man would 
 have hesitated long before entering on so rash an 
 experiment ; but Napoleon saw only glory to himself 
 and the establishing of a Latin monarchy to rival the 
 great Anglo-Saxon Republic of the New World. His 
 army landed at Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1862, and a 
 year later the Mexican Republic was apparently con- 
 quered by the French. 
 
 Who should be the Emperor, if an empire were to 
 be built on the ruins of the Republic ? There was 
 no one of his own family to whom Napoleon could 
 turn. He therefore called on Maximilian, Archduke 
 of Austria, and invited him to become Emperor of 
 Mexico. The story of this hapless prince is a sad 
 one. 
 
 Maximilian was a brother of the present aged Em- 
 peror of Austria-Hungary, Francis Joseph. He was 
 a member of the world-famous House of Hapsburg 
 and could trace his ancestry back more than six hun- 
 dred years through a long line of kings and emperors. 
 
 299 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 He was a man of good qualities and noble impulses. 
 Tall and stalwart, with a high, broad forehead, keen 
 blue eyes, a long flowing beard parted in the middle, 
 he had a proud step and a kingly bearing. He could 
 speak and write in seven languages. He had traveled 
 widely over the world and was a favorite in every 
 royal court. 
 
 When asked to become Emperor of Mexico, Maxi- 
 milian hesitated long, and consented only on the con- 
 dition that the Mexican people should be willing that 
 he become their ruler. The French pretended that 
 the consent of the Mexicans had been obtained, and 
 in 1864 the Austrian archduke sailed for Mexico. 
 
 Maximilian was a young man, only thirty-two, and 
 a few years before this he had married the beautiful 
 Princess Carlotta, daughter of the King of Belgium 
 and descendant of the great French sovereign, King 
 Henry of Navarre. Unlike many royal marriages, 
 theirs was a pure love match. 
 
 Carlotta was ambitious to become an empress. 
 Her husband was heir to no European throne. Here 
 was the opportunity. 
 
 They talked over and over the wonderful possi- 
 bilities that lay before them. How grand it would 
 be to reign in a resplendent palace, with nobles 
 bowing at your feet and millions of subjects ready 
 to heed your every word and glance, and waiting to 
 shout their glad huzzas wherever you go ! The prize 
 was too alluring to be resisted. Carlotta agreed to 
 the project and sailed with her husband to Mexico. 
 Little did she know that this was the beginning of 
 
 300 
 
Aftermath of the War 
 
 the end of all her earthly happiness — that this ro- 
 mance of youth would end in a mournful tragedy. 
 
 In May, 1864, the royal pair debarked on the 
 coast of Mexico. Welcomed by crowds of people, 
 they proceeded to the capital, where a splendid re- 
 ception awaited them. Carlotta was supremely 
 happy. She was kind and gracious to her new sub- 
 jects. On her birthday she gave seven thousand dol- 
 lars to feed the poor. Thousands applauded the new 
 rulers, and in a few weeks their court was estab- 
 lished and most of the people seemed contented. 
 
 But there was a minor strain in all the music, and 
 a discordant note in the shouts of the multitude. 
 Many of the people did not join in the applause, 
 others did so because they had been bribed by the 
 royal party. Moreover, the Republican Government 
 had not ceased to exist. The officers had fled from 
 the capital, and were only waiting for a turn of the 
 tide. It soon came. 
 
 The Civil War in the United States was over. 
 The Government and people had watched the inva- 
 sion of Mexico by the French army and regarded 
 it a downright infraction of the Monroe Doctrine. 
 Louis ISTapoleon had promised Maximilian that a 
 French army should remain in Mexico for six years, 
 or until the latter could create an adequate army 
 for himself. 
 
 Our Government informed the Emperor of France 
 that this whole proceeding was highly distasteful to 
 the United States, but the Emperor did not seem 
 to understand. At length, the war over, we came 
 
 301 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 out boldly and demanded that the French army be 
 withdrawn from Mexico, and to emphasize the de- 
 mand, General Sheridan was sent into Texas with 
 50,000 veteran troops, Louis ISTapoleon now quickly 
 understood, and promised to withdraw his army. 
 
 What was to become of Maximilian and his Em- 
 pire? His friends advised him to abdicate and re- 
 turn to Europe, for it was believed that his throne 
 would crumble and fall when the Erench support 
 was withdrawn. He decided to do so; but the am- 
 bitious Carlotta stayed his hand. Eor two years now 
 she had been an Empress, and had been the central 
 figure in a gay court modeled after those of Europe. 
 Brilliant and gracious was she ; no princess in Europe 
 could outshine her in the festive circle. Could she 
 now endure to be degraded from her throne and be 
 an Empress no more ? 
 
 1^0, she would first make a desperate effort. She 
 would go to Europe and persuade the Erench Em- 
 peror to reconsider. Perhaps she did not know of 
 the inflexible force of the Monroe Doctrine. Napo- 
 leon refused her request because he could not do 
 otherwise. Then Carlotta went to Eome and pleaded 
 with the Pope to interfere in her husband's behalf ; 
 but he, too, was powerless. 
 
 Now came the sad news to all Europe and to Mex- 
 ico that Carlotta's mind had given way. She was 
 insane. 
 
 Maximilian, still in Mexico, was overcome with 
 grief at this news of his beloved wife. But his 
 troubles were only begun. 
 
 302 
 
Aftermath of the War 
 
 At this moment there was a great man in Mexico. 
 It was Benito Juarez (Wah-rez) an Indian, who had 
 risen in puhlic life until he had become President of 
 Mexico. He was the leader of the Liberal party, 
 Avhich had opposed the coming of the French from 
 the beginning. He had refused to lay down his office, 
 or to meet Maximilian or support him in any way. 
 When the French had departed Juarez soon had an 
 army to oppose the Emperor and the few followers 
 who had remained faithful to him. 
 
 A short, sharp war was the result, and Maximilian 
 was defeated and taken prisoner. Tried by a court 
 martial, he was sentenced to be shot. !N'o pleadings 
 for clemency could reach the iron heart of Juarez. 
 The fallen Emperor was led to the place of execution, 
 with two of his companions. Around the doomed 
 men stood three thousand soldiers. Maximilian was 
 brave and undaunted. He took a costly ring from 
 his finger and handed it to a friend, requesting that 
 it be given to his mother. " Poor Carlotta," he cried, 
 mournfully, " if I had gone with you, it would have 
 been better for me." He then stepped boldly to the 
 place of execution, forgave his enemies, commended 
 his soul to God, and, throwing up his hand, cried, 
 " Fire." 
 
 Instantly six men, who stood with pointed muskets, 
 pulled the trigger, and thus ended the short, fateful 
 career of Maximilian in Mexico. 
 
 Poor Carlotta never recovered her reason. She 
 still lives (1909) and is under the care of her brother, 
 the aged King Leopold of Belgium. Forty years 
 
 303 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 have passed since her reign of glory in Mexico, but 
 to this day she does not know of the tragic fate of her 
 husband. Among the royal families of Europe a 
 sadder story would be hard to find than that of Maxi- 
 milian and Carlotta. 
 
 The Axabama Claims 
 
 One of the conspicuous legacies of the Civil War 
 was that known as the Alabama Claims, that is, 
 claims against the British Government for damages 
 because that country permitted the Confederates to 
 build vessels in her shipyards for the purpose of prey- 
 ing on American merchant vessels. There were sev- 
 eral of these Confederate cruisers built in English 
 waters, the most famous being the Alabama to which 
 we give a brief notice. 
 
 The Alabama was built in the great English ship- 
 yard of Laird and Sons on the Mersey River. Dur- 
 ing its construction it was known only by its num- 
 ber, the 290; but it was generally understood that 
 the ship was intended for the Confederate service. 
 There was a law passed by Parliament long before 
 forbidding any vessel to be built or equipped in Brit- 
 ish waters for use against a friendly nation. Our 
 minister in London, Charles Erancis Adams, son o£ 
 former President John Quincy Adams, called the at- 
 tention of the authorities to this law and to the fact 
 that International Law was being violated; but all 
 action was deferred till it was too late. The 290 had 
 been finished and had escaped. 
 
 304 
 
Aftermath of the War 
 
 The vessel steamed to the Azores, where it was sup- 
 plied by a British vessel with arms, ammunition, and 
 provisions. A crew was gathered, and the ship took 
 the name Alabama, unfurled the Confederate banner, 
 and came out in its true colors as a Confederate pri- 
 vateer. This was in August, 1862, and the Alabama 
 began its wonderful tour of the world, the most re- 
 markable of its kind in history. 
 
 For twenty-two months this reckless rover plowed 
 the seas of both hemispheres, leaving a trail of de- 
 struction. It was not a pirate ship, nor was its pur- 
 pose to acquire riches. Its object was to weaken the 
 ISTorth by destroying Northern shipping. It cap- 
 tured sixty-nine vessels, including merchantmen and 
 whalers. 
 
 The Alabama first made a grand detour of the 
 Atlantic, swinging southward to the Gulf of Mexico, 
 the Caribbean Sea and to the coast of South America. 
 Thence it proceeded to South Africa and through the 
 Indian Ocean to the East Indies and the China Sea. 
 By this time the machinery was greatly worn, and 
 it was decided to return to England for repairs. 
 Again crossing the Indian Ocean and rounding the 
 Cape of Good Hope, it went northward and stopped 
 in the harbor at Cherbourg, France. Here ended the 
 meteoric career of the Alabama, as we shall notice. 
 
 The crew of the Alabama, numbering about 150 
 men, was a motley crowd representing nearly all na- 
 tionalities. Most of them were jolly tars who 
 " shipped " for the excitement and experience, caring 
 little or nothing about the war between the North and 
 
 305 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 the South. They were known as a " bad lot " and 
 when, as they were about to start on their journey, 
 Captain Seinmes, in a brief speech, expressed the be- 
 lief that Providence would bless them and aid them 
 to free the South from the Yankees, an old sailor 
 muttered, 
 
 " Yaas, Providence likely to bless this yer crew." 
 
 Semmes and his officers were not ruffians, and 
 would have carried on their business with some re- 
 gard for decency, but the crew, on boarding a cap- 
 tured vessel, became entirely unmanageable. They 
 pillaged and robbed their prisoners to the last de- 
 gree, but seldom hurt them, unless they made resist- 
 ance. One of their captives, said to be a preacher, 
 because he exhorted his fellow sailors daily on reli- 
 gion, was a tall, gawky man of middle age. Two of 
 the Alabama tars decided to amuse themselves by 
 hazing the preacher ; but the tables were soon turned. 
 The preacher turned on them, knocked them both 
 down, and belabored them till they were half dead. 
 The men carried the matter to the officers of the Ala- 
 bama, hoping to have the preacher punished. " Served 
 you right," said the officers, and there it ended. 
 
 The vessels captured were often burned and the 
 passengers and crews carried to some port and set 
 free. Sometimes, however, when a captive ship had 
 on board too many people to be accommodated on the 
 Alabama, it was not burned, but permitted to go on 
 its way. 
 
 It was in June, 1864, that the Aldbamxi reached 
 Cherbourg, and here it met the Kearsarge, a United 
 
 306 
 
Aftermath of the War 
 
 States cruiser of about the same size, under the com- 
 mand of Captain John A. Winslow. 
 
 Captain Semmes had been accused of being a pi- 
 rate and to refute such a charge and prove that his 
 ship was a legitimate war vessel, and also in the hope 
 of reviving the waning fortunes of the South, he chal- 
 lenged Captain Winslow to a duel. This could mean 
 nothing less than the destruction of one of the two 
 vessels, but Winslow did not hesitate; he accepted 
 the challenge. 
 
 On the 19th of June the two vessels met for a 
 death duel, in neutral waters, about seven miles out 
 from the harbor. Thousands of people gathered on 
 the shore to witness the spectacle. 
 
 The two vessels approached each other and began 
 to swing round and round in a circle, from a quarter 
 to a half mile apart, each pouring its deadly broad- 
 sides into the other. A shot from the Kearsarge 
 made the Alabama "reel," as the men said, and an 
 old sailor exclaimed, " A few more biffs like that and 
 we may turn turtle." Scarcely had he spoken when 
 a shell plowed through the hull and burst under the 
 great pivot gun, tilted it out of range, killed five men 
 and wounded twice as many. A few minutes later 
 a cannon ball from the Kearsarge struck the Ala- 
 bama amidships and another at the water's edge. 
 The engine stopped and would work no longer. The 
 vessel shivered from top to bottom as if ready to 
 plunge beneath the waves. 
 
 " All on deck. She's going down," cried the of- 
 ficers. An hour had passed since the fight had begun. 
 
 307 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Seven times the two ships had swung round in a 
 circle. The Kearsarge had been but slightly dam- 
 aged. The Alahama WSLS residj to sink. A white flag 
 was raised in token of surrender and the firing 
 stopped. 
 
 There was now a wild scene on board the Alabama. 
 The one uninjured boat was soon lowered and filled 
 with struggling men. Most of the men, however, 
 when they saw the vessel was sinking, leaped over- 
 board and a few minutes later, when the ship, with 
 a mighty lurch and a vast gurgling sound, sank be- 
 neath the waves, the sea for many rods was dotted 
 with human heads. Who will save the struggling 
 men? Ten minutes pass, and ten more. A few of 
 the men are exhausted and sink to rise no more. But 
 the great majority are strong swimmers. At length 
 the DeerJiound, an English yacht, and boats from the 
 Kearsarge come to the rescue. The men are picked 
 up one by one until nearly a hundred are saved from 
 a watery grave. Thus ended the strange career of 
 the famous Alabama. 
 
 When the war was over, and even before, the Brit- 
 ish Government was politely informed that she would 
 be expected to pay damages for the destruction of 
 American shipping by the Alabama and other vessels 
 built in English waters. At first the English ignored 
 the question and later openly declared that they in- 
 tended to do nothing in the matter. This was very 
 displeasing to the United States, and in 1870 Presi- 
 dent Grant made, in his annual message, a reference 
 to the subject, which awakened the British public to 
 
 308 
 
4) 
 
 o3 
 
 S3 
 
 <v 
 
Aftermath of the War 
 
 a realization that there was something quite serious 
 between the two countries. 
 
 When the British saw that we had no intention of 
 dropping the matter, they were ready to talk it over 
 with our officials. The English minister at Wash- 
 ington proposed a Joint High Commission, to sit in 
 that city and arrange to adjust the relations between 
 the two countries. 
 
 The offer was accepted and the commission met and 
 produced the Treaty of Washington. It provided for 
 settling several points of dispute and the most impor- 
 tant of these was the Alabama Claims. It was pro- 
 vided that this be settled by a tribunal or jury of five 
 men to meet at Geneva, Switzerland. Only one of 
 the five was to be an American and one an English- 
 man. The other three were to be disinterested for- 
 eigners, as a jury deciding a case in court must not 
 be interested in either side. 
 
 This tribunal met at Geneva in December, 1872, 
 and sat for nine months. The case was argued with 
 great ability on both sides, the English taking the 
 ground that they were not responsible for the de- 
 struction wrought by the Alabama, and the Ameri- 
 cans taking the opposite side. The tribunal favored 
 the American claim, and it was decided that the Brit- 
 ish Government pay the United States the sum of 
 $15,500,000 in gold in settlement of the Alabamxi 
 Claims, and the money was paid to the last dollar. 
 
 309 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 THE NEW NATION 
 
 SO great was the change in our country wrought 
 by the Civil War that it is not improperly 
 called a new nation. There was little or no change, 
 it is true, in our form of government ; but conditions 
 were so changed as to put the nation on a new basis. 
 The cause of the strife between the ISTorth and the 
 South being removed, the way was opened for a per- 
 manent friendship, for a feeling of common brother- 
 hood. Since the war the bitterness between the two 
 great sections of the country has gradually died 
 away; they have come to understand each other as 
 never before, and our peace, we believe, now rests on 
 a permanent basis. 
 
 General Grant had won great fame on the battle- 
 field, and this fact led to his being elected President 
 after the close of the war. But while Grant was an 
 able commander, he had no training and little ability 
 as a statesman. Often we have chosen a military 
 man for President, but only once before had we 
 chosen a man who had no other than a military train- 
 ing — Zachary Taylor, in 1848. This is a risky thing 
 to do. A man may be a splendid soldier and yet 
 prove to be a weakling in civil office. To some extent 
 
 310 
 
The New Nation 
 
 this was true in the case of General Grant, and when 
 he came before the country for reelection in 1872, 
 there was powerful opposition in his own party. 
 This led to the Liberal Republican Movement, or the 
 Greeley episode, and introduces us to a remarkable 
 character. 
 
 Horace Geeeley 
 
 Zaccheus Greeley was a farmer of New Hampshire, 
 and on his little farm of fifty acres near the town of 
 Amherst his son Horace was bom in 1811. Mr. 
 Greeley was a good neighbor and a kind-hearted man, 
 but he was a poor farmer, or rather a poor manager. 
 He was always in debt and when Horace was nine 
 years old the farm was seized by the sheriff and sold. 
 
 In those days a man could be sent to prison for 
 debt, and as Mr. Greeley's farm did not bring enough 
 to pay all he owed, he fled from the State into Ver- 
 mont, leaving his family behind. The following 
 winter the family joined him in Vermont, having 
 brought all their goods in a two-horse sleigh. Mr. 
 Greeley had hired a house at Westhaven for sixteen 
 dollars a year, and here he remained for two years, 
 working by the day at whatever odd jobs he could se- 
 cure. Horace and his younger brother went to school 
 in winter and aided their father the rest of the year 
 in earning a livelihood. They could not afford to 
 buy shoes, and many a time after working among the 
 thistles they had to endure the torture at night of 
 having the thistle points dug out of their feet. 
 
 Horace was a very precocious boy. When but four 
 311 
 
A Guide to American History- 
 years old he could read fluently, and at five he read 
 the Bible through under the guidance of his mother. 
 A wealthy gentleman, seeing that he was a very prom- 
 ising boy, offered to send him to college and defray 
 all his expenses ; but the Greeleys, though very poor, 
 were too proud to accept the offer. 
 
 While Horace was still very young his mind turned 
 toward journalism. When eleven years old he in- 
 duced his father to go with him to a newspaper office, 
 where he had heard there was a boy wanted. But 
 Horace was rejected because of his extreme youth. 
 
 As he grew older he became more and more de- 
 termined to learn the newspaper business, and when 
 he was fifteen he heard that a boy was wanted in a 
 newspaper office at East Poultney, Vermont. He 
 hastened to the place and applied for the position. 
 
 Horace was by no means an attractive youth. He 
 was tall, slender, awkward, and very carelessly 
 dressed. He had a wealth of tow-colored hair tend- 
 ing to yellow. He was a " gawky " looking lad and 
 his real intelligence did not show in his countenance. 
 When he came to the office and asked, " Do you want 
 a boy to learn the trade ? " the proprietor of the news- 
 paper thought it strange, as he afterwards said, that 
 such an unpromising boy should want to be a printer. 
 After questioning him a little, however, he found that 
 the boj was quite well informed for his age and was 
 very ambitious. He received the appointment. His 
 employer never dreamed that he was opening the way 
 to one who was to become the most eminent journalist 
 that America has yet produced. 
 
 312 
 
The N'ew Nation 
 
 Tor six montlis Horace was to work for his board 
 only, and after that he was to receive forty dollars a 
 year in addition. Of this pittance he always man- 
 aged to send a little to his struggling parents. Mean- 
 time they had left New England and moved to North- 
 western Pennsylvania, where they settled on a small 
 farm in the wilderness, and here two or three years 
 later Horace joined them. Next we find him em- 
 ployed in a printing office in the city of Erie. 
 
 The several years that Horace Greeley had spent in 
 the Vermont village were of vast importance to him 
 in the way of gathering a fund of knowledge through 
 experience. He had not only learned to set type, but 
 also to edit a newspaper, to write editorials and the 
 like. Furthermore, he had joined a debating society 
 and had learned to stand before an audience and 
 speak with ease and fluency. When scarcely sixteen 
 he had organized a temperance society and in order 
 to make the age limit for joining it low enough not 
 to exclude himself he had a resolution adopted that 
 anyone might join " when he was old enough to 
 drink." 
 
 All these things indicated that there was something 
 promising for the future in this awkward boy, Hor- 
 ace Greeley. How many boys of sixteen would form 
 a temperance society for the public benefit and be- 
 come its leader? 
 
 Horace Greeley was not content to spend his life 
 in village printing offices. He felt that he would have 
 a better opportunity to make a career for himself if 
 he were in the great city of New York and he had the 
 
 313 
 
A Guide to American History- 
 courage to brave all the perils that might lie between 
 him and success. At the age of twenty he shared his 
 little savings with his parents, reserving twenty- 
 five dollars for himself, and set out by way of 
 the Erie Canal and the Hudson River, arriving 
 at the metropolis in August, 1831. He now had 
 ten dollars in his pocket, having spent fifteen 
 dollars on the journey. At a cheap boarding house 
 he soon found a temporary home and began his 
 search for employment. He visited and was turned 
 away from nearly all the printing offices in the city. 
 At last, when his money as well as his courage was 
 almost exhausted, he heard of a place where a printer 
 was wanted. Next morning he was there waiting 
 long before the place was opened. He received the 
 appointment, but the wages were so low that he could 
 scarcely make ends meet. 
 
 This was a beginning, and though the task was a 
 hard one, he did his work so faithfully and so well 
 that henceforth he had little trouble in finding em- 
 ployment. 
 
 Within a year or two Horace Greeley was familiar 
 with the printing business in 'New York, after which 
 his rise was rapid and continuous. In 1833 he and 
 a partner established the first one-cent daily in the 
 United Statets. This venture did not pay and, after 
 a few months, had to be given up. But our young 
 editor had discovered his power and nothing could 
 discourage him. 
 
 In 1840 he established the Log Cahin in which he 
 vigorously supported Harrison in the campaign of 
 
 314 
 
The ITew ]!!»J'atioii 
 
 that year. This paper sprang into such popularity 
 that, with his printing apparatus, he could not supply 
 the demand for it. 
 
 The next year, 1841, Mr. Greeley founded the New 
 York Tribune, which soon became the leading news- 
 paper in America, and so continued as long as its edi- 
 tor lived — ^more than thirty years. Soon after estab- 
 lishing this great newspaper Greeley became the most 
 cogent political writer in the country. He was a 
 Whig as long as the Whig party continued to exist, 
 and a Republican when that party was founded in 
 the fifties. At the secession of the Southern States 
 in 1861 Greeley at first counseled a peaceful separa- 
 tion rather than a war, but later he veered around and 
 became a stanch supporter of the Union. In August, 
 1862, he printed a letter to President Lincoln urging 
 emancipation and entitled it, " The Prayer of Twenty 
 Millions." To this letter the President sent a care- 
 fully prepared answer, and both have become famous 
 documents. 
 
 At the close of the war Mr. Greeley showed the 
 broadness of his spirit when he signed the bail bond 
 of Jefferson Davis, who had been confined at Fortress 
 Monroe. 
 
 As we have noticed, there was much opposition to 
 the renomination of President Grant in 1872, and a 
 large section of the party broke away and formed a 
 new party, which was named the Liberal Eepublican 
 party. The one object of this movement was to de- 
 feat Grant. The new party held a national conven- 
 tion in Cincinnati and nominated Horace Greeley for 
 
 315 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 President Perhaps no man in the country had a 
 broader knowledge of public affairs than Mr. Greeley. 
 But he could have no hope of success unless the Dem- 
 ocrats would also support him. They met in Balti- 
 more a few weeks later and decided to do so. They 
 made Greeley their candidate, and then began a fierce 
 campaign. 
 
 Greeley played a losing game from the beginning. 
 Large numbers of the Democrats refused to support 
 him because he had been fighting their party all his 
 life up to this time. And many Liberal Republicans, 
 seeing themselves in Democratic company, went back 
 to their old party before election day. 
 
 The result was an overwhelming defeat for Mr. 
 Greeley. He had not looked for such a crushing re- 
 sult; the shock was more than he could bear, and 
 scarcely had the shouts of the Republican victory died 
 away when the great !N'ew York editor was dead. 
 
 Though Mr. Greeley was not well fitted for a polit- 
 ical career, he was a great journalist, he was devoted 
 to the cause of good government, and the public will 
 not soon forget him. 
 
 The Geeat Raileoad Strike of 1877 
 
 Capital and labor are both necessary to production. 
 Capitalists and laborers are usually of different 
 classes and one class is in the employ of the other. 
 N^either class can get along without the other, and 
 there should be harmony between them, but not al- 
 ways are their relations harmonious. There are 
 
 316 
 
The New l^ation 
 
 many possible sources of strife, chief of which is the 
 scale of wages. When trouble arises between the two 
 classes the customary weapon of the laborers is the 
 " strike," a paralyzing of the business for a time by 
 quitting work and preventing others from taking 
 their places. The most serious and extensive strike 
 in the history of the country was the great railroad 
 strike of 1877. 
 
 Early in July of that year the management of the 
 Baltimore & Ohio Railroad sent circulars to its thou- 
 sands of employees stating that a ten per cent reduc- 
 tion in their wages would be made and would go into 
 effect on the 16th of that month. 
 
 The announcement came like a blow to many, for 
 their wages were already low. It created ill feeling 
 and men in groups discussed the matter seriously in 
 the days following. Meetings were held all along the 
 line and it was decided to send a committee to expos- 
 tulate with the vice president of the road; but that 
 official refused even to hear the complaints of the em- 
 ployees. His name was King, and he reminds us of 
 another king who once upon a time refused to re- 
 ceive a petition from his aggrieved colonists. 
 
 The 16th of July dawned and the business of the 
 great railroad, over its more than 1,400 miles of 
 track seemed in a normal condition. The officials be- 
 gan to congratulate themselves on the acceptance of 
 the wage reduction by their employees without dis- 
 turbance. But this was the calm that preceded the 
 storm. 
 
 Before night of that day word began to reach the 
 317 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 head offices at Baltimore that at Cumberland, at Mar- 
 tinsburg, and all along the line from the Atlantic 
 Coast to the Ohio Valley, the crews of freight trains 
 were abandoning their posts and preventing others 
 from taking their places. 
 
 On the same day thousands of other employees in 
 the city of Baltimore not connected with the railroad, 
 box-makers, sawyers, can-makers and the like, decided 
 to strike for higher wages. This movement had its 
 effect on the railroad men ; it strengthened the waver- 
 ing. By the morning of the 17th there was scarcely 
 a freight train moving in the whole course of the Bal- 
 timore & Ohio. The first center of disturbance was 
 Martinsburg, West Virginia, and Vice President 
 King called on the Governor of the State to send 
 militia to protect the company in its effort to run the 
 trains. The governor immediately sent a body of 
 armed men to Martinsburg, but they accomplished 
 nothing. The strikers uncoupled the cars and hid the 
 coupling pins ; they put out the fires of the engines ; 
 they forced men to abandon the engines, if any at- 
 tempted to run the trains. The militia was of little 
 service because they fraternized with the strikers. 
 
 The Governor of West Virginia then called on 
 President Hayes for I^ational troops and several 
 hundred were sent, but they were no more successful 
 than the State militia had been. All freight trains 
 were blocked, but passenger trains were allowed to 
 run as usual. 
 
 At the end of two or three days the company had 
 failed to break the strike or to make any impression 
 
 318 
 
The New Nation 
 
 on it. One reason for this was that public opinion 
 supported the strikers rather than the company, and 
 public opinion is incomparably the most powerful 
 force in America. 
 
 The strikers put out a circular stating that they 
 had suffered three reductions of wages within three 
 years, and that it was a matter of daily bread with 
 them. The people believed in the righteousness of 
 their cause, and sympathized with them as long as 
 they refrained from violence. But it was not long 
 until the strike spread to other States and other rail- 
 roads. It became alarming to the peace of the coun- 
 try, and occasioned much bloodshed and great de- 
 struction of property. 
 
 A crisis was soon reached in Baltimore. The 
 strikers had been joined by the rabble and riffraff of 
 the entire city — idlers, loafers, tramps, thieves and 
 criminals, black and white and of both sexes, repre- 
 senting every phase of slum life — all these appeared 
 as a howling mob in the streets on the 20th of July. 
 
 A regiment of soldiers attempting to move across 
 the city to the Baltimore & Ohio station, found the 
 way blocked by a raging, cursing mob, hurling stones 
 and other missiles. At length the troops, in sheer 
 desperation, leveled their guns and fired straight into 
 the crowd. A yell of rage was heard from the mob 
 and a few in the front ranks fell dead. The rest scat- 
 tered for a moment and the troops were able to pro- 
 ceed a square or two, when they were again assailed 
 by the maddened people. Again they fired and still 
 again. Finally, they reached the station and penned 
 
 319 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 themselves in from the infuriated masses. Such 
 were the scenes in Baltimore; but they were still 
 more terrible in Pittsburg, to which city the strike 
 had spread. 
 
 The employees of the Pennsylvania Railroad had 
 recently suffered a cut in wages, and now seemed the 
 time to make a strike to regain them. Every freight 
 train on that great system was stopped and miles of 
 cars stood along the tracks, many of which were looted 
 by the mob. Here, as in Baltimore, all the lower ele- 
 ments of society were turned loose. In a great city 
 there is always a large element at the bottom of the 
 social scale, sometimes called " the submerged tenth," 
 utterly wanting in ambition and industry, always 
 ready to join in riot and pillage. These were not in- 
 terested in the wages of the strikers, but seeing an 
 opportunity for excitement and plunder, they joined 
 the strikers and became the chief part of the mob. 
 But for this class the workingmen would have been 
 orderly and would have retained the respect of the 
 community. 
 
 The reign of terror in Pittsburg began with the 
 21st of July. The mob had been gathering for two 
 days. Sheriff Fife called out the militia and a body 
 of troops was sent from Philadelphia. The mob had 
 collected in vast numbers and the soldiers, exasper- 
 ated at their hoots and jeers, opened fire and sixteen 
 persons were instantly killed. 
 
 For a moment the crowd pressed back in terror, 
 but only for a moment. It came again more infuri- 
 ated than before. " Excited men seemed to spring 
 
 320 
 
The New Nation 
 
 out of the ground as if by magic," wrote an eyewit- 
 ness. They attacked the soldiers with stones and 
 pistols, determined to drive them out of the city. 
 The troops, numbering but a few hundred, were too 
 few to protect the city or even themselves. Had they 
 fired again they would probably have been destroyed 
 to the last man by the furious multitude. As it was 
 they were driven from one street to another and at 
 length they fled to a country village some miles away, 
 after twenty of them had been shot dead. Sheriff 
 Fife was shot and killed by the mob, which now had 
 complete control of the city. 
 
 Then came the most dreadful scenes ever witnessed 
 in any city in this country. Miles of freight cars 
 were set on fire, more than 3,50Q being burned to 
 ashes. The great Pennsylvania depot and other rail- 
 road buildings were set on fire and for a time it 
 seemed that the entire city would be swept away in 
 the mighty conflagration. 
 
 A day or two of this pillage, fire, and bloodshed, 
 and the fury of the mob began to subside. The better 
 citizens, awakened to the danger, formed a vigilance 
 committee and, with the aid of the regular officials, 
 soon succeeded in restoring order. 
 
 The strike of 1877 was the most disastrous in the 
 history of the country. It spread to nearly all the 
 railroads east of the Mississippi and affected 12,000 
 miles of railroad lines. There was rioting and blood- 
 shed in many cities. Hundreds of people were killed 
 or wounded, many of them being innocent onlookers. 
 Millions of dollars' worth of property was destroyed. 
 
 321 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 For two weeks practically the entire business of the 
 country east of the Mississippi was paralyzed. 
 
 At last the passion of the rioters burned out, things 
 assumed a normal aspect and slowly the strikers went 
 back to their usual places of employment. In a few 
 cases the strikers won what they had demanded; in 
 others they made a sort of compromise with their em- 
 ployers, but a majority of them went back to work at 
 the old wages. 
 
 The railroad companies, however, as well as many 
 other large employers of labor, learned an important 
 lesson by the great strike of 1877. They learned that 
 it is better and far cheaper to reason and compromise 
 with their employees than to defy them. 
 
 The Pacific Coast and the Chinese 
 
 The great railroad strike had scarcely subsided 
 when a commotion arose in San Francisco, the fame 
 of which soon spread from one ocean to the other. 
 
 On a vacant place known as the sand lots in the 
 edge of the city a large crowd of men gathered night 
 after night to listen to the impassioned oratory of a 
 man who wore a workingman's garb, but who seemed 
 born for the public rostrum. His name was Dennis 
 Kearney. Born in Ireland, he had spent his early 
 manhood on the sea as a common sailor, but for some 
 years had been a laborer in San Francisco. His fiery 
 speeches usually ended with the same passionate edict, 
 " The Chinese must go." 
 
 This was one of the first serious anti-Chinese out- 
 322 
 
The New Nation 
 
 bursts on the Western coast. But the feeling against 
 the Orientals had been growing for some years, and 
 it now broke forth and grew in intensity till it en- 
 listed the attention of the whole nation. Kearney be- 
 came so violent that he was arrested and sent to jail; 
 but the agitation did not subside. 
 
 The Chinese had begun coming to the coast about 
 1851, at first only a few at a time, then more and 
 more until the white population became alarmed. 
 The cry against the Chinese first arose from the la- 
 boring classes. They complained that a Chinaman 
 would work for wages on which an American would 
 starve. He would work any number of hours, live 
 on the cheapest food, and dwell in the meanest hovel 
 or in a hole in the ground, and withal he would main- 
 tain a smiling countenance. 
 
 All this was exasperating to the American working- 
 man, who found himself underbidden in every field 
 of labor. Nor was there any end in sight to the com- 
 ing of the Chinese. China with her four hundred 
 millions of inhabitants could furnish an inexhaustible 
 supply of cheap labor, especially since no Chinaman 
 made any pretense of remaining in America. They 
 would come and work a few years, hoarding their few 
 hundred dollars of earnings, and then go back to their 
 native country, whence thousands of others would 
 come to repeat the process. So it might continue in- 
 definitely and the American laborer would simply be 
 crowded out by the Chinese coolies. 
 
 " Gold Hills " was the name by which America 
 was known in China. And indeed, when viewed 
 
 323 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 from tlie standpoint of the Chinese, it seemed like a 
 land of gold, for their wages, low as they were in 
 America, were said to be ten times as great as in their 
 own country. The value of money was so much 
 greater in China than in America that when a China- 
 man went back with three or four hundred dollars he 
 was looked upon by his countrymen as a rich man. 
 The bait was therefore an alluring one. It was like 
 the attraction of the Klondike a few years ago, when 
 gold was discovered there. 
 
 The laboring men took the lead in opposing the 
 coming of the Orientals, but they were not long alone, 
 nor was the labor question the chief one. The Chi- 
 nese are pagans and they refused to give up one jot 
 of their superstition. With all their industry they 
 are addicted to low and degrading vices. 
 
 When European immigrants come to our shores 
 they come to stay; they expect to become American 
 citizens, to grow up with the country. They intend 
 America to be the future home of their children and 
 grandchildren ; they adopt our laws and customs and 
 become a part of us. But not so with the Chinese. 
 They do not wish to become citizens. They care noth- 
 ing for our customs, our religion, or our institutions. 
 You can make a good American out of a German, a 
 Frenchman, an Englishman, or a Russian Jew ; but 
 a Chinaman is a Chinaman all the time, and can no 
 more be an American than a leopard can change his 
 spots. 
 
 Here then was a great question. Shall we permit 
 this undesirable class to come in vast numbers until 
 
 324 
 
The ISTew Nation 
 
 they drag down American life to their own level? 
 Two race problems we have already had to solve — 
 the Indian problem, which began with the landing 
 of the Virginians and the Pilgrims; and the negro 
 question, which brought about the dreadful tragedy 
 of the Civil War. Should another race problem now 
 be permitted when it was in our power to nip it in 
 the bud ? 
 
 Such was the reasoning of the American people, 
 and especially of the Califomians. But some rea- 
 soned that we had no right to bar the Chinese or any 
 other people from the country; that the earth is the 
 Lord's and no people have an exclusive right to 
 occupy particular portions of it. Let the Chinese 
 come, argued these, we can do them good by teaching 
 them the true religion. While sending missionaries 
 to the far-off heathen, let us not neglect the opportu- 
 nity that comes to our doors. 
 
 But those who took this position were few in com- 
 parison with the class who demanded that the Chi- 
 nese must go. Frequently the feeling against the 
 Chinese resulted in mob violence. One uprising at 
 Los Angeles caused the death of twenty-one China- 
 men. In 1885 twenty-eight Chinamen were mur- 
 dered by miners in Wyoming for refusing to join a 
 strike. 
 
 Attempts were made to hamper and annoy the un- 
 desirable class by State or city laws. In Oregon a 
 law forbade the employment of Chinese on State con- 
 tract work; but the Federal Court threw the law 
 overboard on the ground that it violated our treaty 
 
 325 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 with China, and because " the right to reside in a 
 country implies the right to earn a living." 
 
 San Francisco passed an ordinance requiring the 
 hair of all prisoners to be cut short. This would have 
 been a dreadful blow to the Chinese had it stood the 
 test of the courts, for they value their queue as life 
 itself. One day while a Chinaman was asleep some 
 practical jokers cut off his queue. When he awoke 
 and saw what was done, he screamed and instantly 
 committed suicide by dashing his head against a stone 
 wall. 
 
 This ordinance was very properly pronounced null 
 and void by the courts, because cruel, and because it 
 was class legislation. 
 
 It was not long until the Chinese question became 
 a strong factor in ISTational politics. Both great par- 
 ties were ready to make a bid for the electoral votes 
 of the coast States and in the campaign of 1880 both 
 pronounced against Chinese immigration. The same 
 year a new treaty was made with China, by which 
 the United States was permitted to " regulate, limit, 
 or suspend " the coming of Chinese laborers. 
 
 This opened the way and Congress soon took the 
 matter up in earnest. The first anti-Chinese measure 
 passed by Congress met with a veto by the President, 
 but another, in May, 1882, received his signature 
 and became a law. By this law Chinese laborers 
 were forbidden to come to the United States, for a 
 period of ten years. But the law was evaded in this 
 way : A Chinaman already here could, on returning 
 to his own country, take out a certificate that would 
 
 326 
 
The Kew Nation 
 
 readmit him to this country, if he chose to come back. 
 Many of them would sell these certificates in China 
 and others would use them in getting across our bor- 
 ders, because to the inspectors all Chinese looked 
 alike. Many also were smuggled across the Cana- 
 dian border. These abuses were corrected by an ad- 
 ditional law passed in 1888, forbidding the return to 
 the United States of all Chinese who went back to 
 their own land. 
 
 Last came the Geary law of 1892, the most sweep- 
 ing of its kind ever enacted by any country. This 
 law was to continue for ten years, but was extended 
 at the end of that time. It is so effective that Chinese 
 laborers are almost wholly debarred from the United 
 States, and thus we are relieved of a race problem 
 that might have become a serious menace to our in- 
 stitutions. 
 
 Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn 
 
 Of all races of men on the earth the American In- 
 dian is the most persistent in refusing to become civ- 
 ilized. With all his four hundred years of contact 
 with the most enlightened of races the Indian stands 
 about where he did in the time of Columbus, It is 
 true that the Indians have learned the use of the 
 horse and of firearms from the whites, and many of 
 them have adopted the white man's religion ; but they 
 have no desire to build cities and schools and fac- 
 tories. If their children are educated, it is through 
 the efforts of their pale-faced brethren and not their 
 
 327 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 own. In the Indian reservations of the West the 
 mode of life is very much the same as it was in the 
 days of King Philip or of Powhatan. 
 
 Forty years ago there were a great many Indians 
 — ^the Sioux and other tribes — ^living in an almost 
 wild state in the valley of the Big Horn River in 
 Montana. They had no desire for civilization. The 
 country was well watered and the forests and moun- 
 tain slopes abounded in buffaloes, deer and antelope. 
 But the time came, as it had come in the East long 
 before, when the ever-restless white man could not 
 keep away from the Indian lands. 
 
 The red men seriously objected to the building of 
 railroads through their hunting ground; they re- 
 sisted the coming of white settlers and especially of 
 the soldiers. The discovery of gold in the Black 
 Hills, the building of transcontinental railroads, the 
 vast stretches of pasture land allured the white man, 
 and it was certain that the Indians could not long re- 
 main in their isolation. The nearer the approach of 
 the whites the more angry they grew and by the be- 
 ginning of 1876 there were several thousand hostile 
 Indians in the valleys of Montana. 
 
 General George A. Custer was one of the com- 
 manders in the West. A native of Ohio, he had 
 graduated at West Point in the spring of 1861, just 
 in time to take part in the battle of Bull Run. 
 Throughout the war he served with the army of the 
 Potomac, was a member of McClellan's staff and was 
 made brigadier general in 1863, at the age of twenty- 
 four. He was one of the ablest and most reckless 
 
 328 
 
The New Nation 
 
 joimg cavalry leaders in the war. On one occasion 
 he dashed almost up to the suburbs of Richmond, 
 captured a hundred men in the outer trenches, and 
 escaped with no loss to himself. He was with Sheri- 
 dan in the famous raid of the Shenandoah Valley and 
 at Five Forks, and with Grant at the final scenes at 
 Appomatox, where he received with his own hand the 
 flag of truce sent by Lee at that famous surrender. 
 
 The war over, Custer was sent into Texas and later 
 to the Far West. We find him in the army of General 
 Terry who, in 1876, was sent against the hostile 
 Sioux and kindred tribes. 
 
 Early in May the army broke camp and marched 
 from Bismarck, North Dakota, to the valley of 
 the Big Horn. Terry decided to divide his army 
 into three parts, one part to be commanded by him- 
 self, another by General Gibbon, and a third by Gen- 
 eral Custer. On June 23d they separated; each was 
 to make a certain detour through the valley and get 
 all possible information about the Indians, after 
 which they were to meet and join their forces on the 
 evening of the 26th and make ready for a general 
 battle. 
 
 Custer proceeded to the very heart of the Indian 
 country, marching almost day and night for fifty 
 hours. He was at least a day ahead of time, his men 
 were tired, sleepy, and hungry, and yet he offered 
 battle to several thousand Indians, without orders 
 from General Terry, as soon as he came within strik- 
 ing distance. 
 
 Why did Custer thus disobey orders and attack a 
 329 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 body of Indians ten times greater in numbers than his 
 own army? It is believed that he had no idea that 
 there were so many Indians as there proved to be, 
 and that he disobeyed orders because he wished to 
 win all the glory of a victory to the exclusion of his 
 fellow officers. 
 
 The Indian chief who had the greatest influence 
 among the Sioux at this time was Sitting Bull ; but 
 this chief was not present at the battle. It was 
 said that he was a coward (an unusual thing for an 
 Indian) and whenever his braves were in battle he 
 found something to do a mile or two away. The 
 chiefs who led against Custer were Crazy Horse, 
 Crow King, Kain-in-the-Face and one or two others. 
 
 Custer had with him only a part of the troops of 
 his division, about 300 men, when he rode up to the 
 Indian town on the Little Big Horn River on that 
 fatal 25th of June. In a short time hundreds of In- 
 dian horsemen had poured out on the plain to meet 
 the white invaders of their soil. Custer's little band 
 was surrounded by an army of perhaps 3,000 war- 
 riors, trained in the art of savage warfare and armed 
 as well as the whites themselves. 
 
 The history of the battle was afterwards gathered 
 from the Indians, for not a white man was left alive 
 to tell the story. Custer and his men fought with 
 desperate bravery, but they were shot down merci- 
 lessly, sometimes horse and rider falling in a heap 
 together. At the end of two hours scarcely a fourth 
 of them were left alive. A few of them tried to es- 
 cape to the mountains; but they were pursued and 
 
 330 
 
The 'New Nation 
 
 killed to the last man. At the end of three hours the 
 little band had all perished. Of the horses, one es- 
 caped, a noble charger named Comanche, and was 
 found some miles from the battlefield with seven bul- 
 let wounds. A soldier was detailed to take care of the 
 horse as long as it lived and no one was ever permitted 
 to ride it. The battle over, the squaws swarmed over 
 the field with picks and axes and mutilated the bodies 
 of their fallen enemies in a frightful manner. Most 
 of the clothing and every article of value were torn 
 from the dead men, and thus they were found a few 
 days later when their comrades came to bury them. 
 General Custer had been shot through the temple and 
 in the left side. His body was not mutilated. It was 
 said that a chief named Rain-in-the-Face, whom Cus- 
 ter had befriended in the past, finding his body, said, , 
 " My poor friend," and then stood and guarded it 
 from the infuriated squaws. 
 
 General Custer's widow has written a book en- 
 titled " Boots and Saddles " in which she gives a de- 
 tailed account of life with the general in the West. 
 The book is well worth reading, though it does not 
 treat of this final battle, which rendered her a widow. 
 
 331 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 OUR ISLAND POSSESSIONS 
 
 FOR more than a hundred years after the adop- 
 tion of our Constitution the United States had 
 no colonial possessions, unless we except Alaska. 
 While England, France, Germany, and other coun- 
 tries were taking possession of Africa and other parts 
 of the world, we remained at home developing our 
 continent, and even took pride in the fact that we did 
 not own colonies. But there came a time, only a 
 few years ago, when this condition was changed. 
 The change was brought about chiefly by our recent 
 war with Spain, as we shall notice; but first let us 
 take a glance at 
 
 The Hawaiian Islaistds 
 
 There is no more beautiful group of islands in the 
 world than the Hawaiian Islands. They lie in the 
 Pacific Ocean in the latitude of Cuba, and are 2,100 
 miles from San Erancisco. The climate is like per- 
 petual spring. The scenery is magnificent. Vol- 
 canic mountains with their slopes and intervening 
 valleys laden with evergreen forests and luxuriant 
 tropical vegetation, with the deep blue of the encir- 
 
 332 
 
Our Island Possessions 
 
 cling sea in the distance, presents a charm to the eye 
 that no one who beholds it can ever forget. 
 
 The islands were discovered in 1Y78 by Captain 
 James Cook, a famous navigator of the British royal 
 navy. Returning the next year to spend the winter 
 months in this charming place. Captain Cook met 
 the fate of Magellan in the Philippines. He was 
 killed by the natives. He had given the group the 
 name of the Sandwich Islands, after the Earl of Sand- 
 wich, a patron of his expedition. But this name has 
 fallen into disuse, and the islands are known as Ha- 
 waii, which is the name of the largest of the group. 
 
 Eight of the islands are inhabited, the largest being 
 Hawaii with an area of 4,015 square miles, and the 
 second is Maui, 728 square miles, and the third is 
 Oahu, 598 square miles, on which is situated the 
 capital city Honolulu. 
 
 The islands are of volcanic origin, and at present 
 the largest active volcano in the world is Kilauea, 
 on the island of Hawaii. On the island of Maui is 
 the largest extinct volcano in the world, with a crater 
 twenty miles in circumference and 2,500 feet in 
 depth. 
 
 The soil of the islands is very fertile, and there are 
 other very attractive features. Fierce storms are 
 unknown in Hawaii ; there are no poisonous reptiles 
 or dangerous wild animals ; the climate is delightful, 
 tempered by the soft, perennial breeze from the sea. 
 The hills and valleys abound in bright flowers, of 
 which there are 900 species, and in forests of palms 
 and other tropical vegetation. 
 
 333 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Little is known of the history of Hawaii before 
 1820, when the first Christian missionaries arrived 
 in the islands. Soon after them came the traders 
 and the whalers. Many a weary crew of whale fish- 
 ermen, after a long, dreary voyage of the Arctic seas, 
 found and still find these islands a delightful haven 
 for rest and recreation. When the missionaries 
 came they found the natives docile and easily won 
 away from their old, idolatrous religion. Almost 
 the entire population were won to accept Christianity. 
 It is said that this wholesale conversion without force 
 of an entire population has no parallel in the world's 
 history. 
 
 The natives are apparently a mixture of Polyne- 
 sian and Malayan races. They are somewhat darker 
 in color than the American Indians, are tall and stal- 
 wart, courteous and affectionate, with soft, mellow 
 voices, and an inclination to music and oratory. 
 The one great defect in the Hawaiian character is 
 indolence. They do not like to work. When the 
 white man came to his island home and introduced 
 new industries that make for modern progress and 
 civilization, the Hawaiian, accustomed for ages to 
 gathering his food from the palm tree and the sea, as 
 nature provided it, could not enter into the new life. 
 He stood aloof, and when laborers were needed they 
 were imported by thousands from China and Japan. 
 
 The Hawaiian race is dying out. Seventy years 
 ago there were more than 100,000 natives of pure 
 blood; to-day there are scarcely 30,000. Two rea- 
 sons are given for this rapid decline. First, the Ha- 
 
 334 
 
Our Island Possessions 
 
 waiians are far more susceptible to contagions dis- 
 eases than are the other races of the islands. In 
 1848 one fourth of the whole population died of 
 measles, and a few years later several thousand died 
 of smallpox. Pneumonia and typhoid are far more 
 fatal to them than to the other races. Purthermore, 
 Hawaii is one of the few places in the world where 
 leprosy is still a prevalent disease, and it is the native 
 who is especially susceptible to it. On one of the 
 islands is a colony of lepers — a thousand or more — 
 and the proportion of American victims to natives 
 is about one to two hundred. 
 
 Second, the Hawaiian women prefer American 
 or Chinese husbands to their own race. A great 
 many of the Chinese, who are industrious and good 
 providers, find wives among the native women, and 
 a large part of the rising generation are the children 
 of Chinese fathers and Hawaiian mothers. Probably 
 within half a century the pure Hawaiian race will 
 have disappeared from the islands. 
 
 In 1824 the king and queen of Hawaii visited 
 England and both died there of the measles. Then 
 a witty poet, or one who thought himself witty, 
 wrote: 
 
 "Waiter, two Sandwiches," cried Death 
 And their wild majesties resigned their breath. 
 
 For many years the island group was looked upon 
 with covetous eyes by various European countries and 
 by the United States. Its great value lies in the fact 
 that it is a most convenient station for vessels be- 
 
 335 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 tween America and the Orient. There is a large 
 and growing American population in the islands, 
 largely descendants of the missionaries who were sent 
 there long ago. These were watching for an oppor- 
 tunity to overthrow the monarchy and put the islands 
 imder control of the United States. The natives 
 were not specially averse to the change, for their own 
 rulers were often tyrants and granted them few 
 privileges. 
 
 At length the opportunity came. Queen Liliou- 
 kalani refused to continue government by a legis- 
 lature, which her predecessor had established, and 
 in January, 1893, the people, American for the most 
 part, rose in rebellion, deposed the queen and applied 
 for annexation to the United States. 
 
 President Harrison sent a treaty of annexation to 
 the Senate; but in March he went out of office, and 
 President Cleveland, who succeeded him, withdrew 
 the treaty from the Senate, on the ground, as he said, 
 that it was un-American to govern any people with- 
 out their consent, and the native Hawaiians had not 
 asked for annexation. He even offered to restore the 
 queen to her throne if she would promise not to pun- 
 ish those who had deposed her; but she would not 
 agree to this, and she never recovered her kingdom. 
 
 The next year the Republic of Hawaii was estab- 
 lished, and Sanford B. Dole, son of a former Amer- 
 ican missionary, was elected president. But a few 
 years later (in August, 1898) the republic came to an 
 end and the islands were annexed to the United 
 States. In June, 1900, they were organized as a 
 
 336 
 
Our Island Possessions 
 
 territory, with a regular territorial government and 
 a representative in Washington, who has a seat, but 
 not a vote, in the Lower House of Congress. 
 
 The population of the Hawaiian Islands in 1900 
 was 154,000, of whom 28,832 were natives. The 
 whites numbered 28,533, with nearly as many China- 
 men and twice as many Japanese. The one great 
 product is raw sugar, of which the exports in 1908 
 amounted to $36,000,000. The other industries of 
 growing importance are the production of coffee, 
 pineapples, and rubber. The islands are becoming 
 more and more a pleasure resort for wealthy people 
 from all parts of the world. 
 
 The Spat^ish War 
 
 Our only war with a European nation, except 
 England, was that with Spain in 1898. It continued 
 but four months, from April till August, and, like 
 our war with Mexico in the forties, the Americans 
 won in every battle. The war came on account of 
 Cuba. 
 
 Spain had owned Cuba since the time of Colum- 
 bus, who first discovered the island. She had pos- 
 session also of Mexico and all the countries of Cen- 
 tral and South America, except Brazil, for a great 
 many years; but early in the nineteenth century 
 they rose in rebellion against her and won their in- 
 dependence. In the New World only Cuba and 
 Porto Pico remained to Spain. 
 
 So tyrannical and oppressive was Spanish rule iu 
 337 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 Cuba that the Cuban people revolted again and again 
 without success. In 1868 a war began and contin- 
 ued for ten years. Spain being wholly unable to put 
 down this revolt, induced the Cubans to lay down 
 their arms by making promises to reform, after which 
 she speedily violated them. Thirteen years passed 
 when, in 1895, the Cubans rose against their op- 
 pressors in larger numbers than ever before. In a 
 short time they had possession of almost the entire 
 island except Havana and a few other cities. Spain 
 sent over thousands of troops, but they made no head- 
 way against the Cubans. 
 
 The American people looked on, very much in- 
 terested. We sympathized with the Cubans because 
 they were fighting for liberty. Nothing appeals to 
 the American heart so quickly as liberty, and noth- 
 ing seems more detestable than oppression. 
 
 There were a great many people in Cuba, farmers, 
 for the most part, who took no part in the war. 
 Spain grew so desperate in her efforts to conquer 
 the Cubans that she decided to force these people from 
 their farms into the towns so that they could no 
 longer furnish food to the armies. This was done 
 by General Weyler, the Spanish commander in Cuba, 
 who has been called " the butcher." His evident pur- 
 pose was to conquer the island by depopulating it, for 
 these people, forced from their homes, starved to 
 death by thousands. 
 
 Our people heard the wailing cry of the starving 
 Cubans, and it seemed as the voice of a brother's 
 blood crying from the ground. They became wild 
 
 338 
 
Our Island Possessions 
 
 with anger and demanded a declaration of war 
 against Spain. Our fine battleship, the Maine, was 
 blown to fragments in the Havana harbor. Whether 
 the deed was done by the Spaniards or not was never 
 certainly known ; but at any rate it was not this that 
 brought our war with Spain. It was rather the cry 
 of distress from downtrodden Cuba, and no war was 
 ever waged for a nobler purpose. 
 
 War was declared against Spain in April and the 
 response from the people was hearty and immediate. 
 Men from all parts of the country, north and south, 
 left their farms, their offices, and places of business, 
 and shouldered arms for the rescue of Cuba from the 
 tyrannical hand of Spain. 
 
 The first notable conflict of the war was a naval 
 battle in the far-off Orient. The Philippine Islands, 
 which belonged to Spain, were guarded by a fleet, 
 and against it was sent an American fleet, which was 
 then in Chinese waters under the command of Ad- 
 miral Dewey. On the last night of April, Dewey 
 sailed stealthily under the cover of darkness into the 
 harbor of Manila Bay. "Next morning. May 1st, he 
 met the Spanish fleet, and in a furious battle of a few 
 hours destroyed it utterly. This meant the end of 
 Spanish rule in the Philippine Islands. 
 
 Two months later a similar naval battle occurred 
 in Cuban waters, at the harbor of Santiago. Por 
 a month an American fleet under Admiral Sampson 
 had watched at the mouth of the harbor for the com- 
 ing of the Spanish under Admiral Cervera, which 
 had found a refuge there. On the morning of July 
 
 339 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 3d a thin column of smoke was descried far up the 
 bay, and it was soon discovered that the Spanish 
 fleet was about to make a daring dash for liberty. 
 The Americans were on the alert, and as the Spanish 
 ships swung out into the open sea they were attacked 
 with the utmost fury. They resisted as best they 
 could, but their chances of victory or even of escap- 
 ing were meager indeed, for they were outclassed in 
 every respect. I^^ot one escaped being captured or 
 sunk, and hundreds of their brave defenders found a 
 grave at the bottom of the sea. 
 
 This victory was very similar to that of Manila. 
 Hundreds of Spaniards perished in each battle, while 
 but one American was killed at Santiago and none at 
 Manila. 
 
 Meantime there was some fierce fighting on land. 
 General Shafter landed an army of 15,000 men on 
 the Cuban coast in June near Santiago. After cap- 
 turing the fortified town of El Caney and fighting 
 the battle of San Juan, the first week in July, the 
 American army captured the city of Santiago, which 
 surrendered about the middle of July. By this time 
 nearly all of Cuba was under American control. 
 
 Late in July General ISTelson A. Miles embarked 
 with an army for Porto Rico, the only other Spanish 
 possession in the New World. He landed, won a few 
 slight battles, and was pushing into the interior when 
 suddenly all operations came to a stop on account of 
 the news that an agreement had been reached by the 
 United States and Spain. The war thus ended and 
 the conditions were that Spain should give up all con- 
 
 340 
 

 
 
Our Island Possessions 
 
 trol over Cuba and cede Porto Rico to the United 
 States, while the future control of the Philippines 
 was to be determined by a treaty yet to be arranged. 
 
 Both countries sent commissioners to meet at Paris 
 early in the autumn. This commission met and for 
 many weeks labored for a final settlement. One 
 question in dispute was: What shall be done with 
 the Philippines ? They, as well as Cuba, had been 
 in revolt against Spanish misrule, and it seemed cruel 
 now to hand them back to the oppression of Spain. 
 And to give them entire independence was to make 
 them a prey to foreign powers, for they had not 
 learned the art of self-government. 
 
 The only course left was for the United States to 
 take over the islands. Spain objected to this most 
 vigorously, but when she was offered $20,000,000 as 
 a balm for her wounded pride, she agreed to it, and 
 the entire Philippine archipelago became the posses- 
 sion of the United States. 
 
 The Philippine Islands 
 
 This great group of tropical islands lies about ten 
 degrees nearer the equator than the Hawaiian group, 
 and is about eighteen times greater in extent. There 
 is no winter in the Philippines ; but there are fre- 
 quent destructive storms. The trade winds blow 
 from the northeast for eight months in the year, 
 from October to June, and during the remaining four 
 months the southwest monsoon blows unceasingly. 
 
 The number of the islands exceeds 3,000, a great 
 341 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 many of them being barren volcanic rocks on which 
 no human being pretends to live. Only 342 of the 
 islands are inhabited by man. Many of these are 
 very small, but Luzon, the largest of the group, is 
 40,969 square miles in extent — about the size of the 
 State of Ohio. Mindanao comes second with 36,292 
 square miles, and Samar third with 5,031 square 
 miles. 
 
 The people of the islands are called Filipinos, and 
 they are divided into many tribes. They are of the 
 Malay race, and a very large majority are civilized. 
 They have schools and churches, and have made some 
 progress in the arts and sciences, though they cannot 
 be compared with the most highly civilized nations. 
 The entire population of the islands is slightly above 
 7,500,000. 
 
 The most numerous of the tribes is the Visayan, 
 of whom there are more than three million. Next 
 to these come the Tagalogs with 1,400,000. These 
 two tribes are the most intelligent in the islands. 
 The Filipinos are supposed to have inhabited the 
 islands in modern times only. They, like the Amer- 
 ican Indians, had not advanced far enough in civili- 
 zation to record their own history at the time of their 
 discovery in 1521 by Magellan, the famous navigator. 
 It is believed, however, that some centuries before 
 this time they had come to the islands and crowded 
 out the aborigines, who were not of the Malay stock. 
 
 Of these aborigines, about 24,000 still remain. 
 They are a dwarfish people scarcely three feet high, 
 with almost black skin and coarse woolly hair. They 
 
 342 
 
Our Island Possessions 
 
 are timid and shy and as wild as the animals about 
 them. Without clothing and without a fixed home 
 they wander among the mountains living on roots, 
 nuts, and small game. This tribe is known as the 
 Negritos. They are probably among the lowest of 
 the human race. 
 
 The Philippine islands abound in lofty mountains 
 and tropical forests, yielding valuable timbers. The 
 soil is fertile, and the chief products are sugar, hemp, 
 tobacco, and coffee. 
 
 The one and only large city is Manila, on the 
 island of Luzon, with about 225,000 inhabitants. 
 This city is the center of art, commerce, and govern- 
 ment, in fact, of all that represents Filipino civili- 
 zation. 
 
 Scarcely had the treaty between the United States 
 and Spain been completed when the Filipinos rose in 
 rebellion against the Americans, declaring that they 
 had not revolted against one master only to be 
 brought under the domination of another, and that 
 they would be content with nothing short of complete 
 independence. The revolt was led by an able young 
 leader named Aguinaldo, who soon had 30,000 men 
 under arms. Thousands of additional American 
 troops were sent to the islands; the war continued 
 for two years and cost the United States about $200,- 
 000,000. Hundreds of slight battles were fought. 
 
 At length, in the spring of 1901, Aguinaldo hav- 
 ing been captured by a clever strategy, and the Fili- 
 pinos having been convinced that America was dis- 
 posed to deal justly and kindly with them, giving 
 
 343 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 them a large share in their own government, they 
 laid down their arms and the war was over. Since 
 then the islanders have enjoyed a far better govern- 
 ment than ever before, and they have advanced 
 greatly in prosperity and happiness. Their school 
 system has been very much improved, and a thousand 
 American school teachers have gone to the islands 
 to aid in raising the standard of education. 
 
 How THE Filipinos Live 
 
 Let us take a look at the Filipinos as we find them 
 in everyday life — not the so-called higher class, who 
 live in stone or brick houses and wear clothes made 
 in Europe or America, not the wild tribes who 
 scarcely have a fixed home or wear any clothes at all, 
 but the middle class, the rank and file who make up 
 the masses of the people. 
 
 The average Filipino lives in a bamboo house. 
 The bamboo is a remarkable tree, or rather a species 
 of grass, jointed like cane. It grows to the height 
 of one hundred feet and is about one foot in diameter 
 at the base. The logs are used as timber for the 
 framework of the house; split into strips it forms 
 the walls, the floor, the beds, and, indeed, almost 
 every piece of furniture that is used in the home. 
 
 The Filipino family is usually a large one and 
 often they all live in a house of a single room, sleep- 
 ing at night on bamboo mats spread on the earthen 
 floor. The houses are for the most part owned by the 
 occupants. The average farm is not more than eight 
 
 344 
 
Our Island Possessions 
 
 acres. The farming utensils are crude. The plow 
 is made of wood and is drawn by a carabao, a species 
 of buffalo; or in many cases the farmer does not use 
 a plow at all; he scratches the ground with a split 
 stick. The main crop is rice, which forms the chief 
 food of the whole population. 
 
 The children are usually respectful and obedient 
 to the parents. One of the chief occupations in the 
 home is weaving on the hand loom. This is done by 
 the women and girls. In the towns there are some 
 factories where they make shoes of a coarse grade, 
 various kinds of pottery and other things. The mar- 
 ket place is a popular resort' for the Filipinos, espe- 
 cially the women, who peddle their wares and talk 
 and gossip with their friends sometimes for half a 
 day without stopping. If a market woman happens 
 to find some one who buys all her stock, she seems 
 disappointed, as she no longer has a pretext for going 
 about, which seems to be her greatest enjoyment. 
 
 The death rate in the Philippines is much higher 
 than in Europe or America, the average length of 
 life being only two thirds what it is with us. One 
 cause of this no doubt is that they are unsanitary in 
 their habits. They do not take the proper care of their 
 children and great numbers of them die in infancy. 
 They are very careless about contagious diseases. If 
 the cholera sweeps over the islands the people take 
 little precaution against its spreading, and thousands 
 of them fall victims to its ravages. They allow 
 filth to collect in and around their houses, nor are 
 they careful about their food. But in strange con- 
 
 345 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 trast to all this, they are very cleanly of person. 
 Every one — men, women, and children — takes a bath 
 every day, not in a bathtub, but in the sparkling 
 brooks and rivers under the open sky. 
 
 The great besetting sin of the Filipinos is gam- 
 bling. The women and even the children gamble 
 in various kinds of games, especially with cards. But 
 the men are the chief gamblers, and their universal 
 method is through cockfighting. This is the most 
 widespread evil in the islands. There are cockpits, 
 built for the purpose, with tiers of seats for specta- 
 tors. Men will neglect their work and go a long dis- 
 tance to see a cockfight, often taking their boys with 
 them and paying their last bit of money for admis- 
 sion. Those who have money after paying the en- 
 trance fee will probably bet all they have left on the 
 outcome. A father will divide his cash with his boys, 
 so that all may enjoy the excitement of betting. 
 Many of them will go home penniless, and their fam- 
 ilies will suffer for the necessaries of life. This 
 national evil is abating since the United States has 
 come into control ; but under Spanish rule it was en- 
 couraged, and it is said to have been introduced by 
 the Spaniards. 
 
 In many ways the Filipinos are an interesting 
 people. They are not very ambitious or energetic, 
 and, like the Hawaiians, are willing to take a back 
 seat when they come in contact with foreigners. In 
 1898 there were probably 100,000 Chinese in the 
 islands, chiefly in the cities and towns, and they had 
 control of nearly all the important industries. 
 
 346 
 
Our Island Possessions 
 
 Our possession of the Philippine Islands brings 
 to us a vast responsibility. We can do great things 
 for them by raising their standard of education, 
 morals, and religion, by teaching self-government, 
 and infusing into their national life a higher form 
 of civilization. To do this is the great duty of our 
 people, and every American should feel his part of 
 the responsibility. 
 
 Porto Kico 
 
 It was Cuba, as we have seen, that caused the war 
 with Spain, but as Cuba became a self-governing re- 
 public and not a possession of the United States, we 
 turn our attention to Porto Rico, which was ceded 
 to the United States by Spain at the close of the war. 
 
 The island of Porto Rico was discovered by Co- 
 lumbus on his second voyage, in 1493. Some years 
 later Ponce De Leon came to the island and found 
 that it was inhabited by a mild-mannered tribe of 
 Indians, who received the Spaniards with great 
 kindness. But the Spaniards mistreated them and 
 soon there was war which resulted in the entire ex- 
 termination of the Indians. 
 
 Porto Rico, like the Philippines and Hawaii, lies 
 within the tropics where frigid winds never blow and 
 snow is never seen. But the climate is tempered by 
 the cool breezes from the mountains and the sea, and 
 excessive heat is seldom known. The scenery is 
 diversified with luxuriant forests and broad mead- 
 ows, with groves of cocoa palms and fields of sugar 
 cane. 
 
 347 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 The island is a little over a hundred miles in 
 length and thirty odd miles in width, comprising 
 3,500 square miles, and is the home of 900,000 peo- 
 ple. The inhabitants are of Spanish descent with 
 a slight mixture of negro and Indian blood, some- 
 what darker than the Caucasian and much lighter 
 than the African. Like most tropical people they are 
 rather indolent and easy going. Only in the tem- 
 perate zone does man develop energy and the attend- 
 ant civilization to his fullest capacity. Man in the 
 frigid zones is dwarfed by the incessant cold and his 
 scanty supply of food. In the tropics he needs little 
 clothing, nature supplies his food, and the perennial 
 heat makes him listless and indolent. 
 
 San Juan is the most interesting town in the 
 island. It is forty years older than St. Augustine, 
 Florida, is the only walled city in the jurisdiction 
 of the United States, and is one of the finest speci- 
 mens of military architecture in the Western Hemi- 
 sphere. Here also is Moro Castle, a magnificent cita- 
 del of solid masonry, with its lighthouse tower 170 
 feet high, with its tiers of batteries and its dismal 
 dungeons. 
 
 One of the chief attractions of Porto Rico is the 
 great military road across the island, 85 miles in 
 length, between the cities of San Juan and Ponce. 
 It was built many years ago by the Spaniards at great 
 expense. It winds among the hills, through the sweet- 
 scented forests, crossing the gushing streams from the 
 mountains over stone bridges. 
 
 The soil of Porto Rico is exceedingly fertile and 
 348 
 
 I 
 
Our Island Possessions 
 
 the climate delightful; but an occasional hurricane 
 sweeps over the island and leaves frightful destruc- 
 tion in its trail. The people, since the American 
 occupation, have made commendable progress in edu- 
 cation and in industrial life, and the time may come 
 when the island will become a State in our Union. 
 
 The Islands of Samoa 
 
 The Samoan Islands are a tiny group in the South 
 Pacific Ocean exactly twice as far from San Fran- 
 cisco as the Hawaiian Islands — i,200 miles. The 
 group lies in the Southern Hemisphere a few degrees 
 north of the Tropic of Capricorn. There are a dozen 
 or more small islands, comprising about 1,000 square 
 miles. The islands are simply the exposed summit 
 of a vast submarine mountain chain. 
 
 The climate of Samoa, with its fresh and exhil- 
 arating breeze from the summer sea, is the most en- 
 chanting in the world most of the time ; but the is- 
 lands lie in the hurricane belt, and at times they are 
 swept with appalling tornadoes; again, they are 
 rocked with dreadful earthquakes. Here in this re- 
 mote part of the world dwell nearly 40,000 people, 
 partially civilized and nominally Christian. 
 
 The islands lie directly in the track of the vessels 
 plying between our Pacific Coast and Australia, and 
 are therefore of great importance as a station in the 
 long voyage. 
 
 In 1878 the United States made a treaty with the 
 native chief by which we acquired the right of a naval 
 
 349 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 station in the harbor of Apia, the chief town, situated 
 on the island of Upolu, the largest of the group. 
 
 A few years later serious trouble arose with Ger- 
 many, which laid claim to the entire group. Ger- 
 many had had three European wars — with Denmark, 
 Austria, and France — ^within a few years and was 
 feeling quite puffed up with her brilliant successes. 
 It was said that Prince Bismarck, who was the real 
 master of Germany at the time, could, with a frown, 
 an impatient speech, or a curt dispatch, send the 
 shivers down the back of every foreign minister in 
 Europe. 
 
 Suddenly, one day in April, 1886, the German 
 consul at Apia, instructed by his Government, raised 
 the German flag over the town and declared that 
 none but the German Government should henceforth 
 rule over it. As there were several German warships 
 in the harbor, he felt that he could do as he chose. 
 The British consul, remembering the great prestige 
 of Germany at that moment, hesitated to act without 
 instructions from home. But the American repre- 
 sentative had no such scruples. He ran up the Amer- 
 ican flag and declared the town under an American 
 protectorate. When Bismarck heard of the incident 
 he was astonished at the audacity of the Yankees, who 
 dared to defy the power of the German Empire. 
 
 Some time later the Germans deposed the ruling 
 king and set up one of their own choosing. The 
 natives refused to acknowledge this puppet and fled 
 from the towns to the forests in the interior of the 
 islands where the American and British consuls fur- 
 
 350 
 
Our Island Possessions 
 
 nished them with arms. The Germans, determined 
 to surprise them and seize their chiefs, sent a bat- 
 talion of marines to the forest one morning before 
 daylight. The Samoans fell on them in large num- 
 bers, and the Germans fled to their ships with a loss 
 of fifty men. 
 
 On one occasion a German warship, the Adler, was 
 about to bombard the town of Apia because the peo- 
 ple refused to accept the new king. But there was an 
 American warship in the harbor whose captain, an 
 Irish-American named Leary, would rather fight 
 than eat, it was said. Leary swung his vessel between 
 the Adler and the shore, and then curtly said to the 
 German captain, " If you fire, you must fire through 
 the ship which I have the honor to command." 
 
 The commander of the Adler saw that the situation 
 was grave, that his firing would probably bring war 
 between his country and the United States, and he 
 shrank from the responsibility. He then turned tail 
 and steamed sullenly away. 
 
 In March, 1889, while the threatened trouble be- 
 tween the two great nations about Samoa was still 
 pending, the islands were visited by a tornado the 
 most destructive ever known in the islands. There 
 was not much loss of life, but every American and 
 German ship in the harbor was sunk or disabled by 
 the terrific storm. 
 
 Soon after this Prince Bismarck proposed a con- 
 ference at Berlin to settle the Samoan question. The 
 offer was accepted, and three American commission- 
 ers were sent to the German capital. Bismarck had 
 
 351 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 no love for America, and had even gone so far as to 
 show his feeling by expelling Germans who had been 
 naturalized in America from German soil on twenty- 
 four hours' notice. So great was his prestige in Eu- 
 rope that he now expected an easy victory with the 
 Americans on the Samoan affair. But when he made 
 certain demands — that the king the Germans had set 
 up in Samoa should be recognized, and the like — 
 the Americans refused their assent. Then the chan- 
 cellor affected great indignation, and the Americans 
 cabled the whole proceedings to their Government. 
 Secretary of State Blaine flashed back the answer: 
 " The extent of the chancellor's irritability is not the 
 measure of American rights." 
 
 This answer braced up the Americans and they 
 refused to yield a single point. The outcome was that 
 Bismarck, the " man of blood and iron," backed down 
 and yielded every point at issue. It was said that 
 this was the first diplomatic reverse that the great 
 German statesman had ever experienced. 
 
 By this agreement Samoa was recognized as neu- 
 tral territory with an independent government. Some 
 years later, however, the islands M^ere divided by a 
 friendly agreement, between the United States and 
 Germany, the former receiving the island of Tutuila 
 and a few smaller ones. In addition to Hawaii and 
 our portion of Samoa there are a few other islands 
 scattered through the broad expanse of the Pacific 
 which have come into the possession of the United 
 States. 
 
 352 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE PANAMA CANAL 
 
 OUR final chapter, a short one, will be devoted 
 to a notice of the great ship canal, which is 
 now being constructed between the Atlantic Ocean 
 (Caribbean Sea) and Pacific Ocean, severing i^orth 
 and South America. The only other waterway of 
 the same class, which can be compared with that at 
 Panama when finished, is the Suez Canal. A few 
 words about this will be interesting. 
 
 The Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean 
 and the Red seas, has been in operation for forty 
 years, having been completed in 1869, the year that 
 marks the completion of our first transcontinental 
 railroad. This great canal is 100 miles long, and 
 wide enough for ships to pass one another at any 
 point. It required ten years to make the cut, and 
 cost a hundred million dollars. The laborers, about 
 10,000 in number, were for the most part Egyptian 
 fellahs, who received from ten to fifteen cents a day 
 for their labor at first; but later they were forced 
 by their ruler to work without pay, very much as the 
 Hebrews had been forced by the Egyptian Pharaohs 
 thousands of years ago. A great deal of the work 
 was done without tools, the dirt being carried 
 
 353 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 away in baskets, which the laborers filled with their 
 sands. 
 
 The Suez Canal was built chiefly with French 
 capital, and its construction was due to the genius 
 of one great Frenchman, Ferdinand de Lesseps. The 
 English refused to aid in building the canal and even 
 opposed it ; but when it was finished and was proved 
 to be successful, the British Government bought a 
 controlling interest in it (1876) and still controls it. 
 It is a remarkably good investment, paying fourteen 
 per cent or upward in annual dividends. 
 
 Ships of all nations may pass through the canal 
 by paying toll — about $1.50 per ton of cargo and 
 $1.50 per passenger. It costs a large vessel at least 
 $20,000 to pass through the canal, and requires about 
 eighteen hours. But this is vastly cheaper and 
 quicker than sailing around Africa, as they formerly 
 did, in going from the Mediterranean to the Indian 
 Ocean. Let us now return to our own hemisphere. 
 
 Beginnings at Panama 
 
 In 1850 a treaty was made between the United 
 States and Great Britain concerning a proposed canal 
 between the two oceans presumably at Panama or 
 Nicaragua. It is known as the Clayton-Bulwer 
 Treaty. It provided that the two countries jointly 
 construct the canal. Many years passed and nothing 
 was done, largely because of our Civil War and the 
 agitation which preceded and followed it. 
 
 For years after the war nothing was done except 
 a little surveying, and meantime a French company, 
 
 354 
 
The Panama Canal 
 
 led by De Lesseps, who had achieved such grand 
 success at Suez, began cutting a canal at Panama. 
 Several thousand men were kept at work for some 
 years, beginning in 1881 ; but after spending many 
 millions of dollars, it was discovered that the work 
 was too vast for a private company with limited 
 means, and the project was given up. 
 
 Meantime the United States had been centering its 
 attention upon the Nicaragua route ; but after the 
 French company had given up the work, the eyes 
 of the country turned to Panama as the more desir- 
 able route. But three obstacles must first be over- 
 come before work could be done at Panama. First, 
 the rights of the French company must be purchased ; 
 second, the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty must be changed 
 or abrogated so as to give the United States a free 
 hand and become the sole constructor and owner of 
 the canal, and third, an agreement must be made with 
 Colombia, of which Panama was the most northern 
 state. 
 
 The first and second of these obstacles were soon 
 removed. The French company sold its interest to 
 the United States for the sum of $40,000,000. The 
 Clayton-Bulwer treaty was superseded by the Hay- 
 Pauncefote treaty of 1901, by which the neutrality 
 of the canal was secured and the United States was 
 to become the sole builder, owner, and protector. 
 
 The affair with Colombia was not so easy to settle. 
 A treaty was made by which Colombia was to receive 
 $10,000,000 for the right of way across the isthmus, 
 $250,000 annual rental beginning nine years later, 
 
 355 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 and to retain the sovereignty of the canal zone across 
 the isthmus, six miles in width. The lease was to be 
 for a hundred years with the right of perpetual re- 
 newal. The United States Senate promptly ratified 
 this treaty in March, 1903; but the Colombian Sen- 
 ate dallied with it, and in August rejected it by a 
 unanimous vote. 
 
 This action seemed strange from the fact that a 
 canal across the isthmus would be a wonderful boon 
 to Colombian prosperity, and that country could well 
 afford to give a free right of way. But the object of 
 the Senate in rejecting the treaty was soon discovered 
 when Colombia offered to make a new treaty if the 
 $10,000,000 bonus should be raised by the United 
 States to $25,000,000. It was purely a mercenary 
 matter, and the American people were disgusted with 
 the turn of affairs, when Colombia should have done 
 everything in her power to encourage the building of 
 the canal. But a way out of the dilemma soon of- 
 fered itself. 
 
 Panama, restless for many years under Colombian 
 rule, determined to rebel against it, to set up an in- 
 dependent republic and deal alone with the United 
 States. The revolt came in K^ovember of the same 
 year, 1903, and the infant republic was soon recog- 
 nized by the United States and by several European 
 nations. Colombia was frantic, and she now offered 
 to give the United States all canal rights free of 
 charge, if the latter would permit her to send troops 
 to subdue the revolt in Panama. But her change of 
 heart came too late. The United States had taken 
 
 356 
 
The Panama Canal 
 
 the infant republic under its protection and the Co- 
 lombian offer was declined. 
 
 A government was established in the little repub- 
 lic, and the next thing in the rapid movement of 
 events was to make a canal treaty with the United 
 States. This was soon done, and the treaty was rati- 
 fied by both countries. It grants the United States, 
 for the payment of $10,000,000 and $2^,000 a year, 
 sovereign rights over a canal belt ten miles wide 
 across the isthmus, a distance of forty-nine miles. 
 The money was soon paid and the work was begun in 
 1904. 
 
 The Sanitary Victory 
 
 One cause of giving up the great work at Panama 
 by the French was the deadly climate. Panama had 
 long been known as one of the hottest, wettest, and 
 most feverish regions of the world. The yellow fever 
 was the one disease dreaded above all others, and 
 great numbers of the French fell victims to this fatal 
 malady. 
 
 When gold was discovered in California sixty 
 years ago many men of the East who started for the 
 land of gold braved the deadly perils of Panama, and 
 the death toll was heavy. Again, when the Panama 
 railroad was built in the early fifties, the laborers 
 were swept into the grave by thousands. It was plain 
 that men who were not acclimatized were taking their 
 lives in their own hands when they went to Panama. 
 
 When in 1904 the Americans began to arrive on 
 the isthmus the ravages of this dreaded disease 
 
 35Y 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 greatly increased. There was a panic, and hundreds 
 of men hastened to return home at the first opportu- 
 nity. It was believed that the work would have to be 
 given up. But since then there has been a transfor- 
 mation, and it is chiefly due to one man — Colonel 
 William Crawford Gorgas, a surgeon of the United 
 States army. 
 
 There is no such thing as a sickly or unwholesome 
 climate anywhere, however hot and wet it may be. 
 Disease germs come from the ground and not from 
 the air. Purify the surface and you have a whole- 
 some climate whatever the latitude. On this prin- 
 ciple Dr. Gorgas proceeded when appointed by the 
 President as chief sanitary officer of the canal zone 
 across the isthmus. 
 
 He had learned by experiment in Cuba that yel- 
 low fever is entirely due to the bite of a certain kind 
 of mosquito called the Stegomyia. To exterminate 
 this pest on the canal belt was a tremendous task, but 
 nothing else could stop the dread disease, and the doc- 
 tor, with 2,000 assistants, set about it with tireless 
 vigor. 
 
 The natives of the towns and villages were utterly 
 careless in their way of living. They supplied them- 
 selves with water from open rain barrels, in which 
 the mosquitoes were hatched by millions. The streets 
 were filled with decaying vegetables and every im- 
 aginable kind of nondescript rubbish. The land was 
 covered with dense tropical jungles, with dismal 
 swamps and sluggish streams, all of which were 
 hatching places for the mosquitoes. 
 
 358 
 
The Panama Canal 
 
 In less than a year the streets were cleaned, the 
 people were forced to adopt sanitary methods of liv- 
 ing, the swamps were drained and the jungles in a 
 large measure were removed. The result has been 
 marvelous. In the entire year of 1906 there was but 
 one case of yellow fever in the whole canal belt, and 
 since then there has been none. 
 
 Another mosquito, the Anopheles, is responsible for 
 malaria, and so diligent has Dr. Gorgas been in his 
 efforts to exterminate this one also, that malaria has 
 greatly decreased among the people. On the whole 
 the conquest in Panama by the Sanitary Commission 
 is one of the greatest in history, and the whole world 
 will profit by it. The general health on the isthmus 
 to-day is quite as good as in other parts of the world. 
 
 Magnitude of the Work 
 
 The greatest engineering project ever undertaken 
 by man is the Panama Canal. It extends from the 
 town of Colon on the Atlantic coast to the town of 
 Panama on the Pacific. 
 
 The course is diversified with hills and valleys, for- 
 ests and streams. The highest of the hills is the Cule- 
 bra Hill, the continental divide, a part, and one of 
 the lowest parts, of the vast mountain system which 
 extends from the Straits of Magellan to the Bering 
 Sea. Culebra Hill is 330 feet above the sea level, 
 and is nearer the Pacific than the Atlantic side. The 
 cut through this hill will be nine miles long, and at 
 the highest point 285 feet deep. 
 
 359 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 The two great features of the canal will be the 
 Culebra Cut and the Gatun Dam, which we must 
 notice separately. 
 
 The Culebra Cut, which is now being made at a 
 rapid rate, means the removal of earth and rock that 
 would fill a ditch three feet deep and three feet 
 wide three times around the earth. At this time 
 there are thousands of men working on this cut, and 
 it will probably take five years more to complete it. 
 There are in operation scores of huge steam shovels 
 loading the dirt on the trains. There are nearly 800 
 dirt trains of 23 cars each now in use, on 300 miles of 
 temporary railroad. The spoil is carried ten miles on 
 an average, and in the past twelve months the enor- 
 mous amount of 280,000,000 tons was removed. 
 The Culebra Hill must be cut down to within 45 feet 
 of sea level, and the surface of the water in the canal, 
 which will be 40 feet deep, will therefore be 85 
 feet above sea level. The canal will not be less than 
 300 feet wide at the bottom at any point, and as the 
 sides will slope it will be wider at the top. At the 
 highest point of Culebra Hill the walls of the canal 
 will rise 245 feet above the water. 
 
 Let us now take a glance at the Gatun Dam, which 
 is toward the Atlantic side, about 24 miles from Cu- 
 lebra. This dam will stop the flow of the Chagres 
 River and create an artificial lake 164 square miles 
 in area. Through the heart of this lake the canal 
 will pass and of course there will be but little excava- 
 tion in this part. 
 
 There is a line of hills parallel to the Atlantic 
 360 
 
.^FUBBEIAN s^ 
 
 
 
 OCEAN 
 
 I. 
 
 t'ljurtcsy oj the OuUnuk. 
 
The Panama Canal 
 
 coast, and between the hills the Chagres Kiver flows 
 through a valley nearly a mile and a half in width. 
 Across this valley from hill to hill will be the Gatun 
 Dam. It will be made of earth, will be one third of 
 a mile thick at the base and 135 feet at the top. The 
 inclosed lake will be 85 feet above the sea level, and 
 the top of the dam will be 25 feet above the lake, 
 or 110 feet in height on the lower side. A vessel 
 will be elevated to the lake by means of locks. For 
 a long time it was undecided whether to build a sea 
 level or a lock canal, and the latter was chosen be- 
 cause a sea-level canal would cost far more and would 
 take several years longer in the construction. The 
 cost of the lock canal, as now estimated, will be about 
 $360,000,000. This includes the $40,000,000 paid 
 the French and the $10,000,000 paid Panama. 
 
 So vast a work as the construction of this canal 
 requires years of labor for thousands of men, and 
 at first there was much concern as to where so many 
 laborers could be found, as American laborers could 
 not endure the tropical heat. But the question has 
 been solved. The perfect sanitation and the good 
 wages offered have brought more laborers than can be 
 employed. 
 
 The force now employed is considerably more than 
 45,000 men. Of these about 5,000 are Americans, 
 employed as clerks, engineers, foremen, and sanitary 
 helpers. The common laborers are foreigners — 
 Spaniards, Italians, and West India negroes, of 
 whom there are 31,000. 
 
 The chief engineer and manager of the whole work 
 361 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 is Colonel George W. Goethals, a man of great ad- 
 ministrative ability. 
 
 Let us in conclusion suppose the great canal fin- 
 ished and make an imaginary trip through it. We 
 shall make the trip in the great Cunard liner, the 
 Mauretania, the largest vessel in the world, except 
 one, the Lusitania, which is exactly the same size, 
 and is owned by the same company. 
 
 Our " ocean greyhound " has a gross tonnage of 
 32,500 tons, is 790 feet long, 88 feet wide, and her 
 engines equal 70,000 horse power. 
 
 We approach the canal from the Caribbean Sea 
 and after steaming about six miles from Colon we 
 enter the first of the great concrete locks. The 
 vessel comes to a stop, the canal at our stern is closed 
 by colossal gates and the water let in from above. 
 The huge steamship rises with the rising water until 
 we are lifted perpendicularly 28 feet. Now the pon- 
 derous sluice gates above are opened and we float into 
 the second tier of locks. Here the same process is 
 repeated, and again our great vessel is lifted 28 feet. 
 Still again the same thing happens, and when our 
 ship has been raised a third time we are on a level 
 with the lake made by the great dam, 85 feet above 
 sea level. 
 
 Each tier of locks is in pairs, that is, there are 
 two locks side by side, vessels going northward always 
 taking one side and those going southward taking the 
 other side. Each side is 1,000 feet long and 110 feet 
 wide, and since our ship is only 790 feet long and 88 
 feet wide, there is room to spare. 
 
 362 
 
The Panama Canal 
 
 It has taken an hour for us to pass through these 
 three tiers of locks, and now we cross the great Gatun 
 Dam onto the broad lake that is made by it. Through 
 this lake we sail almost as fast as on the sea. The 
 channel of the canal, which was cut among the low 
 hills, is now many feet under the water — the water 
 of the Chagres River, held by the dam. Through 
 this lake we steam for nearly 24 miles when we come 
 to the great Culebra Cut. As we pass through the 
 cut we see the walls of the canal rise on either side 
 245 feet at the highest point. 
 
 If we meet another vessel we pass it without inter- 
 ruption, as the canal is at least 300 feet wide at the 
 bottom. In the Suez Canal when one large vessel 
 passes another, one must tie up to a stake on the 
 bank; but this is not necessary at Panama. 
 
 After passing through the Culebra Cut, nearly ten 
 miles long, we come to a town called Pedro Migues, 
 where there is another lock that lowers our vessel 
 30 feet into a little lake two miles wide, formed by 
 damming a little river called the Rio Grande. 
 Through this lake we sail to the town of Miraflores 
 where a double flight of locks lets us down to the 
 ocean's level. Then, after a sail of four miles, we 
 swing out into the boundless Pacific. 
 
 If our trip is from 'New York to San Prancisco, 
 we have saved 8,415 miles by not having to go round 
 Cape Horn ; if from New York to Sydney, Australia, 
 our saving is about 4,000 miles. 
 
 So great will be the cost of the Panama Canal 
 that it will not probably be a paying investment for 
 
 363 
 
A Guide to American History 
 
 many years to come. But it was never intended as 
 a money-making scheme. The United States is very 
 rich and the expense of the canal will injure no one. 
 We have recovered from the expenses of the Civil 
 War, which cost ten times as much as the canal will 
 cost. 
 
 Every American has reason to be proud of this 
 great interoceanic waterway. It will be of vast im- 
 portance to modern civilization, and its advantage to 
 the commercial world will be incalculable. 
 
 
 THE END 
 
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 364 
 
JUL 12 W'O 
 
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