a* oo N .0 o - • % <** /' 7-a^W^ /3 2?~/*?9,- C^s C ' sTssts Ly/y ■£>&?_ f S Tuition*. F, < <*~~ JUN 2 2 1940 3 o ? i ? PREFACE. Dear People of the United States: — By this, my Preface, I offer to you a New History of your coun- try — and mine. The work is presented in the form of an abridged narrative. My reasons for such a venture are brief, but, I trust, sat- isfactory : First, to every American citizen some knowledge of the history of his country is indispensable. The attainment of that knowledge ought to be made easy and delightful. Second, the Centennial of the Republic furnishes an auspicious oc- casion for the study of those great events which compose the warp and woof of the new civilization in the West. This book is intended for the average American; for the man of business who has neither time nor disposition to plod through ten or twenty volumes of elaborate historical dissertation ; for the prac- tical man of the shop, the counter, and the plow. The work is dedicated to the household and the library of the poor. It is in- scribed to the father, the mother, the son, and the daughter of the American family. If father, mother, son, and daughter shall love their country better — if they shall understand more clearly and ap- preciate more fully the founding, progress, and growth of liberty in the New World — the author will be abundantly repaid. (iii) j v PREFACE. In the preparation of the work the following objects have been kept in view: I. To give an accurate and spirited Narrative of the principal events in our National history from the aboriginal times to the pres- ent day. II. To discuss the Philosophy of that history as fully as possible within the narrow limits of the work. III. To avoid all Partiality, Partisanship, and Prejudice, as things dangerous, baneful, and wicked. IV. To preserve a clear and systematic Arrangement of the sev- eral subjects, giving to every fact, whether of peace or war, its true place and importance in the narrative. V. To give an Objective Representation by means of charts, maps,' drawings, and diagrams, of all the more important matters in the history of the nation. VI. To secure a Style and Method in the book itself which shall be in keeping with the spirit and refinement of the times. Whether these important ends have been attained, dear People, it is not my province but yours to decide. I have labored earnestly to reach the ideal of such a work, and if success has not rewarded the effort, the failure has been in the execution rather than in the plan and purpose. I surrender the book, thus undertaken and completed, to You — for whom it was intended. With diffidence I ask a considerate judg- ment and just recognition of whatever worth the work may be found to possess. J. C. E. Indiana Asbury University,! January 1, 1881. J CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. What constitutes a period in history. — The period of the Aborigines. — The second period in the history of the United States. — Extends from the discovery of the conti- nent to the establishment of permanent settlements. — The third period. — Beaches from the first colonies to the war of the Kevolution. — The fourth period. — Embraces the Revolution and the consolidation of the government. — The fifth period is most im- portant. — Extends from the adoption of the Constitution to the present time. — The names and dates of the several periods 39, 40. PART I. ABORIGINAL AMERICA. CHAPTER I. THE RED MEN — ORIGIN, DISTRIBUTION, CHARACTER. The Indians. — Their name accounted for. — Differences between them and the Asiatics. — The origin of the Indian races unknown. — Theories controverted. — The question likely to remain unsolved. — Language may give us light. — The Red men Gan- owanians. — Habits of that race. — Divisions of the aboriginal nations. — The Esqui- maux. — Their manner of life. — The race of Algonquins. — Their distribution. — And character. — The Huron-Iroquois. — Their domain. — Nature of their confederation. — Their influence and character. — The Southern races. — Cherokees. — Mobilians. — Man- ners and characteristics.— The Dakotas — Their limits.— The Comanches. — The na- tions beyond the Mountains. — Shoshonees.— Selish. — Klamaths. — Californians. — Aztecs and Toltecs of old.— The Indian character in general.— Sense of personal inde- pendence. — Passion for war.— Principles of war. — And of peace.— The Indian unsocial and solitary. — His family organization. — The European family. — Diagram thereof. — Indian method. — And diagram. — Aboriginal government. — Powers and limitations. — Native religion. — Beliefs of the Red men.— Their arts. — Rudeness of the same.— The Indian house.— Utensils.— Weapons. — Clothing. — Decorations.— Paint. — And writing. — The savage tongues. — Peculiarities of Indian speech. — Personal appearance of the aborigines. — Stature. — Features. — Bodily habit. — Indian amusements. — The dance. — Other sports.— Gaming. — The use of tobacco. — Strong drinks. — Indian prospects. — Reflections 41-50. (y) vi CONTENTS. PART II. VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY, A. ». 986—1607. CHAPTER II. THE ICELANDERS AND NORWEGIANS IN AMERICA. Herjulfson is driven by a storm to the American coast. — Lief Erickson discovers America. — Thorwald and Thorstein Erickson make voyages. — Thorfinn Karlsefne ex- plores the shores of Maine and Massachusetts. — Other voyages are made by the Norse- men. — The name of Vinland. — Character of the sea-kings. — Voyages in the following centuries. — No practical results from the Icelandic discoveries. — Their authenticity.— Note 51-54. CHAPTER III. SPANISH DISCOVERIES. Spain makes the New World known to Europe. — Old ideas about the figure of the earth. — Columbus. — Sketch of his life. — The favor of Isabella. — Columbus departs on his first voyage.— Discovers San Salvador, Cuba, and Hayti. — Second voyage of Co- lumbus. — Third. — He discovers South America. — Fourth voyage. — Columbus's misfort- unes and death. — Wrong done to his memory. — Vespucci makes two voyages to South America. — Excitement in Europe on account of discoveries. — Colony planted on the Isthmus. — Balboa discovers the Pacific. — Ponce de Leon makes explorations in Flor- ida. — Is killed in a fight with the Indians 54-58. CHAPTER IV. SPANISH DISCOVERIES — CONTINUED. Cordova discovers Yucatan. — Grijalva explores Mexico. — Cortez lands at Tabasco. — Terror pervades the country. — The natives are beaten back. — Cortez proceeds to Vera Cruz. — Montezuma sends embassies and presents. — The Spaniards march towards the capital. — And are forbidden to approach. — The Mexican tribes revolt. — Cortez reaches the city. — And enters. — His critical situation. — He seizes Montezuma. — Who acknowl- edges the king of Spain. — The governor of Cuba sends forces against Cortez. — He over- powers them. — Returns to the capital. — The struggle for possession of the city. — Mon- tezuma is wounded. — And dies. — The Spaniards are victorious. — Mexico becomes a Spanish province. — Magellan sails around South America. — Crosses the Pacific. — Is killed at the Philippines. — His crew reach the East Indies. — Double the Cape of Good Hope. — Return to Europe. — De Narvaez is appointed governor of Florida. — Ex- plores the country around the Gulf. — The company embark in boats, and are wrecked. — Four men reach San Miguel. — De Soto sets out on an expedition to explore and con- quer Florida. — Arrives at Tampa Bay. — Marches into the interior. — Spends the winter on Flint River. — The company march into South Carolina. — Cross into Georgia. — Capt- ure Manville. — Spend the next winter on the Yazoo. — Discover the Mississippi. — Ex- plore Arkansas and return to the Mississippi. — De Soto dies. — His men again march westward to the mountains. — Return to the mouth of Red River. — Build boats and descend the Mississippi. — Reach the Spanish settlements in Mexico. — Melendez comes CONTENTS. vii to Florida, and founds St. Augustine. — Murders the Huguenots on the St. John's. — Massacres the crews of the French vessels. — Extent of the Spanish explorations. — The Portuguese voyage of Gaspar Cortereal. — He sells a cargo of Indian slaves in Portu- gal. . 61-69. CHAPTER V. THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. First acquaintance of the French with America. — Verrazzani is sent out to make ex- plorations. — Arrives on the coast of North Carolina. — Explores the shores of the country as far north as Newfoundland. — Cartier is sent on a voyage to America. — Peaches Newfoundland and enters the Gulf and Eiver of St. Lawrence. — Returns to Europe. — Sails on a second expedition. — Ascends the St. Lawrence to Montreal. — His crew are attacked with scurvy. — He passes the winter near the site of Quebec. — And returns to France. — Poberval undertakes to colonize the country. — Cartier joined to the under- taking. — Prisons of France are opened to furnish emigrants. — Expedition reaches the St. Lawrence. — The leader- quarrel, and Cartier goes back to France. — The whole colony returns. — Poberval -ails with another fleet. — And is lost at sea. — Eibault con- ducts a band of Huguenots to Port Royal. — Builds Fort Carolina. — The settlement is abandoned. — The enterprise renewed by Laudonniere. — A Huguenot colony estab- lished on the St. John's River. — But destroyed by Melendez. — De Gourges takes venge- ance on the Spaniards. — La Roche is commissioned to plant colonies in America. — French prisons again opened. — A settlement is made on Sable island. — The company rescued and carried to France. — De Monts made viceroy of New France. — Departs with a colony. — Reaches the Bay of Fundy. — Port Royal founded by Pontrincourt, and the St. Croix settlement by De Monts. — The country named Acadia. — Champlain receives a commission. — Sails with a colony to the St. Lawrence. — Goes against the Iroquois. — Returns and founds Quebec 70-70. CHAPTER VI. ENGLISH DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS. Henry VII. commissions John Cabot. — Who discovers North America. — Is re- commissioned. — Sebastian takes charge of the expedition. — Explores the American coast from Labrador to Cape Hatteras. — Leaves England to become pilot of Spain. — The notable year 1498. — Causes which impeded English discovery.— Maritime enter- prise revives under Elizabeth. — Frobisher sails \o America and discovers Meta Incog- nita. — Takes spurious ore to London. — A new voyage is planned. — Frobisher conducts a fleet to Meta Incognita. — The expedition proves a failure. — Sir Francis Drake cap- tures Spanish merchantmen. — Goes to the Pacific coast. — Attempts the discovery of a north-west passage. — Gilbert forms a plan of colonization. — Is assisted by Raleigh. — Conducts a fleet to Newfoundland.- -The crews find spurious minerals. — The voyage is continued to Massachusetts. — Gilbert loses his best ship and a hundred men. — Starts home, and is lost at sea — Raleigh sends Amidas and Barlow with a colony. — Thev reach Roanoke Island and begin a settlement. — The place is abandoned. — Raleigh sends a second colony under Lane. — The colonists reach Roanoke and begin to build. — Difficulties arise with the Indians. — The settlement is broken up. — The colony taken home by Drake. — A new charter granted by Raleigh, and White chosen governor. — ■ The new emigrants arrive at Roanoke. — The foundations of a town laid on the Island. — Troubles with the Indians. — Manteo is made a peer.— White returns to England. — Birth of Virginia Dare. — The fate of the colony never ascertained. — Condition of affairs in England. — White returns, and finds Roanoke deserted. — Raleigh assigns his patent to V] - i j CONTENTS. London merchants. — Gosnold makes a voyage directly across the Atlantic. — Attempts to form a settlement on Elizabeth Island. — The place is abandoned. — Gosnold trades with the natives. — The crew demand to return. — Flattering accounts are given of the country. — An expedition is sent out under Pring. — He explores a part of the New England coast, and returns to Bristol. — Waymouth sails on a voyage. — Trades with the Indians of Maine.— Keturns to England 76-85. CHAPTER VII. ENGLISH DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS. — CONTINUED. King James issues patents to the London and Plymouth Companies. — The London Company to plant-colonies between the 34th and the 38th parallels. — The Plymouth Com- pany to make settlements from the 41st to the 45th degree. — Gosnold, Smith, Hakluyt and Wingfield lead the affairs of the Southern Company. — No democratic principles are recognized in the charter. — A ship is sent out by the Plymouth Company.— A second vessel is dispatched to America. — A settlement is attempted at the mouth of the Kennebec. — Is abandoned in the summer of 1608. — A fleet with a colony is sent out by the London Company. — Newport commands. — They arrive in the Chesapeake. — Enter James River. — Make a landing and lay the foundations of Jamestown. — The affairs of the Plvmouth Company are revived by Smith. — He explores and maps the coast of Maine and Massachusetts. — Several attempts are made to form a colony in New Eng- land. — The Plymouth Company is superseded by the Council of Plymouth. — A new plan of colonization is made, and Smith appointed admiral.— The Puritans arise in the North of England. — They remove to Amsterdam and Leyden. — Determine to remove to America. — Ask permission of the king and the Council of Plymouth. — Meet with dis- couragements. — Procure two vessels at their own expense. — Sail from Leyden, and after- ward from Southampton. — The Speedwell is found unfit for the voyage, and the Pilgrims depart in the Mayflower. — The Pilgrims have a stormy voyage. — Come in sight of Cape Cod.— They make a frame of government. — Carver is elected governor. — The landing is delayed by bad weather. — The ship is driven by storms. — Enters Plymouth harbor.— The Puritans go ashore on the 11th of December. — Begin to build. — Are attacked with diseases. — Many of the colony die. — An early spring brings them relief. . 85-9L CHAPTER VIII. VOYAGES AND SETTLEMENTS OF THE DUTCH. Dutch settlements in America result from the voyages of Hudson. — He is employed by London merchants to reach the Indies. — Sails into the North Atlantic. — Fails in his effort. — Is sent on a second voyage. — And fails. — Goes into the service of the Dutch East India Company. — Sails on a third voyage. — Is driven back by the icebergs. — Turns to America. — Reaches Newfoundland. — Sails southward to the Chesapeake. — Then north- ward to New York harbor. — Discovers the Hudson River. — Explores that stream as far as Albany. — Returns to Dartmouth. — Is detained by the English government. — Is sent on a fourth expedition. — Discovers Hudson Strait and Bay. — Is overtaken by winter. — The crew mutiny. — Hudson is cast off among the icebergs. — Dutch vessels begin to trade at the mouth of the Hudson. — The states-general grant a right to trade. — A settlement is made on Manhattan Island. — Block explores Long Island Sound. — Christianson builds Fort Nassau. — May explores the coast of New Jersey. — Holland claims the country from Delaware Bay to Cape Cod. . . . . . . . . . 92-94 CONTENTS. ix PART III. COLONIAL HISTORY. A. D. 1607—1775. PARENT COLONIES. CHAPTER IX. VIRGINIA. — THE FIRST CHARTER. The progress of Virginia is hindered. — First settlers are of bad character. — Necessity drives them to labor. — The king gives sealed instructions. — Smith is arrested. — And ex- cluded from the council. — He and Newport explore the James. — Return to Jamestown. — Newport goes to England. — The colonists are discouraged. — Disease ravages the settle- ment. — Gosnold dies. — Wingfield embezzles the funds. — And is removed from office. — Ratcliffe succeeds. — And is also impeached. — Smith takes control of the colony. — Sketch of his life. — The settlement flourishes under his care. — He explores the country, and pro- cures supplies. — The Indians furnish provisions. — Smith explores the Chickahominy. — Is captured by the Indians. — Saves his life by stratagem. — Is carried to Orapax. — Thence to Pamunkey. — Is condemned to death. — And saved by Pocahontas. — He remains in Powhatan's household. — Is liberated. — Returns to Jamestown. — Terrifies the savages. — Deplorable condition of the settlement. — Plot to abandon the place. — Newport arrives with new immigrants. — Who are as bad as the others. — The gold-hunters go abroad. — And find mica in the sand of James River. — A ship is loaded with dirt and sent to Eng- land. — The planting season goes by. — Smith makes his great exploration of the Chesa- peake. — And maps the country. — Returns. — Is elected president. — Newport arrives with more immigrants and supplies. — Progress of the colony 95-104. CHAPTER X. VIRGINIA. — THE SECOND CHARTER. King James grants a new charter. — Changes are made in the form of government. — A new council is organized. — Delaware is chosen governor. — The other officers. — A fleet with five hundred emigrants sails for America. — Encounters a storm. — Two vessels are wrecked. — Seven ships reach Jamestown. — The commissioners are left on the Bermuda Islands. — Smith retains the presidency. — New settlements are projected.— Smith is wounded. — Delegates his authority to Percy. — Returns to England. — Colony suffers after his departure. — The starving time. — Gates and his companions reach Virginia. — The settlement is abandoned. — Delaware meets the colony. — And persuades them to return. — Prosperity begins. — But Delaware falls sick. — And returns to England. — Percy is deputy. — Dale arrives as governor. — Brings immigrants. — Writes for supplies and new colo- nists. — Who arrive.— The colony improves. — Gates is made governor. — The right of private property is recognized. — And the settlements enlarged. . . . 104-107 x CONTENTS. CHAPTER XI. VIRGINIA. — THE THIRD CHARTER. The London Company receive a third patent. — The colony had proved unprofitable. — Argali kidnaps Pocahontas. — Who is married to Eolfe. — They visit England. — And leave descendants in Virginia. — Argali destroys the French settlements in Acadia. — ■ And reduces the Dutch colony of Manhattan. — Dale becomes governor of Virginia — Tobacco is the staple of Jamestown.— And is used for money.— Argali is chosen gov- ernor. — Delaware sails for America.— And dies— Yeardley supersedes Argali. — Abolishes martial law. — Establishes the House of Burgesses. — Slavery is introduced.— Society is i ow — Women are sent over. — And married to the colonists. — A constitution is granted. — Wyatt becomes governor. — Settlements spread abroad. — The Indians become jealous. —And massacre the people. — But are defeated.— The company is opposed by the king. — A commission is appointed. — Who report against the company. — And its charter is re- voked. — But liberty is planted in Virginia 10S-113 CHAPTER XII. VIRGINIA. — THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT. Royal government is established. — But the administration is unchanged. — Charles I. becomes king. — Recognizes the Virginia Assembly. — Yeardley is re-elected governor. — fjies. — West is chosen by the council. — Harvey arrives from England. — Land-grants vex the people. — Harvey is impeached. — But is sustained by the king. — Wyatt succeeds.-— English Revolution breaks out. — King Charles is beheaded. — Monarchy is abolished. — Cromwell becomes Protector.— Virginia inclines to royalty.— Berkeley becomes gov- ernor, — The Puritans are persecuted. — An Indian war arises. — The savages are beaten. — Virginia refuses to acknowledge Parliament. — Cromwell restricts her commerce. — Sends a fleet to America. — And the Virginians submit,— Favorable terms are granted — Peace continues during the commonwealth. — The Burgesses elect three governors- Berkeley is thus chosen. — Accepts. — But at the Restoration renounces his acceptance. — And issues writs in the king's name! — Tyranny follows.— Commerce is restricted.— The Virginians complain. — In vain. — Charles II. gives away Virginia lands. — And finally the whole State to Arlington and Culpepper.— The Quakers and the Baptists are persecuted. — Taxes are odious.— The people rebel.— An Indian war is the excuse. — And Berkeley's tyranny the cause. — Bacon heads the insurrection. — Tlie Indians are punished. — Berkeley abdicates. — Returns. — Captures Jamestown. — Bacon takes the place, and burns it. — Dies. — The patriots are dispersed. — And the leaders hanged. — A worse despotism is established.— Culpepper becomes governor. — Treats Virginia as an estate. — Arlington surrenders his claim. — The king recalls the grant. — And Vir- ginia becomes a royal province. — Howard and Nicholson administer the government. — William and Mary College founded.— Andros becomes governor.— Future history of Vir- ginia. .... 114-123 CHAPTER XIII. MASSACHUSETTS. — SETTLEMENT. The Pilgrims are saved by the coming of spring. — Health is restored. — Miles Stan- dish is sent out to reconnoitre.— Samoset and Squanto come to Plymouth. — A treaty is made with Massasoit. — Other tribes acknowledge the sovereignty of England. — Canon- icus is overawed. — An unfruitful summer. — Immigrants arive. — Are quartered on the eolonv. — The Pilgrims are destitute. — The new-comers found AVeymouth. — The Indi- CONTENTS. x i ans plan a massacre. — And are punished by Standisli. — Weymouth is abandoned. — A plentiful harvest.- — Robinson remains at Leyden. — The colonial enterprise proves un- profitable. — The managers sell out to the colonists. — The Established Church is fa- vored. — Salem is founded. — The Company of Massachusetts Bay is chartered by the king and the council. — Boston is founded. — The government is transferred to America. — A large immigration in 1630. — Winthrop is governor. — Cambridge is founded.— Watertown. — Roxbury.— Dorchester. — The colony suffers greatly. — Suffrage is restricted. — Williams protests. — And is banished. — Goes among the Indians. — Is kindly received. — Tarries at Seekonk. — Bemoves. — And founds Providence. — A representative govern- ment is established. — The ballot-box is introduced. — Three thousand immigrants ar- rive. — Vane and Peters are the leaders. — Concord is founded. — Colonies remove to the Connecticut.— Beligious controversies.— Mrs. Hutchinson is banished. — She and her friends establish a republic on Bhode Island. — Harvard College is founded at Cam- bridge. — A printing-press is set up. — Eliot, Welde, and Mather translate the Psalms.— Liberty flourishes in Massachusetts. — Emigration is hindered by England. 123-133. CHAPTEB XIV. MASSACHUSETTS. — THE UNION. Progress of New England. — Circumstances favor a union of the colonies. — Massa- chusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven are confederated.— No other colonies are admitted. — A Body of Liberties is formed. — The two legislative branches are sepa- rated. — The English Bevolution is favorable to New England. — Vane and others de- fend the rights of the colonies. — The Parliament demands the charter of Massachusetts. — Which is refused. — Cromwell the friend of Massachusetts. — Maine is annexed. — Early settlements in Maine. — The Quakers arrive at Boston. — Are persecuted and ban- ished. — The death-penalty is passed against them. — Four persons are executed. — Beac- tion against the law. — And the law is abolished. — News of the Bestoration reaches Boston. — Whalley and Goffe arrive. — And escape to Connecticut— Vane and Peters are executed. — The Navigation Act is passed. — Its bearing on the commerce of New Eng- land.— War between England and Holland. — Charles II. attempts to subvert the colo- nial charters. — Commissioners are sent to Massachusetts.— Are met with resistance. — And defeated in their objects. — The colony prospers. .... 133-139. CHAPTEB XV. MASSACHUSETTS. — KING PHILIP'S WAR. Philip becomes king of the Wampanoags. — Causes of jealousy and war. — Alexan- der's imprisonment. — Outrages are committed. — The war begins. — Swanzey is attacked. — Philip is pursued to Mount Hope. — Escapes to Tiverton. — Is driven from the Narra- gansett country. — Goes to the Nipmucks. — A general war ensues. — The Narragansetts are obliged to remain neutral. — English ambassadors are massacred at Brookfield. — The town is attacked. — Bescued. — Abandoned. — Burned. — Deerfiekl is partly destroyed. — Lathrop attempts to bring off the harvests. — Is ambushed at Bloody Brook. — The battle. — Hadley is attacked.— Bescued by Goffe. — Springfield is assaulted. — And destroyed. — Hadley is burned. — The savages are defeated at Hatfield. — Philip repairs to the Nar- ragansetts. — The English declare war. — And invade the country. — Philip and his forces take refuge in a swamp. — Are surrounded. — Attacked. — And utterly routed. — Ruin of the Narragansett nation. — The war continues on the frontiers. — Towns and villages are destroyed. — The savages grow feeble.— Canonchet is taken.— And put to death. — Philip's family are captured. — And sold as slaves. — Himself hunted down. — And shot. — Sub- xii CONTENTS. mission of the tribes— Losses of New England.— The English government refuses help. —Randolph comes to abridge the liberties of Massachusetts.— And is defeated.— Mas- sachusetts purchases Maine of the heirs of Gorges.— Difficulties concerning New Hamp- shire. — A royal government is established in the province. — Cranfield's administration, The king's hostility. — The charter of Massachusetts is annulled. — King Charles dies. — James II. appoints Dudley governor. — And then Andros.-- The liberties of the peo- ple are destroyed. — The government of Andros is extended over New England. — But the charter of Connecticut is saved.— The Revolution of 1688.— Andros is seized, and imprisoned.— And the colonies restore their liberties. . 139-147. CHAPTER XVI. MASSACHUSETTS. — WAR AND WITCHCRAFT. King William's War begins. — The causes. — Dover is attacked and burned. — Pema- quid is destroyed.— And then Schenectady.— And Salmon Falls.— An expedition is planned against Canada.— Phipps takes Port Royal.— But fails at Quebec— And re- turns.— Paper money is issued.— Failure of the expedition against Montreal.— Phipps goes to England. — And returns as royal governor. — Oyster River is destroyed. — Haver- hill is attacked and burned.— Mrs. Dustin's captivity.— The treaty of Ryswick.— The witchcraft excitement begins at Salem. — The causes. — Parris and Mather. — The trials. —Convictions. — Executions. — The reaction. — Mather's book. — Reflections. 117-153. CHAPTER XVII. MASSACHUSETTS. — AVARS OF ANNE AND GEORGE. Causes of Queen Anne's War.— Field of operations in America.— A treaty is made with the Five Nations. — The conflict begins. — Deerfield is burned. — And the inhab- itants carried captive to Canada. — Barbarities of the Indians. — An expedition is sent against Port Royal.— The attempt fails.— Is renewed in 1710.— Port Royal is taken — And named Annapolis. — Preparations are made for invading Canada. — Nicholson com- mands the land forces.— And Walker the fleet.— The squadron is delayed.— Stops at (laspe Bay.— Is shattered by a storm in the St. Lawrence.— Returns in disgrace.— The expedition by land is abandoned. — A treaty is made at Utrecht.— A separate peace is concluded with the Indians.— The people of Massachusetts resist the royal governor. —Causes of King George's War.— The conflict begins.— Importance of Louisburg — Its conquest is planned by Shirley. — The colonies contribute men and means. — The expe- dition leaves Boston.— Is detained at Canseau. — Joined by Warren's fleet.— Reaches Gabarus Bay.— Invests Louisburg.— The siege.— The surrender.— Cape Breton submits. — France attempts to reconquer Louisburg. — Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. — Character of the Puritans 153-160. CHAPTER XVIII. NEW YORE. — SETTLEMENT. Character of Sir Henry Hudson. — The East India Company govern Manhattan. — A colony is sent from Holland. — A charter is granted to the West India Company.— The Walloons arrive at New Amsterdam.— May builds Fort Nassau. — And Joris, Fort Orange. — Civil government begins in New Netherland. — May is governor. — And then Verhulst.— And Minuit.— Manhattan is purchased. — And fortified.— Friendly relations are established between the Walloons and the Puritans. — The Dutch devote themselves to the fur-trade. — Growth of the colony. — A charter is granted. — The patroons. — Five manors are laid out. — Delaware is colonized. — And then abandoned. — Van Twiller sue- CONTENTS. xijj ceeds Minuit. — A fort is built at Hartford.— The English claim the Connecticut.— Swe- den purposes to plant an American colony.— The project is delayed. — But renewed by Minuit. — A Swedish colony reaches the Delaware. — Settles at Christiana.— Is prosper- ous. — And New Netherland is jealous.— Fort Nassau is rebuilt. — Printz removes to Tin- icum. — The Indians are provoked by the Dutch. — War breaks out. — A desultory contest. — The Mohawks come. — Kieft massacres the Algonquins. — The war continues. — Fate of Mrs. Hutchinson. — Underbill conquers the Indians. — Kieft the author of the war. — De Vries succeeds him. 160-167. CHAPTER XIX. NEW YORK. — ADMINISTRATION OF STUYVESANT. Stuy vesant is appointed governor. — Peace established with the Indians. — Free trade succeeds monopoly. — Growth of the colony. — A boundary is established between New England and New Netherland. — The Dutch again claim New Sweden. — Build Fort Casimir. — The place is captured by the Swedes. — Stuyvesant conquers and annexes New Sweden. — The Algonquins rebel. — And are subdued. — The Indians of Ulster rise. — Burn Esopus. — Are punished. — Stuyvesant is troubled about his boundaries. — Domes- tic difficulties. — New Netherland lags. — The Dutch prefer English laws. — The province is granted to the Duke of York. — The duke makes good his claim. — Sends out Nicolls. --And conquers New Netherland. 167-171. CHAPTER XX. NEW YORK UNDER THE ENGLISH. Nicolls settles the boundaries of New York. — New Jersey is granted to Berkeley and Carteret. — Is claimed by Nicolls. — But the claim is set aside. — The Territories. — The Dutch claim liberty. — Are disappointed. — New land-titles are issued. — Lovelace succeeds Nicolls. — And is resisted by the people. — His tyranny. — Friendship of the English^and the Dutch. — War with Holland. — Evertsen reconquers New York. — But the province is restored to England. — Andros begins his government. — Proves himself a despot. — Claims the country from the Connecticut to Maryland. — Goes to Saybrook. — Is baffled by Captain Bull. — Attempts to overawe New Jersey. — And fails — Delaware is separated from New York. — And joined to Pennsylvania/ — Dongan becomes gov- ernor. — The right of representation is conceded. — Character of the Constitution.— A treaty is made with the Iroquois. — The Duke of York becomes king. — And overthrows colonial liberties. — Andros is sent out as governor of New England. — Usurps the gov- ernments of all the colonies north of the Delaware. — Leisler's insurrection. — The prov- ince yields to his authority.- — Schenectady is burned. — Ingoldsby arrives as governor. — Leisler and Milborne are arrested. — Tried. — -And hanged. — The Iroquois treaty is renewed. — The Indians make war on the French. — The assembly declares against ar- bitrary authority. — Fletcher becomes governor. — Attempts to usurp the government of Connecticut and New Jersey. — Is defeated. — Effort to establish the Episcopal Church. — The project fails. — The French invade New York. — -Are repelled. — Bello- mont becomes governor. — The career of Captain Kidd. — Cornbury succeeds Bellomont. — New Jersey is annexed to New York. — Cornbury's fraudulent administration. — He is overthrown. — And succeeded by Lovelace. — An unsuccessful expedition is made against Montreal. — The fleet also fails. — New York is in debt. — The treaty of Utrecht. — The Tuscarora migration.-*— A fort is built at Oswego. — The French fortify Niagara and Crown Point. — Crosby is sent out as governor. — Assails the freedom of the press. — The trial of Zenger. — The negro plot. — French invasions of New York. — Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. — Slow growth of the province. — Prospects. — Reflections. . 172-1S,'}. xiv CONTENTS. COLONIAL HISTORY.— Continued. MINOR EASTERN COLONIES. CHAPTER XXI. CONNECTICUT. Connecticut is granted to Warwick. — And transferred to Say-and-Seal. — The Dutch fortify Hartford. — The Puritans claim the country. — Send an expedition up the Con- necticut. — Found Windsor. — A colony leaves Boston. — Settles on the Connecticut. — Winthrop founds Saybrook. — The English control the river. — The Pequod War.— The Narragansetts make a treaty with the English. — The Pequods do likewise. — Violate the compact. — Attempt an alliance with the Narragansetts. — Williams defeats the project. — The Mohegans join the English. — A massacre at Wethersfield. — Mason is chosen to command. — A force is organized. — Proceeds against the Pequods. — And destroys the nation. — The coast of Long Island Sound is explored. — New Haven is founded. — The Bible for a constitution. — Civil government begins in Connecticut. — Character of the laws. — Connecticut joins the Union. — Saybrook is annexed. — A treaty is made with Stuyvesant. — War with New Netherland is threatened. — King Charles is recognized. — Winthrop is sent to England. — Obtains a charter. — Returns. — Is chosen governor. — Growth of the colony. — Andros attempts to assume the government.— Is thwarted at Say- brook. — Returns after twelve years. — Invades the assembly at Hartford.— Subverts the government.— The charter is saved. — Fletcher enters the colony. — Is baffled by Wads- worth. — Yale College is founded. — Development of the province. — Reflections. 184-192. CHAPTER XXII. RHODE ISLAND. Williams founds Rhode Island. — Sketch of his life. — The Baptist Church is or- ganized. — Civil government begins. — Character of the institutions. — Massachusetts re- fuses to recall Williams from exile. — A colony at Portsmouth. — The Jewish common- wealth. — Newport is founded. — The Norse tower. — A democracy is established. — Rhode Island is rejected by the Union. — Williams procures a charter. — The island of Rhode Island secedes. — Is reannexed. — Patriotism of Williams. — Charles II. reissues the charter. — Prosperity of Rhode Island. — Andros overturns the government. — Is over- thrown. — Henry Bull is governor. — Reflections. 193 -198. CHAPTER XXIII. NEW HAMPSHIRE. New Hampshire is granted to Gorges and Mason. — And colonized. — Settlements on the Piscataqua. — The province is divided. — Wheelwright purchases the Indian title. — Mason's patent is confirmed. — -He dies. — Difficulties ensue. — Exeter is founded. — New Hampshire is united with Massachusetts. — The Masonian claim is revived. — The question is decided. — The two provinces are separated. — Cranfield is appointed governor. — A general assemblv is convened. — Character of the laws. — The royal officers CONTENTS. xv are resisted. — Andros assumes the government. — New Hampshire and Massachusetts are united. — Governed by Bellomont. — Finally separated. — The Masonian claim again. — How decided. — Suffering of the colony in the Indian wars. — Character of the people. — Eeflections on the New England colonist* 198-202. COLONIAL HISTORY.— Continued. MINOR MIDDLE COLONIES. CHAPTER XXIV. NEW JERSEY. Early settlements in New Jersey. — At Bergen. — And Fort Nassau.— Grants and purchases. — The province is given to Berkeley and Carteret. — Nicolls makes a grant to Puritans. — Elizabethtown is founded. — Nicolls contends with the Carterets. — The pro- prietors frame a constitution. — Character of the laws. — The quit-rents. — The colonists resist payment. — Philip Carteret is deposed. — And James Carteret becomes governor. — New Jersey is retaken by Holland. — And again ceded to England. — The Duke of York has his charter renewed. — Andros comes as governor. — Carteret resists. — Berkeley sells West Jersey to Fenwick. — Philip Carteret and Andros dispute about the Eastern prov- ince. — Laurie, Lucas, and Penn buy West Jersey. — Object of the purchase. — New Jersey is divided. — Line of division. The proprietors of West Jersey issue the Concessions. — The Quakers colonize West Jersey. — The Duke of York claims the country. — Sir Wil- liam Jones decides against him. — Andros's claim to East Jersey is annulled. — The Qua- kers convene an assembly. — And frame a constitution. — East Jersey is purchased by the Friends. — Barclay is governor. — The two Jerseys submit to Andros. — And afterward regain their liberties. — Conflicting claims to the country. — Discord. — The proprietors surrender their rights of government to the Crown. — New Jersey becomes a royal province. — Is attached to New York under Cornbury. — The people petition for a sepa- ration. — Which is granted. — Morris becomes governor. — New Jersey not injured by Indian wars. — Eeflections. 203-208. CHAPTER XXV. PENNSYLVANIA. The Friends are persecuted in Europe. — Penn designs to plant a Quaker State in America. — Charles II. grants the charter of Pennsylvania. — Penn relinquishes his claims on the British government. — Declares his purposes. — Writes a letter to the Swedes. — Invites emigration. — A colony departs under Markham. — The Indians are assured of friendship. — Penn frames a constitution. — The Duke of York surrenders Delaware. — Extent of Penn's dominion. — He leaves England with a second colony. — Sketch of his life. — He addresses the people at New Castle. — Passes through the Jerseys to New York.— Returns. — Makes the great treaty with the Indians. — Which is kept inviolate. — A convention is held at Chester. — A provisional constitution is adopted. — Penn visits Lord Baltimore. — Philadelphia is founded. — Growth of the xvi CONTENTS. city. — Penn sails for England. — Lloyd remains as governor. — Delaware secedes. — Penn adheres to the Stuarts. — Is imprisoned. — His province is taken away. — But afterward restored. — Penn revisits America. — The constitution is modified. — Delaware is finally separated. — Penn returns to England. — Condition of his province. — Hamilton and Evans deputy governors. — Conduct of the latter. — He is removed from office. — Succeeded by Gookin. — Penn's trials in England. — He dies. — His sons become proprietors of Penn- sylvania, — The province is purchased by the colonial assembly. — Reflections. 209-215. COLONIAL HISTORY— Continued. MINOR SOUTHERN COLONIES. CHAPTER XXVI. MARYLAND. Clayborne is commissioned by the London Company. — Explores the Chesapeake.— Establishes trading-posts. — Sketch of Sir George Calvert's life. — He plans a Catholic colony. — Sends a company to Newfoundland. — Goes to Virginia. — Refuses the oath. — Returns to England. — Obtains a charter. — Character and extent of the patent.— Calvert dies. — Sir Cecil succeeds him. — The name of Maryland. — A colony is sent out under Leonard Calvert. — Reaches the Chesapeake. — Ascends the Potomac. — Returns. — And founds St. Mary's. — Friendly relations" are established with the Indians. — Growth of the colony. — An assembly is convened. — Clayborne incites an insurrection. — Is beaten. — Escapes into Virginia. — Is sent to England. — Representative government is estab- lished. — An Indian war breaks out. — Clayborne returns to America. — Leads a second insurrection. — Overthrows the government.— The rebellion is suppressed. — Tolerant character of the laws. — Division of the legislature. — Commissioners are appointed by Parliament.— Dissensions of Stone and Clayborne.— The civil war between the Catholics and Protestants.— Fendall's rebellion.— Maryland declares independence.— Fendall is condemned .—Charles Calvert is governor.— The Protestants gain control of the State. —Maryland becomes a royal province.— The heir of i^ord Baltimore is restored to his rights.— The Cal verts rule the colony until the Revolution.— Reflections. . 216-224. CHAPTER XXVII. NORTH CAROLINA. The name of Carolina.— Early explorations.— The country is granted to Clarendon and others.— Albemarle and Clarendon colonies are founded.— Cooper and Locke frame the grand model.— Its establishment impossible.— Clarendon county is aban- doned.— The proprietors oppress the colonists.— A rebellion ensues.— Governor Cul- pepper goes to England.— And defends the people.— Clarendon sells his rights.— Sothel is sent out as governor. — His tyranny. — He is overthrown. — Lit dwell succeeds. — And then Walker.— The colony prospers.— Decline of the Indian tribes.— A war breaks out. — Barnwell's expedition. — Peace.— And war again.— Moore invades the country of the Tuscaroras.— The savages are beaten.— The nation is divided.— The Tuscarora migra- tion. — Division of the Carolinas. — Character of the people. . . . 224-229. CONTENTS. xv ii CHAPTER XXVIII. SOUTH CAROLINA. A colony is sent out under West and Sayle.— Reaches Beaufort.— But settles on Ashley River. — Locke's constitution is rejected. — And a simple government adopted. — West becomes governor. — And then Yeamans.— Slavery is introduced. — Rapid immi- gration. — Charleston is founded. — An Indian war arises. — Immigrants arrive from England, Scotland, and Ireland.— The Edict of Nantes is revoked.— The Huguenots flock to South Carolina. — Colleton becomes governor. — Declares martial law. — Is over- thrown. — Sothel takes the office. — Is banished. — Ludwell next. — Who retires to Vir- ginia.— The proprietors abrogate the grand model.— The Quaker Archdale— His wise administration. — Moore succeeds. — The war with Florida.— Moore and Daniel attempt to take St. Augustine. — And fail. — Moore makes a successful campaign against the In- dians.— The Church of England is established.— The dissenters are disfranchised.— Bat the act is revoked by Parliament. — The Spaniards besiege Charleston. — And are re- pelled. — War with the Yamassees. — The savages are conquered. — Popular revolution in South Carolina. — Nicholson is governor. — The proprietors sell Carolina to the king. — A royal government is established. — Character of the people. . 230-237. CHAPTER XXIX. GEORGIA. Georgia founded in benevolence. — Oglethorpe the founder.— Sketch of his life. — He leads forth a colony. — And founds Savannah. — The friendly natives. — A treaty is made with the Muskhogees. — Immigrants arrive from various parts of Europe. — Ogle- thorpe goes to England.— Returns.— The Moravians.— The Wesleys. — And Whitefield. — Conflicting claims of Georgia and Florida. — Oglethorpe builds forts. — Is commissioned as general. — War breaks out. — The governor besieges St. Augustine. — And fails. — The Spaniards invade Georgia. — Oglethorpe's stratagem. — The battle of Bloody Marsh. — The Spaniards are defeated. — And retreat to Florida. — The governor returns to Eng- land. — Slavery is introduced. — The prohibitory law is repealed. — Growth of Georgia. — Reflections on the thirteen colonies 238-244. COLONIAL HISTORY.— Continued. FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. CHAPTER XXX. CAUSES. The colonies begin to act together. — A sense of common danger unites them. — The French and Indian War arises. — Causes considered. — Conflicting territorial claims. English colonies on the sea-board. — French colonies in the interior. — France purposes to confine the English to the Atlantic slope. — French settlements result from the efforts xv iii CONTENTS. of the Jesuits. — Missions are established on the lakes. — Joliet and Marquette discover the Mississippi. — Descend the river. — Keturn to Michigan. — La Salle passes through the lakes. — Descends the Illinois. — Goes to Canada. — Returns. — And explores the Missis- sippi to the gulf. — Sails for France. — Returns with a colony. — Reaches Texas. — Sets out for Canada. — Is murdered. — French posts are established. — The Ohio valley to be occupied. The animosity of France and England leads to war. — The frontiersmen of the two nations come in conflict. — The Ohio Company is organized. — Obtains a grant [ J a nd. Bienville explores and claims the Ohio valley. — Gist traverses the country to the falls of the Ohio. — The French fortify Le Boeuf and Venango. — Attack a British post.— Gist makes a second exploration.— An English colony on the Youghiogheny. — The Indians favor the English.— The Half-King goes to Erie.— The chiefs confer with Franklin. — Dinwiddie sends a despatch to St. Pierre. — Washington is chosen for the mission. — Sets out by way of Will's Creek to the site of Pittsburg. — And thence to Le Boeuf. — Washington confers with St. Pierre. — And returns to Virginia. — Hardships of the journey. — Trent begins a fort at the fork of the Ohio. — The French capture the place.— And build Du Quesne — Washington is sent to retake the fort. . 245-255. CHAPTER XXXI. CAMPAIGNS OF WASHINGTON AND BRADDOCK. Washington marches to Great Meadows. — Builds Fort Necessity. — Attacks and defeats Jumonville. — Extends the road toward Du Quesne. — D& Villiers approaches. — Attacks Fort Necessity. — And compels a surrender. — An American congress assembles at Albany. — Franklin plans a union. — The colonies reject the constitution. — France sends soldiers to America. — Braddock is sent by England. — He confers with the gov- ernors. — Plans four compaigns. — Marches his army to Fort Cumberland. — Proceeds against Du Quesne. — Approaches the fort. — Meets the French and Indians. — And is terribly defeated. — Washington saves the remnant of the army. — Death of Braddock. — Dunbar retreats. — Destroys the stores. — Evacuates Fort Cumberland. — Retires to Philadelphia 255-261. CHAPTER XXXII. RUIN OF ACADIA. Nova Scotia under English rule. — Lawrence fears an insurrection. — Is authorized to subdue the French inhabitants. — The English fleet leaves Boston. — The French forts on the Bay of Fundy.— The fleet arrives at Beau-Sejour. — The place is besieged. — And obliged to surrender. — The other forts capitulate. — The British officers deter- mine to exile the inhabitants. — The country is laid waste. — And the people carried into banishment 261-264. CHAPTER XXXIII. EXPEDITIONS OF SHIRLEY AND JOHNSON. A campaign is planned against Niagara. — Shirley commands. — Proceeds to Os- wego. — Wastes tfte time. — Marches homeward. — Oswego is rebuilt. — Johnson and Ly- man go against the French on Lake Champlain.— Build Fort Edward.— Form a camp on Lake George. — Dieskau approaches. — Proceeds by way of Wood Creek against Fort Edward. — Meets the English. — And drives them to the camp. — The battle. — The French are defeated. — Dieskau is killed.— The English lose heavily. — Johnson builds Fort William Henry. — The French reinforce their forts 264-266. CONTENTS. x j x CHAPTEE XXXIV. TWO YEARS OP DISASTER. Shirley becomes commander-in-chief. — Washington repels the Indians. — Franklin defends Pennsylvania. — The campaigns of 1756 are planned. — The military forces of America are consolidated. — Loudoun is commander-in-chief. — He and Abercrombie arrive in New York with soldiers and supplies. — England declares war. — Abercrombie goes to Albany. — And stays there.— Montcalm besieges and captures Oswego. — The Delawares revolt. — And are punished. — Loudoun burrows at Albany. — The French strengthen their forts. — The conquest of Louisburg is planned. — Loudoun proceeds to Halifax. — Holbourn joins him. — They muster and do nothing. — Loudoun returns to New York. — Montcalm and the Iroquois besiege and capture Fort William Henry. — The Indians massacre the prisoners. — Review of the situation. 267-270. CHAPTER XXXV. TWO YEARS OF SUCCESSES. Pitt becomes prime minister. — Loudoun is deposed. — Abercrombie succeeds. — An able corps of generals sent to America. — Three campaigns are planned. — Amherst and Wolfe proceed against Louisburg. — Besiege and take the fortress. — Abercrombie attacks Ticonderoga. — And is repulsed with great loss. — Bradstreet takes Fort Frontenac. — Montcalm advises peace. — Forbes marches against Du Quesne. — Grant is defeated. — Washington leads the advance. — The French abandon and burn Du Quesne. — The place named Pittsburg. — Amherst commander-in-chief. — Relative strength of the Eng- lish and the French. — Pitt plans the conquest of Canada. — Prideaux defeats the French before Niagara. — And captures the fortress. — Amherst takes Ticonderoga and Crown Point. — Wolfe proceeds against Quebec. — Reaches the Island of Orleans. — Besieges the city. — The Lower Town is destroyed. — Montcalm's position. — The battle of Montmor- enci. — Wolfe's fever. — He ascends the river. — Plans an assault. — Discover's Wolfe's Cove. — Gains the Plains of Abraham. — Fights a decisive battle.— Defeats the French. — Is slain. — Quebec capitulates. — And then Montreal. — The Cherokee revolt is quelled. — The effect of the conquest of Canada. The French outposts are included in the sur- render of Montreal. — Rogers is sent to take possession of the forts. — He reaches De- troit. — Receives the surrender of Forts Miami and Ouatanow. — Mackinaw, Green Bay and St. Marie afterward capitulate. — The English treat the Red men badly. — The lat- ter become revengeful. — They make an attempt against Detroit. — And are baffled. — Conspiracies grow rife. — Pontiac organizes a confederacy. — Makes a plot for the cap- ture of Detroit. — And fails. — An unsuccessful siege ensues. — The savages are victorious in other quarters. — They capture most of the western forts. — The confederacy breaks up- — Pontiac is abandoned. — And killed. — The war continues on the ocean. — England is victorious.— A treaty of peace.— The terms 270-279. CHAPTER XXXVI. CONDITION OF THE COLONIES. The thirteen colonies. — Institutions. — Population. — Distribution of the same. — Growth of a national character and sentiment. — Education. — Character of the same in New England. — In the South.— Colleges. — Newspapers. — Books and men. — Absence of roads. — Agriculture the predominating pursuit. — Ship-building and manufactures.— What the British Board of Trade was good for. — Reflections on the character of the Anglo-American colonists 280-284. XX CONTENTS. PART IV. KEVOLUTION AND CONFEDERATION. A. I>. 1775—1789. CHAPTER XXXVII. CAUSES. Importance of the revolution. — The question decided by it. — Character of the con- test. — The causes. — Great Britain claims the right of arbitrary government. — France incites the rebellion. — The disposition of the Americans encourages independence. — Public opinion leads to the same result. — The king provokes a conflict. — Parliament passes oppressive acts. — The question of taxation. — Nature of the dispute. — The Im- portation Act. — Its provisions. — Writs of Assistance are issued. — And resisted. — The sugar and wine duties. — The colonists refuse to pay them. — A Stamp Act is proposed. — Indignation in the colonies. — The question of the Indian war-debt arises. — The Stamp Act is passed. — Its provisions. — The news is received in America. — The wrath of the people. — Scene in the House of Burgesses. — Patrick Henry's speech. — Passage of the resolutions. — Other assemblies pursue a similar course. — The first Colonial Congress. — A declaration of Rights is adopted. — Memorials to the king and Parliament. — The Stamp Act is resisted. — And the stamps destroyed. — Suspension of business. — The Sons of Liberty. — A non-importation agreement is made. — The wrath of England. — Camden and Pitt defend the colonists. — Repeal of the Stamp Act. — Joy follows. — Townshend re- news the scheme. — Secures the passage of a glass and tea-tax. — The Americans resist the act. — Circular of Massachusetts. — Seizure of a sloop at Boston. — Insurrection of the people. — Gage takes possession of Boston. — Is ordered to arrest the patriots. — Rebellion of Virginia and North Carolina. — Conflict at New York. — The Boston massacre. — Re- peal of the duties. — Passage of the Salary Act. — Burning of the Gaspee. — Stratagem of the ministry. — Tea is shipped to America. — Is spoiled at Charleston. — Refused at New York and Philadelphia. — And poured overboard at Boston. — Passage of the Port Bill — Opposition of the Burgesses. — The charter of Massachusetts is annulled. — The people declared rebels.— The second Congress assembles. — Resolutions and addresses. — A British army is ordered to America. — Boston Neck fortified. — Military stores re- moved. — The assembly refuses to disband. — War becomes inevitable. . 285-296. CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE BEGINNING. The patriots remove their stores. — Gage plans to destroy them. — Pitcairn is sent for that purpose. — Dawes and Revere arouse the people. — The British reach Lexington. — Fire on the patriots. — Proceed to Concord. — Ransack the village. — Are attacked. — And driven back to Boston. — The country is fired. — The patriots gather at Cambridge. — Allen and Arnold march against Ticonderoga. — And capture the fortress. — The British are reinforced. — Proclamation of Gage. — His plans. — The Americans fortify Breed's Hill. — Amazement of the British. — The battle. — Excitement of the people. — The North Carolinians declare independence. — The Colonial Congress assembles. — An appeal to the king. — Washington commander-in-chief. — Sketch of his life. — His duties and em- CONTENTS. xxi barrassments. — Organization of the army. — Eoyal rule is overthrown. — Struggle with Dunmore. — Expedition against Quebec. — Led by Schuyler, Montgomery and Arnold. — Schuyler falls sick. — Montgomery takes Montreal. — Hardships of Arnold's march. — He and Montgomery unite against Quebec. — The town is invested. — The assault and defeat. — Fall of Montgomery. — The expedition is abandoned. — Sketch of Montgomery. 297-305. CHAPTEK XXXIX. THE WORK OF '7G. The king answers the colonies. — Howe succeeds Gage. — Siege of Boston. — The Brit- ish evacuate the city. — The Americans enter. — Public rejoicings. — Washington goes to New York. — Clinton threatens the city. — Cornwallis and Parker proceed against Charleston. — Bising of the Carolinians. — The attack on Moultrie. — Bepulse of the Brit- ish. — Distresses of the army. — Great Britain hires the Hessians. — And makes new lev- ies. — Exasperation of the patriots. — The question of independence. — Lee's resolutions. — Debates. — A committee is appointed. — The Declaration of Independence adopted. — And received with enthusiasm. — Its leading principles. — Howe returns. — Lands an army. — Attempts to open negotiations. — And fails. — The British advance on Long Is- land. — Fight a battle. — And defeat the patriots. — Washington saves the army. — Dis- couragement of the people. — The British take New York. — Negotiations are again at- tempted. — But fail. — Movements of the two armies. — Battle of White Plains. — Dispo- sition of the American forces. — Notice of Hamilton. — The capture of Fort Washington — Fort Lee is taken. — The Americans retreat across New Jersey. — The pursuit ends. — Enlargement of Washington's powers. — British successes in Bhode Island'. — Lee's cap- ture. — Washington recruits his army. — Kecrosses the Delaware. — Defeats the British at Trenton. — Effect of the battle. — Alarm of the British. — Eobert Morris to the rescue. — Washington threatens the British posts 305-317. CHAPTEE XL. OPERATIONS OF '77. The British advance against Trenton. — Washington withdraws his forces. — Attacks Princeton. — And wins a victory. — Takes post at Morristown. — The British at New Brunswick. — Cornwallis on the defensive. — Destruction of stores at Peekskill. — Lincoln attacked at Boundbrook. — Tryon burns Danbury. — Is attacked and driven away. — Meigs takes Sag Harbor. — Washington advances into New Jersey. — The British threaten Philadelphia. — Eetire to Amboy. — Leave the State.— Barton captures Prescott. — Congress returns to Philadelphia. — Help from France. — Coming of La Fayette and De Kalb. — Plan of Burgoyne's campaign. — The invasion begins. — Fall of Crown Point and Ticonderoga. — The battle of Hubbardton. — Capture of Whitehall. — Fort Edward is taken.— Schuyler retreats to the Mohawk. — The British advance is impeded. — The battle of Bennington. — St. Leger besieges Schuyler. — Herkimer brings relief. — And is defeated. — Arnold advances. — The Indians desert the British. — St. Leger retreats. — Dis- couragement of Burgoyne. — Gathering of the Americans. — Burgoyne at Saratoga. — The first battle. — Critical condition of the British. — A diversion is attempted by Clinton. — But fails. — The second battle. — The Americans victorious. — Burgoyne is surrounded. — • And driven ti> surrender. — The army of the North relieves Washington. — The move- ment of Howe against Philadelphia. — He enters the Chesapeake. — The battle of Brandy- wine. — Eetreat of the Americans. — Washington advances to Warren's Tavern. — A storm prevents the battle. — Countermarching of the armies. — The British capture Phil- adelphia. — Congress adjourns to Lancaster. — Washington on Skippack Creek. — The xxi i CONTENTS. battle of Germantown — Capture of Forts Mercer and Mifflin.— The Americans at Whitemarsh — Adventure of Lydia Darrah — The British winter at Philadelphia.— The Americans at Valley Forge— Sorrows of Washington 317-328. CHAPTER XLI. FRANCE TO THE RESCUE. Silas Deane is sent to France. — His mission. — France favors the Americans. — Sup- plies are sent to the patriots— Steuben arrives— Lee and Franklin are appointed to negotiate a treaty— Franklin's influence at the French court.— A treaty is concluded.— Sketch of Franklin. — Arrival of D'Estaing's fleet.— War threatened between France and England.— Effort of Great Britain for peace.— The British fleet at Philadelphia.— With- drawal of the squadron.— The city evacuated.— Washington pursues.— The battle of Monmouth.— Lee disobeys orders.— Is court-martialed and dismissed.— British concen- trate at New York.— The city threatened by D'Estaing.— He sails against Rhode Island. — Sullivan co-operates against Newport.— Howe follows D'Estaing. — Both squadrons shattered by a storm. — The siege of Newport. — Abandonment of the enterprise.— De- struction of American shipping. — Byron succeeds Howe. — Marauding of the British. — The Wyoming massacre.— Ruin of Cherry Valley. — The expedition of Major Clarke. — The French and British fleets sail away.— A force is sent against Savannah.— Capture of the city. — The situation 328-333. CHAPTER XLII. MOVEMENTS OF '79. Hardships of the soldiers. — T-yon's expedition. — Is attacked by the militia. — Put- nam's exploit. — Fall of Stony Point and Verplank's. — Insurrection in Virginia. — Tryon invades Connecticut. — Destruction of East Haven, Fairfield, and Norwalk— Stony Point is retaken by Wayne. — Lee captures Jersey City. — An American flotilla sails to the Penobscot. — Is ruined. — Sullivan ravages the Indian country. — The British evacuate Rhode Island.— War in the South.— Fort Sunbury is taken.— Fall of Augusta.— Ander- son defeats the tories. — Pickens gains a victory. — Augusta is evacuated. — Defeat of Lincoln's army.— The militia rally.— Lincoln takes the field.— Threatens Augusta- Returns to Charleston.— Is beaten at Stono Ferry.— Suspension of activity. — D'Estaing arrives.— Siege of Savannah. — The unsuccessful assault. — Paul Jones's victory. — Re- flections 334-339. CHAPTER XLIII. REVERSES AND TREASON. Operations in the North suspended.— Ternay's fleet arrives.— Campaigns are planned. — Arbuthnot and Clinton besiege Charleston. — The city is taken. — Ravages of Tarleton. —Plan of the British to conquer South Carolina.— Capture of Ninety-Six.— Cornwallis's success. — Tarleton's massacre. — South Carolina is subjugated. — Clinton returns to New York.— Marion and Sumter's bands.— They scour the country. — Their victories.— Gates takes command. — The British at Camden. — Gates advances against them. — Is met and defeated. — Is superseded by Greene. — Sumter's corps is broken up. — Cruelty of the British.— Rawdon advances into North Carolina. — Ferguson's tories are defeated. — Financial distresses. — Sacrifices of Morris. — The treason of Arnold. — Sketch of his career. — Andre is sent to a conference. — The interview. — Andre attempts to return to New York. — Is captured, condemned, and executed. — Treaty with Holland. 339-345. CONTENTS. xx iii CHAPTER XLIV. Desperate condition of the army. — The Pennsylvania line revolt. — Mutiny of the Jersey brigade. — Robert Morris secretary of finance. — Champe attempts to capture Arnold. — Fails. — Arnold's expedition to Virginia. — Second plan to capture him. — He becomes commander-in-chief in Virginia. — Is superseded. — And ordered out of the State. — Leads a band into Connecticut. — Captures Fort Griswold. — Greene in the South. — Advances into South Carolina. — Morgan at the Cowpens.— Is attacked by Tarleton. — But defeats him. — Cornwallis attempts to cut off Morgan's retreat. — Greene takes command. — Crosses the Catawba. — Race for the Yadkin. — Greene wins it. — ■ Race for the Dan. — Greene wins it. — Chagrin of the British. — Greene turns upon the enemy. — Lee disperses the tories. — Greene moves forward to Guilford. — Cornwallis attacks him. — An indecisive battle. — The British retreat to Wilmington. — Cornwallis goes to Virginia. — The Americans advance into South Carolina. — The battle of Hob- kirk's Hill. — The British retire to Eutaw Springs. — The siege of Ninety-Six. — The place is abandoned by the enemy. — Greene in the Highlands. — Sumter, Lee, and Marion overrun the country. — Execution of Hayne. — Greene advances against Eutaw Springs. — The battle. — The British retreat to Charleston. — The situation. — The cam- paign in Virginia. — Cornwallis ravages the State. — Marches down the James. — Is attacked by Wayne. — Proceeds to Portsmouth. — And thence to Yorktown. — The Army of the North comes down upon him. — The French fleet co-operates. — Yorktown is besieged. — And Cornwallis's army taken. — Rejoicings. — Fall of the king's party in Par- liament. — Negotiations for peace. — A treaty is concluded. — Its terms. — Carleton super- sedes Clinton. — Evacuation of New York. — Washington bids farewell to his officers. — Retires to private life. .... 345-356. CHAPTER XLV. CONFEDERATION AND UNION. Bad condition of the government. — Its defects. — Franklin pleads for union. — A committee appointed to prepare a Constitution. — The Articles of Confederation are adopted. — The colonies are slow to ratify. — The Confederation. — Defects of the same. — Chaotic condition of affairs. — A firmer Constitution is projected. — The con- vention at Annapolis. — Adjournment to Philadelphia. — The Constitution is re- ported to the convention. — And adopted. — The last colonial Congress. — Its final work. — The North-western Territory is organized. — The several States cede their rights away. — St. Clair appointed governor. — Plan of organization. — Slavery is restricted. — — The people divide on the question of adopting the Constitution. — Sketch of Ham- ilton. — Character of the Constitution. — Amendments thereto. — The struggle in the colonial conventions. — Ratification by eleven States. — Washington is chosen Pres- ident. — John Adams for the vice-presidency. — Washington's journey to New York. — Conclusion. . . 356-362. xx i v CONTENTS. PAET V. NATIONAL PERIOD. CHAPTER XLVI. "Washington's administration. Washington is inaugurated President. — And the new government organized. — The country is beset with difficulties.— A cabinet is formed.— The Supreme Court is organ- ized—Rhode Island and North Carolina ratify the Constitution.— Washington makes a tour through New England. — Presidential etiquette. — Hamilton's financial measures. — The seat of government is fixed. — An Indian war breaks out. — Harmar marches against the Miamis. — Is defeated on the Maumee. — The Bank of the United States is established. — Vermont is admitted into the Union. — The first census. — St. Clair is sent against the Indians. — His army is defeated. — The wrath of Washington. — St. Clair is superseded by Wayne.— Kentucky is admitted. — Washington re-elected. — The foreign relations of the government are troubled. — Genet's conduct. — Fouchet supersedes him. — Troubles in the President's cabinet. — Antagonism of Jefferson and Hamilton. — The whisky insurrection breaks out. — Is suppressed by Lee. — Wayne invades the Indian country. — Defeats the Red men at Waynesfield. — Compels a cession of ter- ritory. — Dies.— Great Britain orders the seizure of American vessels. — Jay procures reparation and a treaty. — Popular opposition thereto. — The compact with Spain. — Peace is purchased of Algiers. — Tennessee is admitted. — Washington issues his Fare- well address.— The candidates for the Presidency. — Adams Is elected. — Jefferson for Vice-President 3G3-371. CHAPTER XLVII. ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION. Sketch of John Adams. — Opposition to the new administration. — France demands an alliance. — Orders the destruction of American commerce. — Pinckney is dismissed. — The extra session of Congress. — Gerry, Marshall, and Pinckney are sent to France. — The Directory want money. — Pinckney's answer. — An American army is organized. — Washington comander-in-chief. — The work of the navy. — Truxtun's victories.— Doings of Talleyrand. — Napoleon seeks peace. — The successful embassy of Murray, Ellsworth, and Davie.— Death of Washington. — Close of the administration. — Growth of the country.— The Alien and Sedition laws. — Overthrow of the Federal party. — Jefferson is elected President. — And Burr Vice-President 372-376. CHAPTER XLVIII. jefferson's administration. ' Sketch of Jefferson. — He puts Democrats in office. — Ohio is admitted. — Indiana and Mississippi organized. — Louisiana is purchased from France. — Boundaries. — The territory of Orleans is set off.— John Marshall in the chief-justiceship. — The Mediter- CONTENTS. xxv ranean pirates. — Preble is sent against them. — The Philadelphia is captured.— Eetaker. and burned. — The siege of Tripoli.— Expedition of Eaton. — Yusef signs a treaty. — The duel of Burr and Hamilton. — Jefferson is reelected. — Michigan is organized. — Lewis and Clarke explore Oregon. — Bun- makes a conspiracy. — Is tried for treason. — Brit- ish aggressions on American commerce. — England blockades the coast of France. — Napoleon retaliates. — Great Britain forbids the coasting trade. — An old abuse revived. — The rule of 1756 again asserted. — The effect on American commerce. — The English theory of citizenship. — The object of that theory. — The attack of the Leopard on the Chesapeake. — Passage of the Embargo Act. — The Orders in Council and Milan Decree. — Fulton and his steamboat. — Invention of the torpedo. — Summary of events. 376-388. CHAPTER XLIX. madison's administration and the war of '12. Sketch of the life and previous services of Madison. — His politics. — The Non- intercourse Act takes the place of the Embargo. — Erskine promises the repeal of the Orders in Council. — The promise not fulfilled.— Bonaparte makes a decree. — And then revokes it. — Obstinacy of Great Britain. — A crisis is reached. — Third census. — Tecumtha and the Prophet.— Harrison purchases lands. — Tecumtha refuses to ratify. — Harrison marches up the Wabash Valley. — Approaches the Prophet's town. — Is attacked by night. — And routs the savages. — Fight of the President and Little Belt. — The twelfth Congress. — AVar inevitable. — The President's timid disposition. — Henry's conspiracy is discovered. — Nature of the plot. — Effect of the disclosure. — British vessels are embar- goed. — Louisiana is admitted. — War declared against England. — Preparations. — Relative strength of the belligerents. — Hull's campaign. — He marches to the head of Lake Erie. — Reaches Detroit. — Invades Canada. — Retreats. — Van Home's defeat. — Miller's vic- tory. — Siege of Detroit. — Hull's disgraceful surrender. — He is convicted of cowardice. — Capture and burning of Fort Dearborn. — Character assumed by the war. — Sketch of the American defences. — T*he Constitution captures the Gucrriere. — The Wasp the Frolic. — The Poictiers the Wasp. — The United States the Macedonian. — The Essex the Nocton. — And the Constitution the Java. — Effect of these victories. — Comment of the English newspapers. — Van Rensselaer moves against Queenstown. — Carries the batteries. — Death of Brock. — The Americans entrench. — But are forced to surrender. — Smyth suc- ceeds Van Rensselaer. — And makes a fool of himself. — The Americans at Black Rock cross and recross the river. — Madison re-elected. 388-399. CHAPTER L. AVAR OF '12. — CONTINUED. Plan of the campaigns of '13. — The Americans capture Frenchtown. — Are as- sailed by Proctor. — Surrender. — And are butchered. — Harrison at Fort Meigs. — He is besieged. — Clay raises the siege. — Proctor and Tecumtha return. — Attack Fort Stephenson. — And are defeated by Croghan. — Affairs on Lake Erie. — Perry builds a fleet. — Attacks the British squadron. — And gains a signal victory. — Harrison em- barks his forces to Maiden. — Follows the British and Indians to the Thames. — And routs them in battle. — The Creeks massacre the garrison at Fort Minis. — Jackson and Coffee with the Tennesseeans. — They burn Tallushatchie. — Battles of Talladega and Autosse. — Winter and starvation. — Battle of Emucfau.— And Horse Shoe Bend. — Dearborn proceeds against Toronto. — Battle at the water's edge. — The Americans capture the town. — The British attack Sackett's Harbor. — The Americans on the Niagara. — They storm Fort George. — Suspension of operations. — Wilkinson is made xxv i CONTENTS. commander-in-chief— Expedition against Montreal.— The battle of Chrysler's Field. —The expedition is abandoned. — Winter quarters at Fort Covington. — McClure evacuates Fort George. — Burns Newark. — The British retaliate. — The Hornet captures the Peacock. — The Chesapeake is taken by the Shannon. — Death of Lawrence. — Cap- ture of the Argus. — The Enterprise takes the Boxer.— The Essex is captured by the Phcebe and Cherub. — A British fleet bombards Lewiston. — Marauding in the Chesa- peake 400-407. CHAPTER LI. CAMPAIGNS OF '14. Scott and Ripley capture Erie.— Battles of Chippewa and Niagara. — The Amer- icans retreat to Erie. — Siege of that place by the British. — They are driven off. — Winter quarters at Black Rock. — Wilkinson again invades Canada. — Is defeated at La Colle. — And retreats to Plattsburg. — McDonough's squadron on the lake. — The British ad- vance. — Attack by land and water. — And are defeated. — Cochrane and Ross in the Chesapeake. — Barney destroys his vessels. — Battle of Bladensburg. — Washington is captured by the British.— Public buildings burned. — Alexandria pays a ransom. — Siege of Baltimore. — Ravages in New England.— The Federal peace party. — The Hart- ford Convention. — Jackson captures Pensacola. — Takes command at New Orleans. — Approach of the British. — Skirmishing and fighting. — The decisive battle. — Ruin of Packenham's army. — The news of peace. — Sea-fights afterward. — The treaty of Ghent. — Great rejoicings. — Terms of the treaty. — Condition of the country. — Rechartering of the United States Bank. — The Mediterranean pirates again. — Decatur sent out against them. — He captures a Moorish ship. — And then another. — Enters the Bay of Algiers. — And dictates the terms of peace. — Indiana is admitted. — Liberia founded. — Monroe is elected President 407-416. CHAPTER LII. monroe's administration. • The new President and his policy. — The cabinet. — Revival of the country. — De- mand for the recognition of Hayti. — Treaty with the Northwestern Indians. — Missis- sippi is admitted. — The pirates of Amelia Island dispersed. — The question of internal improvements arises. — The canal from Buffalo to Albany. — The Seminole war breaks out. — Jackson invades the hostile country. — Captures St. Marks. — Hangs Arbuthnot and Ambrister. — Takes Pensacola. — An excitement follows. — Which leads to the cession of Florida. — Great financial crisis of 1819. — Illinois is admitted. — And Alabama. — Ar- kansas is organized. — And Maine admitted. — And Missouri. — The slavery agitation. — And Missouri Compromise. — Its terms. — Monroe and Tompkins are re-elected. — Com- modore Porter suppresses piracy in the West Indies. — Sympathy of the United States for the South American republics. — The Monroe Doctrine. — The visit of La Fayette. — Excitement attending the presidential election. — John Quincy Adams chosen. 416-423. CHAPTER LIII. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION. Sketch of the President. — Partisan opposition in Congress. — Internal improve- ments favored by the executive. — Trouble with Georgia about the lands of the Creeks. 'Settled by a treaty. — Death of Adams and Jefferson. — The Masonic excitement in CONTENTS. xxv ii New York. — Discussion of the tariff in Congress. — A protective duty laid on fabrics. — A new departure in American history. — Adams renominated for the Presidency. — Gen- eral Jackson put forward by the Democrats. — And elected. . . . 423-426. CHAPTER LIV. jackson's administration. Sketch of Jackson's life and character. — He fills the offices with his political friends — Opposes the rechartering of the United States Bank. — And vetoes the bill. — The new political organization. — Sketch of parties. — The tariff question again. — South Carolina attempts nullification. — Debate of Webster and Hayne. — The President's proc- lamation. — South Carolina recedes from her position. — Mr. Clay's tariff compromise. — The Black Hawk war breaks out. — Generals Scott and Atkinson are sent against the Red men. — Who are driven to submission. — The difficulty with the Cherokees. — Char- acter of that race. — The wrongs done to them. — Scott compels their removal to the West. — A second Seminole war. — The arrest of Osceola. — His release and conspiracy. — Dade's massacre. — Murder of General Thompson. — Clinch fights the savages and re- treats. — Gaines defeats the Indians on the Withlacoochie. — Battle of the Wahoo Swamp. — A second fight. — The President orders the distribution of the funds. — A panic follows. — The President is vituperated. — Is censured by Congress. — But re-elected. — He brings France and Portugal to terms. — Death-list of eminent men. — Fires in New York and Washington. — Arkansas and Michigan admitted into the Union. — Jackson's farewell address. — Van Buren elected President. 426-436. CHAPTER LV. van euken's administration. Sketch of the new executive. — Another monetary disturbance. — Continuance of the Seminole war. — Colonel Taylor hunts the savages to Lake Okeechobee. — Defeats them. — And compels submission. — The financial panic of '37. — Causes which led thereto. — Especially the Specie Circular. — The banks suspend.— Tremendous failures. — Treasury notes are issued. — The Independent Treasury Bill is discussed. — -And finally passed. — Partial revival of business.— The Canada insurrection.— Affair of the Caroline. — Wool is sent to the Niagara. — Order is restored. — An early presidential canvass.— Uneventful character of Van Buren's administration. — The sixth census. — General Harrison is elected President 436-440 CHAPTER LVI. ADMINISTRATIONS OF HARRISON AND TYLER. Sketch of the President's life. — He enters upon his duties. — Falls sick. — And dies. — Tyler succeeds to the Presidency. — Sketch. — Repeal of the Independent Treasury Bill. — A bill is passed to recharter the United States Bank. — And vetoed by the Presi- dent. — The bankrupt law. — Rupture between the executive and Congress. — Resignation of the cabinet. — The north-eastern boundary is settled by the Webster-Ashburton treaty. — The Rhode Island insurrection. — The suffrage party elects Dorr. — And the law-and- order party, King. — The latter is supported by the government. — Dorr's followers are scattered.— And himself convicted of treason. — But afterward pardoned. — Building and dedication of Bunker Hill monument. — The Van Rensselaer land troubles in New York. — The Mormons. — They are driven from Missouri. — Found Nauvoo. — Popular feeling against them.— Smith and his brother are murdered. — And the Mormons driven xxvm CONTENTS. into exile. — They journey to Salt Lake. — The Texas excitement begins. — Outline of Texas history. — The people rebel against Mexico. — Battle of Gonzales.— Capture of the Alamo.— And massacre of the garrison.— The battle of San Jacinto decides the contest. — Texas independent.— Seeks admission into the Union.— Is refused at first. — The peo- ple of the United States divide on the question of annexation. — On that issue Polk is elected President. — Professor Morse and the telegraph. — Texas admitted into the Union 440-447. CHAPTER LVII. POLK'S ADMINISTRATION AND THE MEXICAN AVAR. Sketch of President Polk.— Texas ratifies the annexation. — General Taylor sent to defend the country. — The boundary question. — Proposition to negotiate. — Mexico refuses. — Taylor ordered to the Neuces. — And thence to the Eio Grande. — He estab- lishes a post at Point Isabel. — And builds Fort Brown. — Beginning of hostilities by the Mexicans. — Taylor retires to Point Isabel.— Mexican boasting. — Returns toward Mata- moras. — Meets the Mexicans. — Fights and gains the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. — Siege of Fort Brown. — News of the battles in the United States. — Declaration of War. — Plan of the campaigns. — General Wool musters the forces. — Taylor captures Matarnoras. — Advances against Monterey. — Besieges and storms the town. — An armis- tice. — Santa Anna made President of Mexico and general of the army.— Saltillo is taken by Worth. — Victoria by Patterson. — And Tampico by Conner. — Wool advances. — And Scott assumes command. — Kearney captures Santa Fe.— Moves westward.— Is joined by Carson. — And marches to the Pacific coast. — The deeds of Colonel Fremont. — Rebellion of the Californians. — They defeat the Mexicans. — Monterey, San Diego, and Los Angelos taken. — Battle of San Gabriel. — The march and battles of Colonel Doniphstn. — Taylor's and Wool's forces ordered to the coast.— Critical condition of Taylor's army. — Ap- proach of Santa Anna. — Battle of Buena Vista. — Retirement of Taylor from the service. — Scott besieges and captures Vera Cruz. — Marches against the capital. — Battle of Cerro Gordo. — Jalapa, Perote, and Puebla are taken. — Negotiations. — The march renewed. — The army passes the Cordilleras.— Reaches Ayotla. — Turns to the left. — The approaches and fortifications of the city. — Storming of Contreras and San Antonio. — Churubusco is carried. — The Mexicans driven back to Chapultepec. — More foolish nego- tiations. — Scott rests his army. — And then advances. — Molino del Rey and Casa de Mata are stormed. — Chapultepec is taken.— Flight of the Mexican government. — The American army enters the city. — Santa Anna attacks the hospitals at Puebla. — Is driven off by General Lane. — Downfall of the Mexican authority.— The treaty of Gaudalupe Hidalgo. — Its terms. — Settlement of the Oregon boundary. — The international line es- tablished on the forty-ninth parallel. — The discovery of gold in California. — The excite- ment which ensued.— Importance of the mines. — Founding of the Smithsonian Institu- tion. — Death of Jackson and John Quincy Adams. — Wisconsin is admitted. — Establish- ment of the Department of the Interior. — The canvass for President. — Rise of the Free Soil party. — The Wilmot proviso. — Election of Taylor to the presidency. 447-462. CHAPTER LVIII. ADMINISTRATIONS OF TAYLOR AND FILLMORE. Sketch of the chief magistrate. — The question of slavery in California. — A terri- torial government is organized. — A petition for admission. — The controversy in Con- gress. — Other political vexations. — Clay as a peace-maker. — Passage of the Omnibus Bill. — And its provisions. — Death of the President. — The slaverv excitement subsides. CONTENTS. xx ; x — The question not permanently settled.— Eetirement of Mr. Clay.— Effects of the Om- nibus Bill on the administration. — Tlie Cuban expedition is organized. — Lopez and his associates are executed.— Important measures recommended by the President. A diffi- culty arises about the coast-fisheries. — And is settled by a treaty.— The tour of Kossuth. —Arctic expeditions of Franklin, De Haven, and Kane.— Death of Calhoun, Clay, and Webster.— The Cuban excitement in Europe.— The Tripartite Treaty is proposed.— And rejected.— Everett's reply to France and Great Britain.— The candidates for the presidency. — Pierce is elected 4G3-4G9. CHAPTEE LIX. pierce's administration. Sketch of Franklin Pierce.— A route for a Pacific railroad is explored.— Settle- ment of the boundary of New Mexico.— The Japanese potts are opened to the United States.— The World's Fair.— Walker organizes a filibustering expedition against Central America. — Is captured. — Makes a second descent on Nicaraugua. — And then a third. Is defeated, captured, and executed.— The Martin Koszta affair.— Cuban difficulties. — The Ostend manifesto.— A bill to organize Kansas and Nebraska is passed.— Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. — Renewal of the slavery agitation. — The troubles in Kan- sas. — Two territorial governments are organized. — Geary sent thither as military gov- ernor. — Marshaling of parties on the slavery question. — Buchanan \\ elected to the pres- idency 469-474. CHAPTER LX. Buchanan's administration. Sketch of the President.— The Dred Scott decision.— The Mormon rebellion in Utah.— Is suppressed by the army.— A difficulty arises with Paraguay.— But is settled by treaty.— The first Atlantic cable is laid.— Minnesota is admitted.— Retirement and sketch of Houston.— Death of Washington Irving.— His work in American literature. —The Personal Liberty bills.— John Brown's insurrection.— Continuance of the troubles in Kansas— The political parties again divide on the slavery question.— The National conventions.— The candidates and the canvass.— Lincoln is elected President.— Condi- tion of affairs in the government.— Position of Buchanan.— The drama of secession.— Seven States withdraw from the Union.— The secession conventions.— Position of Steph- ens. — Organization of the Provisional Confederate government. — Davis for President. — The peace movements end in failure— Paralysis of the administration.— Seizure ' of forts and arsenals by the Confederates.— The strife in Kansas continues.— The Star of the West is driven off from Fort Sumter.— The President elect reaches Wash- ington 474-482. CHAPTER LXI. Lincoln's administration and the civil war. Sketch of Abraham Lincoln. — Organization of his cabinet. — His purpose to repos- sess the forts of the United States.— Preparations to reinforce Fort Sumter.— Confed- erate movements in Charleston.— Bombardment and fall of Fort Sumter.— The event fires the nation.— The call for troops.— Secession of Virginia, Arkansas, Notth Carolina, and Tennessee. — The soldiers attacked in Baltimore. — Capture of Harper's Ferry and the Norfolk navy yard.— Prodigious activity and preparations.— Davis and his cabinet at Richmond. . 482-485 xxx CONTENTS. CHAPTEE LXII. THE CAUSES. The causes. — First, the different construction of the Constitution in the North and the South. — Fatal character of this dispute. — Second, the system of slavery. — The cotton gin. — The Missouri agitation. — The annexation of Texas, and the Mexican War. — The nullification measures of South Carolina. — The Omnibus Bill. — The Kan- sas-Nebraska imbroglio. — Third, the want of intercourse between the North and the South. — Fourth, the publication of sectional books. — Fifth, the influence of dema- gogues 485-488. CHAPTER LXIII. FIRST YEAR OF THE WAR. Advance of the Union army. — Fight at Big Bethel. — Morris and McClellan move forward in West Virginia. — Engagements at Philippi, Eich Mountain, Carrick's Ford, Carnifex Ferry, Cheat Mountain, and Bomney. — The Confederates concentrate at Manassas. — The national forces advance. — The skirmish, the battle, and the rout. — Effect on the country. — The Confederate government at Eichmond. — Sketch of Davis. — Affairs in Missouri. — Confederates capture Liberty. — Form Camp Jackson. — Lyon defends St. Louis. — Battles of Carthage and Springfield. — Price captures Lexington. — Fremont pursues him. — And is superseded. — Grant captures Belmont. — McClellan is made commander-in-chief. — The disaster at Ball's Bluff. — Hatteras inlet, Port Eoyal, and Hilton Head secured by the Federals. — Capture of Mason and Slidell. — They are released by Mr. Seward 490-495. CHAPTEE LXIV. CAMPAIGNS OF '62. Extent and position of the Union forces. — The Confederates defeated on the Big Sandy and at Mill Spring.— Fort Henry is taken. — Siege and capture of Fort Donelson. — Battle of Shiloh. — Island Number Ten is taken. — The battle of Pea Eidge. — Fight of the Monitor and the Merrimac. — Burnside captures Eoanoke Island, Newbern, and Beaufort. — Savannah is blockaded. — Farragut aud Butler ascend the Mississippi. — Pass Forts Jackson and St. Philip. — Capture of New Orleans. — Fall of Jackson and St. Philip. — Kirby Smith invades Kentucky. — Battle of Eichmond. — Bragg marches on Louisville. — The city held by Buell. — Bragg retreats. — Battle of Perryville— Battles of Iuka and Corinth. — Grant moves against Vicksburg. — Eetreats. — Battle of Chickasaw Bayou. — Battle of Murfreesborough.— Banks and Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. — Fight at Front Eoyal.— The Federals retreat across the Potomac— The Confederates fall back in turn.— Battles of Cross Keys and Port Eepublic— McClellan advances.— Beginning of the Peninsular campaign.— Yorktown is taken.— Then Williamsburg and West Point.— Wool captures Norfolk— The Virginia destroyed.— Battle of Fair Oaks.— Lee made general-in-chief of the Confederates.— McClellan changes base— The seven days' battles.— The Union army at Harrison's Landing.— Lee strikes for Washington.— Is opposed h/ Pope.— Flank movement of Jackson.— Battles of Manassas, Centreville, and Chant illy. —Lee invades Maryland.— Harper's Ferry is taken.— Engagement at South Mountain.— Battle of Antietam— Confederates retreat.— Burnside in command.— Plans a campaign against Eichmond.— Advances against Fredericksburg.— And is de- feated 495-510. CONTENTS. xxxi CHAPTER LXV. THE WORK OF '63. Proportions of the conflict. — New calls for troops. — The Emancipation Proclama- tion. — Capture of Arkansas Post. — Movements against Vicksburg. — The fleet passes the batteries. — Grant at Bruinsburg. — Battles of Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, and Champion Hills. — The siege and capture of Vicksburg. — Fall of Port Hudson. — Cav- alry raids of Jackson, Stuart, and Grierson. — Rosecrans drives Bragg across the Ten- nessee. — Battle of Chattanooga. — And tbe siege. — Storming of Lookout and Missionary Eidge. — Longstreet in Tennessee. — Siege of Knoxville. — Engagements at Springfield, Cape Girardeau, and Helena. — The sacking of Lawrence. — Capture of Little Rock. — Morgan invades Indiana. — Passes into Ohio. — Is hemmed in and captured. — The Con- federates take Galveston. — The siege of Charleston. — Hooker commands the Army of the Potomac. — Battle of Chancellorsville. — Death of Stonewall Jackson. — Stoneraan's raid. — Siege of Suffolk. — Lee invades Pennsylvania. — The battle of Gettysburg. — Re- treat of the Confederates. — The conscription. — Riot in New York. — The draft. — New calls for soldiers. — West Virginia a State. ...... 510-523. CHAPTER LXVI. THE CLOSING CONFLICTS. Sherman's campaign to Meridian.— Smith fails to form a junction. — Sherman retires to Vicksburg. — Forrest's raid. — The Red River expedition. — Plan of the cam- paign. — Capture of Fort de Russy, Alexandria, and Natchitoches. — Union disaster and retreat. — Steele falls back to Little Rock. — Grant lieutenant-general. — Plan of the cam- paigns of '64. — Sherman advances. — Battles of Dalton, Resaca, and Dallas. — Attacks and repulses at Kenesaw. — The Confederates fall back to Atlanta. — Siege and capture of the strongholds — -Hood invades Tennessee. — Thomas sent to confront him. — Battle of Franklin. — Siege of Nashville. — Rout and ruin of Hood's army. — Sherman's march to the sea. — Capture of Macon, Milledgeville, Gibson, and Waynesborough. — Storming of Fort McAllister. — Escape of Hardee. — And capture of the city. — The Union army in Savannah. — Renewal of the march. — Columbia, Charleston, and Fayetteville are taken. — Battle of Kilpatrick's and Hampton's Cavalry. — Johnston restored to command. — Battles of Averasborough and Bentonsville. — Capture of Goldsborough and Raleigh. — Great raid of Stoneman. — Surrender of Johnston. — Farragut enters Mobile Bay. — Defeats the Confederate squadron. — Captures Forts Gaines and Morgan. — Fort Fisher is besieged by Porter and Butler. — The first effort fails. — The siege is renewed. — And the fort taken by storm. — Cushing's exploit. — The Confederate cruisers. — Injury done to the commerce of the United States. — The Savannah. — Career of the Sumler. — Cruise of the Nashville. — The Confederates use the British ship-yards. — Building of the Florida. — Her fate. — The Georgia, the Olustee, the Shenandoah, and the Chichamauga built at Glasgow. — End of the Chichamauga and the Tallahassee. — Career of the Georgia and the Shenandoah. — The Alabama. — Her character. — She scours the ocean. — Runs into Cherbourg. — Is caught by the Kearsarge. — And destroyed. — The Army of the Potomac moves from Culpepper. — Reaches the Wilderness. — The battles. — Grant advances to Spottsylvania. — Terrible fighting there. — The Union army moves to Cold Harbor. — Is repulsed in two battles. — Losses. — Grant changes base. — Butler captures Bermuda and City Point. — Is driven back by Beauregard. — Junction of the armies.— ;Advance on Petersburg. — The assaults. — The siege begins. — Sigel on the Shenandoah. — Battle of New Market. — Hunter in command. — Engagement at Piedmont. — Retreat of Hunter. — Early enters the valley. — Crosses the Potomac. — Defeats Wallace.— Threatens Wash- XXX11 CONTENTS. ington and Baltimore. — Retreats into Virginia. — Fight at Winchester. — The Confed- erates burn Chambersburg. — Sheridan is sent into the valley. — Battles of Winchester and Fisher's Hill. — Sheridan ravages the country. — Early conies. — Eouts the Federals at Cedar Creek. — Sheridan returns, and destroys Early's army. — The siege of Peters- burg continues. — Battles of Boydtown and Five Forks. — Flight of the Confederate government. — Fall of Petersburg and Richmond. — Surrender of Lee. — Collapse of the Confederacy. — The Federal authority is re-established. — Capture, imprisonment, and trial of Davis. — Lincoln re-elected. — Financial condition of the country. — Treasury notes. — Internal Revenue. — Legal Tenders. — Bonds.— Banks. — The debt. — Lincoln is rein augu rated. — Visits Richmond. — Is assassinated. — Punishment of his murderers. — Character of Lincoln 523-543. CHAPTER LXVII. Johnson's administration. Johnson in the presidency. — Sketch of his life and character. — Slavery is formally abolished. — The Amnesty Proclamation. — A straggle with the war-debt. — Napoleon's empire in Mexico. — Maximilian is captured and shot. — Final success of the Atlantic telegraph. — The Postal Money-Order system is established. — The Territories assume their final form. — Alaska is purchased from Russia. — The difficulty between the Presi- dent and Congress. — The reconstruction imbroglio. — Second amnesty. — The Civil Rights Bill is passed. — The Southern States are re-admitted. — A national convention at Phila- delphia. — The President makes a tour of the country. — Congressional measures of reconstruction. — The breach is widened between the executive and Congress.— The ve- toing business. — The President removes Stanton. — Is impeached. — And acquitted. — Genr eral Grant is elected President. ........ 544-551. CHAPTER LXVII I. grant's administration. Sketch of President Grant. — The Pacific Railroad is completed. — The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution are adopted. — The story of Black Friday. — The Southern States are restored to their place in the Union. — The ninth census and its lesson.— The Santo Domingo business. — The Alabama claims are ad- justed by the treaty of Washington and the Geneva court. — Railroad development of the United States. — The burning of Chicago. — The North-western boundary is settled by arbitration. — The presidential election. — The candidates. — Grant is re- elected. — Character of Greeley. — His death. — Great fire in Boston. — The Modoc war. — Murder of the peace commissioners. — The savages are subdued. — The Louisiana im- broglio. — The Credit Mobilier investigation. — The financial crisis of 1873-'74. — The Northern Pacific Railroad enterprise. — Admission of Colorado. — Death-roll of emi- nent men. — Sketches of Sumner and Wilson. — The great Centennial. — Origination of the enterprise. — Opposition. — General plan of the Exposition. — Organization. — The monetary management. — Lukewarmness of the Government. — The Centennial Grounds. — Dedication. — The General Regulations. — Nations participating. — Classification of products. — The Centennial Buildings. — Descriptions of the same. — Main Building. — Memorial Hall. — Machinery Hall. — Agricultural Hall. — Horticultural Hall. — United States Government Building. — Woman's Pavilion. — Foreign and State Buildings. — Re- ception of materials. — Scheme of Awards. — Opening ceremonies. — The Exposition itself. — Description of exhibits in Main Building. — In Machinery Hall. — In the Gov- CONTENTS. XXX111 ■srnment Building. — In Agricultural Hall. — In Horticultural Hall. — In the Woman's Pavilion. — In Memorial Hall. — The celebration of the Fourth of July in Philadel- phia. — Attendance at the Exposition. — The closing ceremonies. — The Sioux War. — The great election of 1876. — A disputed presidency. — The result. . 552-632. CHAPTER LXIX. hayes's administration. Sketch of President Hayes. — His inaugural address. — The policy indicated. — Effect of the same upon the country. — The new cabinet is organized. — The great Railroad Strike breaks out. — And is suppressed. — Beginning of the Nez Perce War. — The tribe is subdued by General Howard. — Silver is remonetized. — The Yellow Fever epidemic in the South. — The Halifax Fishery Commission. — How constituted. — The award — A Chinese Embassy established in the United States. — A Life Saving Service is instituted by Congress. — Resumption of Specie Payments by the Government. — Issues of 1880. — Garfield elected President. — Refunding legislation. — Tour of Ex-President Grant. — Re- sults of the Census of 1880. — Death of Senator Morton, William Cullen Bryant, Bay- ard Taylor, and Senators Chandler and Carpenter. . . 633-646. Sketch of President Garfield reflections. CHAPTER LXX. His inaugural .- -The new cabinet. — Concluding 647-650. CHAPTER LXXI. CONCLUSION. The outlook for the Republic. — Byron's view of nations. — The hopeful side. — Present achievements of the United Slates. — Natural advantages. — How the Saxon has improved them. — Things necessary to the perpetuity of American institutions: First, National Unity. — Second, Universal Education. — Third, Toleration. — Fourth, The No- bility of Labor. — Reflections 651-654. APPENDIXES. Appendix A. — Mandeville's Argument Appendix B. — Franklin's Constitution Appendix C. — Declaration of Independence Appendix D. — Articles of Confederation Appendix E. — Constitution of the United States Appendix F. — Washington's Farewell Address . Appendix G. — The Emancipation Proclamation 655-658. 659-660. 661-663. 664-G69. 670-680. 681-690. 691-692. Vocabulary Index 693-695. 696-705. ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Front view of the Capitol . Frontispiece. Map of Aboriginal America 44 Diagram of European Kinship . . 45 Diagram of Indian Kinship 46 Specimen of Indian Writing 48 A North American Indian 49 Norse Explorations 52 A Norse Sea King of the 11th Century 53 Christopher Columbus 55 Chart of Voyage and Discovery 56 Fernando Cortez 59 Map of Voyage and Discovery 76 Map of English Grants 86 Captain John Smith 96 Jamestown and Vicinity 103 Chart of the Colonial Period 122 The Treaty between Governor Carver and Massasoit 124 John Winthrop 127 Roger Williams' reception by the Indians 129 Early Settlements in New England 131 First Scene of King Philip's War 140 Second Scene of King Philip's War 141 Third Scene of King Philip's War . 143 Siege of Louisburg, 1745 158 Sir Henry Hudson 161 French, English, Dutch, Swedish and Spanish Provinces, 1655 .... 168 Peter Stuyvesant 171 Scene of the Pequod War 187 The Younger Winthrop 190 The Old Stone Tower at Newport 195 East and West Jersey, 1677 . .' 205 William Penn 211 Philadelphia and Vicinity 213 Lord Baltimore 217 James Oglethorpe 239 Country of the Savannah, 1740 242 First Scene of the French and Indian War, 1750 253 Scene of Braddock's Defeat, 1755 .260 The Acadian Isthmus, 1755 ........... 262 The Exile of the Acadians „ 263 (xxxiv) ILLUSTRATIONS. xxxv Page Vicinity of Lake George, 1755 265 Vicinity of Quebec, 1759 274 General James Wolfe 275 The Revelation of Pontiac's Conspiracy 278 The Old Thirteen Colonies 281 Patrick Henry 290 Samuel Adams 295 Scene of the Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775 300 Siege of Boston, 1776 . 306 Chart of the Revolution and Confederation 306 Battle of Long Island, 1776 311 Scene of Operations about New York, 1776 314 Battles of Trenton and Princeton, 1776-7 316 Scene of Burgoyne's Invasion, 1777 323 Encampment at Valley Forge, 1777-8 327 Benjamin Franklin 330 Siege of Charleston, 1780 340 Scene of Operations in the South, 1780-1 . 342 Scene of Arnold's Treason, 1780 344 General Greene 351 Siege of Yorktown, October, 1781 . . . . 353 Map of the United States at the Close of the Revolution . . . . . 354 Alexander Hamilton ... - 359 George Washington 363 Chart of the National Period— First Section 364 John Adams 372 Thomas Jefferson 377 Chief-Justice Marshall 380 Robert Fulton 386 James Madison 389 Scene of Hull's Campaign, 1812 394 The Niagara Frontier, 1812 399 Scene of the Creek War, 1813-14 403 La Fayette 423 Chart of the National Period — Second Section 424 Andrew Jackson 427 Daniel Webster 429 The New Patent-Office at Washington 433 Bunker Hill Monument 443 Professor Morse 446 Texas and Coahuila, 1845 . 448 Scene of Scott's Campaign, 1847 454 General Winfield Scott 457 The Smithsonian Institution 460 President Taylor 463 Henry Clay • . 465 John C. Calhoun 468 General Sam Houston 477 Washington Irving 478 Alexander H. Stephens 481 Abraham Lincoln 4S3 xxxvi ILLUSTRATIONS. Paoe Chart of the National Period — Third Section ....... 489 Scene of Operations in West Virginia, 1861 490 Vicinity of Manassas Junction, 1861 491 Jefferson Davis 492 Scene of Operations in the South-west, 1861 493 William H. Seward 495 Battle of Murfreesborough, December 31st, 1862 500 Battle of Murfreesborough, January 2d, 1863 501 Scene of Campaign in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, 1862 . . . 503 General Bobert E. Lee 504 Vicinity of Bichmond, 1S62 505 The Battle of Antietam. September 17, 1862 507 The Proposed Boutes from Washington to Bichmond, 1862 508 Vicksburg and Vicinity, 1863 512 Battle of Chickamauga, September 19, 20, 1863 514 Lookout Mountain and Missionary Bidge, November 23-25, 1863 .... 515 Stonewall Jackson 519 Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 2, 3, 1863 520 Sherman's Campaign, 1864 525 General Thomas . 527 General Sherman 528 Admiral Farragut 531 Operations in Virginia, 1864 and 1865 535 Petersburg, Bichmond, Appomattox, 1865 539 Map of the United States, 1876 546 Chief-Justice Chase 551 President Grant 552 Map of the Territorial Growth of the United States 554 Horace Greeley 558 Charles Sumner 562 Independence Hall, 1876 563 General Joseph B. Hawley 566 Centennial Medal — Obverse 567 Centennial Medal — Beverse 567 The Centennial Grounds and Buildings 569 Main Exposition Building, Centennial Exhibition 576 Memorial Hall, " " 579 Machinery Hall, " " 581 Agricultural Hall, " " 583 Horticultural Hall, " " 585 U. S. Government Building, " " 587 Woman's Pavilion, " " 589 Inaugural Ceremonies of the Centennial Exhibition 593 Alfred T. Goshorn 595 View in the Main Exhibition Building 597 Interior View of Machinery Hall 607 Interior View of the United States Government Building 613 Interior View of Agricultural Hall 616 Interior View of Horticultural Hall 621 Botunda of Memorial Hall 623 Scene of the Sioux War, 1876 629 En therford B. Haves 633 James A. Garfield 647 INTRODUCTION. 1. The history of every nation is divided into periods. For a while the genius of a people will be turned to some particular pur- suit. Men will devote themselves to certain things and labor to ac- complish certain results. Then the spirit of the age will change, and historical facts will assume a different character. Thus arises what is called A Period in History. In studying the history of the United States it is of the first importance to understand the periods into which it is divided. 2. First of all, there was a time when the New World was under the dominion of the aborigines. From ocean to ocean the copper-col- ored children of the woods ruled with undisputed sway. By bow and arrow, by flint and hatchet, the Red man supported his rude civiliza- tion and waited for the coming of the pale-faced races. 3. After the discovery of America, the people of Europe were hundreds of years in making themselves acquainted with the shape and character of the New World. During that time explorers and adven- turers went everywhere and settled nowhere. To make new discov- eries was the universal passion ; but nobody cared to plant a colony. As long as this spirit prevailed, historical events bore a common char- acter, being produced by common causes. Hence arose the second pe- riod in our history — the Period of Voyage and Discovery. 4. As soon as the adventurers had satisfied themselves with trac- ing sea-coasts, ascending rivers and scaling mountains, they began to form permanent settlements. And each settlement was a new State in the wilderness. Every voyager now became ambitious to plant a col- ony. Kings and queens grew anxious to confer their names on the towns and commonwealths of the New World. Thus arose a third pe- riod — the Period of Colonial History. (xxxvii) xxx viii INTR OD UCTION. 5. Then the colonies grew strong and multiplied. There were thirteen little sea-shore republics. The people began to consult about their privileges and to talk of the rights of freemen. Oppression on the part of the mother-country was met with resistance, and tyranny with defiance. There was a revolt against the king; and the patriots of the different colonies fought side by side, and won their freedom. Then they built them a Union, strong and great. This is the Period of Revolution and Confederation. 6. Then the United States of America entered upon their career as a nation. Three times tried by war and many times vexed with civil dissensions, the Union of our fathers still remains for us and for posterity. Such is the Period of Nationality. 7. Collecting these results, we find five distinctly marked peri- ods in the history of our country : First. The Aboriginal Period ; from remote antiquity to the coming of the White men. Second. The Period of Voyage and Discovery; A. D. 986-1607. Third. The Colonial Period; A. D. 1607-1775. Fourth. The Period of Revolution and Confederation; A. D. 1775-1789. Fifth. The National Period; A. D. 1789-1881. In this order the History of the United States will be presented in the following pages. HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. PART I. ABORIGINAL AMERICA. CHAPTER I. THE RED MEN— ORIGIN, DISTRIBUTION, CHARACTER. THE primitive inhabitants of the New World were the Red men called Indians. The name Indian was conferred upon them from th.eir real or fancied resemblance to the people of India. But without any such similarity the name would have been the same; for Colum- bus and his followers, believing that they had only rediscovered the Indies, would of course call the inhabitants Indians. The supposed similarity between the two races, if limited to mere personal appearance, had some foundation in fact; but in manners, customs, institutions, and character, no two peoples could be more dissimilar than the Amer- ican aborigines and the sleepy inhabitants of China and Japan. The origin of the North American Indians is involved in com- plete obscurity. That they are one of the older races of mankind can not be doubted. But at what date or by what route they came t6 the Western continent is an unsolved problem. Many theories have been proposed to account for the Red man's presence in the New World, but most of them have been vague and unsatisfactory. The notion that the Indians are the descendants of the Israelites is absurd. That half civilized tribes, wandering from beyond the Euphrates, should reach North America, surpasses human credulity. That Europeans or Afri- cans, at some remote period, crossed the Atlantic by voyaging from is- land to island, seems altogether improbable. That the Kamtchatkans, coming by way of Behring's Strait, reached the frozen North-west and (41} 42 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. became the progenitors of the Red men, has no evidence other than conjecture to support it. Until further research shall throw additional light on the history and migrations of the primitive races of mankind, the origin of the Indians will remain shrouded in mystery. It is not unlikely that a more thorough knowledge of the North American lan- guages may furnish a clue to the early history of the tribes that spoke them. The Indians belong to the Ganowanian, or Bo w-and- Arrow family of men. Some races cultivate the soil; others have herds and flocks ; others build cities and ships. To the Red man of the Western continent the chase was every thing. Without the chase he pined and languished and died. To smite with swift arrow the deer and the bear was the chief delight and profit of the primitive Americans. Such a race could live only in a country of woods and wild animals. The il- limitable hunting-grounds — forest, and hill, and river — were the In- dian's earthly paradise, and the type of his home hereafter. The American aborigines belonged to several distinct families or nations. Above the sixtieth parallel of latitude the whole continent from Labrador to Alaska was inhabited by the Esquimaux. The name means the eaters of raw meat. They lived in snow huts, or in hovels, partly or wholly underground. Sometimes their houses were more ar- tistically constructed out of the bones of whales and walruses. Their manner of life was that of fishermen and hunters. They clad them- selves in winter with the skins of seals, and in summer with those of reindeers. Inured to cold and exposure, they made long journeys in sledges drawn by dogs, or risked their lives in open boats fighting with whales and polar bears among the terrors of the icebergs. By eating abundantly of oils and fat meats they kept the fires of life a-burning, even amid the rigors and desolations of the Arctic winter. Lying south of the Esquimaux, embracing the greater part of Canada and nearly all that portion of the United States east of the Mississippi and north of the thirty-seventh parallel of latitude, spread the great family of the Algonquins. It appears that their original seat was on the Ottawa River. At the beginning of the sev- enteenth century the Algonquins numbered fully a quarter of a million. The tribes of this great family were nomadic in their habits, roaming from one hunting-ground and river to another, according to the exi- gencies of fishing and the chase. Agriculture was but little esteemed. They were divided into many subordinate tribes, each having its local name, dialect, and traditions. When the first European settlements were planted the Algonquin race was already declining in numbers ABORIGINAL AMERICA. 43 and influence. Wasting diseases destroyed whole tribes. Of all the Indian nations the Algonquins suffered most from contact with the White man. Before his aggressive spirit, his fiery rum, and his de- structive weapons, the warriors were unable to stand. The race has withered to a shadow; only a few thousands remain to rehearse the story of their ancestors. Within the wide territory occupied by the Algonquins lived the powerful nation of the Huron-Iroquois. Their domain extended over the country reaching from Georgian Bay and Lake Huron to Lakes Erie and Ontario, south of those lakes to the valley of the Up- per Ohio, and eastward to the River Sorel. Within this extensive dis- trict was a confederacy of vigorous tribes, having a common ancestry, and generally — though not always — acting together in war. At the time of their greatest power and influence the Huron-Iroquois em- braced no less than nine allied nations. These were the Hurons proper, living north of Lake Erie; the Eries and Andastes, south of the same water; the Tuscaroras, of Carolina, who ultimately joined their kinsmen in the North ; the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Onei- das, and Mohawks, constituting the famous Five Nations of New York. The warriors of this great confederation presented the Indian character in its most favorable aspect. They were brave, patriotic, and eloquent ; not wholly averse to useful industry; living in respectable villages; tilling the soil with considerable success; faithful as friends but terri- ble as enemies. South of the country of the Algonquins were the Cherokees and the Mobilian Nations; the former occupying Tennessee, and the latter covering the domain between the Lower Mississippi and the Atlantic. The Cherokees were highly civilized for a primitive peo- ple, and contact with the whites seemed to improve rather than degrade them. The principal tribes of the Mobilians were the Ya- massees and Creeks of Georgia, the Seminoles of Florida, and the Choctaws and Chickasaws of Mississippi. These displayed the usual characteristics of the Red men, with this additional circumstance, that below the thirty-second parallel of latitude evidences of temple-build- ing, not practiced among the Northern tribes, began to appear. West of the Father of Waters was the great and widely-spread race of the Dakotas, whose territory extended from the Arkansas River to the country of the Esquimaux and westward to the Rocky Mountains. Their languages and institutions, differing much among the various tribes, are not so well understood as those of some other nations. South of the land of the Dakotas, in a district nearly cor- 44 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. responding with the present State of Texas, lived the wild Coman-, ches, whose very name is a synonym for savage ferocity. Beyond the Rocky Mountains were the Indian nations of the Plains; the great family of the Shoshonees, the Selish, the Klamaths, and the Californians. On the Pacific slope farther southward dwelt in for- mer times the famous races of Aztecs and Toltecs. These were the most civilized of the primitive Indian nations, but at the same time amono- the most feeble : the best builders in wood and stone, but the to least warlike of any of the aborigines. Such is a brief sketch of the distribution of the copper-colored race in the New Wo.rld. The ter- ritorial position of the various nations and tribes will be easily under- stood from an examination of the accompanying map. The Indians were strongly marked with national peculiarities. The most striking characteristic of the race was a certain sense of per- sonal independence — willfulness of action — freedom from restraint. To the Red man's imagination the idea of a civil authority which should subordinate his passions, curb his will, and thwart his purposes, was intolerable. Among this people no common enterprise was possible unless made so by the concurrence of free wills. If the chieftain entered the war-path, his kinsmen and the braves of other tribes fol- lowed him only because they chose his leadership. His authority and right of command extended no further than to be foremost in danger, most cunning in savage strategy, bravest in battle. So of all the relations of Indian life. The Medicine Man was a self-constituted physician and prophet. No man gave him his authority ; no man took it away. His right was his own ; and his influence depended upon himself and the voluntary respect of the nation. In the solemn de- bates of the Council House, where the red orators pronounced their wild harangues to groups of motionless listeners, only questions of expediency were decided. The painted sachems never thought of imposing on the unwilling minority the decision which had b'een reached in council. Next among the propensities of the Red men was the passion for war. Their wars, however, were always undertaken for the re- dress of grievances, real or imaginary, and not for conquest. But with the Indian, a redress of grievances meant a personal, vindictive, and bloody vengeance on the offender. The Indian's principles of war were easily understood, but irreconcilable with justice and hu- manity. The forgiveness of an injury was reckoned a weakness and a shame. Revenge was considered among the nobler virtues. The open, honorable battle of the field was an event unknown in Indian 3r -e x I c nB oW 6INAL Am ER/o 4/ DISTRIBUTION' AXD TERRITORIAL LIMITS TH £ INDIAN NAT\0^ 5, IN THE NEW WORLD. 400 500 r est 95 from Greenwich ABORIGINAL AMERICA. 45 warfare. Fighting was limited to the surprise, the ambuscade, the massacre ; and military strategy consisted of cunning and treachery. Quarter was rarely asked, and never granted ; those who were spared from the fight were only reserved for a barbarous captivity, ransom, or the stake. In the torture of his victims all the diabolical ferocity of the savage warrior's nature burst forth without restraint. In times of peace the Indian character shone to a better advan- tage. But the Red man was, at his best estate, an unsocial, solitary, and gloomy spirit. He was a man of the woods. He communed only /With himself and the genius of sol- itude. He sat apart. The forest was better than his wigwam, and his wigwam bet- ter than the vil- lage. The Indian woman was a de- graded creature, a drudge, a beast of burden ; and the social prin- ciple was cor- respondingly low. ' The organization of the Indian fam- ily was so peculiar as to require a special consideration. Among civilized nations the family is so constructed that the lines of kinship diverge constantly from the line of descent, so that collateral kinsmen with each gen- eration stand at a still greater remove from each other. The above diagram will serve to show how in a European family the lines of consanguinity diverge until t\ic kinship becomes so feeble as to be no lono-er recognized. It will be observed that this fact of constant di- vergence is traceable to the establishment of a male line of descent. In the Indian family all this is reversed. The descent is es- tablished in the female line; and as a consequence the ties of kinship DIAGRAM OF EUROPEAN KINSHIP. 46 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. converge upon each other until they all meet in the granddaughter. That is, in the aboriginal nations of North America, every grandson and granddaughter was the grandson and granddaughter of the whole tribe. This arose from the fact that all the uncles of a given person were reckoned as his fathers also ; all the mother's sisters were mothers ; all the cousins were sisters and brothers; all the nieces were daugh- ters; all the nephews, sons, etc. This peculiarity of the Indian family organization is illustrated in the annexed diagram. Civil government among the Indian na- tions was in its primi- tive stages of develop- ment. Each tribe had its own sachem, or chieftain, to whom in matters of peace and war a tolerable degree of obedience was ren- dered. At times con- federations were form- ed, based either on ties of kinship or the exi- gencies these of war. But confederations DIAGRAM OF INDIAN* KINSHIP. were seldom enduring, and were likely at any time to be broken up by the barbarous pas- sion and insubordina- tion of the tribes who composed them. Sometimes a sachem would arise with such marked abilities, warlike prowess, and strength of will, as to gain an influence, if not a positive leadership over many nations. But with the death of the chieftain, or sooner, each tribe, resuming its independence, would return to its own ways. No general Indian Congress was known ; but national and tribal councils were frequently called to debate questions of policy and right, In matters of religion the Indians were a superstitious race, but seldom idolaters. They believed in a great spirit, everywhere present, ruling the elements, showing favor to the obedient, and punishing the sinful. Him they worshiped; to him they sacrificed. But not in tern- ABORIGINAL AMERICA. 47 pies, for the Indians built none. They also believed in many subordi- nate spirits — some good, some bad. Both classes frequented the earth. The bad spirits brought evil dreams to the Indian ; diseases also, bad passions, cruel winters, and starvation. The good spirits brought sun- shine, peace, plentiful harvests, all the creatures of the chase. The Medicine Man, or Prophet, obtained a knowledge of these things by fasting and prayer, and then made revelations of the will and purposes of the spirit world. The religious ceremonies of the Indians were per- formed with great earnestness and solemn formality. In the matter of the arts the Indian was a barbarian. His house was a wigwam or hovel. Some poles set up in a circle, converging at the top, covered with skins and the branches of trees, lined and some- times floored with mats, a fire in the center, a low opening opposite the point from which the wind blew — such was the aboriginal abode of North America. Indian utensils were few, rude, and primitive. Poorly-fashioned earthen pots, bags and pouches for carrying provis- ions, and stone hammers for pounding parched corn, were the stock and store. A copper kettle was a priceless treasure. The warrior's chief implement was his hatchet of stone or copper. This he always carried with him, and it was rarely free from the stain of blood. His weapon of offence and defence was the bow and arrow, by no means an insignificant or feeble instrument. The arrow pointed with stone or iron was frequently driven entirely through the ponderous buffalo. The range of the winged missile was two hundred yards or more, and the aim was one of fatal accuracy when the White man was the tar- get. The Indian's clothing was a blanket, thrown over his shoulders, bound around him perhaps with a thong of leather. The material for his moccasins * and leggins was stripped from the red buck, elk, or buffalo. He was fond of hanging about his person an infinity of non- sensical trappings ; fangs of rattlesnakes, claws of hawks, feathers of eagles, bones of animals, scalps of enemies. He painted his face and body, specially when the passion of war was on him, with all manner of glaring and fantastic colors. So the Prophet of his nation taught him ; so he would be terrible to his enemies ; so he Avould exemplify the peculiarities of his nation and be unlike the Pale face. All the higher arts were wanting. Indian writing consisted only of quaint and half-intelligible hieroglyphics rudely scratched on the face of rocks or cut in the bark of trees. The artistic sense of the savage could rise no higher than a coarse necessity compelled the flight. The language spoken by a people is always a matter of special * The Algonquin word is mak'isin. 48 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. interest and importance. The dialects of the North American races bear many and evident marks of resemblance among themselves; but little or no analogy to the languages of other nations. If there is any similarity at all, it is found between the Indian tongues and those spoken by the nomadic races of Asia. The vocabulary of the Red men was a very limited one. The principal objects of na- ture had spec- ial names, and actions were likewise spe- cifically ex- pressed, Ab- stract ideas but rarely f o u n d expression in any of the Indian languages ; such ideas could only be expressed by a long and labored circumlocution. Words had a narrow but very intense meaning. There was, for instance, no general word signify- ing to hunt or to fish; but one word signified " to-kill-a-deer-with-an- arrow ; " another, " to-take-fish-by-striking-the-ice." In most of the dialects there was no word for brother; but "elder-brother" and " younger-brother " could be expressed. Among many of the tribes the meanings of words and phrases were so restricted that the war- rior would use one set of terms and the squaw another to express the same ideas. The languages were monosyllabic ; but many of the monosyllables might be combined to form compounds resembling the polysyllables of European tongues. These compounds, expressing ab- stract and difficult ideas, were sometimes inordinately long,* the whole forming an explanation or description of the thing rather than a sin- gle word. Scholars have applied the term agglutinative to those lan- guages in which such labored and tedious forms of expression occur. Of this sort are the tongues spoken by the nomadic races of Asia. * For instance, in the Massachusetts dialect, the form of speech meaning "our ques- tion''' was this: Kum-mog-ko-don-at-toot-tum-moo-et-it-e-a-ong-an-nun-non-asli. SPECIMEN OF INDIAN WRITING. Translation: Eight soldiers (9), with muskets (10), commanded by a cap- tain (1), and accompanied by a secretary (2), a geologist (3), three attend- ants (4, 5, 6), and two Indian guides, encamped here. They had three camp fires (13, 14, 15), and ate a turtle and a prairie hen (11, 12), for supper. ABORIGINAL AMERICA. 49 ^\\Y\M[y<7 '/■ In personal appearance the Indians were strongly marked. In stature they were nearly all below the average of Europeans. The Esquimaux are rarely five feet high, but are generally thick-set and heavy. The Algonquins are taller and lighter in build; a straight and agile race, lean and swift of foot. Eyes jet-black and sunk- en ; hair black and straight; beard black and scant; skin copper-colored, a red- dish-black, cin- namon-hued, brown ; high cheek bones ; forehead and skull variable in shape and proportion; hands and feet small ; body lithe but not strong; expression sinister, or rarely dignified and noble : — these are the well-known features and person of the Indian. Though gener- ally sedate in man- ners and serious in behavior, the Red men at times gave themselves up to merry-making and hilarity. The dance was universal — not the social dance of civ- ilized nations, but the dance of ceremony, of religion, and of war. Sometimes the warriors danced alone, but frequently the women joined in the wild exercise, circling around and around, chanting the weird, monotonous songs of the tribes. Many other anlusements were com- mon, such as running, leaping, wrestling, shooting at a mark, racing in canoes along swift rivers or placid lakes, playing at ball, or en- gaging in intricate and exciting games, performed with small stones resembling checkers cr dice. To this latter sport Avas not unfre- quently added the intoxication of gambling, in which the warriors, under the influence of their fierce passion, would often hazard and * An authentic portrait of the celebrated Black Hawk, chief of the Sacs and Foxes. A NORTH A5[ERICAN INDIAN.* 50 HIS TOBY OF THE UNITED STATES. lose their entire possessions. In soberer moments, the Eed men, never inclined to conversation, would sit in silence, communing each with his own thoughts or lost in a dream under the fascination of his pipe. The use of tobacco was universal and excessive ; and after the introduction of intoxicating liquors by the Europeans the Indi- ans fell into terrible drunkenness, only limited in its extent by the amount of spirits which they could procure. It is doubtful whether any other race has been so awfully degraded by drink. Such is a brief sketch of the Red man — who was rather than is. The only hope of the perpetuity of his race seems now to center in the Choctaws, Cherokees, Creeks and Chickasaws of the Indian Ter- ritory. These nations, numbering in the aggregate about forty-eight thousand souls, have attained a considerable degree of civilization ; and with just and liberal dealing on the part of the Government the outlook for the future is not discouraging. Most of the other Indian tribes seem to be rapidly approaching extinction. Right or wrong, such is the logic of events. Whether the Red man has been justly deprived of the ownership of the New World will remain a subject of debate ; that he has been deprived, can be none. The Saxon has come. His conquering foot has trodden the vast domain from shore to shore. The weaker race has withered from his presence and sword. By the majestic rivers and in the depths of the solitary woods the feeble sons of the Bow and Arrow will be seen no more. Only their names remain on hill and stream and mountain. The Red man sinks and fails. His eyes are to the West. To the prairies and forests, the hunting-grounds of his ancestors, he says farewell. He is gone ! The cypress and the hemlock sing his requiem. PART II. VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. A. D. 9S6-1607. CHAPTER II. THE ICELANDERS AND NORWEGIANS IN AMERICA. THE western continent was first seen by white men in A. D. 986. A Norse navigator by the name of Herjulfson, sailing from Iceland to Greenland, was caught in a storm and driven westward to Newfoundland or Labrador. Two or three times the shores were seen, but no landing was made or attempted. The coast was low, abounding in forests, and so different from the well-known cliffs of Greenland as to make it certain that another shore hitherto unknown was in sight. On reaching Greenland, Herjulfson and his companions told wonderful stories of the new lands seen in the west. Fourteen years later, the actual discovery of America was made by Lief Erickson. This noted Icelandic captain, resolving to know the truth about the country which Herjulfson had seen, sailed west- ward from Greenland, and in the spring of the year 1001 reached Labrador. Impelled by a spirit of adventure, he landed with his companions, and made explorations for a considerable distance along the coast. The country was milder and more attractive than his own, and he was in no haste to return. Southward he went as far as Massachusetts, where the daring company of Norsemen remained for more than a year. Rhode Island was also visited ; and it is alleged that the hardy adventurers found their way into New York harbor. What has once been done, whether by accident or design, may easily be done again. In the years that followed Lief Erickson's dis- covery, other companies of Norsemen came to the shores of America. Thorwald, Lief 's brother, made a voyage to Maine and Massachu- setts in 1002, and is said to have died at Fall River in the latter state. (51) 52 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Then another brother, Thorstein by name, arrived with a band of followers in 1005 ; and in the year 1007, Thorfinn Karlsefne, the most distinguished mariner of his day, came with a crew of a hundred and fifty men, and made explorations along the coast of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and per- haps as far south as the capes of Virginia. Other companies of Icelanders and Norwegians visited the countries farther north, and planted col- onies in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Little, however, was known or imagined by these rude sailors of the extent of the country which they had discovered. They supposed that it was only a portion of Western Greenland, which, bend- ing to the north around an arm of the ocean, had reappeared in the west. The settlements which were made, were feeble and soon broken up. Commerce was an im- possibility in a country where there were only a few wretched savages with no disposition to buy and nothing at all to sell. The spirit of adventure was soon appeased, and the restless Northmen returned to their own country. To this undefined line of coast, now vaguely known to them, the Norse sailors gave the name of Vinland; and the old Icelandic chroniclers insist that it was a pleasant and beauti- ful country. As compared with their own mountainous and frozen island of the North, the coasts of New England may well have seemed delightful. The men who thus first visited the shores of the New World were a race of hardy adventurers, as lawless and restless as any that ever sailed the deep. Their mariners and soldiers penetrated every clime. The better parts of France and England fell under their do- minion. All the monarchs of the latter country after AYilliam the Conqueror — himself the grandson of a sea-king — are descendants of NORSE EXPLORATIONS. VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 53 the Norsemen. They were rovers of the sea; freebooters and pi- rates; warriors audacious and headstrong, wearing hoods surmounted with eagles' wings and walruses' tusks, mailed armor, and for robes the skins of polar bears. Woe to the people on whose defenceless coasts the sea-kings landed with sword and torch! Their wayward life and ferocious disposition are well portrayed in one of their own old bal- lads : TT , , lie scorns to rest neath the smoky rafter, lie plows with his boat the roaring deep; The billows boil and the storm howls after — But the tempest is only a thing of laughter, — The sea-king loves it better than sleep ! During the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries occa- sional voyages continued to be made; and it is said that as late as A. D. 1347 a Norwegian ship visited Labrador and the north-eastern parts of the United States. The Norse remains which have been found at Newport, at Garnet Point, and several other places seem to point clearly to some such events as are here described; and the Ice- landic historians give a uni- form and tolerably consistent account of these early ex- ploits of their countrymen. When the word America is mentioned in the hearing of the Icelandic schoolboys, they will at once answer, with en- thusiasm, " Oh, yes ; Lief Er- ickson discovered that country in the year 1001." An event is to be weighed by its consequences. From the discovery of Amer- ica by the Norsemen, nothing whatever resulted. The world was neither wiser nor better. Among the Icelanders themselves the place and the very name of Yinland were forgotten. Europe never heard of such a country or such a discovery. Historians have until late years been incredulous on the subject, and the fact is as though it had never been. The curtain which had been lifted for a A NORSE SEA-KING OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. 54 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. moment was stretched again from sky to sea, and the New World still lay hidden in the shadows. * CHAPTER III. SPANISH DISCO VERIES IN AMERICA. IT was reserved for the people of a sunnier clime than Iceland first to make known to the European nations the existence of a Western con- tinent. Spain -was the happy country under whose auspicious patronage a new world was to be added to the old ; but the man who was destined to make the revelation was not himself a Spaniard : he was to come from genial Italy, the land of olden valor and the home of so much greatness. Christopher Columbus was the name of that man whom after ages have justly rewarded with imperishable fame. The idea that the world is round was not original with Columbus. Others before him had held a similar belief; but the opinion had been so feebly and uncertainly entertained as to lead to no practical results. Copernicus, the Prussian astronomer, had not yet taught, nor had Galileo, the great Italian, yet demonstrated, the true system of the universe. The English traveler, Sir John Mandeville, had declared in the very first English book that ever was -written (A. D. 1356) that the world is a sphere; that he himself, when traveling northward, had seen the polar star approach the zenith, and that on going southward the antarctic con- stellations had risen overhead ; and that it was both possible and practicable for a man to sail around the world and return to the place of starting : but neither Sir John himself nor any other seaman of his times was bold enough to undertake so hazardous an enterprise. - }- Columbus was, no doubt, the first practical believer in the theory of circumnaviga- tion ; and although he never sailed around the world himself, he demonstrated the possibility of doing so. * As to the reality of the Norse discoveries in America, the following from Hum- boldt's Cosmos, Vol. II., pp. 269-272, may be cited as conclusive: "We are here on historical ground. Bv the critical and highly praiseworthy efforts of Professor Rafn (and the Royal Society of Antiquaries in Copenhagen, the Sagas and documents in regard to the expeditions of the Norsemen to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Vinland have been published and satisfactorily commented upon. * * * The dis- covery of the northern part of America by the Norsemen can not be disputed. The length of the voyage, the direction in which they sailed, the time of the sun's rising and setting are accurately given. While the Caliphate of Bagdad was still flourish- ing * * * s America was discovered about the year A. D. 1000, by Lief, the son of Eric the Red, at the latitude of forty-one and a-half degrees north." I See Appendix A. VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 55 The great mistake with Columbus and others who shared his opinions was not concerning the figure of the earth, but in regard to its size. He believed the world to be no more than ten thousand or twelve thousand miles in circumference. He therefore confidently expected that after sail- ing about three thousand miles to the westward he should arrive at the East Indies ; and to do that was the one great purpose of his life. Christopher Columbus was born at Genoa, a seacoast town of North- western Italy, in A. D. 1435. He was carefully educated, and then devoted himself to the sea. His ancestors had been sea- men before him. His own inclination as well as his early training made him a sailor. For twenty years he traversed the Mediter- ranean and the parts of the Atlantic adjacent to Europe; he visited Iceland ; then went to Portugal, and finally to Spain. The idea of reaching the Indies by crossing the Atlan- tic had already pos- sessed him. For more than ten years the poor enthusiast was a beg- gar, going from court to court, explaining to dull monarchs and bigoted monks the figure of the earth and the ease with which the rich islands of the East might be reached by sailing westward. He found one appreciative listener, after- ward his constant and faithful friend — the noble and sympathetic Isa- bella, queen of Castile. Be it never forgotten that to the faith, and insight, and decision of a woman the final success of Columbus must be attributed. On the morning of the 3d day of August, 1492, Columbus, with his three ships, left the harbor of Palos. After seventy-one days of sailing, in the early dawn of October 1 2, Rodrigo Triana, who chanced to be on the lookout from the Pinta, set up a shout of "Land!" A gun was fired as the signal. The ships lay to. There was music and jubilee; CHKISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 56 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. and just at sunrise Columbus himself first stepped ashore, shook out the royal banner of Castile in the presence of the wondering natives, and named the island San Salvador. During the three remaining months of this first voyage the islands of Concepcion, Cuba and Hayti were added to the list of discoveries ; and on the bay of Caracola, in the last- named island, was erected out of the timbers of the Santa Maria a fort, the first structure built by Europeans in the New World. In the early part of January, 1493, Columbus sailed for Spain, where he arrived in March, and was everywhere greeted with rejoicings and applause. In September of the following autumn Columbus sailed on his second voyage. He still believed that by this route westward he should reach, if indeed he had not already reached, the Indies. The result of the second voyage was the discovery of the Windward group and the islands of Jamaica and Porto Rico. It was at this time that the first colony was established in Hayti and Columbus's brother appointed governor. After an absence of nearly three years, Columbus returned to Spain in the sum- mer of 1496 — returned to find himself the victim of a thousand bitter jealousies and suspicions. All the rest of his life was clouded with perse- cutions and misfortunes. He made a third voyage, discovered the island of Trinidad and the mainland of South America, near the mouth of the Orinoco. Thence he sailed back to Hayti, where he found his colony disorganized ; and here, while attempting to restore order, he Avas seized by Bobadilla, an agent of the Spanish government, put in chains and car- ried to Spain. After a disgraceful imprisonment, he was liberated and sent on a fourth and last voyage in search of the Indies ; but besides making some explorations along the south side of the Gulf of Mexico, the expedition accomplished nothing, and Columbus, overwhelmed with discouragements, returned once more to his ungrateful country. The good Isabella was dead, and the great discoverer found himself at last a friendless and despised old man tottering into the grave. Death came, and fame afterward. Of all the wrongs done to the memory of Columbus, perhaps the greatest was that which robbed him of the name of the new conti- nent. This was bestowed upon one of the least worthy of the many- adventurers whom the genius and success of Columbus had drawn to the West. In the year 1499, Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine navigator of some daring but no great celebrity, reached the eastern coast of South America. It does not appear that his explorations there were of any great importance. Two years later he made a second voyage, and then hastened home to give to Europe the first published account of the Western World. Vespucci's only merit consisted in his recognition of lOOO Central Period of ttie Middle Ages. ■U. Conratl II. llOO 1200 1300 so. T helving 52. Frederick Barbarossa<> ?h|e CRUSADES. The Kingdom ol" Jerusalem established. 35. Union of C 39. Henry the Black. astile and Leon. 8. Eon is VI 56. Henry IV, HOUSE OF CAPET IN FRANCE. 26. Louis IX. 85. Philip IV. 16. Phil The different Orders of Knighthood estahlisl 28. I uest of Ireland, ilip II. 37. Louis VII. 71. Conq 80. Ph 17 Canute. 40. Hardicaii'iite. 42. Edward (the Confessor. 66. Harold. 38 - Struggle of the Guelphs and Ghibcl 1 87. DANISH KINGS IN ENGLAND. The NORMANS. 66. William I. 35. Stephen. William Rufus. Henry I. 54. Henry 89. 99. Wars of the Barons. 15. Magna Charta II. 72. Ed Richard I. John. The PLANTAGENETS. Heroic Age. granted ward I. 7. Edward Wij 27. ll 1. LEIF ERICKSON, an Icelandic navigator, sailing westward from Greenland, discovers the coast of Labrador, and makes explorations as far south as Rhode Island. Bjarne Herjulfson driven by «• stcnn within sight of the American coast A. D. 9S6. 2. Thorwald Erickson re- turns to America and re- mains three years. 5. Thorsteiu Erickson co 7. Tliorflnn Karlsefne ex 11. Expedition of Freydis AMERICA THE WESTERN CO 21. Erik ITpsi sent as NTINENT UNKNOWN bishop to Vinlaud. #T*% mes to America. plores the coast of Massachusetts. to Vinlaud. 70. Allege UNDER to the; d discovery of America by Ma THE ABO doc the Wt RIGI: t_^XXi>\.XV'Ji X* OF VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. A. D. 986-160T. Icelandic discoveries in Spanish " " English " " French " " Dutch Portuguese " 6 * 1400 1500 lOOO ni of Jerusalem overthrown. ;;:,. Col union 15. Jollll IIllSS. 56 First book written in Eng- lish, in which the author, Sir John boi-rt. Mandevillle. declares the spherical figure of the earth and the practica- bility of .circumnavigation. 80. Ck.rta.TI. hunting ii-3i. Joan of Are. l J8. l>e Gama doubles the Cape of Good Hope and reaches the East Indies. 22. Charles VII. 61. Louis 'XI. Luther. Snbenteti. The Reforuial ioa 48. Treaty or Westphalia. 99. I. litre. ward III. UROPEAN . .loliii Calvin. 72. St. Bartholomew. 15. Francis I. 19. Charles V. 89. 1. JSE OF LLOIS. 77. Richard II. Wars of the Roses he LANCASTEES. 74. Ferdinand and Isabella The TUDOES. The PURITANS 85. H enry VII. The yorksJ 9 . Henry VIII. 47. Ednard V I Henry IV. 13. Ilenr.v "V. 22. Henry VI. 61. Edward 83. 83 IV. Edward V. K iehard HI. 53. Mary. 58. Elizab NATIONS. 92. 93. 98. D. The great pi ague depopulates Iceland, 99 ) Greenland, and Vinland; communi- cation with the New World is cut off. A company of IAL Norsemen in America. CollimbUS discovers the Second voyage. Third voyage. Discovers America. Amerigo Vespucci makes 12. De Leon explores Flori 20. Cortez conquers Mex 25. l>e Ayllon in Caro 28. De Narvaez mak 39. De Soto in Am 65. Meleu John Cabot discovers No Sebastian Cabot explores 78. Ma 79. Dr 83. « K 77. Col IlinbllS visits Iceland and learns of the New World. TRIBES. 24. Verrazzani explor 34. Cartier's exped 42. Koberval in 62. Ri ban It 64. La lido 98. 1. Voyages of the Cortereals. 19'. Magellan circumnav Henry IV. 10. Louis XIII. 4sX«nisXIV 3. James I. 25. Charles I. The STUARTS. elh. West Indies, a voyage to South America. da. ico. lina. es explorations in Florida. erica. dez founds St. Augustine, rth America, the American coast rtin Frobisher's voyages. ake on the Pacific coast. ilberfs voyage. [tion. aleighVs attempts at coloniza- 2. Gosnold's direct voyage. 3. Pring's voyage. 7. Settlement at Jamestown. 8. Waymoutb in Maine. 20. The Puritans at Plymouth. es the American coast, ition. Canada. with the Huguenots. nniere's enterprise. La Roche in Nova Scotia. 4. Re .flouts and Cham- p'ain. 5. Port Royal founded. 8. Founding of Quebec. 9. Hudson in America. 14. Explorations of Itlock and May. 14. Founding of >ew Am- sterdam. igates the globe. VOYAGE AND DISCO VERY. 57 the fact that the recent discoveries were not a portion of that India already- known, but were in reality another continent. In his published narrative all reference to Columbus was carefully omitted ; and thus through his own craft, assisted by the unappreciative dullness of the times, the name of this Vespucci rather than that of the true discoverer was given to the New World. The discovery of America produced great excitement throughout the states of Western Europe. In Spain especially there was wonderful zeal and enthusiasm. Within ten years after the death of Columbus, the principal islands of the West Indies were explored and colonized. In the year 1510 the Spaniards planted on the Isthmus of Darien their first con- tinental colony. Three years later, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the governor of the colony, learning from the natives that another ocean lay jonly a short distance to the westward, crossed the isthmus and from an eminence looked down upon the Pacific. Not satisfied with merely seeing the great water, he waded in a short distance, and drawing his sword after the pompous Spanish fashion, took possession of the ocean in the name of the king of Spain. Meanwhile, Juan Ponce de Leon, who had been a companion of Columbuo on his second voyage, fitted out a private expedition of dis- covery and adventure. De Leon had grown rich as governor of Porto Rico, and while growing rich had also grown old. But there was a foun- tain of perpetual youth somewhere in the Bahamas — so said all the learn- ing and intelligence of Spain — and in that fountain the wrinkled old cavalier would bathe and be young again. So in the year 1512 he set sail from Porto Rico ; and stopping first at San Salvador and the neighbor- ing islands, he came, on Easter Sunday, the 27th of March, in sight of an unknown shore. He supposed that another island more beautiful than the rest was discovered. There were waving forests, green leaves, birds of song and the fragrance of blossoms. Partly in honor of the day, called in the ritual of the Church Pascua Florida, and partly to describe the delightful landscape that opened on his sight, he named the new shore Florida — the Land of Flowers. After a few days a landing was effected a short distance north of where, a half century later, were laid the foundations of St. Augustine. The country was claimed for the king of Spain, and the search for the youth-restoring fountain was eagerly prosecuted. The romantic adven- turer turned southward, explored the coast for many leagues, discovered and named the Tortugas, doubled Cape Florida, and then sailed back to Porto Rico, not perceptibly younger than when he started. The king of Spain rewarded Ponce with the governorship of his 58 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Land of Flowers, and sent him thither again to establish a colony. The aged veteran did not, however, reach his province until the year 1521, and then it was only to find the Indians in a state of bitter hostility. Scarcely had he landed when they fell upon him in a furious battle; many of the Spaniards were killed outright, and the rest had to betake themselves to the ships for safety. Ponce de Leon himself received a mortal wound from an arrow, and was carried back to Cuba to die. CHAPTER IV. SPANISH DISCOVERIES IN AMERICA.— CONTINUED. , . THE year 1517 was marked by the discovery of Yucatan and the Bay of Campeachy by Fernandez de Cordova. While exploring the northern coast of the country, his company was attacked by the natives, and he himself mortally wounded. During the next year the coast of Mexico was explored for a great distance by Grijalva, assisted by Cor- dova's pilot; and in the year 1519, Fernando Cortez landed with his fleet at Tabasco and began his famous conquest of Mexico. As soon as the news of the invasion spread abroad, the subjects of the Mexican empire were thrown into consternation. Armies of native warriors gathered to resist the progress of the Spaniards, but were dispersed by the invaders. After freeing the coast of his oppo- nents, Cortez proceeded westward to Vera Cruz, a seaport one hun- dred and eighty miles south-east of the Mexican capital. Here he was met by ambassadors from the celebrated Montezuma, emperor of the country. From him they delivered messages and exhibited great anxiety lest Cortez should march into the interior. He as- sured them that such was indeed his purpose; that his business in the country was urgent; and that he must confer with Montezuma in person. The ambassadors tried in vain to dissuade the terrible Spaniard. They made him costly presents, and then hastened back to their alarmed sovereign. Montezuma immediately despatched them a sec- ond time with presents still more valuable, and with urgent appeals to Cortez to proceed no farther. But the cupidity of the Spaniards was now inflamed to the highest pitch, and burning their ships behind therri, they began their march towards the capital. The Mexican em- VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 59 peror by his messengers forbade their approach to his city. Still they pressed on. The nations tributary to Montezuma threw off their al- legiance, made peace with the conqueror, and even joined his stand- ard. The irresolute and vacillating Indian monarch knew not what to do. The Span- iards came in sight of the city — a glit- tering and splen- did vision of spires and temples ; and the poor Montezu- ma came forth to receive his remorse- less enemies. On the morning of the 8th of November, 1519, the Spanish army marched over the causeway lead- ing into the Mexi- can capital and was quartered in the great central square near the temple of the Aztec god of Avar. It was now winter time. For a month Cortez remained quietly in the city. He was permitted to go about freely with his soldiers, and was even allowed to examine the sacred altars and shrines where human sacrifices were daily offered up to the deities of Mexico. He made himself familiar with the defences of the capital and the Mex- ican mode of warfare. On every side he found inexhaustible stores of provisions, treasures of gold and silver, and what greatly excited his solicitude, arsenals filled with bows and javelins. But although surrounded with splendor and abundance, his own situation became extremely critical. The millions of natives who swarmed around him were becoming familiar with his troops and no longer believed them immortal. There were muttering^ of an outbreak which threatened to overwhelm him in an hour. In this emergency the Spanish general adopted the bold and unscrupulous expedient of seizing Montezuma and holding him as a hostage. A plausible pretext for this outrage was found in the fact that the Mexican governor of the province FERNANDO CORTT.Z. 60 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. adjacent to Vera Cruz had attacked the Spanish garrison at that place, and that Montezuma himself had acted with hostility and treachery towards the Spaniards while they were marching on the city. As soon as the emperor was in his power, Cortez compelled him to acknowledge himself a vassal of the king of Spain and to agree to the payment of a sum amounting to six million three hundred thousand dollars, with an annual tribute afterwards. In the mean time, Velasquez, the Spanish governor of Cuba, jealous of the fame of Cortez, had despatched a force to Mexieo to arrest his progress and to supersede him in the command. The ex- pedition was led by Pamphilo de Narvaez, the same who was afterwards governor of Florida. His forces consisted of more than twelve hundred well armed and well disciplined soldiers, besides a thousand Indian servants and guides. But the vigilant Cortez had meanwhile been informed by messengers from Vera Cruz of the movement which his enemies at home had set on foot against him, and he determined to sell his command only at the price of his own life and the lives of all his followers. He therefore instructed Al- varado, one of his subordinate officers, to remain in the capital with a small force of a hundred and forty men; and with the remainder, numbering less than two hundred, he himself hastily withdrew from the city and proceeded by a forced march to encounter De Narvaez on the sea-coast. On the night of the 26th of May, 1520, while the soldiers of the latter were quietly asleep in their camp near Vera Cruz, Cortez burst upon them with the fury of despair, and before they could rally or well understand the terrible onset, compelled the whole force to surrender. Then, adding the general's skill to the warrior's prowess, he succeeded in inducing the conquered army to join his own standard; and with his forces thus augmented to six times their original numbers he began a second time his march to- wards the capital. While Cortez was absent on this expedition, the Mexicans of the capital rose in arms, and the possession of the country was staked on the issue of war. Alvarado, either fearing a revolt or from a spirit of atrocious cruelty, had attacked the Mexicans while they were celebrating one of their festivals, and slain five hundred of the leaders and priests. The people in a frenzy of astonishment and rage flew to their arms and laid siege to the palace where Alvarado and his men were fortified. The Spaniards were already hard pressed when Cortez at the head of his new army reached the city. He en- tered without opposition and joined Alvarado's command ; but the passions of the Mexicans were now thoroughly aroused, and not all VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 61 the diplomacy of the Spanish general could again bring them into subjection. In a few days the conflict began in earnest. The streets were deluged with the blood of tens of thousands ; and not a few of the Spaniards fell before the vengeance of the native warriors. For months there was almost incessant fighting in and around the city; and it became evident that the Spaniards must ultimately be overwhelmed and destroyed. To save himself from his peril, Cortez adopted a second shame- less expedient, more wicked than the first. Montezuma was compelled to go upon the top of the palace in front of the great square where the besiegers were gathered and to counsel them to make peace with the Spaniards. For a moment there was universal silence, then a murmur of vexation and rage, and then Montezuma was struck down by the javelins of his own subjects. In a few days he died of wretchedness and despair, and for a while the warriors, overwhelmed with remorse, abandoned the conflict. But with the renewal of the strife Cortez was obliged to leave the city. Finally a great battle was fought, and the Spanish arms and valor triumphed. In the crisis of the struggle the sacred Mexican banner was struck down and captured. Dismay seized the hosts of puny warriors, and they fled in all directions. In De- cember of 1520, Cortez again marched on the capital. A siege, last- ing until August of the following year, ensued ; and then the famous city yielded. The empire of the Montezumas was overthrown, and Mexico became a Spanish province. Among the many daring enterprises which marked the beginning of the sixteenth century, that of Ferdinand Magellan is worthy of special mention. A Portuguese by birth, a navigator by profession, this man, so noted for extraordinary boldness and ability, determined to discover a south-west rather than a north-west passage to Asia. With this object in view, he appealed to the king of Portugal for ships and men. The monarch listened coldly, and did nothing to give encouragement. Incensed at this treatment, Magellan threw off his allegiance, went to Spain — the usual resort of disappointed sea- men — and laid his plans before Charles V. The emperor caught .eagerly at the opportunity, and ordered a fleet of five ships to be im- mediately fitted at the public expense and properly manned with crews. The voyage was begun from Seville in August of 1519. Sailing southward across the equinoctial line, Magellan soon reached the coast of South America, and spent the autumn in explorations, hoping to find some strait that should lead him westward into that ocean which Balboa had discovered six years previously. Not at first successful in this effort, 62 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. he passed the winter — which was summer on that side of the equator — > somewhere on the coast of Brazil. Renewing his voyage southward, he came at last to the eastern mouth of that strait which still bears the name of its discoverer, and passing through it found himself in the open and boundless ocean. The weather was beautiful, and the peaceful deep was called the Pacific. Setting his prows to the north of west, Magellan now held steadily on his course for nearly four months, suffering much meanwhile from want of water and scarcity of provisions. In March of 1520 he came to the group of islands called the Lad rones, situated about midway between Australia and Japan. Sailing still westward, he reached the Philippine group, where he was killed in a battle with the natives. But the fleet was now less than four hundred miles from China, and the rest of the route was easy. A new captain was chosen, and the voyage continued by way of the Moluccas, where a cargo of spices was taken on board for the market of Western Europe. Only a single ship was deemed in a fit condition to venture on the homeward voyage ; but in this vessel the crews embarked, and returning by way of the Cape of Good Hope arrived in Spain on the 17th day of September, 1522. The circumnavigation of the globe, long believed in as a possibility, had now become a thing of reality. The theory of the old astronomers, of Mandeville and of Columbus had been proved by actual demonstration. The next important voyage undertaken to the shores of America was in the year 1520. Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, who had been a judge in St. Domingo and had acquired great riches, conducted the expedition. He and six other wealthy men, eager to stock their plantations with slaves, determined to do so by kidnapping natives from the neighboring Bahamas. Two vessels were fitted out for the purpose, and De Ayllon commanded in person. When the vessels were nearing their destination, they encoun- tered a storm which drove them northward about a hundred and fifty leagues, and brought them against the coast of South Carolina. The ships entered St. Helena Sound and anchored in the mouth of the Cambahee River. The name of Chicora was given to the country, and the river was called the Jordan. The timid but friendly natives, as soon as their fears had subsided, began to make presents to the strangers and to treat them with great cordiality. They flocked on board the ships ; and when the decks were crowded, De Ayllon, watching his opportunity, weighed anchor and sailed away. A few days afterward an avenging storm sent one of the ships to the bottom of the sea, and death came mercifully to most of the poor wretches who were huddled under the hatches of the other. VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 63 Going at once to Spain, De Ayllon repeated the story of his exploit to Charles V., who rewarded him with the governorship of Chicora and the privilege of conquest. Returning to his province in 1525, he found the natives intensely hostile. His best ship ran aground in the mouth of the Jordan, and the outraged Indians fell upon him with fury, killing many of the treacherous crew, and making the rest glad enough to get away with their lives. De Ayllon himself returned to St. Domingo humiliated and ruined. Thus ended the first disgraceful effort to enslave the Indians. In the year 1526, Charles V. appointed the unprincipled Pamphilo de Narvaez governor of Florida, and to the appointment was added the usual privilege of conquest. The territory thus placed at his disposal extended from Cape Sable fully three-fifths of the way around the Gulf of Mexico, and was limited on the south-west by the mouth of the River of Palms. With this extensive commission De Narvaez arrived at Tampa Bay in the month of April, 1528. His force consisted of two hundred and sixty soldiers and forty horsemen. The natives treated them with suspicion, and, anxious to be rid of the intruders, began to hold up their gold trinkets and to point to the north. The hint was eagerly caught at by the avaricious Spaniards, whose imaginations were set on fire with the sight of the precious metal. They struck boldly into the forests, expect- ing to find cities and empires, and found instead swamps and savages. They reached the Withlacoochie and crossed it by swimming, they passed over the Suwanee in a canoe which they made for the occasion, and finally came to Apalachee, a squalid village of forty cabins. This, then, was the mighty city to which their guides had directed them. Oppressed with fatigue and goaded by hunger, they plunged again into the woods, wading through lagoons and assailed by lurking savages, until at last they reached the sea at the harbor of St. Mark's. Here they expected to find their ships, but not a ship was there, or had been. With great labor they constructed some brigantines, and put to sea in the vain hope of reaching the Spanish settlements in Mexico. They were tossed by storms, driven out of sight of land and then thrown upon the shore again, drowned, slain by the savages, left in the solitary woods dead of starvation and despair, until finally four miserable men of all the adven- turous company, under the leadership of the heroic De Vaca, first lieu- tenant of the expedition, were rescued at the village of San Miguel, on the Pacific coast, and conducted to the city of Mexico. The story can hardly be paralleled in the annals of suffering and peril. But the Spaniards were not yet satisfied. In the year 1537 a new expedition was planned which surpassed all the others in the toil- 64 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. liancy of its beginning and the disasters of its end. The most cavalier of the cavaliers was Ferdinand de Soto, of Xeres. Besides the dis- tinction of a noble birth, he had been the lieutenant and bosom friend of Pizarro, and had now returned from Peru loaded with wealth. , So great was his popularity in Spain that he had only to demand what he would have of the emperor that his request might be granted. At his own dic- tation he was accordingly appointed governor of Cuba and Florida, with the privilege of exploring and conquering the latter country at his pleasure. A great company of young Spaniards, nearly all of them wealthy and hiffh-born, flocked to his standard. Of these he selected six hundred of the most gallant and daring. They were clad in costly suits of armor of the knightly pattern, with airy scarfs and silken embroidery and all the trappings of chivalry. Elaborate preparations were made for the grand conquest ; arms and stores were provided ; shackles were wrought for the slaves ; tools for the forge and workshop were abundantly sup- plied ; bloodhounds were bought and trained for the work of hunting fugitives ; cards to keep the young knights excited with gaming ; twelve priests to conduct religious ceremonies ; and, last of all, a drove of swine to fatten on the maize and mast of the country. When, after a year of impatience and delay, everything was at last in readiness, the gay Castilian squadron, ten vessels in all, left the harbor of San Lucar to conquer imaginary empires in the New World. The fleet touched at Havana, and the enthusiasm was kindled even to a higher pitch than it had reached in Spain. De Soto left his wife to govern Cuba during his absence ; and after a prosperous and exulting voyage of two weeks, the ships cast anchor in Tampa Bay. This was in the early part of June, 1539. When some of the Cubans who had joined the expedition first saw the silent forests and gloomy morasses that stretched before them, they were terrified at the prospect, and sailed back to the security of home ; but De Soto and his cavaliers despised such cowardice, and began their march into the interior. During the months of July, August and Sep- tember they marched to the northward, wading through swamps, swim- ming rivers and fighting the Indians. In October they arrived at the country of the Apalachians, on the left bank of Flint Kiver, where they determined to spend the winter. For four months they remained in this locality, sending out exploring parties in various directions. One of these companies reached the gulf at Pensacola, and made arrangements that supplies should be sent out from Cuba to that place during the fol- lowing summer. In the early spring the Spaniards left their winter quarters and con- tinued their march tc the north and east. An Indian guide told them of VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 65 a powerful and populous empire in that direction ; a woman was empress, and the land was full of gold. A Spanish soldier, one of the men of Narvaez, who had been kept a captive among the Indians, denied the truth of the extravagant story ; but De Soto only said that he would find gold or see poverty with his own eyes, and the freebooters pressed on through the swamps and woods. It was April, 1540, when they came upon the Ogechee River. Here they were delayed. The Indian guide went mad; and when the priests had conjured the evil spirit out of him, he repaid their benevolence by losing the whole company in the forest. By the 1st of May they had reached South Carolina, and were within a two days' march of where De Ayllon had lost his ships and men at the mouth of the Jordan. Thence the wanderers turned westward ; but that De Soto and his men crossed the mountains into North Carolina and Ten- nessee is hardly to be believed. They seem rather to have passed across Northern Georgia from the Chattahouche to the upper tributaries of the Coosa, and thence down that river to the valleys of Lower Alabama. Here, just above the confluence of the Alabama and the Tombecbee, they came upon the fortified Indian town called Mauville, or Mobile, where a terrible battle was fought with the natives. The town was set on fire, and two thousand five hundred of the Indians were killed or burned to death. Eighteen of De Soto's men were killed, and a hundred and fifty wounded. The Spaniards also lost about eighty horses and all of their baggage. The ships of supply had meanwhile arrived at Pensacola, but De Soto and his men, although in desperate circumstances, were too stubborn and proud to avail themselves of help or even to send news of their where- abouts. They turned resolutely to the north ; but the country was poor, and their condition grew constantly worse and worse. By the middle of December they had reached the country of the Chickasas, in Northern Mississippi. They crossed the Yazoo; the weather was severe; snow fell ; and the Spaniards were on the point of starvation. They succeeded, however, in finding some fields of ungathered maize, and then came upon a deserted Indian village which promised them shelter for the winter. After remaining here till February, 1541, they were suddenly .attacked in the dead of night by the Indians, who, at a preconcerted signal, set the town on fire, determined then and there to make an end of the desolating foreigners ; but the Spanish weapons and discipline again saved De Soto and his men from destruction. After gathering provisions and reclothing themselves as well as pos- sible, the Spaniards set out again in early spring to journey still farther westward. The guides now brought them to the Mississippi. The point GQ HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. where the majestic Father of Waters was first seen by white men was at the lower Chickasaw Bluff, a little north of the thirty-fourth parallel of latitude ; the day of the discovery cannot certainly be known. The In- dians came down the river in a fleet of canoes, and offered to carry the Spaniards over ; but the horses could not be transported until barges were built for that purpose. The crossing was not effected until the latter part of May. De Soto's men now found themselves in the land of the Dakotas. Journeying to the north-west, they passed through a country where wild fruits were plentiful and subsistence easy. The natives were inoffensive and superstitious. At one place they were going to worship the woe- begone cavaliers as the children of the gods, but De Soto was too good a Catholic to permit such idolatry. The Spaniards continued their march until they reached the St. Francis River, which they crossed, and gained the southern limits of Missouri, in the vicinity of New Madrid. Thence westward the march was renewed for about two hundred miles ; thence southward to the Hot Springs and the tributaries of the Washita River. On the banks of this river, at the town of Atiamque, they passed the win- ter of 1541--42. The Indians were found to be much more civilized than those east of the Mississippi ; but their civilization did not protect them in the least from the horrid cruelties which the Spaniards practiced. No consideration of justice, humanity or mercy moved the stony hearts of these polite aud Christian warriors. Indian towns were set on fire for sport ; Indian hands were chopped off for a whim ; and Indian captives burned alive because, under fear of death, they had told a falsehood. But De Soto's men were themselves growing desperate in their mis- fortunes. They turned again toward the sea, and passing down the tributaries of the Washita to the junction of that stream with the Red River, came upon the Mississippi in the neighborhood of Natchez. The spirit of De Soto was at last completely broken. The haughty cavalier bowed his head and became a prey to melancholy. No more dazzling visions of Peru and Mexico flitted before his imagination. A malignant fever seized upon his emaciated frame, and then death. The priests chanted a requiem, and in the middle of the solemn night his sorrowful companions put the dead hero's body into a rustic coffin, and rowing out a distance from shore sunk it in the Mississippi. Ferdinand de Soto had found a grave under the rolling waters of the great river with which his name will be associated for ever. Before his death, De Soto had named Moscoso as his successor ; and now, under the leadership of the new governor, the ragged, half-starved adventurers, in the vain hope of reaching Mexico, turned once more to the VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 67 west. They crossed the country to the upper waters of the Red River, on the confines of Texas. Thence they turned northward into the territory of the Pawnees and the Comanches, ranging the hunting-grounds of those fierce savages until stopped by the mountains. In December of 1542, after almost endless wanderings and hardships, they came again to the Mississippi, reaching the now familiar stream a short distance above the mouth of Red River. They now formed the desperate resolution of building boats, and thus descending the river to the gulf. They erected a forge, broke off the fetters of the captives in order to procure iron, sawed timber in the forest, and at last completed seven brigantines and launched them. The time thus occupied extended from January to July of 1543. The Indians of the neighborhood were now for the last time plundered in order to furnish supplies for the voyage ; and on the 2d day of July the Spaniards went o # n board their boats and started for the sea. The dis- tance was almost five hundred miles, and seventeen days were required to make the descent. On reaching the Gulf of Mexico, they steered to the south-west ; and keeping as close to the shore as possible, after fifty-five days of buffetings and perils along the dangerous coast, they came — three hundred and eleven famished and heart-broken fugitives — to the settle- ment at the mouth of the River of Palms; and thus ended the most marvelous expedition in the early history of our country. The next attempt by the Spaniards to colonize Florida was in the year 1565. The enterprise was entrusted to Pedro Melendez, a Span- ish soldier of ferocious disposition and criminal practices. He was under sentence to pay a heavy fine at the very time when he received his com- mission from the bigoted Philip II. The contract between that monarch and Melendez was to the effect that the latter should within three years explore the coast of Florida, conquer the country, and plant in some favorable district a colony of not less than five hundred persons, of whom one hundred should be married men. Melendez was to receive two hun- dred and twenty-five square miles of land adjacent to the settlement, and an annual salary of two thousand dollars. Twenty-five hundred persons collected around Melendez to join in the expedition. The fleet left Spain in July, reached Porto Rico early in August, and on the 28th of the same month came in sight of Florida. It must now be understood that the real object had in view by Melendez was to attack and destroy a colony of French Protestants called Huguenots, who, in the previous yeat, had made a settlement about thirty- five miles above the mouth of the St. John's River. This was, of course, within the limits of the territory claimed by Spain ; and Melendez at once perceived that to extirpate these French heretics in the name of patriotism 68 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. and religion would be likely to restore his shattered character and bring him into favor again. His former crimes were to be washed out in the blood of the innocents. Moreover, the Catholic party at the French court had communicated with the Spanish court as to the whereabouts and intentions of the Huguenots, so that Melendez knew precisely where to find them and how to compass their destruction. It was St. Augustine's day when the dastardly Spaniard came in sight of the shore, but the landing was not effected until the 2d of Sep- tember. The spacious harbor and the small river which enters it from the south were named in honor of the saint. On the 8th day of the same month, Philip II. was proclaimed monarch of all North America ; a solemn mass was said by the priests ; and there, in the sight of forest, and sky, and sea, the foundation-stones of the oldest town in the United States were put into their place. This was seventeen years before the founding of Santa Fe by Antonio de Espego, and forty-two years before the settlement at Jamestown. As soon as the new town was sufficiently advanced to be secure against accident, Melendez turned his attention to the Huguenots. The latter were expecting to be attacked, but had supposed that the Spanish fleet would sail up the St. John's, and make the onset from that direction. Accordingly, knowing that they must fight or die, all the French vessels except two left their covert in the river and put to sea, intending to an- ticipate the movements of the Spaniards ; but a furious storm arose and dashed to pieces every ship in the fleet. Most of the crews, however, reached the shore just above the mouth of the river. Melendez now collected his forces at St. Augustine, stole through the woods and swamps, and falling unexpectedly on the defenceless colony, utterly destroyed it. Men, women and children were alike given up to butchery. Two hundred were killed outright. A few escaped into the forest, Laudonniere, the Huguenot leader, among the number, and making their way to the coast, were picked up by the two French ships which had been saved from the storm. The crews of the wrecked vessels were the next object of Spanish vengeance. Melendez discovered their whereabouts, and deceiving them with treacherous promises of clemency, induced them to surrender. They were ferried across the river in boats ; but no sooner were they completely in the power of their enemy than their hands were bound behind them, and they were driven off, tied two and two, toward St. Augustine. As they approached the Spanish fort the signal was given by sounding a trumpet, and the work of slaughter began anew. Seven hundred defence- less victims were added to the previous atrocious massacre. Only a few VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 69 mechanics and Catholic servants were left alive. Under these bloody auspices the first permanent European colony was planted in our country. In what way the Huguenots were revenged upon their enemies will be told in another place. The Spaniards had now explored the entire coast from the Isthmus of Darien to Port Royal in South Carolina. They were acquainted with the country west of the Mississippi as far north as New Mexico and Missouri, and east of that river they had traversed the Gulf States as far as the mountain ranges of Tennessee and North Carolina. With the es- tablishment of their first permanent colony on the coast of Florida the period of Spanish voyage and discovery may be said to end. Before closing this chapter, a brief account of the only important voyage made by the Portuguese to America will be given : At the time of the first discovery by Columbus, the unambitious John II. was king of Portugal. He paid but little attention to the New World, prefer- ring the security and dullness of his own capital to the splendid allure- ments of the Atlantic. In 1495 he was succeeded on the throne by his cousin Manuel, a man of very different character. This monarch could hardly forgive his predecessor for having allowed Spain to snatch from the flag of Portugal the glory of Columbus's achievements. In order to secure some of the benefits which yet remained, King Manuel fitted out two ves- sels, and in the summer of 1501 commissioned Gaspar, Cortereal to sail on a voyage of discovery. The Portuguese vessels reached America in the month of July, and beginning at some point on the shores of Maine, sailed northward, exploring the coast for nearly seven hundred miles. Just below the fiftieth parallel of latitude Cortereal met the icebergs, and could go no farther. Little attention was paid by him to the great forests of pine and hemlock which stood tall and silent along the shore, promising ship-yards and cities in after times. He satisfied his rapacity by kid- napping fifty Indians, whom, on his return to Portugal, he sold as slaves. A new voyage was then undertaken, with the avowed purpose of capturing another cargo of natives for the slave-mart of Europe ; but when a year went by, and no tidings arrived from the fleet, the brother of the Portuguese captain sailed in hope of finding the missing vessels. He also was lost, but in what manner has never been ascertained. The fate of the Corte- reals and their slave-ships has remained one of the unsolved mysteries of the sea. 70 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER Y. THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. FRANCE was not slow to profit by the discoveries of Columbus. As early as 1504 the fishermen of Normandy and Brittany began to ply their vocation on the banks of Newfoundland. A map of the Gulf of St. Lawrence was drawn by a Frenchman in the year 1506. Two years later some Indians were taken to France; and in 1518 the attention of Francis I. was turned to the colonization of the New World. Five years afterward a voyage of discovery and exploration was planned, and John Yerrazzani, a native of Florence, was commissioned to conduct the expedition. The special object had in view was to discover a north-west passage to Asia. In the month of January, 1524, Yerrazzani left the shores of Europe. His fleet consisted at first of four vessels ; but three of them were damaged in a storm, and the voyage was undertaken with a single ship, called the Dolphin. For fifty days, through the buffetings of tempestuous weather, the courageous mariner held on his course, and on the 7th day of March discovered the main land in trie latitude of Wilmington. He first sailed southward a hundred and fifty miles in the hope of finding a harbor, but found none. Returning northward, he finally anchored somewhere along the low sandy beach which stretches between the mouth of Cape Fear River and Pamlico Sound. Here he began a traffic with the natives. The Indians of this neighborhood were found to be a gentle and timid sort of creatures, unsuspicious and confiding. A half-drowned sailor who was washed ashore by the surf was treated with great kindness, and as soon as opportunity offered, permitted to return to the ship. After a few days the voyage was continued toward the north. The whole coast of New Jersey was explored, and the hills marked as con- taining minerals. The harbor of New York was entered, and its safe and spacious waters were noted with admiration. At Newport, Rhode Island, Yerrazzani anchored for fifteen days, and a trade was again opened with the Indians. Before leaving the place the French sailors repaid the confidence of the natives by kidnapping a child and attempting to steal a defenceless Indian girl. Sailing from Newport, Yerrazzani continued his explorations north- VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 71 ward. The long and broken line of the New England coast was traced with considerable care. The Indians of the north were wary and sus- picious. They would buy neither ornaments nor toys, but were eager to purchase knives and weapons of iron. Passing to the east of Nova Scotia, the bold navigator reached Newfoundland in the latter part of May. In July he returned to France and published an account, still ex- tant, of his great discoveries. The name of New France was now given to the whole country whose sea-coast had been traced by the adventurous crew of the Dolphin. Such was the distracted condition of France at this time, that another expedition was not planned for a period of ten years. In 1534, however, Chabot, admiral of the kingdom, selected James Cartier, a seaman of St. Malo, in Brittany, to make a new voyage to America. Two ships were fitted out for the enterprise, and after no more than twenty days of sailing under cloudless skies anchored on the 10th day of May off the coast of Newfoundland. Before the middle of July, Cartier had circumnavigated the island to the northward, crossed the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the south of Anticosti, and entered the Bay of Chaleurs. Not finding, as he had hoped, a passage out of this bay westward, he changed his course to the north again, and ascended the coast as far as Gaspe Bay. Here, upon a point of land, he set up a cross bearing a shield with the lily of France, and proclaimed the French king monarch of the country. Pressing his way still farther northward, and then west- ward, he entered the St. Lawrence, and ascended the broad estuary until the narrowing banks made him aware that he was in the mouth of a river. Cartier, thinking it impracticable to pass the winter in the New World, now turned his prows toward France, and in thirty days anchored his shifts in the harbor of St. Malo. So great was the fame of Cartier's first voyage that another was planned immediately. Three good ships were provided, and quite a num- ber of young noblemen joined the expedition. Colonization rather than discovery was now the inspiring motive. The sails were set by zealous and excited crews, and on the 19th of May the new voyage was begun. This time there was stormy weather, yet the passage to Newfoundland was made by the 10th of August. It was the day of St. Lawrence, and the name of that martyr was accordingly given to the gulf, and after- ward to the noble stream which enters it from the west. Sailing north- ward around Anticosti, the expedition proceeded up the river to the island of Orleans, where the ships were moored in a place of safety. Two In- dians vhom Cartier had taken with him to France in the previous year now gave information that higher up the river there was an important 72 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. town on the island of Hochelaga. Proceeding thither in his boats, the French captain found it as the Indians had said. A beautiful village lay there at the foot of a high hill in the middle of the island. Climbing to the top of the hill, Cartier, as suggested by the scene around him, named the island and town Mont-Real. The country was declared to belong by right of discovery to the king of France ; and then the boats dropped down the river to the ships. During this winter twenty-five of Cartier's men were swept off by the scurvy, a malady hitherto unknown in Europe. With the opening of spring, preparations were made to return to France. The terrible winter had proved too much for French enthusiasm. The emblem of Catholicism, bearing the arms of France, was again planted in the soil of the New World, and the homeward voyage began ; but be- fore the ships had left their anchorage, the kindly king of the Hurons, who had treated Cartier with so much generosity, was decoyed on board and carried off to die. On the 6th day of July the fleet reached St. Malo in safety ; but by the accounts which Cartier published on his return the French were greatly discouraged. Neither silver nor gold had been found on the banks of the St. Lawrence ; and what was a new world good for that had not silver and gold ? Francis of La Roque, lord of Roberval, in Picardy, was the next to undertake the colonization of the countries discovered by the French.' This nobleman, four years after Cartier's return from his second voyage, was commissioned by the court of France to plant a colony on the St. Lawrence. The titles of viceroy and lieutenant-general of New France were conferred upon him, and much other vainglorious ceremony attended his preparations for departure. The man, however, who was chiefly relied on to give character and direction to the proposed colony was no other than James Cartier. He only seemed competent to conduct the enterprise with any promise of success. His name was accordingly added to the list, and he was honored with the office of chief pilot and captain- general of the expedition. The next thing to be done was to find material for the colony. This was a difficult task. The French peasants and mechanics were not eager to embark for a country which promised nothing better than savages and snow. Cartier's honest narrative about the resources of New France had left no room for further dreaming. So the work of enlisting volunteers went on slowly, until the government adopted the plan of opening the prisons of the kingdom and giving freedom to whoever would join the expedition. There was a rush of robbers, swindlers and murderers, and the lists were immediately filled. Only counterfeiters and traito. 3 were denied the privilege of gaining their liberty in the New World. VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 73 In the latter part of May, 1541, five ships, under the immediate command of Cartier, left France, and soon reached the St. Lawrence. The expedition proceeded up the river to the present site of Quebec, where a fort was erected and named Charlesbourg. Here the colonists passed the winter. Cartier, offended because of the subordinate position which he held, was sullen and gloomy, and made no effort to prosecute discoveries which could benefit no one but the ambitious Roberval. The two leaders never acted in concert ; and when La Roque, in June of the following year, arrived with immigrants and supplies, Cartier secretly sailed away with his part of the squadron, and returned to Europe. Roberval was left in New France with three shiploads of criminals who could only be restrained by whipping and hanging. During the autumn some feeble efforts were made to discover a northern passage ; the winter was long and severe, and spring was welcomed by the colonists chiefly for the opportunity which it gave them of returning to France. The enterprise undertaken with so much pomp had resulted in nothing. In the year 1549 Roberval, with a large company of emigrants, sailed on a second voyage, but the fleet was never heard of afterward. A period of fifty years now elapsed before the French authorities again attempted to colonize America. Meanwhile, private enterprise and religious persecution had co-operated in an effort to accomplish in Florida and Carolina what the government had failed to accomplish on the St. Lawrence. About the middle of the sixteenth century Coligni, the Protestant admiral of France, formed the design of establishing in America a refuge for the persecuted Huguenots of his own country. In 1562 this liberal and influential minister obtained from the sovereign, Charles IX., the coveted privilege of planting a colony of Protestants in the New World. John Ribault of Dieppe, a brave and experienced sailor, was selected to lead the Huguenots to the land of promise. Sail- ing in February, the company reached the coast of Florida at a point where three years later St. Augustine was founded. The River St. John's, called by the Spaniards the St. Matthew, was entered by the French and named the River of May. The vessels then continued northward along the coast until they came to the entrance of Port Royal ; here it was determined to make the settlement. The colonists were landed on an island, and a stone engraved with the arms of their native land was set up to mark the place. A fort was erected, and in honor of Charles IX. named Carolina — a name which a century afterward was retained by the English and applied to the whole country from the Savannah River to the southern boundary of Virginia. In this fort Ribault left twenty-six men to keep possession, and then sailed back to France for additional 74 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. emigrants and stores. But civil war was now raging in the kingdom, and it was quite impossible to procure either supplies or colonists. No reinforcements were sent to Carolina, and in the following spring the men in the fort, discouraged with long waiting, grew mutinous, and killed their leader for attempting to control them. Then they constructed a rude brig and put to sea. After they had been driven about by the winds for a long time, they were picked up half starved by an English ship and carried to the coast of France. Coligni did not yet despair of success in what he had undertaken. Two years after the first attempt another colony was planned, and Lau- donniere chosen leader. The character, however, of this second Prot- estant company was very bad. Many of them were abandoned men, of little industry and no prudence. The harbor of Port Royal was now shunned by the Huguenots, and a point on the River St. John's about fifteen miles west of where St. Augustine now stands was selected for the settlement. A fort was built here, and things were going well until a part of the colonists, under the pretext of escaping from famine, contrived to get away with two of the ships. Instead of returning to France, as they had promised, they began to practice piracy in the adjacent seas, until they were caught, brought back and justly hanged. The rest of the settlers, im- provident and dissatisfied, were on the eve of breaking up the colony, when Ribault arrived with supplies of every sort, and restored order and content. It was at this time that the Spaniard Melendez, as already narrated, discovered the whereabouts of the Huguenots, and murdered the entire company. It remained for Dominic de Gourges, a soldier of Gascony, to visit the Spaniards of St. Augustine with signal vengeance. This man fitted out three ships, mostly with his own means, and with only fifty daring seamen on board arrived in mid- winter on the coast of Florida. With this handful of soldiers he surprised successively three Spanish forts on the St. John's, and made prisoners of the inmates. Then, when he was unable to hold his position any longer, he hanged his leading captives to the branches of the trees, and put up this inscription to explain what he had done : " Not Spaniards, but murderers." In the year 1598 the attention of the government of France was once more directed to the claims which French discovery had established in America. The Marquis of La Roche, a nobleman of influence and distinction, now obtained a commission authorizing him to found an empire in the New World. The prisons of France were again opened to furnish the emigrants, and the colony was soon made up. Crossing the Atlantic by the usual route, the vessels reached the coast of Nova Scotia, and VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 75 anchored at Sable Island. A more dismal place could not have been found between Labrador and Mexico ; yet here, on this desolate island, La Roche left forty men to form a settlement, while he himself, under the pre- text of procuring more men and supplies, returned to France. Shortly after his arrival in that country he died ; and for seven dreary years the new French empire, composed of forty criminals, languished on Sable Island. Then they were mercifully picked up by some passing ships and carried back to France. Their punishment had been enough, and they were never remanded to prison. But the time had now come when a colony of Frenchmen should actually be established in America. In the year 1603 the sovereignty of the country from the latitude of Philadelphia to one degree north of Montreal was granted to De Monts. The items of chief importance in the patent which he received from the king were a monopoly of the fur- trade of the new country and religious freedom for Huguenot immigrants. De Monts, with two shiploads of colonists, left France early in March of 1 604, and after a pleasant voyage reached the Bay of Fundy. The sum- mer was spent in making explorations and in trafficking with the natives. De Monts seems to have been uncertain as to where he should plant his colony ; but while in this frame of mind, Poutrincourt, the captain of one of the ships, being greatly pleased with a harbor which he had discovered on the north-west coast of Nova Scotia, asked and obtained a grant of the same, together with some beautiful lands adjacent, and he and a part of the crew went on shore. De Monts, with the rest of the colony, crossed to the west side of the bay, and began to build a fort on an island at the mouth of the St. Croix River. But in the following spring they abandoned this place, and returned to the harbor which had been granted to Poutrin- court. Here, on the 14th day of November, 1605, the foundations of the first permanent French settlement in America were laid. The name of Port Royal was given to the harbor and the fort, and the whole country, including Nova Scotia, the surrounding islands and the main land as far south as the St. Croix River, was called Acadia. Two years before the settlement was made at Port Royal, Samuel Champlain, one of the most eminent and soldierly men of his times, tvas commissioned by a company of Rouen merchants to explore the country of the St. Lawrence and establish a trading-post. The traders saw that a traffic in the furs which those regions so abundantly supplied was a surer road to riches than rambling about in search of gold and diamonds. Under this commission, Champlain crossed the ocean, entered the gulf, sailed up the river, and with remarkable prudence and good judgment selected the spot on which Quebec now stands as the site for a fort. In the 76 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. autumn of 1603, he returned to France, and published an interesting and iaithful account of Ins expedition. In the year 1608, Champlain again visited America, and on the 3d of July in that year the foundations of Quebec were laid. In the following year he and two other Frenchmen joined a company of Huron and Algonquin Indians who were at war with the Iroquois of New York. While marching with this party of warriors, he ascended the Sorel River until he came to the long, narrow lake which he was the first white man to look upon, and which has ever since borne the name of its discoverer. Champlain was a religious enthusiast, and on that account the development of his colony was for some time hindered. In 1612 the Protestant party came into power in France, and the great Conde, the protector of the Protestants, became viceroy of the French empire in America. Now, for the third time, Champlain came to New France, and the success of the colony at Quebec was fully assured. Franciscan monks came over and began to preach among the Indians. These friars and the Protestants quarreled a good deal, and the settlement was much disturbed. A second time Champlain went with a war- party against the Iroquois. His company was defeated, he himself wounded and obliged to remain all winter among the Hurons; but in the summer of 1617 he returned to the colony, in 1620 began to build, and four years afterward completed, the strong fortress of St. Louis. When the heavy bastions of this castle appeared on the high cliff above the town and river, the permanence of the French settle- ments in the valley of the St. Lawrence was no longer doubtful. To Samuel Champlain, more than to any other man — more than to the French government itself — the success of the North American colo- nies of France must be attributed. CHAPTER YI. ENGLISH DISCO VEBIES AND SETTLEMENTS. ~\[0 day in the early history of the New World was more important J-M than the 5th of May, 1496. On that day Henry VII., king of England, signed the commission of John Cabot of Venice to make dis- coveries and explorations in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, to carry the English flag, and to take possession of all islands and continents which he might discover. Cabot was a brave, adventurous man who had been a VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 77 sailor from his boyhood, and was now a wealthy merchant of Bristol. The autumn and winter were spent in preparations for the voyage; five substantial ships were fitted, crews were enlisted, and everything made ready for the opening of the spring. In April the fleet left Bris- tol; and on the morning of the 24th of June, at a point about the middle of the eastern coast of Labrador, the gloomy shore was seen. This was the real discovery of the American continent. Fourteen months elapsed before Columbus reached the coast of Guiana, and more than two years before Ojeda and Vespucci came in sight of the main land of South America. Cabot explored the shore-line of the country which he had dis- covered for several hundred miles. He supposed that the land was a part of the dominions of the Cham of Tartary ; but finding no inhabitants, he went on shore, according to the terms of his commission, planted the flag of England, and took possession in the name of the English king. No man forgets his native land ; by the side of the flag of his adopted country Cabot set up the banner of the republic of Venice — auspicious emblem of another flag which should one day float from sea to sea. As soon as he had satisfied himself of the extent and character of the country which he had discovered, Cabot sailed for England. On the homeward voyage he twice saw on the right hand the coast of Newfound- land, but did not stop for further discovery. After an absence of but little more than three months, he reached Bristol, and was greeted with great enthusiasm. The town had holiday, the people were wild about the discoveries of their favorite admiral, and the whole kingdom took up the note of rejoicing. The Crown gave him money and encouragement, new crews were enlisted, new ships fitted out, and a new commission more liberal in its provisions than the first was signed in February of 1498. Strange as it may seem, after the date of this second patent the very name of John Cabot disappears from the annals of the times. Where the remainder of his life was passed and the circumstances of his death are involved in complete mystery. But Sebastian, second son of John Cabot, inherited his father's plans and reputation, and to his father's genius added a greater genius of his own. He had already been to the New World on that first famous voyage, and now, when the opportunity offered to conduct a voyage of his own, he threw himself into the enterprise with all the fervor of youth. It is probable that the very fleet which had been equipped for his father was entrusted to Sebastian. At any rate, the latter found himself, in the spring of 1498, in command of a squadron of well-manned vessels and on his way to the new continent. The particular object had in view was 78 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. that common folly of the times, the discovery of a north-west passage to the Indies. The voyage continued prosperously until, in the ocean west of Green- land, the icebergs compelled Sebastian to change his course. It was July, and the sun scarcely set at midnight. Seals were seen and the ships ploughed through such shoals of codfish as had never before been heard of. The shore was reached not far from the scene of the elder Cabot's discov- eries, and then the fleet turned southward, but whether across the Gulf of St. Lawrence or to the east of Newfoundland is uncertain. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Maine were next explored. The whole coast-line of New England and of the Middle States was now for the first time since the days of the Norsemen traced by Europeans. Nor did Cabot desist from this work, which was bestowing the title of discovery on the crown of England, until he had passed beyond the Chesapeake. After all the disputes about the matter, it is most probable that Cape Hatteras is the point from which Sebastian began his homeward voyage. The future career of Cabot was as strange as the voyages of his boyhood had been wonderful. The scheming, illiberal Henry VII., although quick to appreciate the value of Sebastian's discoveries, was slow to reward the discoverer. The Tudors were all dark-minded and selfish princes. When King Henry died, Ferdinand the Catholic enticed Cabot away from England and made him pilot-major of Spain. While holding this high office he had almost entire control of the maritime affairs of the kingdom, and sent out many successful voyages. He lived to be very old, but the circumstances of his death have not been ascer- tained, and his place of burial is unknown. The year 1498 is the most marked in the whole history of discovery. In the month of May, Vasco de Gama of Portugal doubled the Cape of Good Hope and succeeded in reaching Hindostan. During the sum- mer the younger Cabot traced the eastern coast of North America through more than twenty degrees of latitude, thus establishing for ever the claim of England to the most valuable portion of the New World. In August, Columbus himself, now sailing on his third voyage, reached the mouth of the Orinoco. Of the three great discoveries, that of Cabot has proved to be by far the most important. But several causes impeded the career of English discovery during the greater part of the sixteenth century. The next year after the New World was found, the pope, Alexander the Sixth, drew an imaginary line north and south three hundred miles west of the Azores, and issued a papal bull giving all islands and countries west of that line to Spain. Henry VII. of England was himself a Catholic, and he did not care to VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 79 begin a conflict with his Church by pressing his own claims to the newiy- found regions of the west. His son and successor, Henry VIII., at first adojited the same policy, and it was not until after the Reformation had been accomplished in England that the decision of the pope came to be disregarded, and finally despised and laughed at. During the short reign of Edward VI. the spirit of maritime adven- ture was again aroused. In 1548 the king's council voted a hundred pounds sterling to induce the now aged Sebastian Cabot to return from Spain and become grand-pilot of England. The old admiral quitted Seville and once more sailed under the English flag. In the reign of Queen Mary the power of England on the sea was not materially extended, but with the accession of Elizabeth a wonderful impulse was given to all enterprises which promised the aggrandizement of her kingdom. The spirit of discovery now reappeared in that bold and skillful sailor, Martin Frobisher. Himself poor, Dudley, earl of Warwick, came to his aid, and fitted out three small vessels to sail in search of a north-west passage to Asia. Three-quarters of a century had not sufficed to destroy the fanatical notion of reaching the Indies by sailing around America to the north. One of Frobisher's ships was lost on the voyage, another, terrified at the prospect, returned to England, but in the third the dauntless captain proceeded to the north and west until he attained a higher latitude than had ever before been reached on the American coast. Above the sixtieth parallel he discovered the group of islands which lies in the mouth of Hudson's Strait. Still farther to the north he came upon a large island which he supposed to be the mainland of Asia ; to this he gave the name of Meta Incognita. North of this island, in lati- tude sixty-three degrees and eight minutes, he entered the strait which has ever since borne the name of its discoverer, then sailed for England, carrying home with him one of the Esquimaux and a stone which was declared by the English refiners to contain gold. London was greatly excited. Queen Elizabeth herself added a vessel to the new fleet which in the month of May, 1577, departed for Meta Incognita to gather the precious metal by the shipload. Coming among the icebergs, the ships were for weeks together in constant danger of being crushed to atoms between the floating mountains. The summer was unfavorable. No ships reached as high a point as Frobisher had attained by himself on the previous voyage. The mariners were in con- sternation at the gloomy perils around them, and availed themselves of the first opportunity to get out of these dangerous seas and return to England. Were the English gold-hunters satisfied ? Not at all. Fifteen new 80 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. vessels were immediately fitted out, the queen again bearing part of the expense, and as soon as the spring of 1578 opened the third voyage was begun. This time a colony was to be planted in the gold-regions of the north. Three of the ships, loaded with emigrants, were to remain in the promised land. The other twelve were to be freighted with gold-ore and return to London. When they reached the entrance to Hudson's Strait, they encountered icebergs more terrible than ever. Through a thousand perils the vessels finally reached Meta Incognita and took on cargoes of dirt. The provision-ship now slipped away from the fleet and returned to England. Affairs grew desperate. The north-west passage was for- gotten. The colony which was to be planted was no longer thought of. Faith in the shining earth which they had stored in the holds gave way, and so, with disappointed crews on board and several tons of the spurious ore under the hatches, the ships set sail for home. The El Dorado of the Esquimaux had proved an utter failure. " The English admiral, Sir Francis Drake, sought fortune in a different manner. Without much regard for the law of nations, he began, in the year 1572, to prey upon the merchant-ships of Spain, and gained thereby enormous wealth. Five years later he sailed around to the Pacific coast by the route which Magellan had discovered, and became a terror to the Spanish vessels in those waters. When he had thus sufficiently en- riched himself by a process not very different from piracy, he formed the daring project of tracing up the western coast of North America until he should enter the north-west passage from the Pacific, and thence sail east- ward around the continent. With this object in view, he sailed northward along the coast as far as Oregon, when his sailors, who had been for seve- ral years within the tropics, began to shiver with the cold, and the enter- prise, which could have resulted in nothing but disaster, was given up. Eeturning to the south, Drake passed the winter of 1579-80 in a harbor on the coast of Mexico. To all that portion of the western shores of America which he had thus explored he gave the name of New Albion ; but the earlier discovery of the same coast by the Spaniards rendered the English claim of but little value. No colony of Englishmen had yet been established in the New World. Sir Humphrey Gilbert was perhaps the first to conceive a rational plan of colonization in America. His idea was to form somewhere on the shores of the New Continent an agricultural and commercial state. With this purpose he sought aid from the queen, and received a liberal patent authorizing him to take possession of any six hundred square miles of unoccupied territory in America, and to plant thereon a colony of which he himself should be proprietor and governor. With this commission, VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 81 -Gilbert, assisted by his illustrious step-brother, Walter Raleigh, pre- pared a fleet of five vessels, and in June of 1 583 sailed for the west. Only two days after their departure the best vessel in the fleet treacher- ously abandoned the rest and returned to Plymouth. Early in August, Gilbert reached Newfoundland, and going ashore, took formal possession of the country in the name of his queen. Unfortunately, some of the sailors discovered in the side of a hill scales of mica, and a judge of metals, whom Gilbert had been foolish enough to bring with him, de- clared that the glittering mineral was silver ore. The crews became in- subordinate. Some went to digging the supposed silver and carrying it on board the vessels, while others gratified their piratical propensities by attacking the Spanish and Portuguese ships that were fishing in the neighboring harbors. Meanwhile, one of Gilbert's vessels became worthless, and had to be abandoned. With the other three he left Newfoundland, and steered toward the south. When off the coast of Massachusetts, the largest of the remaining ships was wrecked, and a hundred men, with all the spuri- ous silver ore, went to the bottom. The disaster was so great that Gilbert determined to return at once to England. The weather was stormy, and the two ships that were now left were utterly unfit for the sea ; but the voyage was begun in hope. The brave captain remained in the weaker vessel, a little frigate called tho Squirrel, already shattered and ready to sink. At midnight, as the ships, within hailing distance of each other, were struggling through a raging sea, the Squirrel was suddenly en- gulfed ; not a man of the courageous crew was saved. The other ship finally reached Falmouth in safety. But the project of colonization was immediately renewed by Raleigh. In the following spring that remarkable man obtained from the queen a new patent fully as liberal as the one granted to Gilbert. Raleigh was to become lord-proprietor of an extensive tract of country in America ex- tending from the thirty-third to the fortieth parallel of north latitude. This territory was to be peopled and organized into a state. The frozen regions of the north were now to be avoided, and the sunny country of the Huguenots was to be chosen as the seat of the rising empire'! Two ships were fitted out, and the command given to Philip Amidas and Arthur Barlow. In the month of July the vessels reached the coast of Carolina. The sea that laved the long, low beach was smooth and glassy. The woods were full of beauty and song. The natives were generous and hospitable. Explorations were made along the shores of Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, and a landing finally effected on Roanoke Island, where 82 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. the English were entertained by the Indian queen. But neither Amidas nor Barlow had the courage or genius necessary to such an enterprise. After a stay of less than two months they returned to England to exhaust the rhetoric of description in praising the beauties of the new land. In allusion to her own life and reign, Elizabeth gave to her delightful country in the New World the name of Virginia. In December of 1584, Sir Walter brought forward a bill in Par- liament by which his previous patent was confirmed and enlarged. The mind of the whole nation was inflamed at the prospects which Raleigh's province now offered to emigrants and adventurers. The plan of coloni- zation, so far from being abandoned, was undertaken with renewed zeal and earnestness. The proprietor fitted out a second expedition, and appointed the soldierly Ralph Lane governor of the colony. Sir Richard Gren- ville commanded the fleet, and a company, not unmixed with the gallant young nobility of the kingdom, made up the crew. Sailing from Ply- mouth, the fleet of seven vessels reached the American coast on the 20th of June. At Cape Fear they were in imminent danger of being wrecked ; but having escaped the peril, they six days afterward reached Roanoke in safety. Here Lane was left with a hundred and ten of the emigrants to form a settlement. Grenville, after making a few unsatisfactory explora- tions, returned to England, taking with him a Spanish treasure-ship which he had captured. Privateering and colonization went hand in hand. Meanwhile, some Indians of a village adjacent to Roanoke had committed a petty theft, and the English wantonly burned the whole town as a measure of revenge. Jealousy and suspicion took the place of former friendships. Lane and some of his companions were enticed with false stories to go on a gold-hunting expedition into the interior ; their destruction was planned, and only avoided by a hasty retreat to Roanoke. Wingina, the Indian king, and several of his chiefs were now in turn allured into the power of the English and inhumanly murdered. Hatred and gloom followed this atrocity, then despondency and a sense of danger, until the discouragement became so great that when Sir Francis Drake, returning with a fleet from his exploits on the Pacific coast, came in sight, the colonists prevailed on him to carry them back to England. It was a needless and hasty abandonment, for within a few days a shipload of stores arrived from the prudent Raleigh ; but finding no colony, the vessel could do nothing but return. Two weeks later Sir Richard Grenville himself came back to Roanoke with three well-laden ships, and made a fruitless search for the colonists. Not to lose possession of the country altogether, he left fifteen men upon the island, and set sail for home. VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 83 The ardor of the English people was now somewhat cooled. Yet they had before them truthful descriptions of the beauty and mag- nificence of the new country, and another colony, consisting largely of families, was easily made up. A charter of municipal government was granted by the proprietor, John White was chosen governor, and every precaution taken to secure the permanent success of the City of Raleigh, soon to be founded in the west. In July the emigrants arrived in Caro- lina. Avoiding the dangerous capes of Hatteras and Fear, they came safely to Roanoke ; but a search for the fifteen men who had been left there a year before only revealed the fact that the natives, now grown savage, had murdered them. Nevertheless, the northern extremity of the ill-omened island was chosen as the site for the city, and on the 23d of the month the foundations were laid. But disaster attended the enterprise. Jealousy between the settlers and the Indians grew into hostility, and hostility into war. Then a peace was concluded, and Sir Walter gave countenance to an absurd perform- ance by which Manteo, one of the Indian chiefs, was made a peer of England, with the title of Lord of Roanoke. It was a silly and stupid piece of business. Notwithstanding the presence of this copper-colored nobleman, the colonists were apprehensive and gloomy. They pretended to fear starvation, and in the latter part of August almost compelled Governor White to return to England for an additional cargo of supplies. It was a great mistake. If White had remained, and the settlers had given themselves to tilling the soil and building houses, no further help would have been needed. The 18th of August was marked as the birth- day of Virginia Dare, the first-born of English children in the New World. When White set sail for England, he left behind him a colony of a hundred and eight persons. What their fate was has never been ascertained. The story of their going ashore and joining the Indians is unlikely in itself, and has no historical evidence to support it. The Invincible Armada was now bearing down upon the coasts of England. All the resources and energies of the kingdom were demanded for defence ; and although Raleigh managed to send out two supply- ships to succor his starving colony, his efforts to reach them were unavail- ing. The vessels which he sent with stores went cruising after Spanish merchantmen, and were themselves run down and captured by a man-of- war. Not until the spring of 1590 did the governor finally return to search for the unfortunate colonists. The island was a desert, tenantless and silent. No soul remained to tell the story of the lost. In the mean time, Sir Walter, after spending two hundred thou- sand dollars of his own means in the attempt to found and foster a colony, 84 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. had given up the enterprise. He assigned his exclusive proprietary rights to an association of London merchants, and it was under their auspices that "White had made the final search for the settlers of Roanoke. From the date of this event very little in the way of voyage and discovery was accomplished by the English until the year 1602, when maritime enter- prise again brought the flag of England to the shores of America. Bab. tholomew Gosnold was the man to whom belongs the honor of mak- ing the next explorations of our coast. The old route from the shores of Europe to America was very cir- cuitous. Ships from the ports of England, France and Spain sailed first southward to the Canary Islands, thence to the West Indies, and thence northward to the coast-line of the continent. Abandoning this path as unnecessarily long and out of the way, Gosnold, in a single small vessel called the Concord, sailed directly across the Atlantic, and in seven weeks reached the coast of Maine. The distance thus gained was fully two thousand miles. It was Gosnold's object to found a colony, and for that purpose a company of emigrants came with him. Beginning at Cape Elizabeth, explorations were made to the southward ; Cape Cod was reached, and here the captain, with four of his men, went on shore. It was the first landing of Englishmen within the limits of New Eng- land. Cape Malabar was doubled, and then the vessel, leaving Nantucket on the right, turned into Buzzard's Bay. Selecting the most westerly island of the Elizabeth group, the colonists went on shore, and there be- gan the first New England settlement. It was a short-lived enterprise. A traffic was opened with the natives which resulted in loading the Concord with sassafras root, so much esteemed for its fragrance and healing virtues. Everything went well for a season ; but when the ship was about to depart for England, the settlers became alarmed at the prospect before them, and pleaded for permission to return with their friends. Gosnold acceded to their demands, and the island was abandoned. After a pleasant voyage of five weeks, and in less than four months from the time of starting, the Concord reached home in safety. Gosnold and his companions gave glowing accounts of the country which they had visited, and it was not long until another English expe- dition to America was planned. Two vessels, the Speedwell and the Discoverer, composed the fleet, with Martin Pring for commander. A cargo of merchandise suited to the tastes of the Indians was put into the holds; and in April of 1603, a few days after the death of Queen Elizabeth, the vessels sailed for America. They came safely to Penobscot Bay, and afterward spent some time in exploring the harbors and shores VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 85 of Maine. Then, turning to the south and coasting Massachusetts, Pring reached the sassafras region, and loaded his vessels at Martha's Vineyard. Thence he returned to England, reaching Bristol in October, after an absence of six months. Two years later, George Waymouth, under the patronage of the earl of Southampton, made a voyage to America, and passing Cape Cod on the left, came to anchorage among the islands of St. George, on the coast of Maine. He explored the harbor, and sailed up the river for a considerable distance, taking note of the fine forests of fir and of the beautiful scenery along the banks. A profitable trade was opened with the Indians, some of whom learned to speak English and returned with Waymouth to England. The voyage homeward was safely made, the vessels reaching Plymouth about the middle of June. This was the last of the voyages made by the English preparatory to the actual establish- ment of a colony in America. The time had at last arrived when, in the beautiful country of the Chesapeake, a permanent settlement should be effected. CHAPTER VII. ENGLISH DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS.— CONTINUED. THE 10th of April, 1606, was full of fate in the destinies of the west- ern continent. On that day King James I. issued two great patents directed to men of his kingdom, authorizing them to possess and colo- nize all that portion of North America lying between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth parallels of latitude. The immense tract thus embraced extended from the mouth of Cape Fear River to Passamaquoddy Bay, and westward to the Pacific Ocean. The first patent was granted to an association of nobles, gentlemen and merchants residing at London, and called the London Company, while the second instrument was issued to a similar body which had been organized at Plymouth, in South-west- ern England, and which bore the name of the Plymouth Company. To the former corporation was assigned all the region between the thirty- fourth and the thirty-eighth degrees of latitude, and to the latter the tract extending from the forty-first to the forty-fifth degree. The narrow belt of three degrees lying between the thirty-eighth and forty-first parallels was to be equally open to the colonies of either company, but no settle- 86 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. ment of one party was to be made within less than one hundred miles of the nearest settlement of the other. The nature and extent of these grants will be fully understood from an examination of the accompany- ing map. Only the London Company was successful under its charter in planting an American colony. The man who was chiefly instrumental in organizing the London Company was Bartholomew Gosnold. His leading associates were Edward "Wmgfield, a rich merchant, Robert Hunt, a clergyman, and John Smith, a man of genius. Others who aided the enterprise were Sir John Pop- ham, chief-justice of England, Richard Hakluyt, a historian, and Sir Ferdinand Gorges, a distinguished nobleman. By the terms of the char- ter, the aifairs of the company were to be administered by a Superior Council, residing in England, and an Inferior Council, residing in the colony. The members of the former body were to be chosen by the king, and to hold office at his pleasure ; the members of the lower council were also selected by the royal direction, and were subject to removal by the same power. All legislative authority was likewise vested in the mon- arch. In the first organization of the companies not a single principle of self-government was admitted. The most foolish clause in the patent was that which required the proposed colony or colonies to hold all prop- erty in common for a period of five years. The wisest provision in the instrument was that which allowed the emigrants to retain in the New World all the rights and privileges of Englishmen. In the month of August, 1606, the Plymouth Company sent their first ship to America. The voyage, which was one of exploration, was but half completed, when the company's vessel was captured by a Spanish man-of-war. In the autumn another ship was sent out, which remained on the American coast until the following spring, and then returned with glowing accounts of the country. Encouraged by these reports, the company, in the summer of 1607, despatched a colony of a hundred persons. Arriving at the mouth of the River Kennebec, the colonists began a settlement under favorable circumstances. Some forti- fications were thrown up, a storehouse and several cabins built, and the place named St. George. Then the ships returned to England, leaving a promising colony of forty-five members; but the winter of 1607-8 was very severe ; some of the settlers were starved and some frozen, the storehouse burned, and when summer came the remnant escaped to England. The London Company had better fortune. A fleet of three vessels was fitted out, and the command given to Christopher Newport. On the 9th of December the ships, having on board a hundred and five colonists, r—r map in. ENGLISH GRANTS. 1606—1732. VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 87 among whom were Wingfield and Smith, left England. Newport, to begin with, committed the astonishing folly of taking the old route by Avay of the Canaries and the West Indies, and did not reach the American coast until the month of April. It was the design that a landing should be made in the neighborhood of Roanoke Island, but a storm prevailed and carried the ships northward into the Chesapeake. Entering the magnificent bay and coasting along the southern shore, the vessels came to the mouth of a broad and beautiful river, which was named in honor of King James. Proceeding up this stream about fifty miles, Newport noticed on the northern bank a peninsula more attractive than the rest for its verdure and beauty ; the ships were moored, and the emigrants went on shore. Here, on the 13th day of May (Old Style), in the year 1607, were laid the foundations of Jamestown, the oldest English settle- ment in America. It was within a month of a hundred and ten years after the discovery of the continent by the elder Cabot, and nearly forty- two years after the founding of St. Augustine. So long a time had been required to plant the first feeble germ of English civilization in the New World. After the unsuccessful attempt to form a settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec, very little was done by the Plymouth Company for several years ; yet the purpose of planting colonies was not relinquished. Meanwhile, a new impetus was given to the affairs of North Virginia by the ceaseless activity and exhaustless energies of John Smith. Wounded by an accident, and discouraged, as far as it was possible for such a man to be discouraged, by the distractions and turbulence of the Jamestown colony, Smith left that settlement in 1609, and returned to England. On recovering his health he formed a partnership with four wealthy" mer- chants of London, with a view to the fur-trade and probable establish- ment of colonies within the limits of the Plymouth grant. Two ships were accordingly freighted with goods and put under Smith's command. The summer of 1614 was spent on the coast of lower Maine, where a profitable traffic was carried on with the Indians. The crews of the ves- sels were well satisfied through the long days of July with the plea- sures and profits of the teeming fisheries, but Smith himself found nobler work. Beginning as far north as practicable, he patiently explored the country, and drew a map of the whole coast-line from the Penobscot River to Cape Cod. In this map, which is still extant, and a marvel of accuracy considering the circumstances under which it w r as made, the country was called New England — a name which Prince Charles con- firmed, and which has ever since remained as the designation of the North- eastern States of the republic. In the month of November the ships re- 88 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. turned to Plymouth, taking with them many substantial proofs of a suc- cessful voyage. Smith now pleaded more strongly than ever in behalf of coloniza- tion. Some of his friends in the Plymouth Company gave him aid, and in 1615 a small colony of sixteen persons was sent out in a single ship. When nearing the American coast, they encountered a terrible storm, and after being driven about for two or three weeks were obliged to return to England. In spite of these reverses, the undaunted leader renewed the enterprise, and again raised a company of emigrants. Part of his crew became mutinous, betrayed him, and left him in mid-ocean. His own ship was run down and captured by a band of French pirates, and him- self imprisoned in the harbor of Rochelle. Later in the same year he escaped in an open boat and made his way back to London. "With as- tonishing industry, he now published a description of New England, and was more zealous than ever in inciting the company of Plymouth to energetic action. In these efforts he was much impeded. The London Company was jealous of its rival, and put obstacles in the way of every enterprise. The whole of the years 1617-18 was spent in making and unmaking plans of colonization, until finally, on the petition of some of its own leading members, the Plymouth Company was formally super- seded by a new corporation called the Council of Plymouth, consisting of forty of the most wealthy and influential men of the kingdom. On this body were conferred, by the terms of the new charter, almost un- limited powers and privileges. All that part of America lying between the fortieth and the forty-eighth parallels of north latitude, and extending from ocean to ocean, was given to the council in fee simple. More than a million of square miles were embraced in the grant, and absolute jurisdic- tion over this immense tract was committed to forty men. How King James was ever induced to sign such a charter has remained an unsolved mystery. A plan of colonizing was now projected on a grand scale. John Smith was appointed admiral of New England for life. The king, not- withstanding the opposition of the House of Commons, issued a procla- mation enforcing the provisions of the charter, and everything gave promise of the early settlement of America. Such were the schemes of men to possess and people the Western Continent. Meanwhile, a Power higher than the will of man was working in the same direction. The time had come when, without the knowledge or consent of James I., without the knowledge or consent of the Council of Plymouth, a per- manent settlement should be made on the bleak shores of New England. The Puritans ! Name of all names in the early history of the VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 89 West ! About the close of the sixteenth century a number of poor dis- senters scattered through the North of England, especially in the counties of Nottingham, Lincoln and York, began to join themselves together for the purposes of free religious worship. Politically, they were patriotic subjects of the English king; religiously, they were rebels against the authority of the English Church. Their rebellion, however, only ex- tended to the declaration that every man has a right to discover and ap- ply the truth as revealed in the Scriptures without the interposition of any power other than his own reason and conscience. Such a doctrine was very repugnant to the Church of England. Queen Elizabeth herself declared such teaching to be subversive of the principles on which her monarchy was founded. King James was not more tolerant ; and from time to time violent persecutions broke out against the feeble and dis- persed Christians of the north. Despairing of rest in their own country, the Puritans finally deter- mined to go into exile, and to seek in another land the freedom of wor- ship which their own had denied them. They turned their faces toward Holland, made one unsuccessful attempt to get away, were brought back and thrown into prisons. Again they gathered together on a bleak heath in Lincolnshire, and in the spring of 1608 embarked from the mouth of the Humber. Their ship brought them in safety to Amsterdam, where, under the care of their heroic pastor, John Robinson, they passed one winter, and then removed to Leyden.- Such was the beginning of their wandering. They took the name of Pilgrims, and grew content to have no home or resting-place. Privation and exile could be endured when sweetened with liberty. But the love of native land is a universal passion. The Puritans in Holland did not forget — could not forget — that they were Englishmen. During their ten years of residence at Leyden they did not cease to long for a return to the country which had cast them out. Though ruled by a heartless monarch and a bigoted priesthood, England was their country still. The unfamiliar language of the Dutch grated harshly on their ears. They pined with unrest, conscious of their ability and willingness to do something which should convince even King James of their patriotism and worth. It was in this condition of mind that about the year 1617 the Puritans began to meditate a removal to the wilds of the New World. There, with honest purpose and prudent zeal, they would extend the dominions of the English king. They would forget the past, and be at peace with their country. Accordingly, John Carver and Robert Cush- man were despatched to England to ask permission for the church of 90 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Leyden to settle in America. The agents of the London Company and the Council of Plymouth gave some encouragement to the request, but the king and his ministers, especially Lord Bacon, set their faces against any project which might seem to favor heretics. The most that King James would do was to make an informal promise to let the Pil- grims alone in America. Such has always been the despicable attitude of bigotry toward every liberal enterprise. The Puritans were not discouraged. With or without permission, protected or not protected by the terms of a charter which might at best be violated, they would seek asylum and rest in the Western wilderness. Out of their own resources, and with the help of a few faithful friends, they provided the scanty means of departure and set their faces toward the sea. The Speedwell, a small vessel of sixty tons, was purchased at Amsterdam, and the Mayflower, a larger and more substantial ship, was hired for the voyage. The former was to carry the emigrants from Ley- den to Southampton, where they were to be joined by the Mayflower, with another company from London. Assembling at the harbor of Delft, on the River Meuse, fifteen miles south of Leyden, as many of the Pilgrims as could be accommodated went on board the Speedwell. The whole con- gregation accompanied them to the shore. There Robinson gave them a consoling farewell address, and the blessings and prayers of those who were left behind followed the vessel out of sight. Both ships came safely to Southampton, and within two weeks the emigrants were ready for the voyage. On the 5th of August, 1620, the vessels left the harbor ; but after a few days' sailing the Speedwell was found to be shattered, old and leaky. On this account both ships an- chored in the port of Dartmouth, and eight days were spent in making the needed repairs. Again the sails were set ; but scarcely had the land receded from sight before the captain of the Speedwell declared his vessel unfit to breast the ocean, and then, to the great grief and discouragement of the emigrants, put back to Plymouth. Here the bad ship was aban- doned ; but the Pilgrims were encouraged and feasted by the citizens, and the more zealous went on board the Mayflower, ready and anxious for a final effort. On the 6th day of September the first colony of New Eng- land, numbering one hundred and two souls, saw the shores of Old England grow dim and sink behind the sea. The voyage was long and perilous. For sixty-three days the ship was buffeted by storms and driven. It had been the intention of the Pilgrims to found their colony in the beautiful country of the Hudson ; but the tempest carried them out of their course, and the first land seen was the desolate Cape Cod. On the 9th of November the vessel was VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY 91 anchored in the bay ; then a meeting was held on board and the colony organized under a solemn compact. In the charter which they there made for themselves the emigrants declared their loyalty to the English Crown, and covenanted together to live in peace and harmony, with equal rights to all, obedient to just laws made for the common good. Such was the simple but sublime constitution of the oldest New England State. A nobler document is not to be found among the records of the world.* To this instrument all the heads of families, forty-one in number, solemnly set their names. An election was held in which all had an equal voice, and John Carver was unanimously chosen governor of the colony. After two days the boat was lowered, but was found to be half rotten and useless. More than a fortnight of precious time was required to make the needed repairs. Standish, Bradford and a few other hardy spirits got to shore and explored the country ; nothing was found but a heap of Indian corn under the snow. By the 6th of December the boat was ready for service, and the governor, with fifteen companions, went ashore. The weather was dreadful. Alternate rains and snow-storms converted the clothes of the Pilgrims into coats-of-mail. All day they wandered about, and then returned to the sea-shore. In the morning they were attacked by the Indians, but escaped to the ship with their lives, cheerful and giving thanks. Then the vessel was steered to the south and west for forty-five miles around the coast of what is now the county of Barnstable. At nightfall of Saturday a storm came on ; the rudder was wrenched away, and the poor ship driven, half by accident and half by the skill of the pilot, into a safe haven on the west side of the bay. The next day, being the Sabbath, was spent in religious devotions, and on Monday, the 11th of December, Old Style, 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers landed on the Rock of Plymouth. It was now the dead of winter. There was an incessant storm of sleet and snow, and the houseless immigrants, already enfeebled by their sufferings, fell a-dying of hunger, cold and exposure. After a few days spent in explorations about the coast, a site was selected near the first landing, some trees were felled, the snow-drifts cleared away, and on the 9th of January the heroic toilers began to build New Plymouth. Every man took on himself the work of making his own house ; but the rav- ages of disease grew daily worse, strong arms fell powerless, lung-fevers and consumptions wasted every family. At one time only seven men were able to work on the sheds which were building for shelter from the storms ; and if an early spring had not brought relief, the colony must have perished to a man. Such were the privations and griefs of that terrible winter when New England began to be. * See Appendix, note B. 92 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER VIII. VOYAGES AND SETTLEMENTS OF THE DUTCH. THE first Dutch settlement in America was made on Manhattan or New York Island. The colony resulted from the voyages and explorations of the illustrious Sir Henry Hudson. In the year 1607 this great British seaman was employed by a company of London mer- chants to sail into the North Atlantic and discover a route eastward or westward to the Indies. He made the voyage in a single ship, passed up the eastern coast of Greenland to a higher point of latitude than ever before attained, turned eastward to Spitzbergen, circumnavigated that island, and then was compelled by the icebergs to return to England. In the next year he renewed his efforts, hoping to find between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla an open way to the East. By this course he confi- dently expected to shorten the route to China by at least eight thousand miles. Again the voyage resulted in failure ; his employers gave up the enterprise in despair, but his own spirits only rose to a higher determi- nation. When the cautious merchants would furnish no more means, he quitted England and went to Amsterdam. Holland was at this time the foremost maritime nation of the world, and the eminent navigator did not long go begging for patronage in the busy marts of that country. The Dutch East India Company at once furnished him with a ship, a small yacht called the Half Moon, and in April of 1609 he set out on his third voyage to reach the Indies. About the seventy-second parallel of latitude, above the capes of Norway, he turned eastward, but between Lapland and Nova Zembla the ocean was filled with icebergs, and further sailing was impossible. Baffled but not discouraged, he immediately turned his prow toward the shores of America ; somewhere between the Chesapeake and the North Pole he would find a passage into the Pacific ocean. In the month of July Hudson reached Newfoundland, and passing to the coast of Maine, spent some time in repairing his ship, which had been shattered in a storm. Sailing thence southward, he touched at Cape Cod, and by the middle of August found himself as far south as the Chesapeake. Again he turned to the north, determined to examine the coast more closely, and on the 28th of the month anchored in Delaware VOYAGE AND DISCOVERY. 93 Bay. After one day's explorations the voyage was continued along the coast of New Jersey, until, on the 3d of September, the Half Moon came to a safe anchorage in the bay of Sandy Hook. Two days later a land- ing was effected, the natives flocking in great numbers to the scene, and bringing gifts of corn, wild fruits and oysters. The time until the 9th of the month was spent in sounding the great harbor ; on the next day the vessel passed the Narrows, and then entered the noble river which bears the name of Hudson. To explore the beautiful stream was now the pleasing task. For eight days the Half Moon sailed northward up the river. Such mag- nificent forests, such beautiful hills, such mountains rising in the distance, such fertile valleys, planted here and there with ripening corn, the Neth- erlander had never seen before. On the 19th of September the vessel was moored at what is now the landing of Kinderhook ; but an exploring party, still unsatisfied, took to the boats and rowed up the river beyond the site of Albany. After some days they returned to the ship, the moor- ings were loosed, the vessel dropped down the stream, and on the 4th of October the sails were spread for Holland. On the homeward voyage Hudson, not perhaps without a touch of national pride, put into the har- bor of Dartmouth. Thereupon the government of King James, with characteristic illiberality, detained the Half Moon, and claimed the crew as Englishmen. All that Hudson could do was to forward to his employ- ers of the East India Company an account of his successful voyage and of the delightful country which he had visited under the flag of Holland. Now were the English merchants ready to spend more money to find the north-west passage. In the summer of 1610, a ship, called the Discovery, was given to Hudson ; and with a vision of the Indies flitting before his imagination he left England, never to return. He had learned by this time that nowhere between Florida and Maine was there an open- ing through the continent to the Pacific. The famous pass must now be sought between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the southern point of Greenland. Steering between Cape Farewell and Labrador, in the track which Frobisher had taken, the vessel came, on the 2d day of August, into the mouth of the strait which bears the name of its discoverer. No ship had ever before entered these waters. For a while the wav west- ward was barred with islands ; but passing between them, the bay seemed to open, the ocean widened to the right and left, and the route to China was at last revealed. So believed the great captain and his crew ; but sailing farther to the west, the inhospitable shores narrowed on the more inhospitable sea, and Hudson found himself environed with the terrors of winter in the frozen gulf of the North. With unfaltering courage he 94 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. bore up until his provisions were almost exhausted ; spring was at hand, and the day of escape had already arrived, when the treacherous crew broke out in mutiny. They seized Hudson and his only son, with seven other faithful sailors, threw them into an open shallop, and cast them off among the icebergs. The fate of the illustrious mariner has never been ascertained. In the summer of 1610 the Half Moon was liberated at Dartmouth, and returned to Amsterdam. In the same year several ships owned by Dutch merchants sailed to the banks of the Hudson River and engaged in the fur-trade. The traffic was very lucrative, and in the two following years other vessels made frequent and profitable voyages. Early in 1614 an act was passed by the States-General of Holland giving to certain merchants of Amsterdam the exclusive right to trade and establish settle- ments within the limits of the country explored by Hudson. Under this commission a fleet of five small trading-vessels arrived in the summer of the same year at Manhattan Island. Here some rude huts had already been built by former traders, but now a fort for the defence of the place was erected, and the settlement named New Amsterdam. In the course of the autumn Adrian Block, who commanded one of the ships, sailed through East River into Long Island Sound, made explorations along the coast as far as the mouth of the Connecticut, thence to Narraganset Bay, and even to Cape Cod. Almost at the same time Christianson, another Dutch commander, in the same fleet, sailed up the river from Manhattan to Castle Island, a short distance below the site of Albany, and erected a block-house, which was named Fort Nassau, for a long time the northern outpost of the settlers on the Hudson. Meanwhile, Cornelius May, the captain of a small vessel called the Fortune, sailed from New Amsterdam and explored the Jersey coast as far south as the Bay of Delaware. Upon these two voyages, one north and the other south from Manhattan Island where the actual settlement was made, Holland set up a feeble claim to the country which was now named New Netherlands, extending from Cape Henlopen to Cape Cod — a claim which Great Britain and France treated with derision and contempt. Such were the feeble and inaus- picious beginnings of the Dutch colonies in New York and Jersey. PART III. COLONIAL HISTORY. A. D. 1607-1775. PARENT COLONIES. CHAPTER IX. VIRGINIA.— THE FIRST CHARTER. MANY circumstances impeded the progress of the oldest Virginia colony. The first settlers at Jamestown were idle, improvident, dissolute. Of the one hundred and five men who came with Newport in the spring of 1607, only twelve were common laborers. There were four carpenters in the company, and six or eight masons and blacksmiths, but the lack of mechanics was compensated by a long list of forty-eight gentlemen. If necessity had not soon driven these to the honorable vocations of toil, the colony must have perished. The few married men who joined the expedition had left their families in England. The pros- pect of planting an American State on the banks of James River was not at all encouraging. From the first the affairs of the colony were badly managed. King James made out instructions for the organization of the new State, and then, with his usual stupidity, sealed up the parchment in a box which was not to be opened until the arrival of the emigrants in America. The names of the governor and members of the council were thus unknown during the voyage; there was no legitimate authority on shipboard; insubordination and anarchy prevailed among the riotous company. In this state of turbulence and misrule, an absurd suspicion was blown out against Captain John Smith, the best and truest man in the colony. He was accused of making a plot to murder the council, of which he was supposed to be a member, and to make himself monarch of Virginia. An arrest followed, and confinement until the end of the voyage. When at last the colonists reached the site of their future settlement, the king's instructions were unsealed and the names of the seven members of the 95 96 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Inferior Council made known. Then a meeting of that body was held and Edward Wingfield duly elected first governor of Virginia. Smith, who had been set at liberty, was now charged with sedition and excluded from his seat in the council. He demanded to be tried ; and when it was found that his jealous enemies could bring nothing but their own suspi- cions against him, he was acquitted, and finally, through the good offices of Robert Hunt, restored to his place as a member of the corporation. As soon as the settlement was well begun and the affairs of the colony came into a better condition, the rest- less Smith, accom- panied by New- port and twenty others, ascended and explored James River for forty-five miles. This was the first of those marvelous expeditions which were undertaken and carried out by Smith's enterprise and daring. Just below the falls of the river, at the present site of Richmond, the English explorers came upon the capital of Pow- hatan, the Indian king. Smith was not greatly impressed with the mag- nificence of an empire whose chief city was a squalid village of twelve wigwams. The native monarch received the foreigners with formal courtesy and used his authority to moderate the dislike which his sub- jects manifested at the intrusion. About the last of May the company returned to Jamestown, and fifteen days later Newport embarked for England. The colonists now for the first time began to realize their situation. They were alone amid the solitudes of the New World. The beauties of the Virginia wilderness were around them, but the terrors of the CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. VIRGINIA.— FIRST CHARTER. 97 approaching winter were already present to their imagination. In the latter part of August dreadful diseases broke out in the settlement, and the colony was brought to the verge of ruin. The fort which had been built for the defence of the plantation was filled with the sick and dying. At one time no more than five men were able to go on duty as sentinels. Bartholomew Gosnold, the projector of the colony and one of the best men in the council, died, and before the middle of September one-half of the whole number had been swept off by the terrible malady. If the frosts of autumn had not come to check the ravages of disease, no soul would have been left to tell the story. Civil dissension was added to the other calamities of the settlement. President Wingfield, an unprincipled man, and his confederate, George Kendall, a member of the council, were detected in embezzling the stores of the colony. Attempting to escape in the company's vessel, they were arrested, impeached and removed from office. Only three councilmen now remained, Ratcliffe, Martin and Smith ; the first was chosen presi- dent. He was a man who possessed neither ability nor courage, and the affairs of the settlers grew worse and worse. After a few weeks of vacil- lation and incompetency, he, like his predecessor, was caught in an attempt to abandon the colony, and willingly gave up an office which he could not fill. Only Martin and Smith now remained ; the former elected the lat- ter president of Virginia ! It was a forlorn piece of business, but very necessary for the public good. In their distress and bitterness there had come to pass among the colonists a remarkable unanimity as to Smith's merits and abilities. The new administration entered upon the discharge of its duties without a particle of opposition. The new president, though not yet thirty years of age, was a veteran in every kind of valuable human experience. Born an Englishman; trained as a soldier in the wars of Holland ; a traveler in France, Italy and Egypt; again a soldier in Hungary; captured by the Turks and sold as a slave; sent from Constantinople to a prison in the Crimea; killing a taskmaster who beat him, and then escaping through the woods of Russia to Western Europe ; going with an army of adventurers against Morocco; finally returning to England and joining the London Com- pany, — he was now called upon by the very enemies who had persecuted and ill-treated him to rescue them and their colony from destruction. A strange and wonderful career ! John Smith was altogether the most noted man in the early history of America. Under the new administration the Jamestown settlement soon began to show signs of vitality and progress. Smith's first care, after the set- tlers were in a measure restored to health, was to improve the buildings 7 98 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. of the plantation. The fortifications of the place were strengthened, dwellings were repaired, a storehouse erected, and everything made ready for the coming winter. The next measure was to secure a supply of pro- visions from the surrounding country. A plentiful harvest among the Indians had compensated in some degree for the mismanagement and rascality of the former officers of the colony, but to procure corn from the natives was not an easy task. Although ignorant of the Indian language, Smith undertook the hazardous enterprise. Descending James River as far as Hampton Roads, he landed with his five companions, went boldly among the natives, and began to offer them hatchets and copper coins in exchange for corn. The Indians only laughed at the proposal, and then mocked the half-starved foreigners by offering to barter a piece of bread for Smith's sword and musket. Finding that good treatment was only thrown away, the English captain formed the desperate resolution of fight- ing. He and his men fired a volley among the affrighted savages, who ran yelling into the woods. Going straight to their wigwams, he found an abundant store of corn, but forbade his men to take a grain until the Indians should return to attack them. Sixty or seventy painted warriors, headed by a priest who carried an idol in his arms, soon came out of the forest and made a violent onset. The English not only stood their ground, but made a rush, wounded several of the natives and captured their idol. A parley now ensued ; the terrified priest came and humbly begged for his fallen deity, but Smith stood grimly with his musket across the pros- trate idol, and would grant no terms until six unarmed Indians had loaded his boat with corn. Then the image was given up, beads and hatchets were liberally distributed among the warriors who ratified the peace by performing a dance of friendship, while Smith and his men rowed up the river with a boat-load of supplies. There were other causes of rejoicing at Jamestown. The neighbor- ing Indians, made liberal by their own abundance, began to come into the fort with voluntary contributions. The fear of famine passed away. The woods were full of wild turkeys and other game, inviting to the chase as many as delighted in such excitement. Good discipline was maintained in the settlement and friendly relations established with several of the native tribes. Seeing the end of their distresses, the colonists revived in spirit; cheerfulness and hope took the place of melancholy and despair. As soon as the setting in of winter had made an abandonment of the colony impossible, the president, to whose ardor winter and summer were alike, gave himself freely to the work of exploring the country. With a company of six Englishmen and two Indian guides he began the ascent of the Chickahominy River. It was generally believed by the VIRGINIA.— FIRST CHARTER. 99 people of Jamestown that by going up this stream they could reach the Pacific Ocean. Smith knew well enough the absurdity of such an opin- ion, but humored it because of the opportunity which it gave him to explore new territory. The rest might dig imaginary gold-dust and hunt for the Pacific; he would see the country and map the course of the river. The company proceeded up the Chickahominy until their barge ran aground in shallow water. Mooring the boat in a place of safety, Smith left four of the Englishmen to guard it, and with the other two and the Indian es ascended the stream in a canoe. When this smaller craft could go farther, it was put in charge of the white men, while the captain, with ly the savages, proceeded on foot. For twenty miles he continued along le banks of the river, now dwindled to a mere creek winding about the oods and meadows. Meanwhile, the men who were left to protect the large disobeyed their orders, and wandering into the forest, were attacked ^'by three hundred Indians under the command of their king, Opeehan- xVcauough, the brother of Powhatan. Three of the Englishmen escaped ,o the boat, but the fourth, George Cassen by name, was taken prisoner. Him the savages compelled by torture to reveal the whereabouts of Smith. The two men who guarded the canoe were next overtaken and killed. The captain himself was at last discovered, attacked, wounded with an arrow and chased through the woods. The missiles of the barbarians flew around him in a shower, but he compelled the Indian guides to stand between him and his enemies, and every discharge of his musket brought down a savage. He fought like a lion at bay, tied one of the guides to his left arm for a buckler, ran and fired by turns, stumbled into a morass, and was finally overtaken. The savages were still wary of their danger- ous antagonist until he laid down his gun, made signs of surrender and was pulled out of the mire. Without exhibiting the least signs of fear, Smith demanded to see the Indian chief, and on being taken into the presence of that dignitary began to excite his interest and curiosity by showing him a pocket com- pass and a watch. These mysterious instruments struck the Indians with awe ; and profiting by his momentary advantage, the prisoner began to draw figures on the ground, and to give his captors some rude lessons in geography and astronomy. The savages were amazed and listened for an hour, but then grew tired, bound their captive to a tree and prepared to shoot him. At the critical moment he flourished his compass in the air as though performing a ceremony, and the Indians forbore to shoot. His sagacity and courage had gained the day, but the more appalling danger of torture was yet to be avoided. The savages, however, were 100 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. thoroughly superstitious, and became afraid to proceed against him except in the most formal manner. He was regarded by them as an inhabitant of another world whom it was dangerous to touch. Smith was first taken to the town of Orapax, a few miles north- east of the site of Richmond. Here he found the Indians making great preparations to attack and destroy Jamestown. They invited him to join them and become their leader, but he refused, and then terrified them by describing the cannon and other destructive weapons of the English. He also managed to write a letter to his countrymen at the settlement, telling them of his captivity and their own peril, asking for certain articles, and requesting especially that those bearing the note should be thoroughly frightened before their return. This letter, which seemed to them to have such mysterious power of carrying intelligence to a dis- tance, was not lost on the Indians, who dreaded the writer more than ever. When the warriors bearing the epistle arrived at Jamestown and found everything precisely as Smith had said, their terror and amazement knew no bounds, and as soon as they returned to Orapax all thought of attack- ing the settlement was at once given up. The Indians now marched their captive about from village to vil- lage, the interest and excitement constantly increasing, until, near the fork of York River, they came to Pamunkey, the capital of Opechan- canough. Here Smith was turned over to the priests, who assembled in their Long House, or judgment-hall, and for three days together danced around him, sang and yelled after the manner of their superstition. The object was to determine by this wild ceremony what their prisoner's fate should be. The decision was against him, and he was condemned to death. It was necessary that the sanction of the Indian emperor should be given to the sentence, and Smith was now taken twenty-five miles down the river to a town where Powhatan lived in winter. The savage monarch was now sixty years of age, and, to use Smith's own language, looked every inch a king. He received the prisoner with all the rude formalities peculiar to his race. Going to the Long House of the village, the emperor, clad in a robe of raccoon skins, took his seat on a kind of throne prepared for the occasion. His two daughters sat right and left, while files of warriors and women of rank were ranged around the hall. The king solemnly reviewed the caiise and confirmed the sentence of death. Two large stones were brought into the hall, Smith was dragged forth bound, and his head put into position to be crushed with a war- club. A stalwart painted savage was ordered out of the rank and stood ready for the bloody tragedy. The signal was given, the grim execu- tioner raised his bludgeon, and another moment had decided the fate of VIRGINIA.— FIRST CHARTER. 101 both the illustrious captive and his colony. But the peril went by harm- less. Matoaka,* the eldest daughter of Powhatan, sprang from her seat and rushed between the warrior's uplifted club and the prostrate prisoner. She clasped his head in her arms and held on with the resolution of despair until her father, yielding to her frantic appeals, ordered Smith to be unbound and lifted up. Again he was rescued from a terrible death. There is no reason in the world for doubting the truth of this affecting and romantic story, one of the most marvelous and touching in the his- tory of any nation. Powhatan, having determined to spare his captive's life, received him into favor. The prisoner should remain in the household of the mon- arch, making hatchets for the warriors and toys for the king's daughters. By degrees his liberties were enlarged, and it was even agreed soon afterward that he should return to his own people at Jamestown. The conditions of his liberation were that he should send back to Orapax two cannons and a grindstone. Certain warriors were to accompany Smith to the settlement and carry the articles to Powhatan. There should then be peace a^id friendship between the English and the Red men. The journey was accordingly begun, the company camping at night in the woods, and Smith being in constant peril of his life from the uncertain disposition of the savages. But the colony was reached in safety, the lost captain and his twelve Indian guides being received with great gladness. Smith's first and chief care was to make a proper impression on the minds of the savages. He had improved the opportunities of his captivity by learning the language of Powhatan's people, and by making himself familiar with their peculiarities and weaknesses — an experience of vast importance to himself and the colony. He now ordered the two cannons which he had promised to give Powhatan to be brought out and loaded to the muzzle with stones. Then, under pretence of teaching the Indians gunnery, he had the pieces discharged among the tree-tops, which were bristling with icicles. There was a terrible crash, and the savages, cowering with fear and amazement, could not be induced to touch the dreadful engines. The barbarous delegation returned to their king with neither guns nor grindstones. As a matter of fact, the settlers were very little to be dreaded by anybody. Only thirty-eight of them were left alive, and these were frost- bitten and half starved. Their only competent leader had been absent for seven weeks in the middle of one of the severest winters known in * Powhatan's tribe had a superstition that no one whose real name urns unknown could be injured. They therefore told the English falsely that Matoaka' s name was Poca- hontas. 102 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. modern times. The old Tears and discontents of the colonists had revived ; and when Smith returned to the settlement, he found all hands preparing to escape in the pinnace as soon as the ice should break in the river. With much persuasion and a few wholesome threats he induced the majority to abandon this project, but the factious spirits of the colony, burning with resentment against him and his influence, made a conspir- acy to kill him, and he knew not what hour might be his last. In the midst of these dark days Captain Newport arrived from England. He brought a full store of supplies and one hundred and twenty emigrants. Great was the joy throughout the little plantation ; only the president was at heart as much grieved as gladdened, for he saw in the character of the new comers no promise of anything but vexation and disaster. Here were thirty-four gentlemen at the head of the list to begin with ; then came gold-hunters, jewelers, engravers, adventurers, strollers and vagabonds, many of whom had more business in jail than at Jamestown. To add to Smith's chagrin, this company of worthless creatures had been sent out contrary to his previous protest and injunc- tion. He had urged Newport to bring over only a few industrious mechanics and laborers ; but the love of gold among the members of the London Company had prevailed over common sense to send to Virginia another crowd of profligates. The kind of industry which Smith had encouraged in the colony was now laughed at. As soon as the weather would permit, the new- comers and as many of the old settlers as had learned nothing from the past year's experience began to stroll about the country digging for gold. In a bank of sand at the mouth of a small tributary of the James some glittering particles were found, and the whole settlement was ablaze with excitement. Martin and Newport, both members of the council, were carried away with the common fanaticism. The former already in imagi- nation saw himself loaded with wealth and honored with a peerage. The latter, having filled one of his ships with the supposed gold-dust, sent it to England, and then sailed up James River to find the Pacific Ocean ! Fourteen weeks of the precious springtime, that ought to have been given to ploughing and planting, were consumed in this stupid nonsense. Even the Indians ridiculed the madness of men who for imaginary grains of gold were wasting their chances for a crop of corn. In this general folly Smith was quite forgotten ; but foreseeing that the evil must soon work its own cure, he kept his patience, and in the mean time busied himself with one of his most brilliant and successful enterprises ; this was no less than the exploration of Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Accompanied by Dr. Russell and thirteen other comrades VIRGINIA.— FIRST CHARTER. 103 who had remained faithful to him, he left Jamestown on the 2d day of June. He had nothing but an open barge of three tons' burden, but in this he steered boldly out by way of Hampton Roads and Cape Henry as far as Smith's Island. Returning thence around the peninsula which ends with Cape Charles, the survey of the eastern shore of the bay was begun, and continued northward as far as the river Wicomico, in Mary- land. From this point the expedition crossed over to the mouth of the Patuxent, and thence coasted northward along the western side to the Pataps- co. Here some members of the company became discon- tented, and insisted on return- ing to the colony. Smith gave a reluctant consent, but in steer- ing southward had the good fortune to enter the mouth of the Potomac. The crew were so much pleased with the pros- pect that they agreed to explore the great river before returning homeward. Accordingly, the barge was steered up stream as far as the falls above George- town. The country was much admired ; and when the explor- ers were tired of adventure, they dropped down the river to the bay, and turning south- ward, reached Jamestown on the 21st of July. After a rest of three days a second voyage was begun. This time the expedition reached the head of the bay, and sailed up the Susquehanna River until the volume of water would float the barge no farther. Here an acquaintance was made with a race of Indians of gigantic stature and fiercer disposition than was known among the natives of Virginia. On the return voyage Smith passed down the bay, exploring every sound and inlet of any note, as far as the mouth of the Rappahannoc ; this stream he ascended to the head of navigation, and then, returning by way of the York and Chesapeake Rivers, reached Jamestown on the 7th of Septem- Jamestown and Vicinity. Smith's First Voyage in the Chesapeake — Smith's Second Voyage in the Chesapeake • 104 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. ber. He had been absent a little more than three months, had explored the winding coast of the great bay for fully three thousand miles, had encountered hostile savages by hundreds and thousands, had been driven hither and thither by storms, once wrecked, once stung by a poisonous fish and brought so near to death that his comrades digged his grave ; now he was come back to the colony with a Map of the Chesapeake, which he sent by Newport to England, and which is still preserved. Only one man had been lost on the expedition. Richard Fetherstone had died, and Avas buried on the Rappahannoc. Within three days after Smith's return to Jamestown he was form- ally elected president. He entered at once upon the duties of his office, correcting abuses, enforcing the laws and restoring order to the distracted colony. There was a marked change for the better ; gold-hunting be- came unpopular, and the rest of the year was noted as a season of great prosperity. Late in the autumn Newport arrived with seventy additional immigrants, increasing the number to more than two hundred. The health was so good that only seven deaths occurred between September and May of the following year. Excellent discipline was maintained. Every well man Avas obliged to A\ r ork six hours a day. New houses were built, neAV fields fenced in ; and all through the Avinter the sound of axe and saw and hammer gave token of a prosperous and groAving village. Such Avas the condition of affairs in the spring of 1609. CHAPTER X. VIRGINIA.— THE SECOND CHARTER. ON the 23d of May, 1609, King James, without consulting the wishes of his American colonists, revoked their constitution, and granted to the London Company a neAV charter, by the terms of Avhich the govern- ment of Virginia Avas completely changed. The territory included under the new patent extended from Cape Fear to Sandy Hook, and westward to the Pacific Ocean. The members of the Superior Council Avere now to be chosen by the stockholders of the company, vacancies were to be filled by the councilors, Avho were also empowered to elect a governor from their oavii number. The council was at once organized in accordance with this charter, VIRGINIA.— SECOND CHARTER. 105 and the excellent Lord De La Ware chosen governor for life. With him were joined in authority Sir Thomas Gates, lieutenant-general ; Sir George Somers, admiral ; Christopher Newport, vice-admiral ; Sir Thomas Dale, high marshal ; Sir Ferdinand Wainman, master of horse ; and other dig- nitaries of similar sort. Attracted by the influence of these noblemen, a large company of more than five hundred emigrants was speedily col- lected, and early in June a fleet of nine vessels sailed for America. Lord Delaware did not himself accompany the expedition, but delegated his authority to three commissioners, Somers, Gates and Newport. About the middle of July the ships, then passing the West Indies, were over- taken and scattered by a storm. One small vessel was wrecked, and another, having on board the commissioners of Lord Delaware, was driven ashore on one of the Bermuda Islands, where the crew remained until April of the following year ; the other seven ships came safely to James- town. But who should now be governor ? Captain Smith was at first dis- posed to give up his office, but in a few days the affairs of the colony were plainly going to ruin, and he was urged by the old settlers and the better class of new-comers to continue in authority. Accordingly, declar- ing that his powers as president under the old constitution did not cease until some one should arrive from England properly commissioned to supersede him, he kept resolutely to the discharge of his duties, although in daily peril of his life. He arrested Ratcliffe* and Archer, put some of the most rebellious brawlers in prison, and then, in order to distract the attention of the rest, planned two new settlements, one, of a hun- dred and twenty men, under the command of Martin, to be established at Nansemond ; the other, of the same number, under Captain West, to form a colony at the falls of the James. Both companies behaved badly. In a few days after their departure troubles arose between West's men and the Indians. The president was sent for in order to settle the diffi- culty ; but finding his efforts unavailing, he returned to Jamestown. On his way down the river, while asleep in the boat, a bag of gunpowder lying near by exploded, burning and tearing his flesh so terribly that in his agony he leaped overboard. Being rescued from the river, he was carried to the fort, where he lay for some time racked with fever and tor- tured with his wounds. Finally, despairing of relief under the imperfect medical treatment w r hich the colony afforded, he decided to return to England. He accordingly delegated his authority to Sir George Percy, a brother of the earl of Northumberland, and about the middle of Sep- * This man's real name was not Ratcliffe, but Sicklemore. He had been president of the colony in 1607, and was an accomplished thief as well as an impostor. 106 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. ternber, 1609, left the scene of his heroic toils and sufferings, never to return. There remained at Jamestown a colony of four hundred and ninety- persons, well armed, well sheltered and well supplied. But such was the viciousness and profligacy of the greater number, and such the insubor- dination and want of proper leadership, after Smith's departure, that by the beginning of winter the settlement was face to face with starvation. The Indians became hostile and hovered around the plantations, strag- glers were intercepted and murdered, houses were fired at every opportu- nity, disease returned to add to the desolation, and cold and hunger completed the terrors of a winter which was long remembered with a shudder and called The Starving Time. By the last of March there were only sixty persons alive, and these, if help had not come speedily, could hardly have lived a fortnight. Meanwhile, Sir Thomas Gates and his companions, who had been shipwrecked in the Bermudas, had constructed out of the materials of their old ship, with such additional timber as they could cut from the for- est, two small vessels, and set sail for Virginia. They came in full expec- tation of a joyful greeting from a happy colony. What, therefore, was their disappointment and grief when a few wan, half-starved wretches crawled out of their cabins to beg for bread ! Whatever stores the com- missioners had brought with them were distributed to the famishing settlers, and Gates assumed control of the government. But the colonists had now fully determined to abandon for ever a place which promised them nothing but disaster and death. In vain did the commissioners remonstrate ; they were almost driven by the clamors around them to yield to the common will. An agreement was made to sail for Newfoundland ; there the remnant of the Virginia colony should be distributed among the fishermen until such time as some friendly ship might carry them back to England. On the 8th of June Jamestown was abandoned. The disheartened settlers, now grown resentful, were anxious before leaving to burn the town, but Gates defeated this design, and was himself the last man to go on board. Four pinnaces lay at their moorings in the river; embark- ing in these, the colonists dropped down with the tide, and it seemed as though the enterprise of Raleigh and Gosnold had ended in failure and humiliation. But Lord Delaware was already on his way to America. Before the escaping settlers had passed out of the mouth of the river, the ships of the noble governor came in sight. Here were additional immigrants, plentiful supplies and promise of better things to come. Would the VIRGINIA.— SECOND CHARTER. 107 colonists return ? The majority gave a reluctant consent, and before night- fall the fires were again kindled on the hearthstones of the deserted village. The next day was given to religious services ; the governor caused his com- mission to be read, and entered upon the discharge of his duties. The amiability and virtue of his life, no less than the mildness and decision of his administration, endeared him to all and inspired the colony with hope. Autumn came, and Lord Delaware fell sick. Against his own will, and to the great regret of the colony, he was compelled to return to Eng- land. Having reluctantly delegated his authority to Percy — the same who had been the deputy of Captain Smith — the good Delaware set sail for his own country. It was an event of great discouragement ; but for- tunately, before a knowledge of the governor's departure reached England, the Superior Council had despatched a new shipload of stores and another company of emigrants, under command of Sir Thomas Dale. The vessel arrived at Jamestown on the 10th of May, and Percy was superseded by the captain, who bore a commission from the council. Dale had been a military officer in the wars of the Netherlands, and he now adopted a system of martial law as the basis of his administration. He was, how- ever, a man so tolerant and just that very little complaint was made on account of his arbitrary method of governing. One of Dale's first acts was to write to the council in England, requesting that body to send out immediately as large a number of colon- ists as possible, with an abundance of supplies. For once the council acted promptly ; and in the latter part of August, Sir Thomas Gates arrived with a fleet of six ships, having on board three hundred immigrants and a large quantity of stores. There was great thanksgiving in the colony, a fresh enthusiasm was enkindled, and contentment came with a sense of security. Thus far the property of the settlers at Jamestown had been held in common. The colonists had worked together, and in time of harvest deposited their products in storehouses which were under the control of the governor and council. Now the right of holding private property was recognized. Governor Gates had the lands divided so that each set- tler should have three acres of his own ; every family might cultivate a garden and plant an orchard, the fruits of which no one but the owner was allowed to gather. The benefits of this system of labor were at once apparent. The laborers, as soon as each was permitted to claim the rewards of his own toil, became cheerful and industrious. There were now seven hundred persons in the colony ; new plantations were laid out on every side, and new settlements were formed on both banks of the river and at considerable distances from Jamestown. The promise of an American State, so long deferred, seemed at last to be realized. 108 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XI. VIRGINIA.— THE THIRD CHARTER. EARLY in the year 1612 the London Company obtained from the king a third patent, by the terms of which the character of the gov- ernment was entirely changed. The Superior Council was abolished and the powers of that body transferred to the stockholders, who were author- ized to hold public meetings, to elect their own officers, to discuss and decide all questions of law and right, and to govern the colony on their own responsibility. The cause of this change was the unprofitableness of the colony as a financial enterprise, and the consequent dissatisfaction of the company with the management of the council. The new patent, although not so intended by the king, was a great step toward a demo- cratic form of government in Virginia. 2. The year 1613 was marked by two important events, both of them resulting from the lawless behavior of Captain Samuel Argall. While absent on an expedition up the Potomac River he learned that Pocahon- tas, who had had some difficulty with her father's tribe, was residing in that neighborhood. Procuring the help of a treacherous Indian family, the English captain enticed the unsuspecting girl on board his vessel and carried her captive to Jamestown. The authorities of the colony, instead of punishing Argall for this atrocity, aggravated the outrage by demand- ing that Powhatan should pay a heavy ransom for his daughter's libera- tion. The old king indignantly refused, and ordered his tribes to prepare for war. Meanwhile, Pocahontas, who seems not to have been greatly grieved on account of her captivity, was converted to the Christian faith and became by baptism a member of the Episcopal Church. She was led to this course of action chiefly by the instruction and persuasion of , John Rolfe, a worthy young man of the colony, who after the baptism of the princess sought her in marriage. Powhatan and his chief men gave their consent, and the nuptials were duly celebrated in the spring of the following year. By this means war was averted, and a bond of union established between the Indians and the whites. 3. Two years later Rolfe and his wife went to England, where they were received in the highest circles of society. Captain Smith gave them a letter of introduction to Queen Anne, and many other flattering atten- VIRGINIA.— THIRD CHARTER. 109 tions were bestowed on the modest daughter of the Western wilderness. In the following year, Rolfe made preparations to return to America ; but before embarking, Pocahontas fell sick and died. There was left of this marriage a son, who afterward came to Jamestown and was a man of some importance in the affairs of the colony. To him several influential families of Virginians still trace their origin. John Randolph of Roanoke was a grandson of the sixth generation from Pocahontas. When Captain Argall returned from his expedition up the Potomac, he was sent with an armed vessel to the coast of Maine. The avowed object of the voyage was to protect the English fishermen who frequented the waters between the Bay of Fundy and Cape Cod, but the real pur- pose was to destroy the colonies of France, if any should be found within the limits of the territory claimed by England. Arriving at his destina- tion, Argall soon found opportunity for the display of his violence and rapacity. The French authorities of Acadia were at this time building a village on Mount Desert Island, near the mouth of the Penobscot. This settlement was the first object of Argall's vengeance. The place was cap- tured, pillaged and burned ; part of the inhabitants were put on board a vessel bound for France, and the rest were carried to the Chesapeake. The French colony at the mouth of the St. Croix River next attracted the attention of the English captain, who cannonaded the fort and destroyed every building in the settlement. Passing thence across the bay to Port Royal, Argall burned the deserted hamlet which Poutrincourt and his companions had built there eight years before. On his way back to Virginia he made a descent on the Dutch traders of Manhattan Island, destroyed many of their huts, and compelled the settlers to acknowledge the sovereignty of England. The result of these outrageous proceedings was to confine the French settlements in America to the banks of the St. Lawrence, and to leave a clear coast for the English flag from Nova Scotia to Florida. In the month of March, 1614, Sir Thomas Gates returned to Eng- land, leaving the government in the hands of Dale, whose administration lasted for two years. During this time the laws of the colony were much improved, and, more important still, the colonial industry took an entirely different form. Hitherto the labor of the settlers had been directed to the planting of vineyards and to the manufacture of potash, soap, glass and tar. The managers of the London Company had at last learned that these articles could be produced more cheaply in Europe than in America. They had also discovered that there were certain products peculiar to the New World which might be raised and exported with great profit. Chief among such native products was the plant called 110 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. tobacco, the use of which had already become fashionable in Spain, Eng* land and France. This, then, became the leading staple of the colony, and was even used for money. So entirely did the settlers give them- selves to the cultivation of the famous weed that the very streets of Jamestown were ploughed up and planted with it. It was a great disaster to the people of the colony when Argall was chosen deputy-governor. He was a man who had one virtue, courage ; and in all other respects was thoroughly bad. The election occurred in 1617, and through the influence of an unscrupulous faction composed of Argall's friends he was not only selected as Lord Delaware's deputy in America, but was also made an admiral of the English navy. His administration was characterized by fraud, oppression and violence. Neither property nor life was secure against his tyranny and greed. By and by, the news of his proceedings reached England ; emigration ceased at once, and the colony became a reproach, until Lord Delaware restored confidence by embarking in person for Virginia. But the worthy noble- man died on the voyage, and Argall continued his exactions and cruelty. In the spring of 1619, he was at last displaced through the influence of Sir Edwyn Sandys, and the excellent Sir George Yeardley appointed to succeed him. Martial law was now abolished. The act which required each settler to give a part of his labor for the common benefit was also repealed, and thus the people were freed from a kind of colonial servi- tude. Another action was taken of still greater importance. Governor Yeardley, in accordance with instructions received from the company, divided the plantations along James River into eleven districts, called boroughs, and issued a proclamation to the citizens of each borough to elect two of their own number to take part in the government of the colony. The elections were duly held, and on the 30th of July, 1619, the delegates came together at Jamestown. Here was organized the Virginia House op Burgesses, a colonial legislature, the first popular assembly held in the New World. The Burgesses had many privileges, but very little power. They might discuss the affairs of the colony, but could not control them ; pass laws, but could not enforce them; declare their rights, but could not secure them. Though the governor and council should both concur in the resolutions of the assembly, no law was binding until ratified by the company in England. Only one great benefit was gained — the freedom of debate. Wherever that is recognized, liberty must soon follow. The year 1619 was also marked by the introduction of negro slavery into Virginia. The servants of the people of Jamestown had hitherto VIRGINIA.— THIRD CHARTER. Ill been persons of English or German descent, and their term of service had varied from a few months to many years. No perpetual servitude had thus far been recognized, nor is it likely that the English colonists would of themselves have instituted the system of slave labor. In the month of August a Dutch man-of-war sailed up the river to the planta- tions, and offered by auction twenty Africans. They were purchased by the wealthier class of planters, and made slaves for life. It was, however, nearly a half century from this time before the system of negro slavery became well established in the English colonies. Twelve years had now passed since the founding of Jamestown. Eighty thousand pounds sterling had been spent by the company in the attempted development of the new State. As a result there were only six hundred men in the colony, and these for the most part were rovers who intended to return to England. Sir Thomas Smith, the treasurer, had managed matters badly. Very few families had emigrated, and society in Virginia was coarse and vicious. In this condition of affairs Smith was superseded by Sir Edwyn Sandys, a man of great prudence and integrity. A reformation of abuses was at once begun and carried out. By his wisdom and liberality the new treasurer succeeded before the end of the summer of 1620 in collecting and sending to America a company of twelve hundred and sixty-one persons. Another measure of still greater importance was equally successful. By the influence of Sandys and his friends, ninety young women of good breeding and modest man- ners were induced to emigrate to Jamestown. In the following spring sixty others of similar good character came over, and received a hearty welcome. The statement that the early Virginians bought their wives is absurd. All that was done was this : when Sandys sent the first company of women to America, he charged the colonists with the expense of the voyage — a measure made necessary by the fact that the company was almost bankrupt. An assessment was made according to the number who were brought over, and the rate fixed at a hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco for each passenger — a sum which the settlers cheerfully paid. The many marriages that followed were celebrated in the usual way, and nothing further was thought of the transaction. When the sec- ond shipload came, the cost of transportation was reported at a hundred and fifty pounds for each passenger, which was also paid without complaint. In July of 1621 the London Company, which had now almost run its course, gave to Virginia a code of written laws and frame of government modeled after the English constitution. The terms of the instrument were few and easily understood. The governor of the colony was as hitherto to be appointed by the company, a council to be chosen 112 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. by the same body, and a house of burgesses, two members from each district, to be elected by the people. In making laws the councilors and burgesses sat together. 'When a new law was proposed, it was debated, and if passed received the governor's signature, then was transmitted to England and ratified or rejected by the company. The constitution also acknowledged the right of petition and of trial by jury, but the most remarkable and liberal concession was that which gave the burgesses the power of vetoing any objectionable acts of the company. Governor Yeardley's administration ended in October of 1621. At that time Sir Francis Wyatt arrived, commissioned as governor and bearing the new constitution of Virginia. The colony was found in a very flourishing condition. The settlements extended for a hundred and forty miles along both banks of James River and far into the interior, especially northward toward the Potomac. There remained but one cause of foreboding and alarm. The Indians had seen in all this growth and prosperity the doom of their own race, and had determined to make one desperate effort to destroy their foes before it should be too late. To do this in open war was impossible ; necessity and the savage impulse work- ing together suggested treachery as the only means likely to accomplish the result. Circumstances favored the villainous undertaking. Pocahon- tas was dead. The peaceable and faith-keeping Powhatan had likewise passed away. The ambitious and crafty Opechancanough, who succeeded to his brother's authority in 1618, had ever since been plotting the destruc- tion of the English colony, and the time had come for the bloody tragedy. The savages carefully concealed their murderous purpose. Until the very day of the massacre they continued on terms of friendship with the English. They came unmolested into the settlements, ate with their victims, borrowed boats and guns, made purchases, and gave not the slightest token of hostility. The attack was planned for the 22d of March, at mid-day. At the fatal hour the work of butchery began. Every hamlet in Virginia was attacked by a band of yelling barbarians. No age, sex or condition awakened an emotion of pity. Men, women and children were indiscriminately slaughtered, until three hundred and forty -seven had perished under the knives and hatchets of the savages. But Indian treachery was thwarted by Indian faithfulness. What was the chagrin and rage of the warriors to find that Jamestown and the other leading settlements had been warned at the last moment, and were prepared for the onset ? A converted Red man, wishing to save an Eng- lishman who had been his friend, went to him on the night before the massacre and revealed the plot. The alarm was spread among the settle- ments, and thus the greater part of the colony escaped destruction. But VIRGINIA.— THIRD CHARTER. 113 the outer plantations were entirely destroyed. The people crowded to- gether on the larger farms about Jamestown, until of the eighty settlements there were only eight remaining. Still, there were sixteen hundred reso- lute men in the colony ; and although gloom and despondency prevailed for a while, the courage of the settlers soon revived, and sorrow gave place to a desire for vengeance. It was now the turn of the Indians to suffer. Parties of English soldiers scoured the country in every direction, destroying wigwams, burning villages and killing every savage t_iat fell in their way, until the tribes of Opechancanough were driven into the wilderness. The colon- ists, regaining their confidence and zeal, returned to their deserted farms, and the next year brought such additions that the census showed a popu- lation of two thousand five hundred. Meanwhile, difficulties arose between the corporation and the king. Most of the members of the London Company belonged to the patriot party in England, and the freedom with which they were in the habit of discussing political and governmental matters was very distasteful to the monarch. A meeting of the stockholders, now a numerous body, was held once every three months, and the debates took a wider and still wider range. The liberal character of the Virginia constitution was offensive to King James, who determined by some means to obtain con- trol of the London Company, or else to suppress it altogether. A com- mittee was accordingly appointed to look into the affairs of the cor- poration and to make a report on its management. The commissioners performed their duty, and reported that the company, in addition to being a hot-bed of political agitation, was unsound in every part, that the treas- ury was bankrupt, and especially that the government of Virginia was bad and would continue so until a radical change should be made in the constitution of the new State. Legal proceedings were now instituted by the ministers to ascer- tain whether the company's charter had not been forfeited. The question came before the judges, who had no difficulty in deciding that the violated patent was null and void. In accordance with this decision, the charter of the corporation was canceled by the king, and in June of 1624 the London Company ceased to exist. But its work had been well done ; a torch of liberty had been lighted on the banks of the James which all the gloomy tyranny of after times could not extinguish. The Virgin- ians were not slow to remember and to claim ever afterward the precious rights which were guaranteed in the constitution of 1621. And the other colonies would be satisfied with nothing less than the chartered privileges which were recognized in the laws of the Old Dominion. 114 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XII. VIRGINIA.— THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT. A ROYAL government was now established in Virginia. To the colonists themselves the change of authorities was scarcely percepti- ble. The new administration consisted of a governor and twelve coun- cilors appointed by the crown. The General Assembly of the colony was left undisturbed, and all the rights and privileges of the colonists remained as before. The king's hostility had been directed against the London Company, and not against the State of Virginia ; now that the former was destroyed the latter was left unmolested. Governor Wyatt was continued in office; and in making up the new council the king wisely took pains to select the known friends of the colony rather than certain untried partisans of his own court. The Virginians found in the change of government as much cause of gratitude as of grief. King James of England died in 1625. His son, Charles I., a young, inexperienced and stubborn prince, succeeded to the throne. The new king paid but little attention to the affairs of his American colony, until the commerce in tobacco attracted his notice. Seeing in this product a source of revenue for the crown, he attempted to gain a monopoly of the trade, but the colonial authorities outwitted him and defeated the project. It is worthy of special note that while conferring with the colony on this subject the king recognized the Virginia assembly as a rightfully consti- tuted power. The reply which was finally returned to the king's proposal was signed not only by the governor and council, but by thirty-one of the burgesses. In 1626 Governor Wyatt retired from office, and Yeardley, the old friend and benefactor of the colonists, was reappointed. The young State was never more prosperous than under this administration, which was terminated by the governor's death, in November of 1627. During the preceding summer a thousand new immigrants had come to swell the population of the growing province. The council of Virginia had a right, in case of an emergency, to elect a governor. Such an emergency was now present, and Francis West was chosen by the councilors ; but as soon as the death of Yeardley VIRGINIA.— THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT. 115 was known in England, King Charles commissioned John Harvey to assume the government. He arrived in the autumn of 1629, and from this time until 1635, the colony was distracted with the presence of a most unpopular chief magistrate. He seems to have been disliked on general principles, but the greatest source of dissatisfaction was his par- tiality to certain speculators and land monopolists who at this time in- fested Virginia, to the annoyance and injury of the poorer people. There were many old land grants covering districts of territory which were now occupied by actual settlers, and between the holders of the lands and the holders of the titles violent altercations arose. In these disputes the governor became a partisan of the speculators against the people, until the outraged assembly of 1635 passed a resolution that Sir John Harvey be thrust out of office, and Captain West be appointed in his place " until the king's pleasure may be known in this matter." A majority of the councilors sided with the burgesses, and Harvey was obliged to go to England to stand his trial. King Charles treated the whole affair with contempt. The com- missioners appointed by the council of Virginia to conduct Harvey's im- peachment were refused a hearing, and he was restored to the governor- ship of the unwilling colony. He continued in power until the year 1639, when he was superseded by Wyatt, who ruled until the spring of 1642. And now came the English Revolution. The exactions and tyranny of Charles at last drove his subjects into open rebellion. In January of 1642, the king and his friends left London, and repairing to Nottingham, collected an army of royalists. The capital and southern part of the country remained in the power of Parliament. The High Church party and the adherents of monarchy took sides with the king, while the re- publicans and dissenters made up the opposing forces. The country was plunged into the horrors of civil war. After a few years of conflict the royal army was routed and dispersed ; the king escaped to Scotland, and the leading royalists fled to foreign lands. On the demand of Parliament Charles was given up and brought to trial. The cause was heard, a sen- tence of death was passed, and on the 30th of January, 1649, the unhappy monarch was beheaded. Monarchy was now abolished. Oliver Cromwell, the general of the Parliamentary army, was made Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England. By him the destinies of the nation were controlled until his death, in 1658, when he was succeeded by his son Richard. But the latter, lacking his father's abilities and courage, became alarmed at the dangers that gathered around him, and resigned. For a few months the 116 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. country was in anarchy, until General Monk, who commanded the Eng- lish army of the North, came down from Scotland and declared a restora- tion of the monarchy. The exiled son of Charles I. was called home and proclaimed king, the people acquiesced, Parliament sanctioned the measure, and on the 18th of May, 1660, Charles II. was placed on the throne of England. These were times full of trouble. Virginia shared in some degree the distractions of the mother-country, yet the evil done to the new State by the conflict in England was less than might have been expected. In the first year of the civil war Sir William Berkeley became governor of the colony, and, with the exception of a brief visit to England in 1645, remained in office for ten years. His administration, notwithstanding the commotions abroad, was noted as a time of rapid growth and develop- ment. The laws were greatly improved and made conformable to the English statutes. The old controversies about the lands were satisfacto- rily settled. Cruel punishments were abolished and the taxes equalized. The general assembly was regularly convened to bear its part in the gov- ernment, and Virginia was in all essential particulars a free as well as a prosperous State. So rapid was the progress that in 1646 there were twenty thousand people in the colony. But there were also drawbacks to the prosperity of Virginia. Re- ligious intolerance came with its baleful shadow to distuib the State. The faith of the Episcopal Church wasestablished by law, and dissenting was declared a crime. The Puritans were held in contempt by the people, who charged them with being the destroyers of the peace of England. In March of 1643 a statute was enacted by the assembly declaring that no person who disbelieved the doctrines of the English Church should be allowed to teach publicly or privately, or to preach the gospel, within the limits of Virginia. The few Puritans in the colony were excluded from their places of trust, and some were even driven from their homes. Gov- ernor Berkeley, himself a zealous churchman, was a leader in these per- secutions, by which all friendly relations with New England were broken oif for many years. A worse calamity befell in a second war with the Indians. Early in 1644, the natives, having forgotten their former punishment, and believing that in the confusion of the civil war there still remained a hope of destroying the English, planned a general massacre. On the 18th of April, at a time when the authorities were somewhat off their guard, the savages fell upon the frontier settlements, and before assistance could be brought murdered three hundred people. Alarmed at their own atrocity, the warriors then fled, but were followed by the English forces and VIRGINIA.— THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT. 117 driven into the woods and swamps. The aged Opechancanough was cap- tured, and died a prisoner. The tribes were chastised without mercy, and were soon glad to purchase peace by the cession of large tracts of land. The Virginians adhered with great firmness to the cause of Charles I. in his war with Parliament, and after his death proclaimed the exiled Charles II. as rightful sovereign of the country. Cromwell and the Parliament were much exasperated at this course of conduct, and mea- sures were at once devised to bring the colony to submission. An ordi- nance was passed laying heavy restrictions on the commerce of such English colonies as refused to acknowledge the supremacy of Parliament. All foreign ships, especially those of Holland, were forbidden to enter the colonial harbors. In 1651 the noted statute called the Navigation Act was passed, and the trade of the colonies was still more seriously distressed. In this new law it was enacted that the foreign commerce of Virginia, now grown into importance, should be carried on wholly in English vessels, and directed exclusively to English ports. The Virginians held out, and Cromwell determined to employ force. A war-vessel called the Guinea was sent into the Chesapeake to compel submission, but in the last extreme the Protector showed him- self to be just as well as wrathful. There were commissioners on board the frigate authorized to make an offer of peace, and this was gladly accepted. It was seen that the cause of the Stuarts was hopeless. The people of Virginia, although refusing to yield to threats and violence, cheerfully entered into negotiations with Cromwell's delegates, and ended by acknowledging the supreme authority of Parliament. The terms of the settlement were very favorable to popular liberty; the commercial restrictions of the two previous years were removed, and the trade of the colony was made as free as that of England. No taxes might be levied or duties collected except such as were imposed by the general assembly of the State. The freedom of an Englishman was guaranteed to every citizen, and under the control of her own laws Virginia again grew pros- perous. No further difficulty arose during the continuance of the Common- wealth. The Protector was busied with the affairs of Europe, and had neither time nor disposition to interfere in the affairs of a remote colony. The Virginians were thus left free to conduct their government as they would. Even the important matter of choosing a governor was sub- mitted to an election in the House of Burgesses ; when so great a power had been once exercised, it was not likely to be relinquished without a struggle. Three governors were chosen in this way, and what was at first only a privilege soon became a right. Special acts of the assembly 118 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. declared that such a right existed, and that it should be transmitted to posterity. In 1660, just at the time of the resignation of Richard Cromwell, Samuel Matthews, the last of the three elected governors, died. The burgesses were immediately convened, and an ordinance was passed de- claring that the supreme authority of Virginia was resident in the colony, and would continue there until a delegate with proper credentials should arrive from the British government. Having made this declaration, the house elected as governor Sir William Berkeley, who by accepting the office acknowledged the right of the burgesses to choose. The question of recognizing Charles II. as king was debated at the same session, but prudence suggested that the colonial authorities would better await the natural course of events. For the present it was decided to remain faith- ful to Parliament. Most of the people, no doubt, desired the restoration, but policy forbade any open expressions of such a preference. It would be time enough when monarchy was actually restored. In May of 1660 Charles II. became king of England. As soon as this event was known in Virginia, Governor Berkeley, forgetting the source of his own authority, and in defiance of all consistency, issued writs in the name of the king for the election of a new assembly. The friends of royalty were delighted with the prospect. The adherents of the Com- monwealth were thrust out of office, and the favorites of the king estab- lished in their places. Great benefits were expected from the change, and the whole colony was alive with excitement and zeal. But the disap- pointment of the people was more bitter than their hopes had been extrav- agant. The Virginians soon found that they had exchanged a republican tyrant with good principles for a monarchial tyrant with bad ones. King Charles II. was the worst monarch of modern times, and the people of Virginia had in him and his government a special cause of grief. The commercial system of the Commonwealth, so far from being abolished, was re-enacted in a more hateful form than ever. The new statute pro- vided that all the colonial commerce, whether exports or imports, should be carried on in English ships, the trade between the colonies was bur- dened with a heavy tax for the benefit of the government, and tobacco, the staple of Virginia, could be sold nowhere but in England. This odious measure gave to English merchantmen a monopoly of the carry- ing trade of the colonies, and by destroying competition among the buy- ers of tobacco robbed the Virginians to that extent of their leading product. Remonstrance was tried in vain. The cold and selfish monarch only sneered at the complaints of his American subjects, and the commer- cial ordinances were rigorously enforced. VIRGINIA.— THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT. 119 Charles II. seemed to regard the British empire as personal property to be used for the benefit of himself and his courtiers. In order to reward the worthless profligates who thronged his court, he began to grant to them large tracts of land in Virginia. What did it matter that these lands had been redeemed from the wilderness and were covered with orchards and gardens ? It was no uncommon thing for an American planter to find that his farm, which had been cultivated for a quarter of a century, was given away to some dissolute flatterer of the royal household. Great distress was occasioned by these iniquitous grants, until finally, in 1673, the king set a limit to his own recklessness by giving away the whole State. Lord Culpepper and the earl of Arlington, two ignoble noblemen, received under the great seal a deed by which was granted to them for thirty- one years all the dominion of land and water called Virginia. "Unfortunately, the colonial legislation of these times became aa selfish and narrow-minded as the policy of the king was mean. An aristocratic party which had arisen in the colony obtained control of the House of Burgesses, and the new laws rivaled those of England in illiber- ally. Episcopalianism was again established as the State religion. A prescriptive ordinance was passed against the Baptists, and the peace-lov- ing Quakers were fined, persecuted and imprisoned. Burdensome taxes were laid on personal property and polls ; the holders of large estates were exempt and the poorer people afflicted. The salaries of the officers were secured by a permanent duty on tobacco, and, worst of all, the biennial election of burgesses was abolished, so that the members of the existing assembly continued indefinitely in power. For a while Berkeley and his council outdid the tyranny of England. And then came open resistance. The people were worn out with the governor's exactions, and availed themselves of the first pretext to assert their rights by force of arms. A war with the Susquehanna In- dians furnished the occasion for an insurrection. The tribes about the head of Chesapeake Bay and along the Susquehanna had been attacked by the Senecas and driven from their homes. They, in turn, fell upon the English settlers of Maryland, and the banks of the Potomac became the scene of a border war. Virginia and Maryland made common cause against the savages. John Washington, great-grandfather of the first president of the United States, led a company of militia into the enemy's country, and compelled the Susquehannas to sue for peace. Six of their chieftains went into Virginia as ambassadors, and, to the lasting dishonor of the colony, Avere foully murdered. This atrocity maddened the savages, and a devastating warfare raged along the whole frontier. Governor Berkeley, not without some show of justice, sided with 120 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. the Indians. But the colonists remembered only the many acts of treachery and bloodshed of which the red men had before been guilty, and were determined to have revenge. In this division of sentiment among the people, the assembly and the aristocratic party took sides with the governor and favored a peace; while the popular party, disliking Berkeley and hating the Indians, resolved to overthrow him and destroy them at one blow. A leader was found in that remarkable man, Nathaniel Bacon. Young, brave, eloquent, patriotic, full of enthusiasm and energy, he became the soul and life of the popular party. His own farm in the county of Henrico had been pillaged and his tenants murdered by the savages. Exasperated by these injuries, he was the more easily urged by the public voice to accept the dangerous office of leading an insurrection. Five hundred men rushed to arms and demanded to be led against the Indians. Alarm, excitement and passion prevailed throughout the colony. The patriot forces were organized ; and without permission of a government which they had ceased to regard, the march was begun into the enemy's country. Berkeley and the aristocratic faction were enraged at this proceeding, and proclaimed Bacon a traitor. A levy of troops was made for the purpose of dispersing the rebellious militia ; but scarcely had Berkeley and his forces left Jamestown when another popular uprising in the lower counties compelled him to return. Affairs were in an uproar. Bacon came home victorious. The old assembly was unceremoniously broken up, and a new one elected on the basis of universal suffrage. Bacon was chosen a member for Henrico, and soon after elected com- mander-in-chiei of the Virginia army. The governor refused to sign his commission, and Bacon appealed to the people ; the militia again flew to arms, and Berkeley was compelled to yield. Not only was the com- mission signed, but a paper drawn up by the burgesses in commendation of Bacon's loyalty, zeal and patriotism received the executive signature and was transmitted to Parliament. Peace returned to the colony. The power of the savages was com- pletely broken. A military force was stationed on the frontier, and a sense of security returned to all the settlements. But Berkeley was petu- lant, proud and vengeful ; and it was only a question of time when the struggle would be renewed. Seizing the first opportunity, the governor left Jamestown and repaired to the county of Gloucester, on the north r-ide of York River. Here he summoned a convention of loyalists, who, contrary to his expectations and wishes, advised moderation and com- promise ; but the hot-headed old cavalier would yield no jot of his pre- rogative to what he was pleased to call a rabble, and Bacon was again proclaimed a traitor. VIRGINIA.— THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT. 121 It was evident that there must be fighting. Berkeley and his forces left Gloucester, crossed the Chesapeake Bay, and took station on the eastern shore, in the county of Accomac. Here his troops were organized ; the crews of some English ships were joined to his command, and the fleet set sail for Jamestown. The place was taken without much resistance ; but when Bacon with a few companies of patriots, drew near, the loyal forces deserted and went over to his standard. The governor with his adherents was again obliged to fly, and the capital remained in possession of the people's party. The assembly was about to assume con- trol of the government without the governor, whose flight to Accomac had been declared an abdication, when a rumor arose that an English fleet was approaching for the subjugation of the colonies. The patriot leaders held a council, and it was determined that Jamestown should be burned. Accordingly, in the dusk of the evening the torch was applied, and the only town in Virginia laid in ashes. The leading men set the example by throwing firebrands into their own houses ; others caught the spirit of sacrifice ; the flames shot up through the shadows of night ; and Governor Berkeley and his followers, on board a fleet twenty miles down the river, had tolerably fair warning that the capital of Virginia could not be used for the purposes of despotism. In this juncture of affairs Bacon fell sick and died. It was an event full of grief and disaster. The patriot party, discouraged by the loss of the heroic chieftain, was easily dispersed. A few feeble efforts were made to revive the cause of the people, but the animating spirit which had controlled and directed until now was gone. The royalists found an able leader in Robert Beverly, and the authority of the governor was rapidly restored throughout the province. The cause of the people and the leader of the people had died together. Berkeley's vindictive passions were now let loose upon the defeated insurgents. Fines and confiscations became the order of the day. The governor seemed determined to drown the memory of his own wrongs in the woes of his subjects. Twenty-two of the leading patriots were seized and hanged with scarcely time to bid their friends farewell. Thus died Thomas Hansford, the first American who gave his life for freedom. Thus perished Edmund Cheesman, Thomas Wilford and the noble Wil- liam Drummond, martyrs to liberty. Nor is it certain when the vengeful tyrant would have stayed his hand, had not the assembly met and passed an edict that no more blood should be spilt for past offences. One of the burgesses from the county of Northampton said in the debate that if the governor were let alone he would hang half the country. When Charles II. heard of Berkeley's ferocity, he exclaimed, " The old fool has taken 122 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. away more lives in that naked country than I for the murder of my father" ; and the saying was true. The history of this insurrection was for a long time reciti-d by Bacon's enemies. Until the present century no one appeared to rescue the leader's name from obloquy. In the light of after times his character will shine with a peculiar lustre. His motives were as exalted as his life was pure, and his virtues as noted as his abilities were great. His ambi- tion was for the public welfare, and his passions were only excited against the enemies of his country. The consequences of the rebellion were very disastrous. Berkeley and the aristocratic party had now a good excuse for suppressing all liberal sentiments and tendencies. The printing-press was interdicted. Educa- tion was discouraged or forbidden. To speak or to write anything against the administration or in defence of the late insurrection was made a crime to be punished by fine or whipping. If the offence should be three times repeated, it was declared to be treason punishable with death. The former tyrannical methods of taxation were revived, and Virginia was left at the mercy of arbitrary rulers. In 1675, Lord Culpepper, to whom with Arlington the province had been granted two years previously, obtained the appointment of governor for life. The right of the king was thus by his own act relin- quished, and Virginia became a proprietary government. The new execu- tive arrived in 1680 and assumed the duties of his office. His whole administration was characterized by avarice and dishonesty. Regarding Virginia as his personal estate, he treated the Virginians as his tenants and slaves. Every species of extortion was resorted to, until the mutter- ings of rebellion were again heard throughout the impoverished colony. In 1683, Arlington surrendered his claim to Culpepper, who thus became sole proprietor as well as governor ; but before he could proceed to further mischief, his official career was cut short by the act of the king. Charles II., repenting of his own rashness, found in Culpepper's vices and frauds a sufficient excuse to remove him from office and to revoke his patent. In 1684, Virginia again became a royal province, under the government of Lord Howard, of Effingham, who was succeeded by Francis Nich- olson, formerly governor of New York. His administration was sig- nalized by the founding of William and Mary College, so named in honor of the new sovereigns of England. This, next to Harvard, was the first institution of liberal learning planted in America. Here the boy Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, shall be educated ! From these halls, in the famous summer of 1776, shall be sent forth young James Monroe, future President of the United States ! 1600 ii. Gustavus Adolphus the Great. Grotius. Galileo. 18. The Thirty Years' War begins. Kepler. 48. Peace of Westphalia. 24-42. Richelieu. 43 Louis XIV. 89. Pet< Shakespeare. Bacon. 3. James VI. ) James I. j 85. Revocation 87. Habeas \ Locke. . '88t Secoi! 88. Willia of Mary, 94. V 25. Charles I. 42. The Revolution. £ giS^S^ 85 . James Milton. 49. Cromwell. 7. 9. Second Charter granted. 42. Berkeley's administration. 12. The Third Charter. 44. Indian massacre. 76. Bacon's Rebellion. 19. House of Burgesses established. 77. Virginia become; VIRGINIA colonized by the London 51. First Navigation Act. 84. Royal govt Company at Jamestown. 24. Dissolution of the London Company. 50. 19. Introduction of Slavery. John Smith, governor. 83. Seth Sothc NORTH CAEOLINA settled by the Englis 63. Grant made to Lord Clarendon. 85. Sir Joh 65. Sir John Yeamans, govern< 77. Culpepper's reb< 34. MARYLAND settled by the Catho- 91. Mr lies under Lord Baltimore. 75. Charles Calvert. 39. Representative government established. 92. L : 38. Governor Kief. 64. Taken by the English. 91. SI. 14. : NEW YORK settled by the Dutch. Berkeley and Carteret. 92. 47. Stuyvesant. 70. Lovelace. £ 56. New York City founded. 74. Edmui : 25. Minuits, governor. : 38. Wilmington settled by the Swedes. 82.:DELAWAI 23.: NEW JERSEY settled by the Dutch. 81. First General 29. NEW HAMPSHIRE settled. 30. Boston founded. 79. : New Hampshire : as a distinct colony. 20. 30. : MAINE settled. 76. King Philip's defe MASSACHUSETTS settled by the Puritans at Plymouth. 84. Massacl: 30. Winthrop, governor. 90. Firsi 38. Harvard College founded. 90. Kin 39. First printing-press set up at Cambridge. 92. Wit exc 36. : RHODE ISLAND settled by Roger Williams. : 39. Newport founded. 87. Rhode 30. 37. Pequod War. CONNECTICUT granted to the earl of Warwick. 35. Saybrook founded. 33. Hartford founded. 62. New charter granted. The 1 70. 0lH SOUTH CAROLINA Locke's Constitution adc 86. Arrival c 82. PENNS1 the Qui 92. Per 1700 the Great. Charles XII. War of the Spanish Succession. Leibnitz. 13. Peace of Utrecht. Cdict of Nantes. •us. 15. Louis XV. tevolutior. and Mary, and after the death iam III. 2. Anne. 14. George I. 27. George II. 62. Catharine II. 40. Frederick the Great. 40. War of the Austrian Succession terminated by 48. Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. 89. French Revolution. 93. Reign Voltaire. 74. Louis XVI. of Ter- ror. Dr. Johnson. Burke. 65. The Rockingham Ministry. Newton. Chatham. Pi". 55. War between France and England- * ox * 65. The Stamp Act. 60. George III. Proprietary government, aent re-established. 32. Birth of Washington. 65. The Virginia governor. 9. Arrival of the German immigrants. Lrchdale, governor. 11. The Coree War. 29. Final separation of the Carolinas. ind becomes a royal government. iel Copley. Resolutions. hter, governor. tcher. 1. Cornbury. (ellamont. Vndros. 44. Negro plot. 58. Fall of Louisburg. 32. Cosby, governor. 65. Declaration: of Rights. 54. French and Indian : War. 65. First Colonial Congress assembles at New York. leparated from New York. Jnion of East and West Jersey. ;mbly. Dr. Benjamin : Franklin. 38. Royal government established. : Jnited with Massachusetts. 41. : New Hampshire finally sepa- : 20. Introduction of tea. : rated from Mass. 67. The tea tax. ad death. 4. First newspaper. ;ts loses her charter, le of paper money \ illiam's War. 2. Queen Anne's War. •aft 10. First post-office, tent. 61. Writs of Assistance. 73. The Boston " Tea Party. 44. King George's War. 45. r 75. Lexington. louisburg taken. 74. Boston Port Bill. 68. General Gage arrives in Boston, 59. MQuebec 75. taken. 70. 1 Bunker Hill. Tumult in Boston. id joined to New York. ig of the charter. .. Yale College founded. ttled by the English. I. 2. Expedition against St. Augustine. le Huguenots. 29. Royal government established. ANIA settled by rs under Penn. ses his commission. 55. 76. Independence. Braddock's defeat. . Second Congress assem- bles at Philadelphia. 33. GEORGIA settled by the English under Oglethorpe. 52. Royal government established. MASSACHUSETTS.— SETTLEMENT. 123 After Nicholson's administration, Sir Edmund Andros, recently ex- pelled by the people of Massachusetts, assumed for a while the gov- ernment of Virginia. The affairs of the colony during the next forty or fifty years are not of sufficient interest and importance to require extended notice in an abridgment of American history. At the out- break of the French and Indian War, Virginia -will show to the world that the labors of Smith, and Gosnold, and Bacon have not been in vain. CHAPTER XIII. MASS A CHUSETTS.— SETTLEMENT. THE spring of 1621 brought a ray of hope to the distressed Pilgrims of New Plymouth. Never was the returning sun more welcome. The fatal winter had swept off one-half of the number. The son of the benevolent Carver was among the first victims of the terrible climate. The governor himself sickened and died, and the broken-hearted wife found rest in the same grave with her husband. But now, with the ap- proach of warm weather, the destroying pestilence was stayed, and the spirits of the survivors revived with the season. Out of the snows of winter, the desolations of disease, and the terrors of death the faith of the Puritan had come forth triumphant. For a while the colonists were apprehensive of the Indians. In February, Miles Standish was sent out with his soldiers to gather in- formation of the numbers and disposition of the natives. The army of New England consisted of six men besides the general. Deserted wig- wams were found here and there ; the smoke of camp-fires arose in the distance ; savages were occasionally seen in the forest. These fled, how- ever, at the approach of the English, and Standish returned to Plymouth. A month later the colonists were astonished by the sudden appear- ance in their midst of a Wampanoag Indian named Samoset. He ran into the village, offered his hand in token of friendship, and bade the strangers welcome. He gave an account of the numbers and strength of the neighboring tribes, and recited the story of a great plague by which, a few years before, the country had been swept of its inhabitants. The present feebleness and desolate condition of the natives had resulted from the fatal malady. Another Indian, by the name of Squanto, who had been carried away by Hunt in 1614, and had learned to speak English, came also to Plymouth, and confirmed what Samoset had said. 124 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. By the influence of these two natives friendly relations were at onee established with the Wampanoags. Massasoit, the great sachem of the nation, was invited to visit the settlement, and came attended by a few of his warriors. The Pilgrims received him with as much parade and ceremony as the colony could provide ; Captain Standish ordered out his soldiers, and Squanto acted as interpreter. Then and there was ratified the first treaty made in New England. The terms were few and simple. There should be peace and friendship between the whites and the red men. No injury should be done by either party to the other. All offenders should be given up to be punished. If the English engaged in .,; , /M&&%fflM&* THE TREATY BETWEEN GOVERNOR CARVER AND MASSASOIT. war, Massasoit should help them ; if the Wampanoags were attacked un- justly, the English should give aid against the common enemy. Mark that word unjustly : it contains the essence of Puritanism. The treaty thus made and ratified remained inviolate for fifty years. Other chiefs followed the example of the great sachem and entered into friendly relations with the colony. Nine of the leading tribes acknow- ledged the sovereignty of the English king. One chieftain threatened hostilities, but Standish's army obliged him to beg for mercy. Canonicus, king of the Narragansetts, sent to William Bradford, who had been chosen governor after the death of Carver, a bundle of arrows wrapped in the skin of a rattlesnake ; but the undaunted governor stuffed the skin with MASS A CHUSETTS.— SETTLEMENT. 125 powder and balls and sent it back to the chief, who did not dare to accept the dangerous challenge. The hostile emblem was borne about from tribe to tribe, until finally it was returned to Plymouth. The summer of 1621 was unfruitful, and the Pilgrims were brought to the point of starvation. To make their condition still more grievous, a new company of immigrants, without provisions or stores, arrived, and were quartered, on the colonists during the fall and winter. For six months together the settlers were obliged to subsist on half allowance. At one time only a few grains of parched corn remained to be distributed, and at another there was absolute destitution. In this state of affairs some English fishing-vessels came to Plymouth and charged the starving colo- nists two prices for food enough to keep them alive. The intruding immigrants just mentioned had been sent to America by Thomas Weston, of London, one of the projectors of the colony. They remained with the people of Plymouth until the summer of 1622, then removed to the south side of Boston Harbor and began a new settlement called Weymouth. Instead of w r orking with their might to provide against starvation, they wasted the fall in idleness, and attempted to keep up their stock of provisions by defrauding the Indians. Thus provoked to hostility, the natives formed a plan to destroy the colony ; but Massa- soit, faithful to his pledges, went to Plymouth and revealed the plot, Standish marched to Weymouth at the head of his regiment, now in- creased to eight men, attacked the hostile tribe, killed several warriors and carried home the chief's head on a pole. The tender-hearted John Robinson wrote from Leyden : " I would that you had converted some of them before you killed any." In the following spring most of the Weymouth settlers abandoned the place and returned to England. The summer of 1623 brought a plentiful harvest to the people of the older colony, and there was no longer any danger of starvation. The natives, preferring the chase, be- came dependent on the settlement for corn, and furnished in exchange an abundance of game. The main body of Pilgrims still tarried at Leyden. Robinson made unwearied efforts to bring his people to America, but the adventurers of London who had managed the enterprise would provide no further means either of money or transportation ; and now, at the end of the fourth year, there were only a hundred and eighty persons in New England. The managers had expected profitable returns, and were dis- appointed. They had expended thirty-four thousand dollars; there was neither profit nor the hope of any. Under this discouragement the proprietors made a proposition to sell out their claims to the colonists. The offer was accepted; and in November of 1627 eight of the leading 126 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. men of Plymouth purchased from the Londoners their entire interest for the sum of nine thousand dollars. Before this transfer of right was made the colony had been much vexed by the efforts of the managers to thrust on them a minister of the Established Church. Was it not to avoid this very thing that they had come to the wilds of the New "World ? Should the tyranny of the prelates follow them even across the sea and into the wilderness ? There was dis- sension and strife for a while ; the English managers withheld support ; oppression was resorted to; the stores intended for the colonists were sold to them at three prices ; and they were obliged to borrow money at sixty per cent. But no exactions could break the spirit of the Pilgrims ; and the conflict ended with the purchase of whatever rights the London proprietors had in the colony. The year 1624 was marked by the founding of a settlement at Cape Ann. John White, a Puritan minister of Dorchester, England, collected a small company of emigrants and sent them to America. The colony was established, but after two years of discouragement the cape was abandoned as a place unsuitable, and the company moved farther south to Naumkeag, afterward called Salem. Here a settlement was begun, and in 1628 was made permanent by the arrival of a second colony, in charge of John Endicott, who was chosen governor. In March of the same year the colonists obtained a patent from the Council of Plymouth ; and in 1629 Charles I. issued a charter by which the proprietors were incorporated under the name of The Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England. In July two hundred ad- ditional immigrants arrived, half of whom settled at Plymouth, while the other half removed to a peninsula on the north side of Boston Harbor and laid the foundation of Charlestown. At the first it had been decided that the charter of the colony should be left in England, and that the governor should reside there also. After further discussion, this decision was reversed, and in September it was decreed that the whole government should be transferred to America, and that the charter, as a pledge of liberty, should be entrusted to the colonists themselves. As soon as this liberal action was made known emigration began on an extensive scale. In the year 1630 about three hundred of the best Puritan families in the kingdom came to New Eng- land. Not adventurers, not vagabonds, were these brave people, but vir- tuous, well-educated, courageous men and women who for conscience' sake left comfortable homes with no expectation of returning. It was not the least of their good fortune to choose a noble leader. If ever a man was worthy to be held in perpetual remembrance, MASS A CHUSETTS.— SETTLEMENT. 127 that man was John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts. Born a royalist, he cherished the principles of republicanism. Himself an Episcopalian, he chose affliction with the Puritans. Surrounded with affluence and com- fort, he left all to share the destiny of the persecuted Pilgrims. Calm, prudent and peace- able, he joined the zeal of an enthusi- ast with the sub- lime faith of a martyr. A part of the new immi- grants settled at Salem ; others at Cambridge and Watertown, on Charles River; while others, going farther south, founded Roxbury and Dorchester. The governor, with a few of the leading families, resided for a while at Charlestown, but soon crossed the harbor to the peninsula of Shawmut and laid the foundation of Bos- ton, which became henceforth the capital of the colony and the metropolis of New England. "With the approach of winter sickness came, and the distress was very great. Many of the new-comers were refined and ten- der people who could not endure the bitter blasts of Massachusetts Bay. Coarse fare and scanty provisions added to the griefs of disease. Sleet and snow drifted through the cracks of the thin board huts where en- feebled men and delicate women moaned out their lives. Before mid- winter two hundred had perished. A few others, heartsick and despair- ing, returned to England; but there was heard neither murmur nor repining. Governor Winthrop wrote to his wife : " I like so well to be here that I do not repent my coming." At a session of the general court of the colony, held in 1631, a law was passed restricting the right of suffrage. It was enacted that none but JOHN WINTHROP. 128 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. members of the church should be permitted to vote at the colonial elec- tions. The choice of governor, deputy-governor and assistant councilors was thus placed in the hands of a small minority. Nearly three-fourths of the people were excluded from exercising the rights of freemen. Taxes were levied for the support of the gospel ; oaths of obedience to the magis- trates were required ; attendance on public worship was enforced by law ; none but church-members were eligible to offices of trust. It is strange indeed that the very men who had so recently, through perils by sea and land, escaped with only their lives to find religious freedom in another continent, should have begun their career with intolerance and proscrip- tion. The only excuse that can be found for the gross inconsistency and injustice of such legislation is that bigotry was the vice of the age rather than of the Puritans. One manly voice was lifted up against this odious statute. It was the voice of young Roger Williams, minister of Salem. To this man belongs the shining honor of being first in America or in Europe to pro- claim the full gospel of religious toleration. He declared to his people that the conscience of man may in no wise be bound by the authority of the magistrate ; that civil government has only to do with civil matters, such as the collection of taxes, the restraint and punishment of crime, and the protection of all men in the enjoyment of equal rights. For these noble utterances he was obliged to quit the ministry of the church at Salem and retire to Plymouth. Finally, in 1634, he wrote a paper in which the declaration was made that grants of land, though given by the king of England, were invalid until the natives were justly recompensed. This was equivalent to saying that the colonial charter itself was void, and that the people were really living upon the lands of the Indians. Great excitement was occasioned by the publication, and Williams consented that for the sake of public peace the paper should be burned. But he continued to teach his doctrines, saying that compulsory attendance at re- ligious worship, as well as taxation for the support of the ministry, was contrary to the teachings of the gospel. When arraigned for these bad doctrines, he crowned his offences by telling the court that a test of church-membership in a voter or a public officer was as ridiculous as the selection of a doctor of physic or the pilot of a ship on account of his skill in theology. These assertions raised such a storm in court that Williams was condemned for heresy and banished from the colony. In the dead of winter he left home and became an exile in the desolate forest. For four- teen weeks he wandered on through the snow, sleeping at night on the ground or in a hollow tree, living on parched corn, acorns and roots. He MA SSA CHTJSETTS.— SETTLEMENT. 129 carried with him one precious treasure — a private letter from Governor "Winthrop, giving him words of cheer and encouragement. Nor did the Indians fail to show their gratitude to the man who had so nobly de- fended their rights. In the country of the Wampanoags he was kindly entertained. Massasoit invited him to his cabin at Pokanoket, and KOGEH WILLIAMS' RECEPTION BY THE INDIANS. Canonicus, king of the Narragansetts, received him as a friend and brother. On the left bank of Blackstone River, near the head of Narra- gansett Bay, a resting-place was at last found ; the exile pitched his tent, and with the opening of spring planted a field and built the first house in the village of Seekonk. Soon the information came that he was still within the territory of Plymouth colony, and another removal became necessary. With five companions who had joined him in banishment, he embarked in a canoe, passed down the river and crossed to the west side of the bay. Here he was safe; his enemies could hunt him no farther. A tract of land was honorably purchased from Canonicus ; and in June of 1636, the illustrious founder of Rhode Island laid out the city of Providence. Meanwhile, his teachings were bearing fruit in Massachusetts. In 1634 a representative form of government was established against the opposition of the clergy. On election-day the voters, now numbering between three and four hundred, were called together, and the learned 130 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Cotton preached powerfully and long against the proposed change. The assembly listened attentively, and then went on with the election. To make the reform complete, a ballot-box was substituted for the old method of public voting. The restriction on the right of suffrage was the only remaining bar to a perfect system of self-government in New England. During the next year three thousand new immigrants arrived. It was worth while — so thought the people of England — to come to a country where the principles of freedom were spreading with such rapidity. The new-comers were under the leadership of Hugh Peters and Sir Henry Vane ; the former the Puritan pastor of some English exiles at Rotter- dam, in Holland, and the latter a young nobleman who afterward played an important part in the history of England. Such was his popularity with the people of Massachusetts, and such his zeal and piety, that in less than a year after his arrival he was chosen governor of the colony. By this time the settlements around Massachusetts Bay were thickly clustered. Until new homes should be found there was no room for the immigrants who were constantly coming. To enlarge the frontier, to plunge into the wilderness and find new places of abode, became a necessity. One little company of twelve families, led by Simon Willard and Peter Bulkeley, marched through the woods until they came to some open meadows sixteen miles from Boston, and there laid the foundations of Concord. A little later in the same year, another colony of sixty per- sons left the older settlements and pressed their way westward as far as the Connecticut River. The march itself was a grievous hardship, but greater toils and sufferings were in store for the adventurous company. A dreadful winter overtook them in their new homes but half provided. Some died ; others, disheartened, waded back through the dreary untrod- den snows and came half famished to Plymouth and Boston; but the rest, with true Puritan heroism, outbraved the Avinter and triumphed over the pangs of starvation. Spring brought a recompense for hardship : the heroic pioneers crept out of their miserable huts to become the founders of Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield, the oldest towns in the Con- necticut valley. The banishment of Roger Williams, instead of bringing peace, brought strife and dissension to the people of Massachusetts. The minis- ters were stern and exacting. Every shade of popular belief was closely scrutinized; the slightest departure from orthodox doctrines was met with a charge of heresy, and to be a heretic was to become an outcast. Still, the advocates of free opinion multiplied. The clergy, notwithstand- : ng their great influence among the people, felt insecure. Religious de~ MASS A CHUSETTS.— SETTLEMENT. 131 MAP OF EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN NEW ENGLAND. bates became the order of the day. Every sermon had to pass the ordeal of review and criticism. Most prominent among those who were said to be "as bad as Roger Williams, or worse," was Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, a woman of genius who had come over in the ship with Sir Henry Vane. She de- sired the privilege of speaking at the weekly debates, and was refused. Women had no business at these assemblies, said the elders. Indignant at this, she became the champion of her sex, and declared that the minis- ters who were defrauding women of the gospel were no better than Phari- sees. She called meetings of her friends, spoke much in public, and pleaded with great fervor for the full freedom of conscience. The liberal doctrines of the exiled Williams were reaffirmed with more power and eloquence than ever. Many of the magistrates were converted to the new beliefs ; the governor himself espoused the cause of Mrs. Hutchinson ; and a majority of the people of Boston inclined to her opinions. For a while there was a reign of discord ; but as soon as Sir Henry's term of office expired a call was issued for a meeting of the synod of New England. The body convened in August of 1637; a 132 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. decree was proposed; Mrs. Hutchinson and her friends were declared unfit for the society of Christians, and banished from the territory of Massachusetts. With a large number of friends the exiles wended their way toward the home of Roger AVilliams. Miantonomoh, a Narragansett chieftain, made them a gift of the beautiful island of Rhode Island; there, in the month of March, 1641, a little republic was established, in whose constitution freedom of conscience was guaranteed and persecution for opinion's sake forbidden. The year 1636 was an important epoch in the history of Massa- chusetts. The general court of the colony passed an act appropriating between one and two thousand dollars to found and endow a college. The measure met with popular favor; the Puritans were an educated people, and were quick to appreciate the advantages of learning. ' New- town was selected as the site of the proposed school. Plymouth and Salem gave gifts to help the enterprise ; and from villages in the Con- necticut valley came contributions of corn and wampum. In 1638, John Harvard, a young minister of Charlestown, died, bequeathing his library and nearly five thousand dollars to the school. To perpetuate the memory of the noble benefactor the new institution was named Harvard Col- lege ; and in honor of the place where the leading men of Massachusetts had been educated, the name of Newtown was changed to Cambridge. Thus early did the people of New England stamp their approval on the cause of education. In spite of sterile soil and desolate landscapes — in spite of destroying climate and wasting diseases — in spite even of superstition and bigotry — the people who educate will ever be great and free. The printing-press came also. In 1638, Stephen Daye, an English printer, arrived at Boston, bringing a font of types, and in the following year set up a press at Cambridge. The first American publica- tion was an almanac calculated for New England, and bearing date of 1639. During the next year, Thomas Welde and John Eliot, two minis- ters of Roxbury, and Richard Mather, of Dorchester, translated the Hebrew Psalms into English verse, and published their rude work in a volume of three hundred pages — the first book printed on this side of the Atlantic. The rapid growth of Massachusetts now became a source of alarm to the English government. Those liberal principles of religion and politics which were openly avowed and gloried in by the citizens of the new commonwealth were hateful to Charles I. and his ministers. The archbishop of Canterbury was much offended. Something must be done to check the further growth of the Puritan colonies. The first MASSACHUSETTS.— THE UNION. 133 measure which suggested itself was to stop emigration. For this purpose an edict was issued as early as 1 634, but was of no effect. The officers of the government neglected to enforce the law. Four years later, more vigorous measures were adopted. A squadron of eight vessels, ready to sail from London, was detained by the royal authority. Many of the most prominent Puritan families in England were on board of these ships. Historians of high rank have asserted — but without sufficient proof — that John Hampden and Oliver Cromwell were of the number who were turned back by the detention. At all events, it would have been the part of wisdom in King Charles to allow all Puritans to leave his realm as fast as possible. By detaining them in England he only made sure the Revolution, and by so much hastened his own downfall. CHAPTER XIV. MASSACHUSETTS.— THE UNION. "VTEW ENGLAND was fast becoming a nation. Wellnigh fifty towns ■*-' and villages dotted the face of the country. Nearly a million of dollars had been spent in settling and developing the new State. Enter- prises of all kinds were rife. Manufactures, commerce and the arts were rapidly introduced. William Stephens, a shipbuilder who came with Governor Winthrop to Boston, had already built and launched an Ameri- can vessel of four hundred tons burden. Before 1640, two hundred and ninety-eight emigrant ships had anchored in Massachusetts Bay. Twenty- one thousand two hundred people, escaping from English intolerance of Church or State, had found home and rest between Plymouth Rock and the Connecticut valley. It is not wonderful that the colonists began to cast about them for better political organization and more ample forms of government. Many circumstances impelled the colonies to union. First of all, there was the natural desire of men to have a regular and permanent government. England, torn and distracted with civil war, could do nothing for or against her colonies; they must take care of themselves. Here was the western frontier exposed to the hostilities of the Dutch towns on the Hudson ; Connecticut alone could not defend herself. Similar trouble was apprehended from the French on the north; the 134 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. English settlements on the Piscataqua were weak and defenceless. In- dian tribes capable of mustering a thousand warriors were likely at any hour to fall upon remote and helpless villages ; the prevalence of common interests and the necessities of common defence made a union of some sort indispensable. The first effort to consolidate the colonies was ineffectual. Two years later, in 1639, the project was renewed, but without success. Again, in 1643, a measure of union was brought forward and finally adopted. By the terms of this compact, Massachusetts, Plymouth, Con- necticut and New Haven were joined in a loose confederacy, called The United Colonies of New England. The chief authority was con- ferred upon a general assembly, or congress, composed of two representa- tives from each colony. These delegates were chosen annually at an election where all the freemen voted by ballot. There was no president other than the speaker of the assembly, and he had no executive powers. Each community retained, as before, its separate local existence ; and all subordinate questions of legislation were reserved to the respective colo- nies. Only matters of general interest — such as Indian affairs, the levy- ing of troops, the raising of revenues, declarations of war and treaties of peace — were submitted to the assembly. Provision was made for the admission of other colonies into the union, but none were ever admitted. The English settlement on the Piscataqua was rejected because of heterodoxy in religion. The Provi- dence Plantations were refused for similar reasons. Should Roger Wil- liams return to plague an assembly where an approved church-member- ship was the sole qualification for office? The little island of Rhode Island, with its Jewish republic, also knocked for admission ; Anne Hutchinson's commonwealth was informed that Plymouth colony had rightful jurisdiction there, and that heresy was a bar to all petitions. Until the year 1641 the people of Massachusetts had had no regular code of laws. At a meeting of the assembly in December of this year, Nathaniel Ward brought forward a written instrument which, after ma- ture deliberation, was adopted as the constitution of the State. This fundamental statute was called the Body of Liberties, and was ever afterward esteemed as the great charter of colonial freedom. It may be doubted whether any other primitive constitution, either ancient or modern, contains more wisdom than this early code of Massachusetts. A further modification in the government was effected in 1644. Until this time the representatives of the people had sat and voted in the same hall with the governor and his assistant magistrates. It was now decreed that the two bodies should sit apart, each with its own officers MASSACHUSETTS.— THE UNION. 135 and under its own management. By this measure the people's branch of the legislature was made independent and of equal authority with the governor's council. Thus step by step were the safeguards of liberty established and regular forms of government secured. The people of Massachusetts were little grieved on account of the English Revolution. It was for them a vindication and a victory. The triumph of Parliament over King Charles was the triumph of Puritanism both in England and America. Massachusetts had no cause to fear so long as the House of Commons was crowded with her friends and patrons. But in the hour of victory the American Puritans showed themselves more magnanimous than those of the mother-country ; when Charles I., the enemy of all colonial liberties, was brought to the block, the people of New England, whose fathers had been exiled by his father, lamented his tragic fate and preserved the memory of his virtues. During the supremacy of the Long Parliament several acts were passed which put in peril the interests of Massachusetts, but by a prudent and far-sighted policy all evil results were avoided. Powerful friends, especially Sir Henry Vane, stood up in Parliament and defended the colony against the intrigues of her enemies. Ambassadors, men of age and experience, went often to London to plead for colonial rights. Soon after the abolition of monarchy a statute was made which threatened for a while the complete subversion of the new State. Massachusetts was in- vited to surrender her charter, to receive a new instrument instead, and to hold courts and issue writs in the name of Parliament. The measure seemed fair enough, but the people of New England were too cautious to stake their all on the fate of a Parliament whose power was already waning. The requisition was never complied with. Cromwell did not insist on the surrender ; no one else had power to enforce the act ; and Massachusetts retained her charter. The Protector was the constant friend of the American colonies. Even Virginia, though slighting his authority, found him just as well as severe. The people of New England were his special favorites. To them he was bound by every tie of political and religious sympathy. For more than ten years, when he might have been an oppressor, he continued the benefactor, of the English in America. During his administration the northern colonies were left in the full enjoyment of their coveted rights. In commerce, in the industry of private life, and especially in religion, the people of Massachusetts were as free as the people of England. In the year 1652, it was decreed by the general court at Boston that the jurisdiction of the province extended as far north as three miles above the most northerly waters of the river Merrimac. This declaration, 136 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. which was in strict accordance with the charter of the colony, was made for the purpose of annexing Maine to Massachusetts. By this measure the territory of the latter State was extended to Casco Bay. Settlements had been made on the Piscataqua as early as 1626, but had not flourished. Thirteen years later a royal charter was issued to Sir Ferdinand Gorges, a member of the Council of Plymouth, who became proprietor of the province. His cousin, Thomas Gorges, was made deputy-governor. A high-sounding constitution, big enough for an empire, was drawn up, and the little village of Gorgeana, afterward York, became the capital of the kingdom. Meanwhile, in 1630, the Plymouth Council had granted to another corporation sixteen hundred square miles of the territory around Casco Bay, and this claim had been purchased by Bigby, a republican member of Parliament. Between his deputies and those of Gorges violent disputes arose. The villagers of Maine, sympathizing with neither party, and emulous of the growth and prosperity of the southern colonies, laid their grievances before the court at Boston, and the annexation of the province followed. In July of 1656, the Quakers began to arrive at Boston. The first who came were Ann Austin and Mary Fisher. The introduction of the plague would have occasioned less alarm. The two women were caught and searched for marks of witchcraft, their trunks were broken open, their books were burned by the hangman, and they themselves thrown into prison. After several weeks' confinement they were brought forth and banished from the colony. Before the end of the year eight others had been arrested and sent back to England. The delegates of the union were immediately convened, and a rigorous law was passed, excluding all Quakers from the country. Whipping, the loss of one ear and banish- ment were the penalties for the first offence; after a second conviction the other ear should be cut off; and should the criminal again return, his tongue should be bored through with a red-hot iron. In 1657, Ann Burden, who had come from London to preach against persecution, was seized and beaten with twenty stripes. Others came, were whipped and exiled. As the law became more cruel and prescriptive, fresh victims rushed forward to brave its terrors. The assembly of the four colonies again convened, and advised the authorities of Massachusetts to pronounce the penalty of death against the fanatical disturbers of the public peace. When the resolutions embodying this ad- vice was put before the assembly, to his everlasting honor, the younger Winthrop, delegate from Connecticut, voted No! Massachusetts ac- cepted the views of the greater number, and the death-penalty was passed by a majority of one vote. MASSACHUSETTS.— THE UNION. 137 In September of 1659, four persons were arrested and brought to trial under this law. The prisoners were given the option of going into exile or of being hanged. Two of them (Mary Dyar and Nicholas Davis) chose banishment ; but the other two (Marmaduke Stephenson and Wil- liam Robinson) stood firm, denounced the wickedness of the court, and were sentenced to death. Mary Dyar, in whom the love of martyrdom had triumphed over fear, now returned, and was also condemned. On the 27th of October the three were led forth to execution. The men were hanged without mercy ; and the woman, after the rope had been adjusted to her neck, was reprieved only to be banished. She was con- veyed beyond the limits of the colony, but immediately returned and was executed. William Leddra was next seized, tried and sentenced. As in the case of the others, he was offered perpetual exile instead of death. He refused, and was hanged. Before the trial of Leddra was concluded, Wenlock Christison, who had already been banished, rushed into the court-room and began to upbraid the judges for shedding the blood of the innocent. When put on his second trial, he spoke boldly in his own defence ; but the jury brought in a verdict of guilty, and he was condemned to die. Others, eager for the honor of martyrdom, came forward in crowds, and the jails were filled with voluntary prisoners. But before the day arrived for Christison's exe- cution, the public conscience was aroused; the law was repealed, the prison- doors were opened, and Christison, with twenty-seven companions, came forth free. The bloody reign of proscription had ended, but not until four innocent enthusiasts had given their lives for liberty of conscience. But let a veil be drawn over this sorrowful event. The history of all times is full of scenes of violence and wrong. It could not be ex- pected that an American colony, founded by exiles, pursued with malice and beset with dangers, should be wholly exempt from the shame of evil deeds. The Puritans established a religious rather than a civil common- wealth ; whatever put the faith of the people in peril seemed to them more to be dreaded than pestilence or death. To ward off heresy, even by destroying the heretic, seemed only a natural self-defence. A nobler lesson lias been learned in the light of better times. The English Revolution had now run its course. Cromwell was dead. The Commonwealth tottered and fell. Charles II. was restored to the throne of his ancestors. Tidings of the Restoration reached Boston on the 27th of July, 1660. In the same vessel that bore the news came Edward Whalley and William Goffe, two of the judges who had passed sentence of death on Charles I. It was now their turn to save their lives by flight. Governor Endicott received them with courtesy ; the agents 138 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. from the British government came in hot pursuit with orders to arrest them. For a while the fugitives, aided by the people of Boston, baffled the officers, and then escaped to New Haven. Here for many weeks they lay in concealment ; not even the Indians would accept the reward which was offered for their apprehension. At last the exiles reached the valley of the Connecticut and found refuge at the village of Hadley, where they passed the remainder of their lives. It was in October of this same fatal year that Hugh Peters, the old friend of the colony, the father- in-law of the younger Winthrop, was hanged at London. The noble Sir Henry Vane was hunted down in Holland, surrendered to the English government, condemned and beheaded. Owing to the partiality of Cromwell, the restrictions on colonial commerce which bore so heavily on Virginia were scarcely felt by Massa- chusetts. On the restoration of monarchy a severer policy was at once adopted. All vessels not bearing the English flag were forbidden to enter the harbors of New England. A law of exportation was enacted by which all articles produced in the colonies and demanded in England should be shipped to England only. Such articles of American produc- tion as the English merchants did not desire might be sold in any of the ports of Europe. The law of importation was equally odious; such articles as were produced in England should not be manufactured in America, and should bo bought from England only. Free trade between the colonies was forbidden ; and a duty of five per cent., levied for the benefit of the English king, was put on both exports and imports. Human ingenuity could hardly have invented a set of measures better calculated to produce an American Kevoeution. In 1664, war broke out between England and Holland. It became a part of the English military plans to reduce the Dutch settlements on the Hudson ; and for this purpose a fleet was sent to America. But there was another purpose also. Charles II. was anxious to obtain control of the New England colonies, that he might govern them according to the principles of arbitrary power. The chief obstacle to this undertaking was the charter of Massachusetts — an instrument given under the great seal of England, and not easily revoked. To accomplish the same end by other means was now the object of the king ; and with this end in view four commissioners were appointed with instructions to go to America, to sit in judgment upon all matters of complaint that might arise in New England, to settle colonial disputes, and to take such other measures as might seem most likely to establish peace and good order in the country. The royal commissioners embarked in the British fleet, and in July ar- rived at Boston. MASSACHUSETTS.— KING PHILIP'S WAR. 139 They were not wanted at Boston. The people of Massachusetts knew very well that the establishment of this supreme judgeship in their midst was a flagrant violation of their chartered right of self-government. Before the commissioners landed the patent was put into the hands of a committee for safe keeping. A decree of the general court forbade the citizens to answer any summons issued by the royal judges. A powerful letter, full of loyalty and manly protests, was sent directly to the king. The commissioners became disgusted with the treatment which they re- ceived at the hands of the refractory colony, and repaired to Maine and !New Hampshire. Here they were met with some marks of favor ; but their official acts were disregarded and soon forgotten. In Rhode Island the judges were received with great respect, and their decisions accepted as the decisions of the king. The towns of Connecticut were next visited ; but the people were cold and indifferent, and the commissioners retired. Meanwhile, the English monarch, learning how his grand judges had been treated, sent a message of recall, and before the end of the year they gladly left the country. After a gallant fight, Massachusetts had preserved her liberties. Left in the peaceable enjoyment of her civil rights, she entered upon a new career of prosperity which, for a period of ten years, was marked with no calamity. CHAPTER XV. MASSACHUSETTS.— KING PHILIP'S WAR. MASSASOIT, the old sachem of the Wampanoags, died in 1662. For forty-one years he had faithfully kept the treaty made by himself with the first settlers at Plymouth. His elder son, Alexander, now be- came chief of the nation, but died within the year ; and the chieftainship descended to the younger brother, Philip of Mount Hope. It was the fate of this brave and able man to lead his people in a final and hope- less struggle against the supremacy of the whites. Causes of war had existed for many years, and the time had come for the conflict, The unwary natives of New England had sold their lands. The English were the purchasers ; the chiefs had signed the deeds ; the price had been fairly paid. Year by year the territory of the tribes had nar- rowed ; the old men died, but the deeds remained and the lands could not be recovered. There were at this time in the country east of the 140 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Hudson not more than twenty-five thousand Indians; the English had increased to fully twice that number. A new generation had arisen who could not understand the validity of the old titles. The young warriors sighed for the freedom of their fathers' hunting-grounds. They looked with ever-increasing jealousy on the growth of English villages and the spread of English farms. The ring of the foreigner's axe had scared the game out of the forest, and the foreigner's net had scooped the fishes from the red man's river. Of all their ancient domain, the Wampanoags had nothing left but the two narrow peninsulas of Bristol and Tiverton, on the eastern coast of Narragansett Bay. There were personal grievances also. While Alexander lived he had been arrested, tried by an English jury and imprisoned. He had caught his death-fever in a Boston jail. Another chieftain was appre- hended in a similar way ; and then the Indian witness who appeared at the trial was murdered for giving testimony. The perpetrators of this crime were seized by the English, convicted and hanged. Perhaps King Philip, if left to himself, would have still sought peace. He was not a rash man, and clearly foresaw the inevitable issue of the struggle. He hesitated, and was affected with great grief when the news came that an Englishman had been killed. But the young men of the tribe were thirsting for bloody revenge, and could no longer be restrained. The women and children were hastily sent across the bay and put under the protection of Canonchet, king of the Narragansetts. On the 24th of June, 1675, the village of Swanzey was attacked ; eight Englishmen were killed; and the alarm of war sound- ed through the colonies. Within a week the militia of Plymouth, joined by volunteer com- panies from Boston, entered the enemy's country. A few Indians were overtaken and killed. The troops marched into the peninsula of Bristol, reached Mount Hope, and compelled Philip to fly for his life. With a band of fugitives numbering five or six hundred, he escaped to Tiverton, on the eastern side of the bay. Here, a few days afterward, they were attacked ; but lying concealed in a swamp, they beat back their assailants with considerable loss. The place was then sur- FIRST SCENE OF KING PHILIP S WAR. MASSACHUSETTS.— KING PHILIP'S WAR. 141 rounded and besieged for two weeks; but Philip and his men, when brought to the point of starvation, managed to escape in the night, crossed the bay and fled to the country of the Nipmucks, in Central Massa- chusetts. Here the king and his warriors became the heralds of a general war. The slumbering hatred of the savages was easily kindled into open hostility. For a whole year the scattered settlements of the frontier be- came a scene of burning, massacre and desolation. After Philip's flight from Tiverton, the English forces marched into the country of the Narragansetts. Here the women and children of the Wampanoags had been received and sheltered. The wavering Canon- chet was given his choice of peace or war. He cowered before the Eng- lish muskets and signed a treaty, agreeing that his nation should observe neutrality and deliver up all fugitives from the hostile tribe. Still, it was only a question of time when the Narragansetts would break their covenant and espouse the cause of Philip. The war was now transferred to the Connecticut valley. It had been hoped that the Nipmucks would remain loyal to the English ; but the influence of the exiled chieftain prevailed with them to take up arms. As usual with savages, treachery was added to hos- tility. Captains Wheeler and Hutchinson, with a company of twenty men, were sent to Brookfield to hold a conference with ambassadors from the Nip- muck nation. Instead of preparing for the council, the Indians laid an ambush near the village, and w r hen the English were well surrounded, fired upon them, killing nearly the whole company. A few survivors, escaping to the settlement, gave the alarm, and the people fled to their block-house just in time to save their lives. For two days the place was assailed with every missile that savage ingenuity could invent. Finally, the house was fired with burning arrows, and the destruction of all seemed certain ; but just as the roof began to blaze, the friendly clouds poured down a shower of rain, and the flames were extinguished. Then came reinforcements from Spring- field, and the Indians fled. The people of Brookfield now abandoned their homes and sought refuge in the towns along the river. On the 26th of August, a battle was fought in the outskirts of Deerfield. The whites were successful ; but a few days afterward the savages succeeded in firing the village, and the greater part of it was burned to the ground. A storehouse containing the recently-gathered harvests was saved, and SECOND SCENE OF KING PHILIP'S WAR. 142 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Captain Lathrop, with a company of eighty picked men, undertook the dangerous task of removing the stores to Hadley. A train of wagons, loaded with wheat and corn and guarded by the soldiers, left Deerfield on the 18th of September, and had proceeded five miles, when they were suddenly surrounded by eight hundred Indians who lay in ambush at the ford of a small creek. The whites fought desperately, and were killed almost to a man. Meanwhile, Captain Mosely, at the head of seventy militia, arrived, and the battle continued, the English retreating until they were reinforced by a band of a hundred and sixty English and Mohegans. The savages were then beaten back with heavy losses. The little stream where this fatal engagement occurred, was henceforth called Bloody Brook. On the same day of the burning of Deerfield, Hadley was attacked while the people were at church. Everything was in confusion, and the barbarians had already begun their work of butchery, when the gray- haired General Goffe, who was concealed in the village, rushed forth from his covert, and by rallying and directing the flying people saved them from destruction. After the Indians had been driven into the woods, the aged veteran went back to his hiding-place, and was seen no more. Late in the autumn, a battle was fought at Springfield ; the town was assaulted and most of the dwellings burned. Another attack was made on Hadley, and a large part of the village was left in ashes. Hatfield was the next object of savage vengeance ; but here the English were found prepared, and the Indians were repulsed with heavy losses. The farms and the weaker settlements were now abandoned, and the people sought shelter in the stronger towns near the river. Philip, finding that he could do no further harm on the northern frontier, gathered his warriors together and repaired to the Narragansetts. By receiving them, Canonchet openly violated his treaty with the Eng- lish, but to refuse them was contrary to the savage virtues of his race. To share the dubious fate of Philip w r as preferred to the longer con- tinuance of a hateful alliance with foreigners. The authorities of Massa- chusetts immediately declared war against the Narragansett nation, and Rhode Island w r as invaded by a thousand men under command of Colonel Josiah Winslow. It was the determination to crush the Wampanoags and the Narragansetts at one blow ; the manner of defence adopted by the savages favored such an undertaking. In the middle of an immense cedar swamp, a short distance south-west of Kingston, in the county of Washington, the Indians collected to the number of three thousand. Into this place was gathered the whole wealth of the Narragansett nation. A village of wigwams extended over several acres of land that rose out MASSACHUSETTS.— KING PHILIP'S WAR. 143 of the surrounding morasses. A fort was built on the island, and fortified with a palisade and a breastwork of felled timber. Here the savages be- lieved themselves secure from assault. The English regiment arrived at the swamp at daybreak on the 19th of December, and struggling through the bogs, reached the fort at noonday. The attack was made imme- diately. The only entrance to the camp was by means of a fallen tree that lay from an opening in the palisade to the opposite bank of a pond. Over this hazardous passage a brave few sprang forward, but were in- stantly swept off by the fire of the Indians. Another company, made cautious by the fate of their com- rades, crept around the defences, un- til, finding a point unguarded, they charged straight into the enclosure. The work of death and destruction now began in earnest. The wigwams TH ir D scene of king philip's war. were set on fire, and the kindling flames swept around the village. The yells of the combatants mingled with the roar of the conflagration. But the superior discipline and valor of the whites soon decided the battle. The Indians, attempting to escape from the burning fort, ran everywhere upon the loaded muskets of the English. A thousand warriors were killed and hundreds more were captured. Nearly all the wounded perished in the flames. There, too, the old men, the women and babes of the nation met the horrors of death by fire. The pride of the Narragansetts had perished in a day. But the victory was dearly purchased ; eighty English soldiers, including six captains of the regiment, were killed, and a hundred and fifty others were wounded. A few of the savages, breaking through the English lines, escaped. Led by Philip, they again repaired to the Nipmucks, and with the open- ing of spring the war was renewed with more violence than ever. As their fortunes declined the Indians grew desperate; they had nothing more to lose. Around three hundred miles of frontier, extending from Maine to the mouth of the Connecticut, there was massacre and devasta- tion. Lancaster, Medfield, Groton and Marlborough were laid in ashes. Weymouth, within twenty miles of Boston, met the same fate. Every- where were seen the traces of rapine and murder. But the end was near at hand. The resources of the savages were wasted, and their numbers grew daily less. In April, Canonchet was overtaken and captured on the banks of the Blackstone. He was offered 144 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. his life if lie would procure a treaty of peace ; but the haughty chieftain rejected the proposal with disdain, and was put to death. Philip was still at large, but his company had dwindled to a handful.' In the early sum- mer, his wife and son were made prisoners ; the latter was sold as a slave, and ended his life under the lash of a taskmaster in the Bermudas. The savao-e monarch was heartbroken now, and cared no longer for his life. Repairing secretly to his old home at Mount Hope, his place of conceal- ment was revealed to the whites. A company of soldiers was sent to sur- round him. A treacherous Indian guided the party to the spot, and then himself, stealing nearer, took a deadly aim at the breast of his chieftain. The report of a musket rang through the forest, and the painted king of the Wampanoags sprang forward and fell dead. New England suffered terribly in this war. The expenses and losses of the war amounted to fully five hundred thousand dollars. Thirteen towns and six hundred dwellings lay smouldering in ashes. Almost every family had heard the war-whoop of - the savages. Six hundred men, the flower and pride of the country, had fallen in the field. Hundreds of families had been butchered in cold blood. Gray-haired sire, mother and babe had sunk together under the vengeful blow of the red man's gory tomahawk. Now there was peace again. The Indian race was swept out of New England. The tribes beyond the Connecticut came humbly submissive, and pleaded for their lives. The colonists re- turned to their desolated farms and villages to build new homes in the ashes of old ruins. The echo of King Philip's war had hardly died away before the country was involved in troubles of a different sort. It had been ex- pected that the English government would do something to repair the heavy losses which the colonists had sustained ; but not so. Instead of help came Edward Randolph, a royal emissary, with authority to collect duties and abridge colonial liberties. Governor Leverett received him coldly, and told him in plain words that not even the king could right- fully restrict the freedom of his American subjects ; that the people of the colonies had finished the Indian war without a -cent of expense to the English treasury, and that they were now fairly entitled to the enjoyment of their chartered rights. After a six weeks' sojourn at Boston, Randolph sailed back to London, bearing to the ministry an exaggerated account of colonial arrogance. The king was already scheming to revoke all the New England charters ; Randolph's reception furnished a further pretext for such a course of action. The next trouble was concerning the jurisdiction of Maine. Sir Ferdinand Gorges, the old j)roprietor of that province, was now dead ; MASSACHUSETTS.— KING PHILIP'S WAR. 145 but his heirs had never relinquished their claims to the territory. The people of Maine had meanwhile put themselves uuder the authority of Massachusetts ; but the representatives of Gorges carried the matter before the privy council, and in 1677 a decision was rendered in their favor. Thereupon the Boston government made a proposition to the Gorges family to purchase their claims ; the proposition was accepted, and on the 6th of May the heirs signed a deed by which, in consideration of twelve hundred and fifty pounds sterling, the soil and jurisdiction of the province were transferred to Massachusetts. A similar difficulty arose in regard to New Hampshire. As far back as 1622 the Plymouth council had granted this territory to two of their own number — Gorges, just mentioned, and Captain John Mason. Seven years after the grant was made, Gorges surrendered his claim to Mason, who thus became sole proprietor. But this territory was also covered by the charter of Massachusetts. Mason died; and now, in 1679, his son Robert came forward and claimed the province. This cause was also taken before the ministers, who decided that the title of the younger Mason was valid. To the great disappointment of the people of both provinces, the two governments were arbitrarily separated. The king's policy was now made manifest. A royal government, the first in New England, was immediately established over New Hampshire; Mason nominated Edward Cranfield as governor, the king confirmed the ap- pointment, and received in return one-fifth of all the rents. But the people took care that the rents should not amount to much. They refused to recognize Cranfield's commission, and thwarted his plans in every way possible. Being in despair, he wrote to the English govern- ment that he would esteem it the greatest happiness to return home and leave the unreasonable people of New Hampshire to themselves. The king attributed all this trouble to the influence of Massachusetts. He could not forget how that commonwealth had treated his custom-house officer Randolph. The hostility of the English government to the exist- ing order of things in New England became more bitter than ever. To carry out his plan of subverting the colonial governments, the king directed his judges to make an inquiry as to whether Massachusetts had not forfeited her charter. The proceedings were protracted until the summer of 1684, when the royal court gave a decision in accordance with the monarch's wishes. The patent was forfeited, said the judges; and the English crown might justly assume entire control of the colony. The plan of the king was thus on the point of realization, but the shadow of death was already at his door. On the 6th of February, 1685, his evil reign of twenty-five years ended with his life. 10 146 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. The new sovereign, James II., immediately adopted his brother's colonial policy. In the next year after his accession, the scheme so long entertained was successfully carried out. The charter of Massachusetts was formally revoked ; all the colonies between Nova Scotia and Narra- gansett Bay were consolidated, and Joseph Dudley appointed president. New England was not prepared for open resistance ; the colonial assembly was dissolved by its own act, and the members returned sullenly to their homes. In the winter following, Dudley was superseded by Sir Edmund Andros, who had been appointed royal governor of all New England. His commission ought to have been entitled An Article for the Destruction of Colonial Liberty. If James II. had searched his kingdom, he could hardly have found a tool better fitted to do his will. The scarlet-coated despot landed at Boston on the 20th of December, and at once began the work of demolishing the cherished institutions of the people. Randolph was made chief secretary and censor of the press; nothing might be printed without his sanction. Popular representation was abolished. Voting by ballot was prohibited. Town meetings were forbidden. The Church of England was openly encouraged. The public schools were allowed to go to ruin. Men were arrested without warrant of law ; and when as prisoners they arose in court to plead the privileges of the great English charter which had stood unquestioned for four hun- dred and fifty years, they were told that the Great Charter was not made for the perverse people of America. Dudley, who had been continued in office as chief-justice, was in the habit of saying to his packed juries, at the close of each trial : " Now, worthy gentlemen, we expect a good ver- dict from you to-day j" and the verdicts were rendered accordingly. Thus did Massachusetts lose her liberty; and Plymouth fared no better. If the stronger colony fell prostrate, what could the weaker do ? The despotism of Andros was quickly extended from Cape Cod Bay to the Piscataqua. New Hampshire was next invaded and her civil rights completely overthrown. Rhode Island suifered the same calamity. In May of 1686 her charter was taken away with a writ, and her constitu- tional rights subverted. Some of the colonists brought forward Indian deeds for their lands ; the royal judges replied, with a sneer, that the sig- nature of Massasoit was not worth as much as the scratch of a bear's paw. The seal of Rhode Island was broken, and an irresponsible council ap- pointed to conduct the government. Attended by an armed guard, Andros proceeded to Connecticut. Arriving at Hartford in October of 1687, he found the assembly of the province in session, and demanded the surren- der of the colonial charter. The instrument was brought in and laid upon the table. A spirited debate ensued, and continued until evening. When MASSACHUSETTS.— WAR AND WITCHCRAFT. 147 it was about to be decided that the charter should be given up, the lamps were suddenly dashed out. Other lights were brought in ; but the char- ter had disappeared. Joseph Wadsworth, snatching up the precious parchment, bore it off through the darkness and concealed it in a hollow tree, ever afterward remembered with affection as The Chaeter Oak. But the assembly was overawed and the free government of Connecticut subverted. Thus was the authority of Andros established throughout the country. The people gave vent to their feelings by calling him The Tyrant of New England. But his dominion ended suddenly. The English Revolution of 1688 was at hand. James II. was driven from his throne and kingdom. The entire system of arbitrary rule which that monarch had established fell with a crash, and Andros with the rest. The news of the revolution and of the accession of William and Mary reached Boston on the 4th of April, 1689. A few days afterward, the governor had occasion to write a note to his colonel of militia, telling him to keep the soldiers under arms, as there was "a general buzzing among the people." On the 18th of the month, the citizens of Charlestown and Boston rose in open rebel- lion. Andros and his minions, attempting to escape, were seized and marched to prison. The insurrection spread through the country; and before the 10th of May every colony in New England had restored its former liberties. CHAPTER XVI. MASSACHUSETTS — WAR AND WITCHCRAFT. IN 1689, war was declared between France and England. This con- flict, known in American history as King William's War, grew out of the English Revolution of the preceding year. When James II. escaped from his kingdom, he found refuge at the court of Louis XIV. of France. The two monarchs were both Catholics, and both held the same despotic theory of government. On this account, and from other considerations, an alliance was made between them, by the terms of which Louis agreed to support James in his effort to recover the English throne. Parliament, meanwhile, had settled the crown on William of Orange. By these means the new sovereign w r as brought into conflict not only with the exiled James, but also with his confederate, the king of France. 148 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. The war which thus originated in Europe soon extended to the American colonies of the two nations ; New England and New France entered the conflict under the flags of their respective countries. The struggle began on the north-eastern frontier of New Hamp- shire. On the 27th of June, a party of Indians in alliance with the French made an attack on Dover. The venerable magistrate of the town, Richard Waldron, now eighty years of age, was inhumanly mur- dered. Twenty-three others were killed, and twenty-nine dragged off captive into the wilderness. In August a war-party of a hundred Abenakis embarked in a fleet of canoes, floated out of the mouth of the Penobscot, and steered down the coast to Pemaquid, now Bremen. The inhabitants were taken by surprise ; a company of farmers were surrounded in the harvest-field and murdered. The fort was besieged for two days and compelled to sur- render. A few of the people escaped into the woods, but the greater number were killed or carried away captive. A month later an alliance was effected between the English and the powerful Mohawks west of the Hudson ; but the Indians refused to make war upon their countrymen of Maine. The Dutch settlements of New Netherland, having now passed under the dominion of England, made common cause against the French. In January of 1690 a regiment of French and Indians left Montreal and directed their march to the south. Crossing the Mohawk River, they arrived on the 8th of February at the village of Schenectady. Lying concealed in the forest until midnight, they stole through the unguarded gates, raised the war-whoop and began the work of death. The town was soon in flames. Sixty people were killed and scalped ; the rest, escaping half clad into the darkness, ran sixteen miles through the snow to Albany. The settlement of Salmon Falls, on the Piscataqua, was next attacked and destroyed by a war-party led by the Frenchman Hertel. Joining another company from Quebec, under command of Portneuf, the savages pro- ceeded against the colony at Casco Bay. The English fort at that place was taken and the settlements broken up. Thus far the fortunes of the war had been wholly on the side of the French and their allies. But New England was now thoroughly aroused. In order to pro- vide the ways and means of war, a colonial congress was convened at New York. Here it was resolved to attempt the conquest of Canada by march- ing an army by way of Lake Champlain against Montreal. At the same time, Massachusetts was to co-operate with the land forces by sending a fleet by way of the St. Lawrence for the reduction of Quebec. Thirty- four vessels, carrying two thousand troops, were accordingly fitted out, and the command given to Sir William Phipps. Proceeding first against Port MASSACHUSETTS.— WAR AND WITCHCRAFT. 149 Royal, he compelled a surrender ; the whole of Nova Scotia submitted without a struggle. If the commander had sailed at once against Quebec, that place too would have been forced to capitulate ; but vexatious delays retarded the expedition until the middle of October. Meanwhile, an Abenaki Indian had carried the news of the coming armament to Fronte- nac, governor of Canada ; and when the fleet came in sight of the town, the castle of St. Louis was so well garrisoned and provisioned as to bid defiance to the English forces. The opportunity was lost, and it only remained for Phipps to sail back to Boston. To meet the expenses of this unfortunate expedition, Massachusetts was obliged to issue bills of credit which were made a legal tender in the payment of debt. Such was the origin of paper money in America. Meanwhile, the land forces had proceeded from Albany as far as Lake Champlain. Here dissensions arose among the commanders. Colonel Leisler of New York charged Winthrop of Connecticut with treachery ; and the charge was returned that Leisler's commissary had furnished no supplies for the Connecticut soldiers. The quarrel became so violent that the expedition had to be abandoned, and the troops marched gloomily homeward. The great campaign had resulted in com- plete humiliation. Sir William Phipps had as little success in civil matters as in the command of a fleet. Shortly after his return from Quebec he was sent as ambassador to England. The objects of his mission were, in the first place, to procure aid from the English government in the further prose- cution of the war ; and secondly, to secure, if possible, a reissue of the old colonial charter. To the first of these requests the ministers replied that the armies and navies of England could not be spared to take part in a petty Indian war ; and the second was met with coldness and refusal. King William was secretly opposed to the liberal provisions of the former charter, and looked with disfavor on the project of renewing it. It is even doubtful whether Phipps himself desired the restoration of the old patent; for when he returned to Boston in the spring of 1692, he bore a new instrument from the king, and a commission as royal governor of the province. By the terms of this new constitution, Plymouth, Maine and Nova Scotia were consolidated with Massachusetts; while New Hamp- shire, against the protests and petitions of her people, was forcibly sepa- rated from the mother colony. The war still continued, but without decisive results. In 1694, the village of Oyster River, now Durham, was destroyed by a band of savages led by the French captain Villieu. The inhabitants, to the number of ninety-four, were either killed or carried into captivity. Two years later 150 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. the English fortress at Pemaquid was a second time surrendered to the French and Indians, under command of Baron Castin. The captives were sent to Boston and exchanged for prisoners in the hands of the English. In the following March, the town of Haverhill, on the Merri- mac, was captured under circumstances of special atrocity. Nearly forty persons were butchered in cold blood ; only a few were spared for cap- tivity. Among the latter was Mrs. Hannah Dustin. Her child, only a week old, was snatched out of her arms and dashed against a tree. The heartbroken mother, with her nurse and a lad named Leonardson, from Worcester, was taken by the savages to an island in the Merrimac, a short distance above Concord. Here, while their captors, twelve in number, were asleep at night, the three prisoners arose, silently armed themselves with tomahawks, and with one deadly blow after another crushed in the temples of the sleeping savages, until ten of them lay still in death; then, embarking in a canoe, the captives dropped down the river and reached the English settlement in safety. Mrs. Dustin carried home with her the gun and tomahawk of the savage who had destroyed her family, and a bag containing the scalps of her neighbors. It is not often that the mother of a murdered babe has found such ample vengeance. But the war was already at an end. Early in 1697, commissioners of France and England assembled at the town of Ryswick, in Holland ; and on the 10th of the following September, a treaty of peace was con- cluded. King William was acknowledged as the rightful sovereign of England, and the colonial boundary-lines of the two nations in America were established as before. Massachusetts had in the mean time been visited with a worse calamity than war. The darkest page in the history of New England is that which bears the record of the Salem Witchcraft. The same town which fifty-seven years previously had cast out Roger Williams was now to become the scene of the most fatal delusion of modern times. In February of 1692, in that part of Salem afterward called Danvers, a daughter and a niece of Samuel Parris, the minister, were attacked with a nervous disorder which rendered them partially insane. Parris be- lieved, or affected to believe, that the two girls were bewitched, and that Tituba, an Indian maid-servant of the household, was the author of the affliction. He had seen her performing some of the rude ceremonies of her own religion, and this gave color to his suspicions. He tied Tituba, and whipped the ignorant creature until, at his own dictation, she con- fessed herself a witch. Here, no doubt, the matter would have ended had not other causes existed for the continuance and spread of the miser- able delusion. MASSACHUSETTS.— WAR AND WITCHCRAFT. 151 But Parris had had a quarrel in his church. A part of the congre- gation desired that George Burroughs, a former minister, should be rein- stated, to the exclusion of Parris. Burroughs still lived at Salem • and there was great animosity between the partisans of the former and the present pastor. Burroughs disbelieved in witchcraft, and openly ex- pressed his contempt of the system. Here, then, Parris found an oppor- tunity to turn the confessions of the foolish Indian servant against his enemies, to overwhelm his rival with the superstitions of the community, and perhaps to have him put to death. There is no doubt whatever that the whole murderous scheme originated in the personal malice of Parris. But there were others ready to aid him. First among these was the celebrated Cotton Mather, minister of Boston. He, being in high re- pute for wisdom, had recently preached much on the subject of witchcraft, teaching the people that witches were dangerous and ought to be put to death. He thus became the natural confederate of Parris, and the chief author of the terrible scenes that ensued. Sir William Phipps, the royal governor, who had just arrived from England, was a member of Mather's church. Increase Mather, the father of Cotton, had nominated Phipps to his present office. Stoughton, the deputy-governor, who was appointed judge and presided at the trials of the witches, was the tool of Parris and the two Mathers. To these men, more especially to Parris and Mather, must be charged the full infamy of what followed. By the laws of England witchcraft was punishable with death. The code of Massachusetts was the same as that of the mother-country. In the early history of the colony, one person charged with being a wizard had been arrested at Charlestown, convicted and executed. But with the progress and enlightenment of the people, many had grown bold enough to denounce and despise the baleful superstition. Something, therefore, had to be done to save the tottering fabric of witchcraft from falling into contempt. A special court was accordingly appointed by Governor Phipps to go to Salem and to sit in judgment on the persons accused by Parris. Stoughton was the presiding judge, Parris himself the prosecutor, and Cotton Mather a kind of bishop to decide when the testimony was sufficient to condemn. On the 21st of March, the horrible proceedings began. Mary Cory was arrested, not indeed for being a witch, but for denying the reality of witchcraft. When brought before the church and court, she denied all guilt, but was convicted and hurried to prison. Sarah Cloyce and Rebecca Nurse, two sisters of the most exemplary lives, were next appre- hended as witches. The only witnesses against them were Tituba, her half- witted Indian husband and the simple girl Abigail Williams, the niece 152 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. of Parris. The victims were sent to prison, protesting their innocence. Giles Cory, a patriarch of eighty years, was next seized ; he also was one of those who had opposed Parris. The Indian accuser fell down before Edward Bishop, pretending to be in a fit under satanic influence; the sturdy farmer cured him instantly with a sound flogging, and said that he could restore the rest of the afflicted in the same manner. He and his wife were immediately arrested and condemned. George Burroughs, the rival of Parris, was accused and hurried to prison. And so the work went on, until seventy-five innocent people were locked up in dungeons. Not a solitary partisan of Parris or Mather had been arrested. In the hope of saving their lives, some of the terrified prisoners now began to confess themselves witches, or bewitched. It was soon found that a confession was almost certain to procure liberation. It be- came evident that the accused were to be put to death, not for being witches or wizards, but for denying the reality of witchcraft. The special court was already in session ; convictions followed fast ; the gallows stood waiting for its victims. The truth of Mather's preaching was to be estab- lished by hanging whoever denied it ; and Parris was to save his pastorate by murdering his rival. When the noble Burroughs mounted the scaffold, he stood composedly and repeated correctly the test-prayer which it was said no wizard could utter. The people broke into sobs and moans, and would have rescued their friend from death ; but the tyrant Mather dashed among them on horseback, muttering imprecations, and drove the hang- man to his horrid work. Old Giles Cory, seeing that conviction was cer- tain, refused to plead, and was pressed to death. Five Avomen were hanged in one day. Between the 10th of June and the 22d of September, twenty victims were hurried to their doom. Fifty-five others had been tortured into the confession of abominable falsehoods. A hundred and fifty lay in prison awaiting their fate. Two hundred were accused or suspected, and ruin seemed to impend over New England. But a reaction at last set in among the people. Notwithstanding the vociferous clamor and denuncia- tions of Mather, the witch tribunals were overthrown. The representative assembly convened early in October, and the hated court which Phipps had appointed to sit at Salem was at once dismissed. The spell was dis- solved. The thralldom of the popular mind was broken. Reason shook off the terror that had oppressed it. The prison doors were opened, and the victims of malice and superstition went forth free. In the beginning of the next year a few persons charged with witchcraft were again arraigned and brought before the courts. Some were even convicted, but the conviction went for nothing ; not another life was sacrificed to passion and fanaticism. MASSACHUSETTS.— WARS OF ANNE AND GEORGE. 153 Most of those who had participated in the terrible deeds of the preceding summer confessed the great wrong which they had done ; but confessions could not restore the dead. The bigoted Mather, in a vain attempt to justify himself before the world, wrote a treatise in which he expressed his great thankfulness that so many witches had met their just doom. It is not the. least humiliating circumstance of this sad business that Mather's hypocritical and impudent book received the approbation of the president of Harvard College. In all this there is to the American student one consoling reflection — the pages of his country's history will never again be blotted with so dark a stain. CHAPTER XVII. MASSACHUSETTS.— WARS OF ANNE AND GEORGE. THE peace which followed the treaty of Ryswick was of short dura- tion. Within less than four years France and England were again involved in a conflict which, beginning in Europe, soon extended to the American colonies. In the year 1700, Charles II., king of Spain, died, having named as his successor Philip of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV. This measure pointed clearly to a union of the crowns of France and Spain. The jealousy of all Europe was aroused; a league was formed between England, Holland and Austria; the archduke Charles of the latter country was put forward by the allied powers as a candidate for the Spanish throne; and war was declared against Louis XIV. for supporting the claims of Philip. England had against France another cause of offence. In Septem- ber of 1701, James II., the exiled king of Great Britain, died at the court of Louis, who now, in violation of the treaty of Ryswick, recognized the son of James as the rightful sovereign of England. This action was re- garded as an open insult to English nationality. King William led his armies to the field not less to thwart the ambition of France than to save his own crown and kingdom. But the English monarch did not live to carry out his plans. While yet the war was hardly begun, the king fell from his horse, was attacked with fever, and died in May of 1702. Parliament had already settled the crown on Anne, the sister-in-law of William and daughter of James II. The new sovereign adopted the 154 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. policy of her predecessor. From the circumstance of her reign, the con- flict with France, which lasted for nearly thirteen years, is known in his- tory as Queen Anne's War; but a better name is The War of the Spanish Succession. In America the field of operations was limited to New England and South Carolina. The central colonies were scarcely aware that war existed. The military operations of both parties were conducted in a feeble and desultory manner. The more influential Indian tribes held aloof from the struggle. In August, 1701, the powerful Five Nations, whose dominions south of Lake Ontario and the river St. Lawrence formed a barrier between Canada and New York, made a treaty of neutrality with both the French and the English. The Abenakis of Maine did the same; but the French Jesuits prevailed with the latter to break their compact. The first notice of treachery which the English had, was a fearful massacre. In one day the whole country between the town of Wells and the Bay of Casco was given up to burning and butchery. In midwinter of 1703-4 the town of Deerfield was destroyed. A war-party of three hundred French and Indians, setting out from Canada, marched on the snow-crust into the Connecticut valley. On the last night of February, the savages lay in the pine forest that surrounded the ill-fated village. Just before daybreak they rushed from their covert and fired the houses. Forty-seven of the inhabitants were tomahawked. A hundred and twelve were dragged into captivity. The prisoners, many of them women and children, were obliged to march to Canada. The snow lay four feet deep. The poor wretches, haggard with fear and starvation, sank down and died. The deadly hatchet hung ever above the heads of the feeble and the sick. Eunice Williams, the minister's wife, fainted by the wayside ; in the presence of her husband and five captive children, her brains were dashed out with a tomahawk. Those who survived to the end of the journey were afterward ransomed and permitted to return to their desolated homes. A daughter of Mr. Wil- liams remained with the savages, grew up among the Mohawks, married a chieftain, and in after years returned in Indian garb to Deerfield. No entreaties could induce her to remain with her friends. The solitude of the woods and the society of her tawny husband had prevailed over the charms of civilization. In Maine and New Hampshire the war was marked with similar barbarities. Farms were devastated ; towns were burned ; the inhabitants were murdered or carried to Canada. Prowling bands of savages, led on by French officers, penetrated at times into the heart of Massachusetts. Against the treacherous barbarians and their bloodthirsty leaders there MASSACHUSETTS.— WARS OF ANNE AND GEORGE. 155 was no security either at home or abroad. Along the desolated frontier ruin prevailed, as in the days of King Philip. In 1707, the reduction of Port Royal was undertaken by Massa- chusetts. A fleet, bearing a thousand soldiers, was equipped and sent against the town. But Baron Castin, who commanded the French garri- son, conducted the defence with so much skill that the English were obliged to abandon the undertaking. From this costly and disastrous expedition Massachusetts gained nothing but discouragement and debt. Nevertheless, after two years of preparation, the enterprise was renewed ; and in 1710 an English and American fleet of thirty-six vessels, having on board four regiments of troops, anchored before Port Royal. The garrison was weak; Subercase, the French commander, had neither talents nor courage ; famine came ; and after a feeble defence of eleven days, the place surrendered at discretion. By this conquest all of Nova Scotia passed under the dominion of the English. The flag of Great Britain was hoisted over the conquered fortress, and the name of Port Royal gave place to Annapolis, in honor of Queen Anne. Vast preparations were now made for the invasion of Canada. A land force under command of General Nicholson was to march against Montreal, while Quebec, the key to the French dominions in America, was to be reduced by an English fleet. For this purpose fifteen men-of- war and forty transports were placed under command of Sir Hovenden Walker. Seven regiments of veterans, selected from the armies of Europe, were added to the colonial forces and sent with the expedition. Before such an armament the defences of Quebec could hardly hold out an hour. But for the utter incompetency of the admiral, success would have been assured. For six weeks in midsummer the great fleet lay idly in Boston Har- bor. Sir Hovenden was getting ready to sail. The Abenaki Indians carried the news leisurely to Quebec ; and every day added to the strength of the ramparts. At last, on the 30th of July, when no further excuse could be invented, the ships set sail for the St. Lawrence. At the Bay of Gaspe the admiral thought it necessary to loiter a while; then he busied himself with devising a plan to save his ships from the ice during the next winter. Proceeding slowly up the St. Lawrence, the fleet, on the 22d of August, was enveloped in a thick fog. The wind blew hard from the east. The commander was cautioned to remain on deck, but went quietly to bed. A messenger aroused him just in time to see eight of his best vessels dashed to pieces on the rocks. Eight hundred and eighty-four men went down in the foaming whirlpools. A council of war vas held, and all voted that it was impossible to proceed. In a letter to 156 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. the English government, Walker expressed great gratitude that by the loss of a thousand men the rest had been saved from freezing to death at Quebec. The fleet sailed back to England, and the colonial troops were disbanded at Boston. Meanwhile, the army of General Nicholson had marched against Montreal. But when news arrived of the failure of the fleet, the land expedition was also abandoned. The dallying cowardice of Walker had brought the campaign of 1711 to a shameful end. France had already made overtures for peace. Negotiations were formally begun in the early part of 1712; and on the 11th of April in the following year a treaty was concluded at Utrecht, a town of Holland. By the terms of the settle- ment, England obtained control of the fisheries of Newfoundland. Labra- dor, the Bay of Hudson and the whole of Acadia, or Nova Scotia, were ceded to Great Britain. On the 13th of July the chiefs of the hostile Indian tribes met the ambassadors of New England at Portsmouth, and a second treaty was concluded, by which peace w T as secured throughout the American colonies. For thirty-one years after the close of Queen Anne's war, Massa- chusetts was free from hostile invasion. This was not, however, a period of public tranquillity. The people were dissatisfied with the royal govern- ment which King William had established, and were at constant variance with their governors. Phipps and his administration had been heartily disliked. Governor Shute was equally unpopular. Burnett, who suc- ceeded him, and Belcher afterward, were only tolerated because they could not be shaken off. The opposition to the royal officers took the form of a controversy about their salaries. The general assembly in- sisted that the governor and his councilors should be paid in proportion to the importance of their several offices, and for actual service only. But the royal commissions gave to each officer a fixed salary, which was frequently out of all proportion to the services required. After many years of antagonism, the difficulty was finally adjusted with a compromise in which the advantage was wholly on the side of the people. It was agreed that the salaries of the governor and his assistants should be an- nually allowed, and the amount fixed by vote of the assembly. The representatives of popular liberty had once more triumphed over the principles of arbitrary rule. On the death of Charles "VI. of Austria, in 1740, there were two principal claimants to the crown of the empire — Maria Theresa, daughter of the late emperor, and Charles Albert of Bavaria. Each claimant had his party and his army ; war followed ; and nearly all the nations of Europe were swept into the conflict. As usually happened in MASSACHUSETTS.— WARS OF ANNE AND GEORGE. 157 such struggles, England and France were arrayed against each other. The contest that ensued is generally known as the War of the Austrian Succession, but in. American history is called King George's War ; for George II. was now king of England. In America the only important event of the war was the capture of Louisburg, on Cape Breton Island. This place had been fortified at vast expense by the French. Standing at the principal entrance to the gulf and river of St. Lawrence, the fortress was regarded as a key to the Canadian provinces. New England was quick to note that both New- foundland and Nova Scotia were threatened so long as the French flag floated over Louisburg. Governor Shirley brought the matter before the legislature of Massachusetts, and it was resolved to attempt the capture of the enemy's stronghold. The other colonies were invited to aid the enterprise. Connecticut responded by sending more than five hundred troops ; New Hampshire and Rhode Island each furnished three hundred; a park of artillery was sent from New York; and Pennsylvania contributed a supply of provisions. The forces of Massachusetts alone numbered more than three thousand. It only remained to secure the co-operation of the English fleet then cruising in the West Indies. An earnest invitation was sent to Commodore Warren to join his armament with the colonial forces ; but having no orders, he declined the request. Everything devolved on the army and navy of New England, but there was no quailing under the responsibility. William Pepperell, of Maine, was appointed commander- in-chief; and on the 4th of April, 1745, the fleet sailed for Cape Breton. At Canseau, the eastern cape of Nova Scotia, the expedition was detained for sixteen days. The sea was thick with ice-drifts floating from the north. But the delay was fortunate, for in the mean time Com- modore Warren had received instructions from England to proceed to Massachusetts and aid Governor Shirley in the contemplated reduction of Cape Breton. Sailing to the north, Warren brought his fleet safely to Canseau on the 23d of April. On the last day of the month the arma- ment, now numbering a hundred vessels, entered the Bay of Gabarus in sight of Louisburg. A landing was effected four miles below the city. On the next day a company of four hundred volunteers, led by William Vaughan, marched across the peninsula and attacked a French battery which had been planted on the shore two miles beyond the town. The French, struck with terror at the impetuosity of the unexpected charge, spiked their guns and fled. Before morning the cannons were re-drilled and turned upon the fortress. An English battery was established on the east side of the harbor, but the sea-walls of Louisburg were so strong 158 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. that little damage was done by the guns across the bay. An attack in the rear of the town seemed impossible on account of a large swamp which lay in that direction ; but the resolute soldiers of New England lashed their heavy guns upon sledges, and dragged them through the marsh to a tract of solid ground within two hundred yards of the enemy's bastions. Notwithstanding the advantage of this position, the walls of the fort stood firm, and the siege progressed slowly. On the 18th of May a French ship of sixty-four guns, laden with stores for the garrison, was captured by Warren's fleet. The French were greatly discouraged by this event, and the defence grew feeble. The English were correspondingly elated with the prospect of success. On the 26th of the month an effort was made to capture the French bat- tery in the harbor. A company of daring volunteers undertook the hazardous enterprise by night. Embarking in boats, they drew near the island where the battery was planted, but were discovered and repulsed with the loss of a hundred and seventy-six men. It was now determined to carry the town by storm. The assault was set for the 18th of June ; but on the day previous the desponding garrison sent out a flag of truce ; terms of capitulation were proposed and accepted, and the English flag rose above the conquered fortress. By the terms of this surrender not only Louisburg, but the whole of Cape Breton, was given up to England. The rejoicing at Boston and throughout the colonies was only equaled by the indignation and alarm of the French government. Louis- burg must be retaken at all hazards, said the ministers of France. For this purpose a powerful fleet, under command of Duke d'Anville, was sent out in the following year. Before reaching America the duke died of a pestilence. His successor went mad and killed himself. Storms and ship- wrecks and disasters drove the ill- fated expedition to utter ruin. The renewal of the enterprise, in 1747, was attended with like misfortune. Commodores Warren and Anson overtook the French squadron and compelled a humiliating surrender. In 1748, a treaty of peace was concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle, a town of Western Germany. After eight years of devastating warfare, nothing was gained but a mutual restoration of conquests. By the terms of settlement, Cape Breton was surrendered to France. With grief and ;£} it JE T •^ G ^3iJL JiTTS * SIEGE OF LOUISBURG, 1745. MASSACHUSETTS.— WARS OF AJSNE AND GEORGE. 159 shame the fishermen and farmers of New England saw the island which had been subdued by their valor restored to their enemies. Of all the disputed boundary-lines between the French and English colonics in America, not a single one was settled by this treaty. The European nations had exhausted themselves with fighting ; what cared they for the welfare of distant and feeble provinces ? The real war between France and England for colonial supremacy in the West was yet to be fought. Within six years after the treaty of Aix-la-Chapellc, the two great powers were involved in the final and decisive conflict. The history of Massachusetts has now been traced through a period of a hundred and thirty years. A few words on the Character of the Puritans may be appropriately added. They were in the begin- ning a vigorous and hardy people, firm-set in the principles of honesty and the practices of virtue. They were sober, industrious, frugal ; reso- lute, zealous and steadfast. They esteemed honor above preferment, and truth more than riches. Loving home and native land, they left both for the sake of freedom ; and finding freedom, they cherished it with the zeal and devotion of martyrs. Without influence, they became influential ; without encouragement, great. Despised and mocked and hated, they rose above their revilers. In the school of evil fortune they gained the discipline of patience. Suffering without cause brought resignation with- out despair. Themselves the victims of persecution, they became the founders of a colony — a commonwealth — a nation. They were the chil- dren of adversity and the fathers of renown. The gaze of the Puritan was turned ever to posterity. He believed in the future. His affections and hopes were with the coming ages. For his children he toiled and sacrificed ; for them the energies of his life were cheerfully exhausted. The system of free schools is the enduring monu- ment of his love and devotion. The printing-press is his memorial. Almshouses and asylums are the tokens of his care for the unfortunate. With him the outcast found sympathy, and the wanderer a home. He was the earliest champion of civil rights, and the builder of the Union. The fathers of New England have been accused of bigotry. The charge is true : it is the background of the picture. In matters of re- ligion they were intolerant and superstitious. Their religious faith was gloomy and foreboding. Human life was deemed a sad and miserable journey. To be mistaken was to sin. To fail in trifling ceremonies was reckoned a grievous crime. In the shadow of such belief the people be- came austere and melancholy. Escaping from the splendid formality of the Episcopal Church, they set up a colder and severer form of worship; and the form was made like iron. Dissenters themselves, they could not 160 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. tolerate the dissent of others. To restrain and punish error seemed right and necessary. Williams and Hutchinson were banished ; the Quakers were persecuted and the witches hanged. But Puritanism contained within itself the power to correct its own abuses. Within the austere and gloomy fabric dwelt the very soul and genius of Free Thought. Under the ice-bound rigors of the faith flowed a current which no fatalism could congeal, no superstition poison. The heart of a mighty, tumultuous, liberty-loving life throbbed within the cold, stiff body of formalism. A powerful vitality, wjiich no disaster could subdue, no persecution quench, warmed and energized and quickened. The tyranny of Phipps, the malice of Parris, and the bigotry of Mather are far outweighed by the sacrifices of Winthrop, the beneficence of Harvard, and the virtues of Sir Henry Vane. The evils of the sys- tem may well be forgotten in the glory of its achievements. Without the Puritans, America would have been a delusion and liberty only a name. CHAPTER XVIII. NEW YORK.— SETTLEMENT. ILLUSTRIOUS Sir Henry Hudson ! Indomitable explorer, daunt- less cavalier of the ocean ! Who so worthy to give a name to the great inland sea of the frozen North as he who gave his life in heroic combat with its terrors ? Who so fit to become the father of a colony in the New World as he who braved its perils and revealed its mys- teries ? And where should the new State be planted unless by the broad haven — broadest and best on the American coast — and among the beautiful hills and landscapes Where The Hudson came rolling through valleys a-smoke From the lands of the Iroquois? It was the good fortune of the American colonies to be founded by men whose lives, like the setting suns of summer, cast behind them a long and glorious twilight. But for the name and genius of Hud- son the province of New Netherland had never been. For ten years after the founding of New Amsterdam the colony was governed by directors. These officers were appointed and sent NEW YORK— SETTLEMENT. 161 out by the Dutch East India Company, in accordance with the char? ter of that corporation. The settlement on Manhattan Island was as yet only a village of traders. Not until 1623 was an actual colony sent from Holland to New Netherland. Two years previous- ly, the Dutch West India Company had been organized, with the exclusive privi- lege of planting set- tlements in America. The charter of this company was grant- ed for a period of twenty-four years, with the privilege of renewal ; and the territory to be colo- nized extended from the Strait of Magel- lan to Hudson's Bay. Manhattan Island, with its cluster of huts, passed at once under the control of the new corporation. In April of 1623, the ship New Netherland, having on board a colony of thirty families, arrived at New Amsterdam. The colonists, called Walloons, were Dutch Protestant refugees from Flanders, in Belgium. They were of the same religious faith with the Huguenots of France, and came to America to find repose from the persecutions of their own country. Cornelius May was the leader of the company. The greater number of the new immigrants settled with their friends on Man- hattan Island ; but the captain, with a party of fifty, passing down the coast of New Jersey, entered and explored the Bay of Delaware. Sailing up the bay and river, the company landed on the eastern shore ; here, at a point a few miles below Camden, where Timber Creek falls into the Delaware, a site was selected and a block-house built named Fort Nassau. The natives were won over by kindness ; and when shortly after the fort was abandoned and the settlers returned to New Amsterdam, the Indians witnessed their departure with affectionate regret. In the same year Joris, another Dutch captain, ascended the Hudson to Castle Island, SIK HENltY HUDSON. 162 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. where, nine years previously, Christianson had built the older Fort Nassau. A flood in the river had swept the island bare. Not deeming it prudent to restore the works in a place likely to be deluged, Joris sailed up stream a short distance and rebuilt the fortress on the present site of Albany. The name of this northern outpost was changed to Fort Orange ; and here the eighteen families of Joris's company were per- manently settled. In 1624 civil government began in New Netherland. Cornelius May was first governor of the colony. His official duties, however, were only such as belonged to the superintendent of a trading-post. In the next year William Verhulst became director of the settlement. Herds of cattle, swine and sheep were brought over from Holland and distributed among the settlers. In January of 1626, Peter Minuit, of Wesel, was regularly appointed by the Dutch West India Company as governor of New Netherland. Until this time the natives had retained the owner- ship of Manhattan Island ; but on Minuit's arrival, in May, an offer of purchase was made and accepted. The whole island, containing more than twenty thousand acres, was sold to the Dutch for twenty-four dol- lars. The southern point of land was selected as a site for fortifications ; there a block-house was built and surrounded with a palisade. New Amsterdam was already a town of thirty houses. In the first year of Minuit's administration were begun the settlements of Wallabout and Brooklyn, on Long Island. The Dutch of New Amsterdam and the Pilgrims of New Plymouth were early and fast friends. The Puritans themselves had but recently arrived from Holland, and could not forget the kind treatment which they had had in that country. They and the Walloons were alike exiles fleeing from persecution and tyranny. On two occasions, in 1627, a Dutch embassy was sent to Plymouth with an expression of good will. The English were cordially invited to remove without molestation to the more fertile valley of the Connecticut. Governor Bradford replied with words of cheer and sympathy. The Dutch were honestly advised of the claims of England to the country of the Hudson ; and the people of New Netherland were cautioned to make good their titles by accepting new' deeds from the council of Plymouth. A touch of jealousy was manifested when the Dutch were warned not to send their trading-boats into the Bay of Narragansett. In 1628 the population of Manhattan numbered two hundred and seventy. The settlers devoted their whole energies to the fur-trade. Every bay, inlet and river between Rhode Island and the Delaware was visited by their vessels. The colony gave promise of rapid development NEW YORK.— SETTLEMENT. 163 and of great profit to the proprietors. If the houses were rude and thatched with straw, there were energy and thrift within. If only wooden chimneys carried up the smoke, the fires of the hearthstones were kindled with laughter and song. If creaking windmills flung abroad their un- gainly arms in the winds of Long Island Sound, it was proof that the people had families to feed and meant to feed them. The West India Company now came forward with a new and pecu- liar scheme of colonization. In 1629, the corporation created a Charter OP Privileges, under which a class of proprietors called patroons were authorized to possess and colonize the country. Each patroon might select anywhere in New Netherland a tract of land not more than sixteen miles in length, and of a breadth to be determined by the location. On the banks of a navigable river not more than eight miles might be ap- propriated by one proprietor. Each district was to be held in fee simple by the patroon, who was empowered to exercise over his estate and its inhabitants the same authority as did the hereditary lords of Europe. The conditions were that the estates should be held as dependencies of Holland ; that each patroon should purchase his domain of the Indians ; and that he should, within four years from the date of his title, establish on his manor a colony of not less than fifty persons. Education and re- ligion were commended in the charter, but no provision was made for the support of either. Under the provisions of this instrument five estates were imme- diately established. Three of them, lying contiguous, embraced a district of twenty-four miles in the valley of the Hudson above and below Fort Orange. The fourth manor was laid out by Michael Pauw on Staten Island ; and the fifth, and most important, included the southern half of the present State of Delaware. To this estate a colony was sent out from Holland in the spring of 1631. Samuel Godyn was patroon of the do- main, but the immediate management was entrusted to David Peterson de Vries. With a company of thirty immigrants, he reached the entrance to Delaware Bay, and anchored within Cape Henlopen. Landing five miles up the bay, at the mouth of Lewis Creek, the colony selected a site and laid the foundations of Lewistown, the oldest settlement in Delaware. After a year of successful management, De Vries returned to Hol- land, leaving the settlement in charge of Gillis Hosset. The latter, a man of no sagacity, soon brought the colony to ruin. An Indian chief who offended him was seized and put to death. The natives, who thus far had treated the strangers with deference and good faith, Avere aroused to vengeance. Rising suddenly out of an ambuscade upon the terrified colonists, they left not a man alive. The houses and palisades were 164 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. burned to the ground ; nothing but bones and ashes remained to testify of savage passion. When De Vries returned, in December of 1632, he found only the blackened ruins of his flourishing hamlet. He sailed first to Virginia for a cargo of supplies, and thence to New Amsterdam ; but before the colony could be re-established, Lord Baltimore had received from the English government a patent which embraced the whole of Delaware ; the weaker, though older, claim of the Dutch patroon gave way before the charter of his more powerful rival. In April of 1633, Minuit was superseded in the government of New Netherland by Wouter van Twiller. Three months previously the Dutch had purchased of the natives the soil around Hartford, and had erected a block-house within the present limits of the city. This was the first fortress built on the Connecticut River ; but the Puritans, though pro- fessing friendship, were not going to give up the valley without a struggle. In October of the same year an armed vessel, sent out from Plymouth, sailed up the river and openly defied the Dutch commander at Hartford. Passing the fortress, the English proceeded up stream to the mouth of the river Farmington, where they landed and built Fort Windsor. Two years later, by the building of Saybrook, at the mouth of the Connecticut, the English obtained command of the river both above and below the Dutch fort. The block-house at Hartford, being thus cut off, Avas com- paratively useless to the authorities of New Netherland ; English towns multiplied in the neighborhood ; and the Dutch finally surrendered their eastern outpost to their more powerful rivals. Four of the leading European nations had now established perma- nent colonies in America. The fifth to plant an American State was Sweden. As early as 1626, Gustavus Adolphus, the Protestant king of that country and the hero of his age, had formed the design of estab- lishing settlements in the West. For this purpose a company of mer- chants had been organized, to whose capital the king himself contributed four hundred thousand dollars. The objects had in view were to form a refuge for persecuted Protestants and to extend Swedish commerce. But before his plans of colonization could be carried into effect, Gustavus be- came involved in the Thirty Years' War, then raging in Germany. The company was disorganized, and the capital wasted in the purchase of mili- tary stores. In November of 1632 the Swedish king was killed at the battle of Liitzen. For a while it seemed that the plan of colonizing America had ended in failure, but Oxenstiern, the great Swedish minis- ter, took up the work which his master had left unfinished. The charter of the company was renewed, and after four years of preparation the enterprise was brought to a successful issue. NEW YORK.— SETTLEMENT. 165 In the mean time, Peter Minuit, the recent governor of New Netherland, had left the service of Holland and entered that of Sweden. To him was entrusted the management of the first Swedish colony which was sent to America. Late in the year 1637, a company of Swedes and Finns left the harbor of Stockholm, and in the following February arrived in Delaware Bay. Never before had the Northerners beheld so beautiful a land. They called Cape Henlopen the Point of Paradise. The whole country, sweeping around the west side of the bay and up the river to the falls at Trenton, was honorably purchased of the Indians. In memory of native land, the name of New Sweden was given to this fine territory. The colony landed just below the mouth of the Brandy- wine, in the northern part of the present State of Delaware. On the left bank of a small tributary, at a point about six miles from the bay, a spot was chosen for the settlement. Here the foundations of a fort were laid, and the immigrants soon provided themselves with houses. The creek and the fort were both named in honor of Christiana, the maiden queen of Sweden. The colony prospered greatly. By each returning ship letters were borne to Stockholm, describing the loveliness of the country. Immigra- tion became rapid and constant. At one time, in 1640, more than a hun- dred families, unable to find room on the crowded vessels which were leaving the Swedish capital, were turned back to their homes. The banks of Delaware Bay and River were dotted with pleasant hamlets. On every hand appeared the proofs of well-directed industry. Of all the early settlers in America, none were more cheerful, intelligent and virtuous than the Swedes. From the first, the authorities of New Amsterdam were jealous of the colony on the Delaware. Sir William Kieft, who had succeeded the incompetent Van Twiller in the governorship, sent an earnest remon- strance to Christiana, warning the settlers of their intrusion on Dutch territory. But the Swedes, giving little heed to the complaints of their neighbors, went on enlarging their borders and strengthening their out- posts. Governor Kieft was alarmed and indignant at these aggressions, and as a precautionary measure sent a party to rebuild Fort Nassau, on the old site below Camden. The Swedes, regarding this fortress as a menace to their colony, adopted active measures of defence. Ascending the river to within six miles of the mouth of the Schuylkill, they landed on the island of Tinicum, and built an impregnable fort of hemlock logs. Here, in 1643, Governor Printz established his residence. To Pennsylvania, as well as to Delaware, Sweden contributed the earliest colony. 166 * HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. In 1640, New Netherland became involved in a war with the Indians of Long Island and New Jersey. The natives of the lower Hudson were a weak and unwarlike people; under just treatment they Would have faithfully kept the peace. But dishonest traders had mad- dened them with rum and then defrauded and abused them. Burning with resentment and hate, the savages of the Jersey shore crossed over to Staten Island, laid waste the farms and butchered the inhabitants. NeAV Amsterdam was for a while endangered, but was soon put in a state of defence. A company of militia was organized and sent against the Delawares of New Jersey, but nothing resulted from the expedition. A large bounty was offered for every member of the tribe of the Raritans, and many were hunted to death. On both sides the war degenerated into treachery and murder. Through the mediation of Roger Williams, the great peacemaker of Rhode Island, a truce was obtained, and imme- diately broken. A chieftain's son, who had been made drunk and robbed, went to the nearest settlement and killed the first Hollander whom he met. Governor Kieft demanded the criminal, but the sachems refused to give him up. They offered to pay a heavy fine for the wrong done, but Kieft would accept nothing less than the life of the murderer. While the dispute was still unsettled, a party of the terrible Mo- hawks came down the river to claim and enforce their suj)remacy over the natives of the coast. The timid Algonquins in the neighborhood of New Amsterdam cowered before the mighty warriors of the North, huddled together on the bank of the Hudson, and begged assistance of the Dutch. Here the vindictive Kieft saw an opportunity of wholesale destruction. A company of soldiers set out secretly from Manhattan, crossed the river and discovered the lair of the Indians. The place was surrounded by night, and the first notice of danger given to the savages was the roar of muskets. Nearly a hundred of the poor wretches were killed before daydawn. Women who shrieked for pity were mangled to death, and children were thrown into the river. When it was known among the tribes that the Dutch, and not the Mohawks, were the authors of this outrage, the war was renewed with fury. The Indians were in a frenzy. Dividing into small war-parties, they concealed themselves in the woods and swamps ; then rose, without a moment's warning, upon defenceless farmhouses, burning and butchering without mercy. At this time that noted woman Mrs. Anne Hutchinson was living with her son-in-law in the valley of the Housatonic. Her house was surrounded and set on fire by the savages ; every member of the family except one child was cruelly murdered. Mrs. Hutchinson Vrself was burned alive. NEW YORK.— ADMINISTRATION OF STUYVESANT, 167 In 1643, Captain John Underhill, a fugitive from Massachusetts, ■was appointed to the command of the Dutch forces. At the head of a regiment raised by Governor Kieft he invaded New Jersey, and brought the Delawares into subjection. A decisive battle was fought on Long- Island ; and at Greenwich, in Western Connecticut, the power of the In- dians was finally broken. Again the ambassadors of the Iroquois came forward with proposals for peace. Both parties were anxious to rest from the ruin and devastation of war. On the 30th of August, 1645, a treaty was concluded at Fort Amsterdam. Nearly all of the bloodshed and sorrow of these five years of war may be charged to Governor Kieft. He was a revengeful and cruel man, whose idea of government was to destroy whatever opposed him. The people had many times desired to make peace with the Indians, but the project had always been defeated by the headstrong passions of the governor. A popular party, headed by the able De Vries, at last grew powerful enough to defy his authority. As soon as the war was ended, petitions for his removal were circulated and signed by the people. Two years after the treaty, the Dutch West India Company revoked his com- mission and appointed Peter Stuyvesant to succeed him. In 1647, Kieft embarked for Europe; but the heavy-laden merchantman in which he sailed was dashed to pieces by a storm on the coast of Wales, and the guilty governor of New Netherland found a grave in the sea. CHAPTER XIX. NEW YORK.— ADMINISTRATION OF STUYVESANT. rTIHE honest and soldierly Petee Stuyvesant was the last and -L greatest of the governors of New Netherland. He entered upon his duties on the 11th of May, 1647, and continued in office for more than seventeen years. His first care was to conciliate the Indians. By the wisdom and liberality of his government the wayward red men were re- claimed from hostility and hatred. So intimate and cordial became the relations between the natives and the Dutch that they were suspected of making common cause against the English ; even Massachusetts was alarmed lest such an alliance should be formed. But the policy of Governor Stuyvesant was based on nobler principles. Until now the West India Company had had exclusive control of 168 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. the commerce of New Netherland. In the first year of the new adminis- tration this monopoly was abolished, and regular export duties were sub- stituted. The benefit of the change was at once apparent in the improve- ment of the Dutch province. In one of the letters written to Stuy vesant by the secretary of the company, the remarkable prediction is made that the commerce of New Amsterdam should cover every ocean and the ships of all nations crowd into her harbor. But for many years the growth of the city was slow. As late as the middle of the century, the better parts of Manhattan Island were still divided among the farmers. Central Park was a forest of oaks and chestnuts. In 1650, a boundary-line was fixed between New England and New Netherland. The Dutch were fearful lest the English should reach the Hudson and cut off the fur-trade between Fort Orange and New Amster- dam. Governor Stuyvesant met the ambassadors of the Eastern colonies at Hartford, and after much discussion an eastern limit was set to the Dutch possessions. The line there established extended across Long Island north and south, passing through Oyster Bay, and thence to Green- wich, on the other side of the sound. From this point northward the dividing-line was nearly identical with the present boundary of Connec- ticut on the west. This treaty was ratified by the colonies, by the West India Company and by the states-general of Holland; but the English government treated the matter with indifference and contempt. Stuyvesant had less to fear from the colony of New Sweden. The people of New Netherland outnumbered the Swedes as ten to one, and the Dutch claim to the country of the Delaware had never been re- nounced. In 1651, an armament left New Amsterdam, entered the bay and came to anchor at a point on the western shore five miles below the mouth of the Brandy wine. On the present site of New Castle, Fort Cas- imir was built and garrisoned with Dutch soldiers. This act was equivalent to a declaration of war. The Swedish settlement of Christiana was almost in sight of the hostile fortress, and a conflict could hardly be avoided. Rising, the governor of the Swedes, looked on quietly until Fort Casimir was completed, then captured the place by stratagem, over- powered the garrison and hoisted the flag of Sweden. It was a short-lived triumph. The West India Company were secretly pleased that the Swedes had committed an act of open violence. Orders were at once issued to Stuyvesant to visit the Swedish colonists with vengeance, and to compel their submission or drive them from the Delaware. In September of 1655 the orders of the company were car- ried out to the letter. The old governor put himself at the head of more than six hundred troops — a number almost equal to the entire population NEW YORK.— ADMINISTRATION OF STU YVES ANT. 169 of New Sweden — and sailed to Delaware Bay. Resistance was hopeless. The Dutch forces were landed at New Castle, and the Swedes gave way. Before the 25th of the month every fort belonging to the colony had been forced to capitulate. Governor Rising was captured, but was treated with great respect. Honorable terms were granted, to all, and in a few days the authority of New Netherland was established throughout the country. Except a few turbulent spirits who removed to Maryland and Virginia, the submission was universal. After an existence of less than eighteen years, the little State of New Sweden had ceased to be. The American possessions and territorial claims of France, England, Holland, Sweden and Spain will be best understood from an examination of the accom- panying map, drawn for the year 1655. How hardly can the nature of savages be restrained ! "While Gov- ernor Stuyvesant was absent on his expedition against the Swedes, the Algonquin tribes rose in rebellion. The poor creatures were going to take New Amsterdam. In a fleet of sixty-four canoes they appeared be- fore the town, yelling and discharging arrows. What could their puny missiles do against the walls of a European fortress? After paddling about until their rage, but not their hate, was spent, the savages went on shore and began their old work of burning and murder. The return of the Dutch forces from the Delaware induced the sachems to sue for peace, which Stuyvesant granted on better terms than the Indians had deserved. The captives were ransomed, and the treacherous tribes were allowed to go with trifling punishments. For eight years after the conquest of New Sweden the peace of New Netherland was unbroken. In 1663 the natives of the county of Ulster, on the Hudson, broke out in war. The town of Esopus, now Kingston, was attacked and destroyed. Sixty-five of the inhabitants were either tomahawked or carried into captivity. To punish this outrage a strong force was sent from New Amsterdam. The Indians fled, hoping to find refuge in the woods ; but the Dutch soldiers pursued them to their vil- lages, burned their wigwams and killed every warrior who could be over- taken. As winter came on, the humbled tribe began to beg for mercy. In December a truce was granted; and in May of the following year a treaty of peace was concluded. Governor Stuyvesant had great difficulty in defending his province beyond the Delaware. The queen of Sweden and her ministers at Stock- holm still looked fondly to their little American colony, and cherished the hope of recovering the conquered territory. A more dangerous com- petitor w T as found in Lord Baltimore, of Maryland, whose patent, given under the great seal of England, covered all the territory between the 170 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Chesapeake and Delaware Bay, as far north as the latitude of Phila- delphia. Berkeley, of Virginia, also claimed New Sweden as a part of his dominions. Connecticut pushed her settlements westward on Long Island, and purchased all the remaining Indian claims between her western frontier and the Hudson. Massachusetts boldly declared her in- tention to extend her boundaries to Fort Orange. The indignant Stuy- vesant asked the agents of Connecticut where the province of New Netherland could shortly be found ; and the agents coolly answered that they did not know. Discord at home added to the governor's embarrassments. For many years the Dutch had witnessed the growth and prosperity of the English colonies. Boston had outgrown New Amsterdam. The schools of Massachusetts and Connecticut flourished; the academy on Man- hattan, after a sickly career of two years, was discontinued. In New Netherland heavy taxes were levied for the support of the poor ; New England had no poor. Liberty and right were the subjects of debate in every English village ; to the Dutch farmers and traders such words had little meaning. The people of New Netherland grew emulous of the progress of their powerful neighbors, and attributed their own abasement to the mismanagement and selfish greed of the West India Company. Without actual disloyalty to Holland, the Dutch came to prefer the laws and customs of England. Under these accumulating troubles the faithful Stuyvesant was wellnigh overwhelmed. Such was the condition of affairs at the beginning of 1664. Eng- land and Holland were at peace. Neither nation had reason to appre- hend an act of violence from the other. In all that followed, the arbi- trary principles and unscrupulous disposition of the English king were fully manifested. On the 12th of March in this year the duke of York received at the hands of his brother, Charles II., two extensive patents for American territory. The first grant included the district reaching from the Kennebec to the St. Croix River, and the second embraced the whole country between the Connecticut and the Delaware. Without re- gard to the rights of Holland, in utter contempt of the West India Com- pany, through whose exertions the valley of the Hudson had been peopled, with no respect for the wishes of the Dutch, or even for the voice of his own Parliament, the English monarch in one rash hour despoiled a sister kingdom of a well-earned province. The duke of York made haste to secure his territoiy. No time must be left for the states-general to protest against the outrage. An English squadron was immediately equipped, put under command of "Richard Nicolls and sent to America. In July the armament reached NEW YORK.— ADMINISTRATION OF STUYVESANT. n\ Boston, and thence proceeded against New Amsterdam. On the 28th of August, the fleet passed the Narrows, and anchored at Gravesend Bay. The English camp was pitched at Brooklyn Ferry ; and before the Dutch had recovered from their surprise, the whole of Long Island was sub- dued. An embassy came over from New Amsterdam. Governor Stuy- vcsant, ever true to his employers, demanded to know the meaning of all this hostile array. To receive the surrender of New Netherland was the quiet answer of Nicolls. There must be an immediate acknowledgment of the sovereignty of Eng- land. Those who sub- mitted should have the rights of Englishmen ; those who refused should hear the crash of cannon-balls. The Dutch council of New Amsterdam was im- mediately convened. It was clear that the burgomasters meant to surrender. The stormy old governor exhorted them to rouse to action and fight; some one replied that the Dutch West India Company was not worth fighting for. Burning with indig- nation, Stuyvesant snatched up the written proposal of Nicolls and tore it to tatters in the presence of his council. It was all in vain. The brave old man was forced to sign the capitulation ; and on the 8th of September, 1664, New Netherland ceased to exist. The English flag was hoisted over the fort and town, and the name of New Yoek was substituted for New Amsterdam. The surrender of Fort Orange, now named Albany, followed on the 24th ; and on the 1st of October the Swedish and Dutch settlements on the Delaware capitulated. The con- quest was complete. The supremacy of Great Britain in America was finally established. From the north-east corner of Maine to the southern limits of Georgia, every mile of the American coast was under the flag of England. I'K.TER STUYVESANT. 172 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XX. NEW YORK UNDER THE ENGLISH. RICHARD XICOLLS, the first English governor of Xew York, began his duties by settling the boundaries of his province. It was a work full of trouble and vexation. As early as 1623 the whole of Long Island had been granted to the earl of Stirling. Connecticut also claimed and occupied all that part of the island included in the present county of Suffolk. Against both of these claimants the patent of the duke of York was now to be enforced by his deputy Xicolls. The claim of Stirling was fairly purchased by the governor, but the pretensions of Connecticut were arbitrarily set aside. This action was the source of so much discontent that the duke was constrained to compensate Connecticut by making a favorable change in her south-west boundary-line. Two months before the conquest of Xew Xetherland by the Eng- lish, the irregular territory between the Hudson and the Delaware, as far north as a point on the latter river in the latitude of forty-one degrees and forty minutes, was granted to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. This district, corresponding, except on the northern boundary, with the present State of Xew Jersey, was now wrested from the jurisdiction of Xew York, and a separate government established by the proprietors. The country below the Delaware, until recently called Xew Sweden, but now named The Territories, was consolidated with Xew York and ruled by deputies appointed by the governors of that province. Finally, the new name conferred by Xicolls on his capital was extended to all the country formerly called Xew Xetherland. At the first the people were deluded with many promises of civil liberty. To secure this, the Dutch, against the passionate appeals of the patriotic Stuyvesant, had voluntarily surrendered themselves to the Eng- lish government. But it was a poor sort of civil liberty that any province was likely to obtain from one of the Stuart kings of England. The promised right of representation in a general assembly of the people was evaded and withheld. To this was added a greater grief in the annulling of the old titles by which, for half a century, the Dutch farmers had held their lands. The people were obliged to accept new deeds at the hands NEW YORK UNDER THE ENGLISH. 173 of the English governor, and to pay him therefor such sums as yielded an immense revenue. The evil done to the province, however, was less than might have been expected from so arbitrary and despotic a government. In 1667, Nicolls was superseded by Lovelace. With less ability and generosity than his predecessor, he proved a greater tyrant. The bad principles of the system established by the duke of York were now fully developed. The people became dissatisfied and gloomy. Protests against the government and petitions for redress were constantly presented, and constantly rejected with contempt. The discontent was universal. The towns of Southold, Southampton and Easthampton resisted the tax- gatherers. The people of Huntington voted that they were robbed of the privileges of Englishmen. The villagers of Jamaica, Flushing and Hemp- stead passed a resolution that the governor's decree of taxation was contrary to the laws of the English nation. The only attention which Lovelace and his council paid to these resolutions was to declare them scandalous, illegal and seditious, and to order them to be publicly burnt before the town-house of New York. When the Swedes, naturally a quiet and submissive people, resisted the exactions of the government, they were visited with additional severity. " If there is any more murmuring against the taxes, make them so heavy that the people can do nothing but think how to pay them," said Lovelace in his instructions to his deputy. The Dutch and the English colonists were always friends. Not once in the whole history of the country did they lift the sword against each other. Even while England and Holland were at war, as they were in 1652-54, the American subjects of the two nations remained at peace. Another war followed that act of violence by which, in 1664, the duke of York possessed himself of New Netherland ; but the conflict did not extend to America. A third time, in 1 672, Charles II. was induced by the king of France to begin a contest with the Dutch government. This time, indeed, the struggle extended to the colonies, and New York was revolutionized, but not by the action of her own people. In 1673 a small squadron was fitted out by Holland and placed under command of the gallant Captain Evertsen. The fleet sailed for America, and arrived be- fore Manhattan on the 30th of July. The governor of New York \ras absent, and Manning, the deputy-governor, was a coward. The defences of the city were dilapidated, and the people refused to strengthen them. Within four hours after the arrival of the squadron the fort was sur- rendered. The city capitulated, and the whole province yielded without a struggle. New Jersey and Delaware sent in their submission ; the name of New Netherland was revived ; and the authority of Ho'dand was restored from Connecticut to Maryland. 174 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. The reconquest of New York by the Dutch was only a brief mili- tary occupation of the country. The civil authority of Holland was never reestablished. In 1674, Charles II. was obliged by his Parliament to conclude a treaty of peace. There was the usual clause requiring the restoration of all conquests made during the war. New York reverted to the English government, and the rights of the duke were again recog- nized in the province. To make his authority doubly secure for the future, he obtained from his brother, the king, a new patent confirming the provisions of the former charter. The man who now received the appointment of deputy-governor of New York was none other than Sir Edmund Andros. On the last day of October the Dutch forces were finally withdrawn, and Andros assumed the government. It was a sad sort of government for the people. The worst prac- tices of Lovelace's administration were revived. The principles of arbi- trary rule were openly avowed. Taxes were levied without authority of law, and the appeals and protests of the people were treated with derision. The clamor for a popular legislative assembly had become so great that Andros was on the point of yielding. He even wrote a letter to the duke of York advising that thick-headed prince to grant the people the right of electing a colonial legislature. The duke replied that popular assem- blies were seditious and dangerous ; that they only fostered discontent and disturbed the peace of the government ; and finally, that he did not see any use for them. To the people of New York the civil liberty of the New England colonies seemed farther off than ever. By the terms of his grant the duke of York claimed jurisdiction over all the territory between the Connecticut River and Maryland. To assert and maintain this claim of his master was a part of the deputy- governor's business in America. The first effort to extend the duke's territorial rights to the limits of his charter was made in July of 1675. With some armed sloops and a company of soldiers, Andros proceeded to the mouth of the Connecticut in the hope of establishing his jurisdiction. The general assembly of the colony had heard of his coming, and had sent word to Captain Bull, who commanded the fort at Saybrook, to re- sist Andros in the name of the king. When the latter came in sight and hoisted the flag of England, the same colors were raised within the fortress. The royal governor was permitted to land ; but when he began to read his commission, he was ordered in the king's name to desist. Overawed by the threatening looks of the Saybrook militia, Andros retired to his boats and set sail for Long Island. Notwithstanding the grant of New Jersey to Carteret and Berkeley, the attempt was now made to extend the jurisdiction of New York over NEW YORK UNDER THE ENGLISH. 175 the lower province. Andros issued a decree that ships sailing to and from the ports of New Jersey should pay a duty at the custom-house of New York. This tyrannical action was openly resisted. Andros attempted to frighten the assembly of New Jersey into submission, and proceeded so far as to arrest Philip Carteret, the deputy-governor. But it was all of no use. The representatives of the people declared them • selves to be under the protection of the Great Charter, which not even the duke of York, or his brother the king, could alter or annul. In August of 1682 the territories beyond the Delaware were granted by the duke to William Penn. This little district, first settled by the Swedes, afterward conquered by the Dutch, then transferred to England on the conquest of New Netherland, was now finally separated from the jurisdiction of New York and joined to Pennsylvania. The governors of the latter province continued to exercise authority over the three counties on the Delaware until the American Revolution. At the close of Andros's administration, in 1683, Thomas Dongan, a Catholic, became governor of New York. For thirty years the people had been clamoring for a general assembly. Just before Andros left the province, the demand became more vehement than ever. The retiring governor, himself of a despotic disposition, counseled the duke to concede the right of representation to the people. At last James yielded, not so much with the view of extending popular rights, as with the hope of in- creasing his revenues from the improved condition of his province. Dongan, the new governor, came with full instructions to call an assem- bly of all the freeholders of New York, by whom certain persons of their own number should be elected to take part in the government. Seventy years had passed since the settlement of Manhattan Island ; and now for the first time the people were permitted to choose their own rulers and to frame their own laws. The first act of the new assembly was to declare that the supreme legislative power of the province resided in the governor, the council and the people. All freeholders were granted the rigkt of suffrage ; trial by jury was established ; taxes should no more be levied except by con- sent of the assembly; soldiers should not be quartered on the people; martial law should not exist; no person accepting the general doctrines of religion should be in any wise distressed or persecuted. All the rights and privileges of Massachusetts and Virginia were carefully written by the zealous law-makers of New York in their first charter of liberties. In July of 1684 an important treaty was concluded at Albany. The governors of New York and Virginia were met in convention by the sachems of the Iroquois, and the terms of a lasting peace were settled. 176 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. A long war ensued between the Five Nations and the French. The Jesuits of Canada employed every artifice and intrigue to induce the Indians to break their treaty with the English, but all to no purpose; the alliance was faithfully observed. In 1684, and again in 1687, the French invaded the territory of the Iroquois ; but the mighty Mohawks and Oneidas drove back their foes with loss and disaster. By the barrier of the friendly Five Nations on the north, the English and Dutch colo- nies were screened from danger. In 1685 the duke of York became king of England. It was soon found that even the monarch of a great nation could violate his pledges. King James became the open antagonist of the government which had been established under his own directions. The popular legislature of New York was abrogated. An odious tax was levied by an arbitrary decree. Printing-presses were forbidden in the province. All the old abuses were revived and made a public boast. In December of 1686, Edmund Andros became governor of all New England. It was a part of his plan to extend his dominion over New York and New Jersey. To the former province, Francis Nicholson, the lieutenant-general of Andros, was sent as deputy. Dongan was super- seded, and until the English Revolution of 1688, New York was ruled as a dependency of New England. "When the news of that event and of the accession of William of Orange reached the province, there was a general tumult of rejoicing. The people rose in rebellion against the government of Nicholson, who was glad enough to escape from New York and return to England. The leader of the insurrection was Jacob Leisler, a captain of the militia. A committee of ten took upon themselves the task of reorganizing the government. Leisler was commissioned to take possession of the fort of New York. Most of the troops in the city, together with five hundred volunteers, proceeded against the fort, which was surrendered without a struggle. The insurgents published a declaration in which they avowed their loyalty to the prince of Orange, their countryman, and expressed their determination to yield immediate obedience to his authority. A provisional government was organized, with Leisler at the head. The provincial councilors, who were friends and adherents of the deposed Nicholson, left the city and repaired to Albany. Here the party who were opposed to the usurpation of Leisler proceeded to organize a second provisional government. Both factions were careful to exercise authority in the name of William and Mary, the new sovereigns of England. In September of 1689, Milborne, the son-in-law of Leisler, was sent to Albany to demand the surrender of the town and fort. Court- NEW YORK UNDER TEE ENGLISH. 177 land and Bayard, who were the leaders of the northern faction, opposed the demand with so much vigor that Milborne was obliged to retire with- out accomplishing his object. Such was the condition of affairs at the beginning of King William's War. How the village of Schenectady was destroyed by the French and Indians, and how an unsuccessful expedition by land and water was planned against Quebec and Montreal, has been narrated in the history of Massachusetts. Such was the dispiriting effect of these disasters upon the people of Albany and the north that a second effort made by Milborne against the government of the opposing faction was successful ; and in the spring of 1690 the authority of Leisler as tem- porary governor of New York was recognized throughout the province. The summer was spent in fruitless preparations to invade and conquer Canada. The general assembly was convened at the capital ; but little was accomplished except a formal recognition of the insurrectionary government of Leisler. In January of 1691, Richard Ingoldsby arrived at New York. He bore a commission as captain, and brought the intelligence that Colo- nel Sloughter had been appointed royal governor of the province. Leisler received Ingoldsby with courtesy, and offered him quarters in the city ; but the latter, without authority from either the king or the governor, haughtily demanded the surrender of His Majesty's fort. Leisler refused to yield, but expressed his willingness to submit to any one who bore a commission from King William or Colonel Sloughter. On the 19th of March the governor himself arrived; and Leisler on the same day despatched messengers, tendering his service and submission. The mes- sengers were arrested, and Ingoldsby, the enemy and rival of Leisler, was sent with verbal orders for the surrender of the fort. Leisler foresaw his doom, and hesitated. He wrote a letter to Sloughter, expressing a desire to make a personal surrender of the post to the governor. The letter was unanswered ; Ingoldsby pressed his demand ; Leisler wavered, capitu- lated, and with Milborne was seized and hurried to prison. As soon as the royal government was organized the two prisoners were brought to trial. The charge was rebellion and treason. Dudley, the chief-justice of New England, rendered a decision that Leisler had been a usurper. The prisoners refused to plead, were convicted and sen- tenced to death. Sloughter, however, determined to know the pleasure of the king before putting the sentence into execution. But the royalist assembly of New York had already come together, and the members were resolved that the prisoners should be hurried to their death. The governor was invited to a banquet ; and when heated with strong drink, the death- warrant was thrust before him for his signature. He succeeded in affix- 12 178 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. ing his name to the fatal parchment ; and almost before the fumes of his drunken revel had passed away, his victims had met their fate. On the 1 6th of May, Leisler and Milborne were brought from prison, led through a drenching rain to the scaffold and hanged. Within less than a year afterward, their estates, which had been confiscated, were restored to their heirs; and in 1695 the attainder of the families was removed. The same summer that witnessed the execution of Leisler and Milborne was noted for the renewal of the treaty with the Iroquois. At Albany, Governor Sloughter met the sachems of the Five Nations, and the former terms of fidelity and friendship were reaffirmed. In the fol- lowing year the valiant Major Schuyler, at the head of the New York militia, joined a war-party of the Iroquois in a successful expedition against the French settlements beyond Lake Champlain. Meanwhile, the assembly of the province had been in session at the capital. Although the representatives were royalists, a resolution was passed against arbitrary taxation, and another which declared the people to be a part of the govern- ing power of the colony. It was not long until one of the governors had occasion to say that the people of New York were growing altogether too big with the privileges of Englishmen. Soon after his return from Albany, Sloughter's career was cut short by death. He was succeeded in the office of governor by Benjamin Fletcher, a man of bad passions and poor abilities. The new executive arrived in September of 1692. One of the first measures of his adminis- tration was to renew the recent treaty with the Iroquois. It was at this time the avowed purpose of the English monarch to place under a com- mon government all the territory between the Connecticut River and Delaware Bay. To further this project, Fletcher was armed with an ample and comprehensive commission. He was made governor of New York, and commander-in-chief not only of the troops of his own province, but also of the militia of Connecticut and New Jersey. In the latter province he met with little opposition ; but the Puritans of Hartford re- sisted so stubbornly that the alarmed and disgusted governor was glad to return to his own capital. The next effort of the administration was to establish the Episcopal Church in New York. The Dutch and the English colonists of the province were still distinct in nationality ; the former, though Calvinists, were not unfriendly to the Episcopal service which the Puritans so heartily despised. In a religious controversy between Fletcher's council and the English, the Dutch, not being partisans of either, looked on with comparative indifference. But when the governor was on the point of succeeding with his measures, the general assembly interposed, passed a NEW YORK UNDER THE ENGLISH. 179 decree of toleration, and brought the pretentious Church to a level with the rest. Fletcher gave vent to his indignation by calling his legislators a set of unmannerly and insubordinate boors. In 1696 the territory of New York was invaded by the French under Frontenac, governor of Canada. The faithful Iroquois made com- mon cause with the colonial forces, and the formidable expedition of the French was turned into confusion. Before the loss could be repaired and a second invasion undertaken, King William's War was ended by the treaty of Kyswick. In the following year, the earl of Bellomont, an Irish nobleman of excellent character and popular sympathies, succeeded Fletcher in the government of New York. His administration of less than four years was the happiest era in the history of the colony. His authority, like that of his predecessor, extended over a part of New Eng- land. Massachusetts and New Hampshire were under his jurisdiction, but Connecticut and Rhode Island remained independent. To this period belong the exploits of the famous pirate, Captain William Kidd. For centuries piracy had been the common vice of the high seas. The nations were just now beginning to take active measures for the sup- pression of the atrocious crime. The honest and humane Bellomont was one who was anxious to see the end of piratical violence. His commission contained a clause which authorized the arming of a vessel to range the ocean in pursuit of pirates. The ship was to bear the English flag, and was also commissioned as a privateer to prey upon the commerce of the enemies of England. The vessel was owned by a company of distin- guished and honorable persons ; Governor Bellomont himself was one of the proprietors ; and William Kidd received from the English admiralty a commission as captain. The ship sailed from England before Bello- morit's departure for New York. Hardly had the earl reached his province when the news came that Kidd himself had turned pirate and become the terror of the seas. For two years he continued his infamous career, then appeared publicly in the streets of Boston, was seized, sent to England, tried, convicted and hanged. What disposition was made of the enormous treasures which the pirate-ship had gathered on the ocean has never been ascertained. It has been thought that the vast hoard of ill-gotten wealth was buried in the sands of Long Island. Governor Bellomont was charged with having shared the booty, but an in- vestigation before the House of Commons showed the accusation to be groundless. In striking contrast with the virtues and wisdom of Bellomont were the vices and folly of Lord Cornbury, who succeeded him. He arrived at New York in the beginning of May, 1702. A month 180 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. previously the proprietors of New Jersey had surrendered their rights in the province to the English Crown. All obstacles being thus removed, the two colonies were formally united in one government under the authority of Cornbury. For a period of thirty-six years the territories, though with separate assemblies, continued under the jurisdiction of a single executive. One of Cornbury's first acts was to forge a clause in his own com- mission. Desiring to foster the Established Church, and finding nothing to that effect in his instructions, he made instructions for himself. At * first the people received him with great favor. The assembly voted two thousand pounds sterling to compensate him for the expenses of his voyage. In order to improve and fortify the Narrows, an additional sum of fifteen hundred pounds was granted. The money was taken out of the treasury, but no improvement was visible at the Narrows. The repre- sentatives modestly inquired what had become of their revenues. Lord Cornbury replied that the assembly of New York had no right to ask questions until the queen should give them permission. The old and oft-repeated conflict between personal despotism and popular liberty broke out anew. The people of the province were still divided on the subject of Leisler's insurrection. Cornbury became a violent partisan, favoring the enemies and persecuting the friends of that unfortunate leader ; and so from year to year matters grew constantly worse, until between the gov- ernor and his people there existed no relation but that of mutual hatred. In 1708 the civil dissensions of the province reached a climax. Each succeeding assembly resisted more stubbornly the measures of the governor. Time and again the people petitioned for his removal. The councilors selected their own treasurer, refused to vote appropriations, and curtailed Cornbury's revenues until he was impoverished and ruined. Then came Lord Lovelace with a commission from Queen Anne, and the passionate, wretched governor was unceremoniously turned out of office. Left to the mercy of his injured subjects, they arrested him for debt and threw him into prison, where he lay until, by his father's death, he be- came a peer of England and could be no longer held in confinement. During the progress of Queen Anne's "War the troops of New York cooperated with the army and navy of New England. Eighteen hun- dred volunteers from the Hudson and the Delaware composed the land forces in the unsuccessful expedition against Montreal in the winter of 1709-10. The provincial army proceeded as far as South River, east of Lake George. Here information was received that the English fleet which was expected to cooperate in the reduction of Quebec had been sent to Portugal ; the armament of New England was insufficient of NEW YORK UNDER THE ENGLISH. 181 itself to attempt the conquest of the Canadian stronghold ; and the troops of New York and New Jersey were obliged to retreat. Again, in 1711, when the incompetent Sir Hovenden Walker was pretending to conduct his fleet up the St. Lawrence, and was in reality only anxious to get away, the army which was to invade Canada by land was furnished by New York. A second time the provincial forces reached Lake George ; but the dispiriting news of the disaster to Walker's fleet destroyed all hope of success, and the discouraged soldiers returned to their homes. Failure and disgrace were not the only distressing circumstances of these campaigns ; a heavy debt remained to overshadow the prosperity of New York and to consume her revenues. For many years the re- sources of the province were exhausted in meeting the extraordinary expenses of Queen Anne's war. In 1713 the treaty of Utrecht put an end to the conflict, and peace returned to the American colonies. In this year the Tuscaroras of Carolina — a nation of the same race with the Iro- quois and Hurons of the North — were defeated and driven from their homes by the Southern colonists. The haughty tribe marched north- ward, crossed the middle colonies and joined their warlike kinsmen on the St. Lawrence, making the sixth nation in the Iroquois confederacy. Nine years later a great council was held at Albany. There the grand sachems of the Six Nations were met by the governors of New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. An important commercial treaty was formed, by which the extensive and profitable fur-trade of the Indians, which, until now, had been engrossed by the French, was diverted to the English. In order to secure the full benefits of this arrangement, Governor Burnett of New York hastened to establish a trading-post at Oswego, on the southern shore of Lake Ontario. Five years later a substantial fort was built at the same place and furnished with an English garrison. As late as the middle of the century, Oswego continued to be the only forti- fied outpost of the English in the entire country drained by the St. Law- rence and its tributaries. The French, meanwhile, had built a strong fort at Niagara, and another at Crown Point, on the western shore of Lake Champ] lin. The struggle for colonial supremacy between the two nations was already beginning. The administration of Governor Cosby, who succeeded Burnett in 1732, was a stormy epoch in the history of the colony. The people were in a constant struggle with the royal governors. At this time the contest took the form of a dispute about the freedom of the press. The liberal or democratic party of the province held that a public journal might criti- cise the acts of the administration and publish views distasteful to the p-overnment. The aristocratic party opposed such liberty as a dangerous 182 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. license, which, if permitted, would soon sap the foundations of all au- thority. Zenger, an editor of one of the liberal newspapers, published hostile criticisms on the policy of the governor, was seized and put in prison. Great excitement ensued. The people were clamorous for their champion. Andrew Hamilton, a noted lawyer of Philadelphia, went to New York to defend Zenger, who was brought to trial in July of 1 735. The charge was libel against the government ; the cause was ably argued, and the jury made haste to bring in a verdict of acquittal. The aldermen of the city of New York, in order to testify their appreciation of Hamil- ton's services in the cause of liberty, made him a present of an elegant gold box, and the people were wild with enthusiasm over their victory. New York, like Massachusetts, was once visited with a fatal delu- sion. In the year 1741 occurred what is known as the Negro Plot. Slavery was permitted in the province, and negroes constituted a large fraction of the population. Several destructive fires had occurred, and it was believed that they had been kindled by incendiaries. The slaves were naturally distrusted ; now they became feared and hated. Some degraded women came forward and gave information that the negroes had made a plot to burn the city, kill all who opposed them, and set up one of their own number as governor. The whole story was the essence of absurdity ; but the people were alarmed, and were ready to believe anything. The reward of freedom was offered to any slave who would reveal the plot. Many witnesses rushed forward with foolish and contra- dictory stories ; the jails were filled with the accused ; and more than thirty of the miserable creatures, with hardly the form of a trial, were convicted and then hanged or burned to death. Others were transported and sold as slaves in foreign lands. As soon as the supposed peril had passed and the excited people regained their senses, it came to be doubted whether the whole shocking affair had not been the result of terror and fanaticism. The verdict of after times has been that there was no plot at all. During the progress of King George's War the territory of New York was several times invaded by the French and Indians. But the invasions were feeble and easily repelled. Except the abandonment of a few villages in the northern part of the State and the destruction of a small amount of exposed property, little harm was done to the province. The alliance of the fierce Mohawks with the English always made the in- vasion of New York by the French an exploit of more danger than profit. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, concluded in 1748, again brought peace and prosperity to the people. Notwithstanding the central position of New York, her growth NEW YORK UNDER THE ENGLISH. 183 was slow, her development unsteady, and her prospects darkened with much adversity. In population she stood, at the outbreak of the French and Indian war, but sixth in a list of the colonies. Massa- chusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia had all outstripped her in the race. But the elements of future renown were nowhere else more abundantly bestowed. Here at the foot of her principal city lay the most convenient and commodious harbor on the Atlantic. A magnificent river — draining the country as far as where, at Onondaga, burned the great council-fire of the Six Nations — rolled down through fruitful valleys to join the waters of the bay. Best of all, the people who inhabited the noble province were ever ready to resist oppression, bold to defend their rights, and zealous in the cause of freedom. Such is the history of the little colony planted on Manhattan Island. A hundred and thirty years have passed since the first feeble settlements were made ; now the great valley of the Hudson is filled with beautiful farms and teeming villages. The Walloons of Flanders and the Puritans of New England have blended into a common people. Dis- cord and contention, though bitter while they lasted, have borne only the peaceful fruit of colonial liberty. There are other and greater struggles through which New York must pass, other burdens to be borne, other calamities to be endured, other fires in which her sons must be tried and purified, before they gain their freedom. But the oldest and greatest of the middle colonies has entered upon a glorious career, and the ample foundations of an Empire State are securely laid. COLONIAL HISTORY.— Continued. MINOR EASTERN COLONIES. CHAPTER XXI. CONNECTICUT. THE history of Connecticut begins with the year 1630. The first grant of the territory was made by the council of Plymouth to the earl of Warwick ; and in March of 1631 the claim was transferred by him to Lord Say-and-Seal, Lord Brooke, John Hampden and others. Before a colony could be planted by the proprietors, the Dutch of New Netherland reached the Connecticut River and built at Hartford their fort, called the House of Good Hope. The people of New Plymouth immediately organized and sent out a force to counteract this movement of their rivals. The territorial claim of the Puritans extended not only over Connecticut, but over New Netherland itself and onward to the west. Should the intruding Dutch colonists of Manhattan be allowed to move eastward and take possession of the finest valley in New Eng- land? Certainly not. The English expedition reached the mouth of the Connecticut and sailed up the river. When the little squadron came opposite the House of Good Hope, the commander of the garrison ordered Captain Holmes, the English officer, to strike his colors; but the order was treated with derision. The Dutch threatened to fire in case the fleet should attempt to pass ; but the English defiantly hoisted sails and proceeded up the river. The puny cannons of the House of Good Hope remained cold and silent. At a point just below the mouth of the Farmington, seven miles above Hartford, the Puritans landed and built the block-house of Windsor. In October of 1635 a colony of sixty persons left Boston, traversed the forests of Central Massachusetts, and settled at Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield. Earlier in the same year the younger Winthrop, a man who in all the virtues of a noble life was a worthy rival of his (184) CONNECTICUT. 185 father, the governor of Massachusetts, arrived in New England. He bore a commission from the proprietors of the Western colony to build a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut River, and to prevent the further encroachments of the Dutch. The fortress was hastily completed and the guns mounted just in time to prevent the entrance of a Dutch trading-vessel which appeared at the mouth of the river. Such was the founding of Saybrook, so named in honor of the proprietors, Lords Say- and-Seal and Brooke. Thus was the most important river of New Eng- land brought under the dominion of the Puritans ; the solitary Dutch settlement at Hartford was cut off from succor and left to dwindle into insignificance. To the early annals of Connecticut belongs the sad story of the Pequod War. The country west of the Thames was more thickly peopled with savages than any other portion of New England. The haughty and warlike Pequods were alone able to muster seven hundred warriors. The whole effective force of the English colonists did not amount to two hundred men. But the superior numbers of the cunning and revengeful savages were more than balanced by the unflinching courage and destructive weapons of the English. The first act of violence was committed in the year 1633. The crew of a small trading- vessel were ambushed and murdered on the banks of the Connecticut. An Indian embassy went to Boston to apologize for the crime ; the nation was forgiven and received in friendship. A treaty was patched up, the Pequods acknowledging the supremacy of the Eng- lish and promising to become civilized. The Narragansetts, the heredi- tary enemies of the Pequods, had already yielded to the authority of Massachusetts and promised obedience to her laws. A reconciliation was thus effected between the two hostile races of savages. But as soon as the Pequods were freed from their old fear of the Narragansetts, they began to violate their recent treaty with the English. Oldham, the worthy captain of a trading- vessel, was murdered near Block Island. A com- pany of militia pursued the perpetrators of the outrage and gave them a bloody punishment. All the slumbering hatred and suppressed rage of the nation burst forth, and the war began in earnest. In this juncture of affairs the Pequods attempted a piece of danger- ous diplomacy. A persistent effort was made to induce the Narragansetts and the Mohegans to join in a war of extermination against the English ; and the plot was wellnigh successful. But the heroic Roger Williams, faithful in his misfortunes, sent a letter to Sir Henry Vane, governor of Massachusetts, warned him of the impending danger, and volunteered his services to defeat the conspiracy. The governor replied, urging Williams 186 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. to use his utmost endeavors to thwart the threatened alliance. Embark- ing alone in a frail canoe, the exile left Providence, which he had founded only a month before, and drifted out into Narragansett Bay. Every mo- ment it seemed that the j)oor little boat with its lonely passenger would be swallowed up ; but his courage and skill as an oarsman at last brought him to the shore in safety. Proceeding at once to the house of Canonicus, king of the Narragansetts, he found the painted and bloody ambassadors of the Pequods already there. For three days and nights, at the deadly peril of his life, he pleaded with Canonicus and Miantonomoh to reject the proposals of the hostile tribe, and to stand fast in their allegiance to the English. His noble efforts were successful; the wavering Narra- gansetts voted to remain at peace, and the disappointed Pequod chiefs were sent away. The Mohegans also rejected the proposed alliance. Uncas, the sachem of that, nation, not only remained faithful to the whites, but fur- nished a party of warriors to aid them against the Pequods. In the meantime, repeated acts of violence had roused the colony to vengeance. During the winter of 1636-37 many murders were committed in the neighborhood of Saybrook. In the following April a massacre occurred at Wethersfield, in which nine persons were butchered. On the 1st day of May the three towns of Connecticut declared war. Sixty gallant volun- teers — one-third of the whole effective force of the colony — were put under command of Captain John Mason of Hartford. Seventy Mohegans joined the expedition ; and the thoughtful Sir Henry Vane sent Captain Under- bill with twenty soldiers from Boston. The descent from Hartford to Saybrook occupied one day. On the 20th of the month the expedition, sailing eastward, passed the mouth of the Thames ; here was -the principal seat of the Pequod nation. When the savages saw the squadron go by without attempting to land, they set up shouts of exultation, and persuaded themselves that the English were afraid to hazard battle. But the poor nativas had sadly mistaken the men with whom they had to deal. The fleet proceeded quietly into Narragansett Bay and anchored in the harbor of Wickford. Here the troops landed and began their march into the country of the Pequods. After one day's advance, Mason reached the cabin of Canonicus and Miantonomoh, sachems of the Narragansetts. Them he attempted to persuade to join him against the common enemy ; but the wary chieftains, knowing the prowess of the Pequods, and fearing that the English might be defeated, decided to remain neutral. . On the evening of the 25th of May the troops of Connecticut came within hearing of the Pequod fort The unsuspecting warriors spent CONNECTICUT. 187 SCENE OF THE PEQUOD WAR. their last night on earth in uproar and jubilee. At two o'clock in the morning the English soldiers rose suddenly from their places of conceal- ment and rushed forward to the fort. A dog ran howling among the wigwams, and the warriors sprang to arms, only to receive a deadly volley from the English muskets. The fear- less assailants leaped over the puny palisades and began the work of death ; but the savages rose on every side in such numbers that Mason's men were about to be overwhelmed. " Burn them ! burn them !" shouted the dauntless captain, seizing a flaming mat and running to the windward of the cabins. " Burn them !" resounded on every side ; and in a few minutes the dry wigwams were one sheet of crackling flame. The Eng- lish and Mohegans hastily withdrew to the ramparts. The yelling savages found themselves begirt with fire. They ran round and round like wild beasts in a burning circus. If one of the wretched creatures burst through the flames, it was only to meet certain death from a broadsword or a musket-ball. The destruction was complete and awful. Only seven warriors escaped ; seven others were made prisoners. Six hundred men, women and children perished, nearly all of them being roasted to death in a hideous heap. Before the rising of the sun the pride and glory of the Pequods had passed away for ever. Sassacus, the grand sachem of the tribe, escaped into the forest, fled for protection to the Mohawks, and was murdered. Two of the English soldiers were killed and twenty others wounded in the battle. In the early morning three hundred Pequods, the remnant of the nation, approached from a second fort in the neighborhood. They had heard the tumult of battle, and supposed their friends victorious. To their utter horror, they found their fortified town in ashes and nearly all their proud tribe lying in one blackened pile of half-burnt flesh and bones. The savage warriors stamped the earth, yelled and tore their hair in desperate rage, and ran howling through the woods. Mason's men re- turned by way of New London to Say brook, and thence to Hartford. New troops arrived from Massachusetts. The remnants of the hostile nation were pursued into the swamps and thickets west of Saybrook. Every wigwam of the Pequods was burned, and every field laid w r aste. The remaining two hundred panting fugitives were hunted to death or captivity. The prisoners were distributed as servants among the Narra- 188 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. gansetts and Mohegans ; a few were sold as slaves. The first war between the English colonists and the natives had ended in the overthrow and destruction of one of the most powerful tribes of New England. For many years the other nations, when tempted to hostility, remembered the fate of the Pequods. The final capture of the Pequod fugitives was made at Fairfield, on Long Island Sound, fifty miles south-west from Saybrook. The Eng- lish thus became better acquainted with the coast west of the mouth of the Connecticut. Some men of Boston were delighted with the beautiful plain between the Wallingford and West Eivers. Here they tarried over winter, building some cabins and exploring the country ; such was the founding of New Haven. Shortly afterward, a Puritan colony from England, under the leadership of Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport, arrived at Boston. Hearing of the beauty of the country on the sound, the new immigrants again set sail, and about the middle of April reached New Haven. On the morning of the first Sabbath after their arrival the colonists assembled for worship under a spreading oak ; and Davenport, their minister, preached a touching and appropriate sermon on The Temptation in the Wilderness. The next care was to make an honorable purchase of land from the Indians — a policy which was ever afterward faithfully adhered to by the colony. For the first year there was no government except a simple covenant, into which the settlers entered, that all would be obedient to the rules of Scripture. In June of 1639 the leading men of New Haven hold a convention in a barn, and formally adopted the Bible as the constitution of the State. Everything was strictly conformed to the religious standard. The govern- ment was called the House of Wisdom, of which Eaton, Davenport and five others were the seven Pillars. None but church members were ad- mitted to the rights of citizenship. All offices were to be filled by the votes of the freemen at an annual election. For twenty years consecu- tively, Mr. Eaton — first and greatest of the pillars — was chosen governor of the colony. Other settlers came, and pleasant villages sprang up on both shores of Long Island Sound. Civil government began in Connecticut in the year 1639. Until that time the Western colonies had been subject to Massachusetts, and had scarcely thought of independence. But when the soldiers of Hartford returned victorious from the Pequod war, the exulting people began to think of a separate commonwealth. If they could fight their own battles, could they not make their own laws? Delegates from the three towns came together at Hartford, and on the 14th of January a constitution was framed for the colony. The new instrument was one of the most simple CONNECTICUT. 189 and liberal ever adopted. An oath of allegiance to the State was the only qualification of citizenship. No recognition of the English king or 'of any foreign authority was required. Different religious opinions were alike tolerated and respected. All the officers of the colony were to be chosen by ballot at an annual election. The law-making power was vested in a general assembly, and the representatives were apportioned among the towns according to population. Neither Saybrook nor New Haven adopted this constitution, by which the other colonies in the valley of the Connecticut were united in a common government. In 1 643, Connecticut became a member of the Union of New Eng- land. Into this confederacy New Haven was also admitted ; and in the next year Saybrook was purchased of George Fenwick, one of the pro- prietors, and permanently annexed to Connecticut. The anticipated diffi- culties with the Dutch of New Netherland had made the colonies of the West anxious for a closer union with Massachusetts. The fears of the people were not entirely quieted until 1650, when Governor Stuyvesant met the commissioners of Connecticut at Hartford, and established the western boundary of the province. This measure promised peace ; but in 1651 Avar broke out between England and Holland, and notwithstanding the recent pledges of friendship, New England and New Netherland were wellnigh drawn into the conflict. Stuyvesant was suspected of inciting the Indians against the English ; a declaration of war was proposed be- fore the delegates of the united colonies, and was only prevented from passing by the veto of Massachusetts. Left without support, Connecticut and New Haven next sought aid from Cromwell, who entered heartily into the project and sent out a fleet to co-operate with the colonists in the reduction of New Netherland. But while the western towns were busily preparing for war, the news of peace arrived, and hostilities were happily averted. On the restoration of monarchy in England, Connecticut made haste to recognize King Charles as rightful sovereign. It was as much an act of sound policy as of loyal zeal. The people of the Connecticut valley were eager for a royal charter. They had conquered the Pequods ; they had bought the lands of the Mohegans ; they had purchased the claims of the earl of Warwick ; it only remained to secure all these acquisitions with a patent from the king. The infant republic selected its best and truest man, the scholarly younger Winthrop, and sent him as ambassador to London. He bore with him a charter which had been carefully prepared by the authorities of Hartford ; the problem was to induce the king to sign it. The aged Lord Say-and-Seal, for many years the friend and bene- 190 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. factor of the colony, was now an important officer of the Crown. To him Winthrop delivered a letter, unfolded his plans and appealed for help ; and the appeal was not in vain. The earl of Manchester, lord chamber- lain to the king, was induced to lend his aid. Winthrop easily obtained an audience with the sovereign, and did not fail to show him a ring which Charles I. had given as a pledge of friendship to Winthrop's grandfather. The little token so moved the wayward monarch's feelings that in a moment of careless mag- nanimity he signed the colonial charter without the alter- ation of a letter. Winthrop returned to the rejoicing col- ony, bearing a pat- ent the most liberal and ample ever granted by an Eng- lish monarch. The power of govern- ing themselves was conferred on the people without qualification or re- striction. Every right of sovereign- ty and of inde- pendence, except the name, was con- ceded to the new State. The territory included under the charter ex- tended from the bay and river of the Narragansetts westward to the Pacific. The people who had built the House of Wisdom at New Haven now found themselves the unwilling subjects of the new com- monwealth of Connecticut. For fourteen years the excellent Winthrop was annually chosen governor of the colony. Every year added largely to the population and wealth of the province. The civil and religious institutions were the freest and best in New England. Peace reigned ; the husbandman was undisturbed in the field, the workman in his shop. Even during King Philip's War, Connecticut was saved from invasion. Not a war-whoop THE YOUNGER WINTHROP. CONNECTICUT. 191 was heard, not a hamlet burned, not a life lost, within her borders. Her soldiers made common cause with their brethren of Massachusetts and Rhode Island; but their own homes were saved from the desolations of war. In July of 1675, Sir Edmund Andros, the governor of New York, arrived with an armed sloop at the mouth of the Connecticut. Orders were sent to Captain Bull, who commanded the fort at Saybrook, to sur- render his post; but the brave captain replied by hoisting the flag of England and assuring the bearer of the message that his master would better retire. Andros, however, landed and came to a parley with the officers of the fort. He began to read his commission, but was ordered to stop. In vain did the arrogant magistrate insist that the dominions of the duke of York extended from the Connecticut to the Delaware. " Connecticut has her own charter, signed by His Gracious Majesty King Charles II.," said Captain Bull. " Leave off your reading, or take the consequences !" The argument prevailed, and the red-coated governor, trembling with rage, was escorted to his boat by a company of Saybrook militia. In 1686, when Andros was made royal governor of New England, Connecticut was again included in his jurisdiction. The first year of his administration was spent in establishing his authority in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. In the following October he made his famous visit to Hartford. On the day of his arrival he invaded the provincial assembly while in session, seized the book of minutes, and with his own hand wrote Finis at the bottom of the page. He demanded the immediate surrender of the colonial charter. Governor Treat pleaded long and earnestly for the preservation of the precious document. Andros was inexorable. The shades of evening fell. Joseph Wadsworth found in the gathering darkness an opportunity to conceal the cherished parch- ment — a deed which has made his own name and the name of a tree immortal. Two years later, when the government of Andros was over- thrown, Connecticut made haste to restore her liberties. In the autumn of 1693, another attempt was made to subvert the freedom of the colony. Fletcher, the governor of New York, went to Hartford to assume command of the militia of the province. He bore a commission from King William ; but by the terms of the charter the right of commanding the troops was vested in the colony itself. The general assembly refused to recognize the authority of Fletcher, who, nevertheless, ordered the soldiers under arms and proceeded to read his commission as colonel. " Beat the drums !" shouted Captain Wadsworth, who stood at the head of the company. " Silence I" said Fletcher ; the 192 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. drums ceased, and the reading began again. " Drum ! drum !" cried Wadsworth ; and a second time the voice of the reader was drowned in the uproar. " Silence ! silence !" shouted the enraged governor. The dauntless Wadsworth stepped before the ranks and said, "Colonel Fletcher, if I am interrupted again, I will let the sunshine through your body in an instant." That ended the controversy. Benjamin Fletcher thought it better to be a living governor of New York than a dead colonel of the Connecticut militia. " I give these books for the founding of a college in this colony." Such were the words often ministers who, in the year 1700, assembled at the village of Branford, a few miles east of New Haven. Each of the worthy fathers, as he uttered the words, deposited a few volumes on the table around which they were sitting ; such was the founding of Yale College. In 1702 the school was formally opened at Saybrook, where it continued for fifteen years, and was then removed to New Haven. One of the most liberal patrons of the college was Elihu Yale, from whom the famous institution of learning derived its name. Common schools had existed in almost every village of Connecticut since the planting of the colony. The children of the Pilgrims have never forgotten the cause of education. The half century preceding the French and Indian war was a period of prosperity to all the western districts of New England. Con- necticut was especially favored. Almost unbroken peace reigned through- out her borders. The blessings of a free commonwealth were realized in full measure. The farmer reaped his fields in cheerfulness and hope. The mechanic made glad his dusty shop with anecdote and song. The merchant feared no duty, the villager no taxes. Want was unknown and pauperism unheard of. Wealth was little cared for and crime of rare occurrence among a people with whom intelligence and virtue were the only foundations of nobility. With fewer dark pages in her history, less austerity of manners and greater liberality of sentiment, Connecticut had all. the lofty purposes and shining virtues of Massachusetts. The visions of Hooker and Haynes, and the dreams of the quiet Winthrop, were more than realized in the happy homes of the Connecticut valley. RHODE ISLAND. 193 CHAPTER XXII. RHODE ISLAND. IT was in June of 1636 that the exiled Roger Williams left the country of the "VVampanoags and passed down the Seekonk to Narragansett River. His object was to secure a safe retreat beyond the limits of Ply- mouth colony. He, with his five companions, landed on the western bank, at a place called Moshassuck, purchased the soil of the Narragansett sachems, and laid the foundations of Providence. Other exiles joined the company. New farms were laid out, new fields were ploughed and new houses built; here, at last, was found at Providence Plantation a refuge for all the distressed and persecuted. The leader of the new colony was a native of Wales ; born in 1606 ; liberally educated at Cambridge ; the pupil of Sir Edward Coke ; in after years the friend of Milton ; a dissenter ; a hater of ceremonies ; a disciple of truth in its purest forms; an uncompromising advocate of freedom; exiled to Massachusetts, and now exiled by Massachusetts, he brought to the banks of the Narragansett the great doctrines of perfect religious liberty and the equal rights of men. If the area of Rhode Island had corresponded with the grandeur of the principles on which she was founded, who could have foretold her destiny ? Roger Williams belonged to that most radical body of dissenters called Anabaptists. By them the validity of infant baptism was denied. Williams himself had been baptized in infancy ; but his views in regard to the value of the ceremony had undergone a change during his ministry at Salem. Now that he had freed himself from all foreign authority both of Church and State, he conceived it to be his duly to receive a second baptism. But who should perform the ceremony ? Ezekiel Holliman, a layman, was selected for the sacred duty. Williams meekly received the rite at the hands of his friend, and then in turn baptized him and ten other exiles of the colony. Such was the organization of the first Baptist Church in America. The beginning of civil government in Rhode Island was equally simple and democratic. Mr. Williams was the natural ruler of the little province, but he reserved for himself neither wealth nor privilege. The 194 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. lands which he purchased from Canonicus and Miantonomoh were freely distributed among the colonists. Only two small fields, to be planted and tilled with his own hands, were kept by the benevolent founder for himself. How different from the grasping avarice of Wingfield and Lord Cornbury ! All the powers of the colonial government were entrusted to the people. A simple agreement was made and signed by the settlers that in all matters not affecting the conscience they would yield a cheerful obedience to such rules as the majority might make for the public welfare. In questions of religion the individual conscience should be to every man a guide. When Massachusetts objected that such a democracy would leave nothing for the magistrates to do, Rhode Island answered that magistrates were wellnigh useless. The new government stood the test of experience. The evil prophe- cies of its enemies were unfulfilled ; instead of predicted turmoil and dis- sension, Providence Plantation had nothing but peace and quiet. It was found that all religious sects could live together in harmony, and that difference of opinion was not a bar to friendship. All beliefs were wel- come at Narragansett Bay. A Buddhist from Japan or a pagan from Madagascar would have been received at Providence and cordially enter- tained. Miantonomoh, the young sachem of the Narragansetts, loved Roger Williams as a brother. It was the confidence of this chieftain that enabled Williams to notify Massachusetts of the Pequod conspiracy, and then at the hazard of his life to defeat the plans of the hostile nation. This magnanimous act awakened the old affections of his friends at Salem and Plymouth, and an effort was made to recall him and his fellow-exiles from banishment. It was urged that a man of such gracious abilities, so full of patience and charity, could never be dangerous in a State ; but his enemies answered that the principles and teachings of Williams would subvert the commonwealth and bring Massachusetts to ruin. The pro- posal was rejected. The ancient Greeks sometimes recalled their exiled heroes from banishment ; the colony of Massachusetts, never. During the Pequod war of 1637, Rhode Island was protected by the friendly Narragansetts. The territory of this powerful tribe lay between Providence and the country of the Pequods, and there was little fear of an invasion. The next year was noted for the arrival of Mrs. Hutchinson and her friends at the island of Rhode Island. The leaders of the com- pany were John Clarke and William Coddington. It had been their intention to conduct the colony to Long Island, or perhaps to the country of the Delaware. But Roger Williams made haste to welcome them to his province, where no man's conscience might be distressed. Gov- ernor Vane of Massachusetts, sympathizing with the refugees, prevailed RHODE ISLAND. 195 with Miantonomoli to make them a gift of Ehode Island. Here, in the early spring of 1638, the colony was planted. The first settlement was made at Portsmouth, in the northern part of the island. Other exiles came to join their J friends, and civil government was thought desirable. The iJewish nation furnished the model. William Coddington was chosen judge in the new Israel of Narragansett Bay, and three elders were ap- pointed to assist him in the government. In the follow- ing year the title of judge gave way to that of governor, and the administration be- came more modern in its methods. At the same time a party of colonists removed from Portsmouth, already crowded with exiles, to the south-western part of the island, and laid the foundations of Newport. Hither had come, more than six hundred years before, the hardy adven- turers of Iceland. Here had been a favorite haunt of the wayward sea- kings of the eleventh century. Here, in sight of the new settlement, stood the old stone tower, the most celebrated monument left by the Norsemen in America. The island was soon peopled. The want of civil government began to be felt as a serious inconvenience. Mr. Coddington's new Israel had proved an utter failure. In March of 1641 a public meeting was con- vened ; the citizens came together on terms of perfect equality, and the task of framing a constitution was undertaken. In three days the instru- ment was completed. The government was declared to be a " Demo- cracie," or government by the people. The supreme authority was lodged with the whole body of freemen in the island ; and freemen, in this instance, meant everybody. The vote of the majority should always rule. No soul should be distressed on account of religious , doctrine. Liberty of conscience, even in the smallest particular, should be uni- versally respected. A seal of State was ordered, having for its design a sheaf of arrows and a motto of Amor vincet omnia. The little THE OLD STONE TOWER AT NEWPORT. 196 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. republic of Narragansett Bay was named the Plantation of Rhode Island. In 1643 was formed the Union of New England. Providence and Rhode Island both pleaded for admission, and both were rejected. The meaning of this illiberal action on the part of the older and more power- ful colonies was that the settlements on the Narragansett belonged to the jurisdiction of Plymouth. Alarmed at the prospect of being again put under the dominion of their persecutors, the exiled republicans of Rhode Island determined to appeal to the English government for a charter. Roger Williams was accordingly appointed agent of the two plantations and sent to London. He was cordially received by his old and steadfast friend Sir Henry Vane, now an influential member of Parliament. The plea of Rhode Island was heard with favor; and on the 14th of March in the following year the coveted charter was granted. Great was the rejoicing when the successful ambassador returned to his people. The grateful colonists met their benefactor at Seekonk, and conducted him to Providence with shouts and exultation. Rhode Island had secured her independence. The first general assembly of the province was convened at Ports- mouth, in 1647. The new government was organized in strict accordance with the provisions of the charter. A code of laws was framed; the principles of democracy were reaffirmed, and full religious toleration and freedom of conscience guaranteed to all. A president and subordinate officers were chosen, and Rhode Island began her career as an independent colony. Once the integrity of the province was endangered. In 1651, William Coddington, who had never been satisfied with the failure of his Jewish commonwealth, succeeded in obtaining from the English council of state a decree by which the island of Rhode Island was separated from the common government. But the zealous protests of John Clarke and Roger Williams, who went a second time to London, prevented the dis- union, and the decree of separation was revoked. The grateful people now desired that their magnanimous benefactor should be commissioned by the English council as governor of the province ; but the blind grat- itude of his friends could not prevail over the wisdom of the prudent leader. He foresaw the danger, and refused the tempting commission. Roger Williams w?s proof against all the seductions of ambition. The faithful Clarke remained in England to guard the interests of the colony. It was not long until his services were greatly needed. The restoration of monarchy occurred in 1660. Charles II. came home in triumph from his long exile. Rhode Island had accepted a charter from RHODE ISLAND. 197 the Long Parliament ; that Parliament had driven Charles I. from his throne, had made war upon him, beaten him in battle, imprisoned him, beheaded him. Was it likely that the son of that monarch would allow a colonial charter issued by the Long Parliament to stand ? Would he not with vindictive scorn dash the patent of the little republic out of exist- ence ? The people of Rhode Island had hardly the courage to plead for the preservation of their liberty ; but taking heart, they wrote a loyal petition to the new sovereign, praying for the renewal of their charter. To their in- finite delight, and to the wonder of after times, the king listened with favor ; Clarendon, the minister, assented; and on the 8th of July, 1663, the charter was reissued. The freedom of the colony was in no wise restricted. All the liberal provisions of the parliamentary patent were revived. Not even an oath of allegiance was required of the people. On the 24th of November the island of Rhode Island was thronged with people. George Baxter had come with the charter. Opening the box that contained it, he held aloft the precious parchment. There, sure enough, was the signature of King Charles II. There was His Majesty's royal stamp; there was the broad seal of England. The charter was read aloud to the joyful people. The little "democracie" of Rhode Island was safe. The happy colonists were not to blame when they began their letter of thanks as follows: " To King Charles of England, for his high and inestimable — yea, incomparable — favor." For nearly a quarter of a century Rhode Island prospered. The distresses of King Philip's War were forgotten. Roger Williams grew old and died. At last came Sir Edmund Andros, the enemy of New England. After overthrowing the liberties of Massachusetts, he next demanded the surrender of the charter of Rhode Island. The demand was for a while evaded by Governor Walter Clarke and the colonial as- sembly. But Andros, not to be thwarted, repaired to Newport, dissolved the government and broke the seal of the colony. Five irresponsible councilors were appointed to control the affairs of the province, and the commonwealth was in ruins. But the usurpation was as brief as it was shameful. In the spring of 1689 the news was borne to Rhode Island that James II. had abdi- cated the throne of England, and that Andros and his officers were pris- oners at Boston. On May-day the people rushed to Newport and made a proclamation of their gratitude for the great deliverance. Walter Clarke was reelected governor, but was fearful of accepting. Almy was elected, and also declined. Then an old Quaker, named Henry Bull, more than eighty years of age, was chosen. He was one of the founders of the colony. He had known Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams. Should he, in 198 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. his gray hairs, through fear and timidity, refuse the post of danger? The old veteran accepted the trust, and spent his last days in restoring the liberties of Rhode Island. Again the little State around the Bay of Narragansett was pros- perous. For more than fifty years the peace of the colony was undis- turbed. The principles of the illustrious founder became the principles of the commonwealth. The renown of Rhode Island has not been in vastness of territory, in mighty cities or victorious armies, but in a stead- fast devotion to truth, justice and freedom. CHAPTER XXIII. NEW HAMPSHIRE. IN the year 1622 the territory lying between the rivers Merrimac and Kennebec, reaching from the sea to the St. Lawrence, was granted by the council of Plymouth to Sir Ferdinand Gorges and John Mason. The history of New Hampshire begins with the following year. For the proprietors made haste to secure their new domain by actual settlements. In the early spring of 1623 two small companies of colonists were sent out by Mason and Gorges to people their province. The coast of New Hampshire had first been visited by Martin Pring in 1603. Eleven years later the restless Captain Smith explored the spacious harbor at the mouth of the Piscataqua, and spoke with delight of the deep and tranquil waters. One party of the new immigrants landed at Little Harbor, two miles south of the present site of Portsmouth, and began to build a village. The other party proceeded up stream, entered the Cocheco, and, four miles above the mouth of that tributary, laid the foundations of Dover. With the exception of Plymouth and Weymouth, Portsmouth and Dover are the oldest towns in New England. But the progress of the settlements was slow; for many years the two villages were only fishing-stations. In 1629 the proprietors divided their dominions, Gorges retaining the part north of the Piscataqua, and Mason taking exclusive control of the district between the Piscataqua and the Merrimac. In May of this year, Rev. John Wheelwright, who soon afterward became a leader in the party of Anne Hutchinson, visited the Abenaki chieftains, and purchased their NEW HAMPSHIRE. 199 claims to the soil of the whole territory held by Mason ; but in the fol- lowing November, Mason's title was confirmed by a second patent from the council, and the name of the province was changed from Laconia to New Hampshire. Very soon Massachusetts began to urge her chartered rights to the district north of the Merrimac ; already the claims to the jurisdiction of the new colony were numerous and conflicting. In November of 1635, Mason died, and his widow undertook the government of the province. But the expenses of the colony were greater than the revenues ; the chief tenants could not be paid for their services ; and after a few years of mismanagement the territory was given up to the servants and dependents of the late proprietor. Such was the condition of affairs when Mrs. Hutchinson and her friends were banished from Boston. "Wheelwright, who was of the number, now found use for the lands which he had purchased in New Hampshire. When Clarke and Coddington, leading the greater number of the exiles, set out for Rhode Island, Wheelwright, with a small party of friends, repaired to the banks of the Piscataqua. At the head of tide- water on that stream they halted, and founded the village of Exeter. The little colony was declared a republic, established on the principle of equal right and universal toler- ation. The proposition to unite New Hampshire with Massachusetts was received with favor by the people of both colonies. The liberal provisions of the Body of Liberties, adopted by the older province in 1641, excited the villagers of the Piscataqua, and made them anxious to join the desti- nies of the free commonwealth of Massachusetts. A union was immedi- ately proposed; on the 14th of the following April terms of consolidation were agreed on, and New Hampshire, by the act of her own people, was united with the older colony. It is worthy of special notice that the law of Massachusetts restricting the rights of citizenship to church members was not extended over the new province. The people of Portsmouth and Dover belonged to the Church of England, and it was deemed unjust to discriminate against them on account of their religion. New Hampshire was the only colony east of the Hudson not originally founded by the Puritans. The union continued in force until 1679. In the mean time the heirs of Mason had revived the claim of the old proprietor of the province. The cause had been duly investigated in the courts of England, and in 1677 a decision was reached that the Masonian claims were invalid as to the civil jurisdiction of New Hampshire, but valid as to the soil — that is, the heirs were the lawful owners, but not the lawful governors, of the territory. tt was evident from the character of this decision that King Charles in- 200 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. tended to assert his own right of government over New Hampshire, and at the same time to confer the ownership of the soil upon the represent- atives of Mason. Nor was the province long left in doubt as to the king's intentions. On the 24th of July, 1679, a decree was published by which New Hampshire was separated from the jurisdiction of Massachusetts and organized as a distinct royal province. The excuse was that the claims of the Masons against the farmers of New Hampshire would have to be determined in colonial courts, and that colonial courts could not be estab- lished without the organization of a separate colony. It was clearly fore- seen that in such trials the courts of Massachusetts would always decide against the Masons. The purpose of the king became still more apparent when Robert Mason, himself the largest claimant of all, was allowed to nominate a governor for the province : Edward Cranfield was selected for that office. The people of New Hampshire were greatly excited by the threatened destruction of their liberties. Before Cranfield's arrival the rugged saw- yers and lumbermen of the Piscataqua had convened a general assembly at Portsmouth. The first resolution which was passed by the represent- atives showed the spirit of colonial resistance in full force. " No act, im- position, law or ordinance," said the sturdy legislators, " shall be valid unless made by the assembly and approved by the people." When the indignant king heard of this resolution, he declared it to be both wicked and absurd. It was not the first time that a monarch and his people had disagreed. In November of 1682, Cranfield dismissed the popular assembly. Such a despotic act had never before been attempted in New England. The excitement ran high ; the governor was openly denounced, and his claims for rents and forfeitures were stubbornly resisted. At Exeter the sheriff was beaten with clubs. The farmers' wives met the tax-gatherers with pailfulls of hot water. At the village of Hampton, Cranfield's deputy was led out of town with a rope round his neck. When the governor ordered out the militia, not a man obeyed the summons. It was in the midst of these broils that Cranfield, unable to collect his rents and vexed out of his wits, wrote to England begging for the privilege of going home. The "unreasonable" people who were all the time caviling at his commission and denying his authority were at length freed from his presence. An effort was now made to restore New Hampshire to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts ; but before this could be done the charter of the latter province had been taken away and Edmund Andros appointed governor of all New England. The colonies north of the Merrimac, seeing that 1 NEW HAMPSHIRE. 20 even Massachusetts had been brought to submission, offered no resistance to Andros, but quietly yielded to his authority. Until the Euglish revo- lution of 1688, and the consequent downfall of Andros, New Hampshire remained under the dominion of the royal governor. But when he w T as seized and imprisoned by the citizens of Boston, the people of the northern towns also rose in rebellion and reasserted their freedom. A general as- sembly was convened at Portsmouth in the spring of 1690, and an ordi- nance was at once passed reannexing New Hampshire to Massachusetts. But in August of 1692 this action was annulled by the English govern- ment, and the two provinces were a second time separated against the protests of the people. In 1698, when the earl of Bellomont came out as royal governor of New York, his commission was made to include both Massachusetts and New Hampshire. For a period of forty-two years the two provinces, though retaining their separate legislative assemblies, con- tinued under the authority of a common executive. Not until 1741 was a final separation effected between the colonies north and south of the Merrimac. Meanwhile, the heirs of Mason, embarrassed with delays and vexed by opposing claimants, had sold to Samuel Allen, of London, their title to New Hampshire. To him, in 1691, the old Masonian patent was transferred. His son-in-law, named Usher, a land speculator of Boston, was appointed deputy governor. The new proprietor made a long and futile effort to enforce his claim to the lands of the province, but was every- where resisted. Lawsuits were begun in the colonial courts, but no judgments could be obtained against the occupants of lands ; all efforts to drive the farmers into the payment of rents or the surrender of their homes were unavailing. For many years the history of New Hampshire contains little else than a record of strife and contention. Finally, Allen died; and in 1715, after a struggle of a quarter of a century, his heirs abandoned their claim in despair. A few years afterward one of the de- scendants of Mason discovered that the deed winch his kinsmen had made to Allen was defective. The original Masonian patent was accordingly revived, and a last effort was made to secure possession of the province, but was all in vain. The colonial government had now grown strong enough to defend the rights of its people, and the younger Masons were obliged to abandon their pretensions. In the final adjustment of this long-standing difficulty the colonial authorities allowed the validity of the Masonian patent as to the unoccupied portions of the territory, and the heirs made a formal surrender of their claims to all the rest. Of all the New England colonies, New Hampshire suffered most from the French and Indian Wars. Her settlements were feeble, and her 202 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. territory most exposed to savage invasion. In the last year of King Philip's War the suffering along the frontier of the province was very great. Again, in the wars of William, Anne and George, the villages of the northern colony were visited with devastation and ruin. But in the intervals of peace the spirits of the people revived, and the hardy settlers returned to their wasted farms to begin anew the struggle of life. Out of these conflicts and trials came that sturdy and resolute race of pioneers who bore such a heroic part in the greater contests of after years. Such is the story of the planting, progress, and development of New England. Hither had come, in the beginning, a people of sober habits, frugal lives, and lofty purposes. Before their imagination was one vision — the vision of freedom. And freedom to the men who laid the foundations of civilization in New England meant the breaking off of every species of thralldom. These people came to the New World to stay. They voluntarily chose the wilderness with its forests, and snows, and savages. For forests, and snows, and savages were better than luxury with despotism. In Virginia as late as the middle of the eighteenth century many of the planters still looked fondly across the ocean and spoke of England as their " home." Not so with the peo- ple whose hamlets were scattered from the Penobscot to the Housa- tonic. With them the humble cabin in the frozen woods under the desolate sky of winter was a cheerful and sunny " home " — if only Freedom was written on the threshold. COLONIAL HISTORY.— Continued. MINOR MIDDLE COLONIES. CHAPTER XXIV. NEW JERSEY. fPHE colonial history of New Jersey properly begins with the found- J- ing of Elizabethtown, in 1664. As early as 1618 a feeble trading station had been established at Bergen, west of the Hudson ; but forty years elapsed before permanent dwellings were built in that neigh- borhood. In 1623 the block-house, called Fort Nassau, was erected at the mouth of Timber Creek, on the Delaware ; after a few months' occupancy, May and his companions abandoned the place and returned to New Amsterdam. Six years later the southern part of the present State of New Jersey was granted to Goclyn and Blomaert, two of the Dutch patroons; but no settlement was made. In 1634 there was not a single European living between Delaware Bay and the fortieth degree of latitude. In 1651 a considerable district, including the site of Elizabethtown, was purchased by Augustine Herman ; but still no colony was planted. Seven years afterwards a larger grant, embracing the old trading house at Bergen, was made; and in 1663 a company of Puritans, living on Long Island, obtained permission of Governor Stuyvesant to settle on the banks of the Raritan ; but no settlement was effected until after the conquest. All the territory of New Jersey was included in the grant made by King Charles to his brother the duke of York. Two months before the conquest of New Netherland by the English, that portion of the duke's province lying between the Hudson and the Delaware, extending as far north as forty-one degrees and forty minutes, was assigned by the proprietor to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. These noblemen were already proprietors of Carolina ; but they had adhered to the king's cause during the civil war in England, and were now rewarded with a second Amer- ican province. Almost immediately after the conquest another company of Puritans made application to Governor Nicolls, and received an exten- sive grant of land on Newark Bay. The Indian titles were honorably (203J 204 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. purchased; in the following October a village was begun and named Elizabethtown, in honor of Lady Carteret. In August of 1665, Philip Carteret, son of Sir George, arrived as governor of the province. At first he was violently opposed by Nicolls of New York, who refused to believe that the duke had divided his terri- tory. But Carteret was armed with a commission, and could not be pre- vented from taking possession of the new settlements below the Hudson. Elizabethtown was made the capital of the colony; other immigrants arrived from Long Island and settled on the banks of the Passaic ; New- ark was founded ; flourishing hamlets appeared on the shores of the bay as far south as Sandy Hook. In honor of Sir George Carteret, who had been governor of the Isle of Jersey, in the English Channel, his American domain was named New Jersey. Experience had taught the proprietors wisdom ; they had learned that freedom is essential to the prosperity of a colony, and that liberal concessions to the people are better than great outlays of money. Berke- ley and Carteret, though royalists themselves, provided for their new State an excellent constitution. Person and property were put under the protec- tion of law. The government was made to consist of a governor, a council and a popular legislative assembly. There should be no taxation unless levied by the representatives of the people. Difference of opinion should be respected, and freedom of conscience guaranteed to every citizen. The proprietors reserved to themselves only the right of annulling objection- able acts of the assembly and of appointing the governor and colonial judges. The lands of the province were distributed to the settlers for a quit-rent of a half penny per acre, not to be paid until 1670. In 1668 the first general assembly convened at Elizabethtown. Nearly all the representatives were Puritans, and the laws and customs of New England were thus early impressed on the legislation of the colony. Affairs went well until 1670, when the half-penny quit-rents were due to the proprietors. The colonists, in the mean time, had purchased their lands of the Indians, and also of Governor Nicolls of New York, who still claimed New Jersey as a part of his province. To the settlers, therefore, it seemed that their titles to their farms were good without further payment to Philip Carteret or anybody else. The collection of the rents was accordingly resisted ; and the colony became a scene first of strife and then of revolution. In May of 1672 the colonial assembly convened and deposed the governor from office. James Carteret, another son of Sir George, was chosen governor, and Philip returned to England. In 1673 the Dutch succeeded in retaking New York from the Eng- lish. For a few months the old province of New Netherland, including NEW JERSEY. 205 the country as far south as the Delaware, was restored to Holland. But in the next year the whole territory was re-ceded by the states-general to England. The duke of York now received from his brother, the king, a second patent for the country between the Connecticut and the Delaware, and at the same time confirmed his former grant of New Jersey to Berke- ley and Carteret. Then, in utter disregard of the rights of the two pro- prietors, the duke appointed Sir Edmund Andros as royal governor of the whole province. Carteret determined to defend his claim against the authority of Andros ; but Lord Berkeley, disgusted with the duke's vacil- lation and dishonesty, sold his interest in New Jersey to John Fenwick, to be held in trust for Edward Byllinge. In 1675, Philip Carteret returned to America and resumed the government of the province from which he had been expelled. Andros opposed him in every act ; claimed New Jersey as a part of his own dominions ; kept the colony in an uproar; compelled the ships which came a-trading with the new settle- ments to pay tribute at New York ; and finally arrested Carteret and brought him to his own capital for trial. Meanwhile, Byllinge became embarrassed with debt, and was forced to make an assignment of his property. Gawen Laurie, Nicholas Lucas and "William Penn were appointed trus- tees, and to them Byllinge's interest in New Jersey was assigned for the benefit of his creditors. The assignees were Quakers. Here, then, was an opportunity to establish another asylum for the persecuted, and to found a common- wealth of Friends. Penn and his associates at once applied to Sir George Carteret for a division of the i ^ province. That nobleman was both willing and anxious to enter into an EAST AND west JERSEY| 1 6 77# arrangement by which his own half of the territory could be freed from all encumbrance. It was accordingly agreed to divide New Jersey so that Carteret's district should be separated 206 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. from the domain of the Quakers. After much discussion an agreement was reached in the summer of 1676, and a line of division was drawn through the province as follows : Beginning at the southern point of land on the east side of Little Egg Harbor, and running north of north- west to a point on the river Delaware in the latitude of forty-one degrees and forty minutes. The territory lying east of this line remained to Sir George as sole proprietor, and was named East Jeesey ; while that portion lying between the line and the Delaware was called West Jeesey, and passed under the exclusive control of Penn and his asso- ciates as assignees of Byllinge. Early in the following March the Quaker proprietors completed and published a body of laws under the singular title of Concessions. But the name was significant, for everything was conceded to the people. This first simple code enacted by the Friends in America rivaled the charter of Connecticut in the liberality and purity of its principles. The authors of the instrument accompanied its publication with a general letter addressed to the Quakers of England, recommending the province and inviting immigration. The invitation was not in vain. Before the end of the year a colony of more than four hundred Friends arrived in the Delaware, and found homes in West Jersey. Only one circumstance clouded the pros- pects of the new commonwealth of peace. The agent of Andros, governor of New York, was stationed at New Castle, on the western bank of the Delaware, to command the entrance to the river. The Quaker ships were obliged to pay customs before proceeding to their destination. A powerful remonstrance was drawn up by the Friends and sent to Eng- land. For once the duke of York listened to reason and agreed to sub- mit his cause to the courts; and for once a decision was rendered in accordance with right and justice. The eminent jurist Sir William Jones decided that the duke had no legal right to collect duties and taxes in the country of the Delaware. All claims to the territory and govern- ment of West Jersey were accordingly withdrawn ; and the Quaker col- onists were left in the enjoyment of independence. The heirs of Sir George Carteret were quick to see that the same decision would free their half of the province from the jurisdiction of Andros. An effort was accordingly made by the proprietors of East Jersey to secure a deed of release from the duke of York. The petition was favorably entertained, the deed issued and the whole territory between the Hudson and the Delaware freed from foreign authority. In November of 1681, Jennings, the deputy-governor of West Jersey, convened the first general assembly of the province. The men NEW JERSEY. 207 who had so worried the aristocracy of England by wearing their hats in the presence of great men, and by saying Thee and Thou, now met together to make their own laws. The code was brief and simple. The doctrines of the Concessions were reaffirmed. Men of all races and of all religions were declared to be equal before the law. No superiority was conceded to rank or title, to wealth or royal birth. Imprisonment for debt was forbidden. The sale of ardent spirits to the Red men was prohibited. Taxes should be voted by the representatives of the people. The lands of the Indians should be acquired by honorable purchase. Finally, a criminal — unless a murderer, a traitor or a thief — might be pardoned by the person against whom the offence was committed. In 1682, William Penn and eleven other Friends purchased of the heirs of Carteret the province of East Jersey. Robert Barclay, an em- inent Quaker of Aberdeen, in Scotland, and author of the book called Barclay's Apology, was appointed governor for life. The whole of New Jersey was now under the authority of the Friends. The administration of Barclay, which continued until his death, in 1690, was chiefly noted for a large immigration of Scotch Quakers who left the governor's native country to find freedom in East Jersey. The persecuted Presbyterians of Scotland came to the province in still greater numbers. On the accession of James II., in 1685, the American colonies from Maine to Delaware were consolidated, and Edmund Andros appointed royal governor. His first year in America was spent in establishing his authority at Boston, Providence and Hartford. Not until 1688 were New York and the two Jerseys brought under his jurisdiction. The short reign of King James was already at an end before Andros could succeed in setting up a despotism on the ruin of colonial liberty. When the news came of the abdication and flight of the English monarch, the governor of New England could do nothing but surrender to the indig- nant people whom he had wronged and insulted. His arrest and im- prisonment was the signal for the restoration of popular government in all the colonies over which he had ruled. But the condition of New Jersey was deplorable. It was almost impossible to tell to whom the jurisdiction of the territory rightfully be- longed. So far as the eastern province was concerned, the representatives of Carteret claimed it ; the governor of New York claimed it ; Penn and his associates claimed it. As to the western province, the heirs of Byllinge claimed it ; Lucas, Laurie and Penn claimed it ; the governor of New York claimed it. Over all these pretensions stood the paramount claim of the English king. From 1689 to 1692 there was no settled form of government in the territory ; and for ten years thereafter the colony was 208 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. vexed and distracted with the presence of more rulers than any one province could accommodate. At last self-interest solved the problem. The proprietors came to see that a peaceable possession of the soil of the Jerseys was worth more than the uncertain honors of government. A proposition was accordingly made that all the claimants should surrender their rights of civil jurisdic- tion to the English Crown, retaining only the ownership of the soil. The measure was successfully carried out; and in April of 1702, all propri- etary claims being waived in favor of the sovereign, the territory between the Hudson and the Delaware became a royal province. New Jersey was now attached to the government of Lord Corn- bury of New York. The union of the two colonies, however, extended only to the office of chief magistrate ; each province retained its own legis- lative assembly and a distinct territorial organization. This method of government continued for thirty-six years, and was then terminated by the action of the people. In 1728 the representatives of New Jersey sent a petition to George II., praying for a separation of the two colonies : but the application was at first refused. Ten years later the petition was renewed, and through the influence of Lewis Morris brought to a success- ful issue. New Jersey was made independent, and Morris himself received a commission as first royal governor of the separated province. The people of New Jersey were but little disturbed by the succes- sive Indian wars. The native tribes on this part of the American coast were weak and timid. Had it not been for the cruelties of Kieft and the wrongs of other governors of New York, the peace of the middle colonies would never have been broken. The province of New Jersey is specially interesting as being the point where the civilization of New England met and blended with the civilization of the South. Here the institutions, manners and laws of the Pilgrims were first modified by contact with the less rigid habits and opinions of the people who came with Gosnold and Smith. The dividing line between East and West Jersey is also the dividing line between the austere Puritans of Massachusetts and the chivalrous cavaliers of Virginia. Happily, along this dividing line the men of peace, the followers of Penn and Barclay, came and dwelt as if to subdue ill-will and make a Union possible. PENNSYLVANIA. 209 CHAPTER XXV. • PENNSYL VANIA. THE Quakers were greatly encouraged with the success of their col~ onies in West New Jersey. The prospect of establishing on the banks of the Delaware a free State, founded on the principle of universal brotherhood, kindled a new enthusiasm in the mind of William Penn. For more than a quarter of a century the Friends had been buffeted with shameful persecutions. Imprisonment, exile and proscription had been their constant portion, but had not sufficed to abate their zeal or to quench their hopes of the future. The lofty purpose and philanthropic spirit of Penn urged him to find for his afflicted people an asylum of rest. In June of 1680 he went boldly to King Charles, and petitioned for a grant of territory and the privilege of founding a Quaker commonwealth in the New World. The petition was seconded by powerful friends in Parliament. Lords North and Halifax and the earl of Sunderland favored the propo- sition, and the duke of York remembered a pledge of assistance which he had given to Penn's father. On the 5th of March, 1681, a charter was granted ; the great seal of England, with the signature of Charles II., was affixed ; and William Penn became the proprietor of Pennsylvania. The vast domain embraced under the new patent was bounded on the east by the river Delaware, extended north and south over three degrees of latitude, and westward through five degrees of longitude. Only the three counties comprising the present State of Delaware were reserved for the duke of York. In consideration of this grant, Penn relinquished a claim of sixteen thousand pounds sterling which the British government owed to his father's estate. He declared that his objects were to found a free com- monwealth without respect to the color, race or religion of the inhabitants ; to subdue the natives with no other weapons than love and justice ; to establish a refuge for the people of his own faith ; and to enlarge the borders of the British empire. One of the first acts of the great propri- etor was to address a letter to the Swedes who might be included within 14 210 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. the limits of his province, telling them to be of good cheer, to keep their homes, make their own laws and fear no oppression. Within a month from the date of his charter, Penn published to the English nation a glowing account of his new country beyond the Del- aware, praising the beauty of the scenery and salubrity of the climate, promising freedom of conscience and equal rights, and inviting emigra- tion. There was an immediate and hearty response. In the course of the summer three shiploads of Quaker emigrants left England for the land of promise. William Markham, agent of the proprietor, came as leader of the company and deputy-governor of the province. He was instructed by Penn to rule in accordance with law, to deal justly with all men, and especially to make a league of friendship with the Indians. In October of the same year the anxious proprietor sent a letter directly to the natives of the territory, assuring them of his honest purposes and brotherly affection. The next care of Penn was to draw up a frame of government for his province. Herein was his great temptation. He had almost ex- hausted his father's estate in aiding the persecuted Quakers. A stated revenue would be very necessary in conducting his administration. His proprietary rights under the charter were so ample that he might easily reserve for himself large prerogatives and great emoluments in the govern- ment. He had before him the option of being a consistent, honest Quaker or a politic, wealthy governor. He chose like a man ; right triumphed over riches. The constitution which he framed was liberal almost to a fault ; and the people were allowed to adopt or reject it as they might deem proper. In the mean time, the duke of York had been induced to surrender his claim to the three reserved counties on the Delaware. The whole country on the western bank of the bay and river, from the open ocean below Cape Henlopen to the forty-third degree of north latitude, was now under the dominion of Penn. The summer of 1682 was spent in further preparation. The proprietor wrote a touching letter of farewell to the Friends in England ; gathered a large company of emigrants ; em- barked for America ; and on the 27th of October landed at New 7 Castle, where the people were waiting to receive him. William Penn, the founder of Philadelphia, was born on the 14th of October, 1644. He was the oldest son of Vice- Admiral Sir William Penn of the British navy. At the age of twelve he was sent to the University of Oxford, where he distinguished himself as a student until he was expelled on account of his religious opinions. Afterward he traveled on the Continent; was-again a student at Saumur; returned to PENNSYLVANIA.. 211 study law at London; went to Ireland; became a soldier; heard the preaching of Loe and was converted to the Quaker faith. His disap- pointed and angry father drove him out of doors, but he was not to be turned from his course. He pub- licly proclaimed the doctrines of the Friends ; was ar- rested and impris- oned f o r nine months in the Tow- er of London. Be- ing released, he re- peated the offence, fffll and lay for half a year in a dungeon at Newgate. A second time liber- ated, but despair- ing of toleration for his people in Eng- land, he cast his gaze across the Atlantic. West Jersey was purchased ; but the boundary was narrow, and the great-souled proprietor sought a grander and more beautiful domain. His petition was heard with favor and the charter of Pennsylvania granted by King Charles. Colonists came teeming ; and now the Quaker king himself, without pomp or parade, without the dis- charge of cannon or vainglorious ceremony, was come to New Castle to found a government on the basis of fraternity and peace. It was fitting that he should call the new republic a holy experiment. As soon as the landing was effected, Penn delivered an affectionate and cheerful address to the crowd of Swedes, Dutch and English who came to greet him. His former pledges of a liberal and just government Were publicly renewed, and the people were exhorted to sobriety and honesty. From New Castle the governor ascended the Delaware to Ches- ter ; passed the site of Philadelphia ; visited the settlements of West New Jersey ; and thence traversed East Jersey to Long Island and New York. After spending some time at the capital of his friend, the duke of York, WILLIAM PENN. 212 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. and speaking words of cheer to the Quakers about Brooklyn, he returned to his own province and began his duties as chief magistrate. Markham, the deputy-governor, had been instructed to establish fraternal relations with the Indians. Before Penn's arrival treaties had been made, lands purchased, and pledges of friendship given between the Friends and the Red men. Now a great conference was appointed with the native chiefs. All the sachems of the Lenni Lenapes and other neighbor- ing tribes were invited to assemble. The council was held on the banks of the Delaware under the open sky. Penn, accompanied by a few un- armed friends, clad in the simple garb of the Quakers, came to the ap- pointed spot and took his station under a venerable elm, now leafless ; for it was winter. The chieftains, also unarmed, sat, after the manner of their race, in a semicircle on the ground. It was not Penn's object to purchase lands, to provide for the interests of trade or to make a formal treaty, but rather to assure the untutored children of the woods of his honest jmrposes and brotherly affection. Standing before them with grave demeanor and speaking by an interpreter, he said : " My Friends: We have met on the broad pathway of good faith. We are all one flesh, and blood. Being brethren, no advantage shall be taken on either side. When disputes arise, we will settle them in council. Between us there shall be nothing but openness and love." The chiefs replied: "While the rivers run and the sun shines we will live in peace with the children of William Penn." No record was made of the treaty, for none was needed. Its terms were written, not on decaying parchment, but on the living hearts of men. No deed ol violence or injustice ever marred the sacred covenant. The Indians vied with the Quakers in keeping unbroken the pledge of perpetual peace. For rao r , than seventy years during which the province remained under the control of the Friends, not a single war-whoop was heard within the borders of Pennsylvania. The Quaker hat and coat proved to be a better defence for the wearer than coat-of-mail and musket. On the 4th of December, 1682, a general convention was held at Chester. The object was to complete the territorial legislation — a work which occupied three days. At the conclusion of the session, Penn de- livered an address to the assembly, and then hastened to the Chesapeake to confer with Lord Baltimore about the boundaries of their respective provinces. After a month's absence he returned to Chester and busied himself with drawing a map of his proposed capital. The beautiful neck of land between the Schuylkill and the Delaware was selected and pur- chased of the Swedes. In February of 1683 the native chestnuts, wal- PENNSYLVANIA. 213 S^l, '^'\,..,/?>^~ / %, Woodbury*- ' ->He,»xasao AND WcinitV PHILADELPHIA AND VICINITY. nuts and ashes were blazed to indicate the lines of the streets, and Phil- adelphia — City of Brotheely Love — was founded. Within a month a general assembly was in session at the new capital. The people were eager that their Charter of Liberties, now to be framed, should be dated at Philadelphia. The work of legislation was begun and a form of government adopted which was essen- tially a representative democracy. The leading officers were the governor, a council consisting of a limited number of members chosen for three years, and a larger popular assembly, to be annually elected. Penn conceded everything to the people ; but the power of vetoing objectionable asts of the council was left in his hands. The growth of Philadelphia was astonishing. In the summer of 1683 there were only three or four houses. The ground-squirrels still lived in their burrows, and the wild deer ran through the town without alarm. In 1685 the city contained six hundred houses ; the schoolmaster had come and the printing-press had begun its work. In another year Philadelphia had outgrown New York. Penn's work of establishing a free State in America had been well and nobly done. In August of 1684 he took an affectionate fare- well of his flourishing colony, and sailed for England. Thomas Lloyd was appointed as president during the absence of the proprietor, and five commissioners, members of the provincial council, were chosen to assist in the government. Nothing occurred to disturb the peace of Pennsylvania until the secession of Delaware in 1691. The three lower counties, which, ever since the arrival of Penn, had been united on terms of equality with the six counties of Pennsylvania, became dissatisfied with some acts of the general assembly and insisted on a separation. The proprietor gave a reluctant consent; Delaware withdrew from the union and received a separate deputy-governor. Such was the condition of affairs after the abdication of King James II. William Penn was a friend and favorite of the Stuart kings. It was from Charles II. that he had received the charter of Pennsylvania. Now that the royal house was overthrown, he sympathized with the fallen monarch and looked with coldness on the new sovereigns, William and 214 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Mary. For some real or supposed adherence to the cause of the exiled James II., Penn was several times arrested and imprisoned. In 1692 his proprietary rights were taken away, and by a royal commission the government of Pennsylvania was transferred to Fletcher of New York. In the following year Delaware shared the same fate ; all the provinces between Connecticut and Maryland were consolidated under Fletcher's authority. In the mean time, the suspicions against Penn's loyalty were found to be groundless, and he was restored to his rights as governor of Pennsylvania. In December of 1699, Penn again visited his American common- wealth, now grown into a State. The prosperity of the province was all that could be desired ; but the people were somewhat dissatisfied with the forms of government. The lower counties were again embittered against the acts of the assembly. In order to restore peace and harmony, the benevolent proprietor drew up another constitution, more liberal than the first, extending the powers of the people and omitting the objectionable features of the former charter. But Delaware had fallen into chronic discontent, and would not accept the new frame of government. In 1702 the general assemblies of the two provinces were convened apart ; and in the following year Delaware and Pennsylvania were finally separated. But the rights of Penn as proprietor of the whole territory remained as before, and a common governor continued to preside over both colonies. In the winter of 1701, William Penn bade a final adieu to his friends in America and returned to England. He left Pennsylvania in a state of peace and prosperity. Though there was not a single fort within her borders, the province had been secure against invasion. With neither police nor militia, the people went abroad in safety. With no difference in rank, no preference in matters of opinion, and no proscription for religion's sake, the colony flourished and waxed strong. But the English ministers had now formed the design of abolishing all the proprietary governments, with a view to the estab- lishment of royal governments instead. The presence and influence of Penn were especially required in England in order to prevent the success of the ministerial scheme. After much controversy his rights were recognized and secured against encroachment. In the mean time, the affairs of Pennsylvania were administered by the deputy- governors, Andrew Hamilton and John Evans. The latter, a worldly sort of man, not very faithful to the principles of the Friends, greatly troubled the province by purchasing warlike stores, building forts, and attempting to organize a regiment of militia. The assembly en- tered a strong protest against these proceedings, so irreconcilable with PENNS YL VANIA. 215 the policy of the Quakers, and in 1708 Evans was removed from office. After him Charles Gookin received a commission as dep- uty-governor and entered upon his administration in 1709. Soon afterwards Penn was well-nigh overwhelmed by the rascality of his English agent, Ford, who first involved him in debt and then had him imprisoned. From a shameful confinement of many months ho was finally released, and his old age was brightened by a gleam of prosperity. But the end of his labors was at hand. In July of 1718 the magnanimous founder of Pennsylvania sank to his final rest. His estates, vast and valuable, but much encumbered with debt, were be- queathed to his three sons, John, Thomas and Richard, who thus be- came proprietors of Pennsylvania, By them, or their deputies, the province was governed until the American Revolution. In the year 1779 the entire claims of the Penn family to the soil and jurisdiction of the State were purchased by the legislature of Pennsylvania for a hundred and thirty thousand pounds sterling. The colonial history of the State founded by William Penn and the Quakers is one of special interest and pleasure. It is a narrative that recounts the victories of peace and the triumph of the nobler virtues over violence and wrong. It is doubtful whether the history of any other colony in the world is touched with so many traits of innocence and truth. When the nations grow mercenary and the times seem full of fraud, the early annals of Pennsylvania may well be recited as a perpetual protest against the seeming success of evil. " I will found a free colony for all mankind," were the words of William Penn. How well his work was done shall be fitly told when the bells of his capital city shall ring out the first glad notes of American Independence. COLONIAL HISTORY.— Continued. MINOR SOUTHERN COLONIES. CHAPTER XXVI. MARYLAND. CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH was the first white man to explore the Chesapeake and its tributaries. After him, in 1621, William Clay- borne, a resolute and daring English surveyor, was sent out by the London Company to make a map of the country about the head-waters of the bay. By the second charter of Virginia the territory of that province had been extended on the north to the forty-first parallel of latitude. All of the present State of Maryland was included in this enlargement, which also embraced the whole of Delaware and the greater part of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The ambition of Virginia was greatly excited by the possession of this vast domain; to explore and occupy it was an enterprise of the highest importance. Clayborne was a member of the council of Virginia, and secretary of state in that colony. In May of 1631 he received a royal commission authorizing him to discover the sources of the Chesapeake Bay, to survey the country as far as the forty-first degree of latitude, to establish a trade with the Indians, and to exercise the right of government over the com- panions of his voyage. This commission was confirmed by Governor Harvey of Virginia, and in the spring of the following year Clayborne began his important and arduous work. The members of the London Company were already gathering imaginary riches from the immense fur- trade of the Potomac and the Susquehanna. The enterprise of Clayborne was attended with success. A trading- post was established on Kent Island, and another at the head of the bay, in the vicinity of Havre de Grace. The many rivers that fall into the Chesapeake were again explored and a trade opened with the natives. The limits of Virginia were about to be extended to the borders of New Netherland. Eut in the mean time, a train of circumstances had been (216) MARYLAND. 217 prepared in England by which the destiny of several American provinces was completely changed. As in many other instances, religious perse- cution again contributed to lay the foundation of a new State in the wilderness. And Sir George Calvert, of Yorkshire, was the man who was destined to become the founder. Born in 1580 ; educated at Oxford; a man of much travel and vast experience ; an ardent and devoted Cath- olic; a friend of hu- manity ; honored with knighthood, and after- ward with an Irish peerage and the title of Lord Baltimore, — he now in middle life turned aside from the dignities of rank and affluence to devote the energies of his life to the welfare of the oppressed. For the Catholics of England, as well as the dissent- ing Protestants, were afflicted with many and bitter persecu- tions. Lord Baltimore's first American enter- prise was the planting of a Catholic colony in Newfoundland. King James, who was not unfriendly to the Roman Church, had granted him a patent for the southern promontory of the island; and here, in 1623, a refuge was established for distressed Cath- olics. But in such a place no colony could be successful. The district was narrow, cheerless, desolate. Profitable industry was impossible. French ships hovered around the coast and captured the English fishing- boats. It became evident that the settlement must be removed, and Lord Baltimore wisely turned his attention to the sunny country of the Ches- apeake. In 1629 he made a visit to Virginia. The general assembly offered him citizenship on condition that he would take an oath of allegiance : but the oath was of such a sort as no honest Catholic could subscribe to. LORD BALTIMORE. 218 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. In vain did Sir George plead for toleration ; the assembly was inexorable. It was on the part of the Virginians a short-sighted and ruinous policy. For the London Company had already been dissolved ; the king might therefore rightfully regrant that vast territory north of the Potomac which by the terms of the second charter had been given to Virginia. Lord Baltimore left the narrow-minded legislators, returned to London, himself drew up a charter for a new State on the Chesapeake, and easily induced his friend, King Charles I., to sign it. The Virginians had saved their religion and lost a province. The territory embraced by the new patent was bounded by the ocean, by the fortieth parallel of latitude, by a line drawn due south from that parallel to the most western fountain of the Potomac, by the river itself from its source to the bay, and by a line running due east from the mouth of the river to the Atlantic. The domain .included the whole of the present States of Maryland and Delaware and a large part of Penn- sylvania and New Jersey. Here it was the purpose of the magnanimous proprietor to establish an asylum for all the afflicted of his own faith, and to plant a State on the broad basis of religious toleration and popular lib- erty. The provisions of the charter were the most liberal and ample which had ever received the sanction of the English government. Christianity was declared to be the religion of the State, but no preference was given to any sect or creed. The lives and property of the colouists were care- fully guarded. Free trade was declared to be the law of the province, and arbitrary taxation was forbidden. The rights of the proprietor ex- tended only to the free appointment of the officers of his government. The power of making and amending the laws was conceded to the freemen of the colony or their representatives. One calamity darkened the prospect. Before the liberal patent could receive the seal of State Sir George Calvert died. His title and estates descended to his son Cecil; and to him, on the 20th of June, 1632, the charter which had been intended for his noble father was finally issued. In honor of Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV. of France and wife of Charles I., the name of Maryland was conferred on the new province. Independence of Virginia was guaranteed in the constitution of the colony, and no danger was to be anticipated from the feeble forces of New Netherland. It only remained for the younger Lord Baltimore to raise a company of emigrants and carry out his father's benevolent designs. The work went forward slowly, and it was not until November of 1633 that a colony numbering two hundred persons could be collected. Meanwhile, Cecil Calvert had abandoned the idea of coming in person to America, and had appointed his brother Leonard to accompany the col- MARYLAND. 219 onists to their destination, and to act as deputy-governor of the new province. In March of the following year the immigrants arrived at Old Point Comfort. Leonard Calvert bore a letter from King Charles to Governor Harvey of Virginia, commanding him to receive the new- comers with courtesy and favor. The order was complied with ; but the Virginians could look only with intense jealousy on a movement which must soon deprive them of the rich fur-trade of the Chesapeake. The colonists proceeded up the bay and entered the Potomac. At the mouth of Piscataway Creek, nearly opposite Mount Vernon, the pinnace was moored, and a cross was set up on an island. On the present site of Fort Washington there was an Indian village whose inhabitants came out to meet the English. A conference was held, and the sachem of the nation told Leonard Calvert in words of dubious meaning that he and his colony might stay or go just as they pleased. Considering this answer as a menace, and deeming it imprudent to plant his first settlement so far up the river, Calvert again embarked with his companions, and dropped down stream to the mouth of the St. Mary's, within fifteen miles of the bay. Ascending the estuary for about ten miles, he came to an Indian town. The natives had been beaten in battle by the Susquehannas, and were on the eve of migrating into the interior. The village was already half deserted. With the consent of the Red men, the English moved into the vacant huts. The rest of the town was purchased, with the adjacent ter- ritory, the Indians promising to give possession at the opening of the spring. The name of St. Mary's was given to this the oldest colony of Maryland, and the name of the river was changed to St. George's. Calvert treated the natives with great liberality. The consequence was that the settlers had peace and plenty. The Indian women taught the wives of the English how to make corn-bread, and the friendly war- riors instructed the colonists in the mysteries of hunting. Game was abundant. The lands adjacent to the village were already under cultiva- tion. The settlers had little to do but to plant their gardens and fields and wait for the coming harvest. There was neither anxiety nor want. The dream of Sir George Calvert was realized. Within six months the colony of St. Mary's had grown into greater prosperity than the settle- ment at Jamestown had reached in as many years. Best of all, the pledge of civil liberty and religious toleration was redeemed to the letter. Two years before the founding of Rhode Island the Catholics of the Ches- apeake had emancipated the human conscience, built an asylum for the distressed, and laid the foundations of a free State. Within less than a year after the founding of St. Mary's the free- 220 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. men were convened in a general assembly. In February of 1635 the work of colonial legislation was first begun. The records of this and several succeeding sessions were destroyed in the rebellion of 1645, and not much is known concerning the character of the earliest laws. But it is certain that the province was involved in difficulty. For Clay- borne still stood his ground on Kent Island, and openly resisted Lord Baltimore's authority. His settlement on the island was almost as strong as the colony at St. Mary's ; and Clayborne, unscrupulous as to the right, and confident in his power, resolved to appeal to arms. In 1637 a bloody skirmish occurred on the banks of the river Wicomico, on the eastern shore of the bay. Several lives were lost, but the insurgents were defeated. Calvert's forces proceeded to Kent Island, overpowered the settlement, and executed one or two persons who had participated in the rebellion. Clayborn®, in the mean time, had escaped into Virginia. The assembly of Maryland demanded the fugitive ; but the governor refused, and sent the prisoner to England for trial. The legislators of St. Mary's charged the absent criminal with murder and piracy, tried him, con- demned him and confiscated his estates. Clayborne, who was safe in England, appealed to the king. The cause was heard by a committee of Parliament, and it was decided that the commission of Clayborne, which was only a license to trade in the Chesapeake, had been annulled by the dissolution of the London Company, and that the charter of Lord Balti- more was valid against all opposing claimants. Clayborne, however, was allowed to go at large. In 1639 a regular representative government was established in Maryland. Hitherto a system of popular democracy had prevailed in the province ; each freeman had been allowed a vote in determining the laws. With the growth of the colony it was deemed expedient to substitute the more convenient method of representation. When the delegates came together, a declaration of rights was adopted, and the prerogative of the proprietor more clearly defined. All the broad and liberal principles of the colonial patent were reaffirmed. The powers of the assembly were made coextensive with those of the House of Commons in England. The rights of citizenship were declared to be identical with those of Eng- lish subjects in the mother country. The Indians of Maryland and Virginia had now grown jealous of foreign encroachments. Vague rumors of the English Revolution had been borne to the Red men, and they believed themselves able to expel the intruders from the country. In 1642 hostilities were begun on the Potomac, and for two years the province was involved in war. But the MARYLAND. 221 settlements of Maryland were few and compact, and no great suffering was occasioned by the onsets of the barbarians. In 1644 the savages agreed to bury the hatchet and to renew the broken pledges of friendship. Hardly, however, had the echo of Indian warfare died away, when the colony was visited with a worse calamity by the return of its old enemy, William Clayborne. He came to find revenge, and found it. The king was now at war with his subjects, and could give no aid to the proprietor of an American province. Clayborne saw his opportunity, hurried to Mary- land, and raised the standard of rebellion. Arriving in the province in 1644, he began to sow the seeds of sedition by telling the restless and lawless spirits of the colony that they were wronged and oppressed by a usurping government. Early in 1645 an insurrection broke out. Com- panies of desperate men came together, and found in Clayborne a natural leader. The government of Leonard Calvert was overthrown, and the governor obliged to fly for his life. Escaping from the province, he found refuge and protection with Sir William Berkeley of Virginia. Clayborne seized the colonial records of Maryland, and destroyed them. One act of violence followed another. The government was usurped, and for more than a year the colony was under the dominion of the insurgents. Mean- while, however, Governor Calvert collected his forces, returned to the province, defeated the rebels, and in August of 1646 succeeded in restor- ing his authority. It marks the mild and humane spirit of the Calverts that those engaged in this unjustifiable insurrection were pardoned by a general amnesty. The acts of the provincial legislature in 1649 were of special im- portance. It was enacted in broad terms that no person believing in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity should, on account of his religious opinions or practices, be in any wise distressed within the borders of Maryland. It was declared a finable offence for citizens to apply to each other the opprobrious names used in religious controversy. Freedom of conscience was reiterated with a distinctness that could not be misunder- stood. While Massachusetts was attempting by proscription to establish Puritanism as the faith of New England, and while the Episcopalians of Jamestown were endeavoring by exclusive legislation to make the Church of England the Church of Virginia, Maryland was joining with Rhode Island and Connecticut in proclaiming religious freedom. It sometimes happened in those days that Protestants escaping from Protestants found an asylum with the Catholic colonists of the Chesapeake. In 1650 the legislative body of Maryland was divided into two branches. The upper house consisted of the governor and members of 222 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. his council appointed by the proprietor. The lower house, or general assembly, was composed of burgesses elected by the people of the province. Again the rights of Lord Baltimore were carefully defined by provincial law. An act was also passed declaring that no taxes should be levied without the consent of the assembly. Such was the condition of affairs in the colony when the commonwealth was established in England. Par- liament was now the supreme power in the mother country, and it could hardly be expected that Lord Baltimore's charter would be allowed to stand. In 1651 parliamentary commissioners were appointed to come to America and assume control of the colonies bordering on the Chesapeake. Clay borne was a member of the body thus appointed. When the com- missioners arrived in Maryland, Stone, the deputy of Lord Baltimore, was deposed from office. A compromise was presently effected between the adherents of the proprietor and the opposing faction ; and in June of the following year, Stone, with three members of his council, was per- mitted to resume the government. In April of 1653 the Long Par- liament, by whose authority the commissioners had been appointed, was dissolved. Stone thereupon published a proclamation declaring that the recent interference of Clayborne and his associates had been a rebellious usurpation. Clayborne, enraged at this proclamation, collected a force in Virginia, returned into Maryland, again drove Stone out of office, and entrusted the government to ten commissioners appointed by himself. The Puritan and republican party in Maryland had now grown sufficiently strong to defy the proprietor and the Catholics. A Protestant assembly was convened at Patuxent in October of 1654. The first act was to acknowledge the supremacy of Cromwell ; the next to disfranchise the Catholics and to deprive them of the protection of the laws. The un- grateful representatives seemed to forget that if Lord Baltimore had been equally intolerant not one of them would have had even a residence within the limits of Maryland. It would be difficult to find a more odious piece of legislation than that of the assembly at Patuxent. Of course the Catholic party would not submit to a code by which they were virtually banished from their own province. Civil war ensued. Governor Stone organized and armed the militia, seized the records of the colony, and marched against the oppos- ing forces. A decisive battle was fought just across the estuary from the present site of Annapolis. The Catholics were defeated, with a loss of fifty men in killed and wounded. Stone himself was taken prisoner, and was only saved from death by the personal friendship of some of the in- surgents. Three of the Catholic leaders were tried by a court-martial MARYLAND. 223 and executed. Cromwell paid but little attention to these atrocities, and made no effort to sustain the government of Lord Baltimore. In 1656 Josias Fendall, a weak and impetuous man, was sent out by the proprietor as governor of the province. There was now a Cath- olic insurrection with Fendall at the head. For two years the govern- ment was divided, the Catholics exercising authority at St. Mary's, and the Protestants at Leonardstown. At length, in March of 1658, a com- promise was effected; Fendall was acknowledged as governor, and the acts of the recent Protestant assemblies were recognized as valid. A gen- eral amnesty was published, and the colony was again at peace. When the death of Cromwell was announced in Maryland, the provincial authorities were much perplexed. One of four courses might be pursued : Richard Cromwell might be recognized as protector ; Charles II. might be proclaimed as king ; Lord Baltimore might be acknowledged as hereditary proprietor ; colonial independence might be declared. The latter policy was adopted by the assembly. On the 12th of March, 1660, the rights of Lord Baltimore were formally set aside; the provincial council was dissolved, and the whole power of government was assumed by the House of Burgesses. The act of independence was adopted just one day before a similar resolution was passed by the general assembly of Virginia. The population of Maryland had now reached ten thousand. On the restoration of monarchy the rights of the Baltimores were again recognized, and Philip Calvert was sent out as deputy-governor. In the mean time, Fendall had resigned his trust as agent of the proprietor, and had accepted an election by the people. He was now repaid for his double-dealing with an arrest, a trial and a condemnation on a charge of treason. Nothing saved his life but the clemency of Lord Baltimore, who, with his customary magnanimity, proclaimed a general pardon. Sir Cecil Calvert died in 1675, and his son Charles, a young man who had inherited the virtues of the illustrious family, succeeded to the estates and title of Baltimore. For sixteen years he exercised the rights of proprietary governor of Maryland. The laws of the province were carefully revised, and the liberal principles of the original charter re- affirmed as the basis of the State. Only once during this period was the happiness of the colony disturbed. When the news arrived of the abdi- cation of King James II., the deputy of Lord Baltimore hesitated to acknowledge the new sovereigns, William and Mary. An absurd rumor was spread abroad that the Catholics had leagued with the Indians for the purpose of destroying the Protestants of Maryland in a general mas- sacre. An opposing force was organized ; and in 1689 the Catholic party was compelled to surrender the government. For two years the Protest- 224 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. ants held the province, and civil authority was exercised by a body called the Convention of Associates. On the 1st day of June, 1691, the government of Maryland was revolutionized by the act of King William. The charter of Lord Balti- more was arbitrarily taken away, and a royal governor appointed over the province. Sir Lionel Copley received a commission, and assumed the government in 1692. Every vestige of the old patent was swept away. The Episcopal Church was established by law and supported by taxation. Religious toleration was abolished and the government administered on despotic principles. This condition of affairs continued until 1715, when Queen Anne was induced to restore the heir of Lord Baltimore to the rights of his ancestor. Maryland again became a proprietary government under the authority of the Calverts, and so remained until the Revolu- tionary war. The early history- of the colony planted by the first Lord Balti- more on the shores of the Chesapeake is full of profitable instruction. In no other American province were the essential vices of intolerance more clearly manifested ; in no other did the principle of religious freedom shine with a brighter lustre. Nor will the thoughtful student fail to observe how the severe dogmas of Catholicism were softened down when brought into contact with the ennobling virtues of the Calverts, until over river and bay and shore a mellow light was diffused like a halo shining from the altars of the ancient Church. CHAPTER XXVII. NORTH CAROLINA. THE first effort to colonize North Carolina was made by Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1630 an immense tract lying between the thirtieth and the thirty-sixth parallels of latitude was granted by King Charles to Sir Robert Heath. But neither the proprietor nor his successor, Lord Mal- travers, succeeded in planting a colony. After a useless existence of thirty-three years, the patent was revoked by the English sovereign. The only effect of Sir Robert's charter was to perpetuate the name of Carolina, which had been given to the country by John Ribault in 1562. In the year 1622 the country as far south as the river Chowan was NORTH CAROLINA. 225 explored by Poxy, the secretary of Virginia. Twenty years later a com- pany of Virginians obtained leave of the assembly to prosecute discovery on the lower Roanoke and establish a trade with the natives. The first actual settlement was made near the mouth of the Chowan about the year 1651. The country was visited just afterward by Clayborne of Maryland, and in 1661 a company of Puritans from New England passed down the coast, entered the mouth of Cape Fear River, purchased lands of the Indians and established a colony on Oldtown Creek, nearly two hundred miles farther south than any other English settlement. In 1663 Lord Clarendon, General Monk, who was now honored with the title of duke of Albemarle, and six other noblemen, received at the hands of Charles II. a patent for all the country between the thirty-sixth parallel and the river St. John's, in Florida. With this grant the colonial history of North Carolina properly begins. In the same year a civil government was organized by the settlers on the Chowan. William Drummond was chosen governor, and the name of Albemarle County Colony was given to the district border- ing on the sound. In 1665 it was found that the settlement was north of the thirty-sixth parallel, and consequently beyond the limits of the province. To remedy this defect the grant was extended on the north to thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes, the present boundary of Virginia, and westward to the Pacific. During the same year the little Puritan colony on Cape Fear River was broken up by the Indians ; but scarcely had this been done when the site of the settlement, with thirty-two miles square of the surrounding territory, was purchased by a company of planters from Barbadoes. A new county named Clarendon was laid out, and Sir John Yeamans elected governor of the colony. The pro- prietors favored the settlement; immigration was rapid; and within a year eight hundred people had settled along the river. The work of preparing a frame of government for the new province was assigned to Sir Ashley Cooper, earl of Shaftesbury. The proprietors, not without reason, looked forward to the time when a powerful nation should arise within the borders of their vast domain. To draft a suitable constitution was deemed a work of the greatest importance. Shaftesbury was a brilliant and versatile statesman who had entire confidence in his abilities ; but in order to give complete assurance of perfection in the proposed statutes, the philosopher John Locke was employed by Sir Ashley and his associates to prepare the constitution. The legislation of the world furnishes no parallel for the pompous absurdity of Locke's performance. From March until July of 1669 the philosopher worked away in 226 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. the preparation of his Grand Model ; then the mighty instrument was done, and signed. It contained a hundred and twenty articles, called the " Fundamental Constitutions ;" and this was but the beginning of the im- perial scheme which was to stand like a colossus over the huts and pas- tures along the Cape Fear and Chowan Rivers. The empire of Carolina was divided into vast districts of four hundred and eighty thousand acres each. Political rights were made dependent upon hereditary wealth. The offices were put beyond the reach of the people. There were two grand orders of nobility. There were dukes, earls and marquises; knights, lords and esquires; baronial courts, heraldic ceremony, and every sort of feudal nonsense that the human imagination could conceive of. And this was the magnificent constitution which a great statesman and a wise philosopher had planned for the government of a few colonists who lived on venison and potatoes and paid their debts with tobacco ! It was one thing to make the grand model, and another thing to get it across the Atlantic. In this the proprietors never succeeded. All at- tempts to establish the pompous scheme of government ended in necessary failure. The settlers of Albemarle and Clarendon had meanwhile learned to govern themselves after the simple manner of pioneers, and they could but regard the model and its authors with disdainful contempt. After twenty years of fruitless effort, Shaftesbury and his associates folded up their grand constitution and concluded that an empire in the pine forests of North Carolina was impossible. The soil of Clarendon county was little better than a desert. For a while a trade in staves and furs supplied a profitable industry; but when this traffic was exhausted, the colonists began to remove to other settle- ments. In 1671, Governor Yeamans was transferred to the colony which had been founded in the previous year at the mouth of Ashley River, and before the year 1690 the whole county of Clarendon was a second time surrendered to the native tribes. The settlement north of Albemarle Sound was more prosperous, but civil dissension greatly retarded the development of the country. For the proprietors were already busy trying to establish their big in- stitutions in the feeble province. The humble commerce of the colony was burdened with an odious duty. Every pound of the eight hundred hogs- heads of tobacco annually produced was taxed a penny for the benefit of the government. There were at this time less than four thousand people in North Carolina, and yet the traffic of these poor settlers with New England alone was so weighed down with duties as to yield an annual revenue of twelve thousand dollars. Miller, the governor, was a harsh and violent man. A gloomy opposition to the proprietary government NORTH CAROLINA. 227 pervaded the colony; and when, in 1676, large numbers of refugees from Virginia — patriots who had fought in Bacon's rebellion — arrived in the Chowan, the spirit of discontent was kindled into open resistance. The arrival of a merchant-ship from Boston and an attempt to en- force the revenue laws furnished the occasion and pretext of an insurrec- tion. The vessel evaded the payment of duty, and war declared a smug- gler. But the people flew to arms, seized the governor and six members of his council, overturned the existing order of things and established a new government of their own. John Culpepper, the leader of the insur- gents, was chosen governor; other officers were elected by the people; and in a few weeks the colony was as tranquil as if Locke's grand model had never been heard of. But in the next year, 1679, the imprisoned Mil- ler and his associates escaped from confinement, and going to London told a dolorous story about their wrongs and sufferings. The English lords of trade took the matter in hand, and it seemed that North Carolina was doomed to punishment. But the colonists were awake to their interests. Governor Cul- pepper went boldly to England to defend himself and to justify the rebel- lion. He was seized, indicted for high treason, tried and acquitted by a jury of Englishmen. It marks a peculiar feature of this cause that the sagacious earl of Shaftesbury came forward at the trial and spoke in de- fence of the prisoner. But Lord Clarendon was so much vexed at the acquittal of the rebellious governor that he sold his rights as proprietor to the infamous Seth Sothel. This man in 1680 was sent out by his associ- ates as governor of the province. In crossing the ocean lie Avas captured by a band of pirates, and for three years the colony was saved from his evil presence. At last, in 1683, he arrived in Carolina and began his work, which consisted in oppressing the people and defrauding the pro- prietors. Cranfield of New Hampshire, Cornbury of New York and Wingfield of Virginia were all respectable men in comparison with Sothel, whose sordid passions have made him notorious as the worst colonial gov- ernor that ever plundered an American province. After five years of avaricious tyranny, the base, gold-gathering, justice-despising despot was overthrown in an insurrection. Finding himself a prisoner, and fearing the wrath of the defrauded proprietors more than he feared the indigna- tion of the outraged colonists, he begged to be tried by the assembly of the province. The request was granted, and the culprit escaped with a sentence of disfranchisement and a twelve months' exile from North Carolina. Sothel was succeeded in the governorship by Ludwell, who arrived in 1689. His administration of six years' duration was a period of peace 228 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. and contentment. The wrongs of his predecessor were corrected as far aa possible by a just and humane chief magistrate. In 1695 came Sir John Archdale, another of the proprietors, the rival of Ludwell in prudence and integrity. Then followed the tranquil administration of Governor Henderson Walker; then, in 1704, the foolish attempt of Robert Daniel to establish the Church of England. In the mean time, the colony had grown strong in population and resources. The country south of the Roanoke began to be dotted with farms and hamlets. Other settlers came from Virginia and Maryland. Quakers came from New England and the Delaware. A band of French Huguenots came in 1707. A hundred families of German refugees, buffeted with war and persecution, left the banks of the Rhine to find a home on the banks of the Neuse. Peasants from Switzerland came and founded New Berne at the mouth of the River Trent. The Indians of North Carolina had gradually wasted away. Pes- tilence and strong drink had reduced powerful tribes to a shadow. Some nations were already extinct ; others, out of thousands of strong-limbed warriors, had only a dozen men remaining. The lands of the savages had passed to the whites, sometimes by purchase, sometimes by fraud, often by forcible occupation. The natives were jealous and revengeful, but weak. Of all the mighty tribes that had inhabited the Carolinas in the days of Sir Walter Raleigh, only the Corees and the Tuscaroras were still formidable. The time had come when these unhappy nations, like the rest of their race, were doomed to destruction. The conflict which ended, and could only end, in the ruin of the Red men, began in the year 1711. In September of this year, Lawson, the surveyor-general of North Carolina, ascended the Neuse to explore and map the country. The In- dians were alarmed at the threatened encroachment upon their territory. A band of warriors took Lawson prisoner, led him before their council, condemned him and burned him to death. On the night of the 22d, com- panies of savages rose out of the woods, fell upon the scattered settlements between the Roanoke and Pamlico Sound, and murdered a hundred and thirty persons. Civil dissension prevented the colonial authorities from adopting vigorous measures of defence. The protection of the people and the punishment of the barbarians were left to the neighboring prov- inces. Spottswood, governor of Virginia, made some unsuccessful efforts to render assistance, and Colonel Barnwell came from South Carolina with a company of militia and a body of friendly Cherokees, Creeks and Cataw- bas. The savages were driven into their fort in the northern part of Craven county, but could not be dislodged. While affairs were in thia NORTH CAROLINA. 229 condition a treaty of peace was made ; but Barnwell's men, on their way- homeward, violated the compact, sacked an Indian village and made slaves of the inhabitants. The war was at once renewed. In September of the next year, while the conflict was yet unde- cided, the yellow fever broke out in the country south of Pamlico Sound. So dreadful were the ravages of the pestilence that the peninsula was wellnigh swept of its inhabitants. Meanwhile, Colonel James Moore of South Carolina had arrived, in command of a regiment of whites and In- dians, and the Tuscaroras were pursued to their principal fort on Cotentnea Creek, in Greene county. This place was besieged until the latter part of March, 1713, and was then carried by assault. Eight hundred warriors were taken prisoners. The power of the hostile nation was broken, but the Tuscarora chieftains were divided in council ; some were desirous of peace, and some voted to continue the war. This difference of opinion led to a division of the tribe. Those who wished for peace were permit- ted to settle in a single community in the county of Hyde. Their hostile brethren, seeing that further resistance would be hopeless, determined to leave the country. In the month of June they abandoned their hunting- grounds made sacred by the traditions of their fathers, marched across Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, reached Northern New York, joined their kinsmen, the Oneidas, and became the sixth nation of the Iroquois confederacy. Thus far the two Carolinas had continued under a common gov- ernment. In 1729 a final separation was effected between the provinces north and south of Cape Fear River, and a royal governor appointed over each. In spite of Locke's grand model and the Tuscarora war, in spite of the threatened Spanish invasion of 1744, the northern colony had greatly prospered. The intellectual development of the people had not been as rapid as the growth in numbers and in wealth. Little attention had been given to questions of religion. There was no minister in the province until 1703. Two years later the first church was built. The first court- house was erected in 1722, and the printing-press did not begin its work until 1754. But the people were brave and patriotic. They loved their country, and called it the Land op Summer. In the farmhouse and the village, along the banks of the rivers and the borders of the primeval for- ests, the spirit of liberty pervaded every breast. The love of freedom was intense, and hostility to tyranny a universal passion. In the times of Sothel it was said of the North Carolinans that they would not pay trib- ute even to Caesar. 230 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XXVIII. SOUTH CAROLINA. IN January of 1670 the proprietors of Carolina sent out a colony under command of Joseph West and William Sayle. There was at this time not a single European settlement between the mouth of Cape Fear Eiver and the St. John's, in Florida. Here was a beautiful coast of nearly four hundred miles ready to receive the beginnings of civilization. The new emigrants, sailing by way of Barbadoes, steered far to the south, and reached the mainland in the country of the Savannah. The vessels first entered the harbor of Port Royal. It was now a hundred and eight years since John Ribault, on an island in this same harbor, had set up a stone engraved with the lilies of France; now the Englishman had come. The ships were anchored near the site of Beaufort. But the colo- nists were dissatisfied with the appearance of the country, and did not go ashore. Sailing northward along the coast for forty miles, they next en- tered the mouth of Ashley River, and landed where the first high land appeared upon the southern bank. Here were laid the foundations of Old Charleston, so named in honor of King Charles II. Of this, the oldest town in South Carolina, no trace remains except the line of a ditch which was digged around the fort ; a cotton-field occupies the site of the ancient settlement. Sayle had been commissioned as governor and West as commercial agent of the colony. The settlers had been furnished with a copy of Locke's big constitution, but they had no more use for it than for a dead elephant. Instead of the grand model, a little government was organized on the principles of common sense. Five councilors were elected by the people, and five others appointed by the proprietors. Over this council of ten the governor presided. Twenty delegates, composing a house of representatives, were chosen by the colonists. Within two years the sys- tem of popular government was firmly established in the province. Ex- cept the prevalence of diseases peculiar to the southern climate, no calam- ity darkened the prospects of the rising State. In the beginning of 1671 Governor Sayle died, and West, by com- mon consent, assumed the duties of the vacant office. After the lapse of SOUTH CAROLINA. 231 a few months, Sir John Yeamans, who had been governor of the northern province and was now in Barbadoes, was commissioned by the proprie- tors as chief magistrate of the southern colony. He brought with him to Ashley River a large cargo of African slaves. From the beginning the colonists had devoted themselves to planting ; but the English laborers, unused as yet to the climate, could hardly endure the excessive heats of the sultry fields. To the Caribbee negroes, already accustomed to the burn- ing sun of the tropics, the Carolina summer seemed temperate and pleasant. Thus the labor of the black man was substituted for the labor of the white man, and in less than two years from the founding of the colony the system of slavery was firmly established. In this respect the history of South Carolina is peculiar. Slavery had been introduced into all the American colonies, but everywhere else the introduction had been effected by those who were engaged in the slave-trade. In South Carolina alone was the system adopted as a political and social experiment and with a view to the regular establishment of a laboring class in the State. Governor Yeamans was the first to accept this policy, which soon became the general policy of the province. The importation of negroes went on so rapidly that in a short time they outnumbered the whites as two to one. Immigration from England did not lag. During the year 1671 a system of cheap rents and liberal bounties was adopted by the proprietors, and the country was rapidly filled with people. A tract of a hundred and fifty acres was granted to every one who would either immigrate or im- port a negro. Fertile lands were abundant. Wars and pestilence had almost annihilated the native tribes ; whole counties were almost without an occupant. The disasters of one race had prepared the way for the coming of another. Only a few years before this time New Netherland had been conquered by the English. The Dutch were greatly dissatisfied with the government which the duke of York had established over them, and began to leave the country. The proprietors of Carolina sent several ships to New York, loaded them with the industrious but discontented people, and brought them without expense to Charleston. The unoccupied lands west of Ashley River were divided among the Dutch, who formed there a thriving settlement called Jamestown. The fame of the new country reached Holland, and other emigrants left fatherland to join their kinsmen in Carolina. Charles II., who rarely aided a colony, collected a company of Protestant refugees from the South of Europe, and sent them to Carolina to introduce the silk-worm and to begin the cultivation of the grape. In 1680 the present metropolis of South Carolina was founded. The site of Old Charleston had been hastily and injudiciously selected. The 232 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. delightful peninsula called Oyster Point, between Ashley and Cooper Rivers, was now chosen as the spot on which to build a city. The erec- tion of thirty dwellings during the first summer gave proof of enterprise ; the name of Chaeleston was a second time bestowed, and the village immediately became the capital of the colony. The unhealthy climate for a while retarded the progress of the new town, but the people were lull of life and enterprise ; storehouses and wharves were built, and mer- chant-ships soon began to throng the commodious harbor. Injustice provoked an Indian war. Some vagabond Nestoes, whose only offence consisted in strolling through the plantations, were shot. The tribe appealed to the government, and the proprietors showed a wil- lingness to punish the wrongdoers ; but the pioneers were determined to fight and the savages were naturally revengeful. Scenes of violence con- tinued along the border, and hostilities began in earnest. In the prosecu- tion of the war the colonists were actuated by a shameful spirit of avarice. The object was not so much to punish or destroy the savages as to take them prisoners. A bounty was offered for every captured Indian, and as fast as the warriors were taken they were sold as slaves for the West In- dies. The petty strife continued for a year, and was then concluded with a treaty of peace. Commissioners were appointed, to whom all complaints and disputes between the natives and the colonists should henceforth be submitted. South Carolina was favored with rapid immigration, and the immi- grants were worthy to become the founders of a great State. The best nations of Europe contributed to people the country between Cape Fear and the Savannah. England continued to send her colonies. In 1683 Joseph Blake, a brother of the great English admiral, devoted his fortune and the last years of his life to bringing a large company of dissenters from Somersetshire to Charleston. In the same year an Irish colony under Ferguson arrived at Ashley River, and met a hearty welcome. A company of Scotch Presbyterians, ten families in all, led by the excellent Lord Cardross, settled at Port Royal in 1684. The authorities of Charles- ton claimed jurisdiction there, and the new immigrants reluctantly yielded to the claim. Two years afterward a band of Spanish soldiers arrived from St. Augustine, and the unhappy Scotch exiles were driven from their homes. But intolerant France gave up more of her subjects than did all the other nations. As early as 1598 Henry IV., king of the French, had published a celebrated proclamation, called the Edict of Nantes, by the terms of which the Huguenots were protected in their rights of religious worship. Now, after eighty-seven years of toleration, Louis XIV., blinded with bigotry SOUTH CAROLINA. 233 and passion and hoping to make Catholicism universal, revoked the kindly edict, and exposed the Protestants of his kingdom to the long-suppressed rasfe of their enemies. In order to enforce the decree of revocation the French army was quartered in the towns of the Huguenots, the ports were closed against emigration, and the borders were watched to prevent escape. How foolish are the ways of despotism ! In spite of every precaution, five hundred thousand of the best people of France, preferring banishment to religious thraldom, escaped from their country and fled, self-exiled, into foreign lands. The Huguenots were scattered from the Baltic Sea to the Cape of Good Hope, and on the Western continent from Maine to Flor- ida. But of all the American colonies, South Carolina received the great- est number of French refugees within her borders. They were met by the proprietors with a pledge of protection and a promise of citizenship ; but neither promise nor pledge was immediately fulfilled, for the colony had not yet determined what should be its laws of naturalization. Both the general assembly and the proprietors claimed the right of fixing the conditions. Until that question could be decided the Huguenots were kept in suspense, and were sometimes unkindly treated by the jealous English settlers. Not until 1697 were all discriminations against the French immigrants removed. In 1686 came James Colleton as colonial governor. He began his administration with a foolish attempt to establish the mammoth constitu- tion of Locke and Shaftesbury. No wonder that the assembly resisted his authority, and that the people were embittered against him. The rents came due; payment was refused, and the colony was in a state of rebellion. In order to divert attention from himself, Colleton published a proclama- tion setting forth the danger of a pretended invasion by the Indians and Spaniards. The militia was called out and the province declared under martial law. It was all in vain. The people were only exasperated by the arbitrary proceedings of the governor. Tidings came that James II. had been driven from the throne of England. The popular assembly was convened, and William and Mary were proclaimed as sovereigns. In 1690 a decree of impeachment was passed against Colleton, and he was banished from the province. The people of North Carolina had just performed a similar service for Seth Sothel. Not satisfied with his previous success, he at once re- paired to Charleston and assumed the government of the southern colony. To Sothel's other merits were added the qualifications of a first-rate dem- agogue ; he induced the people to acquiesce in his usurpation and to sus- tain his authority. But his avaricious disposition could not long be held in check. The proprietors disclaimed his acts and after a turbulent rule 234 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. of two years, he and his government were overthrown. One bright page redeems the record of his administration. In May of 1691 the first gen- eral act of enfranchisement was passed in favor of the Huguenots. Philip Ludwell, who had been collector of customs in Virginia, and since 1689 governor of North Carolina, was now sent to establish order in the southern province. He spent a year in a well-meant effort to administer the government of the proprietors; but the people were fixed in their antagonism to the constitution, and nothing could be accom- plished. Ludwell gave up the hopeless task, withdrew from the prov- ince, and returned to Virginia. South Carolina had fallen into a condi- tion bordering on anarchy. Nearly a quarter of a century had elapsed since Locke drafted the grand model. At last the proprietors came to see that the establishment of such a monstrous frame of government over an American colony was impossible. Pride said that the constitution should stand, for the nobility of England had declared it immortal. But self-interest and common sense demanded its abrogation, and the demand prevailed. In April of 1693 the proprietors assembled and voted the boasted model out of exist- ence. It was enacted at the same meeting that since the people of Caro- lina preferred a simple charter government, their request be granted. The magnificent paper empire of Shaftesbury was swept into oblivion. Thomas Smith was now appointed governor, but was soon super- seded by John Archdale, a distinguished and talented Quaker. Arriving in 1695, he began an administration so just and wise that dissension ceased and the colony entered upon a new career of prosperity. The quit-rents on lands were remitted for four years. The people were given the option of paying their taxes in money or in produce. The Indians were concili- ated with kindness and protected against kidnappers. Some native Cath- olics were ransomed from slavery and sent to their homes in Florida, and the Spanish governor reciprocated the deed with a friendly message. When the old jealousy against the Huguenots asserted itself in the gen- eral assembly, the benevolent influence of Archdale procured the passage of a law by which all Christians, except the Catholics, were fully enfran- chised ; the ungenerous exception was made against the governor's will. It was a real misfortune to the colony when, in 1698, the good governor was recalled to England. James Moore was next commissioned as chief magistrate. The first important act of his administration was a declaration of hostilities against the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine. Queen Anne's War had broken out. The Spaniards were in alliance with the French against the English. By the antagonism of England and Spain, South Carolina and SOUTH CAROLINA. 235 Florida were brought into conflict. Yet a declaration of war was strong- ly opposed in the assembly at Charleston, and was only passed by a small majority. It was voted to raise and equip a force of twelve hun- dred men, and to invade Florida by land and water. The summer of 1702 was spent in preparation, and in September the expeditions departed, the land-forces led by Colonel Daniel and the fleet commanded by the governor. The English vessels sailed down the coast, entered the St. John's and blocked up the river. Daniel marched overland, reached St. Augus- tine and captured the town. But the Spaniards withdrew without serious loss into the castle, and bade defiance to the besiegers. Without artillery it was evident that the place could not be taken. Colonel Daniel was despatched with a sloop to Jamaica to procure cannons for the siege ; but before his return two Spanish men-of-war appeared at the mouth of the St. John's, and Governor Moore found himself blockaded. His courage was not equal to the occasion. Abandoning his ships, he took to the shore, and collecting his forces hastily retreated into Carolina. Daniel returned and entered the St. John's, but discovered the danger in time to make his escape. The governor's retreat occasioned great dissatisfaction. There were insinuations of cowardice and threats of impeachment, but no formal action was taken against him. The only results of the unfor- tunate expedition were debt and paper money. In order to meet the heavy expenses of the war, the assembly was obliged to issue bills of credit to the amount of six thousand pounds sterling. Governor Moore retrieved his reputation by invading the Indian nations south-west of the Savannah. In December of 1705 he left the province at the head of fifty volunteers and a thousand friendly natives. White men had not been seen marching in these woods since the days of De Soto. On the 14th of the month the invaders reached the fortified town of Ayavalla, in the neighborhood of St. Mark's. An attack was made and the church set on fire. A Franciscan monk came out and begged for mercy ; but the place was carried by assault, and more than two hundred prisoners were taken, only to be enslaved. On the next day Moore's forces met and defeated a large body of Indians and Spaniards. Five important towns were carried in succession, and the English flag was borne in triumph to the Gulf of Mexico. Communication between the Spanish settlements of Florida and the French posts in Louisiana was entirely cut off. Meanwhile, the Church of England had been established by law in South Carolina. In the first year of Johnston's administration the High Church party succeeded in getting a majority of one in the colonial 236 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. assembly, and immediately passed an act disfranchising all the dissenters in the province. An appeal was carried to the proprietors, only to be re- jected with contempt. The dissenting party next laid their cause before Parliament, and that body promptly voted that the act of disfranchisement was contrary to the laws of England, and that the proprietors had for- feited their charter. The queen's ministers were authorized to declare the intolerant law null and void. In November of the same year the colo- nial legislature revoked its own act so far as the disfranchising- clause was concerned ; but Episcopalianism continued to be the established faith of the province. The year 1706 was a stirring epoch in the history of South Caro- lina. A French and Spanish fleet was sent from Havana to capture Charleston and subdue the country. The orders were more easily given than executed. The brave people of the capital flew to arms. Governor Johnson and Colonel William Rhett inspired the volunteers with courage; and when the hostile squadron anchored in the harbor, the city was ready for a stubborn defence. Several times a landing was attenrpted, but the invaders were everywhere repulsed. At last a French vessel succeeded in getting to shore with eight hundred troops, but they were attacked with fury and driven off with a loss of three hundred in killed and prisoners. The siege was at once abandoned ; unaided by the proprietors, South Car- olina had made a glorious defence. In the spring of 1715 war broke out with the Yamassees. As usual with their race, the Indians began hostilities with treachery. At the very time when Captain Nairne was among them as a friendly ambas- sador, the wily savages rose upon the frontier settlements and committed an atrocious massacre. The people of Port Royal were alarmed just in time to escape in a ship to Charleston. The desperate savages rushed on to within a short distance of the capital. It seemed that the city would be taken and the whole colony driven to destruction. But the brave Charles Craven, governor of the province, rallied the militia of Colleton district, and the blood-staiued barbarians were driven back. A vigorous pursuit began, and the savages were pressed to the banks of the Salke- hatchie. Here a decisive battle was fought, and the Indians were com- pletely routed. The Yamassees collected their shattered tribe and retired into Florida, where they were received by the Spaniards as friends and confederates. In 1719 the government of South Carolina was revolutionized. At the close of the war with the Yamassees the assembly petitioned the proprietors to bear a portion of the expense. But the avaricious noble- men refused, and would take no measures for the future protection of the SOUTH CAROLINA. 237 colony. The people were greatly burdened with rents and taxes. The lands were monopolized ; every act of the assembly which seemed for the public good was vetoed by the proprietors. In the new election every delegate was chosen by the popular party. The 21st of December was training-day in Charleston. On that day James Moore, the new chief magistrate elected by the people, was to be inaugurated. Governor John- son forbade the military display and tried to prevent the inauguration ; but the militia collected in the public square, drums were beaten, flags were flung out on the forts and shipping, and before nightfall the propri- etary government of Carolina was overthrown. Governor Moore was duly inaugurated in the name of King George I. A colonial agent was at once sent to England ; the cause of the colonists was heard, and the forfeited charter of the proprietors abrogated by act of Parliament. Francis Nicholson was now commissioned as governor. He had already held the office of chief magistrate in New York, in Virginia, in Maryland and in Nova Scotia. He began a successful administration in South Carolina by concluding treaties of peace and commerce with the Cherokees and the Creeks. But another and final change in colonial affairs was now at hand. In 1729 seven of the eight proprietors of the Carolinas sold their entire claims in the provinces to the king. Lord Carteret, the eighth proprietor, would surrender nothing but his right of jurisdiction, reserving his share in the soil. The sum paid by King George for the two colonies was twenty-two thousand five hundred pounds sterling. Royal governors were appointed, and the affairs of the province were settled on a permanent basis, not to be disturbed for more than forty years. The people who colonized South Carolina were brave and chival- rous. On the banks of the Santee, the Edisto and the Combahee were gathered some of the best elements of the European nations. The Hu- guenot, the Scotch Presbyterian, the English dissenter, the loyalist and High Churchman, the Irish adventurer and the Dutch mechanic, com- posed the powerful material out of which soon grew the beauty and re- nown of the Palmetto State. Equally with the rugged Puritans of the North, the South Carolinians were lovers of liberty. Without the severe morality and formal manners of the Pilgrims, the people who were once governed by the peaceful Archdale and once led to war by the gallant Craven became the leaders in courtly politeness and high-toned honor be- tween man and man. In the coming struggle for freedom South Caro- lina will bear a noble and distinguished part ; the fame of the patriotic Rhett will be perpetuated by Marion and Sumter. 238 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XXIX. GEORGIA. f~] EORGIA, the thirteenth American colony, was founded in a spirit VX of pure benevolence. The laws of England permitted imprisonment for debt. Thousands of English laborers, who through misfortune and thoughtless contracts had become indebted to the rich, were annually ar- rested and thrown into jail. There were desolate and starving families. The miserable condition of the debtor class at last attracted the attention of Parliament. In 1728 a commissioner was appointed, at his own request, to look into the state of the poor, to visit the prisons of the kingdom, and to report measures of relief. The work was accomplished, the jails were opened, and the poor victims of debt returned to their homes. The noble commissioner was not yet satisfied. For the liberated prisoners and their friends were disheartened and disgraced in the country of their birth. Was there no land beyond the sea where debt was not a crime, and where poverty was no disgrace ? To provide a refuge for the down-trodden poor of England and the distressed Protestants of other countries, the commissioner now appealed to George II. for the privilege of planting a colony in America. The petition was favorably heard, and on the 9th of June, 1732, a royal charter was issued by which the terri- tory between the Savannah and Altamaha Rivers, and westward from the upper fountains of those rivers to the Pacific, was organized and granted to a corporation for twenty-one years, to be held in trust for the poor. In honor of the king, the new province received the name of Georgia. But what was the name of that high-souled, unselfish commissioner of Parliament ? James Oglethorpe, the philanthropist. Born a loyalist, educated at Oxford, a High Churchman, a cavalier, a soldier, a member of Parliament, benevolent, generous, full of sympathy, far-sighted, brave as John Smith, chivalrous as De Soto, Oglethorpe gave in middle life the full energies of a vigorous body and a lofty mind to the work of building in the sunny South an asylum for the oppressed of his own and other lands. The magnanimity of the enterprise was heightened by the fact that he did not believe in the equality of men, but only in the right and duty of the strong to protect the weak and sympathize with the lowly. To Oglethorpe, as GEORGIA. 239 principal member of the corporation, the leadership of the first colony to be planted on the banks of the Savannah, was naturally entrusted. By the mid- dle of November a hundred and twen- ty emigrants were ready to sail for the New World. Oglethorpe, like the elder Win- throp, determined to share the dan- gers and hardships of his colony. In January of 1733 the company was welcomed at Charleston. Pass- ing down the coast, the vessels were anchored f o r a short time at Beau- fort, while the gov- ernor with a few JAMES OGLETHORPE. companions as- cended the bound- ary river of Georgia, and selected as the site of his settlement the high bluff on which now stands the city of Savannah. Here, on the 1st day of February, were laid the foundations of the oldest English town south of the Savannah River. Broad streets were laid out ; a public square was reserved in each quarter ; a beautiful village of tents and board houses, built among the pine trees, appeared as the capital of a new common- wealth where men were not imprisoned for debt. Tomo-chichi, chief of the Yamacraws, came from his cabin, half a mile distant, to see his brother Oglethorpe. There was a pleasant con- ference. " Here is a present for you," said the red man to the white man. The present was a buffalo robe painted on the inside with the head and feathers of an eagle. " The feathers are soft, and signify love ; the buf- falo skin is the emblem of protection. Therefore love us and protect us," said the old chieftain. Such a plea could not be lost on a man like Ogle- thorpe. Seeing the advantages of peace, he sent an invitation to the chiefs 240 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. of the Muskhogees to meet him in a general council at his capital. The conference was held on the 29th of May. Long King, the sachem of Oconas, spoke for all the tribes of his nation. The English were wel- comed to the country. Bundles of buckskins, and such other good gifts as savage civilization could offer, were laid down plentifully at the feet of the whites. The governor and his poor but generous colony responded with valuable presents and words of faithful friendship. The fame of Oglethorpe spread far and Made among the Red men. From the distant mountains of Tennessee came the noted chief of the Cherokees to confer with the humane and sweet-tempered governor of Georgia. The councilors in England who managed the affairs of the new State encouraged emigration with every liberal offer. Swiss peasants left their mountains to find a home on the Savannah. The plaid cloak of the Scotch Highlander was seen among the wigwams of the Muskhogees. From distant Salzburg, afar on the borders of Austria, came a noble col- ony of German Protestants, singing their way down the Rhine and across the ocean. Oglethorpe met them at Charleston, bade them welcome, led them to Savannah and thence through the woods to a point twenty miles up the river, told them of English rights and the freedom of conscience, and left them to found the village of Ebenezer. In April of 1734, Governor Oglethorpe made a visit to England. His friend Tomo-chichi went with him, and made the acquaintance of King George. It was said in London that no colony was ever before founded so wisely and well as Georgia. The councilors prohibited the importation of rum. Traffic with the Indians — always a dangerous mat- ter — was either interdicted or regulated by special license. When it came to the question of labor, slavery was positively forbidden. It was said that the introduction of slaves would be fatal to the interests of the Eng- lish and German laborers for whom the colony had been founded. While the governor was still abroad, the first company of Moravians, number- ing nine, and led by the evangelist Spangenberg, arrived at Savannah. In February of 1736, Oglethorpe himself came back with a new colony of three hundred. Part of these were Moravians, and nearly all were people of deep piety and fervent spirit. First among them — first in zeal and first in the influence which he was destined to exert in after times — was the celebrated John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Overflowing with religious enthusiasm, he came to Georgia, not as a poli- tician, not as a minister merely, but as an apostle. To lead the people to righteousness, to spread the gospel, to convert the Indians, and to intro- duce a new type of religion characterized by few forms and much emo- tion, these were the purposes that thronged his lofty fancy. He was GEORGIA. 241 doomed to much disappointment. The mixed people of the new province could not be moulded to his will ; and after a residence of less than two years he left the colony with a troubled spirit. His brother, Charles Wesley, came also as a secretary to Governor Oglethorpe ; but Charles was a poet, a timid and tender-hearted man who pined with homesickness and gave way under discouragement. But when, in 1738, the famous George Whitefield came, his robust and daring nature proved a match for all the troubles of the wilderness. He preached with fiery eloquence. To build an orphan-house at Savannah he went through all the colonies ; and those who heard his voice could hardly refuse him money. Think- ing no longer of native land, he found a peaceful grave in New England. Meanwhile, Oglethorpe was busy with the affairs of his growing province. Anticipating war with Spain, he began to fortify. For the Spaniards were in possession of Florida, and claimed the country as far north as St. Helena Sound. All of Georgia was thus embraced in the Spanish claim. But Oglethorpe had a charter for Georgia as far south as the Altamaha, and he had secured by treaty with the Indians all the territory between that river and the St. Mary's. In 1736 he ascended the Savannah and built a fort at Augusta. On the north bank of the Altamaha, twelve miles from its mouth, Fort Darien was built. On Cumberland Island, at the mouth of the St. Mary's, a fortress was erected and named Fort William. Proceeding down the coast with a company of Highlanders, the daring governor reached the mouth of the St. John's, and on Amelia Island built still another fort, which he named St. Georo-e. The river St. John's was claimed from this time forth as the southern boundary of Georgia. To make his preparations complete, the governor again visited England, and was commissioned as brigadier-general, with a command extending over his own province and South Carolina. In Octo- ber of 1737 he returned to Savannah, bringing with him a regiment of six hundred men. Such were the vigorous measures adopted by Ogle- thorpe in anticipation of a Spanish war. The war came. It was that conflict known in American history as King George's War. England published her declaration of hostility against Spain in the latter part of October, 1739. In the first week of the following January the impetuous Oglethorpe, at the head of the Georgia militia, made a dash into Florida, and captured two fortified towns of the Spaniards. His plans embraced the conquest of St. Augustine and the entire extinction of Spanish authority north of the Gulf of Mexico. Repairing to Charleston, he induced the assembly to support his measures. By the first of May he found himself in command of six hundred regular troops, four hundred volunteers and a body of Indian auxiliaries. With 16 242 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. this force he proceeded at once against St. Augustine. The place was strongly fortified, and the Spanish commandant, Monteano, was a man of ability and courage. The siege continued for five weeks, but ended in disaster to the English. For a while the town was successfully block- aded ; but some Spanish galleys, eluding the vigilance of Oglethorpe's squadron, brought a cargo of supplies to the garrison. The Spaniards made a sally, attacked a company of High- landers, and dispersed them. Sickness prevailed in the English camp. The general himself was enfeebled with fever and excitement, but ho held on like a hero. The troops of Carolina, disheart- ened and despairing of success, left their camp and marched homeward. The English vessels gathered up their crews, abandoned the siege and returned to Frederica. Oglethorpe, yielding only to necessity, collected his men from the trenches and withdrew into Georgia. The Spaniards now determined to carry the war northward and drive the English beyond the Savannah. The Combahee River should be made the northern boundary of Florida. Prep- arations began on a vast scale. A pow- erful fleet of thirty-six vessels, carrying more than three thousand troops, was brought from Cuba, and anchored at St. Augustine. In June of 1742 the squadron passed up the coast to Cumberland Island, and at- tempted the reduction of Fort William. But Oglethorpe by a daring exploit reinforced the garrison, and then fell back to Frederica. The Spanish vessels followed and came to anchor in the harbor of St. Simon's. From the southern point of the island to Frederica, Oglethorpe had cut a road which at one place lay between a morass and a dense forest. Along this path the Spaniards must pass to attack the town. The English gen- eral had only eight hundred men and a few Indian allies. In order to cope with superior numbers, Oglethorpe resorted to stratagem. A Frenchman had deserted to the Spaniards. To him the English general now wrote a letter as if to a spy. A Spanish prisoner in Ogle- thorpe's hands was liberated and bribed to deliver the letter to the de- serter. The Frenchman was advised that two British fleets were coming COUNTttY OF THE SAVANNAH, 1740. GEORGIA. 243 to America, one to aid Oglethorpe and the other to attack St. Augustine. Let the Spaniards remain on the island but three days longer, and they would be ruined. If the enemy did not make an immediate attack on Frederica, his forces would be captured to a man. Oglethorpe knew very well that the prisoner, instead of delivering this letter to the deserter, would give it to the Spanish commander, and that the Spanish commander could not possibly know whether the communication was the truth or a fiction. This letter was delivered, and the astonished Frenchman was arrested as a spy, but the Spaniards could not tell whether his denial was true or false. There was a council of Avar in the Spanish camp. Ogle- thorpe's stratagem was suspected, but could not be proved. Three ships had been seen at sea that day ; perhaps these were the first vessels of the approaching British fleets. The Spaniards were utterly perplexed ; but it was finally decided to take Oglethorpe's advice, and make the attack on Frederica. The English general had foreseen that this course Avould be adopted. He had accordingly advanced his small force from the town to the place where the road passed between the swamp and the forest. Here an am- buscade was formed, and the soldiers lay in wait for the approaching Span- iards. On the 7th of July the enemy's vanguard reached the narrow pass, were fired on from the thicket and driven back in confusion. The main body of the Spanish forces pressed on into the dangerous position where superior numbers were of no advantage. The Highlanders of Oglethorpe's regiment fired with terrible effect from the oak woods by the roadside. The Spaniards stood firm for a while, but were presently driven back with a loss of two hundred men. Not without reason the name of Bloody Marsh was given to this battle-field. Within less than a week the whole Spanish force had re-embarked and sailed for Florida. On the way south- ward the fleet made a second attack on Fort William. But Captain Stuart, with a garrison of only fifty men, made a vigorous and successful defence. The English watched the retreating ships beyond the mouth of the St. John's ; before the last of July the great invasion was at an end. The Spanish authorities of Cuba were greatly chagrined at the failure of the expedition. The commander of the squadron was arrested, tried by a court-martial and dismissed from the service. The commonwealth of Georgia was now firmly established, and the settlements had peace. In 1743, Oglethorpe bade a final adieu to the col- ony to whose welfare he had given more than ten years of his life. He had never owned a house nor possessed an acre of ground within the lim- its of his own province. He now departed for England crowned with blessings, and leaving behind him an untarnished fame. James Ogle- 244 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. thorpe lived to be nearly a hundred years old; benevolence, integrity and honor were the virtues of his declining years. But the new State which he had founded in the West was not always free from evils. For the regulations which the councilors for Georgia had adopted were but poorly suited to the wants of the colony. The settlers had not been permitted to hold their lands in fee simple. Agriculture had not flourished. Commerce had not sprung up. The laws of property had been so arranged that estates could descend only to the oldest sons of fam- ilies. The colonists were j)oor, and charged their poverty to the fact that slave-labor was forbidden in the province. This became the chief ques- tion which agitated the people. The proprietary laws grew more and more unpopular. The statute excluding slavery was not rigidly enforced, and, indeed, could not be enforced, when the people had determined to evade it. Whitefield himself pleaded for the abrogation of the law. Slaves began to be hired, first for short terms of service, then for longer periods, then for a hundred years, which was equivalent to an actual pur- chase for life. Finally, cargoes of slaves were brought directly from Africa, and the primitive free-labor system of Georgia was revolutionized. Plantations were laid out below the Savannah, and cultivated, as those of South Carolina. Another and more important change was at hand. It became evident that there could be no progress so long as the original char- ter remained in force. However benevolent the impulse which had called Georgia into being, the scheme of government had proved a sham. The people were improvident, idle, inexperienced. More than six hundred thousand dollars in parliamentary grants, besides private contributions amounting to nearly ninety thousand dollars, had been fruitlessly expended on the lagging province. In 1752 there were only a few scattered plantations and three inconsiderable villages be- low the Savannah. The white population amounted, at this time, to seventeen hundred souls ; and the blacks numbered about four hun- dred. The industry of Georgia was at a stand-still. The extravagant hopes which the colonial managers had entertained of wine, and silk, and indigo, found no realization in the facts. The annual exports of the colony amounted to less than four thousand dollars ; and the pros- pect for the future was as discouraging as the present condition was gloomy. At last, however, the new order of things was acknowledged by the councilors of the province. They yielded to necessity. In June of 1752, just twenty years from the granting of the charter, the trust- ees made a formal surrender of their patent to the king. A royal GEORGIA. 245 government was established over the country south of the Savannah, and the people were granted the privileges and freedom of English- men. A constitution was drawn up by the British Board of Trade, and Captain John Reynolds was commissioned as royal governor. In October of 1754 he arrived at Savannah and began the work of reor- ganization. For two years and a half he labored assiduously to ex- tricate the affairs of Georgia from the confusion into which they had fallen ; and so successful was his work that at the end of this time the population had reached six thousand. The southern boundary of the province remained to be decided by the issue of the French and Indian War. During the progress of that conflict Georgia was saved from calamity by the prudent administration of Governor Ellis, who secured from the powerful Creek confederacy a new treaty of peace. A barrier was thus interposed between the colony and the hostile nations of the West and North. In the year 1758 the province was divided into eight parishes, and at the same time the Church of Eng- land was established by law. Still, for a while, the progress of the colony was not equal to the expectations of its founder. But before the beginning of the Revolution, Georgia, though the feeblest of all the Anglo-American provinces, had become a prosperous and growing State. Such is the story of the planting by our fathers of the Old Thir- teen republics — such the record of their growth and prospects. From the gloomy coast of Labrador, where, two hundred and fifty years be- fore, John Cabot had set up the flag of England and arms of Henry VIL, to the sunny waters where Ponce de Leon, looking shoreward, called his cavaliers to gaze on the Land of Flowers, — the dominion of Great Britain had been established. Would that dominion last forever? Would the other nations of Europe ever rally and regain their lost ascendency on the Western continent? Would the ties of kinship, the affinity of language, the bond of a common ancestry, stretching from these sea-shore commonwealths across the Atlantic, bind them in perpetual union with the mother Islands ? Would these isolated provinces in America — now so quick to take offence at each other's beliefs and actions, and so easily jealous of each other's power and fame — ever unite in a common cause ? ever join to do battle for life and liberty ? ever become a Nation ? Such were the momentous questions, the problems of destiny, which hung above the colonies at 246 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. the middle of the eighteenth century — problems which the future could not be long in solving. The history of these American colonies from their first feeble be- ginnings is full of interest and instruction. The people who laid the foundations of civilization in the New World were nearly all refugees, exiles, wanderers, pilgrims. They were urged across the ocean by a common impulse, and that impulse was the desire to escape from somt form of oppression in the Old World. Sometimes it was the oppres- sion of the Church, sometimes of the State, sometimes of society. In the wake of the emigrant ship there was always tyranny. Men loved freedom ; to find it they braved the perils of the deep, traversed the solitary forests of Maine, built huts on the bleak shores of New Eng- land, entered the Hudson, explored the Jerseys, found shelter in the Chesapeake, met starvation and death on the banks of the James, were buffeted by storms around the capes of Carolina, built towns by the estuaries of the great rivers, made roads through the pine-woods, and carried the dwellings of men to the very margin of the fever-haunted swamps of the South. It is all one story — the story of the human race seeking for liberty. COLONIAL HISTORY.— Continued. FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. CHAPTER XXX. CAUSES. riIHE time came when the American colonies began to act together. -i- From the beginning they had been kept apart by prejudice, suspi- cion and mutual jealousy. But the fathers were now dead, old antago- nisms had passed away, a new generation had arisen with kindlier feel- ings and more charitable sentiments. But it was not so much the growth of a more liberal public opinion as it was the sense of a common danger that at last led the colonists to make a united effort. The final struggle between France and England for colonial supremacy in America was at hand. Necessity compelled the English colonies to join in a com- mon cause against a common foe. This is the conflict known as the French and Indian War ; with this great event the separate histories of the colonies are lost in the more general history of the nation. The contest began in 1754, but the causes of the war had existed for many years. The first and greatest of these causes was the conflicting territorial claims of the two nations. England had colonized the sea-coast ; France had colonized the interior of the continent. From Maine to Florida the Atlantic shore was spread with English colonies; but there were no inland settlements. The great towns were on the ocean's edge. But the claims of England reached far beyond her colonies. Based on the discoveries of the Cabots, and not limited by actual occupation, those claims extended westward to the Pacific. In making grants of territory the English kings had always proceeded upon the theory that the voyage of Sebastian Cabot had given to England a lawful right to the country from one ocean to the other. Far different, however, were the claims of France ; the French had first colonized the valley of the St. Lawrence. Montreal, one (247) 248 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. of the earliest settlements, is more than five hundred miles from the sea. If the French colonies had been limited to the St. Lawrence and its trib- utaries, there would have been little danger of a conflict about territorial dominion. But in the latter half of the seventeenth century the French began to push their way westward and southward ; first, along the shores of the great lakes, then to the head- waters of the Wabash, the Illinois, the Wisconsin and the St. Croix, then down these streams to the Missis- sippi, and then to the Gulf of Mexico. The purpose of the French, as manifested in these movements, was no less than to divide the American continent and to take the larger portion, to possess the land for France and for Catholicism. For it was the work of the Jesuit missionaries. So important and marvelous are those early movements of the French in the valley of the Mississippi that a brief account of the leading explora- tions may here be given. The zealous Jesuits, purposing to extend the Catholic faith to all lands and nations, set out fearlessly from the older settlements of the St. Lawrence to explore the unknown West, and to convert the barbarous races. In 1641, Charles Raymbault, the first of the French missionary explorers, passed through the northern straits of Lake Huron and entered Lake Superior. In the thirty years that followed, the Jesuits continued their explorations with prodigious activity. Missions were established at various points north of the lakes, and in Michigan, Wisconsin and Illi- nois. In 1673, Joliet and Marquette passed from the head-waters of Fox River over the watershed to the upper tributaries of the Wisconsin, and thence down that river in a seven days' voyage to the Mississippi. For a full month the canoe of the daring adventurers carried them on toward the sea. They passed the mouth of Arkansas River, and reached the limit of their voyage at the thirty-third parallel of latitude. Turn- ing their boat up stream, they entered the mouth of the Illinois and returned by the site of Chicago into Lake Michigan, and thence to De- troit. But it was not yet known whether the great river discharged its flood of waters into the southern gulf or into the Pacific Ocean. It remained for Robert de la Salle, most illustrious of the French explorers, to solve the problem. This courageous and daring man was living at the outlet of Lake Ontario when the news of Marquette's voyage reached Canada. Fired with the passion of discovery, La Salle built and launched the first ship above Niagara Falls. He sailed west- ward through Lake Erie and Lake Huron, anchored in Green Bay, crossed Lake Michigan to the mouth of the St. Joseph, ascended that stream with a few companions, traversed the country to the upper Kanka- kee, and dropped down with the current into the Illinois. Here disas- CAUSES. 249 ters overtook the expedition, and La Salle was obliged to return on foot to Fort Frontenac, a distance of nearly a thousand miles. During his absence, Father Hennepin, a member of the company, traversed Illinois, and explored the Mississippi as high as the Falls of St. Anthony. In 1681, La Salle returned to his station on the Illinois, bringing men and supplies. A boat was built and launched, and early in the following year the heroic adventurer, with a few companions, descended the river to its junction with the Mississippi, and was borne by the Father of Waters to the Gulf of Mexico. It was one of the greatest exploits of modern times. The return voyage was successfully accom- plished. La Salle reached Quebec, and immediately set sail for France. The kingdom was greatly excited, and vast plans were made for coloniz- ing the valley of the Mississippi. In July of 1684 four ships, bearing two hundred and eighty emigrants, left France. Beaujeu commanded the fleet, and La Salle was leader of the colony. The plan was to enter the gulf, ascend the river, and plant settlements on its banks and tributa- ries. But Beaujeu was a bad and headstrong captain, and against La Salle's entreaties the squadron was carried out of its course, beyond the mouths of the Mississippi, and into the Bay of Matagorda. Here a landing was effected, but the store-ship, with all its precious freightage, was dashed to pieces in a storm. Nevertheless, a colony was established, and Texas became a part of Louisiana. La Salle made many unsuccessful efforts to rediscover the Missis- sippi. One misfortune after another followed fast, but the leader's reso- lute spirit remained tranquil through all calamities. At last, with sixteen companions, he set out to cross the continent to Canada. The march began in January of 1687, and continued for sixty days. The wanderers were already in the basin of the Colorado. Here, on the 20th of March, while La Salle was at some distance from the camp, two conspirators of the company, hiding in the prairie grass, took a deadly aim at the famous explorer, and shot him dead in his tracks. Only seven of the adventurers succeeded in reaching a French settlement on the Mis- sissippi. France was not slow to occupy the vast country revealed to her by the activity of the Jesuits. As early as 1688 military posts had been established at Frontenac, at Niagara, at the Straits of Mackinaw, and on the Illinois River. Before the middle of the eighteenth century, permanent settlements had been made by the French on the Maumee, at Detroit, at the mouth of the river St. Joseph, at Green Bay, at Yincennes on the Lower Wabash, on the Mississippi at the mouth of the Kaskas- kia, at Fort Rosalie, the present site of Natchez, and on the Gulf of 250 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Mexico at the head of the Bay of Biloxi. At this time the only outposts of the English colonies were a small fort at Oswego, on Lake Ontario, and a few scattered cabins in West Virginia. It only remained for France to occupy the valley of Ohio, in order to confine the provinces of Great Britain to the country east of the Alleghanies. To do this became the sole ambition of the French, and to prevent it the stubborn purpose of the English. A second cause of war existed in the long-standing national animos- ity of France and England. The two nations could hardly remain at peace. The French and the English were of different races, languages and laws. For more than two centuries France had been the leader of the Catholic, and England of the Protestant, powers of Europe. Religious prejudice intensified the natural jealousy of the two nations. Rivalry prevailed on land and sea. When, at the close of the seventeenth century, it was seen that the people of the English colonics outnumbered those of Canada by nearly twenty to one, France was filled with envy. When, by the enterprise of the Jesuit missionaries, the French began to dot the basin of the Mississippi with fortresses, and to monopolize the fur-trade of the Indians, England could not conceal her wrath. It was only a question of time when this unreasonable jealousy would bring on a colo- nial war. The third and immediate cause of hostilities was a conflict between the frontiersmen of the two nations in attempting to colonize the Ohio valley. The year 1749 witnessed the beginning of difficulties. For some time the strolling traders of Virginia and Pennsylvania had fre- quented the Indian towns on the upper tributaries of the Ohio. Now the traders of Canada began to visit the same villages, and to compete with the English in the purchase of furs. Virginia, under her ancient char- ters, claimed the whole country lying between her western borders and the southern shores of Lake Erie. The French fur-gatherers in this dis- trict were regarded as intruders not to be tolerated. In order to prevent further encroachment, a number of prominent Virginians joined them- selves together in a body called the Ohio Company, with a view to the immediate occupation of the disputed territory. Robert Dinwiddie, governor of the State, Lawrence and Augustus Washington, and Thomas Lee, president of the Virginia council, were the leading members of the corporation. In March of 1749 the company received from George II. an extensive land-grant covering a tract of five hundred thousand acres, to be located between the Kanawha and the Monongahela, or on the northern bank of the Ohio. The conditions of the grant were that the lands should be held free of rent for ten years, that within seven years a CAUSES. 251 colony of one hundred families should be established in the district, and that the territory should be immediately selected. But the French were equally active. Before the Ohio Company could send out a colony, the governor of Canada despatched Bienville with three hundred men to explore and occupy the valley of the Ohio. The expedition was successful. Plates of lead bearing French inscrip- tions were buried here and there on both banks of the river, the region was explored as far west as the towns of the Miamis, the English traders were expelled from the country, and a letter was written to Governor Hamil- ton of Pennsylvania admonishing him to encroach no farther on the territory of the king of France. This work occupied the summer and fall of 1749. In the mean time, the Ohio Company had equipped an exploring party, and placed it under command of Christopher Gist. In November of 1750 he and his company reached the Ohio opposite the mouth of Beaver Creek. Here the expedition crossed to the northern side, tarried at Logstown, passed down the river through the several Indian confederacies to the Great Miami, and thence to within fifteen miles of the falls at Louisville. Returning on foot through Kentucky, the explorers reached Virginia in the spring of 1751. This expedition was followed by still more vigorous movements on the part of the French. Descending from their headquarters at Presque Isle, now Erie, on the southern shore of the lake, they built a fortress called Le Boeuf, on French Creek, a tributary of the Alleghany. Pro- ceeding down the stream to its junction with the river, they erected a second fort, named Venango. From this point they advanced against a British post on the Miami, broke up the settlement, made prisoners of the garrison and carried them to Canada. The king of the Miami con- federacy, who had assisted the English in defending their outpost, was inhumanly murdered by the Indian allies of the French. About the same time the country south of the Ohio, between the Great Kanawha and the Monongahela, was explored by Gist and a party of armed sur- veyors, acting under orders of the company. In the summer of 1753 the English opened a road from Will's Creek through the mountains into the Ohio valley, and a colony of eleven families was planted on the Youghi- ogheny, just west of Laurel Hill. It was impossible that a conflict be- tween the advancing settlements of the two nations could be much longer averted. The Indian nations were greatly alarmed at the threatenincr pros- pect. Solemn councils were held among all the tribes, and the affairs of the race were gravely discussed by the copper-colored orators. From the first the Red men rather favored the English cause, but their allegiance 252 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. was wavering and uncertain. After the murder of the Miami chieftain their hostility to the French became more decided. When, in the spring of 1753, the news was borne to the council-fires on the Ohio that Du Quesne, the governor of Canada, had despatched a company of twelve hundred men to descend the Alleghany and colonize the country, the jealousy of the natives was kindled into open resistance. The tribes most concerned were the Delawares, the Shawnees, the Miamis and the Mingoes. The chieftain of this confederacy, named Tanacharisson, was called the Half-King from the fact that his subjects, except the Miamis, owed a kind of indefinite allegiance to the Iroquois or Six Nations. By the authority of a great council held at Logstown the Half-King was now sent to Erie to remonstrate with the French commandant against a further invasion of the Indian country. " The land is mine, and I will have it," replied the Frenchman, with derision and contempt. The insulted sachem returned to his nation to lift the hatchet against the enemies of his people. It was at this time that the chiefs of many tribes met Benja- min Franklin at the town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and formed a treaty of alliance with the English. Virginia was now thoroughly aroused. But before proceeding to actual hostilities, Governor Dinwiddie determined to try the effect of a final remonstrance with the French. A paper was accordingly drawn up setting forth the nature and extent of the English claim to the valley of the Ohio, and solemnly warning the authorities of France against further intrusion into that region. It was necessary that this paper should be carried to General St. Pierre, now stationed at Erie as commander of the French forces in the West. Who should be chosen to bear the important parchment to its far-off destination ? It was the most serious mission ever yet undertaken in America. A young surveyor, named George Washington, was called to perform the perilous duty. Him the governor summoned from his home on the Potomac and commissioned as ambassador, and to him was committed the message which was to be borne from Williamsburg, on York River, through the untrodden wilder- ness to Presque Isle, on the shore of Lake Erie. On the last day of October, 1753, Washington set out on his long journey. He was attended by four comrades besides an interpreter and Christopher Gist, the guide. The party arrived without accident at the mouth of Will's Creek, the last important tributary of the Potomac on the north. From this place Washington proceeded through the moun- tains to the head-waters of the Youghiogheny, and thence down that stream to the site of Pittsburg. The immense importance of this place, lying at the confluence of the two great tributaries of the Ohio, and com- CAUSES. 253 FIRST SCENE OF THE FRENCH AND INWAN WAR, 1750. manding them both, was at once perceived by the young ambassador, who noted the spot as the site of a fortress. Washington was now conducted across the Alleghany by the chief of the Delawares, and thence twenty miles down the river to Logstown. Here a council was held with the Indians, who renewed their pledges of friendship and fidelity to the Eng- lish. The emissaries of the French were already in the country trying in every conceivable way to entice the Red men into an alliance; but every proposal was rejected. In the beginning of December, Washington and his party moved northward to the French post at Venango. The officers of the fort took no pains to conceal their purpose ; the project of uniting Canada and Louisiana by w T ay of the Ohio valley was openly avowed. From Venango, Washington set out through the forest to Fort le Boeuf on French Creek, fifty miles above its junction with the Alleghany. This was the last stage in the journey. It was still fourteen miles to Presque Isle; but St. Pierre, the French commander, had come down from that place to superintend the fortifications at Le Boeuf. Here the conference was held. Washington was received with great courtesy, but the general of the French refused to enter into any discussion on the rights of nations. He was acting, he said, under military instructions given by the governor of New France. He had been commanded by his superior officer to eject every Englishman from the valley of the Ohio, and he meant to carry out his orders to the letter. A firm but courteous reply was returned to Governor Dinwiddie's message. France claimed the country of the Ohio in virtue of discovery, exploration and occupa- tion, and her claim should be made good by force of arms. Washington was kindly dismissed, but not until he had noted with keen anxiety the immense preparations which were making at Le Boeuf. There lay a fleet of fifty birch-bark canoes and a hundred and seventy boats of pine ready to descend the river to the site of Pittsburg. For the French, as well as the English, had noted the importance of that spot, and had determined to fortify it as soon as the ice should break in the rivers. It was now the dead of winter. Washington returned to Ve- 254 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. nango, and then, with Gist as his sole companion, left the river and struck into the woods. It was one of the most solitary marches ever made by man. There in the desolate wilderness was the future President of the United States. Clad in the robe of an Indian, with gun in hand and knapsack strapped to his shoulders ; struggling through interminable snows ; sleeping with frozen clothes on a bed of pine-brush ; breaking through the treacherous ice of rapid streams ; guided by day by a pocket compass, and at night by the North Star, seen at intervals through the leafless trees ; fired at by a prowling savage from his covert not fifteen steps away ; thrown from a raft into the rushing Alleghany ; escaping to an island and lodging there until the river was frozen over ; plunging again into the forest ; reaching Gist's settlement and then the Potomac, — the strong-limbed young ambassador came back without wound or scar to the capital of Virginia. For his flesh was not made to be torn with bullets or to be eaten by the wolves. The defiant despatch of St. Pierre was laid before Governor Dinwiddie, and the first public service of Wash- ington was accomplished. In the mean time, the Ohio Company had not been idle. About mid-winter a party of thirty-three men had been organized and placed under command of Trent, with orders to proceed at once to the source of the Ohio and erect a fort. The company must have been marching to its destination when Washington returned to Virginia. It was not far from the middle of March, 1754, when Trent's party reached the confluence of the Alleghany and the Monongahela, and built the first rude stockade on the site of Pittsburg.* After all the threats and boasting of the French, the English had beaten them and seized the key to the Ohio valley. But it was a short-lived triumph. As soon as the approaching spring broke the ice-gorges in the Alleghany, the French fleet of boats, already prepared at Venango, came sweeping down the river. It was in vain for Trent with his handful of men to offer resistance. Washington had now been commissioned as lieutenant-colonel, and was stationed at Alexandria to enlist recruits for the Ohio. A regiment of a hundred and fifty men had been enrolled ; but it was impossible to bring succor to Trent in time to save the post. On the 17th of April the little band of Englishmen at the head of the Ohio surrendered to the enemy and with- drew from the country. The French immediately occupied the place, felled the forest-trees, built barracks and laid the foundations of Fort DU Quesne. To recapture this place by force of arms Colonel Wash- ington set out from Will's Creek in the early part of May, 1754. Nego- * The accounts of this important event are very obscure and unsatisfactory. I CAMPAIGNS OF WASHINGTON AND BRADDOCK. 255 tiations had failed ; remonstrance had been tried in vain ; the possession of the disputed territory was now to be determined by the harsher methods of war. CHAPTER XXXI. CAMPAIGNS OF WASHINGTON AND BRADDOCK. WASHINGTON now found himself in command of a little army of Virginians. His commission was brief and easily understood : To construct a fort at the source of the Ohio ; to destroy whoever opposed him in the work ; to capture, kill or repel all who interrupted the progress of the English settlements in that country. In the month of April the young commander left Will's Creek, but the march westward was slow and toilsome. The men were obliged to drag their cannons. The roads were miserable ; rain fell in torrents on the tentless soldiers ; rivers were bridgeless ; provisions insufficient. All the while the faithful Half-King was urging Washington by repeated despatches to hasten to the rescue of the Red men. On the 26th of May the English regiment reached the Great Meadows. Here Washington was informed that a company of French was on the march to attack him. The enemy had been seen on the Youghiogheny only a few miles distant. A stockade was immediately erected, to which the commander gave the appropriate name of Fort Necessity. Ascertaining from the scouts of the Half-King that the French company in the neighborhood was only a scou ting-party, Washington, after conference with the Mingo chiefs, determined to strike the first blow. Two Indians followed the trail of the French, and discovered their hiding- place in a rocky ravine. The English advanced cautiously, intending to surprise and capture the whole force ; but the French Mere on the alert, saw the approaching soldiers and flew to arms. Washington with musket in hand was at the head of his company. " Fire !" was the clear command that rang through the forest, and the first volley of a great war went flying on its mission of death. The engagement was brief and decisive. Jumonville, the leader of the French, and ten of his party were killed, and twenty-one were made prisoners. A month of precious time was now lost in delays. While Washing- ton at Fort Necessity waited in vain for reinforcements, the French at 256 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Fort clu Quesne were collecting in great numbers. One small company of volunteers from South Carolina arrived at the English camp ; but the captain was an arrogant blockhead who, having a commission from the king, undertook to supersede Washington. The latter, with the Vir- ginians, spent the time of waiting in cutting a road for twenty miles across the rough country in the direction of Fort du Quesne. The In- dians were greatly discouraged at the dilatory conduct of the colonies, and the strong war-parties which had been expected to join Washington from the Muskingum and the Miami did not arrive. His whole effect- ive force scarcely numbered four hundred. Learning that the French general De Villiers was approaching with a large body of troops, besides Indian auxiliaries, Washington deemed it prudent to fall back to Fort Necessity. The Carolina captain, who had remained within the fortifica- tions, had done nothing to strengthen the works, although there was the greatest need. The little fort stood in an open space, midway between two emi- nences covered with trees. Scarcely were Washington's forces safe within the enclosure, when on the 3d of July the regiment of De Villiers, num- bering six hundred, besides the savage allies, came in sight, and surrounded the fort. The French stationed themselves on the eminence, about sixty yards distant from the stockade. From this position they could fire down upon the English with fatal effect. Many of the Indians climbed into the tree-tops, where they were concealed by the thick foliage. For nine hours, during a rain-storm, the assailants poured an incessant shower of balls upon the heroic band in the fort. Thirty of Washington's men were killed, but his tranquil presence encouraged the rest, and the fire of the French was returned with unabated vigor. At length De Villiers, fear- ing that his ammunition would be exhausted, proposed a parley. Wash- ington, seeing that it would be impossible to hold out much longer, ac- cepted the honorable terms of capitulation which were offered by the French general. On the 4th of July the English garrison, retaining all its accoutrements, marched out of the little fort, so bravely defended, and withdrew from the country. The whole valley of the Ohio remained in undisturbed possession of the French. Meanwhile, a congress of the American colonies had assembled at Albany. The objects had in view were twofold: first, to renew the treaty with the Iroquois confederacy ; and secondly, to stir up the colonial authorities to some sort of concerted action against the French. The Iroquois had wavered from the beginning of the war ; the recent reverses of the English had not strengthened the loyalty of the Eed men. As to the French aggressions, something must be done speedily, or the flag of CAMPAIGNS OF WASHINGTON AND BRADDOCK. 257 England could never be borne into the vast country west of the Alle- ghanies. The congress was not wanting in abilities of the highest order. No such venerable and dignified body of men had ever before assembled on the American continent. There were Hutchinson of Massachusetts, Hopkins of Rhode Island, Franklin of Pennsylvania, and others scarcely less distinguished. After a few days' consultation, the Iroquois, but half satisfied, renewed their treaty and departed. The chieftains were anxious and uneasy lest, through inactivity and want of union on the part of the colonies, the Six Nations should be left to contend alone with the power of France. The convention next took up the important question of uniting the colonies in a common government. On the 10th day of July, Benjamin Franklin laid before the commissioners the draft of a federal constitu- tion. His vast and comprehensive mind had realized the true condition and wants of the country ; the critical situation of the colonies demanded a central government. How else could revenues be raised, an army be organized and the common welfare be provided for? According to the proposed plan of union, Philadelphia, a central city, was to be the cap- ital. It was urged in behalf of this clause that the delegates of New Hampshire and Georgia, the colonies most remote, could reach the seat of government in fifteen or twenty days ! Slow-going old patriots ! The chief executive of the new confederation was to be a governor-general appointed and supported by the king. The legislative authority was vested in a congress composed of delegates to be chosen triennially by the general assemblies of the respective provinces. Each colony should be represented in proportion to its contributions to the general government, but no colony should have less than two or more than seven represent- atives in congress. With the governor was lodged the power of appoint- ing all military officers and of vetoing objectionable laws. The appoint- ment of civil officers, the raising of troops, the levying of taxes, the super- intendence of Indian affairs, the regulation of commerce, and all the general duties of government, belonged to congress. This body was to convene once a year, to choose its own officers, and to remain in session not longer than six weeks.* Such was the constitution drafted by Franklin and adopted, not without serious opposition, by the commissioners at Albany. It remained for the colonies to ratify or reject the new scheme of government. Copies of the proposed constitution were at once transmitted to the several colon- ial capitals, and were everywhere received with disfavor ; in Connecticut, rejected ; in Massachusetts, opposed; in New York, adopted with indiffer- ence. The chief objection urged against the instrument was the power of 17 *See Appendix C. 258 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. veto given to the governor-general. Nor did the new constitution fare better in the mother country. The English board of trade rejected it with disdain, saying that the froward Americans were trying to make a government of their own. Meanwhile, the French were strengthening their works at Crown Point and Fort Niagara, and rejoicing over their success in Western Pennsylvania. But the honor of England, no less than the welfare of her colonies, was at stake, and Parliament came to the rescue. It was determined to send a British army to America, to accept the service of such provincial troops as the colonies might furnish, and to protect the frontier against the aggressions of France. As yet there had been no declaration of war. The ministers of the two nations kept assuring each other of peaceable intentions ; but Louis XV. took care to send three thousand soldiers to Canada, and the British government ordered General Edward Braddock to proceed to America with two regiments of regulars. Early in 1755 the English armament arrived in the Chesapeake. On the 14th of April Braddock met the governors of all the colonies in a convention at Alex- andria. The condition of colonial affairs was fullv discussed. It was resolved, since peace existed, not to invade Canada, but to repel the French on the western and northern frontier. The plans of four cam- paigns were accordingly submitted and ratified. Lawrence, the governor of Nova Scotia, was to complete the conquest of that province according to the English notion of boundaries. Johnson of New York was to enroll a force of volunteers and Mohawks in British pay, and to capture the French post at Crown Point. Shirley of Massachusetts was to equip a regiment and drive the enemy from their fortress at Niagara, Last and most important of all, Braddock himself as commander-in-chief was to lead the main body of regulars against Fort du Quesne, retake that post and expel the French from the Ohio valley. In the latter part of April the British general set out on his march from Alexandria to Will's Creek. The name of the military post at the mouth of this stream was now changed to Fort Cumberland. Braddock's army numbered fully two thousand men. They were nearly all veterans who had seen service in the wars of Europe. A few provincial troops had joined the expedition ; two companies of volunteers, led by Colonel Horatio Gates of New York, were among the number. Washington met the army at Fort Cumberland, and became an aid-de-camp of Braddock. The colonies would have assisted with large levies of recruits, had it not been for the nature of the general's authority. It was prescribed in his commission that the provincial captains and colonels should have no rank when serving in connection with the British army. So odious was this CAMPAIGNS OF WASHINGTON AND BRADDOCK. 259 regulation that Washington had set the example of withdrawing from the service ; patriotic motives and the wish of Virginia now induced him to return and to accept a post of responsibility. On the last day of May the march began from Fort Cumberland. A select force of five hundred men was thrown forward to open the roads in the direction of Fort du Quesne. Sir Peter Halket led the advance, and Braddock followed with the main body. The army, marching in a slender column, was extended for four miles along the narrow and broken road It was in vain that Washington pointed out the danger of am- buscades and suggested the employment of scouting-parties. Braddock was self-willed, arrogant, proud ; thoroughly skilled in the tactics of European warfare, he could not bear to be advised by an inferior. The sagacious Franklin had admonished him to move with caution ; buthe only replied that it was impossible for savages to make any impression on His Majesty's regulars. Now, when Washington ventured to repeat the advice, Braddock flew into a passion, strode up and down in his tent, and said that it was high times when Colonel Buckskin could teach a British general how to fight. On the 19th of June, Braddock put himself at the head of twelve hundred chosen troops and pressed forward more rapidly. Colonel Dun- bar was left behind with the remainder of the army. On the 8th of July the van reached the junction of the Youghiogheny and the Monongahela. It was only twelve miles farther to Fort du Quesne, and the French gave up the place as lost. On the next morning the English army advanced along the Monongahela, and at noon crossed to the northern bank just beyond the confluence of Turtle Creek. Still there was no sign of an enemy. Colonel Thomas Gage was leading forward a detachment of three hundred and fifty men. The road was but twelve feet wide; the country uneven and woody There was a dense undergrowth on cither hand; rocks and ravines; a hill on the right and a dry hollow on the left. A few guides were in the advance, and some feeble flanking-parties ; in the rear came the general with the main division of the army, the artillery and the baggage. All at once a quick and heavy fire was heard in the front. France was not going to give up Fort du Quesne without a strug- gle. For two months the place had been receiving reinforcements ; still the garrison was by no means able to cope with Braddock's army. Even the Indians realized the disparity of the contest. It was with great diffi- culty that, on the night before the battle, the commandant of the fort induced the savages to join in the enterprise of ambuscading the British. At last a force of two hundred and thirty French, led by Beaujeu and 260 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Durnas, and a body of six hundred and thirty-seven Indians set out from Du Quesne with a view to harass and annoy the English rather than to face them in a serious battle. It was the purpose of the French, who were entirely familiar with the ground, to lay an ambuscade at a favor- able point seven miles distant from the fort. They were just reaching the selected spot and settling into ambush when the flanking-parties of the English came in sight. The French fired ; the Indians yelled and slunk into their hiding-places, and the battle began. If Gage had at once thrown forward his forces to the support of the guards, the day could have been saved ; but he was confused and un- decided. The flanking parties were driven in, leaving their six-pounders in the hands of the enemy. Gage's men wavered, and were mixed in the thickset underwood with a regiment SCEKE OF BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT, 1755. which Braddock had pushed forward to the rescue. The confusion became greater, and there were symptoms of a panic. The men fired constantly, but could see no enemy. Every volley from the hidden foe flew with deadly certainty into the crowded ranks of the English. The rash but brave general rushed to the front and rallied his men with the energy of despair; but it was all in vain. The men stood huddled together like sheep, or fled in terror to the rear. The forest was strewn with the dead ; the savages, emboldened by their unex- pected success, crept farther and farther along the flanks; and the battle became a rout. Braddock had five horses shot under him ; his secretary was killed ; both his English aids were disabled ; only Washington re- mained to distribute orders. Out of eighty-two officers twenty-six were killed and thirty-seven wounded. Of the privates seven hundred and fourteen were dead or bleeding with wounds. At last the general re- ceived a ball in his right side and sank fainting to the ground. "What shall we do now, colonel ?" said he to Washington, who came to his assist- ance. " Retreat, sir — retreat by all means," replied the young hero, upon whom everything now depended. His own bosom had been for more than two hours a special target for the savages. Two horses had fallen under him, and four times his coat had been torn with balls. A Shawnee chief singled him out and bade his warriors do the same ; but their volleys RUIN OF ACADIA. 261 went by harmless. The retreat began at once, and the thirty Virginians, who, with Washington, were all that remained alive, covered the flight of the ruined army. The artillery, provisions, baggage and private papers of the general were left on the field. The losses of the French and Indians were slight, amounting to three officers and thirty men killed, and as many others wounded. There was no attempt made at pursuit. The savages fairly reveled in the spoils of the battle-field. They had never known so rich a harvest of scalps and booty. The tawny chiefs returned to Fort du Quesne clad in the laced coats, military boots and cockades of the British officers. The dying Braddock was borne in the train of the fugitives. Once he roused himself to say, " Who would have thought it?" and again, "We shall better know how to deal with them another time." On the evening of the fourth day he died, and was buried by the roadside a mile west of Fort Necessity. When the fugitives reached Dunbar's camp, the confusion was greater than ever. Dunbar was a man of feeble capacity and no courage ; pretending to have the orders of the dying general, he proceeded to de- stroy the remaining artillery, the heavy baggage, and all the public stores, to the value of a hundred thousand pounds. Then followed a precipitate retreat to Fort Cumberland, and then an abandonment of that place for the safer precincts of Philadelphia. It was only the beginning of August, yet Dunbar pleaded the necessity of finding winter quarters for his forces. The great expedition of Braddock had ended in such a disaster as spread consternation and gloom over all the colonies. CHAPTER XXXII. BUIN OF ACADIA. BY the treaty of Utrecht, made in 1713, the province of Acadia, or Nova Scotia, was ceded by France to England. During the following fifty years the colony remained under the dominion of Great Britain, and was ruled by English officers. But the great majority of the people were French, and the English government amounted only to a military occu- pation of the peninsula. The British colors, floating over Louisburg and Annapolis, and the presence of British garrisons here and there, were the only tokens that this, the oldest French colony in America, had passed under the control of foreigners. 262 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. At the time of the cession the population amounted to about three thousand ; by the outbreak of the French and Indian War the number had increased to more than sixteen thousand. Lawrence, the deputy- governor of the province, pretended to fear an insurrection. When Brad- dock and the colonial governors convened at Alexandria, it was urged that something must be done to overawe the French and strengthen the English authority in Acadia. The enterprise of reducing the French peasants to complete humiliation was entrusted to Lawrence, who was to be assisted by a British fleet under Colonel Monckton. On the 20th of May, 1755, the squadron, with three thousand troops, sailed from Boston for the Bay of Fundy. The French had but two fortified posts in the province ; both of these were on the isthmus which divides Nova Scotia from New Bruns- wick. The first and most important fortress, named Beau-Sejour, was sit- uated near the mouth of Messagonche Creek, at the head of Chignecto Bay. The other fort, a mere stockade called Gaspereau, was on the north side of the isthmus, at Bay Verte. De Ver- gor, the French commandant, had no intimation of approaching danger till the English fleet sailed fearlessly into the bay and anchored before the walls of Beau-Sejour. There was no preparation for defence. On the 3d '44 of June the English forces landed, and on the next day forced their way across the Messagouche. A vigorous siege of four days followed. Fear and confusion reigned among the gar- rison ; no successful resistance could be offered. On the 16 th of the month Beau-Sejour capitulated, received an English garrison and took the name of Fort Cumberland. The feeble post at Gaspereau was taken a few days afterward, and named Fort Monckton. Captain Rous was despatched with four vessels to capture the fort at the mouth of the St. John's ; but before the fleet could reach its destination, the French reduced the town to ashes and escaped into the interior. In a campaign of less than a month, and with a loss of only twenty men, the English had made themselves masters of the whole country east of the St. Croix. The war in Acadia was at an end ; but what should be done with the people? The French inhabitants still outnumbered the English nearly three to one. Governor Lawrence and Admiral Boscawen, in con- THE ACADIAN ISTHMUS, 1755. RUIN OF ACADIA. 263 ference with the chief justice of the province, settled upon the atrocious measure of driving the people into banishment. The first movement was to demand an oath of allegiance which was so framed that the French, as honest Catholics, could not take it. The priests advised the peasants to declare their loyalty, but refuse the oath, which was meant to ensnare their souls. The next step on the part of the English was to accuse the French of treason, and to demand the surrender of all their firearms and boats. To this measure the broken-hearted people also submitted. They even offered to take the oath, but Lawrence declared that, having once refused, they must now take the consequences. The British vessels were made ready, and the work of forcible embarkation began. The country about the isthmus was covered with peaceful hamlets. THE EXILE OF THE ACADIANS.* These were now laid waste, and the people driven into the larger towns on the coast. Others were induced by artifice and treachery to put them- selves into the power of the English. Wherever a sufficient number of the French could be gotten together they were driven on shipboard. They were allowed to take their Maves and children and as much property as would not be inconvenient on the vessels. The estates of the province were confiscated, and what could not be appropriated Avas given to the * Longfellow's Evangeline is founded on this incident. 264 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. flames. The wails of thousands of bleeding hearts were wafted to heaven with the smoke of burning homes. At the village of Grand Pre four hundred and eighteen unarmed men were called together and shut up in a church. Then came the wives and children, the old men and the mothers, the sick and the infirm, to share the common fate. The whole company numbered more than nineteen hundred souls. The poor crea- tures were driven down to the shore, forced into the boats at the point of the bayonet, and carried to the vessels in the bay. As the moaning fugitives cast a last look at their pleasant town, a column of black smoke floating seaward told the story of desolation. More than three thousand of the hapless Acadians were carried away by the British squadron and scattered, helpless, half starved and dying, among the English colonies. The history of civilized nations furnishes no parallel to this wanton and wicked destruction of an inoffensive colony. T CHAPTER XXXIII. EXPEDITIONS OF SHIRLEY AND JOHNSON. HE third campaign planned by Braddock at Alexandria was to be conducted by Governor Shirley of Massachusetts. The expedition was to proceed from Albany to Oswego, and thence by water to the mouth of the Niagara. It was known that Fort Niagara was an insig- nificant post, depending for its defence upon a small ditch, a rotten palisade and a feeble garrison. To capture this place, to obtain command of the river, and to cut off the communications of the French by way of the lakes, were the objects of the campaign. " Fort du Quesne can hardly detain me more than three or four days," said Braddock to Shirley, " and then I will meet you at Niagara." In the early part of August, Shirley set out at the head of nearly two thousand men. It was the last of the month before he reached Oswego. Here the provincial forces had been ordered to assemble. Four weeks were spent in preparing boats for embarkation. When everything was in readiness, a storm arose ; and when the storm abated, the winds blew in the wrong direction. Then came another tempest and another delay; then sickness prevailed in the camp. With the beginning of October EXPEDITIONS OF SHIRLEY AND JOHNSON. 205 Shirley declared the lake to be dangerous for navigation. The Indians deserted the standard of a leader whose skill in war consisted in framing excuses. The fact was that the general, while on the march to Oswego, had learned of the destruction of Braddock's army, and feared that a sim- ilar fate might overtake his own. On the 24th of October the greater part of the provincial forces, led by Shirley, marched homeward. Only one result of any importance followed from the campaign — the fort at Oswego was well rebuilt and garrisoned with seven hundred men under Mercer. Far more important was the expedition entrusted to General Wil- liam Johnson. The object had in view was to capture the enemy's fort- ress at Crown Point, and to drive the French from the shores of Lake Champlain. Johnson's army numbered three thousand four hundred men, including a body of friendly Mohawks. The active work of the campaign began early in August, when General Phineas Lyman, at the head of the New England troops, proceeded to the Hudson above Albany, and at a point just below where the river bends ab- ruptly to the west built Fort Edward. Thither in the last days of summer came the commanding general with the main division. The watershed between the Hudson and Lake George is only twelve miles wide. Johnson's army marched across to the head of the lake and laid out a commodious camp. A week was spent in bringing forward the artillery and stores. The soldiers were busy preparing boats for embarkation, and the important matter of fortifying the camp was wholly neglected. In the mean time, Dieskau, the daring command- ant at Crown Point, determined to anticipate the movements of the English. With a force of fourteen hundred French, Canadians and Indians he sailed up Lake Champlain to South Bay. From this point he marched to the upper springs of Wood Creek, intending to strike to the south, pass the English army and capture Fort Edward before the alarm could be given. But the news was carried to General Johnson ; and a force of a thousand men under command of Colonel Williams, accompanied by Hendrick, the gray-haired chieftain of the Mohawks, with two hundred warriors, was sent to the relief of the endangered fort. On the previous night Dieskau's guides had led him out of his course. On the morning of the 8th of September the French general found himself and his army about four miles north of Fort Edward, on the main road from the Hudson to Lake VICINITY OF LAKE GEOIIGE, 17.J.J. 266 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. George. Just at this time Colonel Williams's regiment and the Mohawks came in sight, marching toward the fort. Dieskau quickly formed an ambush, and the English were entrapped ; but the Indian allies of the French showed themselves to their countrymen, and would not fire. The Canadians and the French poured in a deadly volley ; both Williams and Hendrick fell dead, and the English were thrown into confusion. But Colonel Whiting rallied the troops, returned the enemy's fire, and re- treated toward the lake. St. Pierre, one of the French generals, was killed. The noise of battle was heard in Johnson's camp, and preparations were made for a general engagement. There were no entrenchments, but trees were hastily felled for breastworks, and the cannons were brought into position. It was Dieskau's plan to rush into the English camp along with the fugitives whom he was driving before him ; but the In- dians, afraid of Johnson's guns, would not join in the assault; the Red men retired to a hill at a safe distance. The Canadians were disheartened ; and the handful of French regulars made the onset almost unsupported. It was the fiercest battle which had yet been fought on American soil. For five hours the conflict was incessant. In the beginning of the engage- ment Johnson received a slight wound and left the field ; but the troops of New England fought on without a commander. Nearly all of Dieskau's regulars were killed. At last the English troops leaped over the fallen trees, charged across the field, and completed the rout. Three times Dieskau was wounded, but he would not retire. His aids came to bear him off; one was shot dead, and he forbade the others. He ordered his servants to bring him his military dress, and then seated himself on the stump of a tree. A renegade Frenchman belonging to the English army rushed up to make him a prisoner. The wounded general felt for his watch to tender it in token of surrender. The Frenchman, thinking that Dieskau was searching for a pistol, fired, and the brave commander fell, mortally wounded. The victory, though complete, was dearly purchased. Two hun- dred and sixteen of the English were killed, and many others wounded. General Johnson, who had done but little, was greatly praised ; Parliament made him a baronet for gaining a victory which the provincials gained tor him. Made wiser by the battle, he now constructed on the site of his camp a substantial fort, and named it William Henry. The defences of Fort Edward were strengthened with an additional garrison, and the remainder of the troops returned to their homes. Meanwhile, the French had reinforced Crown Point, and had seized and fortified Ticonderoga. Such was the condition of affairs at the close of 1755. TWO YEARS OF DISASTER. 267 CHAPTER XXXIV. TWO YEARS OF DISASTER. AFTER the death of Braddock the chief command of the English forces in America was given to Governor Shirley. But no regular military organization had been effected ; and the war was carried on in a desultory manner. Braddock had ruined one army ; Shirley had scat- tered another. On Lake George, Johnson had achieved a marked suc- cess. In the beginning of 1756, Washington at the head of the Vir- ginian provincials repelled the French and Indians in the valley of the Shenandoah. At the same time the Pennsylvania volunteers, choosing Franklin for their colonel, marched to the banks of the Lehigh, built a fort, and made a successful campaign. In the preceding December, Shirley met the colonial governors at New York and planned the move- ments for the following year. One expedition, proceeding by way of the Kennebec, was to threaten Quebec. Forts Frontenac, Toronto and Niagara were to be taken. Du Quesne, Detroit and Mackinaw, deprived of their communications, must of course surrender. In the mean time, after much debate in Parliament, it was decided to consolidate and put under one authority all the military forces in America. The earl of Loudoun received the appointment of commander- in-chief. General Abercrombie was second in rank ; and forty British and German officers were commissioned to organize and discipline the colonial army. In the last of April, 1756, Abercrombie, with two bat- talions of regulars, sailed for New York. Lord Loudoun was to follow with a fleet of transports, bearing the artillery, tents, ammunition and equipage of the expedition. The commander waited a month for his vessels, and then sailed without them. On the 15th of June a man-of- war was despatched to America with a hundred thousand pounds to reim- burse the colonies for the expenses of the previous campaigns. At the same time the corps of British officers arrived at New York. Meanwhile, on the 1 7th of May, Great Britain, after nearly two years of actual hos- tilitics, made an open declaration of war, which was followed by a similar declaration on the part of France. On the 25th of June, Abercrombie reached Albany. He began his great campaign by surveying the town, digging a ditch and quartering 268 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. his soldiers with the citizens. In July, Lord Loudoun arrived and assumed the command of the colonial army. The French, meanwhile, profiting by these delays, organized a force of more than five thousand men, crossed Lake Ontario and laid siege to Oswego. The marquis of Montcalm, who had succeeded Dieskau as commander-in-chief, led the expedition. At the mouth of Oswego River there were two forts ; the old block-house on the west and the new Fort Ontario on the east. The latter was first attacked. Thirty pieces of cannon were brought to bear on the fortress. After a brave defence of one day, the little garrison abandoned the works and escaped to the old fort across the river. This place was also invested by the French. For two days the English, num- bering only fourteen hundred, held out against the besiegers, and then sur- rendered. A vast amount of ammunition, small arms, accoutrements and provisions fell to the captors. Six vessels of war, three hundred boats, a hundred and twenty cannon and three chests of money were the further fruits of a victory by which France gained the only important outpost of England on the lakes. To please his Indian allies, Montcalm ordered Oswego to be razed to the ground. During this summer the Delawares, false to their treaty, rose in Western Pennsylvania and almost ruined the country. More than a thousand people were killed or carried into captivity. In August, Colonel John Armstrong, at the head of three hundred volunteers, crossed the Alleghanies, and after a twenty days' inarch reached the Indian town of Kit- taning, forty-five miles north-east from Pittsburg. Lying in concealment until daydawn on the morning of September 8th, the English rose against the savages, and after a desperate battle destroyed them almost to a man. The village was burned and the spirit of the barbarians completely broken. The Americans lost sixteen men. Colonel Armstrong and Captain Hugh Mercer, afterward distinguished in the Revolution, were both severely wounded. Lord Loudoun continued at Albany. His forces were amply suffi- cient to capture every stronghold of Canada in the space of six weeks. Instead of marching boldly to the north, he whiled away the summer and fall, talked about an attack from the French, digged ditches, slandered the provincial officers and waited for winter. When the frosts came, he made haste to distribute the colonial troops and to quarter the regulars on the principal towns. The vigilant French, learning what sort of a general they had to cope with, crowded Lake Cham plain with boats, strengthened Crown Point and completed a fort at Ticonderoga. With the exception of Armstrong's expedition against the Indians, the year 1756 closed with- out a single substantial success on the part of the English. TWO YEARS OF DISASTER. 269 And the year 1757 was equally disastrous. The campaign which was planned by Loudoun was limited to the conquest of Louisburg. Ever since the treaty of Utrecht the French had retained Cape Breton ; and the fortress at Louisburg had been made one of the strongest on the con- tinent. On the 20th of June, Lord Loudoun sailed from New York with an army of six thousand regulars. By the first of July he was at Hal- ifax, where he was joined by Admiral Holbourn with a powerful fleet of sixteen men-of-war. There were on board five thousand additional troops fresh from the armies of England. Never was such a use made of a splendid armament, Loudoun landed before Halifax, cleared off a mus- tering plain, and set his officers to drilling regiments already skilled in every manoeuvre of war. To heighten the absurdity, the fields about the city were planted with onions. For it was said that the men might take the scurvy ! By and by the news came that the French vessels in the harbor of Louisburg outnumbered by one the ships of the English squad- ron. To attack a force that seemed superior to his own was not a part of Loudoun's tactics. Ordering the fleet to go cruising around Cape Breton, he immediately embarked with his army, and sailed for New York. Arriving at this place, he proposed to his officers to fortify Long Island in ordeAo defend the continent against an enemy whom he outnumbered four to one. Meanwhile, the daring Montcalm had made a brilliant campaign in the country of Lake George. With a force of six thousand French and Canadians and seventeen hundred Indians he proceeded up the Sorel, entered Lake Champlain, and reached Ticonderoga. The object of the expedition was to capture and destroy Fort William Henry. The French and the Iroquois, who had now abandoned the cause of the colonies, were fired with enthusiasm. Dragging their artillery and boats across the portage to Lake George, they re-embarked, and on the 3d of August laid siege to the English fort. The place was defended by only five hundred men under the brave Colonel Monro ; but there were seventeen hundred additional troops within supporting distance in the adjacent trenches. All this while General Webb was at Fort Edward, but fourteen miles distant, with an army of more than four thousand British regulars. Instead of advancing to the relief of Fort William Henry, Webb held a council to determine if it were not better to retire to Albany, and sent a message to Colonel Monro advising capitulation. For six days the French pressed the siege with vigor. The ammu- nition of the garrison was nearly exhausted ; half of the guns were burst ; nothing remained but to surrender. Honorable terms were granted. The English, retaining their private effects, were released on a pledge not to 270 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. re-enter the service for eighteen months. ' A safe escort was promised to Fort Edward. On the 9th of August the French took possession of the fortress. Unfortunately, the Indians procured a quantity of spirits from the English camp. Maddened with intoxication, and in spite of the utmost exertions of Montcalm and his officers, the savages fell upon the prisoners and began a massacre. Thirty of the English were tomahawked and many others dragged away into captivity. The retirement of the garrison to Fort Edward became a panic and a rout. Such had been the successes of France during the year that the English had not a single hamlet or fortress remaining in the whole basin of the St. Lawrence. Every cabin where English was spoken had been swept out of the Ohio valley. At the close of the year 1757, France pos- sessed twenty times as much American territory as England ; and five times as much as England and Spain together. Such had been the im- becility of the English management in America that the flag of Great Britain was brought into disgrace. CHAPTER XXXV. TWO YEARS OF SUCCESSES. aREAT was the discouragement in England. The duke of Newcastle and his associates in the government were obliged to resign. A new ministry was formed, at the head of which was placed that remarkable man William Pitt, called the Great Commoner. The imbecile Lord Loudoun was deposed from the American army. General Abercrombie was appointed to succeed him ; but the main reliance for success was placed, not so much on the commander-in-chief, as on an efficient corps of subordinate officers whom the wisdom of Pitt now directed to America. Admiral Boscawen was put in command of the fleet, consisting of twenty- two ships of the line and fifteen frigates. The able general Amherst was to lead a division. Young Lord Howe, brave and amiable, was next in rank to Abercrombie. The gallant James Wolfe led a brigade. General Forbes held an important command ; and Colonel Richard Montgomery was at the head of a regiment. Three campaigns were planned for 1758. Amherst, acting in con- TWO YEARS OF SUCCESSES. 271 junction with the fleet, was to capture Louisburg. Lord Howe, under the direction of the commander-in-chief, was to reduce Crown Point and Ticonderoga. The recovery of the Ohio valley was entrusted to General Forbes. On the 28th of May, Amherst, at the head of ten thousand effective men, reached Halifax. In six days more the fleet was anchored in Gabarus Bay. Wolfe put his division into boats, rowed through the surf under fire of the French batteries, and gained the shore without serions loss. The French dismantled their battery and retreated. Wolfe next gained possession of the north-east harbor and planted heavy guns on the cape near the lighthouse. From this position the island battery of the French was soon silenced. Louisburg was fairly invested, and the siege was pressed with great vigor. On the 21st of July three French vessels were burned in the harbor. Two days later, the Prudent, a seventy-four gun ship, was fired and destroyed by the English boats. The town was already a heap of ruins, and the vails of the fortress began to crumble. For a whole week the French soldiers had no place where they could rest in safety ; of their fifty-two cannon only twelve remained in position. Further resistance was hopeless. On the 28th of July Louisburg capitulated. Cape Breton and Prince Edward's Island were sur- rendered to Great Britain. The garrison, together with the marines, in all nearly six thousand men, became prisoners of war and were sent to England. Amherst after his great success abandoned Louisburg, and the fleet took station at Halifax. Meanwhile, General Abercrombie had not been idle. On the 5th of July an army of fifteen thousand men, led by Lord Howe, reached Lake George and embarked for Ticonderoga. With heavy guns and abundant stores the expedition proceeded to the northern extremity of the lake and landed on the western shore. The country about the French fortress was very unfavorable for military operations. The English proceeded with great difficulty, leaving their artillery behind. Lord Howe led the ad- vance in person. On the morning of the 6th, when the English were nearing the fort, they fell in with the picket line of the French, number- ing no more than three hundred. A severe skirmish ensued ; the French were overwhelmed, but not until they had inflicted on the English a terrible loss in the death of Lord Howe. The soldiers were stricken with grief, and began a retreat to the landing. Abercrombie was in the rear, but the soul of the expedition had departed. On the morning of the 8th the English engineer reported falsely that the fortifications of Ticonderoga were flimsy and trifling. Again the army was put in motion ; and when just beyond the reach of the French guns, the divisions were arranged to carry the place by assault. For more 272 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. than four hours column after column dashed with great bravery against the breastworks of the enemy, which were found to be strong and well constructed. The defence was made by nearly four thousand French under Montcalm, who, with coat off in the hot July afternoon, was every- where present encouraging his men. At six o'clock in the evening the English were finally repulsed. The carnage was dreadful, the loss on the side of the assailants amounting in killed and wounded to nineteen hun- dred and sixteen. In no battle of the Revolution did the British have so large a force engaged or meet so terrible a loss. The English still outnumbered the French three to one ; and they might have easily returned with their artillery and captured the fort. But Abercrombie was not the man to do it. He returned to Fort George, at the head of the lake, and contented himself with sending a force of three thousand men under Colonel Bradstreet against Fort Frontenac. This fortress was situated on the present site of Kingston, at the outlet of Lake Ontario. Marching through the country of the Indians who were still friendly to the English, Bradstreet reached Oswego, embarked his forces, crossed the lake and landed within a mile of Frontenac. The place was feebly defended, and a siege of two days compelled a capitulation. The fortress, so important to the French, was demolished. Forty-six cannon, nine vessels of war and a vast quantity of stores were the fruits of the victory. Except in the waste of life, Bradstreet's success more than coun- terbalanced the failure of the English at Ticondcroga. The French were everywhere weakened and despairing. In Canada the crops had failed, and there was almost a famine. "Peace, peace, no matter with what boundaries," was the message which the brave Montcalm sent to the French ministry. Late in the summer, Forbes, at the head of nine thousand men, ad- vanced from Philadelphia against Fort du Quesne. Washington led the Virginia provincials, and Armstrong, who had so distinguished himself at Kittaning, the Pennsylvanians. The main body moved slowly, clear- ing a broad road and bridging the streams. Washington and the pro- vincials were impatient. Major Grant, more rash than wise, pressed on to within a few miles of Du Quesne. Attempting to lead the French and Indians into an ambuscade, he was himself ambuscaded, and lost a third of his forces. Slowly the main division approached the fort, which was defended by no more than five hundred men. On the 24th of No- vember, Washington with the advance was within ten miles of Du Quesne. During that night the garrison took the alarm, burned the fort- ress and floated down the Ohio. On the 25th the victorious army marched over the ruined bastions, raised the English flag, and named TWO YEARS OF SUCCESSES. 278 the place Pittsburg. The name of the great British minister was justly written over " the gateway of the West." General Amherst was now promoted to the chief command of the American forces. Parliament cheerfully voted twelve million pounds sterling to carry on the war. The colonies exerted themselves to the utmost, By the beginning of summer, 1759, the British and colonial forces numbered nearly fifty thousand men. The whole population of Canada was only eighty-two thousand ; and the entire French army scarcely exceeded seven thousand. Nothing less than the conquest of all Canada would satisfy Pitt's ambition. Three campaigns were planned for the year. General Prideaux was to conduct an expedition against Niagara, capture the fortress and descend the lake to Montreal. Amherst was to lead the main division against Ticonderoga and Crown Point. General Wolfe was to proceed up the St. Lawrence and finish the work by capturing Quebec. By way of Schenectady and Oswego, Prideaux led his forces to Niagara. On the 10th of July the place was invested. The French general D'Aubry collected from Detroit, Erie, Le Boeuf and Venango a body of twelve hundred men, and marched to the relief of the fort. On the 15th, by the accidental bursting of a mortar, General Prideaux was killed. Sir William Johnson, succeeding to the command, disposed his forces so as to intercept the approaching French. On the morning of the 24th, D'Aubry's army came in sight. A bloody engagement ensued, in which the French were completely routed, leaving their unnumbered dead scattered for miles through the forest, On the next day Niagara capitulated and received an English garrison. The French forces in the town, to the number of six hundred, became prisoners of war. Commun- ication between Canada and Louisiana was for ever broken. At the same time Amherst was conquering on Lake Champlain. With an army of more than eleven thousand men he proceeded against Ticonderoga. On the 22d of July the English forces were disembarked near the landing-place of Abercrombie. The French did not dare to stand against them. There was a slight skirmish, and then the trenches were deserted. Fort Carillon was given up. On the 26th the French garrison, having partly destroyed the fortifications, abandoned Ticon- deroga and retreated to Crown Point. Five days afterward they de- serted this place also, and entrenched themselves on Isle-aux-Noix, in the river Sorel. The whole country of Lake Champlain had been recovered without a battle. It remained for General Wolfe to achieve the final victory. As soon as a tardy spring had cleared the St. Lawrence of ice, he began the 274 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. VICINITY OF QUEBEC, 1759. ascent of the river. His force consisted of nearly eight thousand men, assisted by a fleet of forty-four vessels under command of Admiral Saun- ders. On the 27th of June the armament arrived without accident at the Isle of Orleans, four miles below Quebec. The English camp was pitched at the upper end of the island. Wolfe's vessels gave him immediate command of the river, and the southern bank was unde- fended. On the night of the 29th, General Monckton was sent with four battalions to seize Point Levi. The movement was successful, and an English battery was planted opposite the city. From this position the Lower Town was soon reduced to ruins, and the Upper Town much injured ; but the fortress seemed im- pregnable. The French, knowing that it would be impossible to storm the city from the river side, had drawn their line of entrenchment from the northern bank of the St. Lawrence, reaching for five miles from the Montmorenci to the St. Charles. Here Montcalm with ten or twelve thousand French and Canadians awaited the movements of his antagonist. "Wolfe was restless and anxious for battle. On the 9th of July he crossed the north channel, and encamped with his army on the east bank of the Montmorenci. It was determined in a council of war to hazard an engagement. The Montmorenci was fordable when the tide ran out. The attack was planned for July 31st, at the hour of low water. Generals Townshend and Murray were ordered to ford the stream with their two brigades, and at the same time Monckton's regiments of regulars were to cross the St. Lawrence from Point Levi and aid in the assault. The signal was given, and the grenadiers of Murray and Townshend dashed across the Montmorenci ; but the boats of Monckton ran aground, and there was considerable delay. The impatient" grenadiers, without waiting for orders or support, rushed forward against the French entrenchments, and were driven back with great loss. Before the regulars could be formed in line the battle was decided. Night was approaching ; the tide rising ; a storm portended ; and Wolfe, after losing nearly five hundred men, with- drew to his camp. Disappointment, exposure and fatigue threw the English general into a violent fever, and for many days he was confined to his tent. A TWO YEARS OF SUCCESSES. 275 council of officers was called, and the indomitable leader proposed a second assault on the French lines. But the proposition was overruled, and it was decided to ascend the St. Lawrence, and if possible gain pos- session of the Plains of Abraham, in the rear of the city. The camp on the Mont- morenci was accord- ingly broken up, and on the 6th of Septem- ber the troops and ar- tillery were conveyed to Point Levi. Keep- ing the French excited with appearances of activity, Wolfe again transferred his army to a point several miles up the river. He then busied himself with a careful examination of the northern bank, in the hope of finding some path among the precipitous cliffs by which to gain the plains. On the 11 th he discovered the place called Wolfe's Cove, and decided that here it was possible to make the ascent. Montcalm, deceived by the movements of the fleet, was still in the trenches below the city. On the night of the 12th of September everything was in readi- ness. The English silently entered their transports and dropped down the river to the cove. With great difficulty the soldiers clambered up the almost perpendicular precipice; the feeble Canadian guard on the summit was dispersed ; and in the gray dawn of morning Wolfe mar- shaled his army for battle. Montcalm was in amazement when he heard the news. " They are now on the weak side of this unfortunate town," said he ; " and we must crush them before mid-day." With great haste the French were brought from the trenches and thrown between Quebec and the advancing English. The battle began with an hour's cannonade ; then Montcalm attempted to turn the English flank, but was beaten back. The Canadians and Indians were routed. Then came the weakened bat- GENERAL JAMES WOLFE. 276 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. talions of the French ; but they were poorly disciplined ; the ground was uneven, and Montcalm's lines advanced brokenly. The English reserved their fire until the advancing columns were within forty yards, and then discharged volley after volley. The French wavered and were in con- fusion. Wolfe, leading the charge, was wounded in the wrist. Again he was struck, but pressed on at the head of his grenadiers. Just at the moment of victory a third ball pierced his breast, and he sank quivering to the earth. " They run, they run !" said the attendant who bent over him. " Who run ?" was the feeble response. " The French are flying everywhere," replied the officer. " Do they run already ? Then I die happy," said the expiring hero; and his spirit passed away amid the smoke of battle. Monckton was dangerously wounded and borne from the field. Montcalm, still attempting to rally his broken regiments, was struck with a ball, and fell. " Shall I survive ?" said he to his surgeon. " But a few hours at most," replied the attendant. " So much the better," replied the heroic Frenchman. " I shall not live to witness the surrender of Quebec." Further defence of the Canadian stronghold was useless. Five days after the battle the French authorities surrendered to General Town- shend, and an English garrison took possession of the citadel. The year 1759 closed with the complete triumph of the English arms. In the following spring France made a great effort to recover her losses. A severe battle was fought a few miles west of Quebec, and the English were driven into the city. But reinforcements came, and the French were beaten back. On the 8th of September, in the same year, Montreal, the last important post of France in the valley of the St. Lawrence, surren- dered to General Amherst. Canada had passed under the dominion of England. In the spring of 1760 the Cherokees of Tennessee rose against the English. Fort Loudoun, in the north-eastern extremity of the State, was besieged by the Red men, and forced to capitulate. Honorable terms were promised to the garrison ; but as soon as the surrender was made, the savages fell upon their prisoners and massacred or dragged into captivity the whole company. Colonels Montgomery and Grant were despatched by General Amherst to chastise the Indians. After a vigorous campaign the savages were driven into the mountains and compelled to sue for peace. The conquest of Canada w T as the overthrow of the French power in America. It remained, however, for the English authorities to take actual possession of the immense territory bordering on the Great Lakes. At the time of the capture of Montreal this vast domain was TWO YEARS OF SUCCESSES. 277 held by feeble fortresses, scattered here and there, and garrisoned by detachments of French soldiers. The Marquis of Vaudreuil in sur- rendering Montreal had stipulated that all the western forts under the control of France should be given up to England. In the fall of 1760 Major Robert Rogers was accordingly despatched by General Amherst, with a company of two hundred provincial rangers, to receive the sur- render of the outposts. By the last of November, Rogers, having ascended the St. Law- rence and passed through Lakes Ontario and Erie, reached Detroit. Over this, the most important of the French posts in the West, the English flag was raised; Forts Miami on the southern shore of Lake Michigan and Ouatanon on the Wabash were also given up without resistance. Rogers then pressed on to take possession of Mackinaw, Green Bay and St. Marie, but was turned back by the storms on Lake Huron ; and it was not until the following summer that those remote fortresses were garrisoned by detachments of British soldiers. No sooner were the English in complete possession of the coun- try than they began by neglect and ill-treatment to excite the dor- mant passions of the Red men. During the progress of the war the Indians had become completely subordinated by French influence; and the English were hated with all the ferocity of the savage na- ture. It was not long till there were mutterings of an outbreak. The tribes could not be made to comprehend that Canada had been finally taken from their friends, the French. They confidently ex- pected the day when the king of France should send new armies and expel the detested English. Infatuated with this belief, instigated by the French themselves, and stung by many insults real and im- aginary, the warriors began their usual atrocities on the frontiers. In the summer of 1761, the Senecas conspired with the Wyandots to capture Detroit by treachery, and massacre the garrison ; and the plot was barely thwarted by Colonel Campbell, the commandant. In the following summer another attempt of a similar sort was discovered and defeated. It was in this condition of affairs that the celebrated Pontiac came forward and organized the most far-reaching and dan- gerous conspiracy ever known among the Indian tribes of America. Pontiac was chief of the Ottawas, whose principal seat was the district between Lakes Erie and Michigan. In the somewhat pro^ longed interval between the conquest of Canada and the treaty of 1763, this sagacious warrior, doubting the possibility of a peace be- tween the rival nations, conceived the design of uniting all the Indian tribes from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi in an overwhelming 278 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. confederacy, which should upon a given day strike all the English forts upon the frontier a deadly blow, and sweep away in a common ruin every English family west of the mountains. The plot was con- structed with the White man's skill and the Red man's cunning. The 7th of May, 1763, was named as the day of destruction. But when the time came the impatient savage tribes were unable to act in per- fect concert, and ultimate failure was the consequence, though the immediate result was terribly disastrous. Pontiac reserved for himself the most difficult task of all — the capture of Detroit. But in the hour of impending doom, woman's love interposed to save the garrison from butchery. An Indian girl of the Ojibwa nation, came to the fort with a pair of moccasins for THE REVELATION OF PONTIAC 'S CONSPIRACY. Major Gladwyn, the commandant, and in parting with him manifested unusual agitation and distress. She was seen to linger at the street corner, and the sentinel summoned her to return to the major's quar- ters. There, after much persuasion and many assurances of protec- tion, she yielded to his urgent inquiries into the cause of her grief and revealed the plot. When Pontiac's band on the following day attempted to gain the fort by treachery, they found every soldier and citizen under arms and ready to receive them. Then followed a protracted siege, and the savage horde was finally driven off. But TWO YEARS OF SUCCESSES. 279 in all other quarters the attacks were attended with the most fatal results. On the 16th of May Fort Sandusky was taken and burned, and the garrison butchered by a band of Wyandots. A few days later Fort St. Joseph suffered a similar fate at the hands of the Pot- tawattamies. On the 29th of the month Fort Mackinaw was taken and its defenders nearly all murdered by the Chippeways. One out- post after another was captured and burned, until by the middle of summer every English fort in the West, except Niagara, Fort Pitt and Detroit, had fallen into the hands of the savages. But in the mean time rumors of a treaty between France and England were borne to the Ked men ; and they, becoming alarmed at their own atrocities, began to sue for peace. The confederacy crumbled into nothing. Every tribe seemed as anxious to avoid the consequences as it had been to take up the hatchet. Pontiac and his band of Ot- tawas held out for two years longer; then, abandoned by his follow- ers, he fled to the Illinois, among whom he was finally killed in a drunken brawl at the Indian town of Cahokia, opposite St. Louis. For three years after the fall of Montreal the war between France and England lingered on the ocean. The English fleets were everywhere victorious. On the 10th of February, 1763, a treaty of peace was made at Paris. All the French possessions in North Amer- ica eastward of the Mississippi from its source to the river Iberville, and thence through Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the Gulf of Mexico, were surrendered to Great Britain. At the same time Spain, with whom England had been at war, ceded East and West Florida to the English Crown. As reciprocal with this provision France was obliged to make a cession to Spain of all that vast terri- tory west of the Mississippi, known as the Province of Louisiana, By the sweeping provisions of this treaty the French king lost his entire jwssessions in the New World. Thus closed the French and Indian War, one of the most important in the history of mankind. By this conflict it was decided that the decaying institutions of the Middle Ages should not prevail in the West; and that the powerful language, laws and liberties of the English race should be planted for ever in the vast domains of the New World. 280 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XXXVI. CONDITION OF THE COLONIES. "DEFORE entering upon the stirring events of the Revolution, it -L' will be of interest to glance at the general, condition of the American Colonies. There were thirteen of them : four in New England, — Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hamp- shire; four Middle Colonies, — New York, New Jersey, Pennsylva- nia, Delaware ; five Southern, — Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia. All had grown and prospered. The ele- ments of power were everywhere present. A willful, patriotic, and vigorous race of democrats had taken possession of the New World. Institutions unknown in Europe, peculiar to the West, made neces- sary by the condition and surroundings of the colonies, had sprung up and were taking deep root in American soil. According to estimates made for the year 1760 the population of the colonies amounted to a million six hundred and ninety-five thousand souls. Of these about three hundred and ten thousand were blacks. Massachusetts was at this period perhaps the strongest col- ony, having more than two hundred thousand people of European ancestry within her borders. True, Virginia was the most populous, having an aggregate of two hundred and eighty-four thousand inhab- itants, but of these one hundred and sixteen thousand were Africans, slaves. Next in strength stood Pennsylvania with a population of nearly two hundred thousand; next Connecticut with her hundred and thirty thousand people; next Maryland with a hundred and four thousand ; then New York with eighty-five thousand ; New Jersey not quite as many; then South Carolina, and so through the feebler col- onies to Georgia, in whose borders were less than five thousand in- habitants, including the negroes. By the middle of the eighteenth century the people of the Amer- ican colonies had to a certain extent assumed a national character; but they were still strongly marked with the peculiarities which their an- cestors had brought from Europe. In New England, especially in Mas- sachusetts and Connecticut, the principles and practices of Puritanism still held universal sway. On the banks of the Hudson the language, manners, and customs of Holland were almost as prevalent as they CONDITION OF THE COLONIES. 281 had been a hundred years before. By the Delaware the Quakers were gathered in such numbers as to control all legislation, and to prevent serious innovations upon the simple methods of civil and social organization introduced by Penn. On the northern bank of the Potomac, the youth- ful Frederick, the sixth Lord Baltimore, a friv- olous and dissolute gov- ernor, ruled a people Who still conformed to the order of things es- tablished a hundred and thirty years previously by Sirs George and Ce- cil Calvert. In Vir- ginia, mother of States and statesmen, the peo- ple had all their old peculiarities ; a some- what haughty demean- or; pride of ancestry; fondness for aristocratic sports; hospitality; love of freedom. The North Carolinians were at this epoch the same rugged and insubordinate race of hunters that they had always been. The leg- islative assembly, in its controversies with Gov- ernor Dobbs, manifested all the intractable stubbornness which char- acterized that body in the days of Seth Sothel. In South Carolina there was much prosperity and happiness. But there, too, popular liberty had been enlarged by the constant encroachment of the leg- islature upon the royal prerogative. The people, mostly of French descent, were as hot-blooded and jealous of their rights as their an- cestors had been in the times of the first immigrations. Of all the American colonies Georgia had at this time least strength and spirit. Under the system of government established at the first the common- wealth had languished. Not until 1754, when Governor Reynolds THE OLD THIRTEEN COLONIES. 282 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. assumed control of the colony, did the affairs of the people on the Savannah begin to flourish. Even afterwards, something of the indigence and want of thrift which had marked the followers of Oglethorpe still prevailed in Georgia. Nevertheless, after making allowance for all these differences of colonial character, a consid- erable degree of American unity had been attained; inter-colonial relations were well established; and the people were far less antag- onistic and sectional than they had been. In matters of education New England took the lead. Her system of free schools extended everywhere from the Hudson to the Penobscot. Every village furnished facilities for the acquirement of knowledge. So complete and universal were the means of instruc- tion that in the times preceding the Revolution there was not to be found in all New England an adult, bom in the country, who could not read and write. Splendid achievement of Puritanism ! In the Middle Colonies education was not so general ; but in Pennsylvania there was much intelligent activity among the people. Especially in Philadelphia did the illustrious Franklin scatter the light of learn- ing. South of the Potomac educational facilities were irregular and generally designed for the benefit of the wealthier classes. But in some localities the means of enlightenment were well provided; in- stitutions of learning sprang up scarcely inferior to those of the East- ern provinces, or even of Europe. Nor should the private schools of the colonial times be forgotten. Many men — Scottish reformers, Irish liberals, and French patriots — despising the bigotry and intolerance of their countrymen, fled for refuge to the New World, and there by the banks of the Housatonic, the Hudson, the Delaware, the Poto- mac, the Ashley, and the Savannah, taught the lore of books and the lesson of liberty to the rugged boys of the American wilderness. Among the Southern colonies Virginia led the van in matters of edu- cation; while Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia lagged behind. Previous to the Revolution nine colleges worthy of the name had been established in the colonies. These were Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, King's (now called Columbia), Brown, Queen's (afterwards called Rutgers), Dartmouth, and Hampden and Sydney. In 1764 the first medical college was founded, at Philadelphia. Of the printing-press, that other great agent and forerunner of civilization, the work was already effective. As early as 1704 the Boston News-Letter, first of periodicals in the New World, was pub- lished in the city of the Puritans; but fifteen years elapsed before another experiment of the same sort was made. In 1721 the New England Courant, a little sheet devoted to free thought and the ex- CONDITION OF THE COLONIES. 283 tinction of rascality, was established at Boston by the two Franklins — James and Benjamin. In 1740 New York had but one period- ical, Virginia one, and South Carolina one ; and at the close of the French and Indian War, there were no more than ten newspapers published in the colonies. The chief obstacles to such publications were the absence of great cities and the difficulty of communication between distant sections of the country. Boston and Philadelphia had each no more than eighteen thousand inhabitants; New York but twelve thousand. In all Virginia there was not one important town; while as far south as Georgia there was scarcely a considerable village. To reach this widely scattered population with periodical publications was quite impossible. Books were few, and of little value. Some dry volumes of history, theology, and politics were the only stock and store. On the latter subject the publications were sometimes full of pith and spirit. But notwithstanding this barren- ness of books and general poverty of the resources of knowledge, it was no unusual thing to find at the foot of the Virginia mountains, in the quiet precincts of Philadelphia, by the banks of the Hudson, or in the valleys of New England, a man of great and solid learn- ing. Such a man was Thomas Jefferson ; such were Franklin, and Livingston, and the Adamses — men of profound scholarship, bold in thought, ready with the pen, skillful in argument; studious, witty, and eloquent. Nothing impeded the progress of the colonies more than the want of thoroughfares and easy communication between the different sections. No general system of post-offices or post-roads had as yet been established; and the people were left in comparative or total ignorance of passing events. No common sentiments could be ex- pressed — no common enthusiasm be kindled in the country — by the sloAV-going mails and packets. The sea-coast towns and cities found a readier intercourse by means of small sloops plying the Atlantic; but the inland districts were wholly cut off from such advantages. Roads were slowly built from point to point, and lines of travel by coach and wagon were gradually established. To the very beginning of the Revolution the people lived apart, isolated and dependent upon their own resources for life and enjoyment. When in 1766 an ex- press wagon made the trip from New York to Philadelphia in two days, it was considered a marvel of rapidity. Six years later the first stage-coach began to run regularly between Boston and Providence.* * It is remarkable to note how tardily the attention of a people will be turned to the building of roads. Thus, for instance, in so old a country as Scotland there were no great thoroughfares constructed until after the Scotch Rebellion of 1745. 284 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Before the Revolution the Americans were for the most part an agricultural people. Within the tide-water line of Virginia the lands were divided into estates, and the planters devoted themselves almost exclusively to the cultivation of tobacco. Farther inland the products were more various : wheat, maize, potatoes ; upland cotton, hemp, and flax. In the Carolinas and Georgia the rice crop was most important ; after that, indigo, cotton, and some silk ; tar, tur- pentine, and what the hunter and fisherman gathered from the woods and streams. New York, Philadelphia and Boston were then as now the great centers of trade ; but commerce was carried on in a slow and awkward manner, wholly unlike the rushing activity of more recent times. Ship-building was one of the most important colonial interests. In the year 1738 no less than forty-one sailing vessels, with an average burden of a hundred and fifty tons, were built and launched at the ship-yards of Boston. New England was the seat of whatever manufacturing interest prevailed in the country. But all enterprise in this direction was checked and impeded by the British Board of Trade, whose stupid and arbitrary restrictions acted as a damper on every kind of colonial thrift. No sooner would some enterprising company of New England men begin the building of a factory than this officious Board would interfere in such a way as to jnake success impossible. So jealous was the English ministry of American progress ! If, previous to the Revolution, any colonial manufacture was successfully established, it was done against the will of Great Britain, and in spite of her mean and churlish opposition. Such were the American colonies — such the people whose bud- ding nationality was now to be exposed to the blasts of Avar. These people, whose ancestors had been driven into exile by the exactions of European governments and the bigotry of ecclesiastical power, had become the rightful proprietors of the New World. They had fairly won it from savage man and savage nature. They had subdued it and built States within it. They owned it by all the claims of actual possession; by toil and trial; by the ordeal of suffering; by peril, privation, and hardship ; by the baptism of sorrow and the shedding of blood. No wonder that patriotism was the child of such travail and discipline ! No wonder that the men who from mountain and sky and river, from orchard and valley and forest, from the memo- ries of the past, the aspirations of the present and the hopes of the future, had drank in the spirit of Liberty until their souls were per- vaded with her sublime essence, — were now ready when the iron heel of oppression was set upon their cherished rights, to draw the vindic- tive sword even against the venerable monarchy of England ! PART IV. REVOLUTION AND CONFEDERATION". A. I>. 1775-1789. CHAPTER XXXVII. CAUSES. rflHE war of American Independence was an event of vast moment, J- affecting the destinies of all nations. The question decided by the conflict was this : Whether the English colonies in America, becoming sovereign, should govern themselves or be ruled as dependencies of a European monarchy. The decision was rendered in favor of separation and independence. The result has been the grandest and most promising example of republican government in the history of the world. The struggle was long and distressing, though not characterized by great violence ; the combatants were of the same race and spoke a common lan- guage. It is of the first importance to understand the causes of the war. The most general cause of the American Revolution was the eight of arbitrary GOVERNMENT, claimed by Great Britain and denied by the colonies. So long as this claim was asserted by England only as a theory, the conflict was postponed ; when the English government began to enforce the principle in practice, the colonies resisted. The question began to be openly discussed about the time of the treaty of Aix-la- Chapelle, in 1748 ; and from that period until the beginning of hostilities, in 1775, each year witnessed a renewal of the agitation. But there were also many subordinate causes tending to bring on a conflict. First of these was the influence of France, which was constantly exerted so as to incite a spirit of resistance in the colonies. The French king would never have agreed to the treaty of 1763 — by which Canada was ceded to Great Britain— had it not been with the hope of securing American independence. It was the theory of France that by giving up Canada on the north the English colonies would become so strong as to renounce their allegiance to the crown. England feared such a result. More than once it was proposed in Parliament to re-cede Canada to France (285) 286 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. in order to check the growth of the American States. " There, now V 1 said a French statesman when the treaty of 1763 was signed; "we have arranged matters for an American rebellion in which England will lose her empire in the West." Another cause leading to the Revolution was found in the natural disposition and inherited character of the colonists. They were, for the most part, republicans in politics and dissenters in religion. The people of England were monarchists and High Churchmen. The colonists had never seen a king. The Atlantic lay between them and the British min- istry. Their dealings with the royal officers had been such as to engender a dislike for monarchical institutions. The people of America had not forgotten — could not well forget — the circumstances under which their ancestors had come to the New World. For six generations the colonists had managed their own affairs ; and their methods of government were necessarily republican. The experiences of the French and Indian War had shown that Americans were fully able to defend themselves and their country. TJie growth of public opinion in the colonies tended to independence. The more advanced thinkers came to believe that a complete separation from England was not only possible, but desirable. As early as 1755, John Adams, then a young school-teacher in Connecticut, wrote in his diary : " In another century all Europe will not be able to subdue us. The only way to keep us from setting up for ourselves is to disunite us." Such opinions were at first expressed only in private, then by hints in pam- phlets and newspapers, and at last publicly and everywhere. The mass of the people, however, were slow to accept an idea which seemed so rad- ical and dangerous. Not until the war had actually begun did the ma- jority declare for independence. Another cause of the conflict with the mother country was found in the personal character of the king. George III., who ascended the Eng- lish throne in 1760, was one of the worst monarchs of modern times. His notions of government were altogether despotic. He was a stubborn, stupid, thick-headed man in whose mind the notion of human rights was entirely wanting. It was impossible for him to conceive of a magnan- imous project or to appreciate the value of civil liberty. His reign of sixty years was as odious as it Mas long. In the management of the British empire he employed only those who were the narrow-minded partisans of his own policy. His ministers were, for the most part, men as incompetent and illiberal as himself. With such a king and such a ministry it was not likely that the descendants of the Pilgrims would get on smoothlv. CAUSES. 287 The more immediate cause of the Revolution was the passage by- Parliament of a number of acts destructive of colonial liberty. These acts were resisted by the colonies, and the attempt was made by Great Britain to enforce them with the bayonet. The subject of this unjust legislation, which extended over a period of twelve years just preceding the war, was the question of taxation. It is a well-grounded principle of English common law that the people, by their representatives in the House of Commons, have the right of voting whatever taxes and customs are neces- sary for the support of the kingdom. The American colonists claimed the full rights of Englishmen. With good reason it was urged that the general assemblies of colonies held the same relation to the American people as did the House of Commons to the people of England. The English ministers replied that Parliament, and not the colonial assemblies, was the proper body to vote taxes in any and all parts of the British empire. But we are not represented in Parliament, was the answer of the Americans ; the House of Commons may therefore justly assess taxes in England, but not in America. Many of the towns, boroughs and shires in these British isles have no representatives in Parliament, and yet the Parliament taxes them, replied the ministers, now driven to sophistry. If any of your towns, boroughs and shires are not represented in the House of Commons, they ought to be, was the American rejoinder; and there the argument ended. Such were the essential points of the controversy. It is now proper to notice the several parliamentary acts which the colonies complained of and resisted. The first of these was the Import atiozst Act, passed in 1733. This statute was itself a kind of supplement to the old Navigation Act of 1651. By the terms of the newer law exorbitant duties were laid on all the sugar, molasses and rum imported into the colonies. At first the payment of these unreasonable customs was evaded by the merchants, and then the statute was openly set at naught. In 1750 it was further enacted that iron-works should not be erected in America. The man- ufacture of steel was specially forbidden ; and the felling of pines, outside of enclosures, was interdicted. All of these laws were disregarded and denounced by the people of the colonies as being unjust and tyrannical. In 1761 a strenuous effort was made by the ministry to enforce the Im- portation Act. The colonial courts were authorized to issue to the king's officers a kind of search-warrants, called Writs of Assistance. Armed with this authority, petty constables might enter any and every place, searching for and seizing goods which were suspected of having evaded the duty. At Salem and Boston the greatest excitement prevailed. The application for the writs was resisted before the courts. James Otis, an 288 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. able and temperate man, pleaded eloquently for colonial rights, and de- nounced the parliamentary acts as unconstitutional. The address was a masterly defence of the people, and produced a profound sensation through- out the colonies. Already there were hints at resistance by force of arms. In 1763, and again in the following year, the English ministers undertook to enforce the law requiring the payment of duties on sugar and molasses. The officers of the admiralty were authorized to seize and confiscate all vessels engaged in the unlawful trade. Before the passage of this act was known at Boston, a great town-meeting was held. Samuel Adams was the orator. A powerful argument was produced showing conclusively that under the British constitution taxation and representa- tion were inseparable. Nevertheless, vessels from the English navy were sent to hover around the American harbors. A great number of mer- chantmen bearing cargoes of sugar and wine were seized ; and the colonial trade with the West Indies was almost destroyed. The year 1764 witnessed the first formal declaration of the purpose of Parliament to tax the colonies. Mr. Grenville was now prime minis- ter. On the 10 th of March a resolution was adopted by the House of Commons declaring that it would be proper to charge certain stamp- duties on the American colonies. It was announced that a bill embody- ing this principle would be prepared by the ministers and presented at the next session of Parliament. In the mean time, the news of the pro- posed measure was borne to America. Universal excitement and indig- nation prevailed in the colonies. Political meetings became the order of the day. Orators were in great demand. The newspapers teemed with arguments against the proposed enactment. Resolutions were passed by the people of almost every town. Formal remonstrances were addressed to the king and the two houses of Parliament. Agents were appointed by the colonics and sent to London in the hope of preventing the passage of the law. A new turn w T as now given to the controversy. The French and Indian War had just been concluded with a treaty of peace. Great Britain had incurred a heavy debt. The ministers began to urge that the expenses of the war ought to be borne by the colonies. The Americans replied that England ought to defend her colonies, from motives of humanity; that in the prosecution of the war the colonists had aided Great Britain as much as Great Britain had aided them ; that the cession of Canada had amply remunerated England for her losses ; that it was not the payment of money which the colonies dreaded, but the surrender of their liberties. It was also added that in case of another war the American States would try to fight their own battles. CAUSES. 289 Early in March of 1765, the English Parliament, no longer guided by the counsels of Pitt, passed the celebrated Stamp Act. In the House of Commons the measure received a majority of five to one. In the House of Lords the vote was unanimous. At the time of the passage of the act the king was in a fit of insanity, and could uot sign the bill. On the 22d of the month the royal assent was given by a board of commis- sioners acting for the king. " The sun of American liberty has set," wrote Benjamin Franklin to a friend at home. " Now we must light the lamps of industry and economy." " Be assured," said the friend, in reply, " that we shall light torches of another sort." And the answer reflected the sentiment of the whole country. The provisions of the Stamp Act were briefly these : Every note, bond, deed, mortgage, lease, license and legal document of whatever sort, required in the colonies, should, after the 1st day of the following No- vember, be executed on paper bearing an English stamp. This stamped paper was to be furnished by the British government ; and for each sheet the colonists were required to pay a sum varying, according to the nature of the document, from three pence to six pounds sterling. Every colonial pamphlet, almanac and newspaper was required to be printed on paper of the same sort, the value of the stamps in this case ranging from a half- penny to four pence ; every advertisement was taxed two shillings. No contract should be of any binding force unless written on paper bearing the royal stamp. The news of the hateful act swept over America like a thunder- cloud. The people were at first grief-stricken ; then indignant ; and then wrathful. Crowds of excited men surged into the towns, and there were some acts of violence. The muffled bells of Philadelphia and Boston rung a funeral peal; and the people said it was the death-knell of liberty. In New York a copy of the Stamp Act was carried through the streets with a death's-head nailed to it, and a placard bearing this inscription : The Folly of England and the Ruin of America. The general assemblies were at first slow to move ; there were many loyalists among the members ; and the colonial governors held their offices by appointment of the king. It was hazardous for a provincial legislator to say that an act of the British Parliament was the act of tyrants. But the younger representatives, hot-blooded as well as patriotic, did not hesitate to ex- press their sentiments. In the Virginia House of Burgesses there was a memorable scene. Patrick Henry, the youngest member of the House, an uneducated mountaineer recently chosen to represent Louisa county, waited for some older delegate to lead the burgesses in opposition to Parliament, But the 290 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. older members hesitated or went home. Offended at this lukewarmness, Henry in his passionate way snatched a blank-leaf out of an old law- book and hastily drew up a series of fiery resolutions, declaring that the Virginians were Eng- lishmen with English rights ; that the people of Great Britain had the exclusive privilege of voting their own taxes, and so had the Americans ; that the colonists were not bound to yield obedi- ence to any law im- posing taxation on them ; and that who- ever said the contrary was an enemy to the country. The resolu- tions were at once laid before the house. A violent de- bate ensued, in which the patriots had the best of the argument. It was a moment of intense interest. Two future Presidents of the United States were in the audience; Washington occupied his seat as a delegate, and Thomas Jefferson, a young collegian, stood just outside of the railing. The eloquent and audacious Henry bore down all opposition. " Tarquin and Csesar had each his Brutus," said the indignant orator ; " Charles I. had his Cromwell, and George III. — " " Treason !" shouted the speaker. " Treason ! treason !" exclaimed the terrified loyalists, springing to their feet. " — And George III. may profit by their example," continued Henry ; and then added as he took his seat, " If that be treason, make the most of it !" The resolutions were put to the house and carried ; but the majorities on some of the votes were small, and the next day, when Henry was absent, the most violent par- agraph was reconsidered and expunged : some of the members were greatly frightened at their own audacity. But the resolutions in their entire form had gone before the country as the formal expression of the PATKICK HENRY. CAUSES. 291 oldest American commonwealth, and the effect on the other colonies was like the shock of a battery. Similar resolutions were adopted by the assemblies of New York and Massachusetts — in the latter State before the action of Virginia was known. At Boston, James Otis successfully agitated the question of an American Congress. It was proposed that each colony, acting without leave of the king, should appoint delegates, who should meet in the fol- lowing autumn and discuss the affairs of the nation. The proposition was favorably received ; nine of the colonies appointed delegates ; and on the 7th of October the First Colonial Congress assembled at New York. There were twenty-eight representatives : Timothy Ruggles of Massachu- setts was chosen president. After much discussion a Declaration of Rights was adopted setting forth in unmistakable terms that the Amer- ican colonists, as Englishmen, could not and would not consent to be taxed but by their own representatives. Memorials were also prepared and addressed to the two houses of Parliament. A manly petition, pro- fessing loyalty and praying for a more just and humane policy toward his American subjects, was directed to the king. The 1st of November came. On that day the Stamp Act was to take effect. During the summer great quantities of the stamped paper had been prepared and sent to America. Ten boxes of it were seized by the people of New York and openly destroyed. In Connecticut, the stamp-officer was threatened with hanging. In Boston, houses were de- stroyed and the stamps given to the winds and flames. Whole cargoes of the obnoxious paper were reshipped to England ; and every stamp- officer in America was obliged to resign or leave the country. By the 1st of November there were scarcely stamps enough remaining to furnish after times with specimens. The day was kept as a day of mourning. The stores were closed ; flags were hung at half mast ; the bells were tolled ; effigies of the authors and abettors of the Stamp Act were borne about in mockery, and then burned. The people of New Hampshire formed a funeral procession and buried a coffin bearing the inscription of Liberty. A cartoon was circulated hinting at union as the remedy for existing evils. The picture represented a snake broken into sections. Each joint was labeled with the initials of a colony ; the head was marked " N. E." for New England ; and the title was Join or Die ! At first, legal business was almost entirely suspended. The court- houses were shut up. Society was at a standstill ; not even a marriage license could be legally issued. By and by, the people breathed more freely ; the offices were opened, and business went on as before ; but was not transacted with stamped paper. It was at this juncture that the 292 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. patriotic society known as the Sons of Liberty was organized. The members were pledged to oppose British tyranny to the utmost, and to defend with their lives the freedom of the colonies. Equally important was the action of the colonial merchauts. The importers of New York, Boston and Philadelphia entered into a solemn compact to purchase no more goods of Great Britain until the Stamp Act should be repealed. And the people, applauding the action of their merchants, cheerfully de- nied themselves of all imported luxuries. Great was the wrath of the British government when the news of these proceedings was borne across the ocean. But a large party of Eng- lish tradesmen and manufacturers sided with the colonists. Better still, some of the most eminent statesmen espoused the cause of America. Even Lord Camden in the House of Lords spoke favorably of colonial rights. Before the House of Commons Mr. Pitt delivered a powerful address. " You have," said he, " no right to tax America. I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of our fellow-subjects so lost to every sense of virtue as tamely to give up their liberties would be fit instruments to make slaves of the rest." The new Whig prime minister, the marquis of Rockingham, was also a friend of the colonies, and looked with dis- favor on the legislation of his predecessor. On the 18th of March, 1766, the Stamp Act was formally repealed. As a kind of balm to soothe the wounded feelings of the Tories — as the adherents of Grenville were now called — a supplemental resolution was added to the repeal declaring that Parliament had the right to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever. The joy both in England and America was unbounded. The vessels in the river Thames were decked with flags, and the colonial orators spoke to enthusiastic crowds gathered around bonfires. There was a great calm in all the country ; but it was only the lull before the com- ing of a greater storm. A few months after the repeal of the Stamp Act the ministry of Rockingham was dissolved and a new cabinet formed under the leadership of Pitt, who was now made earl of Chatham. Un- fortunately, however, the prime minister was for a long time confined by sickness to his home in the country. During his absence, Mr. Towns- hend, chancellor of the exchequer, in a moment of unparalleled folly, brought forward a new scheme for taxing America. On the 29th of June, 1767, an act was passed imposing a duty on all the glass, paper, painters' colors and tea which should thereafter be imported into the colonies. At the same time a resolution was adopted suspending the powers of the general assembly of New York until that body should vote certain sup- plies for the royal troops stationed in the province. A more rash and disastrous piece of legislation never was enacted. CAUSES. 293 All the smothered resentment of the colonies burst out anew. Another agreement not to purchase British goods was immediately en- tered into by the American merchants. The newspapers were filled with bitter denunciations of Parliament. Early in 1768 the assembly of Mas- sachusetts adopted a circular calling upon the other colonies for assistance in the effort to obtain redress of grievances. The ministers were enraged and required the assembly in the king's name to rescind their action, and to express regret for that " rash and hasty proceeding." Instead of that, the sturdy legislature reaffirmed the resolution by a nearly unanimous vote. Thereupon Governor Bernard dissolved the assembly ; but the members would not disperse until they had prepared a list of charges against the governor and requested the king to remove him. In the month of June fuel was added to the flame. A sloop, charged with attempting to evade the payment of duty, was seized by the ' custom-house officers. The people rose in a mob ; attacked the houses of the officers, and obliged the occupants to seek shelter in Castle William, at the entrance of the harbor. The governor now appealed to the min- isters for help; and General Gage, commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, was ordered to bring from Halifax a regiment of reg- ulars and overawe the people. On the 1st of October the troops, seven hundred strong, marched with fixed bayonets into the capital of Mas- sachusetts. The people were maddened by this military invasion of their city. When the governor required the selectmen of Boston to provide quarters for the soldiers, he was met with an absolute refusal ; and the troops were quartered in the state-house. In February of 1769, Parliament advanced another step toward war. The people of Massachusetts were declared rebels, and the governor was directed to arrest those deemed guilty of treason and send them to England for trial. The general assembly met this additional outrage with defiant resolutions. ' Scenes almost as violent as these were at the same time enacted in Virginia and North Carolina, In the latter State a popular insurrection was suppressed by Governor Tryon; the insur- gents, escaping across the mountains, obtained lands of the Cherokees, and became the founders of Tennessee. Early in 1770 a serious affray occurred in New York. The soldiers wantonly cut down a liberty pole which had stood for several years in the park. A conflict ensued, in which the people came out best ; another pole was erected in the northern part of the city. On the 5th of March a more serious difficulty occurred in Boston. An altercation had taken place between a party of citizens and the soldiers. A crowd gathered, surrounded Captain Preston's company of the city guard, hooted 294 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. at them, and dared them to fire. At length the exasperated soldiers dis- charged a volley, killing three of the citizens and wounding several others. This outrage, known as the Boston Massacre, created a profound sensa- tion. The city was ablaze with excitement. Several thousand men assembled under arms. Governor Hutchinson came out, promising that justice should be done and trying to appease the multitude. The brave Samuel Adams spoke for the people. An immediate withdrawal of the troops from the city was demanded, and the governor was obliged to yield. Captain Preston and his company were arrested and tried for murder. The prosecution was conducted with great spirit, and two of the offenders were convicted of manslaughter. On the very day of the Boston massacre, Lord North, who had become prime minister, secured the passage by Parliament of an act re- pealing all the duties on American imports except that on tea. The exception was made only to show that the right of taxing the colonies was not relinquished. The merchants of New York and Boston at once relaxed their non-importation agreement except so far as it related to tea ; to that extent the compact was retained ; and the people voluntarily pledged themselves to use no more tea until the duty should be uncon- ditionally repealed. The antagonism toward the mother country was abating somewhat, when in 1772 an act was passed by Parliament requir- ing that the salaries of the governor and judges of Massachusetts should be paid out of the colonial revenues without consent of the assembly. That body retaliated by a declaration that the parliamentary statute was a violation of the chartered rights of the people, and therefore void. About the same time the Gaspee, a royal schooner which had been annoy- ing the people of Providence, was boarded by a company of patriots and burned. In 1773 the ministers attempted to enforce the tea-tax by a strat- agem. Owing to the duty, the price of tea in the American market had been doubled. But there was no demand for the article ; for the people would not buy. As a consequence the warehouses of Great Britain were stored with vast quantities of tea, awaiting shipment to America. Par- liament now removed the export duty which had hitherto been charged on tea shipped from England. The price was by so much lowered ; and the ministers persuaded themselves that, when the cheaper tea was offered in America, the silly colonists would pay their own import duty without suspicion or complaint. To carry out this scheme English ships were loaded with tea for the American market. Some of the vessels reached Charleston ; the tea was landed, but the people forbade its sale. The chests were stored in CAUSES. 295 mouldy cellars, and the contents ruined. At New York and Philadelphia the ports were closed and the ships forbidden to enter. At Boston the vessels entered the harbor. The tea had been consigned to Governor Hut- chinson and his friends j and special precautions were taken to prevent a failure of the enterprise. But the authorities stubbornly stood their ground, and would not permit the tea to be landed. On the 16th of De- cember the dispute was settled in a memorable manner. There was a great town-meeting at which seven thousand people were assembled. Adams and Quincy spoke to the multitudes. Eve- ning came on, and the meeting was about to adjourn, when a war- whoop was heard, and about fifty men dis- guised as Indians pass- ed the door of the Old South Church. The crowd followed to Griffin's wharf, where the three t e a-s h i p s were at anchor. Then e very th in g became quiet. The disguised men quickly boarded the vessels, broke open the three hundred and forty chests of tea that composed the cargoes, and poured the con- tents into the sea. Such was the Boston Tea-Party. Parliament made haste to find revenge. On the last day of March, 1774, the Boston Port Bill was passed. It was enacted that no kind of merchandise should any longer be landed or shipped at the wharves of Boston. The custom-house was removed to Salem, but the people of that town refused the benefits which were proffered by the hand of tyranny. The inhabitants of Marblehead tendered the free use of their warehouses to the merchants of Boston. The assembly stood stoutly by the cause of the people. When the news of the passage of the Port Bill reached Virginia, the burgesses at once entered a protest on the SAMUEL ADAMS. 296 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. journals of the house. When Governor Dunmore ordered the members to their homes, they met in another place, and passed a recommendation for a general congress of the colonies. On the 20th of May the vener- ated charter of Massachusetts was annulled by act of Parliament. The people were declared rebels ; and the governor was ordered to send abroad for trial all persons who should resist the royal officers. The colonial assembly made answer by adopting a resolution that the powers of language were not sufficient to express the impolicy, injustice, in- humanity and cruelty of the acts of Parliament. In September the Second Colonial Congress assembled at Philadelphia. Eleven colonies were represented. It was unanimously agreed to sustain Massachusetts in her conflict with a wicked ministry. One address was sent to the king ; another to the English nation ; and another to the people of Canada. Before adjournment a resolution was adopted recommending the suspension of all commercial intercourse with Great Britain until the wrongs of the colonies should be redressed. Par- liament immediately retaliated by ordering General Gage, who had been recently appointed governor of Massachusetts, to reduce the colonists by force. A fleet and an army of ten thousand soldiers were sent to America to aid in the work of subjugation. In accordance with the governor's orders, Boston Neck was seized and fortified. The military stores in the arsenals at Cambridge and Charlestown were conveyed to Boston ; and the general assembly was ordered to disband. Instead of doing so, the members resolved them- selves into a provincial congress, and voted to equip an army of twelve thousand men for the defence of the colony. There was no longer any hope of a peaceable adjustment. The mighty arm of Great Britain was stretched out to smite and crush the sons of the Pilgrims. The colonists were few and feeble ; but they were men of iron wills who had made up their minds to die for liberty. It was now the early spring of 1775, and the day of battle was at hand. THE BEGINNING. 297 CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE BEGINNING. AS soon as the intentions of General Gage were manifest, the people of Boston, concealing their ammunition in cart-loads of rubbish, conveyed it to Concord, sixteen miles away. Gage detected the move- ment, and on the night of the 18th of April despatched a regiment of eight hundred men to destroy the stores. Another purpose of the expe- dition was to capture John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were sup- posed to be hidden at Lexington or Concord. The fact was that they were not hidden anywhere, but were abroad encouraging the people. The plan of the British general was made with great secrecy • but the patriots were on the alert, and discovered the movement. About midnight the regiment, under command of Colonel Smith and Major Pitcairn, set out for Concord. The people of Boston, Charles- town and Cambridge were roused by the ringing of bells and the firing of cannons. Two hours before, the vigilant Joseph Warren had de- spatched William Dawes and Paul Revere to ride with all speed to Lex- ington and to spread the alarm through the country. Against two o'clock in the morning the minute-men were under arms ; and a company of a hundred and thirty had assembled on the common at Lexington. The patriots loaded their guns and stood ready ; but no enemy appeared, and it was agreed to separate until the drum-beat should announce the hour of danger. At five o'clock the British van, under command of Pitcairn, came in sight. The provincials to the number of seventy reassembled ; Captain Parker was their leader. Pitcairn rode up and exclaimed: "Disperse, ye villains! Throw down your arms, ye rebels, and dis- perse !" The minute-men stood still ; Pitcairn discharged his pistol at them, and with a loud voice cried, " Fire !" The first volley of the "Revolution whistled through the air, and sixteen of the patriots, nearly a fourth of the whole number, fell dead or wounded. The rest fired a few random shots, and then dispersed. The British pressed on to Concord; but the inhabitants had re- moved the greater part of the stores to a place of safety, and there was but little destruction. Two cannons w r ere spiked, some artillery carriages 298 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. burned, and a small quantity of ammunition thrown into a mill-pond. While the British were ransacking the town the minute-men began to assemble from all quarters. Attempting to enter the village, the patriots encountered a company of soldiers who were guarding the North Bridge, over Concord River. Here the Americans, for the first time, fired under orders of their officers, and here two British soldiers were killed. The bridge was taken by the provincials, and the enemy began a retreat — first into the town, and then through the town on the road to Lexington. This was the signal for the minute-men to attack the foe from every side. For six miles the battle was kept up along the road. Hidden behind rocks, trees, fences and barns, the patriots poured a constant fire upon the thinned ranks of the retreating enemy. Nothing but good discipline and reinforcements which, under command of Lord Percy, met the fugitives just below Lexington, saved the British from total rout and destruction. The fight continued to the precincts of Charlestown, the militia becoming more and more audacious in their charges. At one time it seemed that the whole British force would be obliged to surrender. Such a result was prevented only by the fear that the fleet would burn the city. The American loss in this the first battle of the war was forty-nine killed, thirty-four wounded and five missing ; that of the enemy was two hundred and seventy-three — a greater loss than the English army sustained on the Plains of Abraham. The battle of Lexington fired the country. Within a few days an army of twenty thousand men had gathered about Boston. A line of entrenchments encompassing the city was drawn from Koxbury to Chel- sea. To drive Gage and the British into the sea was the common talk in that tumultuous camp. And the number constantly increased. John Stark came down at the head of the New Hampshire militia. Israel Putnam, with a leather waistcoat on, was helping some men to build a stone wall on his farm when the news from Lexington came flying. Plurrying to the nearest town, he found the militia already mustered. Bidding the men follow as soon as possible, he mounted a horse and rode to Cambridge, a distance of a hundred miles, in eighteen hours. Rhode Island sent her quota under the brave Nathaniel Greene. Benedict Arnold came with the provincials of New Haven. Ethan Allen, of Vermont, made war in the other direction. This daring and eccentric man was chosen colonel by a company of two hundred and seventy patriots who had assembled at Bennington. Before the battle of Lexington, the legislature of Connecticut had pri- vately voted a thousand dollars to encourage an expedition against Ticon- deroga. To capture this important foilress, with its vast magazine of THE BEGINNING. 299 stores was the object of Allen and the audacious mountaineers of whom he was the leader. Benedict Arnold left Cambridge, and joined the expe- dition as a private. On the evening of the 9th of May, the force, whose movements had not been discovered, reached the eastern shore of Lake Champlain, opposite Ticonderoga. Only a few boats could be procured ; and when day broke on the following morning, but eighty-three men had succeeded in crossing. With this mere handful — for the rest could not be waited for — Allen, with Arnold by his side, made a dash, and gained the gateway of the fort. The sentinel was driven in, closely followed by the mountaineers, who set up such a shout as few garrisons had ever heard. Allen's men hastily faced the barracks and stood ready to fire ; he himself rushed to the quarters of Delaplace, the commandant, and shouted for the incumbent to get up. The startled official thrust out his head. " Surrender this fort instantly," said Allen. " By what authority ?" inquired the astounded officer. " In the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Con- gress !" * said Allen, flourishing his sword. Delaplace had no alternative. The garrison, numbering forty-eight, were made prisoners and sent to Connecticut. A fortress which had cost Great Britain eight million pounds sterling was captured in ten minutes by a company of undiscip- lined provincials. By this daring exploit a hundred and twenty cannon and vast quantities of military stores fell into the hands of the Americans. Two days afterward Crown Point was also taken without the loss of life. On the 25th of May, Generals Howe, Clinton and Burgoyne arrived at Boston. They brought with them powerful reinforcements from Eng- land and Ireland ; the British army was augmented to more than ten thou- sand men. Gage, becoming arrogant, issued a proclamation, branding those in arms as rebels and traitors, offering pardon to all who would submit, but excepting Samuel Adams and John Hancock ; these two were to suffer the penalty of treason — provided Gage could inflict it. It was now rumored — and the rumor was well founded — that the British were about to sally out of Boston with the purpose of burning the neighboring towns and devastating the country. The Americans determined to anticipate this movement by seizing and fortifying Bunker Hill, a height which commanded the peninsula of Charlestown. On the night of the 16th of June the brave Colonel Prescott, grandfather of Prescott the historian, was sent with a thousand men to occupy and entrench the hill. Marching by way of Charlestown Neck, * This saving will appear especially amusing when it is remembered that the "Conti- nental Congress" referred to did not convene until about six hours after Ticonderoya was captured. 300 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. J*Z3 the provincials came about eleven o'clock to the eminence which they were instructed to fortify. Prescott and his engineer Gridley, not liking the position of Bunker Hill, proceeded down the peninsula seven hundred yards to another height, afterward called Breed's Hill. The latter was within easy cannon range of Boston. On this summit a redoubt eight rods square was planned by the engineer ; and there, from midnight to day-dawn, the men worked in silence. The British ships in the harbor were so near that the Americans could hear the sentinels on deck repeat- ing the night call, " All is well." The works were not yet completed when morning revealed the new-made redoubt to the astonished British of Boston. " We must carry those works immediately," said General Gage to his officers. For he saw that Prescott's cannon now commanded the city. As soon as it was light, the ships in the harbor began to cannonade the American position. The British bat- teries on Copp's Hill also opened a heavy fire. But little damage was done in this way ; and the Americans returned only an occasional shot ; for their supply of ammunition was very limited. Just after noon a British column of about three thousand vet- erans, commanded by Generals Howe and Pigot, landed at Morton's Point. The plan was to carry Breed's Hill by assault. The Americans num- bered in all about fifteen hundred. They were worn out with toil and hunger; but there was no quailing in the presence of the enemy. During the cannonade Prescott climbed out of the defences and walked leisurely around the parapet in full view of the British officers. Generals Putnam and Warren volunteered as privates, and entered the trenches. At three o'clock in the afternoon Howe ordered his column forward. At the same time every gun in the fleet and batteries Avas turned upon the American position. Charlestown was wantonly set on fire and four hundred build- ings burned. Thousands of eager spectators climbed to the house-tops in Boston and waited to behold the shock of battle. On came the British in a stately and imposing column. The Americans reserved their fire until the advancing line was within a hundred and fifty feet. " Fire !" cried Prescott ; and instantly from breastwork and redoubt every gun was discharged. The front rank JStccm y^sffil SCENE OF THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL, 1775. THE BEGINNING. 301 of the British melted away ; there was a recoil, and fifteen minutes after- ward a precipitate retreat. Beyond musket range Howe rallied his men and led them to the second charge. Again the American fire was with- held until the enemy was but a few rods distant. Then with steady aim volley after volley was poured upon the charging column until it was broken and a second time driven into flight. The British officers were now desperate. The vessels of the fleet changed position until the guns were brought to bear upon the inside of the American works. For the third time the assaulting column was put in motion. The British soldiers came on with fixed bayonets up the hillside strewn with the dead and dying. The Americans had but three or four rounds of ammunition remaining. These were expended on the advancing enemy. Then there was a lull. The British clambered over the ramparts. The provincials clubbed their guns and hurled stones at the assailants. It was in vain ; the heroic defenders of liberty were driven out of their trenches at the point of the bayonet. Prescott lived through the battle, but the brave Warren gave his life for freedom. The loss of the British in this terrible engagement was a thousand and fifty-four in killed and wounded. The Americans lost a hundred and fifteen killed, three hundred and five wounded, and thirty-two prisoners. Prescott and Putnam conducted the retreat by way of Charlestown Neck to Prospect Hill, where a new line of entrenchments was formed which still com- manded the entrance to Boston. The battle of Bunker Hill rather inspired than discouraged the colonists. It was seen that the British soldiers were not invincible. To capture a few more hills would cost General Gage his whole army. The enthusiasm of war spread throughout the country. The news was borne rapidly to the South, and a spirit of determined opposition was every- where aroused. The people began to speak of the United Colonies of America. At Charlotte, North Carolina, the citizens ran together in a hasty convention, and startled the country by making a declaration of independence. The British ministers had little dreamed of raising such a storm. On the day of the capture of Ticonderoga the colonial Congress, which had adjourned in the previous autumn, reassembled at Philadelphia. Washington was there, and John Adams and Samuel Adams, Franklin and Patrick Henry ; Jefferson came soon afterward. A last appeal was addressed to the king of England ; and the infatuated monarch was plainly told that the colonists had chosen war in preference to voluntary slavery. Early in the session John Adams made a powerful address, in the course of which he sketched the condition and wants of the country and of the 302 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. army. The necessity of appointing a commander-in-chief and the qual- ities requisite in that high officer were dwelt upon ; and then the speaker concluded by putting in nomination George Washington of Virginia. As soon as his name was mentioned, Washington arose and withdrew from the hall. For a moment he was overpowered with a sense of the respon- sibility which was about to be put upon him, and to his friend Patrick Henry he said with tears in his eyes : " I fear that this day will mark the downfall of my reputation." On the 15th of June the nomination was unanimously confirmed by Congress ; and the man who had saved the wreck of Braddock's army was called to build a nation. Geoege Washington, descended from the distinguished family of the Wessyngtons in England, was born in Westmoreland county, Virginia, on the 11th of February (Old Style), 1732. At the age of eleven he was left, by the death of his father, to the sole care of a talented and affectionate mother. His education was limited to the common branches of learning, extending only to geometry and trigonometry. Sur- veying was his favorite study. In his boyhood he was passionately fond of athletic sports and military exercises. As he grew to manhood he was marked above all his companions for the dignity of his manners, the soundness of his judgment and the excellence of his character. At the age of sixteen he was sent by his uncle to survey a tract of land pn the South Potomac, and for three years his life was in the wilderness. On reaching his majority he was already more spoken of than any other young man in the colony. The important duties which he performed in the service of the Ohio Company, the beginning of his military career and his noted campaign with Braddock have already been narrated. After the French and Indian War he was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses ; was then chosen a member of the Continental Congress ; and was now called by that body to control the destinies of the unorganized mass of men composing the American army. With great dignity he accepted the appointment, refused all compensation beyond his actual expenses, set out with an escort by way of New York, and reached Cam- bridge fifteen days after the battle of Bunker Hill. Washington's duties and responsibilities were overwhelming. Con- gress had voted to raise and equip twenty thousand men, but the means of doing so were not furnished. The colonies had not yet broken their allegiance to the British Crown. For six months Congress stood waiting for the king's answer to its address. The country was sound and patri' otic; but its methods of action were irregular and uncertain. Washington had a force of fourteen thousand five hundred men, but they were undis- ciplined and insubordinate. The revenues and supplies of war were THE BEGINNING. 303 almost wholly wanting. At the time of the battle of Bunker Hill the whole army had but twenty-seven half barrels of powder. The work of organ- ization was at once begun. Four major-generals, one adjutant and eight brigadiers were appointed. The army was arranged in three divisions. The right wing, under General Ward, held Roxbury ; the left, commanded by General Charles Lee, rested at Prospect Hill, near Charlestown Neck; the centre, under the immediate direction of the commander-in-chief, lay at Cambridge. Boston was regularly invested, and the siege was pressed with constantly increasing vigor. During the summer and autumn of 1775, the king's authority was overthrown in all the colonies. The royal governors either espoused the cause of the people, were compelled to resign or were driven oif in insur- rections. Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia, seized the public powder. Patrick Henry led the people, and demanded restitution. The governor was overawed, and paid the value of the powder. Fearing further aggres- sion, he went on board a man-of-war, proclaimed freedom to the slaves, raised a force of loyalists, met the provincials at the village of Great Bridge near Norfolk, and was defeated. Obliged to retire from the coun- try, he gratified his vindictive disposition by burning Norfolk. The American colonies looked to Canada for sympathy and aid. It was believed that the Canadians would make common cause against Great Britain. In order to encourage such a movement and to secure possession of the Canadian government, an expedition was planned against the towns on the St. Lawrence. Generals Schuyler and Montgomery were placed in command of a division which was to proceed by way of Lake Champlain and the river Sorel to St. John and Montreal. The former fort was reached on the 10th of September, but the Americans, finding the place too strong to be carried by assault, fell back twelve miles to Isle-aux-Noix in the Sorel. This place General Schuyler fortified, and then returned to Ticonderoga for reinforcements. Sickness detained him there, and the whole command devolved on Montgomery. This gallant officer returned to St. John and captured the fortress. Fort Chambly, ten miles farther north, was also taken. Montreal was next invested, and on the 13th of November obliged to capitulate. Leaving garrisons in the conquered towns, Montgomery proceeded with his regiment, now reduced to three hundred men, against Quebec. This stronghold was already threatened from another quarter. Late in the autumn, Colonel Benedict Arnold set out with a thousand men from Cambridge, passed up the Kennebec and urged his way through the wil- derness to the Chaudiere, intending to descend that stream to Point Levi. The march was one of untold hardship and suffering. As winter came 304 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. on the men were brought to the verge of starvation. The daring leader pressed on in the hope of gathering supplies from some unguarded French village. Before his return the famishing soldiers had killed and devoured every dog that could be found. Then the brave fellows gnawed the roots of trees and ate their moose-skin moccasins until Arnold's return, when the whole force proceeded to Quebec. Morgan, Greene and Meigs, all three noted leaders of the Revolution, and Aaron Burr, one day to be- come Vice-President of the United States, were in this company of suf- fering heroes. Arnold and his men, climbing to the Plains of Abraham, as Wolfe had done sixteen years previously, offered battle. But the English gar- rison of Quebec remained in their fortifications awaiting an assault which the Americans were not strong enough to make. Conscious of his weak- ness, Arnold withdrew his men to Point aux Trembles, twenty miles up the river, and there awaited the approach of Montgomery. When the latter arrived, he assumed command of the whole force, which did not exceed nine hundred effective men. Quebec was defended by greatly superior numbers, well fortified and warmly quartered. For three weeks, with his handful of men, Montgomery besieged the town, and then, rely- ing only on the courageous valor of his men, determined to stake every- thing on an assault. It was the last day of December, 1775. Before daybreak the little army was divided into four columns. The first division, under Mont- gomery, was to pass down the St. Lawrence and attack the Lower Town in the neighborhood of the citadel. The second column, led by Arnold, was to sweep around the city to the north, attack by way of the St. Charles, and join Montgomery in order to storm the Prescott Gate. The other two divisions were to remain in the rear of the Upper Town, making feigned attacks to draw the attention of the garrison. Montgomery's column reached the point from which the charge was to begin. A battery lay just before, and it was thought that the gunners had not discovered the assailants. " Men of New York," said the brave Montgomery, " you will not fear to follow where your general leads ! Forward !" There were masses of ice and clouds of blinding snow, and broken ground and the cold gray light of morning. As the Americans were rushing forward, all of a sudden the battery burst forth with a storm of grape-shot. At the first discharge Montgomery and both of his aids fell dead. The column was shattered. The men were heartbroken at the death of their beloved general. They staggered a moment, then fell back, and returned to Wolfe's Cove, above the city. Arnold, ignorant of what had happened, fought his way into the THE WORK OF 76. 305 Lower Town on the north. While leading the charge he was severely wounded and borne to the rear. Captain Morgan, who succeeded him, led his brave band farther and farther along the narrow and dangerous streets until he was overwhelmed and compelled to surrender. Arnold retired with his broken remnant to a point three miles above the city. Reinforcements soon began to arrive ; but the smallpox broke out in the camp, and active operations could not be resumed. As soon as the ice dis- appeared from the St. Lawrence, Quebec was strengthened by the arrival of fresh troops from England. Governor Carleton now began offensive movements ; the Americans fell back from post to post, until, by the mid- dle of the following June, Canada was entirely evacuated. The worst calamity of the w T hole campaign was the death of Gen- eral Richard Montgomery. He was one of the noblest of the many noble men who gave their lives in the cause of American liberty. Born of an illustrious Irish family, he became a soldier in his boyhood. He had shared the toils and the triumph of Wolfe. To the enthusiasm of a warm and affectionate nature he joined the highest order of military talents and the virtues of an exalted character. Even in England his death was mentioned with sorrow. New York, his adopted State, claimed his body, brought his remains to her own metropolis and buried them with tears. To after times the Congress of the nation transmitted his fame by erecting a noble monument. CHAPTER XXXIX. THE WORK OF 76. AT last came the king's answer to the appeal of Congress. It was such an answer as George III. and his ministers always made to the petitioners for human rights. The colonies were insulted and spurned ; their petition was treated with contempt. The king of England did not know any such a body as the Continental Congress. The first thing necessary was to disband the army and to submit without conditions. Then the monarch would settle all questions with each colony separately. By this offensive and tyrannical answer the day of independence was brought nearer. Meanwhile, General Howe had succeeded Gage in command of the 20 306 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. British troops in Boston. All winter long the city was besieged by Washington. By the middle of February the American army had in- creased to fourteen thousand men. The country became restless; and Congress urged the commander-in-chief to press the enemy with greater vigor. Washington, knowing the insufficiency of his supplies, and fear- ing the consequences of rashness more than the charge of inactivity, nar- rowed his lines, strengthened his works, and waited his opportunity. By the first day of spring, 1776, he felt himself strong enough to risk an assault ; the officers of his staff thought otherwise, and a different plan ■was adopted. On the north, Boston was commanded by the peninsula of Charles- town ; on the south, by Dorchester Heights. Since the battle of Bunker Hill the former position had been held by the British ; the latter was, as yet, unoccupied. Washington now resolved to take advantage of the enemy's oversight, to seize the Heights and drive Howe out of Boston. A strong entrenching party was prepared and put under com- mand of General Thomas. For two days the attention of the British was drawn by a constant fire from the American batteries. Then, on the night of the 4th of March, the de- tachment set out under cover of the darkness, passed over Dorchester Neck, and reached the Heights un- perceived. Through the night the Americans worked with an energy rarely equaled. The British, dis- tracted with the cannonade, noticed nothing unusual ; and when morning dawned, they could hardly trust their senses. There was a line of for- midable entrenchments frowning upon the city ; cannon were mounted, and the Americans in force. Howe saw at a glance that he must imme- diately carry the threatening redoubts or himself abandon Boston. En- raged at being outgeneraled, he ordered Lord Percy to select a column of two thousand four hundred men and storm the American works before nightfall. Percy put his men in order and proceeded as far as Castle Island, intending to make the assault in the afternoon. Washington visited the trenches and exhorted his men. It was the anniversary of the Boston Massacre, and the soldiers were eager to avenge the deaths of their coun- SIEGE OF BOSTON, 1776. 1775 76 77 78 79 SO 81 Louis George VIRGIN NORTH SOUTH GEORG p^ Ticond B| Crown NEW YO NEW JE NEW HA RHODE M| Lexingt MASSAC CONNEC Washing PENNSY MAR YE A DELAW XVI. Capture of Mo ntreal. Quebec. — Deat 17,000 Hessi III. Amer IA. Norfolk burn (AROLI Chart CAROEI IA. eroga. Point. American RK. New York l|^£0ttf7 Is fk^Wh m RSEY. W MI'S II I It ISLAND. on. ker Hill. HCSETTS British evac TICUT. ton appointed De clara L.VANIA. Silas Deane Dr.Fr commissioner ND. ARE. Alliance h of Montgom ery ans hired for ican army eva British the American cuates Canad The British fleet arrives ed by Lord Du nmore \A. eston. NA. Arrival of La ps3 Sag Har Fort Ed army arrives taken by the land. tie Plains. Fort Washingt Trenton. §H Princeton. E. [H uate Boston. Tryon's expe commander-in tion of Inde Philadel sent to Fran anklin, fc to France, r P Savan- nah. Fayette. bor. ward abandon at New York. nington. Saratoga, and British. Win ubbardton. French dition. -chief. pendence. phia captured, ce. British Brandytrine. Germantovm. with France. i£&Paul ministry offer in Chesapeake Sunbury capt ed. surrender of WkStony ter-quarters at Morristown. fleet in Narra ker Hill. f£ evacuate Phil Jones' victory. War terms to the Bay. \ King's » Mount ] Siege of ured by the Br Siege of Savan Am An Burgoyne. Point. K^ Spring gansett Bay. French Penobscot Riv adelphia. between Ej Americans BichmoiK avn.n G{ General Gi Charleston k's Corner. Sanders Cr SJ» Cowpei r*« Camde n & itish. nah. old's treas( dre" execut Mutiny ofi field. Mutiny of fleet arrivt Artie 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 Retirement Pre and and Holla |g3 Siege of Lord North, liminary trea Supplement nd. Defin of Gibraltar. ty. al treaty. itive treaty. <§^A. D. 1775-1789.^0^ // CHART III. \ rned by Arno Yorktown. Id. Washington Virgin retires to Mou ia cedes the to the Gov nt Vernon. North-western eminent. territory Virginia rat- ifies the Constitution. ord. ne's retreat. Six. Springs. The British evacu ate Charlesto n. South Caro- lina ratifies the Consti- tution. The British evacu ate Savannah. Georgia rati- fies the Con- stitution. Dissatis The faction in the British evacu army. ate New York. Decimal currency adop ted. New York ra- tifies the Constitution. New Jersey Pennsylvania line. line. New the Jersey ratifies Constitution. New Hamp- shire ratifies the Constitu'n Newport. tions. rebellion, tern Massa ter chusetts cedes ritory to the Shay's the North-wes Government. Massachusetts ratifies the Constitution. Connecticut ratifies the Constitution. old's depreda of Confeder ation ratifie d. shington re Constitu ven Constitu Constitu tional Con- tion. tion adopted, tion ratified. Wa signs his com mission. Annapo ven lis Con- tion. Maryland ra- tifies the Constitution. Dela the ware ratifies Constitution. THE WORK OF 76. 307 tryinen. A battle was momentarily expected ; but while Percy delayed, a violent storm arose and rendered the harbor impassable. It continued to blow for a whole day, and the attack could not be made. Before the following morning the Americans had so strengthened and extended their fortifications that all thoughts of an assault were abandoned. Howe found himself reduced to the humiliating extremity of giving up the capital of New England to the rebels. After some days there was an informal agreement between Washing- ton and the British general that the latter should be allowed to retire from Boston unmolested on condition that the city should not be burned. On the 1 7th of March the arrangement was consummated, and the whole British army went on board the fleet and sailed out of the harbor. Nearly fifteen hundred loyalists, fearing the vengeance of the patriots, left their homes and fortunes to escape with Howe. The American advance at once entered the city. On the 20th, Washington made a formal entry at the head of the triumphant army. The desolated town, escaping from the calamities of a ten months' siege, broke forth in exultation. The exiled patriots returned by thousands to their homes. The country was wild with delight. From all quarters came votes of thanks and messages of encouragement. Congress ordered a gold medal to be struck in honor of Washington, victorious over an enemy " for the first time put to flight." The next care of the commander-in-chief was to strengthen the defences of Boston. That done, he repaired with the main division of the army to New York. It was not known to what part of the coast Howe would direct his course ; and Washington feared that his antagonist might make a sudden descent in the neighborhood of Long Island. Gen- eral Lee pressed forward with the Connecticut militia, and reached New York just in time to baffle an attempt of Sir Henry Clinton, whose fleet arrived off Sandy Hook and threatened the city. Clinton next sailed southward, and on the 3d of May was joined by Sir Peter Parker, in command of another fleet, and Lord Cornwallis with two thou- sand five hundred men. The force was deemed sufficient for any enter- prise, and it was determined to capture Charleston. In the mean time, General Lee had reached the South, and was watching the movements of Clinton. The Carolinians rose in arms and flocked to Charleston. The city was fortified ; and a fort, which com- manded the entrance to the harbor, was built on Sullivan's Island. On the 4th of June the British squadron came in sight, and a strong detach- ment was landed on Long Island, a short distance east of Fort Sullivan. There was a delay until the 28th of the month ; then the British fleet began a furious bombardment of the fortress, which was commanded by 308 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Colonel Moultrie. Three men-of-war, attempting to pass the fort, were stranded. Clinton ordered a storming-party to wade the channel between Long Island and Sullivan's Island and carry the works by assault ; but the water was too deep to be forded, and Colonel Thompson, who was stationed with a company of riflemen on the opposite bank, drove the British back in confusion. For eight hours the vessels of the fleet poured a tempest of balls upon the fort ; but the walls, built of the spongy pal- metto, were little injured. The four hundred militiamen who composed the garrison fought like veterans. The republican flag was shot away and thrown outside of the parapet ; Sergeant Jasper leaped down from the wall, recovered the flag and set it in its place again. The fire from the fleet was returned with great spirit ; and as evening drew on the British were obliged to retire with a loss of more than two hundred men. Lord Campbell, the royal governor of South Carolina, was killed, and Admiral Parker was severely wounded. The loss of the garrison amounted in killed and wounded to thirty-two. As soon as the British could repair their shattered fleet they abandoned the siege and set sail for New York. In honor of its brave defender the fort on Sullivan's Island was named Fort Moultrie. During the summer Washington's forces were augmented to about twenty-seven thousand men ; but the terms of enlistment were constantly expiring ; sickness prevailed in the camp ; and the effective force was but little more than half as great as the aggregate. On the other hand, Great Britain was making the vastest preparations. By a treaty with some of the petty German States, seventeen thousand Hessian mercenaries were hired to fight against America. George III. was going to quell his re- volted provinces by turning loose upon them a brutal foreign soldiery. Twenty-five thousand additional English troops were levied ; an immense squadron was fitted out to aid in the reduction of the colonies, and a million dollars were voted for the extraordinary expenses of the war department. By these measures the Americans were greatly exasperated. Until now it had been hoped that the difficulty with the mother country could be satisfactorily adjusted without breaking allegiance to the British Crown. The colonists had constantly claimed to be loyal subjects of Great Britain, demanding only the rights and liberties of Englishmen. Now the case seemed hopeless ; and the sentiment of disloyalty spread with alarming rapidity. The people urged the general assemblies, and the general assemblies urged Congress, to a more decided assertion of sovereignty. The legislature of Virginia led the way by advising in outspoken terms a declaration of independence. Congress responded by recommending all THE WORK OF 76. 309 the colonies to adopt such governments as might best conduce to the hap- piness and safety of the people. This action was taken early in May, and in the course of the following month nearly all the provinces complied with the recommendation. Finally, on the 7th of June, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia offered a resolution in Congress declaring that the United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown ; and that all £>olitical connection between them and Great Britain is, and ought to be, dissolved. A long and exciting debate ensued. The sentiment of independence gained ground ; but there was still strong opposition to the movement. After some days the final consideration of Lee's resolution was postponed until the 1st of July. On the 11th of June a committee, consisting of five members, was appointed to prepare a more elaborate and formal dec- laration. Mr. Lee had been called home by sickness ; and his colleague, Thomas Jefferson, was accordingly made chairman of the committee. The other members were John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut and Robert R. Livingston of New York. The special work of preparing the paper was allotted to Jefferson and Adams ; the latter deferred to the former, whose vigorous style of writing specially fitted him for the task. The great document was accordingly produced in Jefferson's hand, with a few interlinings by Adams and Franklin. On the 1st of July, Lee's resolution was taken up, and at the same time the committee's report was laid before Congress. On the next day the original resolution was adopted. During the 3d, the formal declara- tion was debated with great spirit, and it became evident that the work of the committee would be accepted. The discussion was resumed on the morning of the 4th, and at two o'clock on the afternoon of that memorable day the Declaration of American Independence was adopted by a unanimous vote. All day long the old bellman of the State House had stood in the steeple ready to sound the note of freedom to the city and the nation. The hours went by ; the gray-haired veteran in the belfry grew discouraged, and began to say : " They will never do it — they will never do it." Just then the lad who had been stationed below ran out and exclaimed at the top of his voice, " Ring ! ring !" And the aged patriot did ring as he had never rung before. The multitudes that thronged the streets caught the signal and answered with shouts of exultation. Swift couriers bore the glad news throughout the land. Everywhere the declaration was received with enthusiastic applause. At Philadelphia the king's arms were torn down 310 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. • from the court-house and burned in the street. At "Williamsburg, Charleston and Savannah there were bonfires and illuminations. At Boston the declaration was read in Faneuil Hall, while the cannon from Fort Hill and Dorchester shook the city of the Puritans. At New York the populace pulled down the leaden statue of George III. and cast it into bullets. Washington received the message with joy, and ordered the declaration to be read at the head of each brigade. Former suffering and future peril were alike forgotten in the general rejoicing. The hading principles of the Declaration of Independence are these : That all men are created equal ; that all have a natural right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness j that human governments are insti- tuted for the sole purpose of securing the welfare of the people ; that the people have a natural right to alter their government whenever it becomes destructive of liberty ; that the government of George III. had become destructive of liberty ; that the despotism of the king and his ministers could be shown by a long list of indisputable proofs — and the proofs are given ; that time and again the colonies had humbly petitioned for a redress of grievances ; that all their petitions had been spurned with derision and contempt ; that the king's irrational tyranny over his Amer- ican subjects was no longer endurable ; that an appeal to the sword is pref- erable to slavery ; and that, therefore, the United Colonies of America are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States. To the support of this sublime declaration of principles the members of the Continental Congress mutually pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. On leaving Boston, General Howe sailed to Halifax. There he remained until the middle of June, when he embarked his forces and set sail for Sandy Hook. Early in July he landed a force of nine thou- sand men on Staten Island. Thither Clinton came from the unsuccess- ful siege of Charleston, and Admiral Howe, brother of General Howe, from England. The whole British force, now gathered in the vicinity of Xew York, amounted to fully thirty thousand men. Nearly half of them were the hated Hessians whom the king of Great Britain had hired at thirty- six dollars a head. Washington's army was inferior in numbers, poorly equipped and imperfectly disciplined. There Mas some delay in military operations ; for Lord Howe, the admiral, had been instructed to try conciliator}- measures with the Amer- icans. First, he sent to the American camp an officer with a despatch directed to George "Washington, Esquire. Of course "Washington refused to receive a communication which did not recognize his official position. In a short time Howe sent another message, addressed to George "Wash- THE WORK OF 76. Ill ington, etc., etc., etc. ; and the bearer, who was Howe's adjutar.:-. n 1 that and-so-forth might be translated General of the American Army. "Washington was the last man in the world to be caught with a subterfuge; and the adjutant was sent away. It was already well known that Howe's authority extended only to granting pardons, and to unes- sential matters about which the Americans were no longer concerned. "Washington therefore replied that since no offence had been committed no pardon was required ; that the colonies were now independent, and would defend themselves against all aggression. Baffled in his efforts, Lord Howe and his brother determined to begin hostilities. On the 22d of August the British, to the number of ten thousand, landed on the south-western coast of Long Island, near the village of New L'trecht. The Americans, about eight thousa:. - commanded by Generals Sullivan and Stirling, were posted in the v: of Brooklyn. The advance of the British was planned with great skill. From Gravesend, where Howe's forces were landed, th three roads to Brooklyn ; the British army was accordingly _ 1 in three divisions. The first column, commanded t, was to ad- vance by way of Utrecht and the Nan ws. The s - ... com- posed of the Hessians, under comma:. teral Heis - :o proceed to Flatbush, and thence to Bedford and Brooklyn. Fhc third and strong- -: liimn, led by Clinton and Cornwailis, was I :„ake a circuit to the right as far as Flatland, reach the Jamaica road, and pass by way of Bedford to the rear of the American left wing. All of the movements were executed with perfect ease and fatal precision. The advance from Gravesend began on the morning of the 27th of August. Grant's division proceeded as far as the hill now embraced in Greenwood Cemetery, where he met General Stirling with fifteen hundred men ; and the battle at once began. But in this part of the field there was no decisive result. Heister, in com- mand of the British centre, advanced beyond Flatbush, and engaged the main body of the Americans, under General Sullivan. Here the battle began with a brisk cannonade, in which the Hessians valued little or no ground until Sullivan was soddc BATTLE OF LO>"G ISLA-XD, 1. . 312 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. alarmed by the noise of battle on his left and rear, and the battalions of Clinton came rushing on the field. For General Putnam, who had come over and taken command of the entire force of the island, had, neglectful of Washington's orders, failed to guard the passes on the left of the American army. During the previous night Clinton had occupied the heights above the Jamaica road, and now his force came down, unopposed and unperceived, by way of Bedford. Sullivan found himself surrounded, cut off, hemmed in between the two divisions of Clinton and Heister. From that moment it was only a question as to what part of the army could be saved from destruction. The men fought desperately, and many broke through the closing lines of the British. The rest were scattered, killed or taken prisoners. Cornwallis's division pressed on to cut off the retreat of Stirling. At first the British were repulsed, and Stirling began his retreat toward Brooklyn. At Gowanus Creek a number of his men were drowned and many others captured; the rest reached the American lines in safety. Before the battle was ended Washington arrived on the field, and his soul was wrung with anguish at the sight. At first his army seemed ruined ; but his resolute and tranquil spirit rose above the disasters of the battle. Generals Stirling, Sullivan and Woodhull were all prisoners in the hands of the enemy. Nearly a thousand patriot soldiers were killed, wounded or missing. It seemed an easy thing for Clinton and Howe to press on and capture all the rest. Yet in a few hours Washington brought together his shattered forces, reorganized his brigades and stood ready for an assault in the trenches back of Brooklyn. During the 28th, Howe, who was a sluggish, sensual man, ate pudding and waited for a fitter day. On the 29th there was a heavy fog over island and bay and river. Washington, clearly perceiving that he could not hold his position, and that his army was in great peril, re- solved to withdraw to New York. The enterprise was extremely hazard- ous, requiring secrecy, courage and despatch. By eight o'clock on that memorable night every boat and transport that could be obtained was lying at the Brooklyn ferry. There, under cover of the darkness, the embarkation began. Washington personally superintended every move- ment. All night with muffled oars the boatmen rowed silently back and forth, bearing the patriots to the northern side of the channel. At day- light on the following morning, just as the last boatload was leaving the wharf, the movement was discovered by the British. They rushed into the American entrenchments, and found nothing there except a few worth- less guns. After a severe battle which had cost him nearly four hundred men, Howe had gained possession of Long Island — and nothing more, THE WORK OF 76. 313 General Greene, who was a competent judge, declared that Washington's retreat was the most masterly he ever read or heard of. The defeat on Long Island was very disastrous to the American cause. The army was dispirited. As fast as their terms of enlistment expired the troops returned to their homes. Desertions became alarm- ingly frequent ; and it was only by constant exertion that Washington kept his army from disbanding. To add to the peril, the British fleet doubled Long Island and anchored within cannon-shot of New York. Washington, knowing himself unable to defend the city, called a council of war, and it was determined to retire to the Heights of Harlem. On the 15th of September the British landed in force on the east side of Manhattan Island, about three miles above New York. Thence they extended their lines across the island to the Hudson, and took possession of the city. It was in this juncture of affairs that Howe made overtures of peace to Congress. General Sullivan was paroled and sent to Philadel- phia as Howe's agent; but Congress was in no mood to be conciliated. Franklin, on behalf of that body, wrote Howe a letter, telling him many unpalatable trutlis about what might henceforth be expected from the American colonies. On the next day after the British gained possession of New York, there was a skirmish between the advance parties of the two armies north of the city. The Americans gained a decided advantage, and the British were driven back with a loss of a hundred men. On the American side the loss included Colonel Knowlton and Major Leitch — two valuable officers — and nearly fifty privates. On the night of the 20th of Septem- ber a fire broke out in New York and destroyed nearly five hundred buildings. On the 16th of October, while the Americans were still in their entrenchments above the city, Howe embarked his forces, passed into Long Island Sound and landed in the vicinity of Westchester. The object was to get upon the American left flank and cut off communica- tions with the Eastern States. Washington, ever on the alert, detected the movement, put his army in motion and faced the British east of Har- lem River. For some days the two generals manoeuvred, and on the 28th a battle was brought on at White Plains. Howe began the engage- ment with a furious cannonade, which was answered with spirit. The Americans were driven from one important position," but immediately re- entrenched themselves in another. Night came on; Howe waited for reinforcements, and Washington withdrew to the heights of North Castle. Howe remained for a few days at White Plains, and then returned to New York. Washington, apprehending that the British would now proceed 314 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. SCENE OF OPERATIONS ABOUT NEW YORK, 1776. against Philadelphia, crossed to the west bank of the Hudson and took post with General Greene at Fort Lee. Four thousand men were left at North Castle under command of General Lee. Fort Washington, on Manhattan Island, five miles north of the city, was defended by three thousand men under Colonel Magaw. This fort was a place of great natural and artificial strength. The skill of its construction had attracted the attention of Washington and led to an acquaintance with the engineer, who from that time forth, through the stormy vi- cissitudes of nearly a quarter of a century, en- joyed the unctouded confidence of his chief; the engineer was Alexander Hamilton, then a stripling of but twenty years of age. On the 16th of November the British attacked Fort Washington in overwhelming force. The garrison made a stubborn defence. More than five hundred of the assailants were killed or wounded. But valor could not prevail against superior num- bers, and Magaw, after losing a hundred and fifty men, was obliged to capitulate. The garrison, numbering more than two thousand, were made prisoners of war and crowded into the foul jails of New York. Two days after the surrender, Cornwallis crossed the Hudson with a body of six thousand men and marched against Fort Lee. Seeing that a defence would only end in worse disaster, Washington hastily withdrew across the Hackensack. All the baggage and military stores collected in Fort Lee fell into the hands of the British, who at once pressed forward after the retreating Americans. Washington with his army, now reduced to three thousand men, crossed the Passaic to Newark ; but Cornwallis and Knyp- hausen came hard after the fugitives. The patriots retreated to Elizabeth- town, thence to New Brunswick, thence to Princeton, and finally to Trenton on the Delaware. The British were all the time in close pursuit, and the music of their bands was frequently heard by the rearguard of the American army. Nothing but the consummate skill of Washington saved the remnant of his forces from destruction. Despair seemed settling on the country like a pall. On the 8th of December, Washington crossed the Delaware. The British essayed to do the same, but the American commander had secreted or destroyed every boat within seventy miles. In order to effect his passage, Cornwallis must build a bridge or wait for the freezing of the THE WORK OF 76. 315 river. The latter course was chosen ; and the British army was stationed in detachments in various towns and villages east of the Delaware. Tren- ton was held by a body of nearly two thousand Hessians under Colonel Rahl. It was seen that as soon as the river should be frozen the British would march unopposed into Philadelphia. Congress accordingly ad- journed to Baltimore ; and there, on the 20th of the month, a resolution was adopted arming Washington with dictatorial powers to direct all the operations of the war. Meanwhile, the British fleet under command of Admiral Parker had left New York for Narragansett Bay. On the same day that Wash- ington crossed the Delaware the islands of Rhode Island, Prudence and Conanicut were taken ; and the American squadron under Commander Hopkins was blockaded in Blackstone River. During his retreat across New Jersey, Washington had sent repeated despatches to General Lee, in command of the detachment at North Castle, to join the main army as soon as possible. Lee was a proud, insubordinate man, and virtually disobeyed his orders. Marching leisurely into New Jersey, he reached Morristown. Here he tarried, and took up his quarters at an inn at Basking Ridge. On the 13th of December, a squad of British cavalry dashed up to the tavern, seized Lee and hurried him off to New York. General Sullivan, who had recently been exchanged, now took command of Lee's division, and hastened to join Washington. Fifteen hundred volunteers from Philadelphia and vicinity were added, making the entire American force a little more than six thousand. The tide of misfortune turned at last. Washington saw in the disposition of the British forces an opportunity to strike a blow for his disheartened country. The leaders of the enemy were off their guard. They believed that the war was ended. Cornwallis obtained leave of absence, left New Jersey under command of Grant, and made preparations to return to England. The Hessians on the east side of the river were spread out from Trenton to Burlington. Washington conceived the bold design of crossing the Delaware and striking the detachment at Trenton before a concentration of the enemy's forces could be effected. The American army was accordingly arranged in three divisions. The first, under General Cadwallader, was to cross the river at Bristol and attack the British at Burlington. General Ewing with his brigade was to pass over a little below Trenton for the purpose of intercepting the retreat. Washington himself, with Greene and Sullivan and twenty-four hundred men, was to cross nine miles above Trenton, march down the river and assault the town. The movement was planned with the utmost secrecy — the preparations made with prudence and care. Christmas night was 316 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. ;otUeatoiui c/ '^ selected as the time ; for it was known that the Hessians would spend the day in drinking and carousals. About the 20th of the month, the weather became very cold ; and by the evening of the 25th the Delaware was filled with floating ice, Ewing and Cadwallader were both baffled in their efforts to cross the river. "Washington's division succeeded in getting over, but the passage was delayed till three o'clock in the morning. All hope of reaching Trenton before daybreak was at an end ; but Washington, believing that the Hessians would sleep late after their revels, divided his army into two columns and pressed forward. One division, led by Sullivan, passed down the river to attack the town on the west; the other, commanded by Washington and Greene, made a circuit to the Princeton road. The move- ment was entirely successful. At eight o'clock in the morning the American columns came rush- ing into the village from both directions. The astonished Hessians sprang from their quarters and attempted to form in line. At the first onset Colonel Rahl Mas mortally wounded. Forty or fifty others fell before the volleys of the patriots. For a few minutes there was confusion, and then a cry for quarter. Nearly a thousand of the dreaded Hessians threw down their arms and begged for mercy. At the first alarm about six hundred light horse and infantry had escaped toward Bordcntown. All the rest were made prisoners of war. Before nightfall Washington, with his victorious men and the whole body of captives, was safe on the other side of the Delaware. The battle of Trenton roused the nation from despondency. Con- fidence in the commander and hope in the ultimate success of the Amer- ican cause were everywhere revived. The militia from the neighboring -orovinces flocked to the general's standard ; and fourteen hundred sol- diers, whose term of enlistment now expired, cheerfully re-entered the service. It was at this time that Robert Morris of Philadelphia, the great financier of the Revolution, came forward with his princely fortune to the support of his distressed country. As to Cornwallis, he found it nec- essary to postpone his visit to England and hasten back to New Jersey. Three days after his victory, Washington again crossed the Del- aware and took post at Trenton. Here all the American detachments in the vicinity were ordered to assemble. To General Heath, in command of the New England militia stationed at Peekskill, on the Pludson, Wash- BATTLE OF TEENTON AND PRINCETON, 1776-7. OPERATIONS OF 77. 317 ington sent orders to move into New Jersey. The British fell back from their outposts on the Delaware and concentrated in great force at Prince- ton. Cornwallis took command in person, and resolved to attack and overwhelm Washington at Trenton. So closed the year. Ten days previously, Howe only waited for the freezing of the Delaware before taking up his quarters in Philadelphia. Now it was a question whether he would be able to hold a single town in New Jersey. CHAPTER XL. OPERATIONS OF '77. ON the 1st of January, 1777, "Washington's army at Trenton numbered about five thousand men. On the next day Cornwallis approached from Princeton with greatly superior forces. The British were exasper- ated and the Americans resolute. During the afternoon there was severe and constant skirmishing in the fields and along the roads to the east and north of Trenton. As the columns of the enemy pressed on, Washington abandoned the village and took up a stronger position on the south side of Assanpink Creek. The British, attempting to force a passage, were driven back ; it was already sunset, and Cornwallis deferred the attack till the morrow. 2. Washington's position was critical in the extreme. To attempt to recross the Delaware was hazardous. To retreat in any direction was to lose all that he had gained by his recent victory. To be beaten in battle was utter ruin. In the great emergency he called a council of war and announced his determination to leave the camp by night, make a circuit to the east, pass the British left flank and strike the detachment at Prince- ton before his antagonist could discover or impede the movement. Orders were immediately issued for the removal of the baggage to Burlington. In order to deceive the enemy, the camp-fires along the Assanpink were brightly kindled and a guard left to keep them burning through the night. Then the army was put in motion by the circuitous route to Princeton. Everything was done in silence, and the British sentries walked their beats until the morning light showed them a deserted camp. Just then the roar of the American cannon, thirteen miles away, gave Cornwallis notice of how he had been outgeneraled. At sunrise Washington was entering Princeton. At the same mo- 318 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. ment the British regiments stationed there were marching out by the Trenton road to reinforce Cornwallis. The Americans met them in the edge of the village, and the battle at once began. The patriots, under General Mercer, posted themselves behind a hedge, and were doing good work with their muskets until the British charged bayonets. Then the militia gave way in confusion, and Mercer, one of the bravest of the brave, received a mortal wound. But the Pennsylvania reserves and regulars were at hand, led by the commander-in-chief. The valor of Washington never shone with brighter lustre. He spurred among his flying men, who rallied at his call. He rode between the hostile lines and reined his horse within thirty yards of the enemy's column. There he stood. From both sides there came'a crash of musketry. Washington's aid drew his hat over his eyes that he might not see the chieftain die. The wind tossed up the smoke, and there, unhurt, was the sublime leader of the American armies. The British were already broken and flying, with a loss of four hundred and thirty men in killed, wounded and missing. The loss of the Americans was small ; but the gallant Mercer was greatly lamented. Washington had intended to press on to Brunswick and destroy the enemy's magazines. His men, however, were too much exhausted for the march. The legions of Cornwallis were already in hearing, and there was no time for delay. Washington accordingly withdrew to the north, and on the 5th of January took a strong position at Morristown. Corn- wallis hastened to New Brunswick to protect his stores. In a short time the whole of New Jersey north of Newark and Elizabethtown was recov- ered by the patriots. In all parts of the State the militia rose in arms ; straggling parties of the British were cut off, and the outposts of the enemy were kept in constant alarm. The Hessians, whose barbarous invasion and brutal conduct had almost ruined the country, were the special objects of patriot vengeance. Vexed by the perpetual assaults of partisan war- fare, Cornwallis gradually contracted his lines, abandoning one post after another, until his whole force was cooped up in New Brunswick and Amboy. The boastful British army that was to have taken Philadelphia now thought only of a safe return to New York. In the early spring, General Howe despatched a fleet up the Hudson to destroy the American stores at Peekskill. Macdougal, the command- ant, finding himself too feeble to make a successful defence, blew up the magazines and retreated. On the 13th of April Cornwallis marched a division out of New Brunswick and surprised General Lincoln, who was stationed at Boundbrook on the Raritan ; but the latter made good his retreat with a trifling loss. On the 25th of the same month, General Tryon with a detachment of two thousand men landed on the north shore OPERATIONS OF 77. 819 of Long Island Sound, and proceeded against Danbury, Connecticut. After destroying a large quantity of stores and burning the town the British began a retreat to the coast. Immediately they were attacked on flank and rear by the exasperated patriots, who, led by the aged Wooster and the daring Arnold, made charge after charge on the retreating foe. Before regaining their shipping the British lost more than two hundred men ; of the patriots about sixty were killed and wounded. The veteran Wooster, now sixty-eight years of age, fell in this engagement. A similar expedition, undertaken by the Americans, was more suc- cessful. Colonel Meigs, of Connecticut, learning that the British were collecting stores at Sag Harbor, near the eastern extremity of Long Island, gathered two hundred militiamen, and determined to surprise the post. Ou the night of the 22d of May he embarked his men in whale-boats, crossed the Sound, and reached Sag Harbor just before daydawn on the following morning. The British, numbering a hundred, were over- powered ; only four of them escaped ; five or six were killed, and the re- maining ninety were made prisoners. A gun-ship, ten loaded transports and a vast amount of stores were destroyed by the victorious patriots, who, without the loss of a man, returned to Guilford with their captives. For this gallant deed Colonel Meigs received an elegant sword from Congress. Washington remained in his camp at Morristown until the latter part of May. Cornwallis was still at New Brunswick, and it was neces- sary that the American commander should watch the movements of his antagonist. The patriot forces of the North were now concentrated on the Hudson ; and a large camp, under command of Arnold, was laid out on the Delaware. Both divisions were within supporting distance of Wash- ington, who now broke up his winter-quarters and took an advantageous position at Boundbrook, only ten miles from the British camp. Howe now crossed over from New York, reinforced Cornwallis and threatened an attack upon the American lines ; but Washington stood his ground, and Howe pressed forward as far as Somerset Court-House, in the direc- tion of the Delaware. The movement was only a feint intended to draw Washington from his position ; but he was too wary to be deceived, and the British fell back through New Brunswick to Amboy. The American lines were now advanced as far as Quibbletown. While in this position, Howe, on the night of the 25th of June, turned suddenly about and made a furious attack on the American van ; but Washington withdrew Ins forces without serious loss and regained his position at Boundbrook. Again the British retired to Amboy, and on the 30th of the month crossed over to Staten Island. After more than six months of manoeuvring and fighting the invading army was fairly driven out of New Jersey. 320 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. On the 10th of July a brilliant exploit was performed in Rhode Island. Colonel William Barton, of Providence, learning that Major- General Prescott of the British army was quartered at a farm-house near Newport, apart from his division, determined to capture him. On the night of the 10th of July the daring colonel, with forty volunteers, em- barked at Providence, dropped down the bay, and reached the island near Prescott's lodgings. The movement was not discovered. The British sentinel was deceived with a plausible statement, and then threat- ened with death if he did not remain quiet. The patriots rushed forward, burst open Prescott's door, seized him in bed, and hurried him, half clad, to the boats. The alarm was raised ; a squad of cavalry came charging to the water's edge ; but the provincials were already paddling out of sight with their prisoner. This lucky exploit gave the Americans an officer of equal rank to exchange for General Lee. Colonel Barton was rewarded with promotion and an elegant sword. Meanwhile, Congress had returned to Philadelphia. The American government was at this time essentially weak in its structure and ineffi- cient in action. Nevertheless, there was much valuable legislation which tended to strengthen the army and the nation. But the most auspicious sign that gladdened the patriots was the unequivocal sympathy of the French. From the beginning of the contest the people of France had espoused the American cause. Now, after the lapse of two years, their sympathy became more outspoken and enthusiastic. True, the French government would do nothing openly which was calculated to provoke a war with Great Britain. Outwardly the forms and sentiments of peace were preserved between the two nations ; but secretly the French rejoiced at British misfortune and applauded the action of the colonies. Soon the Americans came to understand that if money was required France would lend it ; if supplies were needed, France would furnish them ; if arms were to be purchased, France had arms to sell. During the year 1777 the French partisans of America managed to supply the colonies with more than twenty thousand muskets and a thousand barrels of powder. At last the republicans of France, displeased with the double-deal- ing of their government, began to embark for America. Foremost of all came the gallant young Marquis of La Fayette.* Though the king withheld permiasion, though the British minister protested, though family and home and kindred beckoned the youthful nobleman to return, he left all to fight the battle of freedom in another land. Fitting a vessel at his own expense, he eluded the officers, and with the brave De Kalb and a small company of followers reached Georgetown, South Carolina, in * La Fayette's name was Gilbert Moti&r. OPERATIONS OF 77. 321 April of 1777. He at once entered the patriot army as a volunteer, and in the following July was commissioned as a major-general. Not yet twenty years of age, he clung to Washington as son to father, and through life their friendship was unclouded. One of the most important events of the whole war was the cam- paign of Lieutenant-General Burgoyne. This distinguished British officer arrived at Quebec in March of 1777. Superseding Sir Guy Carleton in command of the English forces in Canada, he spent the months of April and May in organizing a powerful army for the invasion of New York. By the beginning of June he had thoroughly equipped a force of ten thou* sand men, of whom about seven thousand were British and Hessian vet- erans; the rest were Canadians and Indians. The plan of the campaign embraced a descent upon Albany by way of Lake Champlain, Lake George and the Upper Hudson. From Albany it was Burgoyne's pur- pose to descend the river to New York and unite his forces with the main division of the British army. By this means New England was to be cut off from the Middle and Southern colonies and the whole country placed at the mercy of Howe. That any successful resistance could be offered to the progress of the invading army was little imagined. On the 1st of June Burgoyne reached St. John's, at the foot of Lake Champlain, and on the 16th proceeded to Crown Point. This place, which was undefended, was occupied by a British garrison ; and the main army swept on to Ticonderoga, which was at that time held by three thousand men under General St. Clair. The British soon gained possession of Mount Defiance, and planted a battery seven hundred feet above the American works. Mount Hope was also seized and retreat by way of Lake George cut off. St. Clair, seeing that resistance would be hopeless, abandoned the fort on the night of the 5th of July, and escaped with the garrison by way of Mount Independence and Wood Creek. The British pressed after the fugitives, and overtook them at Hubbardton, a village in Vermont, seventeen miles from Ticonderoga. A sharp engage- ment ensued, in which the Americans fought so obstinately as to check the pursuit ; and then continued their retreat to Fort Edward. On the fol- lowing day the British reached Whitehall and captured a large quantity of baggage, stores and provisions. At this time the American army of the North was commanded by General Schuyler, a man whose patriotism was greater than his abilities. His headquarters were at Fort Edward, where he remained until after the arrival of St. Clair. The garrison now numbered between four and five thousand men ; but this force was deemed inadequate to hold the pb.ee against Burgoyne's army. Schuyler therefore evacuated the post and 322 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. retreated down the Hudson as far as the islands at the mouth of the Mohawk. Burgoyne came on by way of Fort Ann, which the Americans had demolished, and thence through the woods over obstructed roads to Fort Edward, where he arrived on the 30th of July. Fearing that his supplies would be exhausted before he could reach Albany, the British general now made a halt, and despatched Colonel Baum with five hundred men to seize the provincial stores at Bennington, Vermont. Colonel John Stark rallied the New Hampshire militia, and on the 15th of August met the British a short distance from the village. On the follow- ing morning there was a furious battle, in which Baum's force was fairly annihilated. A battalion of Hessians, led by Breymann, arrived on the field, only to be utterly routed by the Americans, who were reinforced by the gallant colonel Warner. The British lost a hundred and forty in killed and wounded, and nearly seven hundred prisoners. The whole country was thrilled by the victory, and the patriots began to rally from all quarters. A few days after the battle of Bennington, Burgoyne received in- telligence of a still greater reverse. At the beginning of the invasion a large force of Canadians, Tories and Indians, commanded by General St. Legcr, had been sent by way of Oswego against Fort Schuyler, at the head of navigation on the Mohawk. This important post was held by a small garrison under Colonel Ganscvoort. On the 3d of August St. Legcr invested the fort, and it seemed that a successful defence was impossible ; but the brave General Herkimer rallied the militia of the surrounding country and advanced to the relief of the garrison. When Hearing the fort, the patriots fell into an Indian ambuscade, and a terrible hand-to- hand conflict ensued in the woods. Herkimer was defeated with a loss of a hundred and sixty men iu killed, wounded and prisoners. The loss of the savages was almost as great. Hardly had the conflict ended when the garrison made a sally, carried everything before them, and then fell back with trophies and prisoners. Already the impetuous and fearless Arnold had volunteered to lead a detachment from the Hudson for the relief of the fort. At his approach the savages plundered the British camp and fled. St. Leger, dismayed at the treachery of the barbarians, raised the siege and retreated. Fort Schuyler was saved and strengthened. Such was the news that was borne to Burgoyne at Fort Edward. The British general had now lost a month in procuring supplies from Canada. Should he retreat? Kuin and disgrace were in that direction. Should he go forward? More than nine thousand patriot soldiers were in that direction. For General Lincoln had arrived with the militia of New England ; Washington had' sent several detachments OPERATIONS OF '77. 323 SCENE OF BURGOYNE'S INVASION, 1777. from the regular army; Morgan had come with his famous riflemen. Meanwhile, General Gates had superseded Schuyler in command of the northern army. On the 8th of September the American headquarters were advanced to Stillwater. At Bemis's Heights, a short distance north of this place, a strong camp was laid out and fortified under direction of the noted Polish engineer Thaddeus Kos- ciusko. On the 14th of the month, Burgoyne crossed the Hudson and took post at Saratoga. Until the 18th he advanced his camp a mile each day, when the two armies were face to face and but two miles apart. On the afternoon of the 19th the advance parties of the British attacked the American wings, and a general battle ensued, continuing until nightfall. The conflict, though severe, was indecisive; the Americans retired within their lines, and the British slept under arms on the field. To the patriots, whose num- bers were constantly increasing, the result of the battle was equivalent to a victory. The condition of Burgoyne grew more and more critical. On all sides the lines of Gates were closing around him. His supplies failed ; his soldiers were put on partial rations ; his Canadian and Indian allies deserted his standard. But the British general was courageous and resolute ; he strengthened his defences and flattered his men with the hope that General Clinton, who now commanded the British army in New York, would make a diversion in their favor. The latter did ascend the river as far as Forts Clinton and Montgomery. Both these forts, after an obstinate defence, were carried by assault. Colonel Vaughan was sent on with a thousand men as far as the town of Kingston, which was burned ; besides the destruction of stores and private property, nothing further was accomplished, and the condition of Burgoyne became des- perate. On the 7th of October he hazarded another battle, in which he lost his bravest officers and nearly seven hundred privates. The conflict was terrible, lasting from two o'clock in the afternoon till twilight. At last Morgan's riflemen singled out the brave General Fraser, who com- manded the British right, and killed him. His disheartened men turned and fled from the field. On the American side, Arnold, who had re- signed his commission, rode at full speed to his old command, and, without authority, became the inspiring genius of the battle. He charged like a madman, drove the enemy before him, eluded Gates's aid who was sent to 324 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. call him back, burst into the British camp and was severely wounded. The Americans were completely victorious. On the night after the battle Burgoyne led his shattered army to a stronger position. The Americans immediately occupied the abandoned camp, and then pressed after the fugitives ; for the British were already retreating. On the 9th of October Burgoyne reached Saratoga and attempted to escape to Fort Edward. But Gates and Lincoln now com- manded the river, and the proud Briton was hopelessly hemmed in. He held out to the last extremity, and finally, when there were only three days between his soldiers and starvation, was driven to surrender., On the 17th of October terms of capitulation were agreed on, and the whole army, numbering five thousand seven hundred and ninety-one, became prisoners of war. Among the captives were six members of the British Parliament. A splendid train of brass artillery consisting of forty-two pieces, together with nearly live thousand muskets, and an immense quantity of ammunition and stores, was the further fruit of the victory. The valor of the patriots had fairly eclipsed the warlike renown of Great Britain. As soon as Burgoyne's invasion was at an end, a large portion of the victorious army of the North was despatched to the aid of Washing- ton. For, in the mean time, a great campaign had been in progress in the South ; and the patriots were sorely pressed. At the beginning of J uly, Howe had abandoned New Jersey. On the 23d of the same month he sailed with eighteen thousand men to attack Philadelphia by way of the Delaware. Washington, suspecting the object of the expedition, broke up his camp and marched rapidly southward. Off the capes of Virginia Howe learned that the Americans had obstructed the Delaware, so as to prevent the passage of his fleet. He therefore determined to enter the Chesapeake, anchor at the head of the bay and make the attack by land. As soon as Washington obtained information of the enemy's plans, he advanced his headquarters from Philadelphia to Wilmington, and there the American army, numbering between eleven and twelve thousand men, was concentrated. The forces of Howe were vastly superior in numbers and equipments, but Washington hoped by selecting his ground and acting on the defensive to beat back the invaders and save the capital. On the 25th of August, the British landed at Elk River, in Mary- land, and nine days afterward began their march toward Philadelphia. After a council of war and some changes in the arrangement of his forces, Washington selected the left bank of the Brandywine as his line of de- fence. The left wing of the American army was stationed at Chad's Ford OPERATIONS OF 77. 325 to dispute the passage, while the right wing, under General Sullivan, was extended for three miles up the river. On the 11th of September the British reached the opposite bank and began battle. What seemed to be their principal attack was made by the Hessians under Ivnyphausen at the ford ; and here Wayne's division held the enemy in check. But the onset of Knyphausen was only a feint to keep the Americans engaged until a stronger column of the British, led by Cornwallis and Howe, could inarch up the south bank of the Brandywine and cross at a point above the American right. In this way Sullivan, who was not on the alert, allowed himself to be outflanked. Washington was misled by false in- formation ; the right wing, though the men under La Fayette and Stir- ling fought with great courage, was crushed in by Cornwallis ; and the day was hopelessly lost. During the night the defeated patriots retreated to Westchester. Greene brought up the rear in good order ; through his efforts and those of the commander-in-chief the army was saved from destruction. The loss of the Americans in killed, wounded and missing amounted to fully a thousand men ; that of the British to five hundred and eighty-four. The gallant La Fayette was severely wounded ; Count Pulaski, a brave Pole who had espoused the patriot cause, so distinguished himself in this en- gagement that Congress honored him with the rank of brigadier and gave him command of the cavalry. On the day after the battle, Washington continued his retreat to Philadelphia, and then took post at Germantown, a few miles from the city. Undismayed by his reverse, he resolved to risk another engagement. Accordingly, on the 15th of the month, he recrossed the Schuylkill and marched toward the British camp. Twenty miles below Philadelphia he met Howe at Warren's Tavern. For a while the two armies manoeuvred, the enemy gaining the better position ; then a spirited skirmish ensued, and a great battle was imminent. But just as the conflict was beginning a violent tempest of wind and rain swept over the field. The combatants were deluged, their cartridges soaked, and fighting made impossible. On the next day Ho Ave marched clown the Schuylkill ; Washington recrossed the river and confronted his antagonist. Howe turned suddenly about and hurried up stream along the right bank in the direction of Reading. Washington, fearing for his stores, pressed forward up the left bank to Pottstown. But the move- ment of the British westward was only feigned; again Howe wheeled, marched rapidly to the ford above Norristown, crossed the river and hastened to Philadelphia. On the 26th of September the city was entered without opposition, and the main division of the British army encamped 1 at Germantown. 326 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. At the approach of Howe, Congress adjourned to Lancaster. On the 27th of September the members met at that place, and again adjourned to York, where they assembled on the 30th and continued to hold their sessions until the British evacuated Philadelphia in the following summer. Washington now made his camp on Skippack Creek, about twenty miles from the city. As soon as Howe found himself safe in the " rebel cap- ital," as he was pleased to call it, he despatched a large division of his army to capture forts Mifflin and Mercer on the Delaware. Germantown was thus considerably weakened, and Washington resolved to attempt a a surprise. The same plan of attack which had been so successful at Trenton was again adopted. On the night of the 3d of October the American army, arranged in several divisions, marched silently toward Germantown. The roads were rough, and the different columns reached the British outposts at irregular intervals. The morning was foggy, and the movements of both armies were unsteady and confused. There was much severe fighting, and at one time it seemed that the British would be overwhelmed ; but they gained possession of a large stone house and held it. A foolish attempt to dislodge them gave the enemy time to rally. Some strong columns of Americans were kept out of the battle by the inefficiency of their commanders; the tide turned against the patriots, and the day was lost. Of the Americans a hundred and fifty- two were killed, five hundred and twenty-one wounded, and about four hundred missing. Howe reported the British loss at five hundred and thirty-five. The retreat of the Americans was covered by Greene and Pulaski. On the 22d of October Fort Mercer, on the New Jersey side of the Delaware, seven miles below Philadelphia, was assaulted by twelve hundred Hessians under Count Donop. The garrison, though number- ing: but four hundred, made a brave and successful resistance. The assault was like that at Bunker Hill. Count Donop received a mortal wound, and nearly four hundred of his men fell before the American entrenchments. At the same time the British fleet, assisted by a land- force from Philadelphia, attacked Fort Mifflin on Mud Island, in the Delaware. Here also the assailants met with an obstinate resistance. The assault became a siege, which lasted till the 15th of November. The patriots held out against superior numbers until every gun was dismounted and every palisade demolished. Then at midnight the ruined fortress was set on fire, and the garrison escaped to Fort Mercer. To make a second attack on this place Howe despatched two thousand men under Cornwallis. Washington sent General Greene to succor the fortress ; but Cornwallis was strongly reinforced, and the American general would not OPERATIONS OF 77. 327 hazard a battle. On the 20th of November Fort Mercer was abandoned to the British ; and thus General Howe obtained undisputed control of the Delaware. After the battle of Germantown Washington took up his head- quarters at Whitemarsh, twelve miles from Philadelphia. Winter was approaching, and the patriots began to suffer for food and clothing. Howe, knowing the distressed condition of the Americans, determined to surprise their camp. On the evening of the 2d of December he held a council of war, and it was decided to march against Washington on the following night. But Lydia Darrah, at whose house the council was held, overheard the plan of the enemies of her country. On the follow- ing morning she obtained a passport from Lord Howe, left the city on pretence of going to mill, rode rapidly to the American lines, and sent information of the impending attack to Washington. When, on the morning of the 4th, the British approached Whitemarsh they found the cannon mounted and the patriots standing in order of battle. The British general manoeuvred for four days, and then marched back to Philadel- phia. During the remainder of the winter the city was occupied by nearly twenty thousand English and Hessian soldiers. There they reveled and rioted. Everything that the magazines of Great Britain could furnish was lavished upon the army of invaders who lay warmly housed in the city of Penn. In the patriot camp there was a different scene. On the 11th of December Washington left his position at White- marsh and went into winter-quarters at Valley Forge on the right bank of the Schuylkill. The march thither occupied four days. Thousands of the soldiers were without shoes, and the frozen ground was marked with bloody footprints. The sagacity of Washington had pointed to a strong position for his encampment. To the security of the river and hills the additional security of redoubts and entrenchments was added. Log cabins were built for the soldiers, and everything was done that could be done to secure the comfort of the suffering pat- riots. But it was a long and dreary winter ; moaning and anguish were heard in the camp, and the echo fell heavy on the soul of the commander. These were the darkest days of Washington's life. Congress in a mea- sure abandoned him, the people withheld their sympathies. The brilliant success of the army of the North was unjustly compared with the reverses ENCAMPMENT AT VALLEY FORGE, 1777-8. 828 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. of the army of the South. Many men high in military and civil station left the great leader unsupported in the hour of his grief; even Samuel Adams, impatient under calamity, withdrew his confidence. There was a miserable conspiracy headed by Gates, Conway and Mifflin. Washing- ton was to be superseded, and Gates or Lee was to be made commander- in-chief. But the alienation was only for a moment ; the allegiance of the army remained unshaken, and the nation's confidence in the troubled chieftain became stronger than ever. Still, at the close of 1777, the patriot cause was obscured with clouds and misfortune. CHAPTER XLI. FRANCE TO THE RESCUE. FOUR months before the declaration of independence, Silas Deane of Connecticut was appointed commissioner to France. His business at the French court was to act as the political and commercial agent of the United Colonies. His first service was to make a secret arrangement with Beaumarchais, a rich French merchant, by which the latter was to supply the Americans with the materials necessary for carrying on the war. The king of France and his prime minister, Vergennes, winked at this proceeding ; but the agents of Great Britain were jealous and suspicious, and it was not until the autumn of 1777 that a ship laden with two hun- dred thousand dollars' worth of arms, ammunition and specie could be sent to America. In that ship came Baron Steuben, a veteran soldier and disciplinarian from the army of Frederic the Great. Arriving at Ports- mouth, the baron tarried a short time in New England, and then repaired to York, where Congress was in session. From that body he received a commission, and at once joined Washington at Valley Forge. His acces- sion to the American army was an event of great importance. He re- ceived the appointment of inspector-general ; and from the day in which he entered upon the discharge of his duties there was a marked improve- ment in the condition and discipline of the soldiers. The American reg- ulars were never again beaten when confronted by the British in equal numbers. In November of 1776 Arthur Lee and Benjamin Franklin were appointed by Congress to negotiate an open treaty of friendship and com- FRANCE TO THE RESCUE. 329 merce with the French king. In the following month they reached Paris and began their conferences with Verge nnes. For a long time King Louis and his minister were wary of the proposed alliance. They cor- dially hated Great Britain, they rejoiced that the British empire was about to be dismembered, they gave secret encouragement to the colonies to hold out in their rebellion, they loaned money and shipped arms to America ; but an open alliance was equivalent to a war with England, and that the French court dreaded. Now it was that the genius of Dr. Franklin shone with a peculiar lustre. At the gay court of Louis XVI. he stood as the representative of his country. No nation ever had an ambassador of greater wisdom and sagacity. His reputation for learning had preceded him j the dignity of his demeanor and the simplicity of his manners added to his fame. Whether as philosopher or diplomatist, no man in that great city of fashion was the equal of the venerable American patriot. His wit and genial humor made him admired ; his talents and courtesy commanded respect ; his patience and perseverance gave him final success. During the whole of 1777 he remained at Paris and Versailles, availing himself of every opportunity to promote the interests of his country. At last came the news of Burgoyne's surrender. A powerful British army had been sub- dued by the colonists without aid from abroad. The success of the Amer- ican arms and the prospect of commercial advantage decided the wavering policy of the king, and in the beginning of winter he made an announce- ment of his determination to accept an alliance with the colonies. On the 6th of February, 1778, a treaty was concluded; France acknowledged the independence of the United States and entered into relations of reciprocal friendship with the new nation. It was further stipulated that in case England should declare war against France, the Americans and the French should make common cause, and that neither should subscribe to a treaty of peace without the concurrence of the other. In America the news of the new alliance was received with great rejoicing ; in England, with vindictive anger. Benjamin Franklin, the author of the first treaty between the United States and a foreign nation, was born in Boston on the 17th of January, 1706. His father was a manufacturer of soap and candles. To this humble vocation the young Benjamin was devoted by his parents; but the walls of a candle-shop were too narrow for his aspiring genius. At the age of twelve he was apprenticed to his brother to learn the art of printing ; but the brother beat him, and he ran off to New York. There he found no employment. In 1723 he repaired to Philadelphia, entered a printing-office, and rose to distinction. He visited England; returned; 330 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. founded the first circulating library in America ; became a man of science; edited Poor Richard's Almanac ; originated the American Philosophical Society ; discovered the identity of electricity and lightning; made himself known in both hemispheres; espoused the cause of the pat- riots ; and devoted the unimpaired energies of his old age to per- fecting the American Union. The name of Franklin is one of the brightest in the history of any nation. In May of 1778 Congress ratified the treaty with France. A month before this time a French fleet, com- manded by Count d'Estaing, had been despatched to Amer- ica. The object was to sail into the Del- aware and blockade the British squadron at Philadelphia. Both France and Great Britain understood full well that war was inevitable, and each immediately prepared for the conflict. George III. now became willing to treat with his American subjects. Lord North, the prime minister, brought forward two bills in which everything that the colonists had claimed was conceded. The bills were passed by Parliament, and the king assented. Commissioners were sent to America ; but Congress in- formed them that nothing but an express acknowledgment of the inde- pendence of the United States would now be accepted. Then the com- missioners tried bribery and intrigue ; and Congress would hold no further conference with them. From September of 1777 until the following June the British army remained at Philadelphia. The fleet of Admiral Howe lay in the Del- aware. In the spring of 1778, General Howe was superseded by Sir Henry Clinton. "When the rumor came that the fleet of D'Estaing was BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. FRANCE TO THE RESCUE. 331 approaching, the English admiral withdrew from the Delaware and sailed for New York. Finally, on the 18th of June, the British army evacuated Philadelphia and retreated across New Jersey. Washington occupied the city, crossed the river, and followed the retreating foe. At Monmouth, eighteen miles south-east of New Brunswick, the British were overtaken. On the morning of the 28th General Lee was ordered to attack the enemy. The first onset was made by the American cavalry under La Fayette ; but they were driven back by Cornwallis and Clinton. Lee, who had opposed the battle, and was not anxious for victory, ordered his line to fall back to a stronger position ; but the troops mistook the order and began a retreat, the British charging after them. Washington met the fugitives, rallied them, administered a severe rebuke to Lee, and ordered him to the rear. During the rest of the engagement the haughty officer, half treacherous in his principles and practices, remained at a distance, making satirical remarks about the battle. The fight continued till night- fall ; the advantage was with the Americans ; and Washington, in hope of a complete victory, anxiously waited for the morning. During the night, however, Clinton succeeded in withdrawing his forces from the field, and thus escaped the peril of defeat. The loss of the Americans in the battle of Monmouth was sixty- seven killed and a hundred and sixty wounded. The British left nearly three hundred dead on the field. On the day after the battle Washington received an insulting letter from Lee demanding an apology for the lan- guage which the commander-in-chief had used. Washington replied that the language was warranted by the circumstances. This Lee answered in a still more offensive manner, and was thereupon arrested, tried by a court-martial, and dismissed from his command for twelve months. The brave, rash man never re-entered the service, and did not live to see his country's independence. The British land and naval forces were now concentrated at New York. Washington followed, crossed the Hudson, and took up his head- quarters at White Plains. On the 11th of July Count d'Estaing's fleet arrived off Sandy Hook and attempted to attack the British squadron in the bay ; but the bar at the entrance prevented the passage of the French vessels. D'Estaing next sailed for Newport, Rhode Island, where the British, commanded by General Pigot, were in strong force. At the same time a division of the American army, led by General Sullivan, proceeded to Providence to co-operate with the French fleet in the attack on New- port. Greene and La Fayette came with reinforcements, and the whole army took post at Tiverton. On the 9th of August Sullivan succeeded in crossing the eastern passage of the bay, and secured a favorable position 832 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. on the island. A joint attack by land and sea was planned for the fol- lowing day. On that morning, however, the fleet of Lord Howe, who had left New York in pursuit of the French, came in sight ; and D'Estaing, instead of beginning the bombardment of Newport, sailed out to give battle to Howe. Just as the two squadrons were about to begin an en- gagement a violent storm arose by which the fleets were parted and greatly damaged. D'Estaing repaired to Boston, and Howe returned to New York. Sullivan laid siege to Newport; but when the French squadron sailed away, he found it necessary to retreat. The British pursued the Americans, and overtook them in the northern part of the island ; a battle ensued, and Pigot was repulsed with a loss of two hundred and sixty men. On the following night Sullivan succeeded in reaching the main- land ; and it was well that he did so ; for on the next day General Clin- ton arrived at Newport with a division of four thousand regulars. The Americans saved themselves by hastily retiring from the neighborhood. Clinton, having sent out a detachment under Colonel Grey to burn the American shipping in Buzzard's Bay, destroy the stores in New Bedford and ravage Martha's, Vineyard, returned to New York. The command of the British naval forces in America was now transferred from Lord Howe to Admiral Byron. Sir Henry Clinton, unable to accomplish anything in honorable warfare, descended to maraud- ing and robbery. Early in October a band of incendiaries, led by Fer- guson, burned the American ships at Little Egg Harbor. For several miles inland the country was devastated, houses pillaged, barns burned, patriots murdered. To the preceding July belongs the sad story of the Wyoming massacre. Major John Butler, a tory of Niagara, raised a company of sixteen hundred loyalists, Canadians and Indians, and marched into the valley of Wyoming, county of Luzerne, Pennsylvania. The settlement was defenceless. The fathers and brothers were away in the patriot army. There were some feeble forts on the Susquehanna in the neighborhood of Wilkesbarre, but they were useless without defenders. On the approach of the tories and savages the few militia remaining in the valley, together with the old men and boys, rallied for the defence of their homes. A battle was fought, and the poor patriots were utterly routed. The fugitives fled to the principal fort, which was crowded with women and children. On came the murderous horde, and demanded a surrender. Honorable terms were promised by Butler, and the garrison capitulated. On the 5th of July the gates were opened, and the bar- barians entered. Immediately they began to plunder, then to burn, and then to use the hatchet and the scalping-knife. There is no authentic FRANCE TO THE RESCUE. 333 record of the horrible atrocities that followed. The savages divided into parties, scattered through the valley, plundered, robbed, burned, and drove almost every surviving family into the swamps or mountains. In this way George III. would subdue the American colonies. November witnessed a similar massacre at the village of Cherry "- Valley, Otsego county, New York. This time the invaders were led by Joseph Brant, the Mohawk sachem, and Walter Butler, a son of Major John Butler. The people of Cherry Valley were driven from their homes ; every house in the village was burned ; women and children were tomahawked and scalped ; and forty miserable sufferers dragged into cap- tivity. To avenge these outrages an expedition was sent against the savages on the Upper Susquehanna ; and they in turn were made to feel the terrors of war. In the preceding December the famous Major Clarke had received from Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, a commis- sion to proceed against the Indians west of the Alleghanies. The expe- dition left Pittsburg in the spring of 1778 ; descended to the mouth of the Ohio ; and on the 4th of the following July captured Kaskaskia. Other important posts were taken ; and in August Vincennes was forced to capitulate. On the 3d of November Count d'Estaing's fleet sailed from Boston for the West Indies. In December Admiral Byron, in command of the British squadron, left New York to try the fortunes of war on the ocean. A few days previously, Colonel Campbell, with a force of two thousand men, was sent by General Clinton for the conquest of Georgia. On the 29th of December the expedition reached Savannah. The place was de- fended by General Robert Howe with a regiment of five hundred and fifty regulars, and three hundred militia. Notwithstanding the superior numbers of the British, Howe determined to risk a battle ; but the result was disastrous. The Americans were routed and driven out of the city. Escaping up the river, the defeated patriots crossed into South Carolina and found refuge at Charleston. Such was the only real conquest made by the British during the year 1778. It was now nearly four years since the battle of Concord, and Great Britain had lost vastly more than she had gained in her struggle with the colonies. The city of New York was held by Clinton ; Newport was garrisoned by a division under Pigot; the feeble capital of Georgia was conquered; all the rest remained to the patriots. 634 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XLII. MOVEMENTS OF '79. THE winter of 1778-79 was passed by the American army at Middle- brook, New Jersey. With the opening of spring there was much discouragement among the soldiers ; for they were neither paid nor fed. Only the personal influence of Washington and the patriotism of the camp prevented a mutiny. Clinton opened the campaign with a number of predatory incursions into the surrounding country. In February, Tryon, the old tory governor of New York, a man so savage in his nature that the Indians called him the Big Wolf, marched from Kingsbridge with a body of fifteen hundred regulars and tories to destroy the salt- works at Horse Neck, Connecticut. General Putnam, who chanced to be in that neighborhood, rallied the militia and made a brave defence. The Americans planted some cannon on the brow of a hill and fought with much spirit until they were outflanked by the British and obliged to fly. It was here that General Putnam, pursued and about to be over- taken by a party of dragoons, turned out of the road, spurred his horse down a precipice and escaped.* Tryon destroyed the salt-works, plun- dered and burned the village of West Greenwich and returned to Kings- bridge. In the latter part of May Clinton himself sailed with an armament up the Hudson to Stony Point. This strong position, commanding the river, had been chosen by Washington as the site of a fort ; the Amer- icans were engaged upon the unfinished works when Clinton's squadron came in sight. The feeble garrison, unable to resist the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, escaped 'from the fortifications. On the 1st of June the British entered, mounted cannon and began to bombard Ver- planck's Point, on the other side of the river. Here the patriots made a brave resistance ; but the British landed a strong force, surrounded the fort and compelled a surrender. Both Ver.planck's and Stony Point were strongly fortified and garrisoned by the enemy. About the same time Virginia suffered from an incursion of the tories. A vast amount of public and private property was destroyed ; and several towns, including Norfolk and Portsmouth, were laid in ashes. * After all, Putnam's exploit was not so marvelous. In 1825 some of General La Fayette's dragoons rode down the same hill for sport. MOVEMENTS OF 79. 335 In July the ferocious Tryon again distinguished himself. With a force of twenty-six hundred Hessians and tories he sailed to New Haven, captured the city and would have burned it but for fear of the gathering militia. Having set East Haven on fire, the destroyers sailed down the Sound to the beautiful town of Fairfield, which was given to the flames. At Norwalk, while the village was burning and the terrified people flying from their homes, Tryon, on a neighboring hill, sat in a rocking-chair and laughed heartily at the scene. It was not long until these dastardly outrages were made to appear more dastardly by contrast with a heroic exploit of the patriots. Early in July General Wayne received orders to attempt the recap- ture of Stony Point. On the 15th of the month he mustered a force of light infantry at a convenient point on the Hudson and marched against the seemingly impregnable fortress. The movement was not discovered by the enemy. At eight o'clock in the evening Wayne halted a mile from the fort and gave orders for the assault. A negro who had learned the countersign went with the advance ; the British pickets were deceived, caught and gagged. The Americans advanced in two columns, the first led by Wayne, and the second by the gallant Frenchman, Colonel De Fleury. Everything was done in silence. Muskets were unloaded and bayonets fixed ; not a gun was to be fired. The two divisions, attacking from opposite sides, were to meet in the middle of the fort. The assault was made a little after midnight. Within pistol-shot of the sentinels on the height, the Americans were discovered. There was the cry, To arms! the rattle of drums, and then the roar of musketry and cannon. The patriots never wavered. The ramparts were scaled ; and the British, find- ing themselves between two closing lines of bayonets, cried out for quar- ter. Sixty-three of the enemy fell in the struggle; the remaining five hundred and forty-three were made prisoners. Of the Americans only fifteen were killed and eighty-three wounded. In the days that followed the assault Wayne secured the ordnance and stores, valued at more than a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, then destroyed the fort and marched away. On the 20th a division of the British army, arriving at Stony Point, found nothing but a desolated hill. In honor of his brave deed General Wayne received a gold medal from Congress. Three days after the taking of Stony Point, Major Lee with a com- pany of militia attacked the British garrison at Jersey City. Again the assault was successful, the enemy losing nearly two hundred men. On the 25th of the same month a fleet of thirty-seven vessels, which had been equipped by Massachusetts, was sent against a British post recently established at the mouth of the Penobscot. The enterprise, however, was 336 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. managed with little skill and less success. On the 13th of August, while the American ships were still besieging the post, they were suddenly attacked and destroyed by a British fleet. In the summer of this year an army of four thousand six hundred men, commanded by Generals Sul- livan and James Clinton, was sent against the Indians of the Upper Sus- quehanna. The atrocities of Wyoming were now fully avenged, and the savages driven to destruction. At Elmira, on the Tioga River, the In- dians and tories had fortified themselves ; but on the 29th of August they were forced from their stronghold and utterly routed. The whole coun- try between the Susquehanna and the Genesee was wasted by the patriots, who, in the course of the campaign, destroyed forty Indian villages. In the latter part of October Sir Henry Clinton, alarmed by the rumored approach of the French fleet, withdrew the British forces from Rhode Island. The retirement from Newport was made with so much haste that the heavy guns and large quantities of stores were left behind. Such were the leading military movements in the North. Meanwhile, the war had continued in Georgia and South Carolina ; and the patriots had met with many reverses. At the beginning of the year Fort Sunbury, on St. Catherine's Sound, was the only post held by the Americans south of the Savannah. On the 9th of January this fort was captured by a body of British troops from Florida, led by General Prevost. This officer then joined his forces with those of Colonel Camp- bell, who had just effected the conquest of Savannah, and assumed com- mand of the British army in the South. A force of two thousand reg- ulars and loyalists, commanded by Campbell, was at once despatched against Augusta ; for there the republican legislature had assembled after the fall of Savannah. On the 29th of January the British reached their destination, and Augusta fell a prey to the invaders. For a while the whole of Georgia was prostrated before the king's soldiery. In the mean time, the tories of Western Carolina had risen in arms and were advancing to join the forces of Campbell at Augusta. While marching thither they were attacked and defeated in a canebrake by the patriots under Captain Anderson. On the 14th of February the tories were again overtaken in the country west of Broad River. Colonel Pickens, at the head of the Carolina militia, fell upon them with such fury that the whole force was annihilated. Colonel Boyd, the tory leader, and seventy of his men were killed. Seventy-five others were captured, tried for treason and condemned to death ; but only five of the ringleaders were hanged. On receiving intelligence of what had happened, Campbell hastily evacuated Augusta and retreated toward Savannah. The western half of Georgia was recovered more quickly than it had been lost. MOVEMENTS OF 79. 337 While the British were retreating down the river, General Lincoln, who now commanded the American forces in the South, sent General Ashe with a division of two thousand men to intercept the enemy. On the 25th of February the Americans crossed the Savannah and pursued Campbell as far as Brier Creek, forty-five miles below Augusta. The bridge over this stream had been destroyed by the retreating British, and the patriots came to a halt. While they were delayed General Prevost marched with a strong force from Savannah, crossed Brier Creek above the American position, and completely surrounded General Ashe's com- mand. A battle was fought on the 3d of March ; the Americans, after losing more than three hundred men in killed, wounded and prisoners, were totally routed and driven into the swamps and river. The rem- nants of Ashe's army rejoined General Lincoln at Perrysburg. The shock of this defeat again prostrated Georgia, and a royal government was established over the State. But the Carolinians rallied with great vigor. Within a month Gen- eral Lincoln was again in the field with a force of more than five thou- sand men. Still hoping to reconquer Georgia, he advanced up the left bank of the river in the direction of Augusta ; but at the same time Gen- eral Prevost crossed the Savannah and marched against Charleston. On the 12th of May he summoned the city to surrender, but General Moultrie, who commanded the patriots, was in no humor to do it. Prevost made preparations for a siege ; but learning that General Lincoln had turned back to attack him, he made a hasty retreat. The Americans pursued, overtook the enemy at Stono Ferry, ten miles west of Charleston, made an imprudent attack and were repulsed with considerable loss. Before retiring from the State, Prevost succeeded in establishing a post at Beau- fort, and then fell back to Savannah. From June until September military operations were almost wholly suspended. And now came Count d'Estaing with his fleet from the West Indies to Carolina to co-operate with General Lincoln in the reduction of Savannah. Prevost was alarmed, and concentrated his forces for the defence of the city. The storm-winds of the equinox were approaching, and D'Estaing stipulated with the Americans that his fleet should not be long detained on that coast devoid of harbors. On the 12th of September the French, numbering six thousand, effected a landing, and advanced to the siege. Eleven days elapsed before the slow-moving General Lincoln arrived with his forces. Meanwhile, on the 16th of the month, D'Estaing had demanded a surrender ; but Prevost, who asked a day for consulta- tion and used it in strengthening his works and in receiving reinforce- ments from Beaufort, answered with a message of defiance. After Lin- 22 338 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. coin's arrival the siege was prosecuted with great vigor. The city was bombarded wellnigh to destruction; the people were driven into the cellars, and dared not venture forth on peril of their lives. But the British defences remained unshaken. At last the impatient D'Estaing notified Lincoln that the city must be stormed or the siege abandoned. The former course was preferred. On the 8th of October a conference was held, and it was determined to make the assault at daylight on the following morning. Accordingly, an hour before sunrise the allies advanced against the redoubts of the British. The attack was made irregularly, but with great vehemence; the defence, with desperate determination. The struggle around the ramparts was brief but furious. At one time it seemed that the works would be carried. The French and the patriots mounted the parapet and planted the flags of Carolina and France. But the emblems of victory, with those who bore them, were hurled into the dust. Here the brave Sergeant Jasper, the hero of Fort Moultrie, fell to rise no more. After an hour of the most gallant fighting, the allied columns were shat- tered and driven back with fearful losses. D'Estaing was twice wounded. The noble Pulaski was struck with a grape-shot and borne dying from the field. The repulse was complete, humiliating, disastrous. D'Estaing re- tired with his men on board the fleet and sailed for France. Lincoln with the remnants of his army retreated to Charleston. While the siege of Savannah was progressing, the American arms were made famous on the ocean. On the 23d of September Paul Jones, cruising off the coast of Scotland with a flotilla of French and American vessels, fell in with a fleet of British merchantmen, convoyed by two men-of-war. The battle that ensued was bloody beyond precedent in naval warfare. For an hour and a half the Serajris, a British frigate of forty-four guns, engaged the Poor Richard* within musket-shot. Then the vessels, both in a sinking condition, were run alongside and lashed together. The marines fought with the fury of madmen until the Scrapie struck her colors. Jones hastily transferred his men to the conquered ship, and the Poor Richard went down. The remaining British vessel was also attacked and captured. So desperate was the engagement that of the three hundred and seventy-five men on board the fleet of Jones three hundred were either killed or wounded. So closed the year 1779. The colonies were not yet free. The French alliance, which had promised so much, had brought but little benefit. The credit of Congress had sunk almost to nothing ; the national treasury was bankrupt. The patriots of the army were poorly fed, and * So namefT in honor of Dr. Franklin's almanac. REVERSES AND TREASON. 339 paid only with unkept promises. The disposition of Great Britain was best illustrated in the measures adopted by Parliament for the campaigns of the ensuing year. The levies made by the House of Commons were eighty-five thousand marines and thirty-five thousand additional troops ; while the extraordinary expenses of the War Department were set at twenty million pounds sterling. CHAPTER XLIII. REVERSES AND TREASON. DURING the year 1780 military operations at the North were, for the most part, suspended. Twice did the British under Ivnyphausen advance from New York into New Jersey ; and twice they Avere driven back. Early in July Admiral De Ternay arrived at Newport with a French squadron and six thousand land-troops under Count Rocham- beau. The Americans were greatly elated at the coming of their allies ; but Washington's army was in so destitute a condition that active co- operation was impracticable. In September the commander-in-chief held a conference with Rochambeau, and the plans of future campaigns were in part determined. In the South there was much activity, and the patriots suffered many reverses. South Carolina was completely overrun with the invading armies. On the 11th of February Admiral Arbuthnot, in command of a British squadron, anchored before Charleston. Sir Henry Clinton and a division of five thousand men from the army in New York were on board the fleet. The plan of the campaign was to subjugate the whole South, beginning with Charleston. The city was defended by fourteen hundred men, under General Lincoln, who began his preparations by fortifying the neck of the peninsula. The British effected a landing a few miles below the harbor, advanced up the right bank of Ashley River, and crossed to the north of the city. A month was spent by Clinton in mak- ing cautious approaches toward the American entrenchments. On the 7th of April General Lincoln was reinforced by seven hundred veterans from Virginia. Two days afterward Admiral Arbuthnot, favored by the wind and tide, succeeded in passing Fort Moultrie with his fleet, and anchored within cannon-shot of the city. A summons to surrender was 340 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. SIEGE OF CHARLESTON, 1780. answered by Lincoln with the assurance that Charleston would be defended to the last extremity. A siege was at once begun, and prosecuted with great vigor. Desir- ing to keep a way open for retreat, Lincoln sent a body of three hundred men under General Huger to scour the country north of Cooper River and rally the militia. Apprised of this movement, Tarleton with a legion of British cavalry stole upon Huger's forces at Monk's Corner, thirty miles north of Charleston, routed and dispersed the whole com- pany. The city was now fairly hemmed in, and the thunder of two hundred cannon shook the beleaguered ramparts. • From the beginning the defence had been hopeless, and every day the condition of the town became more desperate. Finally the fortifications were beaten down, and Clinton made ready to storm the American works ; not till then did Lincoln and the civil authorities, dreading the havoc of an assault, agree to capitulate. On the 12th of May the principal city of the South was given up to the British and the men who had so bravely defended it became jmsoners of war. A few days before the surrender Tarleton, who was ranging the country to the north and west, surprised and dispersed a body of militia who had gathered on the Santee. After the capture of the city, three expeditions were directed into different sections of the State. The Amer- ican post at Ninety-Six, a hundred and fifty miles north-west of the cap- ital, was seized. A second detachment of the British invaded the country bordering on the Savannah. Cornwallis with the principal division marched to the north-east, crossed the Santee and captured Georgetown, near the mouth of the Great Pedee. Here he learned that Colonel Buford, with a body of five hundred patriots, who had left North Carolina for the relief of Charleston, was now retreating through the district north of Camden. Tarleton with seven hundred cavalry pressed rapidly across the country, overtook the Americans on the Waxhaw, a tributary of the Catawba, surprised them, and, while negotiations for a surrender were pending, charged upon and massacred nearly the whole company. For this atrocious deed Cornwallis commended Tarleton to the special favor of the British Parliament. By such means the authority of Great Britain was re-established over South Carolina. As soon as the work was done, Clinton and Arbuthnot, with about half of the British army, sailed for New York. Cornwallis was left with the remainder to hold the conquered territory • REVERSES AND TREASON. 341 for it was the territory, and not the people, who were conquered. In this condition of affairs, two daring patriot leaders arose to rescue the repub- lican cause. These men, ever afterward famous, were Thomas Sumter and Francis Marion. Under their leadership the militia in the central and western portions of the State, especially on the upper tributaries of Broad River, were rallied, armed and mounted. An audacious partisan warfare was begun, and exposed detachments of the British army were SAvept off as though an enemy had fallen on them from the skies. At Rocky Mount, on the Wateree, Colonel Sumter burst upon a party of dragoons, who barely saved themselves. On the 6th of August he attacked a large detachment of regulars and tories at Hanging Rock, in Lancaster county, defeated them and retreated. It was in this battle that young Andrew Jackson began his career as a soldier. The exploits of Sumter were even surpassed by those of Marion. His company consisted at first of twenty men and boys, white and black, half clad and poorly armed. But the number constantly increased, and the "Ragged Regiment" soon became a terror to the enemy. Every British outpost was in peril. There was no telling when or where the sword of the fearless leader would tall. From the swamps at midnight he and his men would suddenly dart upon the encampments of the enemy, sweeping everything before them. When the British expected Marion in front, he would assail the rearguard with the utmost fury, and then dis- appear ; when they thought him hovering on their flank, he was a hun- dred miles away. During the whole summer and autumn of 1780 he swept around Cornwallis's positions, cutting his lines of communication and making incessant onsets with an audacity as destructive as it was pro- voking. In the midst of this wild and lawless warfare, Marion preserved an unblemished reputation. Fifteen years afterward, when he lay on his deathbed, he declared that he had never intentionally wronged any man ; and it was truthfully written on his monument that he lived without fear and died without reproach. After the fall of Charleston, General Gates was appointed to com- mand in the South. With a strong force of regulars and such militia as would join his standard, he advanced across North Carolina, and at the beginning of August reached the southern boundary of the State. Lord Rawdon, who commanded the British posts in the northern parts of South Carolina, called in his detachments and concentrated his forces at Camden. Hither came also Cornwallis with reinforcements from Charleston and Georgetown. The Americans moved forward and took post at Clermont, thirteen miles north-west from Camden. By a singular coincidence Corn- wallis and Gates each formed the design of surprising his antagonist in 342 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. the night. Accordingly, on the evening of the 15th of August, Gates set out for Camden, and at the same time Cornwallis moved toward Cler- mont. About daydawn the two armies met midway on Sander's Creek. Both generals were surprised, but both made immediate preparations for battle. As soon as it was light the con- flict began. Steadiness and courage in all parts of the field would have given the victory to the Americans, but at the first onset the Virginia and Carolina militia broke line, threw their arms away and fled. For a while the Continentals of Maryland and Delaware sustained the battle with great bravery, but at length they were outflank- ed by Webster's cavalry and driven back. The American officers made heroic efforts to save the day, but all in vain ; the retreat became a rout. Baron de Kalb, the friend of La Fayette and fellow-sufferer with Washington at Valley Forge, remained on the field trying to rally his men until he was wounded eleven times and fell in the agony of death. More than a thousand of the Americans were killed, wounded or captured. The shattered remnants continued the retreat to Charlotte, North Carolina, eighty miles distant. The military reputation of Gates, which never had any solid foundation, was blown away like chaff, and he was superseded by General Greene, who, after Washington, was the best officer of the Revolution. Cornwallis was again master of South Carolina. A few days after the battle of Sander's Creek, Sumter's corps was overtaken by Tarleton at Fishing Creek, thirty miles north-west from Camden, and completely routed. Only Marion and his troopers remained to harass the victorious enemy. The triumph of the British was marked by cruelty and oppres- sion. Cornwallis visited the patriots with merciless severity, and the ruined State crouched at the feet of the conqueror. On the 8th of Sep- tember the British advanced from Camden into North Carolina, and on the 25th reached Charlotte, the Americans having retreated to Salisbury. While this movement was in progress, Colonel Ferguson, with a force of SCENE OF OPERATIONS IN THE SOUTH, 1780, 81. REVERSES AND TREASON 343 eleven hundred regulars and tories, was sent into the country west of the Catawba to overawe the patriots and encourage the loyalists to take up arms. On the 7th of- October, while Ferguson and his men were en- camped on the top of King's Mountain, they were suddenly attacked by a thousand riflemen led by Colonel Campbell. The camp was surrounded; a desperate battle of an hour and a half ensued ; Ferguson was slain, and three hundred of his men were killed or wounded ; the remaining eight hundred threw down their arms and begged for quarter. On the morn- ing after the battle ten of the leading tory prisoners were condemned by a court-martial and hanged. During the remaining two months of the year there were no military movements of importance. Georgia and South Carolina were in the power of the British, and North Carolina was invaded. Meanwhile, the financial credit of the nation was sinking to the lowest ebb. Congress, having no silver and gold with which to meet the accumulating expenses of the war, had resorted to paper money. At first the expedient was successful, and the continental bills were received at par ; but as one issue followed another, the value of the notes rapidly diminished, until, by the middle of 1780, they were not worth two cents to the dollar. To aggravate the evil, the emissaries of Great Britain executed counterfeits of the congressional money and sowed the spurious bills broadcast over the land. Business was paralyzed for the want of a currency, and the distress became extreme ; but Robert Morris and a few other wealthy patriots came forward with their private fortunes and saved the suffering: colonies from ruin. The mothers of America also lent a helping hand ; and the patriot camp was gladdened with many a contribu- tion of food and clothing which woman's sacrificing care had provided. In the midst of the general gloom the country was shocked by the rumor that Benedict Arnold had turned traitor. And the news, though hardly credible, was true. The brave, rash man, who, on behalf of the patriot cause, had suffered untold hardships and shed his blood on more fields than one, had blotted the record of his heroism with a deed of treason. After the battle of Bemis's Height, in the fall of 1777, Arnold was promoted by Congress to the rank of major-general. Being disabled by his wound, he was made commandant of Philadelphia after the evac- uation of the city by the British. Here he married the daughter of a loyalist, and living in the old mansion of William Penn entered upon a career of luxury and extravagance which soon overwhelmed him with debt and bankruptcy. In order to keep up his magnificence, he began a system of frauds on the commissary department of the army. His bear- ing toward the citizens was that of a military despot; the people groaned under his tyranny, and charges were preferred against him by Congress. 344 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. The cause was finally heard by a court-martial in December of 1779. Arnold was convicted on two of the charges, and, by the order of the court, was mildly reprimanded by Washington. Professing unbounded patriotism, and seeming to forget the dis- grace which his misconduct had brought upon him, Arnold applied for and obtained command of the important fortress of West Point on the Hudson. On the last day of July, 1780, he reached the camp and assumed control of the most valuable arsenal and depot of stores in Amer- ica. He had already formed the treasonable design of surrendering the fort into the hands of the enemy. For months he had kept up a secret correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton, and now the scheme ripened, on Arnold's part, into an open proposition to betray his country for gold. It was agreed that on a certain day the British fleet should ascend the Hudson, that the garrison should be divided and scattered, and the fort- ress given up without a struggle. On the 21st of September Sir Henry Clinton sent Major John Andre up the river to hold a personal conference with Arnold and make the final arrangements for the surrender. Andre, through whom the correspondence between Arnold and Clinton had been car- ried on, was a former acquaintance of Ar- nold's wife, and now held the post of adju- tant-general in the British army. He went to the conference, not as a spy, but wearing full uniform; and it was agreed that the meeting should be held outside of the Ameri- can lines. About midnight of the 21st he went ashore from the Vulture, a sloop of war, and met Arnold in a thicket on the west bank of the river, two miles below Haverstraw. Daydawn approached, and the conspirators were obliged to hide themselves. In doing so they entered the American lines ; Arnold gave the password, and Andre, disguising him- self, assumed the character of a spy. During the next day the traitor and his victim remained concealed at the house of a tory named Smith. Here the awful business was com- pleted. Arnold was to surrender West Point, its garrisons and stores, and to receive for his treachery ten thousand pounds and a commission as brigadier in the British army. All preliminaries being settled, papers containing a full description of West Point, its defences and the best SCENE OF ARNOLD'S TREASON, 1780. THE END. 345 method of attack were made out and given to Andre, who secreted the dangerous documents in his stockings. During that day an American battery drove the Vulture from its moorings in the river ; and at night- fall Andre was obliged to cross to the other side and proceed by land toward New York. He passed the American outposts in safety; but at Tarrytown, twenty-five miles from the city, he was suddenly confronted by three militiamen * who stripped him, found his papers, and delivered him to Colonel Jameson at North Castle. Through that officer's amazing stupidity Arnold was at once notified that John Anderson — that being the assumed name of Andre — had been taken with his passport and some papers " of a very dangerous tendency." Arnold, on hearing the news, fled to the river and escaped on board the Vulture. Andre was tried by a court-martial at Tappan, and condemned to death. On the 2d of Oc- tober he was led to the gallows, and, under the stern code of war, was hanged. Though dying the death of a felon, he met his doom like a brave man, and after times have commiserated his sad fate. Arnold received his pay. In the dark days of December there came a ray of light from Europe. For several years Holland had secretly favored the Americans ; now she began negotiations for a commercial treaty similar to that already existing between France and the United States. Great Britain discovered the purposes of the Dutch government ; there were angry remonstrances, and then, on the 20th of December, an open declaration of war. Thus the Netherlands were added to the enemies of England ; it seemed that George III. and his ministers would have enough to do without further efforts to enforce a stamp-act or levy a tax on tea. CHAPTER XLIV. THE END. FOR the Americans the year 1781 opened gloomily. The ccndition of the army was desperate — no food, no pay, no clothing. Even the influence of Washington was not sufficient to quiet the growing discontent of the soldiery. * On the first day of January the whole Pennsylvania line, numbering nearly two thousand, mutinied, left their camp at Morris- * John Paulding, David Williams and Isaac van Wart. Congress afterward rewarded them with silver medals and pensions for life. 346 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. town and marched toward Philadelphia. General Wayne, after trying in vain to prevent the insurrection, went with his men, still hoping to con- trol them. At Princeton they were met by two emissaries from Sir Henry Clinton, and were tempted with offers of money, clothing and release from military service if they would desert the American standard. The mu- tinous patriots made answer by seizing the British agents and delivering them to General Wayne to be hanged as spies. For this deed the com- missioners of Congress, who now arrived, offered the insurgents a large reward, but the reward was indignantly refused. Washington, knowing how shamefully the army had been neglected by Congress, was not un- willing that the mutiny should take its own course. The congressional agents were therefore left to adjust the difficulty with the rebellious troops. But the breach was easily healed ; a few liberal concessions on the part of the government sufficed to quiet the mutiny. About the middle of the same month the New Jersey brigade, sta- tioned at Pompton, revolted. This movement Washington quelled by force. General Robert Howe marched to the camp with five hundred regulars and compelled twelve of the principal mutineers to execute the two leaders of the revolt. From that day order was completely restored. These insurrections had a good rather than a bad effect; Congress was thoroughly alarmed, and immediate provisions were made for the better support of the army. An agent was sent to France to obtain a further loan of money. Robert Morris was appointed secretary of finance; the Bank of North America was organized; and although the outstanding debts of the United States could not be paid, yet all future obligations were promptly met, for Morris and his friends pledged their private fortunes to sustain the credit of the government. In the North military movements were begun by Arnold. On arriving at New York the traitor had received the promised commission, and was now a brigadier-general in the British army. In the preceding November, Washington and Major Henry Lee formed a plan to capture him. Sergeant John Champe undertook the daring enterprise, deserted to the enemy, entered New York, joined Arnold's company, and with two assistants concerted measures to abduct him from the city and convey him to the American camp. But Arnold suddenly moved his quarters, and the plan was defeated. A month afterward he was given command of a fleet and a land-force of sixteen hundred men, and on the 16th of Decem- ber left New York to make a descent on the coasts of Virginia. Early in January the traitor entered James River and began war on his countrymen. His proceedings were marked with much ferocity, but not with the daring which characterized his former exploits. In the THE END. 347 vicinity of Richmond a vast quantity of public and private property was destroyed. The country along the river was devastated ; and when there was nothing left to excite his cupidity or gratify his revenge, Arnold took up his headquarters in Portsmouth, a few miles south of Hampton Roads: Again Washington planned his capture. The French fleet, anchored at Newport, was ordered to sail for Virginia to co-operate with La Fayette, who was sent in the direction of Portsmouth with a detachment of twelve hundred men. But Admiral Arbuthnot, being apprised of the movement, sailed from New York and drove the French squadron back to Rhode Island. La Fayette, deprived of the expected aid, was forced to abandon the undertaking, and Arnold again escaped. About the middle of April General Phillips arrived at Portsmouth with a force of two thousand British regulars. Joining his troops with those of Arnold, he assumed command of the whole, and again the fertile districts of Lower Virginia were ravaged with fire and sword. Early in May, Phillips died, and for seven days Arnold held the supreme com- mand of the British forces in Virginia. That was the height of his trea- sonable glory. On the 20th of the month Lord Cornwallis arrived at Petersburg and ordered him to begone. Returning to New York, he received from Clinton a second detachment, entered the Sound, landed at New London, in his native State, and captured the town. Fort Griswold, which was defended by Colonel Ledyard with a hundred and fifty militia- men, was carried by storm. When Ledyard surrendered, the British officer who received his sword stabbed him to death ; it was the signal for a massacre of the garrison, seventy-three of whom were murdered in cold blood ; of the remainder, thirty were wounded and the rest made prisoners. With this bloody and ignominious deed the name of Arnold disappears from American history. Meanwhile, some of the most stirring events of the war had occurred at the South. At the close of the preceding year General Greene had taken command of the American army — which was only the shadow of an army — at Charlotte, North Carolina. Cornwallis had fallen back in the direction of Camden. Greene with great energy reorganized his forces and divided them into an eastern and a western division ; the com- mand of the latter was given to General Morgan. In the first days of January this gallant officer was sent into the Spartanburg district of South Carolina to repress the tories and encourage the patriot militia. His suc- cess was such as to exasperate Cornwallis, who immediately despatched Colonel Tarleton with his famous cavalry legion to destroy Morgan's forces or drive them out of the State. The Americans, apprised of Tarle- ton's approach, took a favorable position at the Cowpens, where, on the 348 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 17th of January, they were attacked by the British, eleven hundred strong. Tarleton, confident of success, made the onset with impetuosity ; but Mor- gan's men sustained the shock with firmness, and, when the enemy's re- serves were called into action, either held their ground or retired in good order. At the crisis of the battle the American cavalry, commanded by Colonel William Washington, made a furious charge and scattered the British dragoons like chaff before them. The rout was complete — the vic- tory decisive. Washington and Tarleton had a personal encounter on the field, and the latter fled with a sword-gash in his hand. His corps was annihilated ; ten British officers and ninety privates were killed, and five hundred and twenty-three were captured. Two pieces of artillery, eight hundred muskets and two flags were among the trophies of the battle. When Cornwallis, who was encamped with his army thirty miles down the Catawba, heard of the disaster to his arms, he made a rapid march up the river to reach the fords in Morgan's rear. But Greene, who had also heard the news, hastened to the camp of Morgan, took com- mand in person and began a hasty retreat. At the same time he sent word to General Huger, who commanded the eastern division, to fall back toward Charlotte, where it was proposed to form a junction of the two wings of the army. On the 28th of January Morgan's division reached the Catawba and crossed to the northern bank, with prisoners, spoils and baggage. Within two hours the British van arrived at the ford ; but it was already sunset, and Cornwallis concluded to wait for the morning; then he would cross and win an easy victory. During the night the clouds opened and poured down torrents ; in the morning the river was swollen to a flood. It was many days before the British forced their way across, dispersing the militia on the opposite bank. And now began a second race, this time for the fords of the Yadkin. The distance was sixty miles and the roads wretched. In two days the Americans reached the river. The crossing was nearly effected, when the British appeared in sight, attacked the rearguard and captured a few wagons; nothing else was injured. That night the Yadkin was made impassable by rains in the mountains, and Cornwallis was again delayed; Greene pressed forward to Guilford Court-House, where he arrived on the 7th of February. The British marched up the Yadkin to the shallow ford at Huntsville, where, on the 9th of the month, they succeeded in crossing. The lines of retreat and pursuit were now parallel, and the two armies were less than twenty-five miles apart. A third time the race began, and again the Americans won it. On the 13th, Greene, with the main division, crossed the Dan into Virginia, and on the following day the American rearguard entered th^ boats and was safe. The British van THE END. 349 was already in sight and the whole army but a few miles distant. Never was a retreat more skillfully conducted. Cornwallis, mortified at his repeated failures, abandoned the pursuit and retired with his awny to Hillsborough. Once in Virginia, Greene was rapidly reinforced. After a few days of recruiting and rest he felt himself strong enough to begin offensive movements. On the 22d of February he recrossed the Dan into North Carolina. Meanwhile, Cornwallis had despatched Tarleton with a body of cavalry into the region between the Haw and Deep Rivers to encourage the tories. Being informed of this movement, Greene sent Colonel Lee into the same district. Three hundred loyalists, already under arms,, were marching to join Tarleton. On the route they were intercepted by the American cavalry, whom, supposing them to be British, they saluted with a shout of " Long live the king !" Colonel Lee and his men quietly surrounded the unsuspecting tories, fell upon them as a band of traitors, and killed or captured the entire company. By the addition of the Virginia militia Greene's army now num- bered four thousand four hundred men. Determining to avoid battle no longer, he marched to Guilford Court-House, took a strong position and awaited his antagonist. Cornwallis, accepting the challenge, at once moved forward to the attack. On the 15th of March the two armies met on Greene's chosen ground, and a severe but indecisive battle was fought. The forces of Greene were superior in numbers, and those of Cornwallis in discipline. If the American militia had stood firm, the result would not have been doubtful ; but the raw recruits behaved badly, broke line and fled. Confusion ensued ; the Americans fought hard, but were eventually driven from the field and forced to retreat for several miles. In killed and wounded the British loss was greatest ; but large bodies of the militia returned to their homes, reducing Greene's army to less than three thou- sand. Nevertheless, to the British the result was equivalent to a defeat. Cornwallis now boasted, made big proclamations, and then re- treated. On the 7th of April he reached the sea-coast at Wilmington, and immediately thereafter proceeded to Virginia. How he arrived at Petersburg, superseded Arnold and sent him out of the State has already been narrated. The British forces in the Carolinas remained under com- mand of Lord Rawdon, who was posted with a strong division at Cam- den. With him General Greene, after the departure of Cornwallis, was left to contend. The American army was accordingly advanced into South Carolina. A detachment was sent against Fort Watson, on the east bank of the Santee, and the place was obliged to surrender. Greene marched with the main body to Hobkirk's Hill, a short distance north of 350 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Camden, posted his men in a strong position and awaited the movements of Kawdon. What that officer would do was not long a question of doubt. On the 25th of April he moved from Camden with his entire force and attacked the American camp. For once General Greene came near being surprised ; but his men were swiftly formed for battle ; Rawdon's column was badly arranged ; and for a while it seemed that the entire British force would be slain or captured. Just at the critical moment, however, some valuable American officers who commanded in the centre were killed ; their regiments, becoming confused, fell back ; Rawdon saw his advantage, pressed forward, broke the centre, captured the hill, and won - the day. The Americans retired from the field, but saved their artillery and bore away the wounded. Again the genius of Greene made defeat seem little less than victory. On the 10th of May Lord Rawdon evacuated Camden and retired to Eutaw Springs, sixty-five miles above the mouth of the Santee. The British posts at Granby, Orangeburg, Fort Mott and Augusta fell suc- cessively into the hands of the patriots. By the 5th of June only Eutaw Springs, Charleston and Ninety-Six remained in possession of the enemy. The latter place was already besieged by General Greene, who, after the battle of Hobkirk's Hill, advanced to Fort Granby, and thence to Ninety- Six. For twenty-seven days the siege was pressed with vigor. The supply of water was cut off from the fort, and the garrison could not have held out more than two days longer; but Lord Rawdon was rapidly approaching with a force of two thousand men ; and the Ameri- cans, after an unsuccessful assault, were obliged, on the 18th of June, to raise the siege and retreat. Rawdon pursued, but Greene escaped, as usual, and the British, abandoning Ninety-Six, fell back to Orangeburg. Greene, with ceaseless activity, followed the retreating enemy, and would, but for their strength, have assaulted Rawdon's works. Deeming the position impregnable, the American general recrossed the Santee and took -his station on the highlands in Sumter district. Here, in the healthful air of the hill-country, he passed the sickly months of summer. Sumter, Lee and Marion were constantly abroad, traversing the country in all directions, cutting off supplies from the enemy, breaking his lines of communication and smiting the tories right and left. Lord Rawdon now resigned the command of the British forces to Colonel Stuart and went to Charleston. While there he became a principal actor in one of the most shameful scenes of the Revolution. Colonel Isaac Hayne, an eminent patriot who had formerly taken an oath of allegiance to the king, was caught in command of a troop of American cavalry. He was at once taken to Charleston, arraigned before Colonel Balfour, the commandant, THE END. 351 hurried through the mockery of a trial and condemned to death. Raw- don gave his sanction, and on the 31st of July Colonel Hayne was hanged. Just men in Europe joined with the patriots of America in denouncing the act as worthy of barbarism. On the 22d of August General Greene left the heights of the Santee and marched toward Orangeburg. The British decamped at his approach and took post at Eutaw Springs, forty miles below. The Americans pressed after them and overtook them on the 8th of September. One of the fiercest battles of the war ensued; and General Greene was denied a decisive vic- tory only by the bad conduct of some of his men, who, before the field was fairly won, abandoned themselves to eating and drink- ing in the enemy's camp. Stuart rallied his troops, returned to the charge and regain- ed his position. Greene, after losing five hundred and fifty- five men, gave over the struggle. The British lost in killed and wounded nearly seven hundred, and more than five hun- dred prisoners. On the day after the battle Stuart hastily retreated to Monk's Corner ; Greene followed with his army, and after two months of manoeuvring and de- sultory warfare the British were driven into Charleston. In the mean time, General St. Clair had cleared North Carolina by forcing the enemy to evacuate Wilmington. In the whole country south of Virginia only Charleston and Savannah remained under dominion of the king's army ; the latter city was evacuated by the British on the 11th of July, and the former on the 14th of December, 1782. Such was the close of the Revo- lution in the Carolinas and Georgia. .\-\°^ GENERAL GREENE. 352 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. But the final scene was to be enacted in Virginia. There, m the last days of April, 1781, Cornwallis took command of the British army and began to ravage the country on both banks of the James. In the course of the following two months property, public and private, waa destroyed to the value of fifteen million dollars. La Fayette, to whom the defence of the State had been entrusted, was unable to meet Corn- wallis in the field, but watched his movements with sleepless vigilance. While the British were in the vicinity of Richmond a detachment under Tarleton proceeded as far west as Charlottesville, where the Virginia legislature was in session. The town was taken, the country devastated, and seven members of the assembly made prisoners. Governor Jefferson escaped only by riding into the mountains. When there was little left to destroy, Cornwallis marched down the north bank of the James to Green Springs, eight miles above the site of Jamestown. He had received orders from Sir Henry Clinton to de- scend the river and take such a position on the coast as would keep the army within supporting distance of New York ; for Clinton was very apprehensive that Washington and the French would attack him. La Fayette hovered upon the rear of Cornwallis ; and on the 6th of July, when it was supposed that the main body of the enemy had crossed the James, General Wayne, who led the American advance, suddenly attacked the whole British army. Cornwallis was so surprised by the audacious onset that when Wayne, seeing his mistake, made a hasty retreat, no pur- suit was attempted. The loss of the two armies was equal, being a hun- dred and twenty on each side. After the passage of James River, the British marched to Portsmouth, where Arnold had had his headquarters in the previous spring There Cornwallis would have fortified himself; but the orders of Clinton were otherwise; and in the first days of August the army was again embarked and conveyed to Yorktown, on the southern bank of York River, a few miles above the mouth. La Fayette quickly advanced into the peninsula and took post but eight miles distant from the British. From this position he sent urgent despatches to Washington, beseeching him to come to Virginia and aid in striking the enemy a fatal blow. A powerful French armament, com- manded by Count de Grasse, was hourly expected in the Chesapeake, and La Fayette saw at a glance that if a fleet could be anchored in the mouth of York River, cutting off retreat, the doom of Cornwallis would be sealed. During the months of July and August, Washington, from his camp on the Hudson, looked wistfully to the South. But all the while Clinton was kept in feverish alarm by false despatches, written for the purpose of falling into his hands. These intercepted messages indicated THE END. 35^ that the Americans and French would immediately begin the siege of New York ; and for that Clinton made ready. When, in the last days of August, he was informed that Washington had broken up his camp and was already marching with his whole army toward Virginia, the British general would not believe it, but went on preparing for a siege. Washington pressed rapidly forward, paused two days at Mount Vernon, where he had not been for six years, and met La Fayette at Williams- burg. Meanwhile, on the 30th of August, the French fleet, numbering twenty-eight ships of the line, with nearly four thousand troops on board, had reached the Chesapeake and safely anchored in the mouth of York River. Cornwallis, with the British army, was blockaded both by sea and land. To add still further to the strength of the allies, Count de Barras, who commanded the French flotilla at Newport, sailed into the Chesa- peake with eight ships of the line and ten transports, bear- ing cannon for the siege. On the 5th of September the English admiral Graves ap- peared in the bay, and a naval battle ensued, in which the British ships were so roughly handled that they returned to New York. On the 28th of September the allied armies, superior in numbers and confident of success, en- camped around Yorktown. The story of the siege is brief. Tarleton, who occupied Glou- cester Point, on the other side - of the river, made one spirited sally, but was driven back with severe loss. On the night of the 6th of October the trenches were opened at the distance of six hundred yards from the British works. The cannonade was constant and effective. On the 11th of the month the allies drew their second parallel within three hundred yards of Cornwall is's redoubts. On the night of the 14th the enemy's outer works were carried by storm. At daydawn of the 16th the British made a sortie, only to be hurled back into their entrenchments. On the next day Cornwallis proposed a sur- render; on the 18th terms of capitulation were drawn up and signed; and at two o'clock in the afternoon of the 19th Major-General O'Hara — SIEGE OF YORKTOWN, OCTOBER, 1781. 354 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. for Cornwallis, feigning sickness, remained in his tent — led the whole British army from the trenches into an open field, where, in the presence cf the allied ranks of France and America, seven thousand two hundred and forty-seven English and Hessian soldiers laid down their arms, de- livered their standards, and became prisoners of war. Eight hundred and forty sailors were also surrendered. Seventy-five brass and thirty- one iron guns were taken, together with all the accoutrements of the army. By a swift courier the news was borne to Congress. On the even- ing of the 23d the messenger rode into Philadelphia. When the sentinels of the city called the hour of ten that night, they added, " and Cornwallis is taken." On the morrow Congress assembled, and before that august body the despatch of Washington was read. The members, exulting and weeping for gladness, went in concourse with the citizens to the Dutch Lutheran church and turned the afternoon into a thanksgiving. The note of rejoicing sounded through the length and breadth of the land ; for it was seen that the dominion of the Briton in America was for ever broken. After the surrender the conquered army was marched under guard to the barracks of Lancaster. Washington, with the victorious Americans and French, returned to the camps of New Jersey and the Hudson. On the Continent of Europe the news was received with every demonstration of gladness. In England the king and his ministers heard the tidings with mortification and rage ; but the English people were either secretly pleased or openly rejoiced. During the fall and winter the ministerial majority in Parliament fell off rapidly ; and on the 20th of March, 1782, Lord North and his friends, unable longer to conduct the government, resigned their offices. A new ministry was immediately formed, favor- able to America, favorable to freedom, favorable to peace. In the begin- ning of May the command of the British forces in the United States was transferred from Clinton to Sir Guy Carleton, a man friendly to American interests. The hostile demonstrations of the enemy, now confined to New York and Charleston, ceased ; and Washington made no efforts to dis- lodge the foe, for the war had really ended. In the summer of 1782 Richard Oswald was sent by Parliament to Paris. The object of his mission was to confer with Franklin and Jay, the ambassadors of the United States, in regard to the terms of peace. Before the discussions were ended, John Adams, arriving from Amsterdam, and Henry Laurens from London, entered into the negotia- tions. On the 30th of November preliminary articles of peace were agreed to and signed on the part of Great Britain by Oswald, and on be- half of the United States by Franklin, Adams, Jay and Laurens. In THE END. 355 the following April the terms were ratified by Congress; but it was not until the 3d of September, 1783, that a final treaty was effected be- tween all the nations that had been at war. On that day the ambassadors of Holland, Spain, England, France and the United States, in a solemn conference at Paris, agreed to and signed the articles of a permanent peace. The terms of the Treaty of 1783 were briefly these: A full and complete recognition of the independence of the United States ; the recession by Great Britain of Florida to Spain ; the surrender of all the remaining territory east of the Mississippi and south of the great lakes to the United States ; the free navigation of the Mississippi and the lakes by American vessels ; the concession of mutual rights in the Newfound- land fisheries ; and the retention by Great Britain of Canada and Nova Scotia, with the exclusive control of the St. Lawrence. Early in August Sir Guy Carleton received instructions to evacuate New York city. Three months were spent in making arrangements for this important event. Finally, on the 25th of November, everything was in readiness ; the British army was embarked on board the fleet ; the sails were spread; the ships stood out to sea; dwindled to white specks on the horizon ; disappeared. The Briton was gone. After the struggles and sacrifices of an eight years' war the patriots had achieved the inde- pendence of their country. The United States of America took an equal station among the nations of the earth. Nine days after Carleton's departure there was a most affecting scene in the city. Washington assembled his officers and bade them a final adieu. When they were met, the chieftain spoke a few affectionate words to his comrades, who came forward in turn and with tears and sobs which the veterans no longer cared to conceal bade him farewell. Washington then walked to Whitehall, followed by a vast concourse of citizens and soldiers, and thence departed to Annapolis, where Congress was in session. On his way he paused at Philadelphia and made to the proper officers a report of his expenses during the war. The account was in his own handwriting, and covered a total expenditure of seventy-four thousand four hundred and eighty-five dollars — all correct to a cent. The route of the chief from Paulus's Hook to Annapolis was a continuous triumph. The people by hundreds and thousands flocked to the villages and roadsides to see him pass ; gray-headed statesmen to speak words of praise ; young men to shout with enthusiasm ; maidens to strew his way with flowers. On the 23d of December Washington was introduced to Congress. To that body of patriotic sages he delivered an address full of feeling, 356 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. wisdom and modesty. Then with that dignity which always marked his conduct he surrendered his commission as commander-in-chief of the American army. General Mifflin, the president of Congress, responded in an eloquent manner, and then the hero retired to his home at Mount Vernon. The man whom, the year before, some disaffected soldiers were going to make king of America, now, by his own act, became a citizen of the Republic. CHAPTER XLV. CONFEDERATION AND UNION DURING the progress of the Revolution the civil government of the United States was in a deplorable condition. Nothing but the im- minent peril of the country had, in the first place, led to the calling of a Continental Congress. And when that body assembled, it had no method of proceeding, no constitution, no power of efficient action. The two great wants of the country were money to carry on the war and a central authority to direct the war: the former of these was never met; and Washington was made to supply the latter. Whenever Congress would move in the direction of a firmer government, division would spring up, and action would be checked by the remonstrance of jealous colonies. Nevertheless, the more far-seeing statesmen of the times labored constantly to create substantial political institutions. Foremost of all those who worked for better government was Ben- jamin Franklin. As early as the times of the French and Indian War he began to agitate the question of a permanent union of the colonies. During the troubled years just preceding the Revolution he brooded over his cherished project, and in 1775 laid before Congress the plan of a per- petual confederation of the States. But the attention of that body was wholly occupied with the stirring events of the day, and Franklin's measure received but little notice. Congress, without any real authority, began to conduct the government, and its legislation was generally ac- cepted by the States. Still, the central authority was only an authority by sufferance, and was liable at any time to be annulled by the caprice of State legislatures. Under such a system thinking men grew restless. On the 11th of June, 1776, a committee was appointed by Congress to prepare a plan CONFEDERATION AND UNION. 357 of confederation. After a month the work was completed and laid before the house. Another month was spent in fruitless debates, and then the question was laid over till the following spring. In April of 1777 the discussion was resumed, and continued through the summer. Meanwhile, the power of Great Britain being overthrown, the States had all adopted republican governments, and the sentiment of national union had made considerable headway. Finally, on the 15th of November, a vote was taken in Congress, and the articles of confederation reported by the com- mittee were adopted. The next step was to transmit the articles to the several State legislatures for ratification. The time thus occupied ex- tended to the following June, and then the new frame of government was returned to Congress with many amendments. These having been con- sidered and the most serious objections removed, the articles were signed by the delegates of eight States on the 9th of July, 1778. Later in the same month the representatives of Georgia and North Carolina affixed their signatures. In November the delegates of New Jersey, and in the following February those of Delaware, signed the compact. Maryland held aloof; and it was not until March of 1781 that the consent of that commonwealth could be obtained. Thus the Revolution was nearly ended before the new system was finally ratified. The government of the United States under the articles of con- federation was a democratic republic. It presented itself under the form of a Loose Union of Independent Commonwealths — a con- federacy of sovereign States. The executive and legislative powers of the general government were vested in Congress — a body composed of not less than two nor more than seven representatives from each State. But Congress could exercise no other than delegated powers; the sover- eignty was reserved to the States. The most important of the exclusive privileges of Congress were the right of making war and peace, the regu- lation of foreign intercourse, the power to receive and send ambassadors, the control of the coinage of money, the settlement of disputed boundaries and the care of the public domain. There was no chief magistrate of the Republic; and no general judiciary was provided for. The consent of nine States was necessary to complete an act of legislation. In voting each State cast a single ballot. The union of the States was declared to be perpetual. On the day of the ratification of the articles by Maryland the old Congress adjourned, and on the following morning reassembled under the new form of government. From the very first the inadequacy of that government was manifest. To begin with, it contradicted the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence. Congress had but a shadow of 358 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. authority, and that shadow, instead of proceeding from the peoplu, emanated from States which were declared to be sovereign and inde- pendent. The first great duty of the new government was to provide for the payment of the war debt, which had now reached the sum of thirty-eight million dollars. Congress could only recommend to the several States the levying of a sufficient tax to meet the indebtedness. Some of the States made the required levy ; others were dilatory ; others refused. At the very outset the government was balked and thwarted. The serious troubles that attended the disbanding of the army were trace- able rather to the inability than to the indisposition of Congress to pay the soldiers. The princely fortune of Robert Morris was exhausted and him- self brought to poverty in a vain effort to sustain the credit of the govern- ment. For three years after the treaty of peace public affairs were in a condition bordering on chaos. The imperiled state of the Republic was viewed with alarm by the sagacious patriots who had carried the Revolu- tion to a successful issue. It was seen that unless the articles of confedera- tion could be replaced with a better system the nation would go to ruin. The project of remodeling the government originated at Mount Vernon. In 1785, Washington, in conference with a company of states- men at his home, advised the calling of a convention to meet at Annapolis in the following year. The proposition was received with favor ; and in September of 1786 the representatives of five States assembled. The question of a tariff on imports was discussed ; and then the attention of the delegates was turned to a revision of the articles of confederation. Since only a minority of the States were represented in the conference, it was resolved to adjourn until May of the following year, and all the States were urgently requested to send representatives at that time. Congress also invited the several legislatures to appoint delegates to the proposed convention. All of the States except Rhode Island responded to the call ; and on the second Monday in May, 1787, the representatives assembled at Philadelphia. Washington, who was a delegate from Vir- ginia, was chosen president of the convention. A desultory discussion followed until the 29th of the month, when Edmund Randolph intro- duced a resolution to set aside the articles of confederation and adopt a new constitution. There was further debate ; and then a committee was appointed to revise the articles. Early in September the work was done ; the report of the committee was adopted ; and that report was the Con- stitution of the United States.* At the same time it was resolved to send copies of the new instrument to the several legislatures for ratifi- cation or rejection. * The Constitution was written by Gouverneur Morris, of Pennsylvania. CONFEDERATION AND UNION. 359 While the constitutional convention was in session at Philadel- phia the last colonial Congress was sitting in New York. The latter body was in a feeble and distracted condition. Only eight States were represented. It was evident that the old Confederation, under which the colonies had won their freedom, was tottering to its fall. Nevertheless, before the adjournment of Con- gress, a measure was suc- cessfully carried through which was only second in importance to the forma- tion of the constitution. This was the organiza- tion of the North- western Territory. As a preliminary meas- ure this vast domain was ceded to the United States by Virginia, New Y o r k , Massachusetts, and Connecticut. For the government of the territory an ordinance, drawn up by Mr. Jeffer- son, was adopted on the 13th of July, 1787. General Arthur St. Clair, then president of Congress, received the appointment of military governor, and in the summer of the following year began his duties with headquarters at Marietta. By the terms of the ordinance it was stipulated that not less than three nor more than five States should be formed out of the great territory thus brought under the dominion of civilization ; that the States when organized should be admitted on terms of equality with the original members of the confederation, and that slavery should be prohibited. Out of this noble domain the five great States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin were destined in after times to be formed and added to the Union. On the question of adopting the Constitution the people were divided. It was the first great political agitation in the country. Those who favored the new frame of government were called Fed- eralists; those who opposed, Anti-Federalists or Republicans. The leaders of the former party were Washington, Jay, Madison, and ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 360 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Hamilton, the latter statesman throwing the whole force of his genius and learning into the controversy. In those able papers called the Fed- eralist he and Madison successfully answered every objection of the anti-Federal party. Hamilton was the first and perhaps the greatest expounder of constitutional liberty in America. To him the Republic owes a debt of perpetual gratitude for having established on a firm and enduring basis the true principles of free government. Under the Constitution of the United States the powers of gov- ernment are arranged under three heads — Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. The legislative power is vested in Congress — a body composed of a Senate and a House of Representatives. The members of the Senate are chosen by the legislatures of the several States, and serve for a period of six years. Each State is represented by two Sen- ators. The members of the House of Representatives are elected by the people of the respective States ; and each State is entitled to a num- ber of representatives proportionate to the population of that State. The members of this branch are chosen for a term of two years. Con- gress is the law-making power of the nation; and all legislative ques- tions of a general character are the appropriate subjects of congress- ional action. The executive power of the United States is vested in a Pres- ident, who is chosen for a period of four years by a body of men called the electoral college. The electors composing the college are chosen by the people of the several States ; and each State is entitled to a number of electors equal to the number of its representatives and senators in Congress. The duty of the President is to enforce the laws of Congress in accordance with the Constitution. He is commander- in-chief of the armies and navies of the United States. Over the legislation of Congress he has the power of veto ; but a two-thirds con- gressional majority may pass a law without the President's consent. He has the right of appointing cabinet officers and foreign ministers; but all of his appointments must be approved by the Senate. The treaty-making power is also lodged with the President; but here again the concurrence of the Senate is necessary. In case of the death, resig- nation, or removal of the President, the Vice-President becomes chief magistrate ; otherwise his duties are limited to presiding over the Senate. The judicial power of the United States is vested in a supreme court and in inferior courts established by Congress. The highest judicial officer is the chief-justice. All the judges of the supreme and inferior courts hold their offices during life or good behavior. The jurisdiction of these courts extends to all causes arising under the CONFEDERATION AND UNION. 361 Constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States. The right of trial by jury is granted in all cases except the impeachment of public officers. Treason against the United States consists only in levying war against them, or in giving aid and comfort to their enemies. The Constitution further provides that full faith shall be given in all the States to the records of every State; that the citizens of any State shall be entitled to the privileges of citizens in all the States ■ that new territories may be organized and new States admitted into the Union ; that to every State shall be guaranteed a republican form of government ; and that the Constitution may be altered or amended whenever the same is proposed by a two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress, and ratified by three-fourths of the legislatures of the sev- eral States. In accordance with this last provision fifteen amendments have been made to the Constitution. The most important of these are the articles which guarantee religious freedom ; change the method of electing President and Vice-President; abolish slavery; and forbid the abridgment of suffrage on account of race or color.* Such was the Constitution adopted, after much debate, for the government of the American people. Would the people ratify it? or had the work been done in vain? The little State of Delaware was first to answer the question. In her convention on the 3d of Decem- ber, 1787, the voice of the commonwealth was unanimously recorded in favor of the new Constitution. Ten days later Pennsylvania gave her decision by a vote of forty-six to twenty-three in favor of ratifi- cation. On the 19th of December New Jersey added her approval by a unanimous vote; and on the 2d of the following month Georgia did the same. On the 9th of January the Connecticut convention followed, with a vote of a hundred and twenty-eight to forty, in favor of adoption. In Massachusetts the battle was hard fought and barely won. A ballot, taken on the 6th of February, resulted in ratification by the close vote of a hundred and eighty-seven to a hundred and sixty-eight. This really decided the contest. On the 28th of April Maryland rendered her decision by the strong vote of sixty-three to twelve. Next came the ratification of South Carolina by a vote of a hundred and forty-nine to seventy-three. In the New Hampshire convention there was a hard struggle, but the vote for adoption finally stood fifty-seven to forty-six, June 21st, 1788. This was the nbith State, and the work was done. For, by its own terms, the new gov- ernment was to go into operation when nine States should ratify. The great commonwealth of Virginia still hesitated. Washington and * See Appendix F. 362 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. Madison were for the Constitution; but Jefferson and Henry were opposed. Not until the 25th of June did her convention declare for adoption, and then only by a vote of eighty-nine to seventy-nine. It was now clear that the new government would be organized, and this fact was brought to bear as a powerful argument in favor of adoption by the convention at Poughkeepsie. The hope that New York city would be the seat of the Federal government also acted as a motive, and a motion to ratify was finally carried, July 27th, 1788. Only Rhode Island and North Carolina persisted in their refusal. But in the latter State a new convention was called, and on the 13th of November, 1789, the Constitution was formally adopted. As to Rhode Island, her pertinacity was in inverse ratio to her importance. At length Providence and Newport seceded from the commonwealth; the question of dividing the teritory between Massachusetts and Connecti- cut was raised, and the refractory member at last yielded by adopting the Constitution, May 29th, 1790. Then, for the first time, the Eng- lish-speaking race in the New World was united under a common gov- ernment — strong enough for safety, liberal enough for freedom. In accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and a reso- lution of Congress, the first Wednesday of January, 1789, was named as the time for the election of a chief magistrate. The people had but one voice as to the man who should be honored with that trust. Early in April the ballots of the electors were counted in the presence of Congress, and George Washington was unanimously chosen President and John Adams Vice-President of the United States. On the 14th of the month Washington received notification of his election, and departed for New York. His route thither was a constant triumph. Maryland welcomed him at Georgetown. Philadelphia by her execu- tive council, the trustees of her university, and the officers of the Cin- cinnati, did him honor. How did the people of Trenton exult in the presence of the hero who twelve years before had fought their battle ! There over the bridge of the Assanpink they built a triumphal arch, and girls in white ran before, singing and strewing the way with flow- ers. At Elizabethtown he was met by the principal officers of the gov- ernment and welcomed to the capital where he was to become the first chief magistrate of a free and grateful people. With this auspicious event the period of revolution and confederation ends, and the era of nationality in the New Republic is ushered in. Long and glorious bo the history of that Republic, bought with the blood of patriots;, and consecrated in the sorrows of our fathers ! PART V. NATIONAL PEEIOD. A. D. 1789—1880. CHAPTER XLVI. WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION, 1789-1797. ON the 30th of April, 1789, Washington was duly inaugurated first President of the United States. The new government was to have gone into operation on the 4th of March, but the event was con- siderably delayed. The inaugural cere- mony was performed on the balcony of the old City Hall, on the present site of the Custom-House, in Wall street. Chancel- lor Livingston of New York administered the oath of office. The streets and house-tops were thronged with people ; flags flutter- ed ; cannon boomed from the Battery. As soon as the public cere- mony was ended, Washington retired to the Senate chamber and delivered his in- augural address. The organization of the two houses of Congress had already been effected. (363) WASHINGTON. 364 HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. The new government was embarrassed with many difficulties. The opponents of the Constitution were not yet silenced, and from the begin- ning they caviled at the measures of the administration. By the treaty of 1783 the free navigation of the Mississippi had been guaranteed. Now the jealous Spaniards of New Orleans hindered the passage of American ships. The people of the West looked to the great river as the natural outlet of their commerce ; they must be protected in their rights. On many parts of the frontier the malignant Red men were still at war with the settlers. As to financial, credit, the United States had none. In the very beginning of his arduous duties Washington was prostrated with sickness, and the business of government was for many weeks delayed. Not until September were the first important measures adopted. On the 10th of that month an act was passed by Congress instituting a department of foreign affairs, a treasury department and a department of war. As members of his cabinet Washington nominated Jefferson, Knox and Hamilton ; the first as secretary of foreign affairs ; the second, of war ; and the third, of the treasury. In accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, a supreme court was also organized, John Jay receiving the appointment of first chief-justice. AVith him were joined as associate justices John Rutledge of South Carolina, James Wilson of Pennsyl- vania, William dishing of Massachusetts, John Blair of Virginia, and James Iredell of North Carolina. Edmund Randolph was chosen attorney-general. Many constitutional amendments were now brought forward, and ten of them adopted. By this action on the part of Congress, the objections of North Carolina and Rhode Island were removed and both States ratified the Constitution, the former in No- vember of 1789 and the latter in the following May. On the 29th of September, 1789, Congress adjourned until the following January, and Washington availed himself of the opportu- nity thus offered to make a tour of the Eastern States. Accompanied by his secretaries, he set out in his carriage from New York on the 15th of October, and nine days afterward reached Boston. At every point on the route the affection of the people, and especially of the Revolutionary veterans, burst out in unbounded enthusiasm. On reaching Boston the President was welcomed by Governor John Hancock and the selectmen of the city. No pains were spared that could add to the comfort and pleasure of the new nation's chief mag- istrate. After remaining a week among the scenes associated with his first command of the American army, he proceeded to Portsmouth and thence returned with improved health and peace of mind by way of Hartford to New York. 1789 93 97 1801 French Geor Washington, 91. Vermon the 89. North Carolina rat 90. Rhode Island 90. Seat of govern 92. K Wash Revolution. 94. Partition of 93. Execution of Louis 93. Fall of the Girond 93. Reign of Te 94. Fall of Robes ge III. 96. Gr Napo 97. Pinckney rejected Poland. XVI. 99. Overth ists. 99. Napole rror. pierre. 1800. eat political disturbanc President. t admitted into Union. ifies the Constitution. 96. 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