c^% "^y. v-^ -N^ ■"•0^ .^^ -^c^. IN ^ V x\^ >> -u. x- ,,x^ -^^ .\> .^'' "-P ^"^ .^^ ^'V- '"^^ o. ^^ ^^. .^^ \/ "^-. ,o ^ •s .O" ».• ■"oo^ '■^. * » \ ^ " ^ V ■V' .A^ ■ •%. c,^ '°t. * .0 N ^ , Oo, o 0' -^^ :" ■ 8 1 1 ■0 V- ,<; c;, '■■■ _ -S' ^ ,:^f^i'y ^ ^ = / , -^^ ^ ^-.v^' :^^n:"'- A^^' 'V ■<>^^' ^^ V^' t\^" ^€'0^ 'J- .\\^ 0' cO'^''« '/■ o A^^ "^^ L- o > .o^ .^\:>^, ^'c/' -° \> - .^•' %.. ' 'si^f : A^^' \^" ^MS%.//^: 1^ ^ '^ ,<^' " ^' 0^" ^\\- -r'. S^^"^ Oo. \" V * . '--:. " " ' ^ ~ ,.>^' . s ^- ^- , '% * -> N ' x\^ .A' sv^^' ■^:r'. '/ c- .-^^ '^ '^ff , .-' aV 0" s - Z ' O c z-^. c^ "/V'-;^'^ ■,^^ -^. AT- >" '- « -^ ^A' ^■^ i5e--<^ % 4^- 00' ^s^-:?^ - .xX^~ xO c. ^V^!% V^^° v> .-". .v^^"^v ^ .0^ o 0' r^^^*' ^^ "% '. '^^< .0 !M \ V '/■ ,\\ ^xtnx ■^>- >^^ ,0o ■A^- '^-V-. ', V ^ A ®tber books in tbe same scries aiiD bg tbc same autbor. THE CENTURY BOOK OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. The Story of a Young People's Pilgrimage to Historic Battlefields. Issued under the auspices of the Empire State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. With introduction by Hon. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW, President of the Society. JL THE CENTURY BOOK JL T OF FAMOUS AMERICANS T ill The Story of a Young People's W UH Pilgrimage to Historic Homes. ||i« A Issued under the auspices JL ^ of the National Society of the IHi MM Daughters of the American Revolution. Jm ■tc With introduction by ^^ m Mrs. ad LAI E. STEVExNTSON, |||| i_ President-General of the Society. .*. Uniform with this hook in size and style. Eaeh mm "(^ eontainius; Jjo pages and nearly as many illus- DIP mL (rations. Priee of each, $i.^o. JL * li*ffl*S*t3!*lf I BARON STEUBE GOV. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. SECRETARY SAMUEL A. OTIS. ROGER SHERMAN. GOV. GEORGE CLINTON. CHANCELLOR ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. GEORGE WASHINGTON. JOHN ADAMS. GEN'L HENRY KNOX. WASHINGTON TAKING THE OATH AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, APRIL 30, 1789, ON THE SITE OF THE PRESENT TREASURY BUILDING, WALL STREET, NEW YORK CITY. ISSUED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE SOCIETY OF THE SONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION THE CENTURY BOOK FOR YOUNG AMERICANS SHOWING HOW A PARTY OF BOYS AND GIRLS WHO KNEW HOW TO USE THEIR EYES AND EARS FOUND OUT ALL ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES BY ELBRIDGE Sf BROOKS AUTHOR OF "HISTORIC BOYS," "HISTORIC GIRLS," "THE STORY OF THE UNITED STATES," ETC., ETC. WITH PICTURES OF SOME OF THE PEOPLE AND PLACES THAT HAVE MADE AMERICA FAMOUS THE CENTURY CO., NEW YORK <^ Copyright, 1894, by The Century Co. Thc DeVinne PREes. INTRODUCTION Office of the President-General, National Society, Sons of the American Revolution. 15 Broad street, New York, July, 1894. |HE Society of the Sons of the American Revolution is an association composed of lineal descendants of ancestors who assisted in achiev- ing the nation's independence, either in the civil or military service, during the War of the American Revolution. It aims to encourage the study of Revolutionary history, to erect suitable memorials, to celebrate the anniversaries of prominent events of the war, and to inspire among its members and the community at large a more profound reverence for the principles of the government founded by our forefathers. In its endeavor to in- culcate in the minds of the youth of the land a more exalted patriotism, it has sup- plied schools with American flags, organized patriotic celebrations, and prepared bronze medals of appropriate design to be given to the pupils as prizes for compo- sitions upon Revolutionary history. It has also offered to our principal colleges gold and silver medals to be awarded annually to the writers of the best essays upon the principles fought for in the American Revolution and has distributed many patri- otic addresses. It believes, with Bolingbroke, that " the love of country is a lesson of reason, not an institution of nature," and that it can be largely stimulated by proper teachings. Much regret has been felt from the fact that there has been no book published here- tofore in which the principles contended for in the American Revolution, and a de- scription of the institutions of the Government, have been set forth in a sufficiently interesting form to make the study attractive to children. The society recently suggested to The Century Company the advisabihty of preparing such a book. This work has now been produced, and it is presented in a form which commends itself highly to the society, and has received its cordial approval. It is proper to state that the society has no business relations with the publishers of the book, and no pecuniary interest whatever in the publication. The services ren- dered by the officers of the society in furthering the project have been entirely gratuitous. Horace Porter, President- General. THE author wishes to make due and grateful acknowledgment for information, suggestion, and aid in the preparation of this book, to Ex-Gover- nor Long of Massachusetts, Ex-Con- gressman Bowman of Boston, Mr. S. M. Hamilton of the State Department, Washington, and other interested friends. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE I The Government i II The Constitution 17 III The President 33 IV The Cabinet 51 V The Senate 63 VI The House of Representatives , _ . . TJ VII The Supreme Court 91 VIII The State, War, and Navy Departments 103 IX The Treasury and the Post Office 121 X The Departments of Justice, of the Interior, and of Agriculture 143 XI The- Office-holder 161 XII The Flag of the Union 177 XIII The State, the City, and the Town 191 XIV The Citizen 203 XV The National Capital 219 XVI America's Marvels and America's Station 235 Trumbull's picture, "the signing of the declaration of independence. THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT CHAPTER I THE GOVERNMENT Jack and Marian wish to see the world — Mr. Dunlap's views — Uncle Toms dissections — A personally coriducted party — The visit to Washington — A talk about the United States : What they are and ho'w they came to be. WHEN Jack and Marian Dunlap and their cousin Albert Upham returned from the World's Fair at Chicago, they were full of the desire to keep on sight-seeing. They had been amazed at the bigness and industry of the world. They had seen things from every country under the sun. Now they were anxious to see, for themselves, the countries and cities from which all these strange and beautiful and wonderful things had come. " Father," said Jack to Mr. Dunlap, as they sat one evening in their New York home talking things over, "won't you let us go to Europe with you when you make your next trip ? " " Oh, yes ! That would be perfectly splendid ; would n't it, Bert? " cried Marian. "Can't we go, Papa?" But Mr. Dunlap had peculiar views. " See Europe and welcome, my dears," he replied. " I shall be de- lighted to take you — when the time comes. It has not come yet, though; you must know your own country first. Every time I go abroad I meet so many un-American Americans that I am determined to have my young folks decently furnished with a stock of home information. Why, on my last trip to Europe, I met a Bostonian who had never climbed Bunker Hill Monument, a New-Yorker who had never seen Niagara Falls, and a Phila- delphian who could not tell the difference between Carpenters' Hall and Independence Hall. What is the difference?" THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT Jack looked at Bert, and Bert looked at Marian. Then Jack, who knew his father's love for springing "catches" on them, jumped at a brilliant conclusion. A PILGRIM FATHER IN HIS ARMOR. "There is n't any difference," he said. But that time Jack made a mistake. His father looked at him queerly. " And you talk of seeing Europe ! " he exclaimed. Then he went on without offering any explanation — " Yes ; and once I met in Europe an American congressman who could not quote from the Constitution of the United States without looking at it, an American ex-governor who thought that a Pilgrim was the same as a Puritan, and an American doctor of divinity who did not remember how the Declaration of Independence begins." THE GOVERNMENT 3 " I can beat him there ! " cried Bert ; " it begins : ' When in the course of human events — ' what human events, Uncle Edward?" "Ah! there you are! " Mr. Dunlap exclaimed; "just what I intend you shall find out for yourselves ! It is human events that have made America. I am going to send you on a tour of investigation. Then, when you know the hows and whys of America, we will talk of seeing Europe," The boys had no objection. What boys ever did object to sight- seeing — even when it had "a moral tagged on," as Jack said? As for Marian, she, of course, was delighted. And she said so. " How I wish Christine could go too," she said. Now, Christine Bacon was Marian's "dearest friend" — all girls have such an inseparable. Mr. Dunlap sat silent awhile. Then he said, " Perhaps the plan could be arranged. I '11 talk with Uncle Tom." "Uncle Tom " was Mr. Dunlap's brother. He knew everything, so the children believed. He had been everywhere. He was thirty-five ; "as lovely as he was learned," Marian declared; a boy with the boys and girls he delighted to talk with; just the one to "run things," Jack and Bert asserted. And just now Uncle Tom had plenty of time at his disposal. Mr. Dunlap and his brother talked it over. When they had agreed on the preliminaries, the children were admitted to the conference. "The secret session is over," said Uncle Tom, opening the door of Mr. Dunlap's library. "The public will now be admitted." " What 's a secret session. Uncle Tom ? " Marian asked. " A secret session ? " he answered. " Well, I '11 tell you — in Washington." "In Washington!" exclaimed Jack. "Oh, then we can go?" " It has been so determined in secret session," said Uncle Tom. A triple cheer went up from the "public." Then Marian pleaded for Christine, and the boys wished that Christine's New England cousin, Roger Densmore, might go. They had spent several summers with him on the Maine coast, and voted him to be just the best fellow in the world for such a trip. " He 's a perfect little gentleman," declared Marian ; " and just as bright as he is good." "The more the merrier," said Uncle Tom; "I 'm agreeable if your father is." "If their fathers and mothers are willing, I am," Mr. Dunlap said. " It makes me think of the trip to Hampton Beach that Shillaber wrote about," laughed Uncle Tom. "Don't you remember, Jack? — 4 T*HE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 'Then Johnny and Mally And Bobby and Sally And little Joe Alley, less stocking or shoe, Set up such a clatter That, to settle the matter, The kind Mr. Sled says they may go too.' " " Well, if Roger is ' little Joe Alley,' " said Marian, " he won't go without stocking- or shoe. He 's a regular dude when it comes to clothes." "He 's no dude!" Jack declared, stoutly. "He 's as good as they make 'em." At last everything was settled. All the parents were willing. And so it came to pass that on a bright spring morning Uncle Tom and his "person- ally conducted party of juvenile tourists," as he called his charges, peered from their train-window, anxious for the first glimpse at "their Mecca"; and, as the midnight- express from New York puffed across the eastern branch of the Potomac, they caught the glorious gleam of the splendid dome of the Capitol, looming up in all its majesty and whiteness. For Mr. Dunlap had said to his brother: "Take them, first, to the cen- ter of things, Tom. Go to Washington. Let them see why our government was made, how it was made, and how it is run." So to Washington the "tourists" went; a delighted, happy, and most congenial party of three boys and two girls, — all wide-awake, all anxious to see and to hear whatever there was to be seen and heard, and all of them as full of fun, but as easily kept "in the traces," as any five young folks just in their teens that could be picked out in New York or Boston. Marian and Christine sfave a o-irlish shriek of satisfaction as Uncle Tom pointed out the crown of the capital. " How beautiful it is ! " said Bert, his eyes fastened on that superb dome. "You can see it above everything. Why, it makes one proud to be an American." "That 's the way it ought to affect you, Bert," said Uncle Tom. "If you have all of you come to Washington in that spirit, you will see things to the best advantage. Nothing is perfect — not even patriotism. But I think we do the best we can with our opportunities, and, while I don't like to hear Americans boasting, I do like them to look with pride upon their possessions and feel a thrill of pleasure over their institutions. The Am- erican who does n't like America and is forever comparing it slightingly with other countries ought to be banished to an island in the sea and made to read Dr. Hale's 'Man Without a Country' until that inspiring story teaches him to appreciate what it is to have a country." THE GOVERNMENT "That 's all fine talk," Jack said, as the travelers left their train and passed through the station with a glance of interest and pity at " Garfield's star," of which they all knew the tragic story, — "that 's all fine talk. Uncle Tom ; but — what is it to have a country ? It is n't for us to pick and THE DOME OF THE CAPITOL — AS SEEN FROM PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. choose» We 're born here, you know, and that settles it. Who makes a country ? " " There you are, at the very beginning of things ! " Uncle Tom exclaimed, as they took a street-car to their hotel. "And here, in Washington, is the very place to commence our investigations, as your father wisely said. Let 's talk it over while we are getting breakfast and resting. Then, after you all know how the American government came to be, we can sally out and see how it is run. " Do you know, boys and girls," said Uncle Tom, thoughtfully, between 6 T^HE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT. a sip of coffee and a bite of steak, " that splendid dome yonder was built here because a certain German boy had a grandmother ? " "ladies and gentlemen discussed the SiiL.llUj. "Uncle Tom ! that coffee has gone to your head," said Marian. "Many years ago," Mr. Dunlap continued, without noticing the puzzled expression of his five young friends, "there lived on a pleasant island in the sea a king who had a grandmother." THE GOVERNMENT 7 " Oh, here, Uncle Tom ! " exclaimed Jack, laying down his knife and fork ; " what are you giving us ? We are not children, and you are not — Scheherazade nor the Brothers Grimm." "I am telling this story. Master Jack," said Uncle Tom. "It 's not a fairy tale ; it is a fact. There was just such a king, and he did have a grandmother." " Let up, Jack," Roger protested. " He knows what he 's about." "Now, this grandmother," continued Uncle Tom, "was second cousin to a princess whose father had run away from his throne and whose sister had married the man who made him run away. These two became king and queen of the island. And, when they died, the sister who was a princess be- came queen. Then she died; and the people of the island would not have the son of the king who ran away for their king, but declared that the crown belonged to the princess's second cousin — the grandmother — of my story, and who did not live on the island at all. But before she could take the crown she died ; and her son, who was a little one-for-a-cent sort of prince, went over and became king of the island. When he died, his son and then his grandson succeeded as kings of the island. The last of these three 'foreigners' was the king who had the grandmother — only she was a great- grandmother, and died long before the king of my story was born. But this is how he came to be king of the island." " For further particulars see Mr. Macaulay and Thackeray's ' Four Georges,'" said Bert, with just a little of the superior air of the boy who knows it all. "Good for you, Bert," said Uncle Tom; "I see you read my historical puzzle correctly. Yes ; the king with the grandmother was George the Third, king of England. And by such means did this German boy come to be an English king. Of course, too, you know that It was in the reign of George the Third that these United States were born." " Out of the colonies," said Roger, "that James who ran away, and Wil- liam and Mary who came from Holland, and Anne the princess, and the first two Georges from Germany,, had all the say about when their English sub- jects came over here to settle." "Just so," assented Uncle Tom. "But those colonies had their begin- nings even further back. When Columbus the admiral came sailing over the sea, his little cockle-shells of ships brought in them the seeds of a great idea. Those seeds were the desire for liberty and the dream of self-govern- ment. They had been trying to sprout in Europe ever since the days we call ' the dark agfes.' " " But Columbus and his fellows were Spaniards," said Jack. 8 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT " They were Spaniards, and they settled far to the south," said Uncle Tom; "but, don't you see, it was Columbus who opened a new chapter in the world's history. He gave to the world the knowledge of a new land, in which the men and women who followed in his wake saw the very oppor- tunity the world had been waiting for so long — the possibility of making their dreams of liberty and progress come true." " But you can't say that those first settlers came here with any such great ideas, can you. Uncle Tom?" Jack objected. "I always thought they came just for adventure or for the sake of making money." " That 's so," Uncle Tom admitted ; " but, don't you see, as they began to settle down here and to make homes for their wives and children, hewinof down the great forests and building their rough little houses of logs or stone, the colonists became neighbors, then the neighbors became friends, the friends became fellow-countrymen." " Well ? " said Marian. The boys and girls were beginning to get interested in this line of argument. "Well," said Uncle Tom, "still more ships came. New families sought homes ; and all along a narrow strip of sea-shore, stretching from Maine to Georgia, little knots of settlements sprang up, in which boys and girls grew to be men and women, loving the land in which they had their homes. But, because they were so far away from the kings and courts to which they yielded respect as their rulers, they came gradually to think and act for themselves ; they began to wonder why, if they were able to live and labor here, they really ought to be subjects of, or pay tribute to, those crowned masters across three thousand miles of sea, who did not seem to care espe- cially for them or take any interest in them, beyond the money they could collect from them, or the trade they could control for English markets and English manufactures." "But the colonists were making money too, were they not?" queried Roger. "The)' were in a certain way," replied Uncle Tom, "but not in the right way. No man who minds his own business likes to have any one come in and tell him just how to mind it. England drained off in tribute and mo- nopolies a certain portion of the colonists' money without so much as say- ing ' by your leave.' The Americans did not consider this fair. They began to think ; and when people begin to think, they soon begin to act. This ac- tion, in America, came over a question of taxation. People who pay taxes generally feel privileged to grumble over the way the tax money is spent, especially if they think the money could be spent to better advantage for the benefit of those who pay the taxes." ■iiiifii, //Mi^lllilllll^^^^ \ ^^wvvMwti*^-;:.' ^ >^>^\n^\s _-%s&.v^."^ A COLONIAL GOVERNOR. lO THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT " Right you are," said Jack. " I 've heard my father get as mad as a hornet over what he calls ' the injustice to the taxpayers.' " "Well," said Uncle Tom, nodding assent to Jack's interjection, "the col- onists soon became hornets in the same way. The people in America who ' NU lAXAlIOiN WllllOUT Klil'KliSliN I Al IO;N paid taxes to England began to talk things over. Ladies and gentlemen dis- cussed the situation as they took their summer airings ' on the Mall ' or met at 'rout' or in church. Farmers talked it over at seed-planting and har- vest, or at the assemblies of neighbors in the tavern or the town-meeting. They all said that they did not so much object to paying the taxes if they could only have ' the say ' as to how those taxes should be used. ' Give us a voice in this matter!' they demanded. But the people of England ob- jected to this. The king of England sent over to act as ' governors ' of the colonies men who were mostly good-for-nothings — broken-down noble- men anxious to make money, or favorites of the king whom he wished to do something for. So the people, even when they did try to have something to say for themselves and attempted to make laws for their own protection, found the king or his 'governors' ready to step in and say, 'You cannot do this,' or ' You shall not do that,' until finally they grew tired of it all ; they became more and more outspoken in talk and action, and finally raised the cry : ' No taxation without representation ! ' " THE GOVERNMENT II .r^^ 1 ft'. ' .V f-, ^ ?%-.. -#=«^-? '•^-'~-&^^'&^ ^ THE LAST OF THE KING WHO HAD A GRANDMOTHER. (pulling down THE STATUE OF GEORGE IIL, NEW YORK, JULY 9, 1776.) " Good for them ! " exclaimed Jack. "Out of this demand," continued Uncle Tom, "came what is called the American Revolution. And out of the American Revolution came, as you know, after seven years of war, the United States of America.'' " Hooray ! let the eagle scream ! " murmured enthusiastic Jack, m an audible "stage-whisper." " Of that American Revolution," said Uncle Tom, warming to his sub- ject, "what boy or girl in America is not proud to-day?" " Hear, hear ! " said the boys and girls. " Every one of them knows its story." 12 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT " We do, we do ! " from his auditors. " It is," Uncle Tom went on, "a record of the protests of patriots, the struesfles of armies, the doinc["s of heroes. The thirteen colonies of the English crown, fringing- the western shores of the north Atlantic, deemed themselves ill-treated by the king and Parliament of England. They banded together for appeal, and for resistance. They proclaimed themselves forever free from English authority, and then combined for mutual protec- tion and defense under the title of the United States of America." "I tell you, that was a pretty plucky thing to do, though, was n't it?" Bert exclaimed; and Christine asked, " How many people were there in the colonies then, Mr. Dunlap ? " " Oh, between two and three millions," said Uncle Tom; "less than the combined inhabitants of New York and Brooklyn to-day. And of these, you must remember, very many were timid — afraid to speak out ; loyal to the kiniT, riij'ht or wronij ; anxious to leave well-enoui^h alone. So the people who protested and acted were but a part of the 'provincials," as their English rulers called them. Well, the Revolution ended in success. The Americans had gained what they fought for. They were free. What would they do now ? the world began to wonder." "Do?" cried Jack. "Why, set up shop for themselves and go ahead." " Not so easy, that," Uncle Tom returned. " You can't keep shop suc- cessfully unless the partners all pull together ; and this was not yet certain. There had, of course, been a sort of acting together during the war. The colonies had placed the direction of their common interests in the hands of a body of men known as the Continental Congress. Congress means — " " Come, Bert, air your Latin," Jack interjected, as Uncle Tom paused. " Co7i and gi^adior, to walk or step together," Bert replied promptly. " Exactly, Congress is a coming or meeting together. The Continental Congress was a meeting together for deliberation and action of a certain number of delegates representing the thirteen small and sparsely settled colonies along the Atlantic border, — the 'continent' it was proudly called. This Continental Congress (sometimes and perhaps more accurately called the Congress of the Confederation) announced in its Articles of Confeder- ation, proclaimed in 1777, that the thirteen united colonies, thereafter to be known as the United States of America, entered, by those articles, into a league of friendship with one another for defense, liberty, and welfare." "That was n't much of a governiuent then, was it?" said Roger. " Government? No," Uncle Tom exclaimed in answer. " It was just as they called it: 'a league of friendship,' — a lot of boys catching hold of hands and standing shoulder to shoulder to ward off a 'rush.' The Continental THE GOVERNMENT Congress was all right for a time of war ; but it was not a government. It could neither raise money by taxes, nor recruit an army for defense. The Continental Congress had, therefore, no real authority ; it could only recom- mend things to the three million of people it represented — and then stop. A PROTEST OF PATRIOTS — THE SONS OF LIBERTY SEIZING BRITISH ARMS. It could do nothing. So, you see, it had very little reason for existence after the liberty, to secure which it had been created, was attained." "That 's news to me," said Marian. " I always thought the Continental Congress did it all — from Lexington to Lincoln." "So did I," echoed Roger. "Live and learn, girls and boys," laughed Uncle Tom. "Well; the war was over. The thirteen colonies — States, as they called themselves — were free. But liberty without union is strength without wisdom. It is like boys 14 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT off for a holiday, anxious to play base-ball, but not able to decide how to make up the nines." •* We 've been there, have n't we, fellows *" cried Jack : *• and of all exas- perating things — I" here Jack stopped, at a loss for words to express the exasperation. *• Ouarrelinir arose beti;\-een sections ; the larger States put annoying re- TBE CRAIRM.VC OF TBB CJUWVUAIIOX. (THE aUSBXT STTAXT POmtATT OF CXO«GE WASHDSGTOJL > strictions upon the commerce of their smaller neighbors : resistance to neces- sar>' measures — by men who thought that to be free meant free to do as they pleased — threatened bloodshed ; and first one and then another State announced its intention to secede, or withdraw from the Confederation." *' Well, that was pleasant, was n't it ? " said Bert THE GO\'ER2iMENT 1 5 ''Came near upsetting their whole kettle of fish, did n't they?" com- mented Roger. '• It was indeed a time of severe trial for the friends of union and of liberty," said Uncle Tom. " It was a time of which more than one historian has said that ' it was fuller of hazard than the period of war.' " " How did they settle it?" asked Marian. " The men of America had struggled hard for freedom,"' said Uncle Tom, "and what men have sternly striven for they will not lose if they can help it. The wisest heads in America saw that their acting Congress with its- Articles of Confederation was no longer of ser\-ice. They saw that some- thing must be done, and at once. They believed in taking counsel together ; and so it came to pass that on the fourteenth of May, 1 787, there gathered, in. the cit}- of Philadelphia, delegates from the thirteen States. They were able, clear-headed, patriotic, and moderate men. Thej^ were men who had their opinions, but were willing to compromise. In other words, they were men who knew that, sometimes, it is stupid to be stubborn, wise to be yielding — "" •'Albert, m^- son, do you hear that?' Jack interrupted; "take a lesson, I beg of you, from that noble forr\--five." " \\ ell. I like that I '" cried Bert, so surprised that his glasses nearly fell oil. " Of all the fellows who need it most, you 're — " "Order, order I gentlemen,' said Uncle Tom. "You are not speaking" to the question. Personalities are barred out. As I was saying, the men ot this Constitutional Convention of 1787 v\-ere men with purpose, and men with patriotism. They were known as the Federal Convention, and over their deliberations George Washington presided as chairman." •' One, two, three ! " cried Jack, the frrepressible. " Ffrst in war, first in. peace — " " Come, come, Jack, do behave yourself" cautioned Mr. Dunlap, laugh- ing in spite of himself, for he knew Jack's exuberant spirits. " Xo better choice could have been made for a presiding officer. George Washington was the one man. above all others, whom the people trusted. He was the nation's hero — its protector, its defender, its counselor in peace, its leader in war. It he is chairman of the Convention,' people said, ' ever^-thing will be all right' " "Just think ot going in to a meeting and seeing Washington preside ! "^ said Roger: " I 'm afraid the Philadelphia boys, in 1787, did n't appreciate their opportunities." " Even if they had known as much as 3-ou do now. Roger. " Uncle Tom remarked, "they could not have gone. The Convention sat with closed doors. Eversthine was done in secret. But it would have been worth. i6 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 'hooking in' to see; for, besides Washington, there sat in that Conven- tion other famous Americans — Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, and Robert Morris. Indeed, the Federal Convention of 1787 has been called one of the most remarkable deliberative bodies known to history. It met to take counsel as to the best means of making per- manent the Union which resistance to oppression had created, and to draw up, for the three millions of freemen it represented, an agreement under which they could live together in peace and unity. This agreement we know to-day as the Constitution of the United States — the greatest of the state papers of the world, ' the tide deed of American liberty,' as it has been called." "And that to-day is the law of the land, is it?" said Bert. "Is n't it wonderful how things grow out of almost nothing?" Whereupon Jack, who loved to quote poetry, gave a text from Tennyson : " Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns." "That 's so, Jack," said Uncle Tom, rising. "And now, as the waiter evidently thinks we 're going to hold his table until dinner-time, and as our next step is to see and examine into the Constitution, let us go over to the State Department and hunt up the precious original itself." " Nothing like being right in the start, is there, Roger, my boy," said Jack, nudging his friend from Boston. " I call this a bang-up object- lesson in government, don't you ? " And away they all hied to the State Department, to see the Constitution itself WHERE THE CONVENTION MET. — PHILADELPHIA IN THE EARLY DAYS. CHAPTER II THE CONSTITUTION Uncle Toms "-tourists'' see the preciotis document — How it was made and adopted — They learn how it is the '■^corner-stone'' of the Government. AS the personally conducted "investigators" walked jLjl along Pennsylvania Avenue toward the splendid building in which they expected to find the original document of the Constitution of the United States of America, Jack, who, in spite of his heedlessness did really give thought to matters that interested him, said : "Well, say, Uncle Tom, I don't see how these forty-five men managed to agree on such a great and wonderful document as you say the Constitution is. What if they were not stubborn ; suppose they were ready to I don't see how they could get on without some squabbling." A LAMP THAT ONCE BELONGED TO GEORGE WASHINGTON. compromise "Good gracious. Jack! they did n't," Uncle Tom exclaimed. "I would not have you for a moment imagine that so important a paper as this Con- stitution was made up without dispute or accepted without opposition. And you must n't think either that 'the fathers who framed it,' as we now speak of them, were something more than mortal, like the fabled demigods of Greece. They were simply wise and zealous men, influenced only by love of country and a desire to secure the greatest good for the people they repre- sented. They tried to argue and arrange things calmly. But before they got through their work two of the members 'got mad,' as you girls say, and withdrew from the Convention — they were from New York, I am sorry to say ; four others — one from Maryland, two from Virginia, and one from Massachusetts — refused to sign the Constitution after it was drawn up. For days and months — four months, in fact — the members of the Conven- i8 T«E STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT tion discussed, objected, modified, amended, and resolved. With certain con- cessions here and certain )'ieldinos there, with hope that the people would accept, and fear lest they should reject the seven divisions or articles of the paper as put together, the Constitution was finally agreed to ; and, on Sep- PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, WASHINGTON. — ON THE WAV TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT. tember 17, 1787, the Convention dissolved, presenting the result of its de- liberations to the several States for adoption or rejection, as the people should decide." "The States did adopt it, of course," said Bert. "Of course they did," said Jack, turning to his cousin a little impatiently; " how else could we have the Constitution ? " "They did adopt it," said Uncle Tom, "but not immediately, and it must be confessed things looked a little shaky sometimes. Discussion ran high in all the States; but, within a year, eleven of the thirteen States had 'ratified' or accepted the document, and, on September 13, 1788, the Con- stitution of the United States of America was declared to be the law of the land." " So you see, my young and beloved hearers," said Uncle Tom, as they all stood at the entrance of the great building known as the State Depart- ment, " the Constitution of the United States was, really, the work of the people of the United States, who, through their chosen representatives, sought thus to found, upon the ruins of an overthrown tyranny and a dis- THE CONSTITUTION 19 carded confederation, an enduring government that should be — as the greatest of modern Americans expressed it seventy-five years later — 'of the people, by the people, for the people.'" "That was Lincoln, in his second inaugural address, was it not?" asked Roger. "Lincoln," Uncle Tom replied; "but in his Gettysburg speech — not his inaugural. It was one of the greatest, though one of the shortest speeches ever made by man. And now for the Constitution." Mr. Dunlap and his young people passed along the corridor and, taking the elevator, rose to the third floor of the big building. Here they found the pleasant room known as the Library of the State Department. Uncle Tom made known his wishes, and a courteous official, taking the party in THE BUILDING OF THE STATE, WAR, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS. charge, led them across the hallway to one of the smaller rooms in the sec- tion devoted to the Bureau of Indexes and Archives. Their conductor un- locked the doors of a long wooden cabinet and disclosed therein, neatly framed in five distinct sections, — beginning with the "preamble" and ending with the signatures, — the precious paper now famous throughout the world as the Constitution of the United States. 20 THE STORV OF THE C.OVERXMENT The boys and girls could not restrain a feeling of pride and satisfaction at sight of this immortal document. Even Jack's irrepressible spirits were visibly restrained as he looked upon it '' It is worth coming all the way to Washington to see just that, is n't it?" he said. "Who wrote it?" he asked. " If )ou mean the actual handwriting," replied the interested custodian, " I really cannot say. I have thought that possibly it might have been writ- ten — engrossed, we say — by William Jackson, who, as you see by his sig- nature, was Secretary of the Convention and 'attested' the document." "But see, sir." said critical Bert, "the body of the document is much better written than this signature of Jackson's." " Yes, I do see," the custodian replied. "I don't know that the question of the actual penman ever occurred to us here. Perhaps the document may have been enerossed bv one of the assistant secretaries or some other now forgotten penman. For that 's the way it is, even to-day, boys and girls. Here in the State Department we unknown fellows take time and care to write out some important paper and make a beautiful piece of penmanship of it. Then some famous secretary, who probably writes that horrible hand which they say is a sign of genius, just scrawls his name at the end of the paper and posterity gives him all the praise, while we, as you boys say, are ' not in it.' " " But the Constitution is n't at all like old-fashioned penmanship," said Roger. " It is beautifully written. And how well it has kept ! " " Yes ; it has kept better than other famous papers we have charge of here," the custodian replied. " Folks think we keep the original Declara- tion of Independence over there in the library. We do, but no one can see it. The one shown is a facsimile." " Dear me, though; can't we ever see the Declaration?" Marian asked. "I am afraid not," replied the custodian. "It used to be publicly dis- played, and was. in fact, carelessly kept. As a result the ink faded in the strong light, and at last, to save it, the Declaration was withdrawn forever from view. It is now screwed down flat between two heavy boards and is locked inside that big steel safe you saw near the library door. No one can see it now. With it, too, is the original of Washington's commission as commander-in-chief of the arniy, which has also, to save it, been in the same way shut forever from pul)lic view." " Is n't that too bad though ? " said Christine. " But never mind, we can say we saw its — what is it? — its sarcophagus." " But about the Constitution." asked Bert, returning to the topic in hand. "We know who did or who did n't write it. Now, who made it up? Who composed it ? ' -■■^^'-~ y m4^ 22 TrfE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT "Well, that, too, is difficult to say," the custodian replied. "Opinions, I believe, differ as to the honor ; it lies between Alexander Hamilton and James Madison." "I am inclined to call it a joint composition," said Uncle Tom. "The Constitution was the result of the deliberation and suggestion of the forty- five men who composed the Federal Convention — " " Minus those who ' got mad ' and ran off, and those who refused to sign, I suppose," Jack put in. "Well, perhaps," said Uncle Tom; "although we must admit their share in the deliberations and discussions." "Especially the discussions," said Roger. " I should, I think, agree in this question of responsibility, with Mr. Cur- tis," continued Uncle Tom. " He was a wise old ' dry-as-dust ' who wrote a history of the Constitution, and he declares it to be ' the result of the mutual concession to each other for the sake of that union which all knew to be their only hope of strength and safety.' I should say, in reply to Christine's ques- tion, that they all composed it." "As to the actual fact," said the custodian, "I believe it is stated that when the Convention had formulated a system — made up of provisos, sug- gestions, clauses, and memoranda — the matter was given into the hands of a committee of detail, to be put into form and shape, so that the Convention could act upon it. That committee consisted of Rut- ledge of South Carolina, Randolph of Virginia — " " Who — excuse me, sir — refused to sign," said Mr. Dunlap, " because he objected to the power the Constitution gave to the President and the Senate, and to the indefinite boundaries between national and State authority." " I believe that was so, sir," the custodian as- sented. " Rutledge, Randolph, Gorham of Massa- chusetts, Ellsworth of Connecticut, and Wilson of Pennsylvania. This committee presented a con- stitution of twenty-three articles. This document — the original one — has seven articles. So you can see how much pruning and condensing the Convention did." " I suppose we must, however, give most of the credit for the real fram- ing of the Constitution," said Mr. Dunlap, "to James Madison of Virginia, who has been called 'the father of the Constitution,' because he was the au- thor of the resolution that led to the invitation for the Convention that com- piled and adopted the Constitution — " "The Madison who was President?" broke in Marian. OLIVER ELLSWOKTH, OF CONNKCTICUT. '.=^^>^4 Secretary. Delaivare : Maryland : Virginia. (/ at € North Carolina: ^A^^^ ^ ^^^^-^0^lS^a.r^-^H^r^ New Ha^npshire : Massachusetts ■' Connecticut : New - York : New Jersey : Pennsylvania : South Carolina : Georgia : FACSIMILE OF THE SIGNATURES TO THE CONSTITUTION. 24 TiiE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT ALEXANDER HAMILTON. "Yes — fourth President of the United States; he succeeded Jefferson," Uncle Tom repHed. " I say we must give most of the credit to him and to Alexander Hamilton of New York." "There was a man, boys!" the custodian exclaimed. "I always say that the story of Alexander Hamilton is one to make young men proud of their youth. Think of it : an orator and patriot at seventeen, a hero before his twenty-first birthday, a statesman at twenty-three ! I believe he was one of the first Americans to suggest the government we now enjoy. Why, when he was but twenty-three he wrote a remarkable letter to a friend who was in the Continental Congress — that was in 1780 — in which he outlined many of the provisions that, later, found place in this very document you are looking upon." THE CONSTITUTION 25 "The gentleman is right, boys," Uncle Tom said. "Why, this young Hamilton — he was almost the youngest member of that grave Federal Convention — was so clearly its motive spirit that the famous historian Guizot declared there was not, in the Constitution of the United States, 'an element of order, of force, of duration, which Hamilton did not powerfully contribute to introduce into it and to cause to predominate.' " " Gracious ! " exclaimed Roger ; " why was n't he ever President? " Both gentlemen smiled at the boy's peculiar homage to greatness. "Why were not other great men, Roger?" Mr. Dunlap said. "Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Sumner ? Greatness does not always mean popular acceptance." " Did you say he was the youngest signer of the Constitution?" asked Bert. "Not the youngest; one of the youngest signers," said the custodian. "The youngest signer was, I believe, Nicholas Gilman of New Hampshire. He was thirty-two. ' "There's his signature," said Marian; "second from the top, under Washington's name. Pretty good writer, too, was n't he ? Who was the oldest signer ? " "A gentleman you have both heard of, I reckon," said the custodian. " He knew how to fly kites." "Benjamin Franklin!" cried the three boys in a breath; and Christine said, "There 's his name, heading the Pennsylvania signers. He wrote well for an old man, did n't he? How old was he, sir? " " Eighty-one," the custodian replied. "There's a funny name — that one there, from Maryland," exclaimed Roger. "What is it? Don? no, Dan — I thought it was a Spanish don at first — Dan of S. Thos. Jenifer ! What under the sun does that mean ? " "Daniel Jenifer, of St. Thomas Parish, Maryland," explained the cus- todian. " That was his curious way of putting his residence, or his estate, in with his name." " But I tell you," said Bert enthusiastically," there 's the best signature of them all — the cleanest, the clearest, the strongest, and the best " ; and he pointed to the name that led all others on the document : " George Wash- ington, Presiding, and Deputy from Virginia." The custodian nodded his head with the pride of a loyal American, and Mr. Dunlap said, "We ah know that signature, don't we? Do you re- member the story about this very one you are looking at ? It is said that Washington, who was the first to sign, — as you can see by the position of his signature, — stood by the table, held up the pen and said, solemnly, 26 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT 'Should the States reject this excellent Constitution they will probably never sign another in peace. The next will be drawn in blood "They say, too," said the custodian, "that Franklin watched his associ- ates signing- the Constitution, and, pointing to the picture of the sun, half up, painted on the wall behind the President's chair, said, ' I 've been so THE CONSTITUTION 27 full of hopes and fears during the Convention that whenever I looked at that sun behind the President, I could not say whether it was rising or setting. Now I do know; it is a rising and not a setting sun.' " " Good for B. Franklin ! " cried Jack, saluting the signature ; and Uncle Tom said, "Well, whether Hamilton or Madison was the 'father' of the Constitution, whether it was because of Franklin's wise presence, or Wash- ington's guiding hand, they builded, as Emerson tells us, ' wiser than they knew.' This Constitution has stood for more than a hundred years, and yet, in spite of our nation's unexampled growth, in the midst of the demands of the world's most wonderful century, the work of the fathers has stood so unchangeably the law of the land, that to this document here before us only fifteen amendments or alterations have been deemed necessary ; and of these fifteen, ten were made within a year after its adoption." Then he said, " Come, boys and girls" ; and to the custodian's courteous inquiry whether they would not like to see some of the other treasures of the Archives Bureau, Uncle Tom replied, "We may trouble you again, but not to-day, thank you. We are building the Government ad ovoT ''Ab ovof What is that, Mr. Latin Expert?" Jack whispered to Bert. ''Ab ovof Why, from the egg," Bert replied; "that is, from the very beginning." " From the ^^g, eh ? " said Jack. " Then I suppose that Constitution we have just seen was the & THE WHITE HOUSE, FROM THE FRONT. PHOTOCKAPHED ABOUT 1060 BY HE8L£R, CHICAGO. HE OKK.INAL NEGATIVE OWNED BY GEORGE D. AVRESj ESQ., PHILADELPHIA. w/^7^^2^A>c^r^ CHAPTER III THE PRESIDENT The boys and girls have an introdttction to the President — The White Ho2ise — Uncle Tom tells its histo7y — Hozv the presidential office was determined upon — The dttties of the Chief Executive — At the Reception. I FROM A PENNY OF 1791 T was eleven in the morning, and the President was at home." Uncle Tom sent in his card, with a letter of introduction and explanation given him by a friend of the President and of himself, and, as a result, the "tourists" had a special interview with the nation's Chief Executive. The young people were ushered into the presence of the President of the United States in the spacious egg- shaped room on the second floor of the White House, sometimes called the Library, and used as the President's Reception Room. It was a richly furnished apartment — its windows hung with silk cur- tains, its mahogany furniture upholstered in red leather. The sides of the room were lined with long, low book-cases crowded with volumes, some of which dated back, in the time of selection, to President Fillmore's day. Be- tween the windows stood the President's desk, made, so Uncle Tom in- formed them afterward, from the timbers of the ship Resolute, sent in search of the lost arctic explorer. Sir John Franklin, and afterward presented to the President of the United States by the Queen of England. The President rose to receive them. " Mr. Dunlap, I am happy to meet you," he said ; '' and these, I presume, are the young investigators." Uncle Tom introduced his party, one by one. "And so you are studying the Government of the United States from the real article and not from books? A good idea," said the President. " Yes, sir," said ready Jack. " We think it 's great. And we begin with you — next to the Constitution — as the nation's chief" " Its chief working-man, perhaps, my boy," said the President, smiling. 34 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT "After all, ladies and gentlemen," he added, bowing, "it is more than a form of words to say that I am only your humble servant — the servant of the people. I am what one of the gentlemen who occupied this house years ago called himself — ' an old public functionary.' " "That was President Buchanan, was it not, sir?" asked Bert. " Yes," the President replied ; " a man who held office in most perplexing times. I have to work pretty hard myself, boys, but I don't think I should care to exchange places with him." "But you could n't, Mr. President," Marian declared; "you 're not old, to begin with." The President smiled upon the giver of this unconscious compliment. " Perhaps it would be better if I were, my dear," he said. " One of our own American poets, you know, said 'age is opportunity,' did n't he?" "Yes, sir," said Christine; "I think it was Longfellow; my cousin lives near where he did," and she designated Roger with a wave of her hand. "Ah, from the Hub, my boy ? " inquired the President ; and Bert confessed that he hailed from the vicinity of the gilded dome and Memorial Hall. " Well," said the President, " Boston was one of the centers of America's opportunities ; and opportunity, after all, is what each one of us must seize and make the most of, if we wish to show the world what there is in us — no matter whether we are oxerworked Presidents or a wide-awake group of young investigators. Make the most of your opportunities, boys and girls. You have a magnificent chance, in this America of ours, to turn them into good and lasting work. Do you stay in Washington long, Mr. Dunlap?" " Long enough to let these young folks see as much as possible, Mr. President," Uncle Tom replied. "That is wise," said the President. "They are sure to see what is best here, and never notice what is questionable or faulty. That is the glorious privilege of youth. I shall hope to see you again before you go." Uncle Tom, realizing that this was a hint for dismissal, and aware that an eager crowd of applicants were awaiting their turn, motioned to Jack; and the boys and girls, shaking the President's extended hand, received his friendly good-byes. "This evening is one of the extra reception nights," he said. "As a rule, our public receptions are on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, but to-night there is a special one. Why not let your boys and girls join the crowd, and study it, Mr. Dunlap?" "Thank you, Mr. President; they will be glad to, I know," said Uncle Tom. And then he and his "tourists" withdrew. In the corridor Marian fairly jumped up and down. THE INAUGURATION OF A PRESIDENT ON THE STEPS OF THE CAPITOL. (JAMES A. GARFIELD, MARCH 4, 1881.) 36 IIIE STOKV OF THE GOVERNMENT "Was n't it fine?" she said. " Just think! we Ve seen the President." Then Uncle Tom walked his young" people through the White House, a card from his friend to one of the ushers securing for him special privil- eo-es. The boys and g-irls saw the public portion of that notable and historic house. They wandered at their leisure through the big- East Room, eighty feet long by forty wide, in which all the public receptions of the President -i- . «■■ CORNER OF THE EAST ROOM OF THE WHITE HOUSE. are held. They inspected and admired the beautiful suite of state-rooms opening from it — the Green Room, the Blue Room, and the Red Room. They passed behind the sash-screen of stained glass in the vestibule ; they promenaded through the long corridor ; they investigated the state dining- room; they visited the beautiful conservatories. They passed up the stairway and saw the Cabinet Room, in which the President and his chief advisers dis- THE PRESIDENT Z1 THE SOUTHERN PORTICO OF THE WHITE HOUSE. CUSS the affairs of the nation. They looked at the Executive office and ante- rooms ; they were devoured with curiosity to peep into the private rooms of the mansion, devoted to the family life of the President ; but here they were restrained by the usher's veto and Uncle Tom's warning. Then, at last, they gathered upon the colonnaded balcony on the southern side of the White House and looked across the verdant lawn to the broad and bright Poto- mac and the blue Virginia hills. " Oh, what a lovely lawn ! " exclaimed Christine. " Here 's where the Washington children come for their Easter egg- rolling, is n't it, Uncle Tom ? " Marian asked. THE PRESIDENT 39 "Yes; this is the spot," her uncle answered. " I 've read about that, too," said Christine. " How I should like to see itf" "So should I," said Marian. "Do you know, if I were here for just that day I should n't know which to do — see the egg-rolling, or call on the President." "Well, you could have your choice," began Jack; "they 'd both of 'em be on exhibition ; " but here he was promptly squelched by Bert and Roger. " What do you think of it, boys and girls ? " said Uncle Tom. " The President is well housed, is n't he ? " "As fine as a king," declared Roger. " Is it as grand as a king's palace, Uncle Tom ? " Marian inquired. "Well, there are some palaces that are grander," Uncle Tom admitted. " But there are few that are more interesting. In fact, the White House was, I believe, designed after an Irish palace, — the residence of the Dukes of Leinster, near Dublin." "The Green Isle forever!" cried Jack. "Just see; we get even our people's palace from St. Patrick. Who was the architect. Uncle Tom ? " "Why, he was an Irishman, too; a young South Carolinian named Hoban," his uncle replied. Then Mr. Dunlap told them the story of the White House — how it was the first public building completed in the new city, which Washington had selected as the site of the capital of the young republic, and to which his name was given ; how Washington himself had helped lay the corner-stone one October day in the year 1792 ; how he and his noble wife had walked through the completed building only a few days before his death in i 799 ; how it was wantonly destroyed by British invaders in the year 18 14, and how Mrs. Madison had to "unavoidably postpone" her dinner-party, and run for her life ; how it was at once repaired and completed by the same architect, Hoban, and formally reoccupied by President Monroe ; and how, ever since his day, with frequent house-cleanings, alterations, and renova- tions, it has been the Executive Mansion of the United States. " Many people criticize it," said Uncle Tom. "They say it is not grand enough for so great and rich a nation. They say it is old, inconvenient, and ramshackly. They say it should be used only for the business offices of the President, and that a new and splendid mansion should be built for the President's real residence. But I am not so sure that such a change would be wise. With all our riches we should be simple, and with all our great- ness we should be modest. The White House seems to me to fill the bill." 40 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT „;,^--^\ WEST WINDOW OF THE WHITE HOl'SE. "Why, I think it 's just splendid," said Marian. "Think of having your home in a house that Washington built and Lincoln lived in ! If I were President I should n't want to live anywhere else." " So she should live in it," said Jack, teasingly. " When she 's President she sha'n't live anywhere else, so she shan't." "Do be still, Jack Dunlap," said Marian, laughing. "Who knows? Perhaps I may. Why should n't women be presidents. Uncle Tom ? " And all the answer wise Uncle Tom made was, " Why should n't they ? " THE PRESIDENT 41 "But how did we come to have a President, anyway?" asked Bert, always thirsting for information. " Was there any worry over that, as there was over the Constitution ? " " Indeed there was, Bert," Uncle Tom replied, " It was really a matter of wide and long discussion. For, you see, when it was decided to make of the United States a united nation, there was a great deal of talk as to just what sort of a nation it should be, and what should be the position and duties of the man who should stand at its head. It was to be a nation in which the people were to have both interest and voice. 'We, the people of the United States — ' as they said in their written Constitution — covenanted together. The people were to rule the Republic. The Congress of the people was to make the laws. But, when the laws were made, who was to carry them out ? That was the question. Who was to stand as the executive head of the nation ? " "Why, George Washington, of course," said Jack. "Who else was there ? " REAR VIEW OF THE WHITE HOUSE, FROM NEAR THE GREENHOUSE. — TREASURY BUILDING IN THE DISTANCE. "That was all right for a starter, Jack," Uncle Tom admitted, "but the people were building for the future. Washington could not live forever." " But he does, you know," persisted Jack. " He lives in the hearts of his countrymen." "Do be still, Jack," Marian cried impatiently. "You talk too much. Don't listen to him. Uncle Tom." 42 "THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT "For three days," said Uncle Tom, "die Constitutional Convention of 1787 debated who should be chief of the Republic and what should be his title. There were a few timid ones who had the traditional faith in a king and a monarchy," " Ho ! a king in America ! " republican Jack burst out. " I read something about that," said Bert. "They wanted to offer the crown to one of the sons of King George. He was only a boy, and he was called — let me see — the Bishop of Osnaburgh, was n't he?" " A boy, and a bishop ! — worse and worse ! " cried Jack. "Yes, there was some such talk as that, I believe," Uncle Tom replied. " But it never amounted to anything, of course. Ever since the first step toward liberty, the firm determination of the people had been quite away from any idea of king or monarchy." "Well, I guess!" interjected Jack. " But they could n't settle on the best way," Uncle Tom said. " One delegate wanted three heads for the nation — one for each of the three sections into which he wished the country divided. It is going to be a big nation, he argued, and it will become too big for an undivided Republic. Another delegate wished a single executive head joined with an advisory council; and still another advocated a single head without a council. But, out of all this discussion, action came at last, and the general design, outlined years before by Alexander Hamilton, was adopted. The republican spirit conquered all other suggestions, and the head of the nation was called the President." "Just the President — nothing more?" queried Roger. "Just the President. Simplicity was the order of the day, and the sug- gestion of one committee that it would be the thing to address the head of the nation as ' His Highness the President of the United States of America and the Protector of their Liberty' found no favor whatever." " I should think not," cried Jack. " Whew ! what a mouthful ! " "So it was resolved that the address should be simply ' the President of the United States.' And ' Mr. President' it has been to this day." "Thank goodness for that!" said Jack. "Suppose, when we had been introduced to that very nice gentleman up-stairs, we should have had to ko-tow down to the floor and say, 'Your resplendent High Mightiness, how does your Supreme Effulgence sagatiate ? ' No, sir ; ' Mr. President ' is all right. It just suits us, it does." " I quite agree with Jack, though I cannot clothe my reasons in the classic and polished language which flows so naturally from his lips," said Uncle Tom, while all joined in the laugh with him. " Simplicity is often the strongest speech and the most dignified." PRESIDENT GRANT. 44 'the story of the government " But what does the President have to do, Uncle Tom ? " Bert inquired. ** From what he said to us one would think he had to work terribly hard." "Well; he works hard enough, Bert," Uncle Tom replied. '*The Consti- IN THE CONSERVATORY OF THE WHITE HOUSE. tution gave him four distinct powers or sets of duties. These have to do with home aflairs, with foreign affairs, with law matters, and with giving people offices," "And the last power makes him more trouble than all the others put together, does it not, Mr. Dunlap?" Roger remarked. "That 's what my father says." "Well, so it seems, Roger," Mr. Dunlap answered. " The President has the 'say' alK)ut who shall be selected to work for the Government, fron) ten-thousand-dollar ambassadors down to thousand-dollar postmasters — provided the Senate agrees to his selection. And as there are about fifty persons asking for every office, you can imagine how pestered the President is by the over-eager people they call office-seekers." " Men who want a job, where there is little to do and a good deal to get; eh, Uncle Tom?" Jack put in. THE PRESIDENT 45 "Well, I don't know, Jack," his uncle replied; "there is not such a little to do nor such a great deal to get ; but every American citizen seems to want an office for himself or a friend. There is a story told of President Lincoln that one day, in the darkest time of the war, a friend met him and thoup-ht he seemed worried. ' You look anxious, Mr. President,' the friend remarked. ' Is there bad news from the front? ' And the perplexed President responded, ' Oh, no ; it is n't the war that worries me ; it 's that postmaster- ship at Brownsville, Ohio.' " " It does seem a shame to put so much on him," Christine remarked. "Can't some one else do it?" "They might," said Mr. Dunlap, "but they don't. You see it is what is called one of the President's prerog- atives. Then, too, he has to please the Senate. If they don't like the men he appoints they say so, and the Presi- dent has to fight it out or make other selections, and so the work and the worry go on." "Then he does n't have the real 'say,' after all, does he?" said Bert. " Why, no ; not absolutely," Uncle Tom replied. " It is, of course, a great thing to be President of the United States. And yet, as a matter of fact, the President, to-day, is only in theory the hand that carries out the will of the people as expressed in the Constitution and in the laws made by Congress. Of course he exerts a great moral influence by reason of his position and his power of filling of- fices. But he has to yield to others in everything. He can make treaties with foreign powers — but the Senate can say to him, yes or no. He appoints persons to fill important places of trust — but the Senate has the final word. He can sueeest measures and methods in a communication to Congress called the ' President's message ' — but Congress considers and determines upon them. You see, then, he is only, as he told you, your servant — the servant of the people. He has no AN OFFICE-SEEKER. 4'i) THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMEiNT more real power than I have or than )ou will have, boys, when )'ou come to be voters. So you see your power." "Ah! Bert, what will you have?" Jack cried; "the Post-office Depart- ment? Roeer, what will vou be? — Minister to Russia? I '11 see to it when I begin to vote. I shall have the say." f, ..-. THE LIBKARY OF THE WHITE HOUSE. " Still, the President does have power," Uncle Tom went on. "If Con- gress passes a bill he does not like he can put his foot down (by what is called his veto) and say it shall not be ; and unless Congress is strong enough to pass that bill by a two-thirds vote it cannot become a law. In times of desperate danger and turmoil when the very life of the nation is threatened and action must be quick, sharp, and determined, the President can assume almost unlimited power. In time of war he is Commander-in- Chief. Then his will is law. Then the man whom the people have called to sail the ship of State must be a wise, safe man upon whom the people can rely. Por he must stand at the wheel, and, with a hrm hand guide the ship safely past the threatening reefs and rocks and breakers. The President must be a strong man, you see." " And suppose he dies, what then ? " asked Marian. THE PRESIDENT 47 *'Then the Vice-President becomes President," replied Uncle Tom. " Until that time comes, he is elected simply to stand and wait." " ' They also serve who only stand and wait,' " quoted Christine; and Jack said, "Ahem! Shakspere — ^no — Milton, I mean." "The Vice-President is, therefore, hardly more than a name," said Uncle Tom. " If the President dies, or for any reason Is unable to act, the Vice-President, as I told you, becomes acting or actual President. But, until that time, he is only a substitute, except for his extra duty as chair- man or presiding officer of the upper legislative house — for, by virtue of his office as Vice-President, he is president of the Senate." "But suppose the Vice-President dies," persisted Marian, "then who is President ? " " Marian, you make me tired," said Jack. " You make me think of the story of the woman who pestered the engineer on the Mount Washington THE WAITING-ROOM OF THE WHITE HOUSE. railroad. ' Suppose this thing should give out ? ' she said. ' Then that thing would hold us,' replied the engineer. ' But suppose that thing should give out? ' ' Then this other thing would hold us,' said the engineer. ' But suppose this other thing should give out ? ' persisted the passenger, ' then 48 THE STORY OF THE (iOVERNMENT ='-^MCC INAUGURATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, MARCH 4, 1861. (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.) where would we go to?' 'Well, madam,' replied the weary engineer, * that depends entirely upon how you have been brought up.'" And with a laugh at Jack's story, Uncle Tom and his "tourists" went down the stairs from the balcony, and walked through the beautiful " President's grounds." They were wide and cool and shady. There were long stretches of lawn, great masses of shrubbery ; lofty, wide-spreading trees ; fountains and seats and graveled walks, and off in the distance views of the needle-like obelisk of the Washington Monument and the hills beyond the Potomac. The children voted the "President's grounds" fine. They looked with approval upon the President's house, "even though it is n't as fine as Vanderbilt's," said Marian, and they came away with even their youthful inquisitiveness THE PRESIDENT 49 satisfied. P'or they had seen the very spot in the East Room where the coffin of Lincoln rested, the very spot upon which stood young Nelhe Grant on her wedding-day; they had seen the window in the Blue Room through which President Garfield was brought, the victim of an assassin's bullet ; they had stood in the little room, now the office of the private secretary, in which Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation ; they had visited the little room in which "Old Hickory" Jackson would smoke his dearly loved corn- cob pipe. They had seen just where the Easter eggs were rolled down the sloping green lawn ; just where the White House children took their •daily airings ; they had talked with the man who had served as usher in the Executive Mansion since President Lincoln's time. The "tourists" came again to the White House. They acted upon the President's suggestion and attended his public reception that very evening. They enjoyed it immensely. They saw the people ; they joined the throng that passed the portals of the mansion ; they wandered through the rooms with the stream of patriotic, partizan, curious, and critical visitors, all bent upon the same errand — to shake hands with the President of the United States. They did so. In the crowded and brilliantly lighted East Room they received a word and a smile of kindly recognition; they "studied folks " to their hearts' content, and then went to their hotel, and to bed. " My, my ! " said Marian, sleepily, as she and Christine said good night to each other, " how I pity that poor President ! He did look so tired, and so bored. And how his hand must ache ! Bed 's better." THE WHITE HOUSE BY NIGHT. -'^4nHBh! ■'' < ..1 ■a**^'"" .. , H.: ^ %\ ^^,j^ ^^^^^^B,^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Hk r ^"W ^I^^^^^A^ ^ 4)) M. - ^^ "^Hn '''' .^^^^. F ^^feaB^' ■ ^K^l ggtei... . '^^■^BK'' A^^" ...'/^ ^H.^ mit'^'^ --^l ^^^ i^' ^^^^^^■■■■ngg^^'^; r^ ,..^djlj|fl - »> .."^:..^^^H -''<^^H ^^^^^K^^jttl^, k ^" /' 1' ™- ^ (► 4 f^^ ^ jm h 3 X fa*' i'i CHAPTER IV THE CABINET WASHINCSTON'S STATE COACH. Uncle Tom insists on '■'taking it easy" — His '' Council Chamber''' — A talk on the Cabinet — The national riddle — Why it is called the Cabinet ; what it does and what famous men have been in it. THE next morning the children were anxious to start out at once, investigating. But Uncle Tom chipped his eggs and sipped his coffee with a leisurely air that was ex- asperating to go-ahead Jack, anxious to be forever on the move. " Take it easy ; take it easy, my dear and breathless young fellow-citi- zens," said Uncle Tom. "■ We 're not rushing to catch a train. You 're as restless as if you were bound for a ball-game. We are here for investiga- tion, but not for exhaustion. What would your fathers and mothers say if I tried to work you to death ? Your legs must be rested as well as ex- ercised ; and so must your eyes and brains. You girls are to stay here until eleven o'clock. Boys, you can hire bicycles just around the corner. Go out for an hour's spin and then come back here for a session. There is no better city in the world for bicycling than Washington. But — only an hour's spin, remember. We have work in hand." The girls were inclined to rebel at the enforced idleness, and to grumble, as girls will, because they were not boys. But Uncle Tom was firm, and his word was law. The boys took their spin as far as Dupont Circle, up and down the broad and stately Massachusetts Avenue, lined with fine houses and shaded by rows of linden-trees. When they returned, the tourists gathered for a talk in Uncle Tom's room. It was a large, pleasant apartment, and the children called it the "council-chamber." Uncle Tom laid aside his morning paper. 52 THE STORV OF THE GOVERNMENT "Do you remember," he said, "when we were in the Cabinet Room at the White House yesterday, and Jack sat in the President's chair at the long table, that I propounded that old stager of a conundrum : 'Round the house and 'round the house and yet never touches the house ? " MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, NEAR DUPONT CIRCLE. "Yes," answered INIarian ; "and I wondered what under the sun the Cabinet Room had to do with your riddle." " It suggested it," said Uncle Tom. "That 's all ; for the Cabinet is, in a way, the national riddle." " How 's that, Uncle Tom ? " Bert asked. " The Cabinet is the Presi- dent's board of advisers, is n't it ? " "Advisers whose advice he need not take ; a board of whose proceed- ings no record is kept," replied Uncle Tom. " The Cabinet is not recog- nized in law ; the Constitution says nothing about it ; it is responsible, as a Cabinet, to no one for what it may say or do ; it exists simply at the plea- sure of the President, and could be ignored by him, if he so desired, without censure or penalty. And yet the President regularly seeks its advice, and the Cabinet is, indeed, an important part of our government machinery." "Well, that 's a funny thing, surely," said Roger. "What is this Cabi- net, then, Mr. Dunlap, and what does it do ? " " I told you it was the national riddle," Uncle Tom said. " It 's only another case of * 'round the house and 'round the house and yet never I f L s THE CABINET 53 touches the house.' But, to one who looks at it closely, the riddle is easily solved. The President's Cabinet is a group of representative American cit- izens, called by the President to assist him in his duties. The members are responsible to the President for what they say and for what they do. Ap- pointed to serve not so much as a Cabinet officer as head of a government department, each one of them has charge of a special line of duty and of work, and each one is anxious to make a good record as a wise, practical, and successful director of affairs. Twice each week, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon on Tuesday and Friday, these eight gentlemen go to the White House and, joining the President around the long table . we saw in the Cabinet Room, they talk over, discuss, suggest, and advise, so that the President, after they have left him, may consider what has been said — and then do as he deems best. This is the Cabinet." THE CABINET ROOM. " But why is it called a Cabinet, Mr. Dunlap ? " Christine inquired. " I thought a cabinet was a piece of furniture like a sideboard or a wardrobe, meant to hold things for use or ornament." "Well, what 's the matter with that?" said Jack. "A cabinet is some- thing wooden that holds things. If the newspapers run by the fellows whose party is not in office tell the truth, that 's what a President's Cabinet always is 54 THE 'STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT — wooden-headed chaps who play 'Hold fast all I give you' better than any of us can do when we go to parties." Uncle Tom held up his hands in mock protest. " Have we a young cynic among us?" he cried. "Jack, Jack! you are surely cut out to run one of those same opposition newspapers ! " " Cut out to run one ! " exclaimed Bert. "Why, don't you know that he does .^ Is n't he the editor of The Nonpareil, one of the brightest lights in amateur journalism ? You should just read one of his slashing editorials." "That 's so," said Uncle Tom; " I forgot that we had a member of the I^ourth Estate in our party. This, then, is for his and your better informa- tion. The word Cabinet, as we use it politically, has a peculiar history. When the imported German prince George Louis, Elector of Hanover, came to the throne of England under the title of King George the First — I told you how, you know, when I tried to puzzle you with my story of the king who had a grandmother — he could not speak English and his chief ad- visers could not speak German. His ministers therefore consulted apart from the king in his Ma- jesty's private room or Cabinet — so called from the French word cabine, meaning a small room. After they had talked things over they went in t(j the king and told him what they had done in a mixed English and German jargon — a sort of 'hog Latin,' you might think. These ministers came, at last, to be known, because of the little room in which they consulted, as the Cabinet Ministers, or the Cabinet. This word found its way across the Atlantic and so, in time, was given to the men who were selected as his advisers by the President of the United States, when that nation had become independent of the English Georges." " Is n't it funny how words travel ! " exclaimed Marian. "To think that we should call the men who help our President run tilings, after an old room where they used to talk ' hog Latin ' to a Dutchman ! l^ut how do they help the President run things. Uncle Tom, if what they tell him does n't amount to anything?" '•THE EDITOR OF 'THE NONPAREIL." HENRY CLAY, SECRETARY OF STATE UNDER PRESIDENT JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 56 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT ,1111 Xl. .l,.«.l.iHI IIKAL }• \l(l M I T (bronze statue by AUGUSTUS ST. GAUDENS, IN MADISON SQUARE, NEW YORK CITY.) I20 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT vania, not far from Philadelphia; Norfolk, in Virginia; Pensacola, in Florida; and Mare Island, near San Francisco, in California. There is also a naval torpedo-station at Newport in Rhode Island." " And is there not a school for making midshipmen, just as there is a school for making: soldiers at West Point?" Christine asked. " Yes ; the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, not so far away from here," replied Uncle Tom. "When you goto West Point, Jack," said Roger, " I '11 go to Annapolis." "All right," Jack responded. " You '11 have to study quite as hard there as I shall at West Point. But the day we graduate, you and I will clasp hands and strike an attitude, and, while the girls here wave the star-spangled banner over us, we will all sing the chorus : 'The army and navy forever, Three cheers for the red, white, and blue!'" "Which reminds me, boys and girls, of one other thing in our present line of talk," Uncle Tom announced. "The Secretary of the Navy is the official custodian of the flag of the United States." "Why is that?" asked Bert. "Well, I can't precisely say," his uncle replied. " Perhaps from the fact that the flag is more in use by naval vessels at sea or in foreign ports than it is on the land ; perhaps from the fact that the device of a flag bearing the stars and stripes came from the marine committee of the Continental Congress ; perhaps because of John Paul Jones and the victories of our flag at sea. But, from whatever cause, the Secretary of the Navy is the custo- dian of the national colors, and that, certainly, is a charge of honor and glory. Come, are you rested enough for another trip ? Let us go to lunch, and then. to Arlino^ton." n JKf^^k. THE DYNAMITE CRUISER "VESUVIUS." CHAPTER IX THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE The Soldiers Home — An old soldiers idea — A visit to the Treasury Department — How the Govei'-Jtment makes aiid spends tnoney — The Post Office Departm^ent — The Postmaster-General and his helpers — The children see the citriotis Dead Letter Office. ^^7'HILE at lunch Uncle Tom changed his mind and his plans. Instead of the trip to Arlington, he gave his young people a pleasant ride through fields and woods to the Soldiers' Home in the northern suburbs of Washington. " You see," he explained, " we have just been study- ing the War Department, where they pull the wires that move the soldiers ; now we will visit one of the places where they put the old soldiers on the shelf, when their fighting-days are over." In a sightly spot stood the Soldiers' Home. " It was an old soldier's idea," Uncle Tom explained. "See! there he stands in bronze, — the hero of Lundy's Lane, the conqueror of Mexico," and Uncle Tom pointed to- the brow of the hill where stood the fine statue of General Winfield Scott. Jack took off his hat in salute. " He looks just as he must have ap- peared when President Jackson sent for him, does n't he?" said Jack. "When was that, Jack?" inquired Marian. "Why! don't you know," her brother responded — "at the time South Carolina braved 'Old Hickory' and threatened to go out of the Union? Then the hero of New Orleans called for the hero of Lundy's Lane. He smashed down his corn-cob pipe on the floor — why! it must have been in that very room in the White House that you showed us, Uncle Tom ! — and burst out, ' By the Eternal ! the Union must and shall be preserved. Send for General Scott ! ' " A QUEER THING FOR THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT TO LOOK AFTER. 122 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT " Good for you, Jack ! you told that story well," said Uncle Tom. " Yes ; you did see the room in the White House in which Jackson smashed his pipe — and ' nullification.' The hero of Lundy's Lane became, you know, in 1847, the conqueror of Mexico. And it was from that' very campaign in Mexico that this Soldiers' Home re- money that Scott forced as, from the City of Mexico when in the Mexican War. The and forfeitures levied on the sides a tax of twelve to pay, whether they " I should n't think suited. For it was built with the what we call, an indemnity or fine he captured that old Aztec capital Home is maintained to-day by fines soldiers of the regular army, be- cents a month that they all have are good or bad." that would support it," said Roger. " Well, it might not seem to, at first," replied Uncle Tom, "but the accumulated fund is really a large one. Why, I remember to have heard that, a few years ago, the Government held more than a million dollars representing the forfeited pay of deserters from the army and the unclaimed money of dead soldiers. So, you see, the Home has quite a fund behind it." " Is n't the idea of this Home something like that big French building where they have the tomb of Napoleon ? " Bert inquired. " What ; the Hotel des Invalides, in Paris ? " said his uncle. " Yes, some- thing on that plan. It 's not a bad place for these six hundred old soldiers to live in, is.it? Just see what they have: this big marble building with its Norman tower, these beautiful cottages, — in that one over there President Lincoln used to spend his summers, — that stone chapel, the hospital, the li- brary, these many acres of hill and valley, and this splendid view ! See ! off there is the ever-present and always-beautiful dome of the Capitol ; and off this way — you can just see it, girls, a dim outline on the horizon — is the dome of Sugar Loaf Mountain in the Maryland hills, a good sixty miles away." It was, indeed, a beautiful situation and a superb view, and the tourists THE SOLDIERS HOME. THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 123 left, after spending a pleasant afternoon, feeling glad, indeed, that the faithful old and invalid bluecoats had so fine, so comfortable, and so well kept a re- treat in which to spend their years of rest from active and honorable service. The next morning Uncle Tom took his party of investigators to a great granite building on Pennsylvania Avenue to the east of the White House. As they approached it Bert declared that it looked like some of the old Grecian temples of which he had seen pictures, and Uncle Tom told him that it was, in fact, a study in Grecian architecture, the east front being modeled after the temple of Minerva at Athens. " It costs a great deal of money to run the Government of the United States, boys and girls," he said, " and to provide us all with money of a gen- eral standard. We should be terribly mixed up if every State and city made its own money. Values could never be depended upon, and a national cur- rency is absolutely necessary. This is the building where our money is made, handled, and distributed to the people. Let us go in and study the Department of the Treasury." "There 's room enough here, I should think, to make lots of money," said Jack. " What a big building it is ! " It was a big building. The young people echoed the figures given them by the official who showed them around, with all that appreciation of bigness that young America delights in. TheTreasury Build- ing, he told them, was three hundred feet long by six hun- dred deep ; it had nearly three hundred rooms above its sub- basement, and it gave employ- ment to nearly thirty-five hun- dred people, without counting those employed in the mints and subtreasuries in other parts of the Union. " You will be interested to know, Jack," said Uncle Tom, " that your old hero. General Jackson, when President, is said to have marked out with his cane the size of this ereat buildine, and, strik- ing that cane into the earth, with his usual emphasis announced, ' Here ! right here, I want the corner-stone laid ! ' and there it was laid." THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT. 124 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT "Well, Old Hickory had an eye for big things, had n't he?" said Jack. " Yes," replied their conductor; "but, big as it is, it is not large enough for Uncle Sam's money-chest, my boy. We are a great country, you know ; and to care for the money the country uses requires a great building. Even with all this to work in we are crowded for room. Already another big establishment has been built just below here on Fourteenth street for the use of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing ; and, some day, additions will ^ THE GOVERNMENT BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING. have to be made to the Treasury Building itself, or separate ones built for the use of some of its departments." They found very much to interest them in this vast structure — "not so much the national storehouse as the national countina--house," Uncle Tom THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 125 explained ; " for here," he said, " the business of casting up the Government's accounts and paying out the Government's money goes on." Under the conduct of their courteous guide the "tourists" visited the most interesting portions of the vast Treasury Building. They went from COUNTING AND EXAMINING SHEETS OF BILLS. the money-vaults in the basement to the document-room in the attic, and after that walked down Fourteenth street to " the Treasury annex " — the interesting and busy Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where bank-bills, government-bonds, and revenue-stamps are made. In fact, they saw so much in their tour of the Treasury Department, and their heads were so full of facts and figures, that Marian declared she was all ready to be folded up and filed away with the other public documents, tied with red tape and neatly labeled "What I know about making money." They peeped into the spacious offices of the Secretary of the Treasury; I 26 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT they inspected the portraits of dead and gone secretaries in the corridor (for no hving secretary is permitted to have his portrait displayed in the Treasury gallery) ; they saw, in what is called the Secret Service Depart- ment, the ingenious things done by people who try to rob or defraud the Government by making counterfeit money. They stood in the handsome bronze balcony and looked down into the splendid marble Cash Room, where a force of cashiers were paying out the people's money. They visited the Redemption Room, which Christine called a money hospital, because here the torn and worn-out bills were examined and counted before going to be "mashed up" into pulp in the room set apart for their destruction. They saw the Life-saving Service Department, from which is directed PRINTING SHEETS OF BILLS. that splendid corps of men who fight wind and wave to save the ship- wrecked sailors on lake-shore and sea-coast. They saw the great steel vaults that hold millions of money, and Roger actually held in his hand for a single moment one hundred thousand dollars ! THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 127 " My ! would n't I like to own all that is in that building," Jack said as the tourists left it at last and turned down Pennsylvania Avenue. " Covetous already — eh, Jack ? " said Uncle Tom. " You '11 have to go home and read the tenth commandment, I fear." AT THE MACHINES FOR NUMBERING BILLS. '' And what good would all the money do you ? " asked philosophic Bert. "Too much is as great a bother as too little." " I 'd be wiUing to risk it," said Jack. " But it did seem to me," Christine declared, " as if that big Treasury Department was just full of detectives and guards against steaHng, from top to bottom. Why is it, Mr. Dunlap ? Is all the world dishonest ? " "By no means, my dear," Uncle Tom replied. "But one of the best ways to stay honest is to guard against temptation. Then, too, in all busi- ness offices, you know, checks and guards are needed, not so much against possible dishonesty as against carelessness and incorrectness. It is so in the Treasury Department. Carelessness could wreck the whole concern and seriously cripple the Government ; so the officials have to be on the 128 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT watch all the time and hold every person employed to a strict account. Accuracy is as necessary as patriotism." "The Treasury is a very important department of the Government, is n't it, Uncle Tom ? " Marian asked. i\x> ONE OF THE STEEL-ENGRAVERS AT WORK. " As important as it is extensive," her uncle replied. " It was one of the earliest bureaus established, having been created by Act of Congress on the second of September, 1789. Alexander Hamilton, to whom, you remember, we owe the leading features of our Constitution, was the first Secretary of the Treasury." " I don't suppose it was a very big treasury as long ago as that," said Roger. THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 129 "Just a little office with a few clerks," replied Uncle Tom. "But there Hamilton laid the foundation of our present vast financial system," "And it is a very responsible position now, is n't it — the Secretaryship of the Treasury?" queried Bert. "It is indeed," his uncle said. "The Secretary of the Treasury is the caretaker of the nation's money. He receives it ; he pays it out. He col- lects what is paid to the Government in taxes and customs." "Taxes are what we pay, and customs are what outsiders pay — is not that it, Mr. Dunlap ? " asked Roger. TREASURY CLERKS LEAVING THE TREASURY BUILDING AT THE CLOSE OF THE DAY's WORK. "In brief, yes," replied Uncle Tom. "We pay a certain amount of money every year to run our Government; this we call taxes; an officer of the Treasury Department, known as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, through his army of assistants, collects these taxes. Customs are the moneys paid by those who bring into the country goods from foreign lands. The THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 131 officer in charo-e of this department of the Treasury is called the Commis- sioner of Customs. When the money from the taxes and customs is paid into the Treasury, it is placed in the care of an officer of the department, known as the Treasurer of the United States. He has charge of the money FIRING THE MORTAR- — U. S. LIFE-SAVING SERVICE. vaults and the Cash Room we have just seen, and he pays every bill, from the salary of the President to the national debt." " Just think what a lot of money he must handle ! " said Jack, still think- ing of the Treasury vaults. "And this money, as you have now seen," said Uncle Tom, "is in gold and silver or in bills." " But bills are not really money, are they ? " Roger asked. "No; they are, rather, promises to pay money, or orders on the Trea- sury for money," said Uncle Tom. "Why, is that so ? I thought bills were money!" cried Jack. " Just look at a bill and see," said Marian. So the boys stopped in the street and each one drew from his pocket a dollar bill for examination. "This reads," said Jack, "'The United States of America will pay to bearer one dollar in coin.' " "And mine says," Roger read, " 'This certifies that there has been de- posited in the Treasury of the United States one silver dollar payable to the bearer on demand.' " 132 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT "Jack's is a Treasury note and Roger's is a silver certificate," explained Uncle Tom. " Never mind any more. Those show what I mean. Jack's dollar bill is a promise to pay; Roger's is an order to pay ; for both of them the Trea- sury Department must pay you coin if you present the paper at the Cash Room we looked down upon. The bills are engraved and printed in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which we visited ; the gold and silver are made at buildings called mints — " " From the Latin moneta, money," said Bert in a whisper to Marian. " — located at different points in the country. The head of this coin-making bureau is called the Director of the Mint ; the officer in charge of the making of bills is called the Comptroller of the Currency — " " Because bills are currency," ex- plained Jack. "Why?" asked Marian. Jack did n't know, and Bert informed her that when bills were held to be just as good as money, they were in what is called current use ; hence currency is whatever has general adoption and use ; and, though bank-bills were not coin, they were in current use the same as coin, and there- irrency. liat 's very good, Bert," said Uncle Tom, "and really tells the story. As you saw, how- ever, the Trea- sury Department has to do with other things be- sides making and collecting money. ~5X ONE OF UNCLE SAM's LIGHTHOUSES. (IN CHARGE OF THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT.) THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 133 It has to borrow when we are hard pressed, as we were in the Civil War, and thus run up what is known as the national debt — a debt the nation owed for money borrowed to carry on the war." "How much was it?" asked Jack, "Twenty-seven hundred million dollars," Uncle Tom told him. " Gracious ! " was all that the children could say. They really could not conceive the vastness of the sum. It was simply an immense figure to them. " To borrow this money the Government gave bonds, or pledges that the nation would pay back the sums borrowed, or give up its property to those who loaned the money. All these bonds were issued, and the pay- ment of the national debt attended to by the Treasury Department. As you saw, too, the department man- ages our lighthouses, our coast-surveys, and our rev- enue cutters ; it sees that all steamboats are properly and safely run, and it directs the life-saving service on our coasts." "That is very funny work for the Treasury to do," said Jack. " I should think those things belonged to the Navy Department," said Roger. "One would think so at first," said Uncle Tom; "but these matters really come under what is termed our revenue service, and that is in charee of the Department of the Treasury." "There are many other duties that belong to this important department of the Treasury," Uncle Tom added, as he stopped before a great square THE NIGHT PATROL — LIFE-SAVING SERVICE. 134 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT building that looked like a vast Italian palace, " that I cannot now tell you of. But they all run in line with the management of the finances of the nation, and include such important matters as the management of the national debt. the national currency and coinage, the oversight and ofood care of the national banks, the internal revenue system, the customs and custom-houses, the mer- chant and passenger marine service, the lighthouse system of the country, the coast and land surveys, the inspection of steam vessels, the life-saving ser- vice, and the marine hospitals. So, you see, the Secretary of the Treasury and his army of assistants find enough to keep them busy, and they try to do the business of keeping the Government accounts in a businesslike way. Now, here 's the department that sells you a splendid steel engraving of George Washincrton for two cents. Let 's oo in and examine the place." there: that s done. "Oh, Uncle Tom, do let us buy a lot of those portraits, can't we ? " cried Marian. " Only two cents ? and are they really fine ! My, how cheap! " " Goosey ! " exclaimed Jack, with superior contempt. " You '11 feel cheaper, I guess. Don't you know that old chestnut of a joke ? Can't you buy a two-cent postage-stamp with Washington's head on it? This is the Post Office Department ; " and, laucrhine at Marian's discomfiture, the whole party climbed the wide steps and stood within the portals of the Post Office Department. " The department we are about to investigate," said Uncle Tom, as they entered the building, " is, to me, both unique and interesting. To you it seems but a simple thing to take a sheet of paper, write a line to a friend, fold the sheet, put it into an envelop, write your friend's address on the envelop, stick a postage-stamp on it, and "FOR YOU MEN IN GRAY UNIFORMS HAVE WALKED." THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 135 drop it into the nearest mail-box, with the exclamation, ' There ! that 's done.' And when, before the week is out, the postman brings to your door an answer from your friend, five hundred miles away, you never think of it as a remarkable performance. And yet it is." THE U. S. POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT. " Of course it is — to get an answer," said Jack. " The fellows I write to take more than a week ; eh, Roger ? " "Well, I don't know; I think I m a pretty prompt correspondent, Jack," replied the boy from Boston. >." The time between your dropping your letter in that mail-box and the moment the postman rings your door-bell and hands you the reply," Uncle Tom went on, "is filled with work done for you by the Government of the United States. For you men in gray uniforms have walked ; for you horses have galloped, locomotives puffed, and cars rolled. For you, men in your own city, and men in the city in which your friend lives, have labored day and night, in secret, behind closed doors, using locked boxes, locked bags, locked cars, and locked compartments — doing a public service in a private way, solely for your convenience, and at a cost to you of only two cents. And the power that does it all is this Post Office Department." " Has it always been so, Uncle Tom ? " Marian inquired. " Not with such excellent and reliable machinery," replied her uncle. ''The Post Office Department was created by Congress on the 2 2d of Sep- tember, 1789. The head of the department — who is not called a secretary, 136 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT you know, but the Postmaster- General — was not recognized as a cabinet officer and adviser of the President until Andrew Jackson's day." "My man, again," said Jack. " He was a 'hustler,' Old Hickory was." "The duties of the Postmaster- General," Uncle Tom went on, "include, in the directing of his department, the management of both the domestic and foreign mails, contracting for the transportation of the mails on land and sea, the manufacture, supply and sale of postal necessaries such as stamps and stationery, arranging postal treaties, under the President's direction, with foreign nations, appointing clerks and postmasters — " " I thought the President did that," said Bert. " The Postmaster-General appoints all postmasters whose salaries do not exceed one thousand dollars," Uncle Tom explained. " He also sees to the establishment and discontinuance of post-offices, the proper management of all offices, and the spending of the money appropriated by Congress for the postal service of the nation," "I don't see but that he has plenty to do," Bert said. "This handling of the mails is a big business. I never stopped to think of it before." A MAIL WAGON RECEIVING MAIL AT THE NEW YORK GENERAL POST-OFFICE. "We rarely think much about what has come to be a matter of course," said Uncle Tom, as they strolled leisurely through the corridors and hall- ways of the great building, reading the office and department signs, and peeping into one room and another, whenever it seemed proper or desirable. THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 137 " Just think of what the Postmaster- General is chief," said Uncle Tom. " He has nearly seventy thousand post-offices to look after, doing a business that brings to the department an income of nearly eighty millions of dollars." " My, though ! I did n't know the Post Office Department was as rich as all that," Marian exclaimed, with a laugh. "Wait a bit, Marian," said Uncle Tom. "I did n't say it made that amount. The postal business of the country brings in nearly eighty millions of dollars each year, but it costs more than eighty millions a year to run it ; so, you see, it is not rich after all. It loses money every year." "Why, that is n't right," cried Jack. " It ought to come out square." "We are getting there gradually. Master Jack," his uncle explained. " For whereas the Post Office is now nearly self-supporting, in past years the business used to run way behind. It costs to do work well, you know. Why, last year it is estimated that more than four thousand million pieces of mail-matter were posted in this country — more than in Germany, France, 138 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT and Austria put together. Think what that means in work and care ! There are over six hundred free dehvery offices in the country — that is, towns and cities in which the postman leaves your maH at your door without cost to you." INTERIOR OF GENERAL OFFICE — DEAD-LETTER DEPARTMENT. "Well, why should n't he?" said Jack. "Don't we pay taxes to be looked after ? " "We do, and some day there will no doubt be both free delivery and free postage throughout the Union," said Uncle Tom. " But even now it is a great advance over the work of fifty years ago. Time was when you had to go to the post-office yourself, even in large cities, or pay a penny for every letter brought to you from the office." "Why, yes," said Roger; "I remember my father telling stories of the time he was a boy, and the fun the fellows used to have with ' Mr. Badger the penny-post.' That must have been the man they used to have to pa)' a penny a letter to." THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 139 "And I have seen letters," said Jack, " sent to my grandfather by his father when he was a boy that had .no postage-stamps and no envelops. They were just folded square, fastened with sealing-wax, directed and marked : ' postage one shilling.' " " Well, to effect all this change in postal rates, postal facilities, free and special delivery, railway mails, postal-cards, money-orders, and postal-notes (which, by the way, the Government has just given up making) has been the business of this Post Office Department whose home we are now visiting," said Uncle Tom. "The postal service really dates back to the time of the Roman Empire, but it is only within the past fifty years that it has become the people's service, and this progress America has undoubtedly led." " Hooray for us ! " cried Jack. "See; here is the office of the Postmaster- General," Uncle Tom an- nounced as they peeped into a finely furnished room. " Fine, is n't it? " said Roger. " But why 'general'? He is not an army officer." "The office of Postmaster- General," said Uncle Tom, "was form.erly a government monopoly in European kingdoms. In Austria it was the feudal property of a pri- vate family, carry- ing with it the title of oreneral, and the dignity was heredi- tary — that is, de- scended from father to son. So the title remained after the dignity was trans- ferred from private parties to govern- ment, and the di- rector of the de- partment in nearly all countries is call- ed the Postmaster- General." They passed rapidly by many pleasant and roomy offices. " These are the other departmental offices," explained Uncle Tom — "the four assistant Postmasters- General, the superintendent of foreign mails, and the chief of the money-order system." 'h^ c^:^^ c>^^P^^^^^ ^^^i><^ THIS LETTER WAS SENT FROM SWEDEN AND FOUND THE OWNER AT SHELDON, ILLINOIS. 140 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT TO MRS. LICY JACKSON, SPOTTSVLVANIA COURT-HOUSE, VIRGINIA. "What is that, Mr. Dunlap ? " Christine inquired. " The department handles money for the people who wish to send it from point to point. It would be unsafe to send real money in the mails ; for there are bad people who steal letters. So the Government takes your money and gives you an or- der on another post-office. This order you send to your correspondent and his post-office pays him the money when he presents the order. This is a very great convenience. To show how much it is used and appreciated I can tell you that last year there were sent in the mails, postal money-orders and postal-notes amounting to nearly one hundred and sixty millions of dollars. " And here," said Uncle Tom, climbing the stairs to a small gallery room, lined with cases like a museum, and bidding the children look down upon a floorful of busy people — 'Tiere is where carelessness is rewarded." "Rewarded? How?" cried Marian. "This is the Dead Letter Office," said Uncle Tom. "It does n't look very dead," said Roger. " No; it 's about the 'livest place in the whole building," Jack declared. "The letters are dead, not the office," explained Uncle Tom. "A letter which is misdirected, poorly directed, or not directed at all, or one on which the postage is not paid, or only what they call short-paid, is said to be 'dead.' It is really not alive enough to travel to its proper destination. And so it is sent here for treatment." "The letter-hospital, is it not?" said Christine. "Are there many such pieces of carelessness ? " "Twenty thousand a day," Uncle Tom replied. " My-^^.^ are people as careless as that?" said Marian. "And some of the letters have money in them, I suppose," Bert sug- gested. " Nearly three millions of dollars in money, checks, and drafts came to this Dead Letter Office last year," said Uncle Tom. " Most of it, however, THE TREASURY AND THE POST-OFFICE 141 was carefully traced and returned to its owners. Just look here," he added, turning to the museum cases. " See what queer things people send by mail. These things have all been taken from letters or mail parcels that found their way to this office." It was an odd display, indeed. There were rings and dolls and diamonds ; salad-oil, false teeth, and easter-eggs ; brandy, bowie-knives, and bibles ; hat-boxes, washboards, barbed wire, kid gloves, and playing- cards ; fans and pans and wedding-cake ; sea-shells, arsenic, and toys ; old coins, coffee-pots, stuffed birds, skulls, snakes, and babies' socks — it was a collection that made the children wonder, alike at people's odd fancies, at the carrying power of the United States Mail, and at the carelessness of the world in general. They saw, too, letters so poorly addressed that no one could make out who they were intended for ; one of them actually read : "The postmaster will please send this to my son out west who drives a yoke of red oxen and the railroad runs through his place." "Gracious, Roger!" cried Jack. "That beats the letter I got last year." " What letter was that. Jack ? " asked Roger. ^^^^^-0 ctyi'y^^u ^^.^/^Aenv Aj^^^tyb/ ^"t^ ^xev>^::^^^ DEPARTMENTS OF JUSTICE, OF THE INTERIOR, AND OF AGRICULTURE 1 59 £,^ctib i^y^-^ Q.&y^ ryL-ftP e£r>>Ajzu5^%:S^^ — ux-^ ca.'v^ OuH^ (h-Qyu-e^ .J^n.peV' U^''^^ o£crAf^^^ %jU/y*^oC^ ^^tdJ^ /.'^^jsJ^ /^^&A/-4i> c<^ (hOA^^f /ut'y^^ a^JZujy Ar ^^ /U«^4^^ ^v >^^ iLe^«<^ /-^^t£^ (h4fC-AA^ FACSIMILE OF THE STANDARD VERSION OF LINCOLN'S GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. Copied by Mr. Lincoln for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Fair, held in Baltimore in 1864. " Somehow, it makes me think of Lincoln and that speech of his at Gettysburg," said Christine. " You spoke that at school on Decoration Day, too, did n't you, Chris- tine?" said Marian. i6o THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT "Did you?" said Uncle Tom. "That marvelous speech? Recite it for us, Christine — here, right here — within sight of the city where Lincoln lived and labored ; here, amid the graves of those he called to battle for the Union." And Christine, a simple figure in her dark traveling-gown, standing out in relief against one of the great white columns of historic Arlington House, gave, quietly, modestly, but so sincerely and effectively that Uncle Tom's eyes grew misty and the tourists all stood hushed and silent, that brief but wonderful Gettysburg speech that is one of the brightest memorials left the Avorld of the great martyr-president : " Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Hberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. " The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what tliey did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take in- creased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Then they all rode back to Washington, impressed with what they had seen at Arlington and proud of their privileges as sons and daughters of the American Republic. \ — ^ ' i,flW «^' CONSECRATION OF THE GETTYSBURG CEMETERY, NOVEMBER I9, 18 The gathering that President Uncoln addressed. CHAPTER XI THE OFFICE-HOLDER An army of workers — Women in the departments — How men and women are selected to work for tJie Govejmment — The Civil Service Commissioji — A talk 07i patriotism. THEY were talking that evening, in Uncle Tom's "coun- cil chamber," of all they had heard and seen that day, alike amid the buzz of the departments and the still- ness of Arlington. And, as now statistics and now senti- ment would be uppermost in the conversation, Bert, with a mind bent on learning details, inquired : " How many office-holders are there, Uncle Tom? " " Under the United States Government, I suppose you mean — and in all branches of its service ? " observed his uncle. " Yes, sir," said Bert. " Oh, there 's a regular army of them," Uncle Tom asserted. "Let me see — I should say fully two hundred thousand ; though it must be explained that considerably more than half that number are employed in the postal service of the United States." " As many as that ! " exclaimed Roger. "Why, yes," replied Uncle Tom; "you must remem- ber that there are nearly seventy thousand post-offices in the United States ; knowing that, it will not take you long to use up at least one hundred and twenty thousand of the two hundred thousand government positions. The eighty thousand that remain are dis- tributed among the other branches of the service." "That, of course, does n't include the army and navy," said Jack. " No," his uncle replied, " nor such people as district attorneys. United States marshals, pensioners, and so forth. If we count in all who take the A POLITICIAN. 1 62 TKE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT Government's money, either for work performed or for services formerly rendered, you can see that the two hundred thousand would swell to nearly a million. The civil list, however, if I may so term it, embraces in round numbers the two hundred thousand I first mentioned." "What do you mean by the civil list, Mr. Dunlap ? " asked Christine. " By the civil list," replied Uncle Tom, " I mean the list or pay-roll of those persons who are connected with the civil service of the United States, and by the civil service I mean all those persons in the employ of the United States who are not in the military or naval service, and by whose labors the executive and administrative departments of the Government are carried on." "That would seem to take in everybody," said Roger. " Yes, everybody. Let me see," said Uncle Tom, " I have the number of those in departmental service somewhere among- my papers, and these are the people who practically direct and control the actions of others throughout the Union and In foreign lands. " There are, you know, two classes of government officials — those who are elected and those who are appointed." " But most of them are appointed, are they not? " asked Bert. " Certainly," said his uncle. " The President and Vice-President, the Senators and Representatives, are elected, and yet, because they are in re- ceipt of salary from the United States, they are, so far, to be included in it.s civil service." Uncle Tom opened his table drawer and began a search for the memo- randa he desired. "I don't often fling figures at your heads, boys and girls," he said; "but in this case they will enlighten without mystifying you. Ah, here it is." And Uncle Tom read the list. It embraced the number of officers, and employees in the service of Congress, at the White House, and in the several executive departments, showing the great army of office-holders employed at the nation's capital alone. " Outside of the military and naval, the diplomatic and consular service, the postal service, et cetera'' said Uncle Tom, "the persons doing duty in the legislative, executive, and judicial departments of the Government are as follows : Congress, 583 ; Executive Office (that 's the President's staff, or. as it was originally called, the President's household), 20 ; Department of State, 97; Treasury Department, 4176; War Department, 1640; Navy Department, 174; Post-Office Department (not counting postmasters, letter- carriers, railway postal clerks, etc.), 663 ; Department of the Interior, 4102 ; Department of Justice, 102; Department of Agriculture, 458; Department ^ICv ^ Ml 164 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT of Labor, 66; Government Printing Office, 2960; the District of Columbia (which is 'run' by. the United States, you know, in partnership with the people of the District, the Government paying one half and the local tax- payer the other half of expenses), 171 ; the Supreme Court of the United WOMEN AS OFFICE-HOLDERS — A GLIMPSE AT THE DEAD-LETTER OFFICE. States, 23 ; and miscellaneous offices, more or less permanent in their charac- ter, nearly 1000. There ! that foots up over sixteen thousand people. Add to these the postal service of the United States, with its ninety thousand postmasters, clerks, and letter-carriers, its inspectors, agents, railway clerks, special service ; the officers of the United States Circuit and District courts, of the customs, the consular service, etc., — sixty thousand and more in all, — and you reach the two hundred thousand people I spoke of as engaged in the civil employment of the United States." ''That 's a big lot," said Jack. " I hope they all are 'civil.'" "Well, they certainly should be," said Uncle Tom. " They are all ser- vants of the people, as the President told you he was. Some of them, I sup- pose, are gruff and sometimes lacking in courtesy ; but as a rule they are gentlemen and ladies, and we must, here as elsewhere, make exceptions of such people as try to lord it over their fellow-beings, simply because they can't stand the responsibility of being what Shakspere describes as ' man, proud man Dressed in a little brief authority.' " THE OFFICE-HOLDER 165 "And woman, too," added Jack. "And woman, too," admitted Uncle Tom. "For you must remember that quite a number of the persons in the service of the United States are women." "Why, to be sure," said Marian. "You know we saw a lot of them in the Treasury Department and other buildings. How many are there, Uncle Tom ? " " Oh, I should say, from fifteen to twenty thousand — almost one in every ten," Uncle Tom replied. "There are over seven thousand women post- masters, you know." " You see. Jack Dunlap, we 're getting there," Marian said to her brother, with a toss of her head — for the Dunlap children were old-time disputants on the "woman question." " I suppose the civil service has grown right straight along from the be ginning, has n't it?" asked Roger. " Steadily," replied Uncle Tom, "though more rapidly of late years. In fact, the history of our civil service is the story of a rapidly growing na- tion. Before the adoption of the Con- stitution the civil service included only those officials appointed by the Con- tinental Congress and the Congress of the Confederation. And these were scarcely worth mentioning. For, you see, there were no revenue laws and no revenue officers ; there were no executive departments, no clerks and no employees. When the Constitution was adopted, it gave the General Gov- ernment power to appoint men to serve it, but during Washington's adminis- tration the employees of the Govern- ment were, as he himself declared, ' a mere handful.' It was possible for him to give his personal care and supervision to their selection and appointment. Gradually, as the business of the departments grew, the number of office-holders increased. The first official 'roll' of persons in the employment of the Government was compiled and sent to Congress by President Jefi"erson in 1802. This 'roll' shows that A BREEZY OFFICE — SIGNAL-SERVICE STATION ON TOP OF THE "equitable" BUILDING, NEW YORK CITY. ONE OF OUR MOST DISTINGUISHED OFFICE-HOLDERS, JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, POET AND ESSAYIST, MINISTER TO SFAIN 1877-1880, MINISTER TO ENGLAND 1880-1885. THE OFFICE-HOLDER 167 the entire number of persons holding office, including about a thousand post- masters, was twenty-six hundred and twenty-two, with a pay-roll of one million dollars a year. In 1850 the number of employees had reached thirty- three thousand; in 1880, one hundred thousand, and to-day it Is just double that number." "Well, I don't know as that is so very many for such a big country as ours," said Roger. " It means that in our population of sixty-six millions about one person out of every three hundred and thirty has a hand in running the Gov- ernment and draws a salary for his services," said Uncle Tom. " The Eno-- lish civil service foots up half a million employees. So, you see, our proportion of office-holders is not so very great. And most of them do good service and faithfully earn the millions of dollars we pay out each year in salaries and wages." " It is considered a fine thing to be ambassador or consul, is it not, Mr. Dunlap ? " asked Roger. "Yes," Uncle Tom replied, "and righdy so. For they are representa- tives of the nation in foreign lands. For the time being they are the nation. The friendless American abroad always feels that he has one friend at least to whom he can turn, and he knows that the flag that flies over the consulate is his badge of protection." " And have not some of these offices abroad been filled by famous Americans ? " Bert inquired. " Indeed they have," said Uncle Tom. " Presidents have repeatedly honored those whom the nation honored by making them ministers or con- suls to foreign parts. Thus did President Pierce appoint Hawthorne — " "Who wrote 'Twice-Told Tales' and the 'Wonder-Book'?" broke in Marian. Uncle Tom nodded. " Yes, and the ' Scarlet Letter,' esteemed one of the greatest of American romances," he said. " President Pierce made Haw- thorne Collector of Customs in Salem, and afterward sent him across the sea as United States Consul at Liverpool. Washington Irving was sent to Madrid as American Minister at the Court of Spain, and there wrote his famous ' Al- hambra,' and, later, James Russell Lowell, one of America's noblest poets and essayists, was sent as minister to Spain and afterward to England. Other men celebrated in literature or In professional life have served their country at home or abroad, as officials of the Department of State, and their country has felt proud of her representatives." " But does the President have to pick out all these people ? " said Marian ; '' and. In England, does the Queen have to ? My patience ! I don't know as I 1 68 THE 'STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT care to be either President or Queen. No wonder he looked tired out and said he had so much to do ! " " You can curb your sympathy, my dear," laughed Uncle Tom. "Nei- ther the President nor the Oueen has to choose the 'civil servants' — as OFFICE-HOLDERS WHO HAVE A HAKD TIME — SURF-IiOAT DKILL, LIFE-SAVING SEKVICE. Jack might call them. The President has, to be sure, a good deal more of this to do than the Queen, but both in Great Britain and in this country ap- pointments to office are made either by the heads of departments or by a special board of selection known as the Civil Service Commission." "Why, see here, Uncle Tom!" cried Jack; "I thought that in this country it was a question of the ins and the outs. I thought that when my party, for instance, comes into power, I turn out all the fellows who belong to Roger's party, and when Roger's party comes in, it is — vice versa. Ah, ha, Mr. Bert! I orot it ricrht that time, did n't I ?" " Your Latin was right, Jack, but your statement not altogether so," said Uncle Tom, laughing. "It was formerly the rule that, upon a change of political parties in control of the Government, the ins showed the outs the door." " ' To the victors belong the spoils,'" quoted Jack. " That was what ' Old Hickory ' declared, was n't it ? " " No, no, jack," said Uncle Tom. " Don't try to pile too much on N'our THE OFFICE-HOLDER 169 old hero. It was not President Jackson, but a supporter of his, Senator Wilham L. Marcy, of New York. He declared in a speech in the United States Senate, in 1832, that 'the politicians, when contending for victory, avow the intention of enjoying the fruits of it. They see,' he added, ' nothing wrong, in the rule that to the victors belong the spoils of the enemy.' " " Well, is n't it so now ? " asked Bert. "To a far less extent," his uncle responded. "The nation has seen the unwisdom and experienced the risks of this overturn of offices at every change of political control and, by what is called Civil Service Reform and Tenure of Office, it has largely limited the power of crippling the public ser- vice that the removal of experienced workers and the appointing of green, hands often meant," OFFICE-HOLDERS WHO HAVE AN EASY TIME — SENATE PAGES PLAYING MARBLES BEHIND THE VICE-PRESIDENT's CHAIR. "And what are those? " inquired Jack. " They sound big enough and hard enough to scare off the most persistent office-seeker." "Tenure of office means that a man shall be appointed to an office and be permitted to remain in that office for a stated time — " " From teneo, to hold," explained Bert. I 70 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT "Thanks, awfully," acknowledged Jack the careless. " So," continued Uncle Tom, '' if I make Christine an inspector of dairies for four years, and Roger is elected President before those four years are up, he cannot turn Christine out of her office, until her time expires, unless she has done something that would make it wrong for her to hold office." " Would n't voting for Roger's opponent come under that head ? " queried Bert. " No," said Uncle Tom. " She can be removed only ' for cause ' ; and political opposition is not cause." " 'Cause why ? " put in Jack ; " it 's her privilege as an American, and not an offense to anything except Roger's feelings. He would n't like to have Christine on the other side, would you, Roger ? " " Of course not," said Roger. " But 1 would n't turn her out; I 'd keep her in, or give her a better office, you know, because she 's my cousin." "Oh, Roger!" exclaimed Uncle Tom. "That 's nepotism; and the people are especially down on that." "Nepotism? What 's that?" asked Roger, almost as if he were guilty of the crime already. " Come, what is it. Bert? " Uncle Tom asked. "Air your classics again." " Nepotism ? " queried Bert. " Wh)', that 's from — iiepos, a nephew\ I don't see how that comes in. Christine is Roger's cousin — not his nephew." " I should think not ! The idea ! " exclaimed Christine. " It really means favoritism to relations," Uncle Tom explained; "run- ning back still further, Bert, to a Greek word signifying kindred. It is the old system of giving persons power because of relationship rather than worth, and our folks do not like that. The American people, indeed, have been opposed to it from the start, and prefer to have their rulers follow Washington's example. He, you know, refused to appoint his nephew to a place in the Government, because he was his nephew ; and that policy has held with most of our Presidents since Washington's day." "Well, then." said Bert, who never lost sight of the real topic, however the others misfht wander off, " tenure of office means holdincr office for a set time ; now, what is civil service reform ? " "That means," said Uncle Tom, "a reform of the Civil Service, so as to put and keep in office those best fitted to do the work of the office, without respect to how they vote, or what party they prefer. It was long talked of by the best Americans — those who really desired the welfare of their country. And it led finally to an Act of Congress, passed in 1883, and THE OFFICE-HOLDER 171 known as the Civil Service Act, the object of which was to regulate prove the Civil Service of the United States. This law provided appointment (by the President) of three commissioners, and also examiner, a secretary, and other employees. They were | to be known as the Civil Ser- | ____=_ vice Commission." | _ ~_^^^^.^_" " Oh, yes," said Jack, "I | saw their office in the Con- | cordia Building on Eighth I street. And does this Com- mission make all the appoint- ments ? " " By no means," said Uncle Tom. " It really makes none. It examines and recommends. The head of the department appoints. But he is com- pelled to appoint to the va- cancy one of the applicants recommended by the Civil Service Commission as hav- ing satisfactorily passed the examination." " Gracious ! it 's like eet- ting into college, is n't it?" said Jack. " I guess I won't apply for a position. It 's too much like school." and im- for the a chief " It makes merit and pro- THE GREAT NOVELIST, NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, AN OFFICE-HOLDEK IN THE CUSTOM-HOUSE, AND, AFTERWARD, A CONSUL ABROAD hciency the test," said Uncle Tom, " and is therefore an excellent way of securing capable officials. Only a small proportion of the office-holders, however, are thus appointed. But the law works well, and is gradually being extended so that in time it will doubtless be applied to most persons seeking offices under the Government. To-day, out of the two hundred thousand offices in the gift of the Govern- ment, about fifty thousand come under the civil service rules, and are filled by applicants who have passed the examinations." "Well, that gives us so many good officers, at any rate," said Bert. " Yes," said his uncle ; " you see, about one fourth of our public servants 172 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT in numbers, but really nearly one half in importance, — so far as their duties are concerned, — are included in what is called the classified service ; that is, those to whom the civil service rules are applied. This classified service, as it is called, embraces applicants for office in the departmental service at Washington, in the customs service, in the postal service, in the railway mail service, and in the Indian service." " And the rest ? " asked Marian. "The rest," said Uncle Tom, "belong to what is called the unclassified service, and are appointed by the President, by and with the consent of the Senate, or by the heads of departments subject to the approval of the President." "What is the objection to this civil service appointment — if there is any objection ? " Roger inquired. " Is there ? " "Oh, yes," said Uncle Tom; "some people do object. They are those who still believe in the old Jacksonian theory of the victors and the spoils, and those who say that permanence in office will create what they call an official aristocracy." " By that they mean, I suppose," said Jack, " that the fellows who hold office without fear of removal will feel too big for their boots and just lord it over the rest of us, because they think they are in to stay. Is n't that it, Uncle Tom ? " "Yes, that 's about it, in Anglo-Saxon, Jack," replied Uncle Tom, laugh- ing at Jack's way of putting it. " The claim is that permanence in office will make those who hold office haughty and overbearing. But I do not think so. The American boy — yes, and the American girl — prefer to set their eyes on something worth attaining, toward which they can climb the ladder of success, step by step. A place under government leads to nothing. It is no goal for the ambitious, and those who fill the offices have, as a rule, the desire for something better than to be all their lives nothinor more than office-holders." "Then, on the whole. Uncle Tom, you think," said Bert, "that our office-holders compare favorably with the rest of the people, do you ? " " Why, certainly," replied his uncle. "Bad men, lazy men, shiftless, unprofitable, and selfish men, creep in everywhere. You will find in our army of public servants, as you will in positions of trust everywhere, all sorts and conditions of men — and women, too. But I believe we are well served, and that the men and women to whom we intrust the details of government are, as a rule, loyal, conscientious, able, and efficient." "Somebody 's got to do our work," said Roger. "And if they did n't do it well, I guess they would hear from us." h/1. J. ZV^iCc-^^^*-^ p«^*-*x-T:-<*i^«;r A FAMOUS OFFICE-HOLDER — WASHINGTON IRVING, AUTHOR OF "THE SKETCH-BOOK " AND THE " ALHAMBRA, MINISTER TO SPAIN 1842-1846. 1/4 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT bclentific office-holders — sounding the deep sea on board the u s fish commission steamer "albatross." "We are the people!" declared Jack. "And we 've got the say, when it comes to that." "Yes, and we have a large section to look after, too," said Uncle Tom. "The Government is not served in Washington only. Our public servants are at work for us all over our broad land and, indeed, throughout the world. Seventy thousand post-offices make just so many centers of federal authority in the nation. The ten assay offices and mints for refining our gold and silver and turning them into coin ; the nine subtreasuries, in as many of our large cities, for handling our money ; the sixty-three custom- houses by river, lake, and sea ; the two hundred and fifty lighthouses, and the same number of life-saving stations along our coasts ; the two hundred big government buildings, in as many cities and towns, flying, ever)' day. the Stars and Stripes, — these with land offices, weather bureaus, Indian agencies, and many other important government offices, to say nothing of our forts and arsenals and navy-yards, and our embassies and consulates in foreign lands, serve to surround the name of the United States with respect, to elevate it into power, and to dress it in authority." "And let anybody assail it if they dare!" cried Jack, roused to enthu- siasm. " Tf any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot !' Hooray for General Dix ! " " No one will attempt it, Jack," said Uncle Tom; " so curb your combative- THE OFFICE-HOLDER I 75 ness. We shall never, I am sure, have a foreign war. Our position isolates us ; our strength at home is a standing menace to foreign invasion. Our little regular army, supplemented by the organized militia of our States, is the nucleus for a fighting force of nearly eight millions of men, whom dan- ger could call to arms. But defenses and defenders that might repel a foreign foe are of small avail if the people are not patriots. True patriot- ism means self-government. The people are the nation, and the people must be their own defenders. It is for them to see to it, not only that the thou- sands who serve them as public servants are honest, capable, and reliable, but that they themselves are filled with the spirit that responds when duty calls — whether that duty be to speak, to vote, to labor, or to fight in behalf of the land they love. This, after all, boys and girls, is what makes a peo- ple, what makes a nation, what makes a home land great. Give it to us, Jack, in the words of a poet. Tell us what constitutes a State. I Ve heard you rehearsing it to speak at school." "What do you mean, Uncle Tom — that piece of poetry I learned last winter?" asked Jack. " Yes, that ode by Sir William Jones — who, by the way, died just a hun- dred years ago this very year of 1894," his uncle responded. And Jack, nothing loath, gave well and intelligently the lines his uncle asked for : " What constitutes a State ? Not high-raised battlements or labored mound, Thick wall or moated gate ; Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned; Not bays and broad-armed ports, Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; Not starred and spangled courts. Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. No; Men, high-minded men, With powers as far above dull brutes endued In forest, brake or den, As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude ; Men who their duties know. But know their rights^ and, knowing, dare maintain, Prevent the long-aimed blow. And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain; These constitute a State ; And sovereign law, that State's collected will, O'er thrones and globes elate Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill. Smit by her sacred frown. The fiend. Dissension, like a vapor sinks; And e'en the all- dazzling crown Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding shrinks." 176 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT "Good for you, Jack, and many dianks," said Uncle Tom. "That is a capital text for us all to preach ourselves a sermon from, here in the capital of our country, or wherever in our native land our duty may fall. We must be men — and women, girls, as well — ready to do the duty nearest us — worthy to be called Americans. The office-holder is our fellow-citizen ; the public service is really what we make it. Unless we, as a nation, are worthy, — united, unselfish, patriotic, and progressive, — how can the men and women who labor for us in the public service be worthy ? Remember what wise Ben Hanif the Arab said : ' Ye shall know a plant by its flower, a vine by its fruit, and a man by his acts.' It is our duty to see that we are good Americans, and then shall we be served by good Americans. "But, come," he added, dropping his earnest tones of counsel, "many words parch the throat, and statistics are but a dry dessert. Let us have some ice-cream. Press the button, will you, Bert, and the bell-boy will do the rest." So they had ice-cream all around and a half-hour of fun and laughter ; after which came "good night" and bed. THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. CHAPTER XII THE FLAG OF THE UNION The flags on the Capitol — The meaning of a flag — The history of " Old Glory " — a7id its glory. UP g-o the flags on the Capitol ! Congress is in session," said Roger, as, standing on the broad sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue, the young in- vestigators looked down that never-wearying vista that ends with the Capitol dome. " Why do they run up the flag, Mr. Dunlap ? " "The flag is the badge of possession," Uncle Tom replied. "The American people, through their chosen representatives, are now in possession of the Capitol, officially. When Congress is not in session the Capitol is practically closed — although it is really always open. But it is not in use by the people for the business of law-making. The flag tells the story." " Does a flag mean possession, Mr. Dunlap?" inquired Christine. " In a general sense, yes," answered Mr. Dunlap. " But it means more. It means possession, protection, pride, and patriotism." " Let us have p's !" cried punning Jack. "That makes me think of ' An Austrian army, awfully arrayed, Boldly by battery besieged Belgrade.'" " Perhaps," said Bert, "those four p's mean that when an American sees his flag flying, it gives him the cue to behave himself — in other words, to mind his p's and q's !" "Albert, my son," Jack exclaimed with mock solemnity, "when a giant intellect like yours takes to making puns it is a sign for little wits like mine to take a back seat — in other words (as you say), to let my propensity flag !" A U S T F^ I A ARGENTINE REPUBLIC BOLIVIA BRAZIL CANADA CHILI DENMARK ECUADOR Whereupon the girls cried : "Oh, Jack!" The boys groaned; and Mr. Dunlap said, " Excuse me, good people, if I button up my coat ; if it is true, as somebody said, that the man who will pun will pick a pocket, Jack and Bert are certainly dangerous company, and my thin little pocket-book is not safe. " But, joking aside," he con- tinued, " I was right in my four p's — they explain the meaning of the flag. Practically, a flag is but a trade-mark. When a man ofoes into business, the first thino- he does is to put out his sign to let pebple know who he is. Then he puts a label on the goods he makes, to show that he is responsible for the excellence of those oroods and o to protect himself from others who might try to take advantage of him. When a people set up for themselves as a State or a nation, they run up their flag as a badge of individuality. That flag is their sign and label in the face of the world. P)ut, more than this, a flag EGYPT FRAN C E GERMANY GR^EAT BRITAIN GREECE H AYTI HAWAIIAN ISLANDS I RELAN D ITALY THE FLAGS OP Tn these pictures of flags, white is left white, red is shown by vertical lines, bluf JAPAN LI BERIA MEXICO NETHERLANDS NICARAGUA N R^WAY Of^ANGE Ff^EE STATE PERU PERSIA is a symbol of authority. The eagles of Rome meant power and possession, wherever they were displayed. So, now, do the red cross of England, the tricolor of France, the double eao-le of Ger- many, the dragon of China, the stars and stripes of America; and, of course, we are, all of us, abso- lutely certain that, compared with the flaos of other nations, our star- spangled banner is the most beau- tiful flaof in the world. Victor Hugo, said, ' There are two things holy — the flag which represents military honor, and the law which represents the national right.' But, really, the flag means both honor and right. It means, to Americans, the noblest combination of liberty and law." " Liberty and law! " exclaimed Jack, " that makes me think of that piece I used to speak in school — don't you remember it, Bert? Beecher on 'Our Flag.' Let 's It ended up something like see. this" ; and Jack, who was one of the prize elocutionists of his school R^U S S I A S I A M S PAI N SWEDEN SWITZERLAND TU R^KEY TUNIS U. S.o^ (OLOMBIA UF^UGUAY VENEZUELA OTHER NATIONS. by horizontal lines, green by diagonal lines, and yellow by dotted space. i8o THE SJORY OF THE GOVERNMENT and loved to "spout," gave them this extract from Henry Ward Beecher's stirring speech and eave it well THE PALMETTO FLAG. " Our flag carries American ideas, American history, and American feelings. Beginning with the colonies, and coming down to our time, in its sacred heraldry, in its glorious insignia, it has gathered and stored chiefly this supreme idea : Divine right of liberty in man. Every color means liberty ; every thread means liberty ; every form of star, every beam or stripe of light, means liberty : not lawlessness, not license ; but organized institutional liberty — liberty through law, and laws for liberty ! " " And there you have it ! " cried Roger, point- ing to the flag that streamed from the Capitol ; while a gentleman who had evidently overheard the boy's repressed oratory (Jack declared he was a congress- man who wanted to use it in a speech), clapped Jack on the shoulder, and said, " That 's great, my son ; I wish you could write it off for me. Don't you ever forget it." " But did the Stars and Stripes begin with the colonies, as Beecher said in his speech ? " Marian asked. " I had an idea that the flag came with the Constitution." " Huh ! " exclaimed Jack, " our troops had to have a flag to fight under, did n't they ? They could n't march along with a copy of the Constitution flying from a flag-staff or stuck on a bayonet — and it was n't written then, either. Of course the flag came first; did n't it, Uncle Tom ? " ''Well, in one sense it did. Jack, and in another it did n't," his uncle r-eplied. " For, really, the first official regrulation establishino^ the flag: of the United States as we know it to-day, did not become a law until the year 1818. That act provided that 'from and after the fourth day of July, 18 18,' the flag should be thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate red and white, with a union bearing twenty white stars in a blue field, a new star to be added whenever a new State was admitted into the Union. In accordance with that act of 1818 we now have our flag of thirteen stripes and forty-four stars." " But what about the flag that they saw by the dawn's earl)' light, and so proudly they hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?" Jack inquired. THE RATTLESNAKE FLAG. THE OLD MASSACHUSETTS STATE FLAG. THE FLAG OF THE UNION I«I ,f 9"'^'-t IH* a, v-.rv!,' " How many broad stripes and bright stars did that have in that perilous nigrht? " " Meaning the flag of Fort McHenry in the War of i8i 2, six years before the official act of Congress?" queried Roger. " That 's the very identical star- spangled banner I mean," said Jack. "That," said Uncle Tom, "had fif- teen stripes and fifteen stars. I saw it when it was exhibited in the old South Church, in Boston. It was a big fellow. It contained four hundred yards of bunting. It did, really, have 'broad stripes,' as the song says — each one was two feet wide. It is now, I believe, an honored relic at Yonkers, New York." " Then it was really the Stars and Stripes ? " said Christine. " Oh, yes, it was the Stars and Stripes, but not the well-proportioned flag we are familiar with," Uncle Tom replied. "The story of the Stars and Stripes is quite interesting. The flags first used in the American Revolution were got up on the spur of the mo- ment, or were those borne by local companies and organizations. Such were the blue 'liberty flag,' the 'appeal to heaven' flags, the pine-tree flags of the North, and the rattlesnake flags of the South." "Why rattlesnake?" queried Bert. " A flag of warning," Uncle Tom replied. " One was a yellow flag ; one was white ; one was made with red and white stripes, and one with blue and red stripes. But all of them showed a rattlesnake coiled, ready to strike, and bearing the warning, ' Don't tread on me ! ' No colors were used at Lexington ; none were displayed on the American earthworks at Bunker Hill. When the troops began to gather for defense after the Bunker Hill fight, each company of soldiers flew its own ' colony flag,' or the ' union flags ' of varying colors. >A.»Ji«iirmnM>Mir) <''ur§tar ?.nuao!cA 4,^au!u-r ." THE FLAG OF FORT MCHENRY. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH MADE IN 1873 FOR A PAMPHLET BY CAPTAIN PREBLE. (DIMENSIONS OF FLAG, 29 BY 32 FEET.) THE FLAG OF 1776. l82 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT A month after the battle of Bunker Hill, General Putnam hoisted at his camp on Prospect Hill (now the city of Somerville) a crimson flag, bearing the motto, 'An Appeal to Heaven.' The first suggestion of the Stars and Stripes seems to have come from a committee on which P>anklin served. The flag recommended by the committee was one of thirteen stripes, alter- nate red and white, and with no stars in the union, but, instead, the red cross of England. This was the flag hoisted by Washington at his camp on Prospect Hill, on the first of January, 1776." " I have seen the very place where that flag was run up," said Roger. " It is within gunshot of my cousin's house. It is right on the edge of Prospect Hill, in Somerville, where you can sweep the whole country, from the Wash- ington Elm at Cambridge to Bunker Hill Monument and the dome of the Boston State House. A granite slab marks the spot, and it says — here, I 've got it in my note-book — I copied it off last fall when we had a talk at school on ' Historic Spots around Boston'" ; and Roger showed a leaf in his note-book that read : ON THIS HILL THE UNION FLAG WITH ITS THIRTEEN STRIPES • THE EMBLEM OF THE UNITED COLONIES FIRST BADE DEFIANCE TO AN ENEMY January i, 1776 "That's one nice thing about Boston folks," said Christine. "They mark all the historic places. Why, you can ride from Boston to Lexington and just follow the march and retreat of the British; and there is a slab where the first flag was hoisted, and there is a slab under the tree where Washington took command of the army — and all that. It makes history so interesting, I think." " I 'm glad to have seen that inscription, Roger," Uncle Tom said. "A note-book is good to have for such things, though I did make it one rule of our personally conducted part)' that no memorandum books should be taken. Well ; that flag was used as ' the for some months. The next year Congress took the mat- ter under consideration, and, on the fourteenth of June, 1777, ordered that the flag of the thirteen United States be 'thirteen stripes, alternate red and white,' the union to contain on a blue field ' thirteen stars representing a new WASHINGTON S SEAL. Union flaof WASHINGION S LAST WATCH-SEAL. THE FLAG OF THE UNION 183 BETSY ROSS, WHO MADE THE FIRST STARS AND STRIPES. constellation.' This 'official' flag was first displayed at Fort Schuyler, near what is now Rome, New York. It was designed under the personal direction of Washington. It was made by Mrs. Ross, in Philadelphia, and she held for some years the position of ' manufacturer of flags for the Government.' " " G. W. was right 'in it' every time, when anything was going on, was n't he ? " Jack remarked. "That Is because he was interested in anything that bore in any way upon the business he had in hand — success," said Mr. Dunlap. 'T have read, somewhere," said Christine, "that the idea of the Stars and Stripes came from Washington's coat of arms. Was that so, Mr. Dunlap? " i84 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT " I have read the same thing, too," Mr. Dunlap replied. " But I imagine it was more a coincidence than a suggestion — just as it was a coincidence that the baptismal robe of litde George Washington was of white silk, bound with red silk and trimmed wath blue ribbon. See: red, white, and blue! But I don't imagine any one would say that our national colors were taken from Washington's christening dress ! I have seen Washington's book- plate, and his coat of arms was, certainly, a shield with four stripes and three stars. But I believe it is now admitted that the stars and stripes of the flag were not suggested by that book-plate nor that coat of arms." '' And I have heard," said Jack, "that Mrs. Washington had a big mot- tled cat. This cat's name was Hamilton, and it had thirteen yellow rings around its tail. It was that tail waving aloft that suggested to Congress, the flag with thirteen stripes." "Jack Dunlap, you are incorrigible !" laughed Uncle Tom. "Where do you hear such stuff? " "No ; honest Injun, Uncle Tom," said Jack, " I did hear that — though i must say, for the truth of history, that it was taken from the diary of a British officer, who also declared that he understood that Mr. Washington had thirteen toes to his feet — the extra toes havine erown since the Declara- tion of Independence ! " " Oh, come now, that 's sacrilege,"" said honest Bert ; " I don't like it." " I don't either," protested Jack ; " I was mad enough when I heard it. But I gave it to you, just now, merely as a contribution to history." " A contribution to satire, I imagine,"" said Uncle Tom. " You will always find one side poking fun at the other, whether in war, in politics, or in re- ligion." " Oh, I don't believe in Mrs. Wash- ington's cat," Jack declared. " I had much rather take that poet's word for it who tells us that Mrs. Freedom, on her mountain height, ' tore the azure robe of night, and set the stars of glory there ' ; and then that ' she striped its pure celestial white with streak- ings of the morning light.' That 's much prettier, even if it is just a little * highfalutin.' " SIGN AT FRONT CORNER OF THE HOUSE IN WHICH THE FIRST "stars and STRIPES " WAS MADE. THE FLAG OF THE UNION 185 "Well, it 's a beautiful flag, any- way, whoever thought of the design," Marian exclaimed ; and Bert said, as he waved his hand toward the flag flying from the great white Capitol : " Look at it! Is there anything more beautiful than that ? " "It is beautiful," Mr. Dunlap assented, "alike in design, in colors, in proportion, and in significance. Think of what it means to Americans ! Think of the ships it has sailed on, the forts it has waved above, the battle-fields on which it has floated, the ceremonies it has graced, the heroes whose coffins it has draped, the protection it has afforded, the pa- triotism it has aroused! Practically, the star-spangled banner may be merely America's trade-mark ; but, boys, it has really been our pride, our inspiration, our poem in bunting." " Set to music by Washington and sung by all America," cried Bert with more than his customary enthusiasm ; while Jack, as usual breaking out into elocution whenever a good opportunity ofiered, capped Bert's patriotic sentiment with Drake's stirring lines : " Flag of the free heart's hope and home, By angel hands to valor given ! Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, And all thy hues Avere bom in heaven. NUMBER 239 ARCH STREET, PHILADELPHIA — THE HOUSE IN WHICH THE FIRST ".STARS AND STRIPES " WAS MADE. i86 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT Forever float that standard sheet ! Where breathes the foe but falls before us, With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us ! " "Those are the sentiments I hke to hear from yoti, boys," said Mr. Dunlap. "There is nothing that so thrills the beholder with pride and pa- triotism as the streaming flag of his country. Senator Hoar says that the fairest vision on which his eyes ever looked was the flag of his country in a "evening colors" on an AMERICAN MAN-OF-WAR. foreign land. On board a man-of-war the flag is almost reverently saluted, and the bugle-call 'Evening colors!' leads to a most impressive and beautiful ceremony. Your father. Jack, as a small New York boy, first saw Abraham Lincoln on his way to Washington saluting the people as he rode down Twenty-third Street precisely at the instant when he was passing beneath a great American flag from which streamed the prophetic words, ' Fear not, Abraham; I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.' That was a moment never to be forgotten. And one of the color-guard at West Point told me that among the most impressive sights he ever saw was stern old General vSherman salutintr the flae as he once reviewed the battalion of THE FLAG OF THE UNION 187 cadets at West Point. It was, with the old fighter, both an act of reverence and a lesson in veneration. The flag, boys and girls, is, next to our parents, our most tender and stirring memory." " Well, I guess I felt just as proud as General Sherman," said Marian, 'when I MAFfcHED AT THE HEAD AS COLOR-BEARER.' *' when I marched at the head of our gymnasium class, as color-bearer, last Washington's Birthday." " It is curious though, is n't it," said practical Bert, "to think of what a piece of bunting can do. For, after all, that is what it is." i88 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT "Yes," said Uncle Tom, "the flag, I know, is only a piece of bunting; but think what that bunting flies for ! I wonder if I cannot recall what Charles Sumner said? Jack's eloquence impels me to a quotation, if I can only remember it. Sumner said of the flag : ' It is a piece of bunting lifted GENERAL SHERMAN SALUTING THE FLAG AT WEST POINT. in the air; but it speaks sublimity, and every part has a voice. Its stripes of alternate red and white proclaim the original union of thirteen States to maintain the Declaration of Independence, Its stars, white on a field of blue, proclaim that union of States constituting our national constellation which receives a new star with every new State. The two, together, signify union. THE FLAG OF THE UNION i8q past and present. The very colors have a language which was officially recognized by our fathers. White is for purity, red for valor, blue for justice ; and all together — bunting, stripes, stars, and colors, blazing in the sky — make the flag of our country — to be cherished by all our hearts, to be uplifted by all our hands.' " "That 's fine," exclaimed Roger. "Oh, how I should like to be an orator!" "Words are fine, Roger," said Mr. Dunlap, "but deeds are better. Re- member what the greatest of our orators, Daniel Webster, said : ' When the standard of the Union is raised and waves over my head — the standard which Washington planted on the ramparts of the Constitution, God forbid that I should inquire whom the people have commissioned to unfurl it and bear it up. I only ask in what manner, as an humble individual, I can best discharge my duty in defending it.' That 's the proper spirit, boys. Whether or not you can sway people by your eloquence, you can be Americans. To be a loyal American, you must be a good citizen ; and to be a good citizen, you must believe that you have a duty to do toward others. You can't be a good patriot and be selfish. You must think of others as well as of your- self, and try to do what is best for all. You must help make the laws by your votes ; you must help keep the laws by your lives. This flag of ours is the symbol of law — that is, it is the badge of America's free- dom, America's power, America's justice, and America's protecting arm. It is not simply a holiday flag. It is, as Mr. Beecher said in that speech Jack quoted from, ' our whole national history. It is the Constitution. It is the Government. It is the people.' " ■/\ Parting Jalute GEORGE WASHINGTON. (From a painting by John Trumbull, now in the City Hall, New York. This was painted in 1790, while Congress and the President were in New York.) CHAPTER XIII THE STATE, THE CITY, AND THE TOWN The tourists visit the Washington Monument — The tall shaft leads to a talk on the 2Lnion of States — Uncle Tom explains what a State is — He tells them of the government of cities and towns — How we are governed yet Jree. HE next morninof was cool, briofht, and clear. "An ideal day for the monument," said Uncle Tom. And. so, breakfast over, he and his " tourists " walked briskly across Pennsylvania Avenue and down Fourteenth street, headed for the Park, in which, half a mile south of the White House, there stood, springing upward from a little knoll, the one object that shares with the great dome of the Capitol the honor of never being absent from the eye of the visitor to the seat of our National Government — ■ the tall, white shaft known as the Washington Monu- ment. The children had looked at and admired it from the very moment of their arrival at the capital. They had. longed to visit the towering white marvel and look through the little slits they could just make out beneath its pointed top; but, true to their promise never to tease, they said nothing, and awaited Uncle Tom's word and lead. They had viewed it from all sides and in all lights — from the city, from the Capitol, from the White House, from the river, from the heights of Arlington, and across the Virginia meadows — in the full glare of the sun, through the mist and rain, in the early morning, and in the soft twilight just before the night came down. It had held and attracted them from the begin- ning — a beacon fascinating by its very bigness (always an alluring quality for American boys and girls), and forever bringing to their minds a thought of the great patriot and leader in whose honor it had arisen at the bidding of a grateful people. 1^2 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT "How high is it, Uncle Tom?" asked Marian, as, cHmbing the gentle slope, they stood at the base of the monument and let their eyes travel up its shining wall of stone. •' Five hundred and fifty-five feet, five and one eighth inches, from floor to apex," replied Uncle Tom, who had stored his mind with figures, in an- ticipation of just such questions. "Well! that is n't so very high," said Jack. "Why, from here" — and he squinted his eye once more along the towering shaft — " it looks about ten thousand feet to the top." " No, five hundred and fifty-five feet is not so very high for a moun- tain," returned Uncle Tom; "but it 's pretty good for a monument. For, please to remember, Master Jack, this Washington monument is the highest artificial elevation in the world. For we do not count the Eiffel Tower at Paris as a permanency or a monument." " That 's good enough for us," said Jack. "We don't want anybody to get any higher, do we, fellows. But — I say, Roger — how is your Bunker Hill monument? " " Oh, that 's all right. Jack," said the Boston boy, good-humoredly. " Bunker Hill 's two hundred and twenty-one feet. That 's high enough to fall from, I guess. You know that is the place where Warren fell. But this is the spot where the name of Washington will forever rise. And, of course, there is n't anything that can get as high as that." " Good for you, Roger," cried Uncle Tom, patting his young friend ap- provingly on the shoulder. " That 's the time you got ahead of Mr. Jack. Come, let us go in." They passed through the door in the base of the monument and stood within the hollow shaft of marble. Seated upon the benches placed there for visitors they waited for the elevator which was to lift them to the top. "When was this monument started and when was it finished, Mr. Dunlap ? " Christine inquired. "The idea of a suitable memorial to George Washington," Uncle Tom replied, "was started in 1783, at the close of the American Revolution. It was to be erected, so the Continental Congress voted, ' at the place where the residence of Congress shall be established.' The plan, however, developed slowly. In 1835 the Washington Monument Association was formed; the design of Robert Mills was accepted ; but it was not until the sixth of Decem- ber, 1884, that the capstone of the completed monument was placed in posi- tion amid booming cannon and pealing bells. The corner-stone was laid on the fourth of July, 1848, and it is significant to remember that at that cere- mony the old and the new were present. For in the company that witnessed THE STATE, THE CITY, AND THE TOWN 193 the laying of that corner-stone were Mrs. Hamilton, widow of Alexander Hamilton, ' the father of the Constitution,' and Abraham Lincoln, the father of our New America — then an almost unknown congressman from Illinois." " That was curious, was n't it? " said Bert. " And how appropriate ! " said Marian. The cautious elevator slid down its iron ways, discharged its cargo of warn THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT. satisfied observers, speedily filled again, and rising, rising, rising — "Guess we 're bound for Mars this trip," said Jack — it climbed to the top, and the boys and girls at last stood within the small chamber with its four windows, built beneath the roof stones of the obelisk, five hundred and seventeen feet above the city streets. "Can't anybody say but that we 're up in the world now, can they?" 194 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT said Marian, taking off her hat, whicli the stiff breeze persisted in setting awry. " My, my ; what a beautiful view ! " It was a beautiful view. At their feet lay the, city — its great Department Buildings looking like toy houses, even the grand dome of the Capitol dwarfed by distance. Twisting this way and that, the Potomac, like a silver ribbon, wound its way from the highlands to the bay. To the south stretched the woods and fields of Virginia, once alive with hosts of fighting men ; to the north lay the Maryland hills, with Sugar Loaf towering above them fifty miles away ; while along the west, a misty line upon the horizon, young eyes could distinctly trace the mighty masses of the Blue Ridge of Virginia sixty-five miles distant. From one window an amateur photographer was carefully capturing a comprehensive snap-shot of the White House and the President's grounds, while from every other window the " ohs " and " ahs " of delighted observers came in continual chorus. At last they were satisfied and prepared to descend. But not by the elevator — or ''the alleviator," as Jack had called it when he heard that it really saved them from climbing eight hundred and ninety-eight steps ! " It is easier to go down than up," said Uncle Tom — whereupon Bert murmured '' Facilis descensus averni,'' and Marian said, "What does that mean, Bert ? " "The down grade is always easiest," said Bert, in free translation. "We can take it leisurely," continued Uncle Tom, "for I wish you to see the memorial stones." "What are they, Uncle Tom?" Marian inquired. " Blocks of marble set inside the monument; the sfifts of States and na- tions, corporations and societies, and duly carved and inscribed," explained Uncle Tom. They saw and studied them all as they descended. There was the marble block from the ruins of the Parthenon sent by Greece, the stone from William Tell's chapel sent by Switzerland, the blocks from China and Japan, and the memorial blocks from forty States and Territories of the American Union. " Well, all the world and his wife seem to have chipped in to help build this monument," declared Jack; and Uncle Tom responded, "That is so, Jack. I consider the inside of this great obelisk a capital object-lesson of the world's regard for the memory of George Washington." As they sat beneath the shade of the trees that make the Mall, near the Smithsonian, so restful and attractive, Bert said musingly, " It seems to me. Uncle Tom, as if all those marble blocks set up inside the Washington THE STATE, THE CITY, AND THE TOWN 195 monument by the different States give a first-class reading of our national motto, ' Many in one,' do they not? " "They do, indeed, Bert," his uncle responded. "And, more than that, they typify, for me, the very design of our republic — the union of States in THE NEW YORK CITY HALL. a completed but ever-aspiring structure, towering far above all its surround- ings. The American nation is liberty's memorial to the world's noblest desire — the freedom, the union, and the brotherhood of man." " I don't know as I exactly understand about our forty-five States, Mr. Dunlap," said Roger. "They are separate commonwealths, I know; but just how were they made, and how is their governing separate from that of the nation they are joined together to form ? " "Well, it is rather a complex subject, Roger, but I '11 try to explain it briefly," Mr. Dunlap replied.. "To you young people a State, I suppose, is but a lot of people living in a greater or less area of ground, familiar to you by the colors and shapes you have studied on your maps at school — Maine, in outline like a grenadier's hat, leading the advance ; Roger's Mas- sachusetts, with bended arm and doubled fist 'squaring off at all creation,' as Dr. Holmes once said ; Jack's New York, a giant wedge with the little end at Buffalo keeping Niagara Falls from tumbling all over the State ; shield-shaped Ohio; purse-shaped Florida; and California, like a great sea- 196 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT THE NEW CITV HALL, PHILADELPHIA. lion, rearing itself to face the Pacific breakers. But a State is something more than a geography question, to be located, bounded, and 'capitalized.'" " Very good, Uncle Tom," said Jack, approvingly. "You 're coming on, I see." ''A State," continued Uncle Tom, "is a certain stretch of country, limited to certain fixed boundaries and inhabited by a certain body of people, banded together for self-protection, self-government, and self-interest. But all these * selfs ' are combined for the general good, upon the theory that the good of one is the good of all, and the good of all is the good of one." THE STATE, THE CITY, AND THE TOWN 1 97 " How is that different from the nation. Uncle Tom?" inquired Bert. "Well, it is much the same idea," replied his uncle. "The American- Union is a State composed of States ; it is a republic of republics ; a common- wealth of commonwealths. But, as we are accustomed to use the word, a State is one of the units in our federal system. For each State in our Union is a separate and sovereign commonwealth, making its own laws, governing its own people and supreme within its own boundaries so far as its own af- fairs are concerned. But, being part of a federal nation, each State sur- renders, to make that union a nation, certain of the rights that it would hold to tenaciously were it simply a nation by itself" "That 's just what I w^anted to ask," said Roger; "what rights does a State have in the Union, and what does it give up to the General Govern- ment ? " " I will answer your last question first, Roger," Uncle Tom responded. " The States surrender to the nation the control of such matters as declaring war and making peace, military and naval affairs, treaties and relations with foreign nations, the postal service, foreign and domestic commerce, the coinage and the currency, patents and copyrights. Federal Courts of Justice, and taxation for general purposes. These are matters that affect all the citizens of all the States, but, as I once explained to you, it would make a terrible 'mix-up' if each State were permitted to regulate these affairs to suit itself. So, for the sake of harmonious regulation, the control of these mat- ters is surrendered to the General Government, which thus exercises direct authority over every citizen." " But the State has a direct authority over every one of its citizens, too, does it not, Uncle Tom ? " asked Bert. " Certainly, it has," his uncle replied. " Then I don't see but he is a sort of divided citizen, is n't he ? " " Not a divided citizen," replied Uncle Tom, with a smile, " but a citizen with a double — in fact with a triple allegiance." " How do you make that out. Uncle Tom ? " said Jack, "Why, in this way," said Uncle Tom: " I am an American citizen ; the nation manages for me all matters set apart, as I named them, for national control ; to the nation therefore I owe allegiance. I am a citizen of the State in which I live, which manages for me its State affairs, its public-school system, its institutions for the bad, the sick, the poor, and the unfortunate, and its extensive internal improvements ; to the State therefore I ow^e allegi- ance. I am a citizen of the city and county in which I have my home and which manage for me the proper and necessary care of all matters affecting my home surroundings and calling for home care and expenditure ; to my THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT OLD STATE HOUSE, BOSTON. own town or city therefore 1 owe allegiance. Do you see now how I am really three citizens rolled into one ? " , , , , i "My thouc^h ! ■• said Marian ; " I don't know but I 'm glad I am no a man' and. "Gracious!" e.xdaimed Jack, " 1 think I '11 stay a boy a Uttle longer. That 's more to attend to than 1 care for just now. ^ ■It sounds a lot," said Roger, ■•but 1 don't really believe it is-.s :t, Mr. Dunlap?" THE STATE, THE CITY, AND THE TOWN 1 99 "Well," said Uncle Tom, 'T believe it is computed that the average American citizen devotes just ten hours a year to public affairs. He pays his taxes, which cover the cost of his triple citizenship ; he votes for the men he wishes to put into office, and there — for too many of us — the worry ends." " But whom does he put into office, Uncle Tom ? " asked Marian, " You have told us whom he sends to Congress and the White House ; now> whom does he put in office in his State and city ? " " Is not the State Government planned out much the same as the Gen- eral Government ? " inquired Roger. "Yes, there is a similarity of design," Uncle Tom responded; "only it was the nation that copied from the States, and not the States from the na- tion. It is, in fact, an Americanized edition of the old colonial governments with the people as the sovereign instead of the king of England." "They took the best ideas, I suppose," said Bert, "and improved upon them, did n't they ? " "Yes," replied his uncle. "The power of the State is vested in an ex- ecutive, a legislative, and a judiciary branch on much the same lines as the Government here at Washington. The State has a central city for its capital, where the laws are made for the State as they are here at the capital for the country. The State capitol building is generally called the State House — " "They are fine buildings, too," Jack broke in; "the new Capitol at Albany is a grand affair." "So is the State House in Boston," said Roger. " It has just been en- larged into a fine large building. I went through the new portion just before I came on." "Yes, and some of the other States have equally fine buildings for their State Houses. The law-makers of the State are called the Legislature — " " We call that in Massachusetts, sometimes, the Great and General Court," said Roger. "That was its old title," said Uncle Tom. "But the Legislature is the name now given to the State legislative department. It consists of a Senate and an Assembly — which corresponds to the House of Represen- tatives here — elected by the people. This Legislature looks after the civil and religious rights of the citizens ; it also cares for the education of the people ; it regulates the rights of voters ; prescribes the marriage laws, and the relations of husbands and wives ; of parents and children ; it prescribes the powers of master and servant ; of principal and agents in business arrangements ; it regulates partnerships, the relations of debtor 200 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT and creditor, the formation of corporations, the care and disposal of property, the relations of trades and contracts, and makes and enforces all laws against criminals, except such as involve crimes against the United States, those on the high seas, and those against the laws of nations — these are looked after by the nation. So, you see, the State has a great many duties, to perform, and is the mainstay of its citizens in the interest of law and order." " But are not some of these duties performed by the towns and cities ? '"^ asked Bert. " In a more limited and local sense, yes," replied his uncle. "The State is divided into counties, the counties into townships. Thus the town and the city — even the smallest village — has its officers who look after its guidance and government. The head man — or executive — of the State is called the governor ; the head man of the city is the mayor, and the city has its local board of representative men, known as its common council, as the county has its board of supervisors, and the village its selectmen or trustees. In a word, we are governed in local, State, and national affairs by men whom we elect to serve us in such capacities. We have a constitution for the State as well as for the nation ; and, as the latter is the law of the land, so the former is the law of just so much of the land as is included in the State, and both the National and the State Constitutions have been framed and followed for the benefit and welfare of all our citizens." " Well, I don't see but that we are a much -governed people for all we call ourselves free," said Jack. "And yet we are free, my boy," replied his uncle; "free, because we are so governed. For freedom is not letting men do as they please ; liberty is not the absence of law. It is self-government that makes us free; it is law that gives us liberty. This is what the millions who come to make their home among us speedily discover, though they so often come with the in- sane idea that America is a land without laws, a country without checks. With us, power is of the people. But the people delegate that power to those who represent them in city councils, in legislative chambers, and in the halls of Congress. Liberty has open arms and welcoming hands ; but her arm is a protecting power, her hand is strong to defend and swift to strike if the law is defied by lawlessness, or the right is menaced by crime. It is for you to remember that, boys and girls, when you count up the blessings that are so freely granted you, or when you hear, sometimes, of the punish- ment meted out to those, who, in high or low places, attempt to do as they please, to the hurt or harm of the public good. The State is a strong defender; the nation is a generous but a just parent." THE STATE, THE CITY, AND THE TOWN 20I Whereupon Jack, patriotic to the core, broke out with strong and musi- cal notes which awoke the echoes of the leafy Mall : " The union of lakes, the union of lands, The union of States none shall sever; The union of hearts, the union of hands And the flag of our Union forever—" " and ever ! " sane all the tourists in chorus, " The flag of our Union forever ! " PRESENT STATE HOUSE, BOSTON. A GOOD AMERICAN CITIZEN, PETER COOPER OF NEW YORK. PHILANTHROPIST, PATRIOT, AND WORKING-MAN. CHAPTER XIV THE CITIZEN A Talk on Citizenship — Voters and Citizens — Election-day methods — Citizens zvho help and Citizens who hinder — Natives and Natural- ization — The best Goverjtnient in the World. SUGAR-BOWL BELONGING TO A DINNER-SET PRESENTED TO MARTHA WASHINGTON BY GENERAL LAFAYETTE. ENLIGHTENED, under the spreading trees of the Smithsonian grounds, by this talk, as to the kindred relations of city, State, and nation, the " tourists " continued their walk toward the Capitol. Drawn again to that noble building, alike by interest and desire, they spent several hours in the study of men and manners, both in the dignified Senate chamber and in the noisier but equally earnest Hall of the Representatives. Even in the midst of what seemed some- times childishness and often aggression, they heard words of wisdom and sentences of weio^ht and moment, as in the House they listened to breezy exchanges of questions and answers, and in the Senate they heard from Northern and from Southern lips expres- sions of loyalty, of affection, and of devotion that made Uncle Tom thank God that the old shadow of discord was forever dispelled, and led the young people to see that the men who represent the people had faith in the real union of the States and were loyal to the principles for which States and nation shall forever stand. As they left the Capitol by the broad west front, and, at the entrance to the Botanical Gardens, waited for the green "cables" that were to carry them to their hotel, Roger remarked to Jack : " I say, Jack ; would n't you like to go to Congress? " "Well, Roger, my son," replied Jack, " I think I should like to have just 204 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT a hack at things. I beheve I could straighten out one or two of them quite as well as some of those fellows at work under the big dome." "I 'm afraid it would be but a 'hack,' boy Jack," laughed Uncle Tom. "The well-balanced law-maker becomes so only through experience and growth. The newly-made congressman often comes here with just your desire, — to have a 'hack' at things, — and the man or the boy who 'hacks' very often gets his fing-ers cut. You mieht come here, as does he, honestly full of plans for the bettering of your fellow-citizens and the good of your country, but you would speedily find how little you really knew and how necessary it is, if one would ac- complish good results, to work toward those results amid the hints that help and the hin- drances that arouse one. For, you see, it needs alike the stirrup of opportunity and the spur of THE CITIZKN, KOBtKI MOKKIS, OF ^'b;^Nt.^L- ., . r11*1 C VAMA, WHO PLEDGED HIS FORTUNE IN THE oppositiou to ode successiully ui tlic race lor CAUSE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. , , . . ,, leadership. " You talk as if it were some kind of a circus, Uncle Tom," said Marian, " in which the best rider gets the flag and the cheers." "Well, in one way it is, Marian," her uncle replied. "Merit gets to the front here as in all the struo-orles of life. There comes our ' cable.' Get aboard, boys and girls. I 'm as hungry as an oflice-seeker." Their talk during dinner turned upon the men they had heard and seen that clay in Congress, and Bert remarked : " You say. Uncle Tom, that the choice of those legislators at the Capitol is one of the duties of citizenship. What is an American citizen?" "A direct question, Bert," responded his uncle. "Come, Marian, tell us ; what is an American citizen ? " " Oh — just a horrid man," the girl replied. " Pardon me, mademoiselle," Uncle Tom said, with a low bow, " I forgot your pronounced views. But I think you are wrong in this instance." "Why, how can I be, Uncle Tom?" Marian exclaimed. " .Surely a wo- man is not a citizen, is she ? " " Yes. I am a citizen ; thou art a citizen ; he is a citizen ; we are all citizens," her uncle conjugated, — "all the men, women, and children who are American by birth, by adoption, or by law." "Oh, see here. Uncle Tom, we 've caught you napping now," cried Jack. "A citizen is a voter. Women and children cannot vote." "Did I say they could?" returned Uncle Tom. "I refer you to the' THE CITIZEN 205 Constitution, Master Jack. The fourteenth amendment to that immortal document distinctly says: 'All persons' — mark the word, Jack — 'all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they re- side.' You can't go back on the Constitution, now, can you?" " But I thought only a voter was a citizen," said Christine. " That is your mistake, my dear," replied Uncle Tom. " But it is a nat- ural one. It lies in this — all voters are citizens, but all citizens are not voters. All persons, irrespective of age or sex, who are born or naturalized in the United States, have the rights of citizenship. But they do not all exercise the duties of citizenship." "Well, if we have rights, I don't see why we should n't have duties," protested Marian. " I 'm sure I should be willing to. If I have a right to be in any place, it is my duty to behave myself, and if — " " Ah ! kindly remember that, Miss, the next time you go into my room," observed her brother. "And if so," continued Marian, unheeding Jack's interruption, "is it not my duty, also, to put things straight if they are out of order ? " and. she darted a triumphant look at disconcerted Jack. "There 's a Roland for your Oliver, Jack," laughed Uncle Tom. " ' Out of order ' ? Hear her ! " cried Jack. " What she calls disorder is just my order," " I don't doubt it in the least," said Uncle Tom, with an emphasis that Jack seemed to comprehend. " But Marian's case is well taken, though it does not precisely cover our point in dispute. She holds that being a citizen of her home it is her duty to keep that home in order — " " Even if she upsets my room to do so," put in Jack. "In one sense, perhaps," said Uncle Tom, "that is an invasion of the liberty of the individual. But, after all, rights and duties are not identical. In this matter of citizenship, for instance, the idea of voting sprang from fighting." "From fighting?" exclaimed Christine. "Yes — or rather from not fighting," repHed Uncle Tom. "In the old days of blood and blows, the smaller or weaker party would sometimes de- cide by voice — in other words, by vote — whether to fight or not to fight. So, you see, only the fighters could be voters, and as all able-bodied men were fighters, or warriors, of course the suffrage — that is, the right to put down the broken piece of pottery that then stood for a vote — was given only to the men ; and it has remained with them to this day." " But not the broken piece of pottery, Uncle Tom," said Marian. 2o6 THE STpRY OF THE GOVERNMENT " No, that has changed," repHed her uncle. " At one time, tiny balls were used, for which the Italian name was ballotta, or little balls. From this we get our word ballot, which now means a ticket used in voting. The latest and best form of such a ticket is what is called the Australian system of balloting, because its form came to us from the English colony of Aus- tralia. It is prepared in secret. The voter is supplied with a printed list of all candidates, arranged alphabetically. He takes this into a little stall or closet and with a lead-pencil marks a criss-cross (like X this) against his choice for the officers nominated. He folds the sheet over, slips it into the ballot-box, and his duty is done." " But why do they need to be so secret and particular?" asked Christme. "There are bad men everywhere, my dear," responded Uncle Tom — " men who abuse their privileges, do unmanly acts, and, from selfishness or ereed, either buv or sell the rig-ht to vote which is oriven them bv the Con- stitution. Even where men are not really bad, they are easily influenced, and so, to guard against all such possibilities, voting is made a personal and secret affair, while the ' machinery ' employed runs ' things smoothly and quickly, and saves time." " Then that, I suppose, is why voters must register before they can vote," said Bert. " Yes," replied his uncle; "it saves time, guards against annoying delays, and, especially, prevents the crime of repeating, as it is called — that is, vot- ing more than once for the sake of influencincr the result." " Why, do people ever do that ? " asked Christine. "Unfortunately some do, my dear," replied Uncle Tom; "for, as I told you, there are bad men or unprincipled men everywhere. A result secured by repeating is a living lie. It is our duty to build a barrier against evil in all its forms, and dishonesty in elections is one of the methods by which crime menaces liberty. To prevent what are called ' corrupt practices ' in elections, every citizen entitled to vote is obliged to have his name — " ''His, not her, you notice. Miss Marian," Jack interlined. But Uncle Tom heard him. "Yes, 'her' in some States," he said. "The 'citizen entitled to vote' means every male citizen over twenty -one years of age. But in certain States, for certain declared objects, and in at least four States and Terri- tories for every object and office, the citizen-voter means men and women alike." " I did n't know that," said Jack, a trifle disconcerted. "Jack," said Marian, mischievously, "will you join with me in singing 'The Morning Light is Breaking'?" ^^i<:yy^'^^h^^ A GOOD AMERICAN CITUEN, PATRIOT, ORATOR, AND MOLDER OF PUBLIC OPINION. 2o8 THE ^TORY OF THE GOVERNMENT "Four, did you say, Mr. Dunlap ? " inquired Christine, with interest. " Four States and Territories now permit women to vote in all elections," replied Uncle Tom, "and nineteen States and Territories have, as it is termed, ' given them the suffrage ' in certain specified cases — such as those that touch the public schools, the liquor traffic, and town improvement." " Now, come back to the registration laws, please," said Bert, always "sticking to the ques- tion." " That 's so ; where was I ? " said Uncle Tom. "You said," prompted Bert, "that every citizen was obliged to have his name recorded." " Oh, yes," Uncle Tom went on; "he is obliged to have his name, age, and residence put on rec- ord, so that, when elec- tion-day comes round, the names of voters can be checked off as their owners appear at the ballot- box. This is but a safeguard that no honest man or woman can object to or hold to be an invasion of their personal liberty." " Who has charge of the polls. Uncle Tom ? " Bert inquired. " Officials specially appointed for the duty, and known as poll clerks and inspectors," his uncle replied. "They are selected, in equal numbers, from the two leading political parties, so as to insure fairness and squareness." "But everything has all been made ready beforehand, has it not?" asked Roger. "As far as the machinery of voting goes — yes," responded Uncle Tom. "The steps to an election are gradual ; but a certain amount of machinery is necessary to avoid delays and complications. As election time approaches, the people talk over the men best fitted for the offices to be filled ; but they do nothing until the leaders of each political organization summon what is A GOOD AMERICAN CITIZEN, WILLIAM W. CORCORAN, OF WASHINGTON, WHO USED HIS WEALTH TO WISE AND HELPFUL ENDS. THE CITIZEN 209 called a caucus, or primary meeting. This preliminary meeting of voters selects certain men to represent their sentiments in a nominating convention composed of delegates from the caucuses. The nominating convention meets and selects men whom it declares to be best fitted for the offices. Each political party holds a nominating convention, and thus candidates, belonging to the different parties, are presented to the people for their suffi-ages, as it is called. On election-day, the names of these candidates appear on the printed ballots, and the voters deposit in the ballot-box the slips containing the names they prefer. At a specified hour — generally at sunset — the voting stops; the polls are declared closed; the ballots are sorted and counted, and the men who have received the highest number of votes are declared to have been elected by the people to serve in the offices for which they were nominated." " That all sounds simple enough," said Roger. "Yes, it sounds simple enough," responded Uncle Tom, "but there are many complications ; and much political machinery is set in motion before a decision is reached. These details are really interesting ; some of them are wise and just ; some of them are unwise and questionable ; but all of them are worth studying, and the selection and election of our rulers — who are also our public servants — are matters which all of you, boys and girls alike, will, I trust, study up and try to understand. For their selection is one of the chief duties of American citizens." "That 's one of the things that will make me glad to be twenty-one," declared Bert. And Jack added, "Yes, it must make you feel really a man to have the right to say who shall be placed in power." ".It does — or should, Jack — though too many of us do not fully appre- ciate our privileges as free- men. Far too many American citizens fail to look upon voting as it should be considered — a sacred duty upon which the peace, the prosperity, and the welfare of our country depend." "That is what makes us the sovereign people, is it not?" Roger asked. THE CORCORAN GALLERY OF ART IN WASHINGTON. 2IO THE §TORY OF THE GOVERNMENT " Yes," said Uncle Tom; " for with us lies the power of choice and crea- tion — the right of criticism and censure, of honor and approval. Election Day is the American day of reward. Then every man, rich or poor, high or low, is equal ; then the President and the porter, the senator and the farm- hand stand on the same footing, and the word or wish of one is no than that of other." "It makes me think of that poem of Whittier's," said Roger. "What does he call it — 'The Poor Voter on Election Day ' ? " "Yes; can you repeat it, Roger?" Uncle Tom asked. " I think I can remember it," said Roger, modestly. "I '11 try," and the New England boy recalled the inspiring lines of the New England poet : greater the AUTOGRAPH OF PETER COOPER. " The proudest now is but my peer, The highest not more high; To-day, of all the weary year, A king of men am I. To-day, alike are great and small, The nameless and the known ; My palace is the people's hall, The ballot-box my throne ! " Who serves to-day upon the list Beside the served shall stand ; Alike the brown and wrinkled fist, The gloved and dainty hand ! The rich is level with the poor, The weak is strong to-day ; And sleekest broadcloth counts no more Than homespun frock of gray. " To-day let pomp and vain pretense My stubborn right abide; I set a plain man's common sense Against the pedant's pride. THE CITIZEN 2 I I To-day shall simple manhood try The strength of gold and land; The wide world has not wealth to buy The power of my right hand ! " While there 's a grief to seek redress, Or balance to adjust, Where weighs our living manhood less Than Mammon's vilest dust? — While there 's a right to need my vote, A wrong to sweep away — Up ! clouted knee and ragged coat ; A man 's a man to-day ! " " That 's fine, is n't it ? " cried Jack, who always appreciated good poetry. " Fine, indeed," responded Uncle Tom ; " and a true picture, too. Jack — even if we cannot forget the wrong practices that bad men indulge in, the tricks and wiles of politicians, the indifference that makes shirkers of those who should be earnest, and the greed that leads thoughtless or un-Ameri- can men into corruption and crime." "And I suppose there are citizens," said Bert, "who are just as helpful and public-spirited as possible, even though they are not President, con- gressman, department-chief, or office-holder ? " "Millions of them," answered Uncle Tom. " It is this silent service and practical patriotism that make our Republic endure. The citizen has as great a duty and as much demand for courage laid upon him as any soldier THE IMMIGRANTS FIRST SIGHT OF NEW YORK HARBOR. or sailor who has ever faced the foes of the Republic on land and sea. By practical work among his fellows, by shaping public opinion, by showing office-holders how they can be citizens rather than politicians, by willingly sacrificing when duty demands, by using the wealth or the powers that God has given him for the benefit, the advantage, the bettering, or the salvation 'THE IMMIGRANT, COMING TO THE LAND OF LIBERTY, IS FULL OF ANTICIPATION AND DESIRE. THE CITIZEN 213 of his fellow-men, the true American citizen has, since the foundation of the Republic, given endurance and permanence to the national fabric." " Was not that Mr. Corcoran, who gave to Washington the splendid art-gallery in Pennsylvania Avenue that we visited the other day, what you call a public-spirited citizen ? " asked Christine. " Yes ; William W. Corcoran by his gifts to the national capital made equal proof of his philanthropy and his public spirit," replied Uncle Tom. " So, too, did George Peabody, whose gifts to charity and education are world-famous ; and of equal benefit to their native land were George W. Childs, the Philadelphia editor, and Peter Cooper, the New York merchant, neither of whom waited till death overtook them to make their names the synonyms of generosity, philanthropy, and patriotism. In other lines of ac- tion, but equally lavish of their gifts of wealth, eloquence, and brain power, stand such American citizens as Robert Morris, the financier, who backed the tottering cause of the American Revolution by pledging his entire for- tune to its success, making the nation possible, and winning, for himself, an imperishable name ; Starr King, who, literally working himself to death by voice and pen, saved California to the Union in the days of discord; Henry Ward Beecher, whose fearless words for justice and for right kept England neutral in those same threatening times ; Horace Greeley, America's ablest editor, in whom, indeed, like the apostle of old, there was no guile : these and scores of just as self-sacrificing and just as loyal, though less famous men, have held our Republic firm to the principles it upholds, and kept it march- ing in the van of progress, purity, and freedom." "Then they rule by force of example, don't they?" said Christine, "and should teach bad citizens to be good ones." " I wonder, if women had all the privileges of men," mused Marian, " whether they would be led into the wrong-doing that the bad citizens are sometimes guilty of I don't believe they would." "You just wait, Maid Marian," said Jack. "Suppose you did vote and I should offer you a silk dress if 3^ou 'd vote for me, and then Bert should bid higher and promise you a whole outfit if you 'd vote for him — what would you do then ? " " What would I do then ? " said Marian scornfully ; " well, Mr. Jack, I 'd just ' scratch ' — is n't that what you call it. Uncle Tom ? — both your names off my ballot — and vote for Roger." "That is the voter's right, and Marian would be justified and upheld," said Uncle Tom. " It is too bad, is n't it, that any American should be so unpatriotic as to be bought ? " Christine declared. 214 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT "It is worse than unpatriotic, my dear; it is criminal," Uncle Tom replied. " But we must rejoice that, after all, the bad side of politics is but its cloudy fringe, and that most of us try to act according to conscience. For even a partizan may be conscientious. .So fierce a politician as Jack, for instance. TWO GOOD AMERICAN CITIZENS, GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN AND HIS BROTHER, SENATOR JOHN SHERMAN. will, I know, act only from the best and purest motives when the time comes to him for decision and action." " I shall certainly, Uncle Tom," Jack declared soberly. "With me it is going to be principles, not men." "That is the only way to decide," said Uncle Tom. " We must remem- ber what citizenship really means to us. It is twofold. It means allegiance and protection. You give your allegiance, and the State, in return, grants you full protection. It is for you to see that your allegiance is freely and gladly given ; for the privileges of citizenship are great beyond calculation. THE CITIZEN 215 Do you not remember Paul's proud answer to the Roman captain- — or tribune ? " ''When they were going to scourge him at Jerusalem?" queried Chris- tine, eagerly; "I do." " Let us hear it, Christine," said Uncle Tom. "To me it has always seemed a most dramatic incident." Whereupon Christine, who was a good Bible scholar, dipped into her memory: "And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centu- rion that stood by, ' Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned ? ' When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, 'Take heed what thou doest; for this man is a Roman.' Then the chief captain came and said unto him, ' Tell me, art thou a Roman ? ' He said, ' Yea.' And the chief captain answered, ' With a great sum obtained I this freedom.' And Paul said, ' But I was free born ! ' Then straightway they departed from him which should have examined him ; and the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him." "Well done, Christine," said Uncle Tom, while the other "tourists" nodded approvingly. "It was Paul's proud declaration that he had the birth- right of a Roman citizen that made those who were free only by purchase afraid to touch him. The privileges of free citizenship were prized in those days far above other possessions. To-day in free America they are mightier and nobler than were those of Rome. American citizenship gives us all the rights of freemen. We cannot lose them save by our own carelessness or crimes," "W^hat do those rights include. Uncle Tom?" asked Bert. "Everything, Bert — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," his uncle declared. " American citizenship gives us civil and religious liberty ; it gives us freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of the mails ; it makes every man's home his castle, into which no one may enter uninvited ; it gives us the rights of citizens and voters into whatever State in the Union we may remove seeking a new home ; it secures to us the protection of the United States wherever in the wide world our feet may wander; and before the words, ' I am an American ! ' tyrants dare not tyrannize and oppression stays its hand. How precious, then, should be this birthright! How low, and mean, and base is it for any one of us to barter that heritage, as did Esau of old, for a mess of pottage — that is, to place personal wants, per- sonal safety, personal comfort, and personal pride above this right of free- dom which our fathers fought to secure, to establish, and to maintain." " But there are lots of people in America now whose fathers did n't fight 2l6 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT to make the nation free," said Jack. '* How can they be expected to make good citizens ? " "You mean our naturahzed citizens, I suppose, or their fathers," said Uncle Tom. " Yes, sir," assented Jack. "What does it mean to be 'naturalized'?" inquired Marian. "To be placed on the same footing as a natural citizen," Uncle Tom an- swered. " A foreigner, after living here five years, can say that he does not wish to be any longer a citizen or subject of the land of his birth, but does desire to be a citizen of the United States. So he goes before a judge and takes an oath to be true and loyal to the Government of the United States. This makes him a citizen, and makes citizens of his wife and all his children who are not yet twenty-one years old, giving them all the privi- leges that a natural-born American has, save' one." " And that is ? " queried Bert. " He can never be President of the United States," Uncle Tom replied. " Right enough," said Jack. " ' Put none but Americans on guard to- night,' so somebody said once, and I say 'amen' to that." "Do not be selfishly American, Jack," returned his uncle. "We give all men a chance in the Republic. But in this matter of the presidency we cannot be too particular. Our Chief Magistrate must be an American to the core, and not all foreign-born citizens are this. The old loves and the old attachments formed in boyhood in the homes beyond the sea often grow stronger or come back again as men grow older. The emigrant in the crowded steerage coming to the land of liberty is full of anticipation and desire ; but, even when success and station have been reached by him, he is, in the new home he has made, ever longing for his old home, and, forgetful of the land where his labor has brought him comfort and competence, he cannot part from his presence the memories and associations'of the past. Our President must have no past save that of an American." " I demand the previous question, Mr. Speaker," insisted Jack. " How can foreign-born citizens be expected to make good Americans, anyhow ? " " By the very composition of the Republic that welcomes them, shelters them, and makes free men of them," replied his uncle, "and by the force of our examples, Jack — yours and mine, and that of every native American who can say with Paul, ' I was free born.' The Government of the United States is based upon the equality of all men before the law. To prevent this equality from being turned to wrong ends by designing men, or lost through dissension and ignorance, is our chief duty as American citizens. A free and a fair ballot is the best means to this end. For, thoug^h our Government THE CITIZEN 21 7 may make mistakes, as is often the case when too many cooks take a hand at making the broth, we have the abiHty and the right to correct mistakes and to change or criticize our cooks. With aU our shortcomings, with all our differences of opinion, with all our selfishness, and with all our boasting, it is still true that we have the best government in the world — " " Hear, hear ! " said Jack, in his energetic whisper ; and Uncle Tom went on without a break : " — the most wise, the most conservative, the most progressive, the most permanent. It, will lead all the world our way at last, if but you, boys and girls, and those who are with you, will be, when you grow up, loyal, true, devoted, earnest, and patriotic American citizens." "'Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,' " quoted Jack. " It is, indeed," said his uncle; "and patriotism means doing one's best toward making his country worth the loving and worth the living in, by helping it to become better in every way — broad, noble. Christian, imperial^ progressive, free. Do you but work, as you all can, toward this end and you will help to hasten the fulfilment of the poet's dream when he ' Dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be.' For he saw what you can help to bring about — the reign of universal peace, universal brotherhood, and universal law, when ' The war-drum throbs no longer and the battle-flags are furled In the Parliament of Men, the Federation of the World.' That Federation is coming some day, and the dream of universal brotherhood must be realized. Well, have you finished your ice-cream ? My coffee has grown cold with talking. Waiter ! bring me a cup of hot black coffee, please. There ; now, boys and girls, let us take a stroll as far as Thomas Circle." 11,/^ THOMAS CIRCLE. CHAPTER XV THE NATIONAL CAPITAL ''Vou caiit see everything,'^ says Uncle Tom — What his Tourists had seen in Washington — What Washington is a7td why it exists — A unique town Who dreamed it, who planned it, aiid how it grew — Our Show City and an historic one. ''"P^HE day of departure drew near. " Uncle Tom's tourists," personally conducted and capitally ciceroned, had seen Washington thoroughly, intelli- gently, and delightfully. " Not that you could expect to see everything here," Uncle Tom re- marked. "That, I neither hoped nor intended. You have, I suppose, skipped many things, places, and per- sons notably worth seeing. There are hundreds of details in government work and methods that might be studied to advantage ; there are count- less things, both curious and enter- taining, I should like to hunt up for you in library, museum, safe, and alcove ; there are reams of really historic documents worth investigating that are hied and docketed in department bureaus, closets, and pigeon-holes; there are many creative shops and workrooms that might yet be inspected, where govern- ment belongings, from cannons and cartridges to pulp and postage-stamps, are made ; there are places of minor interest really worth visiting, if only one could see all and know all. But one can't. Life is too short ; feet will get tired ; brains wiU get to buzzing ; there is a limit even to the endurance of wide-awake boys and girls. And you have fathers and mothers at home. 2 20 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT to whom I am responsible for your health and happiness. So, as the end must come, it may as well come speedily. To-morrow we say good-by to Washington. But you have seen a great deal." THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION AND THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. They certainly had. . They had delved in vaults and crypts ; they had climbed into domes and monuments. They had "done" the departments, " covered" the Capitol, and "seen" the city. They had sailed the Potomac, climbed the heights of Arlington, roamed the grounds of Mount Vernon, and, afoot, awheel, or " a-cable," as Marian said, they had seen the squares and gardens, the streets and suburbs of the National Capital. In the splendid National Museum, crammed with relics and wonders, they had feasted their eyes on historic or beautiful things; in its near neigh- bor, the Smithsonian Institution, — the gift of an English gentleman to the American Republic, — they had seen many a marvel;, and studied hundreds of rare and curious things. They had seen the workmen "jacketing a gun " in the Naval Gun Factory ; at the Marine Barracks they had wit- nessed the morninor miard mount, and heard a mornino- concert of the famous Marine Band. They were familiar with the President's grounds and the Capitol grounds ; they had seen all the fine monuments to soldiers and sailors, statesmen and patriots that adorn the city squares and circles. They had seen where Lincoln was assassinated, the mean little house in which he died, and the spot where Garfield fell. They had seen the store THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 221 of books in the departmental and special libraries, and had visited the future home of the mighty collection of a million books and pamphlets — the splen- did new Library of Congress, facing, with its golden dome, the east front of the great Capitol. They were fascinated, impressed, almost awed by the grandeur of the buildings, the beauty of the "environment," the air of greatness and of power that make the capital city of the nation its pride, its glory, and its central point. Sated with sight-seeing, they wished now to know just how and why the city came to be. Uncle Tom was bombarded with questions, and on this last day in the capital, as they all sat in their favorite haven of rest and shade beneath the big trees of Lafayette Park, he endeavored to give arrangement and form to his reply. "Every nation, you know," he said, "must have its seat of government — a place where king, council, or president resides and dispenses justice as the head of the nation. Such a place is called the national capital." AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE WASHINGTON NAVY-YARD. " From caput, the head, because it is the head or chief city of the nation, I suppose," put in Bert. " But Washington is not the chief city of our nation," objected Roger. " Not by a long chalk," echoed Jack. " What do you call New York ? " 222 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT "West Brooklyn — so I have heard it called, since so many people moved across the big bridge," said Roger. "I call it the place where mother lives," said Christine, with just the shadow of a sigh. For Christine was described by her friends as " a real THE NEW BUILDING FOR THE CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY. mother-girl," and, so Marian declared, would have been homesick even in Washington if she had not been too busy to indulge in such luxuries. But Jack scorned both the gibe and the sentiment. " No, sir," he said. " New York is the metropolis of America." "And second to Boston — the seat of learning, intelligence, and culture^ and the hub of the universe," asserted Roger. " Huh ! Boston ! " cried Jack. " Huh ! New York ! " retorted Roger. THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 223, Whereupon the respective champions of size and culture would have fought out their case most doughtily had not Uncle Tom dropped down as umpire. "Cry 'quits!' boys, or give Chicago and Philadelphia a chance," he said. " It should be a fair held and no favor when the Knights of Civic Pride couch lances in honor of the Queen City — whichever she maybe. But that is not the question now before the house. Whichever American, city stands at the top, Washington is the capital of the nation, and to her we must all doff hats in salute. You know her now. Is there one of you who will not sturdily maintain that she is worthy such salute ? From the hem of her green gown, trailing in Potomac's waters, to her crown and diadem of the great white dome, she sits an empress — and yet lives enslaved." " Oh, see here. Uncle Tom ; go easy ; go easy, do ! " protested practical Jack. " You reel it off like a poet ; but, when you talk of her being enslaved, I call it — well — to put it mildly — poet's license." "Well, perhaps I was just a trifle rhetorical," Uncle Tom admitted. "And yet I spoke the truth. The city of Washington presents to the world the singular spectacle of the capital of a great republic governed by an absolute monarchy." " No ! is that so ? " cried Bert. " A monarchy ! " exclaimed unbelieving Jack. " Then who 's the king ? " "Congress is king; the American people is king," replied Uncle Tom. " Washington, the national capital, is the creature of the National Govern- ment. Its inhabitants are practically disfranchised, for they have no voice in the management of affairs. They have absolutely no vote either on national or local questions. Congress collects the taxes. Congress pays the bills, Congress makes the laws. The schools, the streets, the parks, the affairs, and the people of Washington are ' run ' by Congress and administered by a board of three commissioners appointed by the President." " But is n't that most un-American, Uncle Tom ? " asked Bert, still greatly astonished at what he heard. "Why, that 's just what our forefathers 'kicked' against," said Jack. " It 's taxation without representation." "At first sight it might seem, as Bert says, un-American," Uncle Tom admitted. "But remember — Washingfton is the seat of grovernment ; its affairs are matters in which the Government, for whose convenience it exists, is more directly concerned than any one else. It is therefore, as I told you, the creature and protege of the Federal Government, and it exists for the people of the whole country ; they really govern it through their repre- sentatives in Conerress." 224 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT «l " But how did it come to be here ? " Marian asked. " It is really the coming true of a dream of George Wash- ington's," replied Uncle Tom. " But they tell us at school, 'George Washington was no dreamer,'" put in Jack. " Sometimes, Master Jack, you are altogether too practical," Uncle Tom •declared, just a bit nonplussed. "When I called it a dream I meant, of course, a well-conceived and admirable plan." " And you can dream a plan. Jack Dunlap," said Marian, with conviction. " It has been said of the city of Washington," went on Uncle Tom, "that it is a city planned and built solely for the purposes of government, named after the one man in American history who himself seemed likewise planned and built solely for the purposes of government. In fact, this same shrewd observer declares that the plan of Washington the city reminds one of the face of Washington the man ; for it has large, quiet features, calm symme- try, and singularly unobtrusive individuality. We have no other city like it, as we have had no other man just like the great patriot from whom it takes its name." "Now I wonder," mused Jack, "just what city you look like, Bert? Perhaps Cork — you 're so light, you know ! " "And you are so fresh, dear boy," retorted Bert, politely but pertinently, " that I should say you were like London in the days of the Puritans — you need a psalter." When sufficiently recovered from the full weight of this retort. Jack asked his uncle : iCL annBa □□□□□ onrnnn CDCU □□ nDDGD[I7aD\__ ana nn[7^nn[\xiG./^ „^. tm\m /n □□□iizi[\''on[ii]ci7zi Ci^TDCZiQacy EziizzinPtiaizzicn /□□□ nnnpQQ'''zi(\\]nD nnc^^^^nc^DaDnna^ EDDDGDQDD W-MMMiM dnomDD .. idnnbi 7ZII czi d] t a en □ □ en en □ ra en a o £1 Qa) ~] G dicriiziiQvieziniiiiiznrziaiaaneiaLZjnt ii^gPODODCSBnaDRd ® DDDDDDfe \r-]nnnnr— innnnnsM-sni ^!7nn Pin i inmi/ nn n iJvJDfflDDnDDDDHa/ WHMMm^^^ 'muss. lZD'aX mm npsi iziinov ..^.^J-mmmmmj iiud;^aQunp^A^nac7^ iu3DnDDal^ ^ — iCDOpgn. .. , JDnnnnaroa — ir^nnnnnann nnnan, PLAN OF THE CITY OF WASHINGTON. A. Executive Mansion. B. State, War, and Navy Department Building. C. Treasury. D. Patent Office. E. Post-office Department. F. Wash, ington Monument. G. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. H. Department of Agriculture. I. Smithsonian Institution. K. National Museum. L. Market. M. Congressional Cemetery. N. Washington Observatory. O. Analostan Island. THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 22/ "Well, how did the dream materialize, Uncle Tom?" "In the opening years of the national existence," replied his uncle, " Congress was like the Arab — a wanderer. It met in various places, and no one town or city could really be called the seat of government until the year 1800. The question of just where the national capital should be was almost serious. There were rivalries among the States ; for each one wished the honor of having within its borders the capital city, and all were jealous lest the preference of location should give to the State determined upon an importance that would make it 'stuck up ' and arrogant. Many places, some now almost unknown, had the honor of being offered as the permanent seat of government ; New York, for instance, presented the town of Kingston as entitled to consideration ; Morrisania, the home of the Morrises, was also offered. Maryland supported the claims of Annapolis, and of Charlestown, at the head of Chesapeake Bay ; New Jersey's legislature offered the town- ship of Nottingham, Elizabeth, Trenton, or Princeton. Williamsburg, then Virginia's capital, and Germantown, Philadelphia's 'annex,' also presented their claims. Other places were offered, and very liberal were the induce- ments tendered by each. I remember one — Princeton, I think — where Con- gress was assured that the comfort of the ' inner man ' would be especially looked after, and ' fish, crabs, and lobsters at least three days in the week— the lobsters and crabs to be brought to Princeton alive' — were temptingly hinted at in the event of that place being selected. Washington knew that men and States were apt to be selfish ; he foresaw the difficulty of se- lection, and he felt that the only solution of the problem lay in compromise. He advocated the setting aside of a tract of land as a ' neutral territory,' that should belong to no State in particular, but to all the States in general. After much discussion and considerable 'back talk,' as you boys say, this de- cision was taken and the offer of Maryland and Virginia to cede to the Fed- eral Government a certain section of land on the Potomac was accepted. The Federal territory, known for a long time afterward as the Territory of Columbia and nowadays as the District of Columbia, was ceded to the Government, and, in the very region over which Washington as boy and youth had hunted, fished, trapped, and surveyed, a city was laid out and built to order. To this city was given the name of the one man whom all Americans united to honor, and the capital of the nation was called the city of Washington. Washington himself, however, as modest as he was great, never associated his own name with it, but in speaking and in writing he always called it The Federal City." "Was it really built to order, like St. Petersburg, Mr. Dunlap ? " asked Christine. 2 28 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT " Perhaps not quite so autocratically, but quite as deliberately and with as definite a design," Uncle Tom replied. "As a matter of fact the city grew slowly. A Frenchman who had fought for American freedom, and whom Washington regarded as a man of ability, planned out the new city. The scale upon which he proceeded was so generous, so colossal, and, apparently, so impossible that men laughed while they admired, and ridiculed even while they approved. In his plan, L'Enfant — " " L'Enfant — the infant? Was that the Frenchman's name. Uncle Tom? How funny ! " cried Marian. "I think it most appropriate," said Bert. "The city was an infant at the start — the same as the nation it represented. And look at it now ! " and he swept a comprehensive hand, as if to embrace the whole city in his observation. " Just so; it was quite in the nature of a prophecy," Uncle Tom admitted. "Well, L'Enfant took Capitol Hill as the center of his scheme. This was to be the hub of his wheel, and from it the streets and avenues were to radi- ate like the spokes of a wheel, intersected by cross streets. So we get the avenues, with some of which you are so familiar. Pennsylvania (called here, you know. The Avenue), Massachusetts, New York, Louisiana are some of the spokes of the wheel. But, as I told you, the city grew slowly. In 1800, when the Government took possession of its capital, the unfinished White House stood at one end of Pennsylvania Avenue, an4 the uncom- pleted Capitol at the other. And this splendid Pennsylvania Avenue was only a muddy roadway cut through an underbrush of alders. The town then, and for years after, was simply a straggling. Southern village, with- out beauty, finish, comfort, convenience, or society. I wonder if I cannot recall Thomas Moore's poetical sneer — " "What, the Moore's Melodies man?" asked Jack. "Yes," replied Uncle Tom; "he visited America at the beginning of the century, and his sneer at our capital city, with its unkempt streets, its huts of houses, its unfinished public buildings, and its general frontier-like appear- ance, was but an expression of the world's ridicule of what it appeared to be — like the Republic itself — a pretentious impossibility. Moore described Washington, which he saw in 1804, ^s — 'An embryo capital where Fancy sees Squares in morasses, obelisks in trees; Where second- sighted seers the plain adorn With fanes unbuilt, and heroes yet unborn. Though naught but woods and Jefferson they see Where streets should run and sages ought to be.'" THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 231 has splendid public buildings, and a society that is said to be delightful by those who know it, though it is largely what we call ' cosmopolitan ' — that is, of all grades, sorts, and conditions — " " And therefore American," put in Jack. fi IN DIPLOMATIC SOCIETY. "And therefore American," Uncle Tom repeated; "from the reception at the White House to the literary club at the professor's; from the social party at the bureau clerk's to the grand dinner at the legation ; and from the cake-walk in the southeast section to the five-o'clock tea at the Senator's." " All kinds, are n't there ? " commented Bert. " I speak for the dinner at the legation," said Marian. " I choose a look at that cake-walk," said Jack. " I think I 'd like to be the girl who gives the five-o'clock tea," said Christine. 232 THE ^TORY OF THE GOVERNMENT "The Senator's daughter, eh?" said Jack. "Well, you 're modest,, ma'am." "I 'm sure my father would make as good -a senator as any of them,"' Christine declared loyally. "Oh, better, better, I 'm sure," cried Jack. "Send me a card for the tea, won't you? If it were yours, of course, I should like it better than the cake- walk." " I don't see but that the Frenchman's ' infant,' " said Marian, " has grown into a very healthy and promising child. Uncle Tom." " That is just what it is, my dear," said her uncle, — " the child of the Gov- ernment, brought up by hand, perhaps, but grown at last into an elegant young person who invites all the world to her five-o'clock tea. She is a de- lightful and most attractive hostess, as finished as the towering monument in her back yard, and as graceful as the great Liberty poised on the superb dome at her front door. I think that, as Americans, we may well be proud of our central city — our nation's capital." " But it is n't exactly our central city, is it? " -asked Bert. " No ; not as related to the geographical centers of population or posi- tion," said Uncle Tom. " But it does stand midway between North and South, and so my adjective is, at least, allowable. As regards distance, Washington is about two hundred and thirty miles from New York, four hundred and fifty from Boston, six hundred and seventy-three from Savan- nah, eleven hundred from New Orleans, five hundred and fifty from Cincin- nati, eight hundred from Chicago, nine hundred from St. Louis, eighteen hundred from Denver, thirty-one hundred from San Francisco, thirteen hun- dred and fifty from Key West in Florida, and forty-five hundred from Sitka 'in Alaska." " That 's a good way to show our size, is n't it? " said Jack. " It makes me think of a song I remember — I don't know who wrote it: ' See our prairies, sky-surrounded ! See our sunlit mountain-chains! See our waving woods, unbounded, And our cities on the plains ! See the oceans kiss our strand, Oceans stretched from pole to pole! See our mighty lakes expand, And our giant rivers roll ! Such a land, and such alone. Should be leader in the van, As the nations sweep along To fulfil the hopes of man ! ' " "five-o'clock tea at the senator's." 234 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT "Well, this is where they have helped to fulfil them — right in Wash- ington here," said Uncle Tom, "There is something in association that even so practical a people as we Americans take pride in, and these associations live here in the national capital. For it is the city that Washington founded and Lincoln saved, and in whose halls have spoken or in whose streets have walked such historic figures as Adams and Jefferson and Jackson, Mar- shall and Clay and Webster, Calhoun and Douglas and Sumner, Davis and Phillips, Benton and Greeley, Grant and Lee, Sherman and Johnston and Sheridan, Farragut and Porter, Stanton and Seward, Chase, Bancroft, Bay- ard, and Blaine. To these vast buildings that we have visited are linked the names of famous men whose lives and deeds are part of our nation's history; within their walls have worked thousands of men and women, spending lives of quiet industry in the business of the nation. In this beautiful city have occurred events that have won a fadeless place in the annals of the world, and to it, to-day, come people from every part of our broad land, proud to be Americans, proud to call so attractive a city ' our ' national capital, proud to feel that they and their sons and daughters are and will be citizens of the United States of America. This pride, I know, is yours ; but if, with it, you will also feel and recognize the duties it demands and the responsibilities it entails, you will go back to your homes better boys and girls, better citizens of the republic, better Americans. Seeing is believing. You have seen for yourselves ; now, believe for yourselves, and not because I say so, that upon you depend the future of your native land and the success of America's ex- periment in free government. Come, let us go to the hotel and pack up. We take the morning train. To-morrow night you will be telling your adven- tures and detailing the wonders you have seen to all the dear ones at home." And soon the tourists were struggling with hotel bureau-drawers, and puzzling over the problems of trunks and valises — wondering "how under the sun Mother did it so easily ! " WASHINGTON, FROM THE POTOMAC RIVER. CHAPTER XVI AMERICA S MARVELS AND AMERICA S STATION The same goddess — The dinnei^-party at Jack's home — A new kind of game — Material and intellecttial marvels — What patriotism- is — Americas growth and station — Good night and good-by. ROM goddess to goddess and yet the same goddess! My, though ! " exclaimed Jack. " But would n't that just have been a riddle for the old puzzle-solvers of Greece and Rome ? " "y^dipus and the Sphinx simply would n't have been in it, alongside of you. Jack," said Bert. "What is it? Read us your riddle, won't you ? " "There it stands, that he who runs — or he who rides in a Pullman — may read," said Jack. "We left Liberty perched on the dome of the Capitol just six hours ago, and behold ! here she is, calmly enlightening the world and New York harbor to boot." Their train had swept across the long reach of the Newark Bay, and, parting the low hills on the eastern shore, had come into full view of the noble harbor and the metropolis flanked by its two broad rivers, " That is funny, is n't it !" said Marian. " The goddess of liberty was the last thing we saw as we left Washington. She is the first thing we see as we reach New York." " It beats ' Sheridan's ride ' all hollow," said Jack. " Mrs. Liberty would seem to be — what do you call it. Uncle Tom? — ubiquitous." " It is a good omen to greet us on our return from Liberty's central of- fice, Jack," observed Uncle Tom. " God hasten the day when Hberty shall indeed be ubiquitous. For that means — what, Bert?" " Existing everywhere," translated Bert. Then, as their train ran into the Jersey City station, the tourists gathered up their traps, took the ferry-boat across the Hudson, and before long were BARTHOLDI'S " LIBERTY." (NEW YORK HARBOR.) 236 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT dispensing kisses and handclasps in dieir own dear homes. Their "tour through government" was over. The day after their arrival Jack's father and mother gave a dinner-party to the "tourists" to fitly celebrate their return. It was a jolly affair. All the fathers and mothers were there — even Roger's parents coming over from Boston to be at the gathering and hear a comparison of notes and experiences. A fine dinner w^as served — " It really, Mother, compares favorably, don't you know, with our hotel menu,'' pronounced Jack, patronizingly, as one who had become quite a critic in gastronomy. There were toasts and speeches, in which latter Jack extended the thanks of the "tourists" to their "' guide, philosopher, and friend " Uncle Tom Dunlap, for his excellence, his eloquence. ■ i i.j B »j ly .» «ihMh...~. NEW YORK HARBOR. and his erudition — that last word came hard, but emphatically — as the con- ductor of the party. He also, "on behalf of his colleagues," made acknow- ledgment for favors to the several Secretaries of the Treasury (otherwise AMERICAS MARVELS AND AMERICAS STATION 237 the fathers) who had made the expedition possible, and to the Secretaries of the Interior (otherwise the mothers) who had so well stocked the tourists, as he expressed it, with suitable equipments and acres of good advice. ^^H THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE. After a round of patriotic sones in the music-room — from the " Star- Spangled Banner" and ''Yankee Doodle" to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "America" — the party settled down in Mr. Dunlap's pleasant library to talk over their experiences; — as if they had done anything else since their return ! How those five tongues clattered! — six, in fact, for Uncle Tom was as talkative as his tourists, — while the fathers and mothers listened and laughed, applauded and criticized, and concluded that they had done a wise and prac- tical thing when they allowed their boys and girls to make that personally conducted trip to Washington. " I am glad to notice one thing," said Mr, Dunlap ; " the trip has really educated the taste for Intelligent investigation so well begun by some of you at the World's Fair at Chicago. Uncle Tom has surely proved himself the prince of cicerones — who knows what that is ? " "A fellow who Ciceroes, I suppose," said Jack. "That is, one who spouts well, is n't it ? " "Why, Uncle Tom did n't spout so much," Marian declared. "When 238 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT he had anything to say, he said it — and in such a way that we understood all about what he was trying to show us or teach us." "Well, Cicero did that, did n't he?" said Bert. "I suppose that, as Jack suggested, cicerone did really come from Cicero and means — a man who knows it all and knows just how to tell it." " That 's about it, Bert," said Mr. Dunlap. " I only wish Uncle Tom could show you over the whole country in the same way he helped you 'do' Washington," "Oh, how delightful that would be. would n't it? " cried Christine. " Oh, can't you. Uncle Tom ? " came the inquiry in chorus. " Can't do it, fellow-citizens; Economy is the duty of the hour," said Un- cle Tom. " We 've got to pay the National Debt, you know^" " But would n't such a trip put just so much money into circulation and help pay the Debt ? " asked Bert. "Well, my young social economist, it might," replied Uncle Tom. "To trot you all over the country would be a big contract, though. And yet I suppose it could be done — with so bright a lot of boys and girls, and such capital travelers as I took to W^ashington." "Just think what a lot of things and places there are to see in America," AMERICA S MARVELS AND AMERICA S STATION 239 said Roger. " The trouble would be, I suppose, to pick out just where to go and just what to see." "Yes," answered Mr. Dunlap ; "America has many marvels — alike of man's invention and God's handiwork." "And all of them would interest us?" asked Marian. " Surely, my dear," her father replied. " Under proper direction you would, I am certain, get just as much entertainment and instruction from the Brooklyn Bridge, the Eads Jetties at New Orleans, the Pennsylvania oil and coal mining industries, and the lofty Masonic Temple at Chicago, as from the Great Geysers, Niagara Falls, or the Yosemite Valley." "Well, almost every section of our country has some marvel to show — some wonder of creation or some freak of nature," Uncle Tom remarked. " I remember how greatly I enjoyed my trip through the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, with its domes and chasms, its sunless lakes and its eyeless fish, its subterranean river and its crystal grottoes that make one keep repeating those opening lines of one of Coleridge's poems : ' In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree, Where Alph, the sacred river, ran, Through caverns measureless to man, Down to a sunless sea.' " " Br-r-r ! " cried Jack; "don't that sound nice and spooky ? " " Oh, would n't I like to see it ! " exclaimed Marian. "Which? Xanadu or Mammoth Cave ? " queried Bert. "Oh, home sights are best — es- pecially the eyeless fish," said Marian. " Besides, Uncle Tom would show me Mammoth Cave, and I 'm not acquainted with Mr. Kubla Khan — whoever he may be." " Bayard Taylor declared the Mammoth Cave to be the greatest natural curiosity he ever visited," remarked Mr. Dunlap; "but there are others in America equally marvelous. I don't know which was the greater revelation to me — Niagara Falls or the Mountain of the Holy Cross in Colorado — the one with its torrent of water, the other with its great snow-filled ravines armed and glittering in the sun like Constantine's vision of the Cross. But EGYPTIAN TEMPLE, MAMMOTH CAVE. 240 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT do you know, boys and girls, that Niagara, instead of making me feel small and insignificant beside its rush of water, always sets me to thinking, as Shak- spere puts it, ' how wonderful a thing is man'; for, he can control the mighti- est forces of nature and by brain and hand drive even such a re- sistless cataract as Niagara in harness, to work his will and give employment to his fellow-men." " That 's it," cried Uncle Tom. " Man, after all, is the mightiest of nature's forces ; think how American ingenuity has tunneled our mountains, spanned our chasms, bridged our rivers, and made what seemed obstacles and hindrances only so many helps and instruments toward union, growth, and progress. Why, I believe that for every natural marvel that you can point out in America, I could give you an in- tellectual one quite as great." " Such comparisons are not always easy," said Mr. Dunlap, "and I think I could set you a task. America is a wonderland." " I know it — and in every sense of the word," said Uncle Tom. "That is why I propose the test." " Oh, what fun ! " cried Marian ; "do try it. Papa." " Well," said her father, " let us see. I '11 give you, first, our giant peaks — such as St. Elias and Wrangell in Alaska, Tacoma (or Rainier) in Wash- ington, Shasta in California and Pike's Peak in Colorado, beside which even the Alps have to stand tiptoe to touch shoulders, and the White Mountains and the Catskills are but foot-hills." "Good, father! Now, Uncle Tom!" cried Jack — just as if, so said Marian, he was "setting them on." " I '11 match those cloud-capped summits," replied Uncle Tom, "with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States — the highest points ever attained by man in human freedom and civil liberty." " That 's good ! " cried Bert ; and " Matched him there ! " exclaimed Jack. THE STVX, MAMMOTH CAVE. AMERICAS MARVELS AND AMERICAS STATION 241 " Go on, Papa," prompted Marian. ''The Mammoth Cave," said her father, "a perfect marvel of darkness and devious underground turnings." " The Emancipation Proclamation," responded Uncle Tom, "a perfect marvel of light and a flashing highway toward liberty." "That was Slavery's mammoth cave, was n't it? " chuckled Jack; " she just slumped right in af- ter that." " More," cried Marian. " Niagara Falls," said Mr. Dunlap, " the world's g-reatest cataract." " The telegraph and the telephone," retorted Uncle Tom, "which act quicker than Niagara and save time where that wastes water." " The Yellowstone Park," came Mr. Dunlap's next offer, " a museum as big as the State of Con- necticut and packed full of wonders." "The sewing-machine, smaller than a trunk, but capable of wonders in the way of work," returned Uncle Tom. "The Great Lakes," said Mr. Dunlap, "one fourth of all the fresh wa- ter on the globe bunched together in the heart of a continent." "Ericsson's Monitor," Uncle Tom responded, "a little cheese-box on a raft, that turned the world's wooden navies into iron ones, and gave America the fastest armored cruisers in the world." EL CAPITAN, YOSEMITE VALLEV. 242 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT " Hurrah for you. Uncle Tom ; you get there every time ! " cried Jack, while the others were roused to enthusiasm over this new eame. "The Mississippi River," said Mr. Dunlap, "one of the mig-htiest of the world's waterways." CATHEDRAL ROCKS, YOSEMITE VALLEY — 2660 FEET HIGH. "The Pacific Railway," returned Uncle Tom, "the world's longest and speediest highway." "The Yosemite Valley — a marvelous mile-long chasm, unequaled in the world," said Mr. Dunlap. "Our public-school system, that bridges the deepest chasms of ignorance and floods with sunlight the darkest caverns of crime." " I 'm afraid you '11 get the booby prize, Papa; Uncle Tom 's too much for you," Marian said. " Just see what an effect our society has had upon him," observed Jack. " He 's as up-and-coming as one o'clock." " I see he has n't been able to put the brakes on your reckless language, Jack, my boy," said Mr. Dunlap; " I had hoped that the task of studying government would have rather sobered your slang into sense ; but I am afraid it will take a special proclamation, martial law, and the riot act to bring your tongue into harness." AMERICAS MARVELS AND AMERICAS STATION 243 " Therein, I suppose, he does but display his Americanism," remarked Uncle Tom. " Slang, extravagance in talk, recklessness in speculation, and a tendency to rush to extremes, alike in effort and action, are, it seems to me, the things that need the brake here in America, and too often, I think, we rather pride ourselves upon them as native American qualities, and falsely call them patriotism." *' You are right there, Tom," his brother assented. " I would like to set these young people, who are now so full of the national glory, on the right track toward real pa- triotism and true Americanism." "Why, father!" Jack exclaimed, "are n't we patriotic ? Did n't you hear us sing 'America,' just now : " That 's just it, Jack," said his fa- ther ; " we sing and shout and wave our hats and think we've done it all. But that is n't patriotism. Pa- triotism does n't con- sist in making the eagle scream, in flaunting flags and raising a great hul- labaloo on holidays. Bragging and boast- ing are not patriot- ism ; even eloquence is not patriotism any more than are mere promises of devotion or avowals of love and affection for the Union and the flag. Patriotism is performance. It is to do when it costs to do, to assert when plain speaking is dangerous, to stand firm when yielding SHOOTING AN OIL-WELL. WITHIN THE GRAND CANON OF THE COLORADO. AMERICAS MARVELS AND AMERICAS STATION 245 would be so much easier ; it is doing- one's duty always. Patriotism is love of country put to a practical end. It is to do our best for our land in what- ever direction effort may lie. This alike the lowest and the highest in the land can do, from street-sweeper to President. Patriotism is action ; pa- triotism is thought; patriotism is life. So think and act and live that you may be real patriots and therefore true Americans." ** After what we saw in Washington," said Bert, " it would seem to me we could not help being true Americans." " You certainly have a country worthy your love and loyalty," said Mr. Dunlap. " I said boasting was not patriotism ; but even boasting is better than the criticism which is forever unfavorably comparing America with Europe and which, as I heard Senator Lodge once say, ' looks scornfully on the Sierras because they are not the Alps.' " "Those are the fellows who try my patience, too," said Uncle Tom. " Sometimes I think we do not estimate our country highly enough. Indif- ference is the bog in which, too often, we flounder and sink. In fact, I should like to establish in our colleges a professorship of enthusiasm to teach young men and women to be energetic Americans. And the first lesson in the course of study should be to learn by heart, and recite standing beneath the flag, that sonnet of Professor Woodberry's. You know it. Jack. I suggested it to you for your Washington's Birthday exercises at school." "What, do you mean ' Our First Century,' Uncle Tom? Oh, yes, I re- member it." And Jack, always ready to * elocute,' recited that spur to patri- otism, Woodberry's noble sonnet : " It cannot be that men who are the seed Of Washington should miss fame's true applause; Franklin did plan us; Marshall gave us laws; And slow the broad scroll grew a people's creed — One land and free ! Thus, at our dangerous need, Time's challenge coming, Lincoln gave it pause, Upheld the double pillars of the cause And, dying, left them whole — our crowning deed. Such was the fathering race that made all fast. Who founded us, and spread from sea to sea A thousand leagues the zone of liberty, And built for man this refuge from his past — Unkinged, unchurched, unsoldiered ; shamed were we. Failing the stature that such sires forecast ! " *'* Unkinged, unchurched, unsoldiered' — that 's great, is n't it?" cried Roger. 246 THE STORY OF THE GOVERNMENT "That 's the highest kind of freedom, is n't it ? " said Bert, '' and that is America ! " "Why should n't we grow up to the stature our sires forecast?" de- manded Jack. " Nothing is too big a contract for true Americans." " I told you that there was enough in our history to create enthusiasm," said Uncle Tom. "And you have the spirit in you, I know from ex- perience. Just see what is America's station in the world to-day. When this century opened, the United States had but a little more than five millions of inhabitants ; to-day they number sixty-seven millions. Our possessions, then, extended only from Maine to Georgia and from the Atlantic to the banks of the Missis- sippi; westward, beyond the great river, all was unexplored and almost unknown. The total area of the United States in 1800 was less than eight hundred and fifty thousand square miles ; to-day the great Re- public incloses an area of more than three and a half million square miles ; her helmet-top is white with Arctic snows ; upon her sandals break the warm ripples of the tropic seas. The unexplored region of 1800 has been carved into great and growing States. Our original thirteen to-day are forty-five ; we lead the world in many departments of production and trade, of intelli- gence and ingenuity, in natural advantages, in freedom, in energy, and in ability to do. Within one hundred years of life we have first conquered and then saved a continent and added to the world's hero-roll the names of Washington and Lincoln." " What shall we do in the next hundred years, I wonder?" queried Bert. " Think how much, boys and girls, the answer to Bert's question depends upon you," Mr. Dunlap said. "The future of America is in your hands. To-day there are in this Republic twenty million boys and girls. They are to be the citizens of the new America in the new century fast coming on. If they will but study aright the lesson of liberty and know that it can be held only at the price of eternal vigilance, all will be well. Since 1820 eighteen ONE OF CHICAGO S TALL BUILDINGS — THE WOMAN S TEMPLE. THE WAY TO THE SUMMIT OF FIKe's PEAK, 248 THE SyORY OF THE GOVERNMENT millions of foreigners have found a home in these United States. Millions more will come. They bring hard problems for us to solve, but we can solve them — you will solve them, boys and girls, if you will but teach those new- comers, by your lives and actions, the real meaning of liberty, and show GREAT SHOSHONE FALLS. them that the very spirit of unrest they bring and which fills the world to- day is really the best possible groundpoint from which liberty can work, if her sons will but recognize the truth and grandeur of the Golden Rule." The party broke up at last. But, as they separated, Uncle Tom asked for a final statement by each of the tourists as to what had most impressed him or her at Washinofton. The answers were as varied as their natures. Roger replied unhesitat- ingly : the Capitol and the hundred thousand dollars he held for a second AMERICA S MARVELS AND AMERICA S STATION 249 in the Treasury vaults. Marian declared the Washington Monument and the phantom eyes that glowered at her above the glass panels of the White House doors. Bert picked out the Supreme Court and the cease- less purr of the cable on Pennsylvania Avenue, and Jack decided for the President and the glee club of the musical herdic-drivers in Lafayette Park. As for Christine, she hesitated. Then she said, " Why, Uncle Tom — oh, excuse me, I mean Mr. Dunlap — " "That 's all right, Christine," laughed Uncle Tom; "I 'm glad you have admitted me to relationship at last." "I suppose I should say," continued Christine, "everything impressed me. Everything did. But, do you know, I think I shall remember, as long- as I live, the bird's nest in Washington's tomb at Mount Vernon." "A bird's nest? " queried Mr. Dunlap. " Yes, sir," Christine explained. " It was built right across a corner of the old tablet just above Washington's sarcophagus. There were four little birds in it, and the straws of the nest trailed over the inscription : ' lam the resurrection and the life.' I don't believe I shall ever forget that. It gave me such a queer feeling — almost as if it were a prophecy." " It was," said Uncle Tom. "Out of the ashes of the great may spring new life and effort. And the wings of a young bird — they mean growth in freedom! Do not forget your bird's nest, my dear. It may serve as an ex- cellent text for your life as a true American woman." Then, amid a chorus of good nights and good-bys, the tourists separated. Their personally conducted trip was at an end. But its good times, its sights, its experiences, and its lessons remain with them as pleasant and en- during memories, cementing friendships and making our girls and boys, as time goes on, the very best kind of American citizens. r '\9 7Q c^^' X r: '7- ■^ t> ft >> -s^ \ ' II I, .V -^^ ^ <> X * \'\ ■•\ ,i> t- ■>>. ■•«?*•.' o ^