V. ''\^^^ v*^-%o'^ ^'^^•\^'^^^ '^v^'^^v'^ "S.*^^*' Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/oldsouthnewOOmorr THE OLD SOUTH AND THE NEW A Complete Illustrated History of the Southern States, their Resources, their People and their Cities, and the Inspiring Story or their Wonderful Growth in Industry and Riches. From the Earliest Times to the Jamestow^n Exposition. BY CHARLES MORRIS Author of "The Aryan Race," "The History of Civilization,' "The Greater Republic, " etc., etc. Illustrated with more than 150 Entfravintfs. 2- C— . Mr LIBRARY of CONGRESS Two CoBies Received OCT 25 1907 Copyriffht Entry OLASS 4 XXc. No. COPY A. Entered according to Act of Cortgress Irv the year 1907 by W.E. SCVLL. ir\ tKe office of the Librariarv of Congress, at Washington. D. C. All Rights Reserved. >x DEDICATION To the brave men and the true women of the South, and to the hrave men and the true women of the North, who should he better acquamted with one another; To the sacred memory oi the Old South, embalmed in the hearts of her own people, and now become a national her- itage of which all sections are justly proud ; To the progress, enterprise, achievements, and the mag- nanimous spirit of the New South, which rose victorious in peace from the desolation of war; To all the patriotic Americans who are proud of their Country s past, and her present — This volume is dedicated. INTRODUCTION A FOREWORD FROM THE PUBLISHER. We congratulate the public on the completion and publication of Charles Morris' new book on the "Old South and the New." This is not a hastily prepared work. The author began the task many years ago. The volume is the result of much patient research and time spent in libraries and in historical centers and localities where facts could be gathered from the most authentic sources and where light could be thrown upon conditions that had to be relied upon in treat- ing the subject in hand. Mr. Morris is a historian of recognized ability. His works, "The Aryan Race" and "Civilization and Its Elements," are accepted as authorities in universities and reference libraries everywhere. He is also a scientist of broad knowledge, having added many valuable docu- ments to the archives of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the Academy of Natural Sciences. His services in preparing encyclo- pedias and dictionaries have been sought and employed by compilers of the greatest works of this character in America. His school his- tories of the United States have been recognized, both North and South, for many years as most accurate in fact, fair and unprejudiced in statement to all sections of the country. The long and careful training and thorough equipment of Mr. Morris for a work of patient research, and the painstaking care and time which he has devoted to the preparation of this work enables us to speak with confidence in recommending it to the public as the only work of its kind, and as most accurately and conscientiously done. The object of the work is to give not only a history, correct as to fact, but also to paint a real picture, or rather a series of pictures that 7 8 Introduction shall pass before the reader in systematic review, presenting a living panorama of Southern history, its people, manners, customs, amuse- ments, achievements and development from the time of the settlement of the first permanent colony of the New AVorld at Jamestown, Va., in 1607, to the celebration of that historic event, 300 years later, in the Jamestown Exposition of 1907. To the Southerner, justly proud of his ancestry and their achieve- ments, and of all people (perhaps with the exception of the Swiss), the most persistent lover of the section that gave him birth, this book should prove at once a delight and an inspiration. It is a retelling of the story of a glorious past that many have almost or quite forgotten, and that the new generation listens to as they M^ould to a fairy tale from the lips of parents and grandparents. It recalls with vividness, incidents and stories of the early settlements in the South ; the chival- rous days of the cavalier; the trying years and heroic times of the Revolution ; the peace, plenty, ideal social conditions and grand func- tions ; the study of oratory and statesmanship: the lofty standards of honor, gallantry and far-famed hospitality that pre\'ailed for three- quarters of a century before the Civil War. With even greater vividness, we have presented the story of the Southlands' desolation by four years' ravage of fire and sword, when their strong men, — and even the old men and the beardless boys from school, — went forth, leaving the women and children alone with their slaves, and fought, with a heroism scarcely known in the world's his- tory, what they believed to be a righteous war for the defense of their land and homes. A record of their deeds of valor, their feats of endurance, their fortitude and courage is a sacred heritage of the South ; and not only to themselves, but to the nation as well, which the Government has at last recognized by an Act of Congress authoriz- ing the decoration alike of the graves of Confederate and Union sol- diers. The story of the Old South, always delightfully reminiscent and sweet to every Southern heart, will be found equally interesting to Northern readers. It will please them and instruct them in many facts of which no historian has given so faithful a picture in the past. It will reveal to them conditions, characteristics, modes of thinking and of living that will make them better acquainted with and more fond of their Southern countrymen. There is no section of all our land so full of romance and senti- Introduction 9 ment as the "Land of Dixie." The pride of its people; the varied comedy and tragedy of its social life ; its peculiar and interesting cus- toms ; its old slave tales and folklore, their songs in the sugar cane and cotton fields, and their merrymaking by moonlight and torchlight in the "big house" yard; the short gay winters; the long dreamy sum- mers, with leaf-clad forests and verdant fields and flowers in wild pro- fusion; its cattle grazing in open fields and in caue -brakes, unfed, other- wise, throughout the winter; its mocking-birds and other feathery songsters unknown in Northern climes, pouring forth their music all the day, and often mellowing the soft, balmy air of moonlit night with their soulful notes from flower-laden miagnolia and orange trees ; the bravery of its men with the facts and tragedies of the dueling cus- tom ; the home life of the old planter and gentleman with his familv pride, his notions of honor, gallantry and duty, with his open-handed hospitality, his host of friends, his gun, his horses and his hounds for pastimes : the sweet femininity, the far-famed beautv, the virtue, the soft voices, the gentle manner of the clinging dependent Southern women. All these and scores of other strange and pleasing pictures will come vividly before the Northern reader in these pages for tlie first time. But the New South, while not so romantic, is more inspiring than the Old. Its achievements are greater, its people are happier, its prospects are brighter and its hope more steadfast and buoyant. The incubus of slavery — a sin of the Constitution — has been taken away and the Southern people are glad of it. It has gone forever, and they would not have it back. They were not responsible for it. No slave- ship was ever fitted out and manned and sailed from a Southern port; and Southern men did not go to Africa to catch the savage blacks and tear them from home and family to sell into slavery. In the days of George Washington there were more slaves in New York than in Virginia ; and George Washington and Patrick Henry and other noted Southerners were among the first agitators of emanci- pation. New England and the North generally, gradually sold their slaves to the South, where they were more profitable. And with the wrongs of slavery, it is hardly probable that the Northern master would have been more humane in his treatment of them than the kindly hearted, less grasping, Southern gentleman, who, as a rule, took a sort of ambitious pride in being at the head of a great plantation family and seeing his black people look healthier and happier than lo Introduction those of his neighbor. Ihe iNorthern overseer on Southern plantations was responsible for the greatest brutality, as witness the character of Legree in "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Slavery was the sin, not of the South, but of the Nation ; and, under God, the Nation had to expend a fearful price of treasure and blood to wipe it out. And the North spent more of the money and shed more of the blood than the South. The expense of the great Civil War to the Union alone would have paid, in money, for every slave, many times over, the highest value ever set by master upon him. The South suffered an utter financial ruin. The black man alone may thank the institution of slavery. Through it he passed, perhaps, along the easiest road that any slave people ever passed from savagery to civilization, with the kindest and most humane masters that the world has known. The black man alone may rejoice in the fact of the great Civil War. The negro is now eight millions strong, and a very important part of the New South. By many he is considered the greatest problem of the New South; and the solving of that problem must be largely left in his own hands. He should be considerate, patient, indulgent, forbearing, helpful, respectful and grateful. That he suffered injustices there is no doubt, but that he has received in benefits, at the white man's hand, a thousand fold to place against every wrong, is equally true. The treatment of slavery and the negro problem is made a feature of several chapters in this work. The predominance and importance of this subject in the History of the New South makes this extended treatment necessary. We commend the reading of the subject, as here presented, to both white and black people, North and South. Much bitterness, foolish legislation, malicious or prejudiced discus- sions in the press, and outbreaks of violence might be avoided and a growing sentiment of kindliness and friendship between the sections and the races fostered by a knowledge of the facts and conditions that have been sought out and clearly stated by the author. The generally prevailing political situations are discussed with judicial fairness as to facts, and with statesmanlike comment on their bearing and influence. Literature and education have due space allotted in the work. The school system, from the primitive days of the pioneer and the log school house to the modern public school and university, and the problem of negro education, are considered in an ample chapter on this Introduction n subject. The development of Southern hterature, the authors and what they wrote, what they stood for, and how they influenced the pubhc, forms another interesting theme. The various industries and manufacturing- enterprises which have sprung up during the past two decades in the South make it indeed almost like a new country. The Old South was little more than a rural farming section. Now almost every product of the loom, factory and forge, that the raw material of that section enters into, is pro- duced there as successfully and, generally, at much less cost than in Northern factories. All the Southern States can make cotton cloth much cheaper than the New England States ; and Northern capital by millions is annually seeking investment in Southern cotton mills. The iron industry is equally favorable to the South. Birmingham, Ala- bama, South Pittsburg, Tennessee, and many other Southern points, can make pig iron and pay the freight on it to Northern markets and sell it at the doors of Northern iron mills cheaper than the latter can produce it. Other manufacturing interests also find superior advan- tages, cities are springing up, and the population increasing at a marvelous rate. Herein lies one of the most potent promises of the future greatness of the New South. A feature of this work is a description, historic and otherwise, of the growing cities of this fast developing land. The story of the old cities of the South Atlantic States, with their quaint architecture min- gled with the new style structure of the North, their traditions and fashions and mannerisms of other days, intersecting- and clashing and harmonizing with the rushing, progressive spirit and stirring events of the present, calls the reader to witness a most interesting spectacle of change and progress. Equally attractive are accounts of the great Gulf State seaports and centers of progress, New Orleans, Mobile, Galveston and others, also the famous cities of the South Central States, St. Louis, Louisville, Memphis, Chattanooga, and others. The Southern farmer is not behind his city brother. He early fell into the march of progress, and has kept step in the line of steady advance. King Cotton, "The Snowy Monarch of Southern Industry," is still king, with a power that increases year by year. But he no longer holds a monopoly. Diversified farming and gardening, stock raising and fruit culture have made every tiller of the soil doubly independent; for the South is a land of many products, growing the finest of almost everything in the vegetable and animal kingdoms with 12 Introduction the least requirement of labor. The rapidly populating cities and the swift coming of manufacturing plants, with armies of operatives, bring an ever-increasing market for the farmer's products, and are rapidly enhancing the value of his lands. The series of national expositions of industry in the cities of the South, beginning a cjuarter of a century ago with Louisville and New Orleans, and finding their climax in the World's Fair at St. Louis, and ending with the Exposition at Jamestown in 1907, have been enthusiastically attended by the people. Accounts of these fairs, and the impetus they have given to Southern aspirations and enter- prise, are set forth in the closing chapters of the work in a way that emphasizes the performances of the past, and throws an unmistakable rainboAV of promise and hope for a grander future to the New South. Mechanically the volume is most commendable. The paper, print- ing and binding are attractive and durable. The illustrations are especially excellent and helpful in illuminating the text and impressing the facts. The originals were produced at large cost, and much care has been exercised in choosing the subjects and in executing the draw- ing and engraving. Some of the illustrations are very rare. That of Jefiferson Davis' Cabinet, and others, were secured by special arrange- ment from private collections, and many of them were drawn especially by eminent artists at large expense. PREFACE. IT is the South that forms our theme, the land of the palmetto, the cotton plant and the magnolia, the home of the planter and the cavalier, the Summer-land of the great American republic. In this we have a rare domain of mountain and plain, of noble rivers and sun-kissed valleys, of fertile levels and spreading forests, of charming landscapes and beautiful cities. Through its w^estern half flov^s the mighty Mississippi, one of the giant rivers of the earth, while other splendid streams profusely water its smiling slopes. Through its eastern half stretch far the Appalachian peaks and cliffs, a realm of rugged mountains clad with forests of rare timber and rich with vast deposits of coal and iron, a reservoir of nature's wealth fit to enrich a kingdom. Its immense plains supply food in profusion for millions of inhabitants and feed with their invaluable cotton fibre half the textile mills of the world. Such is the South, a land of beauty and plenty, with few rivals and no superior in these double attractions upon the earth. The United States of America, the youngest and nobles|>a^f the great nations, the youthful republic that spans a continent and takes in its choicest section, is a land widely diversified in climate, surface, and inhabitants. It divides naturally into three great sections, the North, the South, and the West, each with its special characteristics and its tendency to pursue a special line of development. This is markedly shown in the North and the South, in which there has been little of that intermingling of populations that has been seen in the relations of the North and the West. For several centuries they have 14 Preface developed side by side, yet separately and distinctively, the result being a marked difference in the character, tastes and sentiments of their respective inhabitants. Nature and heredity are stronger than political ties and their influence cannot easily be set aside. What are the conditions which have produced these distinctions ^ To all seeming they are chiefly the character of the original settlers and the subsequent influence of climate and industries. While the northern colonies v^ere peopled with "Sons of the Soil," Virginia and, the Carolinas attracted numbers of immigrants from the cavalier class of England, men of aristocratic connections, of education, self- respect and pride of station. While these were by no means all the population, they were enough to give a distinctive tone to the dominant class of this section of the South. Their characteristics and social prominence were transmitted to their descendants, with the result that we find there a distinct strain of men in whom the qualities of the men who fought for Charles I., inhere. But the Southern gentleman, as he is to be seen to-day, owes his character perhaps more largely to climate than the hereditary influences. While the latter have invested him with the pride and dignity of an honorable descent, the form.er have affected his whole physical and mental constitution. The fervent sun of the South has worked its way into his blood, and made him warm-hearted, im- pulsive, generous and emotional; with a courage which defeat can- not quell, a devotion to his sense of duty and honor which misfortune cannot overcome. Industrially the story of the South is notably unlike that of the North. Until of recent years it was almost wholly agricultural, while that of the North has long been largely mechanical and com- mercial. This difference in industries has had a decided effect upon the character of its people. In the North arose a bustling, energetic, incessantly active population, democratic in thought and habit and ignoring every tendency to class distinctions. In the South class distinction became strongly marked, not only between the whites Preface 15 and blacks, but between the wealthy and the poor whites. The planters passed a life of leisure, in which they devoted themselves largely to the political interests of their localities. In this way they became familiar with the science of government and a class of states- men appeared unsurpassed in political acumen and ripe judgment upon public affairs. This was especially the case in the times im- mediately preceding and following the Revolution, when the country grew proud of such men as Washington, Henry, Madison, Monroe, Gadsden, West, Marshall, and others of fine powers — men who were succeeded by others of rare ability in later years. It was not alone in legislative halls that the Southern gentleman shone. Brave to a fault and with an instinctive military aptitude, he made his mark in every war the country knew. To the South we owe Washington, the most famous of our soldiers and patriots; Jackson, the hero of the War of 1812; Taylor and Scott, the victors in the Mexican War, and Lee, the most admired and esteemed of the leaders in the Civil War. There is another sense in which the man of the South makes a special appeal to us. He is the true American, the real "Son of our sires." While there are hosts of Americans of colonial descent in the North, Americanism there has become 70 diluted and adulterated with alien blood that it threatens to become a heterogeneous com- pound, largely made up from the least desirable populations of Europe. From this irruption the South has so far been saved, the tide having turned away from its fertile fields, leaving the population mainly in its pristine state of undiluted Americanism. If we seek the true American of to-day we can best find him in the South. Elsewhere he is in ^measure lost among the flood of inflowing aliens. Such have been and in a measure are the distinctive diff^erences between the South and the North. That they will continue is questionable. There are strong indications that the diversity be- tween the two sections is destined to pass away. The South is becoming less isolated than it was of old and less distinct in its 1 6 Preface industries. One of the prominent features of the New South is the rapid development of manufactures upon its soil and extension of the railroad throughout its area. These new interests and new facilities of travel are bringing the sections closer together. The North is invading the South, and the South the North. Intermovement of the people is steadily growing and promises to lead to a much greater community of interests and opinions than in the past. This is a result which all patriotic Americans must welcome. The formation of "a more perfect Union" between the States has long been Warmly desired, though for years irreconcilable diversity and hostility between the sections seemed likely to arise. Such a condition, in- deed, came upon us and precipitated the most unhappy contest in the history of the land. Happily the process of differentiation cul- minated in this struggle, and since then the tide has been flowing in the opposite direction. The people of our land — the American people, that is — are growing more instead of less homogeneous as the years pass. This is a natural result of the increasing community of interests, the ease of travel, the facility of communication, the general development of education. It is the factory, the railroad? the postal facilities, the telegraph and telephone, the school-house, the forge and factory that are cementing all people of American descent into one great commonwealth, similar in interests and sym- pathies, and rapidly drawing our diversified states together into "A more perfect Union." It is an evolution full of hopefulness and promise and one that w^e may well wish will cement the American people of the future into one great brotherhood. CONTENTS Chapter I. THE SOUTH, A NOBLE REALM OF BEAUTY, WEALTH AND PROMISE. Page The Growth of the Great RepubHc — The Summerland of the Continent — The Boundaries of the South — The Mason and Dixon Line — The Extension of the Slave System — The Grand Proportions of the South — Its Geographical Character — Its Mountain System — Its Rainfall and Watercourses — States West of the Mississippi — A Noble River — The Industrial Sections — Negro Labor — A Self-Supporting Land — Its Varied Wealth and Beauty 23 Chapter II. THE OLD DOMINION AND THE CAVALIERS OF THE COLONIES. The Spanish and French — Sir Walter Raleigh and his Colonists — The Cavalier Settlers — The Spirit of Liberty — The Scotch-Irish of the Valleys — How Jamestown was settled — Early Days in Virginia — Negro Slaves — The First Legislature — Self-Government — The Cavaliers in South Carolina — The Old Dominion — Berkeley's Defiance of Cromwell — Charles II and Virginia. . 43 Chapter III. THE HEROES OF THE OLD COLONIAL SOUTHLAND. Tobacco brings Prosperity — The Indian Massacres — Berkeley's Tyranny — Bacon and the Indians — The Spirit of Rebellion — Bacon's March on Jamestown — ■ The Commission and the Defeat of the Indians — Berkeley's Flight — The Capture and Burning of Jamestown — Bacon's Death and Berkeley's Re- venge — Carolma and the Grand Model Government — Freedom in the Caro- linas — Oglethorpe and the Spaniards — The Fight on St. Simon's Island — How Oglethorpe Defeated the Spaniards 59 i8 Contents Chapter IV. Page MANOR LIFE IN OLD COLONY DAYS. How the Virginia Planters lived — Their Hospitality — The Classes of the People — Town and Country Life-;— Home Manners — Training of Boys and Girls — Occupations of the People— Effect of Product, Climate and Race The Farmers and the Planters — The Charms of Rural Life — Governor Spots- wood and the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe — The Expedition to the Blue Ridge — A Delightful Journey — The Valley Discovered — Two Boy Surveyors and Their Work — Lord Fairfax and Greenway Lodge — Washing- ton's Journey to the French Forts 79 Chapter V. HOW THE SOUTH PLANTED THE SEEDS OF INDEPENDENCE. The Tea at Annapolis and Charleston — The North Carolina Regulators — -The Mecklenburg Declaration — Patrick Henry's Defiance to the King — Henry's Great Speech for Liberty or Death — The Study of Oratory and Government in the South — Some Famous Orators — South Carolina and the Stamp Act Congress — The Continental Congress — Effect of Lexington in the South — Virginia's Declaration of Rights — Richard Henry Lee's Resolutions — Jef- ferson Writes the Declaration — Charles Carroll of Carrollton 103 Chapter VI. THE SOUTH AND ITS HEROES IN THE REVOLUTION. Southern Aid to Boston — Lord Dunmore and the People — Fort Sullivan and Sergeant Jasper — The First Flags of the Republic — Light Horse Harry — Morgan and His Riflemen — Morgan at Quebec — His Defeat of Tarleton — The British Take Savannah and Charleston — Marion, the Swamp Fox — Marion and the British Officers — Jack Davis and the Dragoons — King's Mountain — Tarleton and the Witty Lady — Cornwallis at Yorktown 119 Chapter VII. FAMOUS PATHFINDERS AND PIONEERS OF THE SOUTH. Daniel Boone as a Boy — Boone's Inscription — John Finley— Boone Seeks Ken- tucky — Adventures with the Indians — Colonel Henderson and the Land Company — A Kentucky Fort — Boone's Daughter Captured and Rescued — Contents 19 Page Boone a Prisoner— His Escape and the Siege of the Fort— George Rogers Clark and his plan— The British in the Northwest— Clark's Expedition sets out— The Ball at Kaskaskia and the Capture— The British at Vincennes— The March through the Overflow — Clark Captures Vincennes — The Im- portant Result of Clark's Expedition 136 Chapter VIIL HOW THE STATESMEN OF THE SOUTH LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC. Virginia, Maryland and the Union— Cavalier and Puritan Ideas — The Southern Statesman — A Weak Union — Maryland and the Western Claims — ^The Articles of Confederation — New York Collects Duties from its Neighbors — The Father of the Constitution — The Meeting at Alexandria — Madison and Washington — The Conventions at Annapolis and Philadelphia — ^Madison's Plan — The Constitution as Adopted — Contests for Ratification — The Great Struggle in Virginia 155 Chapter IX. GEORGE WASHINGTON THE IDEAL AMERICAN, SOLDIER, STATES- MAN, AND PRESIDENT. Washington's Parents — In the French War — Marries and Settles— Commander- in-Chief in the Revolution — ^The Great Feat at Trenton — Valley Forge and Yorktown — Refuses a Crown and Kingdom — Plans for Canals to the Ohio — Washington's Concern about the Country — Presides over the Constitutional Convention — Elected the first President — The Troubles of Office — Called to the Army again — Sudden Illness and Death 167 Chapter X. THOMAS JEFFERSON ADDS NEW STARS TO THE SOUTHERN GALAXY. The Constellation of the South — The Discovery of the Mississippi — La Salle's Famous Exploration — What the Treaties did — Louisiana in 1801 — ^Thomas Jefferson at Home and in College — The Declaration — Governor of Vir- ginia — Minister to France — Secretary of State — Vice-President — Elected President — His Democratic Ways — Combats aristocratic Customs — The Question of the Mississippi — War in the Air — The Work of Monroe and Livingston — The President and Congress approve the purchase — The Lewis 20 Contents Page and Clark Expedition— Three New States of the South — Jefferson's Life at Home — Rescued from Misfortune — Dies on the Anniversary of Inde- pendence . . . 185 Chapter XI. OLD HICKORY, THE HEROIC SON OF CAROLINA AND TENNESSEE. Jackson and the British Officer — Studies Law and goes to Tennessee — Is sent to Congress — Supreme Court Judge — In Business — Hurt in a Quarrel — The Creek War — Jackson's Victory— Weathersford Surrenders — The Burning of Washington — The British at New Orleans — Their Terrible Defeat — Jack- son in Florida — The End of the Trouble — A Candidate for the Presidency — His Election — The Chief Acts of His Administration — His Death 203 Chapter XII. THE MONROE DOCTRINE, THE PALLADIUM OF LIBERTY IN AMERICA. The Benefits of the Monroe Doctrine — Sketch of James Monroe — The Louisiana Purchase — Monroe as President — Early Expressions of American States- jpen — Jefferson's Views in 1808 — The Spanish Colonies Revolt — ^The Doc- trine a Southern Measure — The Holy Alliance and Its Purpose — Rus- sia's Attitude — Canning's Action — The Monroe Doctrine Stated — Its jTffect — Its History — England's Designs on Nicaragua — ^The Cuban Question — President Polk restates the Doctrine — ^The French in Mexico ^They are Forced to Withdraw — The Venezuelan Boundary Dispute — President Roosevelt on the Monroe Doctrine — ^The Blockade of Venezuela — Secretary Olney's Opinion — ^The Drago Doctrine 217 Chapter XIII. CLAY AND CALHOUN, THE GREAT SOUTHERN ORATORS OF THE "GOLDEN AGE." The South a Nursery of Orators — The Boyhood of Henry Clay — His Gift of Oratory — Clay in Kentucky — Speaker of the House — Clay's Great Popu- larity — The Missouri Compromise — Campaigns of 1824 and 1844 — -De- feated and In Debt — The Tariff Compromise — The Compromise of 1850 — Clay's Character — Calhoun's Character and Early History — The Nullifica- tion Doctrine — Webster and Hayne — Threats of War — Calhoun's Great Force Bill Speech — Miss Martineau on Calhoun and Clay — Calhoun's Last Days 234 Contents 21 Chapter XIV. THE LONE STAR STATE; ITS HEROES AND ITS MARTYRS. Page Texas and Its Settlers — Its Size and Resources — The Revolt of the Americans — Houston's Early Story — Heroes of the Texan War — The Splendid Defence of the Alamo — The Thermopylae of Texas — Houston's Great Victory — ■ Texas Admitted to the Union — The War Spirit in Mexico — Southern Leaders of the Mexican War — Results of the War — What Mexico Lost and the United States Won 254 Chapter XV. THE NEGRO AS AN ELEMENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE NATION. Beginning of the Slave Trade — Its Horrors — Slavery in New York and Boston — Slavery Unpopular in Early Days — England Sustains the Slave Trade — Washington and Jefferson on Slavery — Slavery in the Constitutional Conven- tion — The Slave Trade Abolished — The Cotton Gin — The Missouri Com- promise — -The Work of the Abolitionists — Garrison and the "Liberator" — The Economic Relations of Slavery — ^The Treatment of the Slave— The Compromise of 1850 269 Chapter XVI. THE TARIFF AND SLAVERY THE HIGHROADS TO SECESSION. The Work of the Constitution — Tests of Its Strength — Effects of Climatic Con- ditions — The Demand for Emancipation — The Tariff and Slavery in 1787 — Development of the Tariff Idea — Tariffs of 1824 and 1828 — Calhoun and His Sentiments — The Ordinance of Nullification — Jackson Checks Seces- sion — Clay's Compromise — Garrison and Abolition — Hostility of Feeling — Texas and Mexico — The Compromise of 1850 — The Whigs of the South — ■ The " Impending Crisis" — ^The Kansas Struggle — The John Brown Raid ■ — Its Effect on the South — A Republican President — The South Secedes — -Doubt and Dismay in the North — A Strong Peace Feeling — The Sumter Episode — ^The Issue Forced and War Succeeds 282 Chapter XVII. THE GREAT CONFEDERATE LEADERS OF THE CIVIL WAR. Lessons of the Civil War — Able Commanders of the South — The Character of 22 Contents Page Robert E. Lee— His Early Career— General Imboden's Tribute to Lee- Lee's Prophetic Forecast— His Simple Habits— Lee in Command— The Final Struggle— Lee after the War— A Touching Story— Stonewall Jack- son—His Life in College— His Religious Faith— How He Got His Title- In the Shenandoah Valley— His Services and Death— A Southern Hero— The Career of A. S. Johnston— In Command in Kentucky— The Victory at Shiloh Death In Triumph — ^The Fruits of Victory — Lost — Cavalry Heroes of the Confederate Army — General Stuart's Career— His First Great Raid At Bull Run and Chambersburg— The Sweep Round jVleade's Army — Death in Battle 3°3 Chapter XVIII. JEFFERSON DAVIS AND THE GOVERNMENT OF THE CONFEDERACY. The Confederate Civil Leaders— A Description of Jefferson Davis— His Army Career—In Congress— Chosen President of the Confederacy— His Able Efforts— His Military Ability— Presidential Strategy— Jackson in The Val- leys—Davis Interviewed after the War — ^Was he Right or Wrong? — Vice-President Stephen's Described — His Early Career — His Public Ser- vice ^The Confederate Cabinet — ^Toombs and Benjamin — ^Work of the Naval Department— The Merrimac and Monitor — ^The Fate of the Iron- Clads — ^The Work of the Alabama 3^7 Chapter XIX. WAR'S DREAD HERITAGE AND THE POLITICIAN'S FATAL CLUTCH Conditions in North after Civil War — In South — Courage and Devotion of the Southern Soldier — Causes of Conquest — Desolation of the South — Great Decline in Value of Property — Effect of War on Negroes — Steps Toward Restoration of Industry — Congressional Interference — The Problem of Re- construction — Negro Suffrage and its Results — The Carpet-bag Invasion — Legislative Theft and Demoralization — A Black Picture of Negro Legisla- tion — The Southern White Rises in Revolt^The Negro in the South Caro- lina State House — End of the Reign of Terror and Restoration of Property. . .346 Chapter XX. THE PROBLEM OF THE NEGRO AS A FREEDMAN AND CITIZEN. Lincoln's Views on Slavery— Effect of Emancipation—A New Negro Problem — The Negro as Voter and Legislator — The Fifteenth Amendment and Its Contents 23 Page Effect — The Results of an Evil Measure — Relations of Southern Whites and Blacks — Mental Conditions of the Negro Race — Desire for Education after the War — Immaturity of the Negro Mind — Life for the Passing Moment — The Negro's Instinct of Affection — Deterioration in Manners — Slavery a Benefit to the Negro Race — The Negro Vote as an Asset — The System of Industrial Education — Progress of the Tuskegee Institute — Booker T. Wash- ington's Speech at Atlanta — Views as to the Condition and Prospects of the Negro Race 360 Chapter XXI. KING COTTON THE SNOWY MONARCH OF SOUTHERN INDUSTRY Cotton Is King — Beginning of Cotton Culture — The Seed and Its Annoyance — The Cotton Gin Invented — Its Wonderful Effect — Varieties of Plant Culti- vated — Life on the Plantation — The Fascination of the Business — The Negro Laborer in Mississippi — A Home-Coming Procession — The Seed an Item of Value — Great Yield of Cotton-Seed Oil — Other By-Products — Cotton Culti- vation — Ginning and Pressing — Fluctuations in Cotton Growing — Increase in Consumption — The Cotton Mill in the South — Rapid Progress in South- ern Manufacture 383 Chapter XXII. THE PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE OF THE FARMING INDUSTRY IN THE SOUTH. The South a Land of many Products — A Glimpse at Its Products — An Economic Revolution — The Negro as a Farm Holder — Corn and Tobacco — The Story of Rice Culture — Rice in Louisiana and Texas — The Louisiana Sugar — The Peanut Crop^ — What the South has done and can do — Phosphates — Fruit and Vegetable Raising — The Peach of the South — The Melon and Strawberry — The Florida Orange and Pineapple — Cattle Raising in Texas —The Blue Grass Region of Kentucky and its Thoroughbred Horses — The Blooded Stock of Tennessee- — Secretary Wilson on Southern Agriculture. 4.03 Chapter XXIII. THE VAST MINERAL AND FOREST RESOURCES OF THE SOUTH The Coal and Iron Area of the Appalachians — of Missouri, Arkansas and Texas — The Petroleum Regions— The Marbles of Tennessee and other States — 24 Contents FkGE Noviculate, Salt and Gold — Hot Springs and Caverns of the South — The Region of the Cypress and Pine — The Hardwood Forests — 422 Chapter XXIV. THE IRON FORGE AND THE COTTON MILL REGENERATE THE SOUTH. The South in 1880 — The Outlook before It — The Results of Progress — Early Iron Manufacture — Conditions in 1860 — Judge Kelly in the South — The Dawn of Regeneration — Great Progress in Cotton Spinning — Its Present Status — Iron and Steel in Alabama and Elsewhere^Rivalry with Europe — A Vast Spread of Forest — The Yield of Lumber — Other Industries of the South — A Land of Great Resources ■ 433 Chapter XXV. FROM COMMON SCHOOL TO UNIVERSITY. Schools in Early Virginia — School Laws in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia — The Era of Academies — Peabody and Slater Gifts to Education — ■ Progress of Public Schools — William and Mary College — Washington and Lee College — University of Virginia — Other Virginian Colleges — Maryland Institutions — Universities at Nashville and Knoxville — Colleges in the Caro- linas — Education in Kentucky — Missouri and Arkansas — The University of Georgia and other Institutions of that State — Florida and Alabama Institu- tions — The Tuskegee Institute — Tulane University of Louisiana and other Advanced Schools — Texas and Its Colleges — Baylor University — The Prob- lem of Negro Education 449 Chapter XXVI. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOUTHERN LITERATURE. Early American Literature — Political Genius of the South — Page on the lack of an Early Southern Literature — The Pioneer Writers— Early Magazine — Kennedy and Simms — Cooke and Carruthers — Former Women NoveHsts — '^ Edgar A. Poe as a Poet — His Stories and Criticisms — Other Poets of his Period— Humorous Writers — Effect of the War on the South— The New Contents 25 Pagh Period and its Writers — Page and Harris — Lanier, Hayne and Timrod — Novelists of a New Type — Late Writers of Fiction — The Characteristics of Southern Literature 473 Chapter XXVIL HISTORIC CITIES OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES. Baltimore, its History and Industries — Richmond, and Its Features of Interest — Norfolk, Virginia's chief Seaport — Wilmington and the Blockade Runners — Raleigh, the City of Oaks — Charlotte and Asheville — Charleston and Its History — Its Attractions and Industries — Columbia, a Busy Capital City — Savannah, Georgia's Pioneer City — The Port of Brunswick — Atlanta, the Young Giant of the South — The Progress of Augusta — Macon and Its Ad- vantages — Columbus and What it Stands for — Antique St. Augustine — • Jacksonville, Pensacola, Tampa and Key West 491 Chapter XXVIII. GULF STATE SEAPORTS AND CENTERS OF INDUSTRY. Progress in Alabama — Mobile and Its Commerce — Mobile's Attractions — Bir- m.ingham and the Iron Industry — Other Iron Centers — Montgomery, the State Capital — Its History and Progress — Mississippi's Industries — Vicks- burg and Natchez — Meridian and Greenville — What Louisiana Stands for — • Metropolitan New Orleans — Its Great Commerce — Baton Rouge and Shreveport — The Great Seaport of Texas — Commerce of Galveston — A Frightful Disaster — The Grit of the People — San Antonio and Its History — ■ Houston and Its Trade — Austin, a Beautiful Capital City — Dallas and Fort Worth — Denison and Waco 514 Chapter XXIX. FAMOUS CITIES OF THE SOUTH CENTRAL STATES. The South Central States — Origin of St. Louis — Its Business Prosperity — The Great Exposition — Kansas City and St. Joseph — Little Rock and other Cities of Arkansas^The Founding of Louisvdle — The City's Development — - Lexington and the Blue Grass Regions — Covington and Newport — The Characteristics of Tennessee — The Situation of Memphis — Its History and Prosperity — Cotton and Hardwood- -Chattanooga and Its History — Growth of Its Iron Works — Its other Industries — Attractions of Chattanooga — 26 Contents Page Knoxville and its Situation — Its History and Industries — The Record of Nashville — Its Institutions 537 Chapter XXX. THE SOUTH AS A SUMMER AND WINTER RESORT FOR THE TOURIST. The South newly Discovered — The Land of the Sky — The American Switzer- land — ^The Asheville Region — Virginia's Watering Places — South Carolina's Health Resorts — The Attractions of Georgia — Its Favorite Springs — Jekyl and Cumberland Islands — Florida and its Resorts — Gulf Coast Watering Places — Sports in the South — Deer Shooting and Fishing 557 Chapter XXXI. THE SOUTH IN ITS PERFORMANCE AND ITS PROMISE. The Era of Hostile Relations- — The Evils of Reconstruction — President Johnson and Congress — The Troops withdrawn — Manufacture and the Tariff — Growth of Harmony — The South a rival of New England — Great Railroad Progress — Southern Waterways and Gulf Port commerce — The Southern City of Coming Time — A Prophetic Outlook 570 Chapter XXXII. GRAND EXPOSITIONS OF INDUSTRY IN THE CITIES OF THE SOUTH. Origin of World's Fairs — Southern Progress first Shown at the Centennial Exposi- tion—The International Cotton Exposition of 1881 — Louisville and the Southern Exposition — The Cotton Centenary Exposition at New Orleans — Great Size of Main Buildings, and Grandeur of the Display — Atlanta again in the Field — Great Beauty of the Cotton States' Exposition — The Tennessee Centennial — The Charleston Exposition and its Attractions — President Roosevelt's Visit and his Remarks — Louisiana Purchase Exposition — The Site at St. Louis — Variety and Extent of Buildings — ^Opening Cere- monies — Scope of Exhibits — ^The Pike and its Attractions 582 Contents 27 Chapter XXXIII. THE JAMESTOWN EXPOSITION, ITS SITE AND HISTORY Page A great natural event — How Jamestown was settled — The story of the colony — A turning point in its history — The Exposition Company chartered — ■ A site chosen — Historical interest of the locality — Famous fight of the Merrimac and Monitor — Climate of the region — Its points of interest — Death of President Lee — The character of the Exposition defined — The State buildings — The improvement of the Exposition grounds — A fine example of landscape gardening — The Exposition opening day — Roose- velt reviews the fleets — The inauguration ceremonies — The President's speech — ^The military pageant — A second anniversary ceremony — The Auditorium and other buildings — A red and white city — -The War Path — Aquatic events — ^What the buildings held — A fine government display — Exhibits of the Departments — ^The great pier — Influence of the Exposi- tion on the development of the South tog LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Sebastian Cabot 34 The Use of Water Power in the Upland South Twenty Years Ago. 35 The Use of Water Power in the South To-Day 36 Chart Showing Available Water Supply of the South 39 Sir Walter Raleigh 44 Indian Village with Palisades 47 Southern Tobacco Field (full page) . 55 The Old Williamsburg Court House 56 The Burning of Jamestown 65 An Indian Woman 71 The Oldest House in St. Augustine, Fla 74 An Old Manor Hallway (full page) 81 A Southern Gentleman's Estate.... 82 An Old Southern Garden 87 The Sowell Garden, S. C 91 Old Spanish House, New Orleans. . 95 A Chaise of the Eighteenth Century 99 Patrick Henry 106 Silk Winding 112 A Virginia Currency Note of 1777. . 114 The Capitol at Richmond, Va 116 A Beautiful House on Bull Street, Savannah 122 The Battery at Charleston 125 Tarleton's Lieutenant and the Farmer (Jack Davis) 131 An Old Indian Farm House 137 Indian Agency 141 Ready for the Trail 145 Scene on the Plains 149 Mrs. James Madison 157 James Madison 160 Mary Ball, Afterward the Mother of George Washington 167 George Washington 170 Washington's Mother Receiving La- fayette 175 Washington Monument (full page). 181 PAGH Washington Monument in Rich- mond, Va 182 Fernando de Soto, Discoverer of the Mississippi 186 Robert de La Salle 190 Thomas Jefferson 193 Signing the Louisiana Purchase Treaty 197 Andrew Jackson 204 Osceola's Indignation 209 Jackson Monument in New Orleans. 214 James Monroe 219 William Henry Harrison 223 James K. Polk 227 GrOver Cleveland 230 Henry Clay 235 Statue to Henry Clay (full page).. 241 John C. Calhoun 245 John Tyler 249 Daniel Webster 251 Samuel Houston 255 Zachary Taylor 259 The Alamo Building 261 General Winfield Scott 265 San Antonio, Tex., from Fort Hous- ton 267 A Progressive Negro 270 Uncle Remus Express 277 A Happy Old Mammy 283 The First Capitol of the Confeder- acy, Montgomery,. Ala 287 Abraham Lincoln 293 General Robert E. Lee 504 General Albert Sidney Johnston.... 308 General Lee's Invasion of the North 311 General "Stonewall" Jackson 314 The Fatal Wounding of "Stonewall" Jackson 319 General Joseph E. Johnston 323 President Jefferson Davis 329 The White House of the Confeder- acy, Richmond, Va 333 29 30 List of Illustrations PAGE Distinguished Men of the Confed- eracy (full page) 339 Libby Prison 34i Monument to Confederate Soldiers. 347 Andrew Johnson 352 Monument to Confederate Dead in Hollywood Cemetery 355 Negro Farmer's Cabin of a Few Years Ago 362 Negro Farmer's Cottage of the Present Day 366 Teaching the Negro Useful Trades. 370 Agricultural Education for the Negro 375 The Cotton Gin 385 A Cotton Levee 390 Cotton Picking in Alabama 392 Spinning Room of a Cotton Mill. .. 395 Warp Room in a Cotton Mill 400 An Old-time Tobacco Factory 408 A Modern Tobacco Factory 410 Pineapple Plantation in Florida.... 415 Orange Grove, Florida 417 Coal Fields of the South 423 Chipping Bark for Turpentine 425 A Country Saw-Mill 430 Cotton Areas and Production, 1905. 434 Map Showing Cotton Districts of the South 438 Mill Worker's Cottage 441 A Large Cotton Field (full page).. 445 William and Mary College 450 The School house of the Past 452 The Schoolhouse of the Present... 452 Two Schoolhouses Contrasted 454 The Decreasing Illiteracy of the South 462 The First Building of the Tuskegee Institute 465 Carnegie Library at Tuskegee 470 James Lane Allen 474 Samuel Langhorne Clemens, "Mark Twain" 477 Edgar Allan Poe 48^ Joel Chandler Harris 485 John Trotwood Moore 488 The Park, Charleston, S. C 499 Business Section, Atlanta, Ga 506 New Orleans, Showing the Crescent in the Mississippi River 516 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Ala. . 521 Residence of Jefferson Davis, Beau- voir, La 524 Old City Hall, New Orleans 528 State House, Baton Rouge, La 531 Bridge Over the Arkansas River. . 539 Jefferson Street and Public Bm'ld- ings, Louisville, Ky 543 Freight Yards at Nashville, Tenn.. 548 Knoxville, Mountain City of Tenn. 554 Hunting Lodge, Aiken, S. C 558 The Health of the Lower South... 561 Whitney Hunting Garden Lodge... 566 Diagram Showing Increase in Value of Southern Manufactured Prod- ucts, 1890-1900-1905 573 Planing Mill in Georgia 584 Three Southern Forest Sections... 588 Theodore Roosevelt 593 Palace of Varied Industries 597 Cypress Trees on Pearl River, Miss. 602 Rock Marking the Spot Where "Stonewall" Jackson Fell 606 Fortress Monroe, Va 610 Historical Neighborhood of James- town 613 Across Canoe Trail 615 Diagram Showing the Convenient Location of the Grounds 616 The Mississippi Building 621 Diagram Showing Increase of Capi- tal Invested in Southern Manufac- tures 1890- 1900- 1905 622 The Palace of Commerce 626 The Georgia Building 628 Part of a $6,000 Apple Crop (full page) 631 The North Carolina Building 634 Mileage of the Southern Railroads in 1890-190S 635 List of Full Page Illustrations. Paoe Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet - - Frontispiece. Pocahontas Saving the Life of John Smith - - - - 66 An Old Manor House - -- —--_____ jo8 Battle of Resaca De La Palma --__-___ J42 An Old Creole Cottage - - -- -__- __ jgg Incline Railway at Chattanooga - --_-__ 228 Our Forest Wealth -------_-___ 262 Negro Ox Teams ------ ______ 288 The Constitution of the Confederacy _ - _ - _ ^^q A Business Street in Birmingham To-Day - _ - _ ^5^ A Profit of 1^2,723.6 1 on Fifteen Acres of Strawberries 406 A Southern City Park - --_-----__ 4^5 Campus of the University of Virginia ----- 478 Richmond Residence of Jefferson Davis _ - _ _ ^22 A Private Palace of the South - - - _ - - - ^5^ The Jamestown Exposition --______ _ ^86 31 CHAPTER I. THE SOUTH, A NOBLE REALM OF BEAUTY, WEALTH AND PROMISE The growth of the Great Repubhc — The summerland of the continent — The bound- aries of the South — The Mason and Dixon Une — The extension of the slave system — The grand proportions of the South — Its geographical character — Its mountain system — Its rainfall and watercourses — States west of the Missis- sippi — A noble river — The industrial sections — Negro labor — A self-supporting land — Its varied wealth and beauty. UPON the Great Republic of the West, rich, broad, prosperous, promising, "The Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave," Nature has showered her gifts with a lavish hand. For long ages, during which only the savage red man trod its lofty mountains and ample plains, this great domain was being prepared for the nursery of a mighty nation. In the latter days this nation arose, a weak infant at first, yet fast growing sturdy and powerful, until it became of giant girth and strength, a young and lusty Goliath of the West, fitted to cope with the greatest powers of the ancient East, and perhaps in time to triumph over them all. Such is the great Union of States which has made America the modern wonder of the world, the paragon of nations. But the gifts of Nature were not equally distributed over this outstretching realm. In the west she withheld her largess, and a vast area of land was left in an arid and desert condition. In the north she gave fertility, but overspread it for half the year with wintry bleakness and freezing chill. Only in the south, the broad and smiling summerland of the continent, were her gifts laid with no niggardly hand, the soil, the sun, the rains, the streams all vieing to produce here one of the richest and most beautiful lands upon the face of the globe; a region of perennial charm, of rare fertility, of delightful climate, lying midway between the realms 3 23 34 The South, A Realm of Beauty of wintry frost and tropic heat, sharing the advantages and escap- ing the defects of both. Such is the Southland, the realm of beauty, fertility and abundance, with which we propose to deal. An ample area it has, this smiling land of the South; with abundant room for great varieties of climate, soil and surface within its spacious boundaries. On its northern border it touches the kingdom of frost, whose unseen couriers at intervals course far and fast over its soil. On its southern border it is bathed by the warm waters of the Gulf, full of the tropic fervor of the sun. Between these widely separated boundaries lies the southern section of the North Temperate Zone; in many respects the region most favored by nature of aU the wide surface of the earth. Within its confines in the eastern world He Southern Italy and Greece, with other sun-kissed and delightful lands. But it would be difficult to find in all the eastern realms a land so favored by nature, so pro- lific in* promise and rich in performance, as the rare American Southland, the home of the orange and the rose, the live-oak and the palm, of sunny vales and salubrious hills, verdant groves and charming homes. The South is our theme, and it is our pur- pose in this chapter to present it in its general outhnes to the eye of the reader. With the At- lantic Ocean on its east, and the Gulf of Mexico on its south, it is bordered on the west by the mountains and arid lands of Old and New Mexico, and the more fertile re- gion of Kansas and Oklahoma. On the north we are accus- tomed to speak of the Mason and Dixon line as its boundary. This was truly the case when the American Union was confined to the thirteen original States, but it is only partly the case in these more recent times. As this Mason and Dixon line has become a largely traditional term to many readers, conveying no definite meaning to their minds, it behooves us here to state just what is meant by it. It is, in fact, a result of the dispute be- tween the proprietors of Pennsylvania and Maryland, re- garding the boundaries of their respective provinces. This dispute, beginning between William Penn and Lord Baltimore, was continued by their descendants for a considerable part of a cen- SEBASTIAN CABOT who cruised far southward in his voyage of discovery. The South, A Realm of Beauty 35 tuiy, until in the end two able English surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, were sent out to make a careful survey and establish the true boundary. This task kept them busy from 1763 to 1767, during which years, starting from the northwest corner of Maryland, they ran a line due west through the wilderness for nearly three hundred miles. At every fifth mile a stone was set up with the coat-of-arms of WiUiam Penn cut on its north side and that of Lord Baltimore on its south side. This line divided the northern and southern colonies as they existed at that time, and the Northern and Southern States until after the settlement of the west. The boundary between the Northern and Southern States, however, has long been much more extended and diversified than THE USE OF WATER POWER IN THE UPLAND SOUTH TWENTY YEARS AGO this. In addition to the Mason and Dixon line, it now comprises the Ohio River through nearly all its length, the Mississippi along eastern Missouri, and the northern boundary of Missouri, which follows a parallel of latitude a few degrees north of that of the Mason and Dixon line. Within the boundaries here defined lie fifteen of our forty-five States, including along the Atlantic slope Maryland, Virginia (with West Virginia as its foster son). North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and along the Gulf coast, Alabama, Mis- sissippi, Louisiana and Texas, while those of interior location com- 36 The South, A Realm of Beauty ^" ?*-! J THE USE OP^ WAIER POWER IN IHE SOU 1"H TO-DAY A dam on the Yadkin River which will furnish 54,000 horse-power and run cotton mills in a large area by long distance transmission. prise Tennessee and Kentucky on the east, and Arkansas and Missouri on the west of the Mississippi River. This extended series of States is greatly diversified in location, climate, productions and natural characteristics. One at least among them, Missouri, is closely associated with the Northern States in climatic conditions, and the same may be said of Maryland. What, then, is their bond of union, since it does not seem to be that of climate and only in part that of geographical position. This may be said in a phrase. The South includes those States in which the institution of slavery continued to the Civil War. We omit Delaware, in which slavery had reached its vanishing point by i860. This distinction it is necessary to make for various reasons, and especially from the fact that it was this that gave the South a destiny distinct from that of the North, and led inevitably The South, A Realm of Beauty 37 to the greatest and most disastrous event in the history of our coun- try. It needs to be said here, however, that the institution of slavery was by no means exclusively Southern, but was at one time common to every section of our land; and that the people of the Northern States, only when they found that no benefit was to be gained from the labor and no money made through the ownership of negro slaves, became conscientious against the institution itself, some of them cannily salving their consciences and fiUing their pockets by selling their black chattels to the South. 1 hese are noble domains, these States of the South — noble in dimensions, in population, in mineral wealth and vegetable pro- ductions, in promise and performance. In area they spread over 875,000 square miles, being much larger in extent than the Euro- pean nations of France, Spain, Germany and Great Britain com- bined, and occupying a full third of the soil of the United States, if we omit its outlying accessions of territory. Within this broad domain there dwelt in 1900 a population of over 26,000,000 souls, more than a third of the total population of the United States. Thus in the South we have an area fitting for a nation, royal in extent, and great in power, it being amply capable of supporting a popu- lation much greater than that of our whole country as it now exists. Such is the Sopth viewed in its general relations. It is now incumbent upon us to consider it somewhat more intimately, tak- ing account of its geographical characteristics, its productions, its industries, its chmatic conditions, its population, and the distri- bution of its people. Geographically the South divides into two great sections; that lying between the Mississippi and the Atlantic, and that lying west of the Mississippi. The former section, that which embraces the original States of the South, and those most immediately affiliated wath them, is well defined in its geographic status. Traversing its central region is a great back-bone of moun- tains, the extended Appalachian System, or, as popularly known, the Alleghanies, coming downward from the north, and gradually sinking away into the plains of Georgia and Southern Alabama. From its two flanks the bordering States roll away, on the one side to the Atlantic, on the other to the Mississippi, sinking into well- watered plains of unsurpassed fertility. This great mountain system is far the oldest of the North American highlands, the Rocky Mountains of the west being in- 38 The South, A Realm of Beauty fantile in age as compared with it. Part of it probably rose above the seas when there was no other land to be seen in this western world. To the South belongs the honor of possessing its loftiest eminences^ Black Dome, in North Carolina, being over 6,700 feet high, while in the same region there are many peaks over 6,000 feet. The Appalachian System is a great formation of mountain ranges, valleys and tabie-lands, many miles in width, the home of extensive forests and the source of numerous rivers, which on the east flow to the Atlantic, and on the west make their way, directly or indirectly, to the Gulf of Mexico. It was across this broad tumble of rocks, valleys, forests, and mountain streams that Daniel Boone and the other bold pioneers of the Carohnas made their way in past times to discover and settle the fertile soil of Kentucky and Tennessee. It is here that the South in modern times has discovered a source ot wealth of unsur- passed value and utility, in the vast deposits of coal and iron which have slept for ages in the depths of its everlasting hills, and which are now being used in the development of a great industry, which promises in the near future to lift the South to a level with the greatest manufacturing regions of the earth. Little less valuable in their way are the vast forests of magnificent hardwood timber which clothe the flanks of the hills and fill their intervening valleys, conserving the innumerable springs in which so many rivers have their source. Here are broad growths of maple, oak, ash, chest- nut, hickory, walnut, beech, poplar, locust, and various other species of valuable timber trees, forming in all the greatest treasury of hardwood timber now existing in the United States. So highly is it estimated, alike for its present and prospective value, that the general government is now seriously considering the conversion of this vast tract of woodland into a grand mountain park, for the preservation of the streams which it nurses in its umbrageous depths. The South owes more than we have stated to its vast mountain system. It owes to it the innumerable creeks and rivers which course its plains in every direction, making it one of the best watered regions of the earth. In addition to its streams, the South enjoys the advantage of possessing the greatest rainfall of the United States — one nowhere in excess, but everywhere in abundance In the Gulf States there is an annual rainfall of over fifty-six. The South, A Realm of Beauty 39 inches, this extending upward as far as Arkansas and Tennessee. On the Atlantic coast, the rains, though less in amount, reach fifty inches annually in certain localities. Those rains, fairly well distributed throughout the year, are the source of a wonderful productiveness of the soil, making it the best adapted of any land The Available Water Supply of the South. The principal streams that rise in the Appalachian Region. in the world for the cultivation of cotton, and enabling it to yield food-stuffs in abundance to feed all its inhabitants, and furnish a generous excess to supply the demands of the North. It is a natural granary of plenty, this fertile Southland, the full powers of which are as yet very imperfectly developed. 40 The South, A Realm of Beauty West of the Mississippi, in a line from north to south, He three of the States named, ranging from Missouri, with its northern cHmate and productions, southward through Arkansas to Louis- iana, with its semi-tropical situation, the only portion of the United States largely devoted to the growth of the sugar-cane, that plant of tropic soils. Westward from this State, with the soft lisp in its name, lies the vast area of Texas, the most recent addition to the Southern sisterhood of States, and nearly half as large as all the others combined, while possessing diversities of cHmate, surface and soil that reproduce the conditions of most of the territory of the United States. This western section of the South is as rich in mineral wealth as the eastern. In Missouri the iron ore does not need to be torn from the heart of the mountains, since it composes mountains in itself, and in Texas the yield of petroleum rivals in quantity the far-famed fields of Pennsylvania. As for forests, they are a rich source of vegetable wealth, especially those of pine, which cover very broad areas, not alone in Louisiana and Texas, but in the Eastern Gulf and South Atlantic States as well. In all respects, as we have said, nature has worked nobly and well for the good of the South, supplying it amply with mineral and forest wealth, and adapting its soil to a wonderfully rich and abundant production of the valued treasures of the vegetable world. Through the heart of this great country runs the noblest river of our land, and one of the greatest of the earth, the lordly Mississippi, whose waters are capable of bearing on their breast the argosies of a continent, and whose affluents traverse widely the vast plain which lies between the two great mountain systems of the United States. This mighty river gathers its liquid wealth from a thousand sources, and forms an avenue of commerce whose future promise is supremely great. Yet, while the Father of Waters dwarfs all the other streams of the continent, there are other rivers of noble dimensions in the South, some of which, if transferred to Europe, would be classed with the famous streams of that storied land. The geographical division of the South which we have made is not the only one which presents itself. There is a second, partly geographical and partly climatic in character, but industrial in significance. This division embraces three sections, the northern. The South, A Realm of Beauty 41 the southern, and the mountain, not definitely separated by distinct boundaries, yet clearly marked in their industrial conditions. We may designate them as the farming South, the planting South, and the mountainous South, each of which has its industrial specialty. In the northern or farming section the plantations have long been comparatively small, the agricultural interests diversified, and there has been a personal and kindly relation be- tween the land-owner and his dusky laborer. In the planting section, that of the broad cotton fields of the Gulf States, where the farm, properly so called, could scarcely be said to exist, the number of laborers upon any plantation was necessarily much larger, and no marked intimacy of relation between them and their employer, as a rule, could exist. This, at least, was the case in the days of slavery, when the large gangs of field hands were left under the supervision of an overseer, only the slaves in domestic ser- vice coming into close association with the family of the master. In the mountain region again special conditions have prevailed. Here are broad forests and rich mines, making forestry and mining leading industries of the section. The climate is equable and pleasant, the soil in the valley regions well watered and fertile, and the farms small, often calhng for no other labor than that of the family of the owner. These differences in location and character have made great differences in condition between the three sections, and have had important effects upon the distribution of population and the respec- tive numbers of whites and blacks. Negro labor has been far less needed in the mountains than in the lowlands, and less in the farming than in the planting section. It is in the latter, the broad and warm cotton-belt of the Gulf and the neighboring States, that the dusky laborers of the South most do congregate, they being largely in excess of the whites in two States, South CaroHna and Mississippi, and closely approaching them in number in several other States. With their native adaptation to a tropical climate, it is but natural that the negroes should cling in preference to the warmest section of our broad domain. Such is the South considered in its aspects of soil, climate, geographical character, productions and population. Its develop- ment in all avenues of business activity has kept pace with that of the country at large, and takes rank with the greatest and most 42 The South, A Realm of Beauty noteworthy national movements in the industrial and commercial history of the world. It is so richly endowed by nature, and possesses so vast a supply of material wealth, that if the balance of the world were swept out of existence, it could support itself and prosper abundantly for ages to come. It is a land sufficient unto itself. Raw materials exist, or are successfully grown, in its every section in such prodigal profusion that no one need want. It has a system of intercommunication and connection with the outer world by river and rail sufficient to give it commercial relations with the utmost borders of civilization. With its genial chmate and prolific soil, and its growing manufacturing and mining industries, it offers to its citizens, and to those who may hereafter become such, in all avenues, — industrial, commercial, agricultural and intellec- tual, — every advantage and inducement to be found in any portion of the United States. We have given here but a bird's-eye view of the great domain of the South, passing glimpses caught in a rapid flight over its broad and smiling surface. Nothing has been said of the /vast areas of fleecy cotton which spread in great expanses of vegetable snow over State after State; nothing of the wealth of food-stuffs yearly pro- duced; nothing of the profusion of floral bloom, which makes so many of its happy homes bowers of beauty and perfume; nothing ot the genial charm of its cities, with their broad streets lined with verdant trees, and bordered with gardens in which Flora smiles the whole year through; nothing of its busy centers of manufacturing industry, recent in development, but rich in promise. Such is the South, of whose history and heroes we propose in future chapters to speak; a land to be proud of, and to admire; a realm of nature's choicest beauty and charm; a clime which to live in is to love. CHAPTER II. THE OLD DOMINION AND THE CAVA- LIERS OF THE COLONIES The Spanish and French — Sir Walter Raleigh and his Colonists — ^The cavalier settlers — The spirit of liberty — ^The Scotch-Irish of the valleys — How Jamestown was settled — -Early days in Virginia — Negro slaves — The first Legislature — Self- government — The cavaliers in South Carolina — -The Old Dominion — Berke- ley's defiance of Cromwell — Charles II and Virginia. ONE honor the South may justly claim, that of standing first in the record of discovery and settlement upon the fair soil of the United States. Here came the Spaniards; here the French; here the English, far in advance of any settlement upon the northern coast. Not long after Columbus made his glorious discov- ery. Ponce de Leon sailed to Florida in quest of the fabled Fountain of Youth and found death instead. Here came De Ayllon; then De Narvaez; then De Soto: the last the more enterprising and the more famous, though in place of the gold-yielding Indian empire he sought, he found only a watery tomb beneath the Mississippi's rapid flood. In 1562 the French followed, a colony of Huguenots sent out by the famous Admiral Coligny landing in the north of Florida. Others sought the same locality, but in 1565 they were all swept from the face of the earth by the bloody-minded Spaniard Pedro Menendez.- We might well wish to forget this demon of massacre, but we must record his name here as the founder of St. Augustine, the first permanent settlement on our country's soil. Coming to the story of the English settlers, it is to find the pioneer movement still in the South, in the work of Sir Walter Raleigh, who devoted years of his life and much of his wealth to the futile effort to plant a colony on Roanoke Island, off" the North Carolina coast. His story is thus tellingly outlined for us by a Southern author of distinction: 43 44 The Old Dominion " Elizabeth had taken into her favor a young man who, even in that adventurous age, had displayed extraordinary qualities, a young Devonshire gentleman, described by an old chronicler as 'of a good presence in a well-compared body, strong, natural wit, and better judgment, a bold and plausible tongue, the fancy of a poet, and the chivalry of a soldier.' He was cousin to Sir Richard Grenville, who brought undying fame to our race, when, with the little 'Revenge,' he fought the Spaniard at Flores, and he was half-brother to those bold adventurous navigators. Sir Humphrey, Sir John, and Sir Adrian Gilbert, who, with him, did more than any other family to wrest this continent from Spain and make it an 'English nation.' Dashing soldier as he was, queller of rebellions, patron of poets, stout hater and fighter of Spain, 'admiral and shepherd of the ocean,' it was his highest title that he was 'Lord and Chief Governor of Virginia.' It is likewise one of Virginia's chief glories that she owes her name and her being, at least in its peculiar form, to the stout, high-minded, and chivalric soldier, the most pic- turesque character in modern history^second in his work only to Christopher Columbus — Sir Walter Raleigh. "Although the colonies which Raleigh planted perished, his mighty enterprise laid the foundation for the final establishment of Virginia, and his spirit fixed its imperishable L^ ^ _ .X ^L impress upon the work and gave it its dis- "'^ l^'X-X^. ~^fi^' tinctive character. He was at Oxford when ' ^ England thrilled with the news of Haw- SIR WALTER RALEIGH j^j^^.^ ^j^^j.^ voyage. He left the University to fight the Spaniard in the Low Country. From that time Spain was his quarry. He spent his great life in wresting America from her hands. He awakened in England an interest in the new land which never died out; made its holding a matter of national pride and national principle; excited British pride and religious fervor; stimulated the flagging, awakened public enthu- siasm, aroused the Church, and created the spirit, which, in spite of numberless disasters and repeated failures, finally verified his high prophecy to Sir Robert Cecil, that he would 'live to see Virginia an English nation.' "The names of the men who engaged in these enterprises are The Old Dominion 45 enough to show how the aristocratic character became fixed on the Southern settlement. The South was settled not merely under the patronage of, but largely by, the better class in England. The queen sent Sir Humphrey Gilbert an anchor set with jewels, and a message that she 'wished him as great happiness and safety to his ship as if she herself were there in person. ' "Raleigh's high spirit gave the colony a priceless benefaction. He obtained in his charter (of 1584) a provision that his colonists should 'have all the privileges of free denizens and natives of Eng- land, and were to be governed according to such statutes as should by them be established, so that the said statutes or laws conform as conveniently as may be to those of England,' etc. "These guaranties were the rock on which the American people founded their impregnable claim to those rights which are now deemed inherent and inalienable. They bore an important part in the social as well as the political life of the people. They were renewed in the charter of 1606 under which the colony came, which finally secured in Virginia a lasting foothold, and established here the rule of the Anglo-Saxon race. They were never forgot by the stout adventurers who came to endure the hardships of the New World, 'leaving their bodies in testimonie of their minds.' They formed the foundation of that pride and independence which became so notable a characteristic of the social life, and gave it its individuality. "For many years daring young members of the great families with their retainers had been going abroad, taking service in the Low Countries, and feeding their instinct for adventure. The wars were now over; London was filled with these soldiers, without means, and with the wandering habit strong on them, brave to reck- lessness, without steady habits of industry, ready for any adventure. Filled with the enthusiasm of exploration and colonization, fired by the tales of the Gilberts, of Grenville, Hawkins, Gosnold, Stukeley and others, the colonizing spirit of the English race found here a field; and Virginia became the El Dorado of the English nation. "Thus Virginia was settled with a strong English feeling in- grained in her, with EngHsh customs and habits of life, with EngHsh ideas modified only to suit the conditions of existence here. Among the chief factors which influenced the Virginia fife and molded it in its peculiar form were this EngHsh feehng (which was almost 46 The Old Dominion strong enough to be termed a race feeling); the aristocratic tendency; the happy combination of soil, climate and agricultural product (tobacco), which made them an agricultural people, and enabled them to support a generous style oi living as landed gentry; the Church with its strong organization; and the institution of slavery. "* Referring later to the subject of the class of people from which the settlers of Virginia were drawn, and the spirit of liberty which they early displayed, Page says: "Undoubtedly many, both at first and later on, came to Vir- ginia who were not of gentle birth; but the lines were too clearly drawn to admit of confusion; those who possessed the personal force requisite, rose, and were absorbed into the upper class; but the great body of them remained a class distinct from this. In the contest between Charles I and his ParHament, the people of Virginia, following their instincts, at the final rupture sided overwhelmingly with* the king, and Virginia had become so well recognized as an aristocratic country that after the failure of the Royalist arms there was a notable emigration of followers of the king to the colony, which, under the stout old cavalier governor. Sir William Berkeley, had been unswerving in its loyalty "Yet there was that in the Virginians which distinguished them, for all their aristocratic pretensions, from their British cousins. Grafted on the aristocratic instinct was a jealous watchfulness of their liberties, a guardfulness of their rights, which developed into a sterling republicanism, notwithstanding the aristocratic instinct. The standard was not' birth or family connection; it was one based on individual attainment. "Sir Walter Raleigh had obtained a guarantee of British rights in his charter. Sir Francis Wyatt had brought over in 1622 a charter with an extension of these rights. The General Assembly, convened in 1 61 9 when there were only eleven boroughs, jealously guarded their liberties. They refused to give their records for inspection to the royal commissioners, and when their clerk disobeyed them and gave them up, they cut off one of his ears and put him in the pillory. They passed statutes limiting the power of the governor to lay taxes only through the General Assembly. "When Charles I, for whom they were ready to vote or fight, claimed a monopoly of the tobacco trade, the loyal people of Virginia * Thomas Nelson Page : "The Old South," pp. 99-102. The Old Dominion 47 protested with a vigor which brought him to a stand; when Cromwell sent his governor, they deposed him and immediately reelected him that he might act only by their authority. They offered Charles II a kingdom; but when he granted the Northern Neck to Culpeper and Arlington they grew ready for revolution. "Many of the best known of the older families of Virginia are descended from royalist refugees. On the Restoration some of the adherents of the Commonwealth, finding England too hot for them, came over; but they were held in no very high general esteem, i ,i!Ulillliil!l,ll(tll'i^l'!'l and the old order continued to prevail. "As the eigh- teenth century passed, the settle- ment pushed farther and fa r ther west- ward. A new^ ele- ment came in by way of the upper valley of Virginia, stout Scotch-Irish Presby- terian settlers, from Scotland first, and then from Ireland, with the colonizing spirit strong in them ; simple in their life, stern in their faith, -Jt^.,.. /J. It •" INDIAN VILLAGE ENCLOSED WITH PALISADES (From the original drawing in the British Museum, made by John White in 1585.) dauntless in their courage, a race to found and to hold new lands against all comers or claimants; a race whose spirit was more potent than the line of forts with which the French attempted to hem them in along the Belle Riviere. They founded a new colony looking to the West and the new land, as the old planter settlers towards the sea looked to the East and the old. " Burnaby, the traveler, paid a visit to the valley in which they had first made their home. T could not but reflect with pleasure on 48 The Old Dominion the situation of these people' says he, 'and think if there is such a thing as happiness in this hfe that they enjoy it. Far from the bustle of the world, they live in the most delightful climate and rich- est soil imaginable; they are everywhere surrounded with beautiful prospects, and sylvan scenes; lofty mountains, transparent streams, tails of water, rich valleys, and majestic woods; the whole inter- spersed with aninfinitevariety of flowering shrubs, constitute the land- scape surrounding them They live in perfect hberty, are ignorant of want and acquainted with butfew vices They possess what many princes would give half their dominions for, health, content, and tranquillity of mind.' "Now and then the lines crossed, and, with intercourse, gradu- ally the aristocratic tendency of the seaboard and Piedmont became grafted into the patriarchal system of the valley, distinctly coloring it, though the absence of slaves in numbers softened the lines mark- ing the class-distinction. "* Whence came the people whom Page thus eloquently describes and what were the events attending their settlement on American soil ? For a proper comprehension of this, especially in view of the 1907 anniversary celebration of the Jamestown settlement, an account of the incidents of this settlement comes here in place. Raleigh's ineffective efforts to found a colony on Roanoke Island, oflF the coast of North Carolina, took place in 1585 and the few following years. Then there came a rest for a few years and at the opening of the seventeenth century the only white men within the limits of the coming United States were the few Spaniards in the small towns of St. Augustine, Florida, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was a virgin land still, waiting for the coming of its destined possessors. In 1607 this possession began on Virginia soil, two years before the Dutch set foot on Manhattan Island and thirteen years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. Two colonizing companies had been formed, the London and the Plymouth, the former having control over the southern, the latter over the northern coast. The London Company, receiving its charter from the king in 1606, lost no time in sending out an expedition, which sailed in December, 1606. This consisted of one hundred and five men, fifty-two of them "gentlemen," the others laborers, mechanics and soldiers. There were no women in the party, which occupied three vessels *"The Old South," p. 107. The Old Dominion 49 and set sail under Captain Christopher Newport, as some say with instructions to land on Roanoke Island, the seat of Raleigh's unlucky enterprises, though this lacks evidence. As fortune willed, a storm drove them farther north and into the broad shelter of Chesapeake Bay. It was a beautiful situation, its shores verdant and inviting. Sailing on, they emerged into the noble expanse of Hampton Roads, passing the future sites of Norfolk and Old Point Comfort, and found themselves in the waters of a splendid river, which poured downward from the far interior. Up this they sailed for about thirty miles, and on the 13th of May, 1607, set foot on its northern shore at a spot which seemed to them well suited for a settle- ment. The river they named the James, after King James I, and the chosen place for their settlement was called Jamestown. The site of the new settlement was a peninsula, jutting out into the river. It is now an island. The king had given them instruc- tions in a sealed box, not to be opened until they landed. On open- ing it they found that a governing council of seven was appointed, among whom were Captain Newport, Bartholomew Gosnold, who had led a former expedition to America, and Captain John Smith, the ablest man who had to do with the settlement of America and the man to whose energy and ability the success of this pioneer colony was due. It needed such a man, for misfortune pursued the colony, largely its own fault. The gentlemen had come to seek for gold, not to make a home, and neglected to plant seed. The result was that only the friendly aid of the Indians saved the settlers from starva- tion. They had chosen the peninsula of Jamestown as a place that could easily be defended against hostile red men, but it proved unhealthful and a pestilence broke out that swept away more than half their number. Thus passed their first terrible summer. By September only about fifty of the settlers were left, but Captain Smith had now made himself the chief man in the council and under his skilful direction matters improved. Log huts were built, food was ob- tained, the lazy were made to work, James River and Chesapeake Bay were explored, and Smith had a remarkable series of adventures which has made his story one of the most romantic in American history. For two years he kept the colony alive, then an accident from an explosion of gunpowder injured him so seriously that he 5o The Old Dominion was obliged to return to England and leave the colonists to their fate. He had no sooner gone than all order and subordination ceased. The reckless settlers quickly consumed all their provisions and provoked the hostility of the Indians, who refused them food, and took opportunities to rob and murder them. Both the whites and the red men feared and respected Smith. He gone, all went wrong, sickness and famine assailed them, and in six months the colony was reduced from nearly five hundred to sixty persons and these so feeble and miserable that they must soon have perished if relief had not come. This period was long remembered as the "starving time." At this perilous interval Sir Thomas Gates arrived with more colonists and some supplies, but he found affairs in so hopeless a state that he resolved to abandon the enterprise and took the half- starved men on board his ship, intending to take them back to England. Some of the settlers were so out of heart with Jamestown, where, they said, "no one had seen a happy day," that they pro- posed to set it on fire and burn it to the ground. Happily, wiser councils prevailed, for on reaching the mouth of the river they met a new and well equipped expedition coming up, under Lord Del- aware, who had been sent out to replace Captain Smith as governor. He induced the colonists to return, brought them back to order and contentment by his wise rule, and shortly afterward, when seven hundred more men arrived, under Governor Dale, who succeeded Lord Delaware, the land, which had been held in common, was divided among the colonists, each being given a small farm of his own. This gave a new spirit to the community. Governor Dale was a stern old soldier, who ruled with rod of iron, but he showed wisdom in this particular, and the old lack of industry disappeared when the people were given an opportunity to work for themselves instead of for the common storehouse of the community. It was now 171 1. In the following year, five years after the colony was first formed, John Rolfe — a prominent settler who, in 1713, married the Indian princess Pocahontas — began to plaijt and cultivate tobacco and Jamestown was saved. Gold had not been found, but this new-found plant took its place. It quickly found a market; in England almost everybody began to smoke the weed which Raleigh had first made known not many years before, and in a few years the The Old Dominion Si raising of tobacco became the great Virginia industry. New soil was sought for its culture. At one time it was planted in the yards, the market square, and even the streets, of Jamestown; plantations spread up the streams and along the shores of the bays; tobacco took the place of money, clergymen and public officials receiving their salaries in it; Virginia became a colony of farmers, few towns being built and the population remaining almost wholly rural, with tobacco for its hope and salvation. Thus, long before any other settlement had been made in English America, Jamestown had become prosperous and flourishing and the foundations of the famous Virginian commonwealth had been amply laid. In 1619 two events of leading importance happened to the young colony. In August of that year a Dutch vessel sailed up the James River and sold to the settlers, to quote the spelling of that day, "twenty Negars," to be used as slaves on the plantations; such was the beginning of the system of African slavery in America, which in time spread from Massachusetts to Georgia and was destined to prove the most disastrous element in American history. These were not the only plantation laborers, shiploads of whites — political prisoners, vagabonds, orphan children, and even reputable persons kidnapped in the English seaport towns — were sent across the sea and bound out to labor for a term of years. These were known as "apprentices," but were virtually slaves while their term of service lasted. When set free, some of them became planters, some fell back into idle vagabondage, and some made their way to the frontier and graduated into hunters and trappers. After 1700 this system of white apprenticeship ceased, there being enough negro slaves to serve the needs of the planters. The other event was the convening of a legislature. Up to this time the colonists had been politically little better than slaves them- selves. They had no voice in their government and their governors had arbitrary power and used it in an arbitrary manner, making what laws they pleased and forcing the people to work for the benefit of the "London Company," the organizer of the colony. A system of this kind operated well enough with French and Spanish colonists, who had been ruled in much the same manner at home. But for EngHshmen, and especially for scions of the cavalier class, who had long possessed a voice in their own govern- ment at home, where their rights were jealously guarded by their 52 The Old Dominion elected representatives, it operated very ill. By i6ig the v^hites in Virginia numbered four thousand, and the mutterings of rebellious discontent were rising fast into open demands. The people were tired of being treated as children or slaves, and asked strenuously for a voice in the management of their own affairs. The London Company, finding that its colonists might soon become rebels, yielded and bade Sir George Yeardley, a new gover- nor whom it sent out, to establish a new government. The settlements in Virginia — "boroughs" they were called — then numbered eleven. Each of these was directed to elect two " burgesses, " or representa- tives, to meet as a law-making assembly at Jamestown. On July 30, 1619, this body first came together, its meeting place being the choir of the little Jamestown church. Thus was constituted the Virginia "House of Burgesses," the first legislative body ever formed in America. In fact it was formed before there was any other English settlement in America. Among its .first members was a planter named Jefferson, an ancestor of him who, more than a century and a half later, wrote the American Declaration of Inde- pendence. As Mr. Page has told us, this body from the outset showed a commendable spirit of independence, of the type of that shown afterward in Puritan New England. Its laws, indeed, had to be ratified by the London Company. But, on the other hand, the assembly had been granted the right to ratify the orders of the company, the Virginians thus possessing an ample share of self- governing power, which they were strongly disposed to maintain. In 1 62 1 their new privileges were confirmed to the people in a written constitution, under which Virginia long continued virtually to govern itself. This charter granted the Virginians "the privileges, franchises, and immunities of native-born Englishmen forever." We need scarcely say that they did not suffer these valued rights to lapse, and that the South jealously preserved the spirit of civil and rehgious Hberty, never forgetting this treasured birthright nor permitting others to overlook it. It is a matter of interest that it was not until about the time in which this charter was granted that the English colonies of the North began their existence in the ship's company of colonists that landed from the Mayflower on Plymouth Rock. The South had distinctly gained the start alike in colonization and in the power and privilege The Old Dominion 53 of self-government. The year 1619 was made memorable in Vir- ginia by still another event of importance. The settlers at first had been all men, and this continued the case for years, few married men emigrating, and no unmarried women crossing to the colony. To remedy this serious deficiency the London Company now sent out ninety young women, the cost of the passage of each being fixed at one hundred and twenty pounds of the best tobacco — worth then about ninety dollars. At this price the new cargo went off rapidly. Young men awaited the maidens at the wharves with the tobacco necessary to pay for their passage. Sixty others were soon after sent, and the price rose to one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco. They were soon spread through the country as wives, and liked their new home so well that they wrote for many of their friends to come across. In this way the forlorn bachelorhood of the early Ameri- cans was overcome. As regards the character of the emigrants to Virginia many of them had been royalists in England, officers in the war, men of education, of property and condition. But the waters of the Atlantic divided them from the political strifes of Europe. Their industry was employed in turning their plantations to the best advantage. The sending of young women as wives for the settlers made Viro-inia the home of its inhabitants. "Among many other blessings," says their statute book on one of its pages, "God Almighty hath vouch- safed the increase of children to this colony, who are now multiphed to a very considerable number." The genial chmate and transparent atmosphere delighted those who had come from the denser air of England. Every object in nature to them was new and wonderful. The hospitality of the colonists became proverbial. Labor was valuable; land was cheap; competence promptly followed industry. There was no need of a scramble, as abundance for all gushed from the earth. The morasses were ahve with water-fowl; the forests were nimble with game; the woods rustled with coveys of quail and wild turkeys, while they rang with the merry notes of the singing birds. Hogs ran at large in troops. It was truly "the best poor man's country in the world." Such were life and conditions in the first American colony. Going southward now from Virginia we find somewhat similar conditions to have existed in the Carolinas, though, with certain 54 The Old Dominion differences. The following quotation will give some idea of the state of affairs and character of population in early South CaroHna:* "The cavalier element was indisputably predominant at the beginning of the English settlements in South Carolina. However, as the tide of emigration from Europe set in, the cavaHer was placed politically in the minority. The proud and haughty adherents of the throne took common cause with the proprietors, but were ulti- mately voted down. But in all the contests carried on by the oppo- nents of the Crown, there was no effort to control liberty of con- science. The cavalier thought himself sufficiently free under the protection of the Crown; while the opposing party, composed of all classes, advocated larger parliamentary powers, which they con- sidered neither inconsistent with their loyalty nor their chartered privileges. "The cavalier spirit in South Carolina, as in Virginia, was characterized by honor and Hberality of feeling, courtesy and high breeding. In the former State, these qualities were combined with Calvinistic piety, in the latter with warm attachment to the Angli- can Church, thereby forming a social basis upon which was erected the fabric of civil and religious liberty, without tainting rehgion with politics, or imbuing politics with religion. Not alone one or two, but all the Southern colonies, were founded by individuals whose prevailing motives and characteristics were zeal for the advancement of religious truth and political freedom." And in them all the cavalier was the ruling element, controlling by force of mental energy where inferior in numbers. About fifty years after the settlement of Virginia that colony became distinguished by the name of "The Old Dominion," an appellation of honor that has clung to it since, alike in fair weather and foul, as colony and state. How and why it received this title, and what significance this actually had, is a matter of interest which we shall endeavor to make clear. It must be premised that originally the whole coast, from Canada to Florida, was known as Virginia, in honor of Elizabeth, the virgin queen. Edmund Spenser, the poet, when, in 1590, he dedicated his "Faerie Queene" to Elizabeth, spoke of her as queen of "England, France and Ireland, and of Virginia," thus *Samuel P. Day, "Down South." The Old Dominion 55 56 The Old Dominion giving this unsettied American domain equal honor with the home kingdoms claimed for the British crown. A second step in this direction was taken in 1619, when the London Company adopted a coat-of-arms which bore the motto, En dat Virginia quartam. This classed it as the fifth section of the British Kingdom — the other four then claimed being England, Scotland, Ireland and France. The Virginia indicated in this THE OLD COURT HOUSE, WILLIAMSBURG Williamsburg was the first Capito! of Virginia. instance was not the great wilderness meant by Spenser, but the contracted settlement on the James and its neighboring waters. We must go on to the Puritan Revolution and the execution of Charles I for the next stage in this development of the title. Charles was beheaded in January, 1649. In the following October the Virginia House of Burgesses, made up of planters some of whom The Old Dominion 57 may have fought for the dead monarch, and all of whom were of cavalier origin, passed an ordinance that fairly waved the flag of defiance in the face of Cromwell and his Parliament. They declared that if any one in Virginia proclaimed the execution of "the late most excellent and now undoubtedly sainted king, Charles I, to be justifiable, such person or persons should be arrested and punished as traitors. " The ordinance further speaks of " his sacred majesty that now ts," thus claiming the son of his "sainted majesty" as already ruhng. It went on to threaten dire punishment to any one who should deny his "inherent right to the colony of Virginia." This was very plain speaking. And this was not the whole. Sir William Berkeley, a hot-headed old cavalier, who was then governor of Virginia, went so far as to send abroad Colonel Richard Lee, a planter on the Potomac, who was as fiery a royalist as him- self, to invite King Charles II, as he called him, to come over to his faithful colony of Virginia. Lee crossed to Holland and saw the young prince, to whom he made the offer of a transatlantic crown. But nothing came of it. Charles had no thought of making himself king of a handful of colonists in a wilderness — a handsome handful, it is true, for Virginia then held twenty thousand souls, but not a population for a kingdom. From all this came a fairly inevitable result. Cromwell was not the man to be flouted in this manner, and soon a fleet was hasten- ing across the ocean, with guns enough to blow Jamestown off^the face of the earth, and with orders to bring Berkeley and his supporters to their senses or punish them for their insolence. It seemed sheer madness to attempt to resist the strength of Parliament, but Berkeley and the Virginia cavaliers had their blood up, and they made active preparations to fight. Cannon were planted on the river bank and others in some Dutch merchant ships then in port, and it seemed certain that when the Puritan fleet appeared battle would ensue. Fortunately there were men of sense at the head of the expedi- tion. A parley was held with Governor Berkeley, who was bidden to surrender to the authority of Parhament, with the promise that if he did so he and his people should not be molested in any way. These terms were accepted — it would have been sheer folly to refuse them — but they were accepted proudly, not cringingly. The paper drawn up by the Virginians is dignified and resolute in tone. 58 The Old Dominion One would think that one nation was treating with another. They declared that they surrendered of their own good will, not under constraint, that they would not submit to oppression, that they claimed every privilege belonging to Englishmen, and stipulated that no man should be punished for anything he had said or done in favor of the king. There were other terms as decided as these; but none of them were objected to. Evidently Cromwell had no desire to get up a quarrel with this far-off colony, if only a decent show of sub- mission were made. So the fleet sailed away, the Virginians went on governing themselves in their own way, with no one to interfere, and the years passed happily on. In 1660 Charles II came to the throne, and the interesting fact is on record that he was proclaimed king in Virginia a month or so earlier than in England. When it became evident that he would be raised to the English throne, the House of Burgesses reelected Berkeley to the governorship from which he had been deposed, and the loyal old cavalier hastened to proclaim Charles as king. This was in March, 1660. He was not proclaimed in England till April. For this service the new monarch was duly grateful, his favor to Virginia being indicated by his issuing coins whose motto spoke of Virginia as a fourth section of his Kingdom — being named as of equal rank with England, Scotland and Ireland, and when it was known that the Virginians had been the first to recognize and proclaim the new king the title of "The Old Dominion" came to be applied to the colony, claiming for it precedence in honor over its sister domin- ion across the sea, and "The Old Dominion" it remains to this day, even though many who now give it this title are ignorant of its origin and significance. CHAPTER III. HEROES OF THE OLD COLONIAL SOUTHLAND Tobacco brings prosperity— The Indian massacres— Berkeley's tyranny— Bacon and the Indians — The spirit of rebellion — Bacon's march on Jamestown — The Commission and the defeat of the Indians — Berkeley's flight — The capture and burning of Jamestown — Bacon's death and Berkeley's revenge — Carolina and the Grand Model government — Freedom in the Carolinas — Oglethorpe and the Spaniards — The fight on St. Simon's Island — How Oglethorpe defeated the Spaniards. FOR many years after the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia constituted all there was of the South. Maryland was the first to follow, in Lord Baltimore's settlement, and then, at long intervals, the Carolinas and Georgia were added to the chaplet of flourishing colonies that stretched far along the Atlantic's western wave. Virginia grew and prospered; tobacco brought it comfort and wealth; yet it did not escape calamity. The Indians formed its danger point. While Powhatan, the friend of John Smith, hved, all went well. But he died and the spirit of the red men changed. The whites were pushing them back, mile by mile. If this went on their native dominion would soon be theirs no more. This nest of wasps from over the sea must be destroyed, or soon there would be no foothold for the Indian upon the land. The day of fate came on March 22, 1622. Suddenly, on the morning of that day, the tomahawk began its deadly work. In the fields, where the men were at work; at table, where the Indians sat as guests; in the house of the planter and the quarters of the field hands, death came suddenly and ruthlessly. Jamestown alone, warned by a friendly Indian, was on its guard. Elsewhere the slaughter was terrible, and it was ruthlessly continued until nearly half of the whites in the colony were slain. 59 6o Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland Such was the first massacre in Virginia, A second came in 1644, five hundred whites being killed on this occasion. It is scarcely necessary to say that the whites avenged themselves. The war that followed the first massacre lasted ten years, during which the savages were hunted like wild beasts and large numbers of them slain. The reprisal after the second massacre was equally severe, and in the end all the Indians were driven from the settled region, which was kept for the whites alone, the red men being forced back into the wilderness. Yet the era of Indian massacres was not yet at an end. In 1676 the incensed savages rose again and began slaughtering the frontier settlers. They had not been treated well by the Virginians. In all the history of our country the old owners of the land have suff^ered from the injustice of the frontiersmen. They knew only one way of redress, and that they took, playing, in this final outbreak, a vital part in the history of Virginia and bringing about one of the most striking events in the career of that commonwealth. It is with this, the first great resistance to tyranny in America, that we are here concerned. In it was the spirit of the Revolution of 1776, one cen- tury later. Some mention has been made in the last chapter of the doings of Sir WiUiam Berkeley, Governor of Virginia under Charles I. Restored to his ofiice after the death of Cromwell, and confirmed in it by Charles II, the old cavaher soon showed a new phase of his character. From being a governor to the people's taste he began to act the part of an autocrat. Legally the House of Burgesses should have been reelected every two years, but the existing House fell under Berkeley's control and, finding it subservient to his wishes, he kept it permanently in session. Various despotic and oppressive measures were passed at his instigation, the most annoying being a decree that tobacco should be shipped only to England, and that it should pay a double duty — one on leaving its Virginia port and another on its arrival in England. One remark made by Berkeley has be- come historically famous, and is worth quoting for the light it throws on his idea of government: "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing; and I hope we shall not have, these hundred years; for learning has brought Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 6i disobedience and heresy and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best governments. God keep us from both!" That the Ireedom-loving planters did not bear with equanimity the tyranny of their governor may well be imagined. The House of Burgesses had hitherto been looked upon as their patent for liberty, and now it had been converted into an instrument of oppression. The public wrath smouldered, breathing out at times into hot utterances. Evidently only the men and the opportunity were needed to cause Virginia to break into open rebellion. These came in the Indian outbreak of 1676. The savages raged along the frontier with knife and tomahawk until more than three hundred of the colonists had fallen victims to the fury of their onset. It was evident that only a military force could put an end to this dreadful work, and the governor was called on to act. No persuasion could induce him to do so. The irrita- tion against his arbitrary acts had now reached a critical stage, and he feared to call out an armed force to deal with the savages, lest they should turn their weapons against him and his government. A man who dared oppose the king's governor was wanted, and such a man appeared in the person of Nicholas Bacon, a young planter who had suffered from the Indian raids, his plantation being attacked and his overseer and one of his servants killed. As the story of what followed is a very important part of Virginian colonial history, we select from Charles Campbell's "History of Virginia" the following detailed description of the career of this first hero of American liberty. It begins with a statement of the Indian trouble and the revolt against the indifference of the governor. "In that time of panic, the more exposed and defenseless families, abandoning their homes, took shelter together in houses, where they fortified themselves with palisades and redoubts. Neigh- bors, banding together, passed in cooperating parties from planta- tion to plantation, taking arms with them into the fields where they labored, and posting sentinels to give warning of the approach oi the insidious foe. No man ventured out of doors unarmed. Even Jamestown was in danger. The red men, stealing with furtive glance through the shade of the forest, the noiseless tread of the moccasin scarce stirring a leaf, prowled around like panthers in quest of prey. At length the people at the head of the James and 62 Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland the York, having in vain petitioned the governor for protection, alarmed at the slaughter of their neighbors, often murdered with every circumstance of barbarity, rose tumultuously in self-defense, to the number of three hundred men, including most, if not all, the officers, civil and military, and chose Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., for their leader. According to another authority. Bacon, before the murder of his overseer and servant, had been refused the commission, and had sworn that upon the next murder he should hear of he would march against the Indians, 'commission or no commission.' . " Bacon had been living in the colony somewhat less than three years, having settled at Curies, on the lower James, in the midst of those people who were the greatest sufferers from the depredations of the Indians, and he himself had frequently felt the effects of their inroads At the breaking out of these disturbances he was a member of the governor's council. He was gifted with a graceful person, great abilities, and a powerful elocution, and was the most accomplished man in Virginia; his courage and resolution were not to be daunted, and his affability, hospitality, and benevolence commanded a wide popularity throughout the colony, "The men who had put themselves under Bacon's command made preparations for marching against the Indians, but in the mean- time sent again to obtain from the governor a commission of general for Bacon, with authority to lead out his followers, at their own expense, against the enemy. He then stood so high in the council, and the exigency of the case was so pressing, that Sir William Berke- ley, thinking it imprudent to return an absolute refusal, concluded to temporize. Some of the leading men about him, it was believed, took occasion to foment the difference between him and Bacon, envying a rising luminary that threatened to eclipse them. "Sir William Berkeley sent his evasive reply to the application for a commission by some of his friends, and instructed them to persuade Bacon to disband his forces. He refused to comply with this request, and, having in twenty days mustered five hundred men, marched to the Falls of the James. Thereupon the governor, on the 29th day of May, 1676, issued a proclamation declaring all such as should fail to return within a certain time rebels. Bacon likewise issued a declaration, setting forth the public dangers and grievances, but taking no notice of the governor's proclamation. Upon this the Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 63 men of property, fearful of a confiscation, deserted Bacon and re- turned home; but he proceeded with fifty-seven men. "The movement was revolutionary, — -a miniature prototype of the revolution of 1688 in England, and of 1776 in America. But Bacon, as before mentioned, with a small body of men proceeded into the wilderness, up the river, his provisions being nearly ex- hausted before he discovered the Indians. At length a tribe of friendly Mannakins was found intrenched within a palisaded fort on the farther side of a branch of the James. Bacon endeavoring to procure provisions from them and offering compensation, they put him off with delusive promises till the third day, when the whites had eaten their last morsel. They now waded up to the shoulder across the branch to the fort, again soliciting provisions and tender- ing payment. In the evening one of Bacon's men was killed by a shot from that side of the branch which they had left, and, this giving rise to a suspicion of collusion with Sir Wilham Berkeley and treachery. Bacon stormed the fort, burnt it and the cabins, blew up their magazine of arms and gunpowder, and, with a loss of only three of his own party, put to death one hundred and fifty Indians. It is difficult to credit, impossible to justify, this massacre. " Shortly after his return from this expedition Bacon was elected a member of the House of Burgesses for the County of Henrico. On his way to Jamestown he was arrested and taken before the governor, who released him on his parole, but insisted that he must kneel at the bar of the House, confess his offense, and beg pardon of God, the king and the governor. Governor Berkeley now graciously tendered him his forgiveness, and the same day restored him to his seat in the council, from which he had been deposed. He was also promised a commission to proceed against the Indians. This, however, was annoyingly delayed, and Bacon, doubting the sincerity of the autocrat, in a few days secretly left Jamestown to join his friends, who were hastening from the upper country to his aid. That he was warranted in his distrust there is sufficient assurance in what the historian goes on to say: "In a short time the governor, seeing all quiet, issued secret warrants to seize him again, intending probably to raise the militia, and thus prevent a rescue. "Within three or four days after Bacon's escape, news reached James City that he was some thirty miles above, on the James River, 64 Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland at the head of four hundred men. Sir WilHam Berkeley summoned the York train-bands to defend Jamestown, but only one hundred obeyed the summons, and they arrived too late, and one-half of them were favorable to Bacon. Expresses almost hourly brought tidings of his approach, and in less than four days he marched into Jamestown unresisted, at two o'clock p. m., and drew up his force (now amounting to six hundred men), horse and foot, in battle- array on the green in front of the state-house, and within gunshot. In half an hour the drum beat, as was the custom, for the Assembly to meet, and in less than thirty minutes Bacon advanced, with a file of fusileers on either hand, near to the corner of the state-house, where he was met by the governor and council. Sir William Berkeley, dramatically baring his breast, cried out, 'Here! shoot me — 'fore God, fair mark; shoot!' frequently repeating the words. Bacon replied, 'No, may it please your honor, we will not hurt a hair of your head, nor of any other man's; we are come for a commission to save our lives from the Indians, which you have so often promised, and now we will have it before we go.' " Bacon was walking to and fro between the files of his men, holding his left arm akimbo, and gesticulating violently with his right, he and the governor both like men distracted. In a few moments Sir William withdrew to his private apartment at the other end of the state-house, the council accompanying him. Bacon followed, frequently hurrying his hand from his sword-hilt to his hat; and after him came a detachment of fusileers, who, with their guns cocked and presented at a window of the Assembly chamber, filled with faces, repeated in menacing tone, 'We will have it, we will have it,' for half a minute, when a well-known burgess, waving his handkerchief out at the window, exclaimed, three or four times, 'You shall have it, you shall have it;' when, uncocking their guns, they rested them on the ground, and stood still, till Bacon returning, they rejoined the main body. It was said that Bacon had before- hand directed his men to fire in case he should draw his sword. In about an hour after Bacon reentered the Assembly chamber and demanded a commission authorizing him to march out against the Indians "The Assembly went on to provide for the Indian war, and made Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., general and commander-in-chief, which was ratified by the governor and council. An act was also passed Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 65 indemnifying Bacon and his party for their violent acts; and a highly-applausive letter was prepared, justifying Bacon's designs and proceedings, addressed to the king and subscribed by the gover- nor, council, and Assembly. Sir William Berkeley at the same time communicated to the House a letter ad- dressed to his majesty, saying, 'I have above thirty years governed the most flourishing country the sun ever shone over, but am nov^ encompassed with rebellion like waters, in every respeci like that of Masaniello, except theii leader.' .... BURNING OF JAMESTOWN "Bacon's vigorous measures at once restored confidence to the planters, and they resumed their occupations. At the head of a thousand men he marched against the Pamunkies, killing many and destroying their towns. Meanwhile the people of Gloucester, the most populous and loyal county, having been disarmed by Bacon, petitioned 5 66 Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland the governor for protection against the savages. Reanimated by this petition, he again proclaimed Bacon a rebel and a traitor, and hastened over to Gloucester. Summoning the train- bands of that county and Middlesex, to the number of twelve hun- dred men, he proposed to them to pursue and put down the rebel Bacon when the whole assembly unanimously shouted, 'Bacon! Bacon! Bacon!' and withdrew from the field, still repeating the name of that popular leader, the Patrick Henry of his day, and leaving the aged cavalier governor and his attendants to them- selves. The issue was now fairly joined between the people and the governor "Bacon, before he reached the head of York River, hearing from Lawrence and Drummond of the governor's movements, exclaimed, that 'it vexed him to the heart that, while he was hunting wolves which were destroying innocent lambs, the governor and those with him should pursue him in the rear with full cry; and that he was like corn between two millstones, which would grind him to powder if he didn't look to it.' He marched immediately back against the governor, who, finding himself abandoned, again, on the twenty-ninth of July, proclaimed Bacon a rebel, and made his escape, with a few friends, down York River and across the Chesa- peake Bay to Accomac, on the Eastern Shore. " As a result of all these events, and those of minor importance which we have not stated, the movement was gradually diverted from an expedition against the Indians into a civil war, in which the friends of Bacon strongly advised the deposal of the tyrannical governor. Heedless of Berkeley's actions. Bacon continued his operations against the Indians, and did not desist until they were defeated and dispersed. Many of their towns were burned, several tribes perished from hunger, and the survivors were so reduced in numbers that they never again ventured to make depredations upon the whites. The Indian question was definitely settled, so far as Virginia was concerned. Meanwhile Berkeley had returned to Jamestown. On learning of this. Bacon, his Indian wars ended, collected a force several hundred strong and marched upon the capital, bringing his Indian captives with him. Such was now the situation in the war be- tween the Rebels and the Royalists, as the opposing parties came to be called. Our historian continues his narrative as follows: — T3Td u- r-; 3 D-c (L) JS ;-! '^ "H exp rm ; ever ho 1 bp^ S ^ in ■ '-' .— - < S-, K trt H :z^ <" S'^''§ o - £ S^ K .^M^ ^ > , ,— Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 67 "Finding the town defended by a palisade ten paces in width, running across the neck of the peninsula, he rode along the work and reconnoitred the governor's position. Then, dismounting from his horse, he animated his fatigued men to advance at once, and, leading them close to the palisade, sounded a defiance with the trumpet, and fired upon the garrison. The governor remained quiet, hoping that want of provisions would soon force Bacon to retire; but he supplied his troops from Sir William Berkeley's seat, at Greenspring, three miles distant. The governor afterwards complained that 'his dwelling-house at Greenspring was almost ruined; his household goods, and others of great value, totally plundered; that he had not a bed to lie on; two great beasts, three hundred sheep, seventy horses and mares, all his corn and provisions, taken away.' "Bacon adopted a singular stratagem, and one hardly com- patible with- the rules of chivalry. Sending out small parties of horse, he captured the wives of several of the principal loyahsts then with the governor, and among them the lady of Colonel Bacon, Sr., Madame Bray, Madame Page, and Madame Ballard. Upon their being brought into the camp, Bacon sends one of them into Jamestown to carry word to their husbands that his purpose was to place their wives in front of his men in case of a sally. Colonel Ludwell reproaches the rebels 'with ravishing of women from their homes, and hurrying them about the country in their rude camps, often threatening them with death.' But, according to another and more impartial authority. Bacon made use of the ladies only to complete his battery, and removed them out of harm's way at the time of the sortie. He raised by moonlight a circumvallation of trees, earth, and brushwood around the governor's outworks. At daybreak next morning the governor's troops, being fired upon, made a sortie, but they were driven back, leaving their drum and their dead behind them. Upon the top of the work which he had thrown up, and where alone a sally could be made. Bacon exhibited the captive ladies to the views of their husbands and friends in the town, and kept them there until he completed his works." As a result of these active proceedings, the followers of Berkeley, though superior in numbers to those of Bacon, and well entrenched, hastily retired, leaving their antagonist master of the situation. Bacon at once determined to burn the town, so that the "rogues should harbor there no more." It was accordingly set on fire and 68 Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland laid in ashes. Jamestown at this period, though seventy years old, consisted only of a church and some sixteen or eighteen well-built brick houses. Its population was about a dozen families, since not all the houses were inhabited. That was practically the end of Virginia's first capital, though it was not finally abandoned until twenty years later. The only relic that remains of it is the ruined tower of the old brick church. " Bacon now marched to York River, and crossed at Tindall's (Gloucester) Point, in order to encounter Colonel Brent, who was marching against him from the Potomac with twelve hundred men. But the greater part of his men, hearing of Bacon's success, desert- ing their colors, declared for him, 'resolving, with the Persians, to go and worship the rising sun.' Bacon, making his headquarters at Colonel Warmer's, called a convention in Gloucester, and administered the oath to the people of that county, and began to plan another expedition against the Indians, or, as some report, against Accomac, when he fell sick of a dysentery brought on by exposure. Retiring to the house of a Dr. Pate, and lingering for some weeks, he died." Ending here our extracts from Campbell's "History," we may proceed with the story of Berkeley's subsequent operations. With the death of the highly capable young leader, the first American rebeUion against tyranny — ox revolution, as some designate it^ came to a sudden and disastrous end. The men, having lost their energetic commander, quickly dispersed, leaving Berkeley once more master of affairs. Through the dispensation of nature he had regained his full power, and he proceeded to use it with merciless severity. Bacon had escaped him; even his place of interment w^as concealed; the vindictive governor could not vent his wrath upon the patriot's lifeless remains. But Bacon's friends and supporters lived and were unsheltered from his anger. Troops had been sent him from England, and he used these to glut his revengeful cruelty. He hung more than twenty of the principal people with scarcely a form of a trial, and might have proceeded to greater extremes had not the Assembly insisted that these executions should cease. Drummond, one of Bacon's chief supporters, fell into the hands of the revengeful governor. "You are very welcome, Mr. Drum- mond," said Berkeley, "I am more glad to see you than any man in Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 69 Virginia. You shall be hanged in half an hour." And he was. "God has been inexpressibly merciful to this poor province," wrote the pious governor, after one of his executions. But King Charles II was far from pleased with the vindictive spirit shown by his American Heutenant. He said: "That old fool has hung more men in that naked country than I did for the murder of my father." Berkeley was recalled by Charles II, and was reprimanded by him so severely that he is said to have died of a broken heart in consequence — an end for which no one will pity him. It is a singular and suggestive coincidence that, just a century after the period of this ineffective rebelhon, the descendants of those engaged in it met again at Williamsburg, then the capital of Virginia, and proclaimed a new rebellion, this time destined to be successful against the tyrant who had then succeeded to the EngHsh throne. What might have been the result of this first rebellion, had Bacon lived, it is impossible to say. The spirit of liberty, so actively displayed in Virginia, was not confined to that colony. It existed in all the colonies. But there is nothing more which we are here called upon to say about it except in Carolina, as the province afterwards divided into North and South Carolina was first called. In this colony a vigorous effort was made to establish an autocratic system of government, an effort which signally failed through the resolute opposition of the people. The whole affair was a singularly curious one, and the details of it cannot fail to prove of interest. The original settlers of Carolina came from various quarters. Some came from Virginia, some from the West Indies, some from England, while at later dates Dutch, Huguenots, Germans, Scotch Highlanders and Scotch-Irish sought that promising land. It was a composite population, with the Anglo-Saxon element predominant. After the Bacon Rebellion a number of the fugitives from Berkeley's wrath crossed the borders and made for themselves homes in the new colony, bringing with them their sentiment of resistance to tyranny. In 1663 Charles II had granted the province south of Vir- ginia to a number of his land-hungry courtiers, eight in all, including the Duke of Albemarle, the Earl of Clarendon and six other boon comrades of the King. The new proprietors were given a full yo Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland measure of power and privilege over the people, whom they pro- posed to control for their own especial benefit. There was, in their view, far too much liberty in the other English colonies. They did not propose to have in theirs such pestilent disturbers of lordly authority as free thought and free institutions, and therefore set out to devise a system of government which would effectually dispose of the malignant fallacy of popular liberty. John Locke, the celebrated English philosopher, was asked to draw up a system of government for the new colony. A remarkable scheme was that he produced. Made in the retirement of his study, and based upon conditions of society utterly unlike those of the thinly-settled American wilderness, it was as ridiculous a project as could well have been put on paper. We here present the main features of this "Grand Model" system, as it was grandiloquently called. Carolina was to be divided into counties, each to consist of eight seigniories, eight baronies, and four precincts. Each precinct was to consist of six colonies, and each seigniory, barony and colony to contain twelve thousand acres. The seigniories were retained absolutely by the eight proprietors; the baronies were assigned to other members of the nobility; the precincts were granted to the people. Two orders of nobility were instituted, landgraves and casiques — there being as many landgraves as there were counties, and twice as many casiques. Each landgrave was to hold four and each caslque two baronies. Manors were also permitted, con- sisting of not less than three thousand or more than twelve thousand acres In any one trait, their holders to be nobles of lesser grade. The "Grand Model" scheme goes on describing how the courts and the councils should be organized, how trials should be conducted and legislation performed; of all of which it must suffice to say that all power was retained by the proprietors and their appointed lords. As for any rights or privileges belonging to the people, no such ideas seem to have penetrated Locke's philosophic mind. The people at large were not permitted to vote nor to hold land. They must be content to work for the noble landgraves or casiques, or the lords of manors, and could not even leave the land they tilled without permission from Its owner. It was the mediaeval serfdom restored. The list of freeholders, Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 71 who alone had the power to vote, was limited to those holding fifty acres or more of land. Just how they were to obtain this land is not stated. Religious freedom was similarly restricted, the Church of England being made the established and the only recognized church of the province. The following provision was added : "No man, above the age of seventeen years, shall have any benefit of the laws, whose name is not re- corded as a mem- ber of some church or religious profes- sion." The pro- prietors did not propose to have any heretical opin- ion in their prov- ince. It will readily be perceived that a government to be administered by nobles was not well adapted to a country in which not a nobleman existed, and that people who had- always worked "for their own hand" were little likely to work as serfs on a noble- man's estate. The plain and simple laws under which the colonists had hitherto lived were suited to their circumstances, while the "Grand Model," with its landgraves, casiques, and other grand officers was in ridiculous contrast with the existing conditions of sparse population, rude cabins and pioneer habits. AN INDIAN WOMAN One of the Sculptures made for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. 72 Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland The proprietors made an effort to establish their pet system and very soon found themselves in hot w^ater. The free-spirited colonists, accustomed to help themselves to land w^herever they found it unoccupied, and to work it for their own benefit, were not the kind of people on whose necks a yoke could be laid from the other side of the sea. They refused utterly to be bound by the new regulations, and contests and turbulence succeeded. This continued for twenty years. Governors were driven out of the country, new ones were chosen by the people themselves in defiance of the proprietors, and a state of rebeUion existed as decided in its way as that about the same time on foot in Virginia. Finally, in 1693, the fight was given up by the proprietors and the "Grand Model" withdrawn. As for the American "order of nobility" it died and left no trace behind. The severe taxes which the proprie- tors had laid, and which the people would not pay, were at the same time reduced, the colonists were given the right of suffrage, and peace and prosperity followed. The people had won, and the cause of popular sovereignty had been once more confirmed. It was not until 1729 that Carolina was formally broken up into the two colonies of North and South Carolina, though this had practically been done long before, the province being so large that it became necessary to send out two governors. In 1719 the exor- bitant claims of the proprietors led to a revolutionary movement in South Carohna, the people refusing to pay these claims. Again they dispensed with the governor set over them, and chose one of their own — proclaiming him in the name of the king. For ten years this difficulty continued, and then the disgusted lords sold out their rights to the king, and the two Carolinas came under royal rule. The fight for freedom had gone on for more than half a century and ended in the triumph of the people. There is another hero of the early South of whom it is important here to speak, the famous General Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia. The South, prior to 1729, consisted of three colonies only, Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina. It was made four in 1729, by the division of Carolina into two. In 1733 a fifth was added, Georgia being settled in that year. The Spanish in Florida had not viewed with approval the establishment of new English colonies along the coast, on land which they claimed as their own. The Carolinas were, in their opinion, Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 73 part of Florida, and wa\. arose between the two hostile peoples. In 1702 an expedition from Charleston sought to capture St. Augustine. In 1706 a Spanish and French fleet endeavored to capture Charleston. Both efforts were failures, costly both in men and money. There were wars with the Indians also. North Carolina had its Indian massacre in 171 1, when the Tuscaroras fell on the settlements and killed one hundred and thirty persons. In return the Tuscaroras were utterly defeated, and driven north to join their brethern, the Iroquois tribes of New York. South Carolina was exposed to similar perils. In 1715 a large number of tribes, headed by the Yamassees, invaded the colony, which for a time was in imminent peril of destruction. In the end, however, the settlers made headway and gained a complete victory, driving the Yamassees from their territory and forcing them to take refuge in Florida. Such was the state of affairs in 1733, when James Oglethorpe arrived in the Savannah River with a colony of debtors rescued from English prisons, and proceeded to form a settlement on the immediate borders of the Spanish settlements in Florida. It seemed very sure now that hostilities would soon break out between the two colonies, the Spaniards viewing this settlement as a direct invasion of the soil. Nothing took place, however, until 1739, when a war began in Europe between England and Spain. Then, as in the case of the South Carolina hostilities above mentioned, the English were first in the field in the colonies, Oglethorpe invading Florida and attacking St. Augustine. Some of the Spanish forts fell, but St. Augustine firmly held its own, and the invader was obliged to withdraw with little reward for his pains. The Spaniards bided their time. Not until 1742 were they ready. In May of that year a powerful expedition, consisting of fifty-six vessels and about seven thousand men, set out from Havana for St. Augustine, organized for the purpose of attacking the English. It looked very serious now for the infant colony of Georgia, but Oglethorpe was an old soldier, who had won fame in European wars, and he lost no time in making all available prepara- tions for the coming onslaught. His force being very much smaller than that ot the Spaniards, he was obliged to withdraw it to the fort at Frederica, on St. Simon's Island, abandoning the small fort at the 74 Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland sea end of the island from which he had endeavored to prevent their entering the harbor. On came the Spanish fleet, passing up the Altamaha River until within four miles of Frederica, at which point it landed about five thousand men, who took possession of the abandoned fort. THE OLDEST HOUSE IN ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA On the 7th of July a part of this force advanced until within a mile of the fort at Frederica, at this point they were discovered by Oglethorpe's scouts and the alarm was given. Oglethorpe was too bold a soldier to be content to wait their coming. No sooner had the news of their near approach reached him than he ad- vanced with a party of Indians, and rangers, with the Highlanders then on parade, leaving orders for the regiment to follow at all speed. His purpose was to engage the Spaniards in the forest defiles before they could get into the open savanna and display their forces for defense. This movement was attended with the greatest success, Ogle- Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 75 thorpe attacking them with such impetuous courage that the Span- iards, entangled in the woodland paths, were driven back in dis- order, and nearly the whole of them killed, wounded or taken prisoners. They consisted of more than a hundred of the best woodsmen of the invading army and a number of Indians. The remainder of this interesting story is so graphically told by Rev. WiUiam B. Stevens, in his "History of Georgia," that it seems advisable to give it in his words: "The pursuit was continued several miles, to an open meadow or savanna, upon the edge of which he posted three platoons of the regiment and a company of Highland foot, so as to be covered by the woods from the enemy, who were obhged to pass through the meadow under the English lire. Hastening back to Frederica, he got in readiness the rangers and marines; but scarcely were they in marching order when he heard firing in the direction of his ambushed troops, and, speeding thither, met two of the platoons, which, in the «moke and drifting rain, had retreated before the advance of Don Antonio Barba who, with one hundred grenadiers and two hundred infantry, consisting of Indians and negroes, had pushed into the meadow and drove out the ambuscade with loud huzzas and rolling drums. The soldiers informed Oglethorpe that all his force was routed; but, finding one platoon and a company of rangers missing, and still hearing firing in the direction of the woods, he ordered the officers to rally their men and follow him. "In the meantime this platoon and company of rangers, under the command of Lieutenants Sutherland and Mackay, instead of retreating; with their comrades, no sooner reached the wood than by a skilfully-executed detour they gained the rear of the pursuing enemy, and, at a point where the road passed from the forest to the open marsh across a small semicircular cove, planted themselves in ambuscade in the thick palmettoes by which this narrow pass was nearly surrounded. "Scarcely had they secreted themselves near this defile, when the Spaniards, on their return, marched out of the wood, and, sup- posing themselves secure from attack, protected as they were on the one side by an open morass and on the other by the crescent-shaped hedge of palmettoes and underwood, they stacked their arms and yielded themselves to repose. Sutherland and Mackay, who from tneir hiding-places had anxiously watched all their movements, now 76 Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland raised the signal of attack, — a Highland cap upon a sword, — and the soldiers poured in upon the unsuspecting enemy a well-delivered and most deadly fire. Volley succeeded volley, and the sand was strewed with the dead and dying. A few of the Spanish officers attempted, though in vain, to re-form their broken ranks; disciphne was gone, orders were unheeded, safety alone was sought; and when, with a Highland shout of triumph, the platoon burst among them with leveled bayonet and flashing claymore, the panic-stricken foe fled in every direction, — some to the marsh, where they mired, and were taken, — some along the defile, where they were met by the tomahawk and the broadsword, — and some into the thicket, where they became entangled and lost; and a few only escaped to their camp. Their defeat was complete. "Barba was taken, after being mortally wounded; another captain, a lieutenant, two sergeants, two drummers, and one hun- dred and sixty privates, were killed, and a captain and nineteen men were taken prisoners. This was a feat of arms as brilliant as it was successful, and won for the gallant troops the highest praise. Oglethorpe, with the two platoons, did not reach the scene of this action, which has ever since borne the appropriate name of 'Bloody Marsh,' until the victory was achieved; and, to show his sense of their services, he promoted the brave young officers who had gained it, on the very field of their valor. "The retreating enemy were pursued into their camp. On the next day Oglethorpe withdrew his forces to Frederica. The mis- fortunes of the Spaniards caused dissensions among their leaders, learning of which, Oglethorpe resolved to surprise them by a night attack. "For this purpose he marched down, on the twelfth of July, five hundred men, and, leaving them within a mile of the Spanish quar- ters, went forward at night with a small party to reconnoitre, intend- ing to surprise them, but was prevented by the treachery of a French- man among Captain Carr's marines, who, firing his musket, sounded the alarm, and, favored by the darkness, deserted to the enemy. Finding himself thus discovered, the general distributed the drums about the wood, to represent a large force, and ordered them to beat the grenadiers' march, which they did for half an hour, and then, all being still, noiselessly returned to Frederica. "Aware of his weakness, and fearing that the disclosures which Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland 77 the Frenchman might make would embolden them to surround and destroy him, which their superior force by land and sea would easily enable them to do, he devised an ingenious stratagem to defeat his information and retrieve the effects ot his desertion. The next day he prevailed with a prisoner, and gave him a sum of money, to carry a letter privately and deliver it to that Frenchman who had deserted. This letter was written in French, as if from a friend of his, telling him he had received the money; that he should strive to make the Spaniards believe the English were weak; that he should undertake to pilot up their boats and galleys, and then bring them under the woods where he knew the hidden batteries were; and that if he could bring that about, he should have double the reward he had already received; but if he failed in thus decoying them under the guns of the water-battery, to use all his influence to keep them at least three days more at Fort St. Simon's, as within that time, according to advices just received, he should be reinforced by two thousand infantry and six men-of-war, which had already sailed from Charleston, and, by way of postscript, he was cautioned against mentioning that Admiral Vernon was about to make a descent upon St. Augustine. "The Spanish prisoner got into the camp, and was immediately carried before the general, Don Manuel de Montiano. He was asked how he escaped, and whether he had any letters, but, denying his having any, was strictly searched, and the letter found in his possession. Under a promise of pardon, he confessed that he had received money to deliver it to the Frenchman, for the letter was not directed. The Frenchman denied knowing anything of its contents, or having received any money, or having had any corre- spondence with Oglethorpe, and vehemently protested that he was not a spy." The Spanish commander was in a dilemma. The Frenchman had been sent by him to the English camp to act as a spy, but there was now reason to believe that he had been playing the part of a double spy. A military council was called, in which the question was warmly debated, most of the members believing that the letter was genuine, and advising a retreat before it should be too late. The commander was for a time in doubt what to think, but when, in the midst of the debate, word was brought him that three vessels had been seen off the bar, his perplexity disappeared. 78 Heroes of the Old Colonial Southland What could these be but the vanguard of the threatened fleet ? No doubt remained now in his mind that the letter told the truth, and that the peril of being hemmed in by sea and land was imminent. Orders were given for an immediate embarkation and retreat, and this was done in such wild haste that a considerable quantity of military stores was abandoned in the island, the Spanish panic being increased by the appearance of two vessels which Oglethorpe sent down the stream from Frederica. The victory gained by General Oglethorpe, under such circum- stances, won him warm congratulations not only from the other colonies, but from the English authorities in the home country. Considering that he had only two ships and six hundred men to oppose to the fifty-six vessels and five thousand men of the Spanish force, that he had baffled them for fifteen days, whipped them wherever he met them, prevented them from approaching his fort, and finally compelled them to retreat with severe losses in men and material, was certainly a most signal success. His vigilance, the skill of his plans, his brilliant assault on the enemy's force, and finally the ingenious stratagem by which he induced them to retreat, were all indicative of a high quality of military genius, and saved Georgia, and perhaps South Carolina, from falling under Spanish rule. The repulse of so formidable a force by such a handful of troops has no parallel in the colonial history of America and James Oglethorpe may justly be classed among the leading heroes of the early South. CHAPTER IV. MANOR LIFE IN OLD COLONY DAYS How the Virginia planters lived — Their hospitality — The classes of the people — Town and country life — Home manners — Training of boys and girls — Occupations of the people — Effect of product, climate and race — The farmers and the planters — The charms of rural Hfe — Governor Spotswood, and the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe — ^The expedition to the Blue Ridge — A delightful journey — The valley discovered — Two boy surveyors and their work — Lord Fairfax and Greenway Lodge — ^Washington's journey to the French forts. LIFE was broad and ample, generous and fine-spirited, in the South in old colony times. It was a rural life, strongly contrasted with the gregarious life of the North. The populous towns and villages of the Puritan, Dutch, and Quaker settlements were replaced in the southern colonies by large planta- tions, on which the families of the planters lived in patriarchal state, surrounded by their multitude of happy and contented dependents. As they grew rich from the sale of the crops of tobacco of Virginia or product of the rice fields of the farther south, the planters built themselves comfortable mansions, handsomely furnished and decorated. Within were broad stairways, rising out of ample halls, which were often tastefully adorned with trophies of the chase. The richest and most ornamental woods were used in the interior woodwork, the mantels and wainscots being frequently of richly carved mahogany, while solid oak and mahogany supplied the material for chairs and tables. The sideboards were heaped with glittering gold and silver plate, the planters vieing with one another in the display of wealth and importance. These stately mansions were not the close-built, thick-walled dwellings of the North, erected as forts against the assaults of the frost king. Those of the South lay freely open to the grateful breezes and genial sunrays of their softer clime, fronted by deep 79 8o Manor Life in Old Colony Days cool porches screened from the summer heat by trelhses of flowering vines, while the surrounding grounds were richly adorned with beds of the fairest blooms. Each mansion had its numerous household ot negro servants, whose dusky faces were to be seen everywhere about the house and its surroundings. The field hands dwelt in separate quarters, each cabin having its garden and poultry yard. There was abundant work to do, for every estate was in its way a separate industrial community, most of the articles needed being made by slave artisans on the estate itself. But there were plenty of hands to do the work, so that it was rare for any one to be pushed beyond his powers. In fact, the system was one of modern patriarchism, and the associa- tion more that of a great family than ot task-master and slave. No doubt, in those old days, content and comfort were the prevailing elements. The great planters lived like lords of the manor, keeping stables of fine horses and packs of hunting dogs, riding and hunting being favorite modes of passing the time. In going to church, or visiting neighboring planters, the elaborately grand coach, drawn by six stately horses, was brought into service, and with its dusky driver and uniformed outriders made a showy display. Never was there more generous or open-handed hospitality. Visitors were welcomed with the utmost warmth. Travelers from a distance were especially welcome, for in those days news moved slowly, and important events were often learned only from some talkative guest. It was not uncommon to post a servant in the highway to look out for any traveler on horseback. When one such appeared the bowing and smiling negro would obsequiously invite him to ride in and spend the night at his master's mansion. If he consented, he would be treated to a noble entertainment, a hunt or other sport being got up for him the next day and every induce- ment held out to him to prolong his visit. There was one unfortu- nate result from this, the inns were miserable. Boniface could not well compete with the planter's hospitality. As regards the custom here mentioned, we may quote corrobora- tive testimony from Smythe, an observant traveler of that period, and one who could speak from the card, as he had himself abundantly enjoyed the hospitality here spoken of: *' When a person of more genteel figure than common calls at 1 Manor Life in Old Colony Days 8i AN OLD MANOR HALLWAY A view of an old house built in New Castle, Del., in 1801. 82 Manor Life in Old Colony Days an ordinary (the name of their inns) for refreshment and lodging for a night, as soon as any of the gentlemen of fortune in the neigh- borhood hears of it, he either comes for him himself, or sends him a polite and pressing invitation to his home, where he meets with entertainment and accommodation infinitely superior in every respect to what he could have received at the inn. If he should happen to be fatigued with traveling, he is treated in the most hospitable HOLLY HEDGE IN A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN'S ESTATE and genteel manner, and his servants and horses also fare pl'enteously for as long a time as he chooses to stay. All this is done with the best grace imaginable, without even a hint being thrown out of a curiosity or wish to know his name." Smythe goes on to say : "The Virginians are generous, extremely hospitable, and possess very liberal sentiments. . . . To com- municate an idea of the general hospitality that prevails in Virginia, Manor Life in Old Colony Days 83 and, indeed, throughout all the southern provinces, it may not be improper to represent some pecuhar customs that are universal; for instance, if a traveler, even a negro, observes an orchard full of fine fruit, either apples or peaches, in or near his way, he alights without ceremony, and fills his pockets, or even a bag, if he has one, without asking permission; and if the proprietor should see him he is not in the least offended, but makes him perfectly welcome, and assists him in choosing out the finest fruit." This, however, he considers by no means remarkable, in view of the superabundance of fruit; peaches, for instance, being frequently fed to the hogs. It will be of interest to continue our quotations from this obser- vant traveler: "There is a greater distinction supported between the different classes of life here than perhaps in any of the rest of the colonies, nor does that spirit of equality and leveling principle which pervades the greater part of America prevail to such an extent in Virginia. How- ever, there appears to be but three degrees of rank amongst all the inhabitants exclusive of the negroes. The first consists of gentlemen of the best famihes and fortunes of the colony, who are here much more respectable and numerous than in any other province in America. These, in general, have had a liberal education, possess enlightened understandings, and a thorough knowledge of the world, that furnishes them with an ease and freedom of manners and con- versation highly to their advantage in exterior, of which no vicissi- tude of fortune or place can divest them; they being actually, according to my ideas, the most agreeable and the best companions, friends, and neighbors that need be desired. "The greater number of them keep their carriages and have handsome services of plate; but they all, without exception, have studs as well as sets of elegant and beautiful horses. Those of the second degree in rank are very numerous, being perhaps half the inhabitants, and consist of such a variety, singularity, and mixture of characters that the exact general criterion and leading feature can scarcely be ascertained. However, they are generous, friendly, and hospitable in the extreme; but mixed with such an appearance of rudeness, ferocity and haughtiness, which is in fact only a want of polish, occasioned by their deficiencies in education and a knowledge of mankind, as well as by their general intercourse with slaves. "These were not men of poor estate. Many of them possessed S4 Manor Life in Old Colony Days ample fortunes, but their families are not so ancient nor respectable; a circumstance here held in some estimation. And they are all excessively attached to every species of sport, gaming and dissipa- tion, particularly horse-racing, and that most barbarous of all diversions, that peculiar species of cruelty, cock-fighting. Numbers of them are truly valuable members of society, and few or none defi- cient in the excellencies of the intellectual faculties, and a natural genius which, though in a great measure unimproved, is generally bright and splendid in an uncommon degree. "The third, or lower class of the people (who ever compose the bulk of mankind), are in Virginia fewer in number in proportion to the rest of the inhabitants than perhaps in any other country in the Universe. Even these are kind, hospitable and generous; yet liberal, noisy and rude. They are much addicted to inebriety, and averse to labor. They are likewise overburdened with an imperti- nent and insuperable curiosity, that renders them peculiarly dis- agreeable and troublesome to strangers." Smythe, however, did not find the prying spirit of this class to be peculiar to the poor whites of Virginia, ior he found, as he goes on to remark, curiosity and inquisitiveness still more ofi^ensively developed among the Yankees. He says: *'Yet these undesirable qualities they possess by no means in an equal degree with the generality of the inhabitants of New England, whose religion and government have encouraged, and indeed instituted and established, a kind of inquisition of forward impertinence and prying intrusion against every person that may be compelled to pass through that troublesome, illiberal country; from which description, however, there are no doubt many excep- tions." The poor whites here spoken of were very largely the descend- ants of indentured servants. These, sharing the distaste of the whites in general for manual labor, yet rarely acquiring property and largely devoid of education, formed far the most undesirable part of the population, many of them living in a state of vice and degradation. In the towns there was a distinct middle class, consisting of merchants and traders, but in view of the small size of southern towns in colonial times, these could not have been very numerous. In South Carolina, indeed, no well-defined class existed between the too-widely separated ranks of planters and slaves. Manor Life in Old Colony Days ^5 As concerns town life, Virginia was almost destitute, prior to 1700, of any place to which the name of town could properly be applied. Jamestown stood alone, and this never rose to a dignity superior to that of a village. We have seen how sparsely it was peopled when destroyed in 1676. Williamsburg succeeded James- town, but did not surpass it greatly in importance. CaroHna, on the contrary, though a planters' colony, had a better development of town and city life. Charleston in particular soon rose into im- portance, and for many years practically embraced the whole settlement of South Carohna. Georgia in the same way began its development with the city of Savannah. Back in the country, toward the mountains, the mode of life differed essentially from that on the great fertile levels. Here the farms were small, the people poor, and hunting divided their atten- tion with farming. They lived far apart, with wood-paths for their only roads, and their life was very simple and isolated. Returning to the colonial manor house, we may present another picture of its type of life worth quoting for its vividness. It is given by the Chevalier de Chastellux, in his Travels in America." The Chevalier was an officer in the French army at Yorktown and was a personal friend of Washington. He thus describes his expe- rience of Virginia hospitality: "In the absence of the General (who had gone to Williamsburg) his mother and wife received us with all the politeness, ease and cordiality natural to his family. But as in America the ladies are never thought sufficient to do the honors of the house, five or six Nelsons were assembled to receive us, among others. Secretary Nelson, uncle to the General, his two sons, and two of the General's brothers. These young men were married, and several of them were accompanied by their wives and children, and distinguished only by their Christian names; so that during the two days which I spent in this truly patriarchal house, it was impossible for me to find out their degrees of relationship. The company assembled either in the parlor or saloon, especially the men, from the hour of breakfast, to that of bed-time; but the conversation was always agreeable and well supported. If you were desirous of diversifying the scene, there were some good French and English authors at hand. An excellent breakfast at nine o'clock, a sumptuous dinner at two, tea and punch in the afternoon, and an elegant little supper 86 Manor Life in Old Colony Days divided the day most happily for those whose stomachs were never unprepared. It is worth observing that on this occasion, where fifteen or twenty people (four of whom were strangers to the family or the country) were assembled together, and by bad weather forced to stay often in doors, not a syllable was said about play. How many parties of trictrac, whist and lotto, would with us have been the consequence of such obstinate bad weather!" An old-fashioned southern plantation, in fact, presented a type of domesticity of which few traces remain, and which was one of the purest, sweetest and most agreeable types of social life ever known. We have its nearest type in the nomadic life of the East, as described in the Scriptural story of Abraham, but here there were engrafted on the tented simplicity of that ancient day all the grace and courtesy and all the belongings of modern civilization. While the power which the owner of the estate possessed over his slaves, and the isolation which his family suffered from the very institution itself, gave to him an influence over his wife and children which, in fact, as well as in name, constituted him the head of the family; yet there has never been a home in which the wife was so .important and so dominant, for there cannot be a home in which the domestic part was so important. Upon her fell the duty of supervising the household, its occupants, and its affairs, and of superintending the conduct and care of the negro women and chil- dren. She was mistress in the true sense of that word, for in her domain her word was law of the house and of the " quarters. " This produced a simple order of thought which was curiously characteris- tic of those people. In these households the Bible was the ordinary text-book. Family worship was conducted regularly, and without regard to the personal piety of the head of the family. It was one of the inherited customs to be kept up and made a part of the daily life of the house. The children had no menial duties to perform; but were raised with a certain dislike and contempt for menial labor, because it was per- formed for them by slaves. Freedom from this form of duty was not, however, followed by freedom from labor or occupation. In every such household the children were kept occupied constantly, and were trained from their earliest childhood in such labors and accomplishments as were com- mon to the country, and were supposed to be needed in those who Manor Life in Old Colony Days 87 were to be the masters and mistresses of such estabhshments. The boys became superb horsemen, excellent shots, skilful sportsmen, and admirable farmers from their boyhood. They were trained in the open air, so as to bear fatigue, to be capable of great endurance, and to be fit to become the masters and owners of large estates. While they might or might not work with their hands in the actual labor of the farm, they were taught how it ought to be done, so as to cake, at a very early age, the care of a plantation. AN OLD SOUTHERN GARDEN, "HAMPTON," MARYLAND The same training was given to the girls for the same purpose. They early became notable housewives; they were personally made expert with the needle; they became splendid horsewomen; and, if a habit of command soon appeared, it was sweetened and softened by the constant supervision of the sick and care for the aged. In a society where slavery is confined to those of a diff^erent race from that of the master, race, not condition, becomes the basis of social relations. All who are white are equals in such a community in a sense which is never true elsewhere; for every white man is free and may become the owner of slaves, and whatever classes may exist, they are purely temporary and based largely on merit. In 88 Manor Life in Old Colony Days that community no white person is barred from ready entrance into any class, even the highest, when he has by merit demonstrated his right. No part of the country has had so many eminent citizens springing from the humblest walks of life, and no demonstrations of confidence and affection have been greater or more touching than those shown by these people to men of humblest birth. This is not generally believed or understood; but it is true, and to an extent that aids us to understand how the slaveholding white population always had as their friends and allies the non-slaveholding white population of those states. The profits in such farming as was common in the border states was not large in ready money, after the abundant and some- what wasteful support of the family and farm had been taken out of the year's products, and accumulated capital was never great. This stood in the way of important works of any kind, either in the shape of great public buildings, universities, railroads, or other enterprises. It also prevented marked inequahties in the pecuniary conditions of men. There were none very rich, few very poor, the vast mass being in comfortable circumstances. It also opened but few avenues for profit and distinction to the young men, and the learned pro- fessions and such business as was necessary in such a simple com- munity were the only vocations open to those who desired to leave the farm. The best talent, therefore, went into these professions or remained in the pursuit of agriculture. Skilful lawyers and doctors, eloquent preachers, and trained statesmen were naturally produced in a community where these were the most profitable and influential vocations. The leisurely life in such a community gave opportunity for culture, for wide reading, and, perhaps, for the development of the subtleties of politics and philosophy, rather than for the practical pursuit of life; and so this section produced statesmen of unsurpassed attainments in the science of politics and in the realm of constitutional and international history. As cities are the growth of commerce and manufactures, there could not be great cities in this section; but as wealth and leisure were considerable, and as the cotton, sugar, rice, and tobacco crops had to be exported and sold where they were not raised, commercial cities of fair size necessarily grew up. These cities, however, had no other business than that incident to these general products, and necessarily revealed this in the type of life which such pursuits Manor Life in Old Colony Days 89 produced. Quiet, easy, leisurely, comfortable, intelligent, honest, agreeable, beautiful — such are the words that would a priori be apt to describe cities in such a climate and arising from such causes, and Charleston, Savannah, Wilmington, Richmond, Nashville, Louisville come within the scope m which such terms may be fairly used. The smoke of industries, the bustle and confusion of a very active commerce, the rush and hurry of excited men, the cruel panics of sudden fluctuations in markets, the appearance of the new rich and the disappearance of well-known houses going down in a storm, must fail to mark the life of such cities, and the distinction in char- acter between New York and Charleston, for instance, testifies decisively to the great difference in the conditions to which these cities have been exposed. The difference in the leading products of the southern colonies gave rise to certain differences in their life conditions, of which it is well to speak. Tobacco being the staple of Virginia, the modes of agriculture conformed to. its requirements, and social life was affected by its demands. In North Carolina, while tobacco was grown, the broad forests of yellow pine led to quite a different in- dustry, that of the production of lumber, tar, and turpentine, and the great plantation was less in evidence, many of the people being engaged in woodland pursuits. In South Carolina rice and indigo formed the staple products, the former culture beginning in 1693, when the governor of that colony received a small bag of rice from the captain of a vessel from Madagascar. He planted it as an experiment, and it grew so luxuriantly that its general culture at once began. Indigo was similarly tried as an experiment in 1741, and with equally favorable results. It was much later when the culture of cotton threw both these products into the shade. The culture of rice and indigo invaded Georgia soon after its settlement, and the silk industry was also introduced there, and for a time seemed promising. It was kept up until after the Revolution, but never proved very profitable. The trade in lumber was also brisk. In Louisiana, an important section of the present South, though then a province of Spanish America, the cultivation of the sugar-cane began about 1750. It did not become important, however, until after 1800. As for the culture of cotton, now of such overmastering importance in southern agriculture, very little of it was raised until after the invention of the cotton-gin. Not a pound of cotton was sent abroad before 1790. 90 Manor Life in Old Colony Days The effect on the southern populations of these differences in products was added to by the influence of variation in cHmate, which ranged from the temperate chme of Maryland and Virginia to the semi-tropic warmth of the lands bordering on the gulf. In addition there were the influences of difference of race. The popu- lation of the southern colonies included, in addition to the English, the Germans who settled thickly in Georgia and the Carolinas; the Huguenots, who gave a certain agreeable flavor to the character of the Carolinas; the sturdy and combative Scotch-Irish, who made their character felt in the Valley of Virginia and in large sections of North Carolina; the Pennsylvania "Dutch," who followed the range of limestone, with its rich soil, down through Virginia and North Carolina and into Tennessee. Each of these became, in its way, as marked a characteristic of the people as the Cavaliers who had settled the fertile coastal region. Yet these distinctions of race gradually disappeared as amalgamation proceeded, the people of the South growing more and more ahke as time went on, until they came to be the most homogeneous in character of the population of any part of the country. The varied conditions as regarded slavery may be spoken of here, as having a molding influence over the industrial conditions and social relations of different sections. The profitable growth of rice and indigo in the low coast lands of the far south increased the demand for African slaves, who alone could with safety labor in that climate. The subsequent invention of the cotton-gin added many- fold to the value of slave labor, and spread the institution rapidly over the entire section of the South in which the climate permitted cotton to be profitably grown; so that the growth and development of the colonies which settled in Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina and Georgia were accompanied by an increase both in the number and value of slaves. A precisely opposite development was going on in that section of the country where agriculture was purely the husbandry of farm products and the growth of live stock. In such labors the slave was not of any advantage. He was never equal as a laborer to his white competitor, nor did he stand the climate of those states so well; but where the necessity was to have disciplined labor in gangs, under a hot sun, and when to that was added the danger of malarial fevers from swamp lands, his labor became much more valuable. These Manor Life in Old Colony Days 91 differences in climate and product, and this marked diversity of labor, naturally produced entirely different industries and caused many dissimilarities in the development of the social civilization and of the customs of the people. It is quite difficult for one who was not either raised, or did not for a long period live, in one of the southern states to appreciate how the institution of slavery was interwoven with all its civilization, its customs^ its labors, its profits, and its v^^B/B^^^ IHH^H[^^S|^^^ "v^^^ittKi. , ^^E Baipa||^|^^MMgl|[^t'J-jf^*^- .-•!«- jy m^^B^^^^jd^^^B ^^'' ' /^^^ H^^^^^^d^^ B»^: ^» BHI^Bh^^^^ HDHj^^^ V m ""1 Ififc'- fe:':'*^%;f '1, ' ' ' ' . ■ J^^ ^ m^^m tt^^^^- ^ PART OF THE SOWELL GARDEN, SOUTH CAROLINA This famous garden, in spite of the sandy soil, compares favorably with some of the best in England. difficulties. All social problems, as well as all social customs, became modified by this institution and by the products to which its use required the people to devote their entire attention and capital. Only a superficial observer would fail to notice the very great difference between the institution of slavery in the farming states and in the planting states of the South. In Maryland, Virginia, Ken- 92 Manor Life in Old Colony Days tucky, the mountainous and grass sections of Tennessee, the moun- tainous and grass sections of North Carolina and Georgia, and the State of Missouri, slavery was solely a domestic institution. Com- paratively few slaves were owned by the richest men. They lived in daily association with the famihes of their owners. The white children of the master and the colored children of the slave played together upon terms of semi-equality until the school age was reached, and the kindliness thus produced, and the association inci- dental to such a life, continued through the lives of both. In the planting states large gangs of negroes lived in what were called "quarters" under the control and supervision of an overseer, and with scarcely any association with the families of the masters at the main house; with the exception, however, of the domestic slaves, who performed the ordinary services of the household, between whom and the field hands was a gap almost as great as between the families of the master and the domestic slave. This difference had results which were far reaching and not always clearly understood. There were also differences in race between the slaves of the border slave states and the majority of the slaves of the cotton and sugar states. Very few, if any, slaves were in those border states who were imported to America after the Revolutionary War; while the great bulk of the cotton states' slaves were imported after the treaty of peace in which was recognized the independence of the United Colonies; these were ethnologically of a different type from those which had been brought over and sold through Virginia and Maryland and had been sent from Virginia and Maryland to the interior states; and this ethnological difference is easily observable to-day. While the original settlements on the southern coast were made early in the seventeenth century, they grew quite slowly, and when the Revolutionary War came it was only the thin fringe along the Atlantic Coast and east of the Blue Ridge which was populated, with the exception of some of the valleys which ran in between the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies. Beyond the Alleghanies there were no settlements at all. The climate and the soil tempted the people to agricultural pursuits; and the institution of slavery is necessarily agricultural. The unoccupied lands were so large in extent, and so fertile in quality that there was no temptation to put labor or capital into any other pursuit; and the profits of farming and Manor Life in Old Colony Days 93 planting with slave labor were so great that the returns induced every one to take all possible risks in making new investments. The life of a Virginia planter, or of the Kentucky or the Ten- nessee farmer of later days was, while in many respects a pleasant and easy life, one of labor. It was free from the ordinary risks of the manufacturer and merchant. Bankruptcy was very rare; great wealth equally rare; but moderate, comfortable, and abundant live- lihood was common. This produced a corresponding life, which was simple in its manners, unostentatious in its customs, not very careful in its economies; frank, virtuous, and honest in its relations to neighbors and other persons, and full of a generosity founded rather on free living than systematic charity. The life was almost entirely a family life as contradistinguished from a community life. Families resided on their own farms, and, to a certain degree, isolated from their neighbors, and from this grew a certain intensity of family affection and of family pride which gave to the members of the family the aid and defense of all the clan, which resembled the Scotch clannishness. Large enterprises requiring cooperative effort were nearly impossible. Whatever one man or family could do was always excellently well done; but those efforts which required cooperative action were apt to fall through. Such a life is apt to produce marked individuality — each person has been developed so as to intensify his individual qualities; and yet, as in all communities, the influences upon each being somewhat similar, the peculiarities of all its members came to resemble those of all the other members. Shall not we reproduce here a brilliant picture of the idyllic scenes amid which these planters and farmers passed their lives, as given in Dr. Bagby's "Old Virginia Gentleman.'"' The vision of beauty and plenty presented us is certainly a highly alluring one: "A scene not of enchantment, though contact made it often seem so, met the eye. Wide, very wide, fields of waving grain, billowy seas of green or gold, as the season chanced to be, over which the scudding shadows chased and played, gladdened the heart with wealth far spread. Upon lowlands level as the floor the plumed and tasseled corn stood tall and dense, rank behind rank in military alignment, a serried army lush and strong. The rich, dark soil of the gently swelling knolls (it was not always rich) could scarcely be seen under the broad-lapping leaves of the mottled tobacco. The hills were carpeted with clover. Beneath the tree-clumps fat cattle 94 Manor Life in Old Colony Days chewed the cud, or peaceful sheep reposed, grateful for the shade. In the midst of this plenty, half hidden in foliage, over which the graceful shafts of the Lombardy poplar towered, with its bounteous garden, and its orchards heavy with fruit near at hand, peered the old mansion, white, or dusky red, or mellow gray by the storm and shine of years. "Seen by the tired horseman halting at the woodland's edge, this picture, steeped in the intense quivering, summer moonlight, filled the soul with unspeakable emotions of beauty, tenderness, peace, home. ' How calm could we rest In that bosom of shade, with the friends we love best! ' "Sorrows and care were there — where do they not penetrate } But, O dear God, one day in those sweet tranquil homes outweighed a fevered lifetime in the gayest cities of the globe. Tell me noth- ing; I undervalue naught that man's heart delights in. I dearly love operas and great pageants; but I do know, as I know nothing else, that the first years of human life, and the last, yea, if it be possi- ble, all the years should be passed in the country. The towns may do for a day, a week, a month at most ; but Nature, Mother Nature, pure and clean, is for all time; yes for eternity itself." The record of life in colonial times yields us one or two interest- ing stories, worth telling aHke for themselves and for the light they throw upon the character of the people and the primitive nature of the conditions surrounding them. The first of these has to do with Alexander Spotswood, a soldier who had fought under Marlborough at Blenheim, and was appointed Governor of Virginia in 1710. He was a young man at that time, and full of energy and the spirit of progress; a very difi^erent character from his tyrannical predecessor. Sir William Berkeley. He built a stately mansion for himself and future governors and erected at Williamsburg an oddly shaped powder magazine, which still stands. The Indians left in the colony were now few in number, and with the desire to benefit them as well as he was able the governor gave them permission to have their boys educated free of expense at the William and Mary College, then recently founded at Williamsburg. The next thing done by the energetic governor was to attempt the development of a new interest in the colonies, that of iron manu- facture. Iron ore was present in abundance and he had furnaces Manor Life in Old Colony Days 95 built which proved very successful. These preceded the earhest iron furnaces in Pennsylvania, and won for Spotswood the com- plimentary title of the "Tubal-Cain of Virginia." Another good piece of work for which we must give Governor Spotswood credit was the suppression of one ot the most daring and merciless pirates of the coast, the notorious Blackbeard, a leading spirit in the horde of buccaneers who then made commerce a very risky pursuit. For a time Spotswood bore with the depredations of this knight of the black flag, but he finally grew tired of them, and sent out an armed vessel with orders to find Blackbeard and bring him in, dead or aHve. The vessel returned in due time with Biack- OLD SPANISH HOUSE ON BOURBON STREET, NEW ORLEANS beard's head as a figure piece on the bowsprit, a signal of success which added immensely to the popularity of the energetic governor. The special incident in Spotswood's life with which we are here concerned was his celebrated excursion to the summit of the Blue Ridge Mountains, known in local history as the adventure of the "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe." There is something so fresh and romantic about this story as to make it well worth the telHng. Virginia, at that time, was embraced between the mountains and the sea. The planters had settled down in the fertile tide-water region, forming their plantations on the shores of the Chesapeake or 96 Manor Life in Old Colony Days the banks of navigable streams, convenience in shipping tobacco being as important to them as facihty in growing it. Very little w^as known about the great country that lay beyond the mountains. "Orange County" they called this mysterious section, but in their crude geography this county extended to the Pacific Ocean, whose distance away nobody knew. The worthy tide-water planters had been regaled with rumors in abundance. Orange County they were told was a land of lofty mountains and fertile valleys, of broad forests and swift streams. Many thought that the Mississippi itselt rose in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Nothing was known beyond the stories told by adventurous hunters, but these were of a character to fill those who heard them with a desire to explore that wonderful land. Among these was Governor Spotswood. A man of romantic spirit and adventurous disposition, he grew eager to see for himself this realm of infinite possibilities. Not content, as many might have been, to send an exploring party, he proposed to make a grand holiday excursion to the mountains, to be headed by himself and made up of the youth and chivalry of the "Old Dominion. " Word of the projected expedition w^as sent to the planters, far and near, with the statement that the governor proposed to head it in person, and would welcome all who wished to join the enterprise. As may well be imagined there was no lack of volunteers. To the young Virginians, accustomed to horseback riding and hunting excursions, such a project was full of promise of delightful adventure. And on the appointed day, in August, 1714 a goodly number assembled at Williamsburg, well appointed for the long ride they had in view. They were all well mounted; after them came pack-mules in charge of servants and laden with provisions for the journey; only one detail had been forgotten, the necessity of shoeing the horses. At that time it was the fashion to ride horses "barefooted," iron for shoes being scarce and costly and the soft roadways of lower Vir- ginia rendering it unnecessary. But rocky mountain paths lay before the present travelers, paths likely to make havoc of bare hoofs, and it became necessary to shoe the horses. This fact is of interest, as from it the title of the expedition arose. Bright, no doubt, was the morning when this gallant cavalcade rode out of Williamsburg, amid the waving of handkerchiefs and shouts of friendly cheer. The sun would be niggardly of his favors Manor Life in Old Colony Days 97 that refused to shine on so chivalrous a troop. In the best of high spirits they rode gaily on, with the governor at their head, and the long train of pack mules in the rear. As they passed through the land others joined them at intervals, and it v^as a goodly company that at length rode into a settlement called Germanna, on the Rapidan River, Here were the recently established iron furnaces, worked by Germans, and near by was the summer residence of the governor, built by him to escape the sultriness of the lower country. At Germanna the party took their first rest, and from this point they rode on into a country that grew stranger to them with every mile's advance. The story of their ride is well told by John Eston Cooke, in his juvenile "Stories of the Old Dominion," and we extract from his pages the following picturesque description : " Every one seemed to enjoy himself. The season of the year was dehghtful, for August in Virginia is a month when the air is pleasant, and the blue sky is filled with white clouds, drifting on before the wind Hke ships with all sails set- The woods were in full leaf; the streams were laughing, and the birds singing; and in the midst of all these beautiful sights and sounds the horsemen wound their way along, laughing and talking with each other. In the middle of the day they would stop in some green glade of the woods, to rest and pasture their horses; and then the baskets on the pack- mules would be unstrapped by the servants, the contents spread on the grass, and everybody would gather around and eat their dinner with an appetite sharpened by their long ride since morning. "Frequently, while on the march, some one of the party would ride into the woods, and the rest would lose sight of him. But soon they would hear him fire his gun, and he would come back holding in his hand a fat pheasant or some other game, which he would hand to the servants for supper. At night, the party would halt in some favorable spot, and hobble their horses by tying their legs together with ropes, after which they would turn them loose to graze, certain that the hobbles would prevent them from wandering off too far. Then supper would be spread on the grass, everybody would sup heartily, and, wrapping their cloaks around them, Spots- wood and his friends would stretch themselves on the ground, and sleep as soundly and sweetly as if they were at home in their beds. "At last they reached the Blue Ridge Mountains, and toiled on up the steep sides, covered with forest trees, to the top. It is not qS Manor Life in Old Colony Days known precisely where they ascended the mountains, but it is supposed that the spot is near what is called Rockfish Gap, where the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad now pass through. Some persons assert that the party went on and crossed the Alleghany Mountains also; but there is no proof of this, and no reason to believe it, as they never said they crossed two ranges of mountains, and wouM not have forgotten the Blue Ridge, which they reached first. From the summit which they now stood upon, they saw beneath them a wild and lovely landscape, through which wound the Shenandoah — whose name signifies in the English language, 'The Daughter of the Stars.' To the right and left the Blue Ridge extended far out of sight, clothed with oaks, pines, and other forest trees; while in front, across the valley, was seen the long blue line of the AUeghanies, like a wave of the ocean. "The sight before them must have filled Spotswood and his friends with delight, and they carved their names on the rocks, to mark the spot to which they had ascended. There were two peaks of the mountain near, and one of these was named 'Mount George' in honor of the King of England, and the other 'Mount Alexander,' in honor of Spotswood. The party then drank the king's health, and rode down the western part of the mountain into the Shenandoah Valley. "They did not meet with any romantic incidents, fights with Indians or bears, or anything of that sort. The wild animals seen were chiefly deer; or a herd of huge elks, such as then lived in the region, may have galloped off into the thick woods as the hoofs of the horses clattered on the rocky paths. No adventures befel them in the valley; and after enjoying a sight of its fertile lands, the party recrossed the Blue Ridge, entered the low country, and going joyously on their way as before, reached their houses on tidewater. "This little expedition pleased every one who took part in it, and the discovery of so fine a country was very important. Spots- wood therefore resolved to commemorate his long ride, by estab- lishing what is called an Order of Knighthood. "You probably know what this means. Knights, in the former times, were brave men who went about seeking adventures, and they belonged to various 'orders,' which were regarded with great respect. Governor Spotswood therefore determined to form a Virginia Order of Knighthood; but he must have been puzzled at 1 Manor Life in Old Colony Days first to find a name for it. At last, however, he decided what this name should be. He remembered the shoeing of the horses at Williamsburg, before the party set out, and thought the best name for them would be 'Sir Knights of the Golden Horseshoe.' He therefore fixed upon that title, and sent to England for a number of small golden horseshoes, one of which he presented to each of his companions. There was a motto in Latin cut upon them — 'Stc ^urat transcendere montes^ signifying, ' Thus we swear to cross the mountains,' and one of them set with garnets, a species of jewel, is still to be seen, it is said, somewhere in Virginia. " The story just given has been told in a juvenile way, and prop- erly so, as it belongs to the boyhood of Virginia, and all who took part in it, from the governor downward, were men of young blood and inspired with the spirit of youth- ful romance and love of adventure. It is not the only story we have to tell of Virginian boy- hood and adventure. Thirty-four years afterward — in 1748 — two youthful cavaliers rode into the beautiful valley which Spotswood had discovered, as gay of heart as any of his followers, though their errand was one of work, not one of play. One of these, and the leader of the expedition, was a boy of sixteen, a tall, alert, manly young fellow, in the very heyday of youthful life. Yet there was a look of sober resolution in his face which showed that he had already begun to take the burden of life seriously. His companion was a young man of twenty-two. They took with them the implements of the surveyor's art, for their errand was to survey a part of that fertile region upon which Spots- wood and his friends had looked down with wonder and delight from the summit of the Blue Ridge. Crossing the mountains at the pass now known as Ashby's Gap, CHAISE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 1. 1IF C. loo Manor Life in Old Colony Days the young surveyors, light of heart as the springtide air through which they rode, soon reached and forded the beautiful Shenandoah, and journeyed down its bank till they reached a true "lodge in the wilderness." This was a house with broad stone gables and sloping roof, that came far down over a long porch in front. On the roof peaks stood two belfries, their purpose being to warn the neigh- boring settlers in case of danger from the Indians. Such was Greenway Lodge, in which then resided the manager of Lord Fairfax, to whom belonged all the surrounding region as far north as the Potomac. It had fallen to him through a grant from the king to his grandfather. Lord Culpeper, one time Governor of Virginia. Shall we introduce the two travelers ^ The younger was named George Washington. He was the son of a planter on the Potomac, a manly lad to whom Lord Fairfax had taken a warm fancy, and had now commissioned to explore and survey his wild lands beyond the mountains. • With him came George William Fairfax, a cousin of the proprietor. That the excursion was a delightful one to the young surveyors we may feel assured. If was early spring, the fresh green leaves were just opening on the trees, everything was invested with nature's budding charm, and no doubt they enjoyed it to the uttermost. Since Spotswood's time many settlers had entered the valley, mainly of the hardy Scotch-Irish stock, born frontiersmen. The youthful adventurers as they went on with their labors, now found shelter in cabins of some of these settlers, now slept in the open, beside a woodland fire — perhaps finding this the more enjoyable of the two. Working diligently, the boyish pioneers surveyed the lands along the Shenandoah as far north as the Potomac, and followed this to the place now called Berkeley Springs — famous for its mineral waters, and a favorite summer resort of Washington in his later life. It was early summer when they returned and reported to the old lord. They had done their work so fully to his satisfaction, that he paid them well and praised them heartily in the bargain. In fact he was so pleased to learn the value of his wild lands, and especially of the splendid hunting they afforded, that he removed to Greenway Lodge, spending there the remainder of his life. In 1 78 1 there came to him the news of the surrender of Lord Corn- wallis, and the grand triumph of his one-time boy surveyor. A Manor Life in Old Colony Days loi rigid royalist, the old lord heard the unwelcome news with a groan of dismay, and said in a broken-hearted tone to his servant, "Take me to bed, Joe; it is time for me to die." And die he did. Thus ends a tale of life, manners and conditions in Virginia in early times, one of interest in itself, and of especial interest from the fact that it has to do with the boyhood life of the greatest man our country has ever known, the hero whose story is the most brilliant jewel in the Southland's crown. It was not the whole of Washington's life of adventure in the wilderness, but only its spring- tide beginning. It was followed by a winter in the wilds which was the reverse of romantic and delightful. The story of this is one well known to all readers of history, and we shall deal with it here with great brevity. Five years after his pioneer experience as a surveyor, Wash- ington, then just twenty-one, was chosen by Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia for a task needing knowledge of life in the wilderness, great powers of endurance, and a judgment and skill in diplomacy scarcely to be looked for in a man so young. This was to visit the forts which the French had built on French Creek and the Alleghany River, to warn them that they were intruding on British soil, and bid them to keep within their own domains. It involved, in going and returning, a journey of over a thousand miles through a country on which the white man's foot had scarcely trodden, and this in the depth of winter. A youth of twenty-one seemed very ill fitted for such a task, but we must give the worthy governor the full credit of knowing what he was about, for it is doubtful if there was another man in America who could have done the work set for him better than it was done by young Washington. We do not propose to follow Washington through all the adven- tures of his long and arduous journey. It must suffice to say that he and his small party traversed the mountain passes, reached the present site of Pittsburgh and had an interesting interview with the principal Indian chief of that region, the "Half King," whom he sought to win over to the English cause. He found the wily old savage not ready to be beguiled into rash promises. How Washington reached the French forts, and how he cir- cumvented the wiles of the shrewd French commanders, all this is a matter of history. The dangers and hardships of his journey came on the return. French Creek, which the party sought to 102 Manor Life in Old Colony Days navigate in canoes, was so full of broken ice, and ran so swiftly, that the canoes had to be abandoned, and Washington and his pioneer companion. Gist, set out on foot through the snow-paved forest, leaving the remainder of the party to make their way home with the nearly exhausted pack-horses. The journey was full of adventure and danger. A treacherous Indian, whom they had taken for guide, attempted to shoot Wash- ington, and almost succeeded. Then came a day and a night of continuous tramping through the forest to escape their savage enemies. Finally reaching the Alleghany, they found it a swirl of floating ice, hurled onward by the swift current. In seeking to cross it on a raft, Washington fell into the icy current, and saved his life with difficulty; a night was passed on a frozen island, in which Gist had his hands and feet badly frosted; and the next day they crossed on a soHd ice bridge to the southern shore. Sixteen days later Washington rode into Wilhamsburg, bearing the answer of the French commandant of Fort Le Boeuf to Governor Dinwiddle. Thus ended one of the most interesting journeys in the wilderness in the history of our country, far surpassing in extent and peril the former expedition of Governor Spotswood, and of special impor- tance from the fact that George Washington was its hero. Wash- ington had selected a location for a fort at the forks of the Ohio, and here an attempt was made in the next spring to build one, but the French drove out the English workmen and built the fort themselves. It won a place in history as Fort Duquesne. It was about this fort that Washington's career centered in the war that followed. He was marching toward it when his first military exploit took place. Nearby was the scene of Braddock's terrible defeat, in which Washington alone won credit on the English side. For several years afterward Washington was engaged in repressing the Indian outrages that followed this defeat. Finally, in the later years of the war, it was he that captured Fort Duquesne, and brought the conflict in that region to an end. Thus closed the first chapter in George Washington's great career. CHAPTER V. HOW THE SOUTH PLANTED THE SEEDS OF INDEPENDENCE The tea at Annapolis and Charleston — The North Carolina regulators — ^The Meck- lenburg Declaration — Patrick Henry's defiance to the king — Henry's great speech for liberty or death — The study of oratory and government in the South — Some famous orators — South Carolina and the Stamp Act Congress — ^The Con- tinental Congress — Effect of Lexington in the South — Virginia's Declaration of Rights — Richard Henry Lee's resolutions — Jefferson writes the Declaration — Charles Carroll of Carrollton. THE dramatic character of the events in New England at the dawn of the Revolution have had the effect of shadowing events of equal significance in other sections of the country. The throwing overboard of the tea, the Boston massacre, Paul Revere's ride, and the stirring day at Lexington and Concord, stand out prominently like the scenes in a vivid drama, and in reading history one is apt to look upon Boston as the pivotal point in Amer- ican independence. But to take this view would be to do serious injustice to the patriots of the other sections of the country, whose spirit of resistance to the tyranny of England was fully as earnest and outspoken as that of Boston, though they had not a garrison of British soldiers to deal with like the Bostonians. The people of Maryland, for instance, were as resolute against the landing of tea on their shores as were those of Massachusetts. A cargo of tea was sent to Annapolis, the ship entering the harbor under full sail, its master in hopeful expecta- tion of disposing of his freight to the tea-loving citizens. But he found the men and women of Annapolis fully as resolute not to accept British tea as those of Boston. The people gathered in threatening groups in the streets and on the wharves, vigorously 103 104 Seeds of Independence Planted declaring that not a leaf of the obnoxious plant should be brought ashore, and commanding the owner, who was a merchant of Annapo- hs, to take his tea back to England. This he refused to do, and a party of t.he citizens took possession of the ship and its cargo. The affair ended in a conflagration. A torch was placed in the hands of the owner and he was forced to set fire to his own vessel. As the chronicler of the event tells us: "The sails were set, the colors displayed, and the vessel burned amidst the acclamations of the multitude." There is certainly no great difference in character between the method of dealing with the tea at Annapohs and at Boston, but as the former was a private venture the incident failed to gain historical prominence. At Charleston, where a cargo was also sent, the people, though no less resolute against its use, permitted the tea to be landed. But no one would undertake its sale, no one would buy it, and the authorities purposely had it stored away in damp cellars. There it remained, as neither man or woman was ready to buy a leaf or drink a cup of the taxed tea. In the end the tea rotted away, contemned if not forgotten, in its underground receptacles. In advance of this business of the tea, an event of a more violent character had taken place in North Carolina, ending in what has been called, "the first battle in our war for Independence." The hardy and resolute North Carolinians, who had through their whole history been determined not to submit to oppression, found them- selves in 1 77 1 under the rule of a governor as violent and tyrannical in his way as the one who had stirred up the Bacon rebellion in Virginia. A bitter royalist, passionate in temper and despotic in disposition. Governor Tryon, sought to rule the people with a rod of iron, his legislation growing so unjust and oppressive, and the illegal taxation so severe, that the spirit of rebellion spread wide and fast. Bands caUing themselves Regulators, pledged to resist the lawless acts of the governor, were formed, and soon the colony was in a state of ferment and anarchy. The defiance of his authority by the rebellious bands stirred the governor to a fury. A bolder man than Berkeley of old, he gathered a force of several hundred militia, armed with a number of pieces of artillery, and set out to punish the defiers of his authority. Rein- Seeds of Independence Planted 105 forcements came to him on the way, though a party that was bringing him ammunition was routed by the Regulators and their powder taken from them. Marching to Alamance Creek, where the Regulators were encamped, Tryon faced the rebels against his authority. He had now about a thousand men. The Regulators were somewhat more numerous but most of them were unarmed. In the fight that followed nine of the militia and twenty of the citizens who were in arms for an honest administration were killed and the unarmed Regulators fled. Tryon was triumphant and the rebels against his rule were dispersed. Such was the first armed outbreak in the struggle for American liberty. Tryon was as brutal in his revenge as Berkeley before him, hanging a considerable number of the rebels. Those who escaped could not take refuge in Virginia or in South Carohna, whose governors had been notified not to give them shelter. But the mountain country back was beyond the jurisdiction of royal governors, and many of them crossed into the wilderness of East Tennessee, where they helped to settle a state that knew no king. Four years afterward the people of North Carolina showed their hatred of tyranny again, in a new form. From them came the first outspokeh declaration of independence — a year before Congress acted upon Jefferson's Declaration. On May 31, 1775, a com- mittee of citizens of Mecklenburg county met and adopted a series of resolutions which were in open defiance of the authority of the king and parliament, and declared that "whoever shall hereafter receive a commission from the crown, or attempt to exercise any such commission heretofore received, shall be deemed an enemy to his country." A form of these resolutions, indeed, has been long extant which uses almost the identical words employed by Jefferson in his famous defiance of England; but as it has been declared that this is of later origin and is not authentic, we pass it by here. But we can go back to a date ten years earlier than the Mecklen- burg Resolutions, to a period when the question of independence from England had never been raised and the loyalty of the colonists to the king was only beginning to be disturbed, to find the South putting herself on record in the most impassioned and dramatic utterance in American history. It was the famous Patrick Henry, io6 Seeds of Independence Planted America's first great orator, who spoke these words, that ran like an electric flash from end to end of the country, and still seem to vibrate in our ears. A young man at that time, a man whose eany nfe had been passed in poverty and obscurity, with no further warrant for mem- bership in the ari s t o c r a tic House of Bur- gesses of Vir- ginia than a local reputation for oratory, the older and more conserva t i ve members of that body looked with strong disap- proval on this new member when he rose to offer a body of resolutions condemning the famous Stamp Act. They had been chary of deahng with this firebrand, not knowing to what the dis- cussion of it might lead, and the re were marked signs of uneasiness in the House when the new member rose and boldly read his plain- speaking resolutions. But when he supported these in a speech such as those old PATRICK HENRY Whose great speech before the Virginia House of Burgesses resulted in the first open defiance of England. Seeds of Independence Planted 107 walls have never before vibrated to, a passionate, energetic, outburst of indignation against and defiance of the acts of the Parliament and the crown, the souls of the members were stirred to their depths. The burning words of this daring young orator fairly lifted them to their feet, and swept away the doubts and fears of many of his hearers. Unfortunately Henry's great speech has not been preserved. Nothing remains of it but the thunderbolt of defiance with which it terminated. In a passionate outburst the orator exclaimed: "Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third" — Here his words were drowned in an uproar of cries of "Treason!" which came from all parts of the House. The orator paused until silence was restored, cast a look of defiance over the excited assem- bly, and then concluded in a lower tone, — "may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it. " His resolutions passed the House, and the first open defiance of the English king was sustained by the Virginia House of Burgesses. In the years that followed Patrick Henry stood in the forefront of the movement toward independence. Alexander H. Everett says that, "During the period between this date and the Revolution Mr. Henry was constantly in advance of the most ardent patriots. He suggested and carried into effect, by his immediate personal influence, measures that were opposed as premature and violent by all the other eminent supporters of the cause of liberty." When the first Continental Congress was called into existence in 1774, Henry was one of its most patriotic members. But the first of his speeches of which we have a record was that which he delivered in the Virginia Convention, at Richmond, in March, 1775, roused to it by a resolution, "that the colony be immediately put in a state of defense. " This famous address ranks among the ablest in the world's records of oratory. Its brevity adapts it to the space at our command, and we give it as the choicest example of Revolutionary oratory. Its concluding words, "Liberty or death," were used as a motto on the earliest flags used in the Revolution, and helped to inspire the patriots in the outset of their struggle for independence. "Mr. President: "No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just ad- dressed the House. But different men often see the same subject io8 Seeds of Independence Planted in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen, if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the sub- ject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at the truth, and fulfil the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence, I should con- sider myself as guilty of treason toward my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings. " Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty .? Are we disposed to be of the number of those, who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly ^''concern their temporal salvation .? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. "I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House ^ Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received ? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation ^ Have we shown ourselves so unwiUing to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love .? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the imple- ments of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its ^j.rfr^'^-^. AN OLD MANOR HOUSE. "Hampton," on the eastern shore of Maryland, is an excellent example of the colonial mansion in which our forefathers dispensed the hos- pitality for which they were famous. The great planters lived like lords of the country, keeping stables of fine horses and packs of hunting dogs, riding and hunting l)eing the favorite pastimes. Seeds of Independence Planted 109 purpose be not to force us to submission ? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it ? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies ? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them ? Shall we try argument .? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject ^ Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble suppli- cation .? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted ^ Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remon- strated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyran- nical hands of the ministry and Parhament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and recon- ciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free — if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon, until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained — we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us! "They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger .? Will it be the next week, or the next year .? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house I Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction ? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot ? Sir, we are not weak, if we make the proper use of those means which the God of Nature hath no Seeds of Independence Planted placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Be- sides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat, but in submis- sion and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable — and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come! " It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, peace — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle ^ What is it that gentlemen wish .? What would they have ? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be pur- chased at the price of chains and slavery ? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" Patrick Henry was not alone among those whose voices were ardent for liberty. Virginia yields us others, prominent among them Thomas Nelson, who offered to the Convention of Virginia this resolution — the first of its kind — "That the delegates appointed to represent this colony in General Congress be instructed to propose to that respectable body to declare the United Colonies free and independent States, absolved from all allegiance to or dependence on the Crown or ParKament of Great Britain." In adopting this resolution Virginia broke ground as the pioneer among the colonies that declared for independence. It is, indeed, to the South that we must look for the fullest development in America of the science of government and the art of oratory. Government was a passion with the southerner. Trained, by the institution of slavery, to the management and control of men from his earliest years, he either dwelt in a governmental position on his estate at home, or, if he adopted a profession, was most likely to choose the law, from the opportunities it offered for effective oratory and political preferment. Emotional and impulsive by Seeds of Independence Planted m nature, he was highly susceptible to the influence of rhetoric, and diligently cultivated the art of public speaking for the influence it might give him in political assemblies. The South thus became celebrated for the eloquence of its young lawyers or politicians, and there are abundant traditions of the inspired eloquence of those who carried juries away on the stream of their words, or, in political contests, turned minorities into great majorities by the impetuous power of their speeches. It was as a young lawyer that Patrick Henry won the fame that carried him into the Virginia Assembly. The speech that he made in that celebrated trial in which he won the case of the people against the clergy, of justice and equity against the strict letter of the law, has not been preserved, but its reputation surrounds his name with an aureole, as one of the ablest of forensic orators. Shall we name some others of the leading Revolutionary orators of the South ? Virginia yields us the names of Edmund Pendleton, Richard Bland, George Wythe, Peyton Randolph and Richard Henry Lee among its skilled and accomplished political speakers. South Carolina was equally favored. Among its orators of note were John Rutledge, a rival of Patrick Henry in earnest and fiery elo- quence, and his brother Edward, as graceful in his oratory as John was impetuous. We may name also Christopher Gadsden, a fear- less republican, Henry Laurens, and David Ramsay, all men of fine powers. Massachusetts, the Northern home of oratory, has not an equal record to show, and in this field of expression the South may safely claim superiority in Revolutionary times to the Middle and Eastern States. Among all the colonies South Carolina was the first to raise its voice for Union — a fact to be remembered by those who accuse it of a native inclination to secession. James Otis, the "inspired mad- man" of Massachusetts, in 1765 called upon the colonies to unite and hold a Congress in protest against the Stamp Act, then just passed by Parliament. South Carolina, under the leadership of that unwavering lover of his country, Christopher Gadsden, was the first of the colonies to respond favorably to the proposition. In the Words used afterward by Gadsden, "Our State was the first, though at the extreme end, and one of the weakest as well internally as externally, to listen to the call of our Northern brethren in their dis- tress. Massachusetts sounded the trumpet, but to Carolina is it 112 Seeds of Independence Planted owing that it was attended to. Had it not been tor South Caro- Hna no Congress would then have happened. She was all ahve, and felt it at every pore." The Stamp Act Congress, with its Declaration of Rights and its petition to the king, was the first step toward that union which was to gain such force in the coming years. Nine years afterward, in September, 1774, the first Continental Congress met in solemn session at Philadelphia. It was a great, a vital occasion, for from that day to the present this country — w i t h only a brief in- t e r v a 1 — has never been with- out a Congress. Among the members were men of high re- pute, Virginia in particular shin- ing in the Con- gressional halls, with such dis- SILK WINDING tinguished men (Fac-simile of a picture in Edward Williams' "Virginia Truly as Washington, Valued." 1650.) Patrick Henry, and Richard Henry Lee to represent it. The Congress was in no mood to deal in platitudes. The wrongs of the colonies had been many and vital, and its members had no homage to pay to the English king or Parliament. Patrick Henry, in particular, who made the first speech in the Congress after its organization, did not hesitate to speak out his well-known sentiments, laying down in long array the many injuries which America had suffered at the hands ot England. British oppression, he said, had made one nation of the several colonies, and he no longer considered himself a Virginian, but an American. He moved that the colonies should be considered as a federation of independent states, with democratical representation, each state to have a voice in accordance with the numbers of its population. Carried away by his rhetoric, the voice of opposition sunk, and the resolution was adopted by the Congress. Seeds of Independence Planted 113 Regarding the character of this Congress, in which the South was so ably represented, we cannot do better than offer the remarks of William Pitt, the great Lord Chatham. He declared that the delegates assembled at Philadelphia were second, in soHdity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conduct, to no human assembly of which history preserves the memory. This may seem to be an exaggeration, but none who read the doings and delibera- tions of that body of patriots will say that it was much overdrawn. This First Continental Congress was loyal in tone. It fully recognized the supremacy of the king, but demanded that the wrongs of the colonists should be redressed, and issued a declaration of rights which was very decided in its language. The old slogan of "No Taxation without Representation" was not raised. Represen- tation in the British Parliament was no longer asked for. It was not wanted. The colonies had passed that stage in their development, and in the future would make laws for themselves at home. Before the Second Continental Congress met, on May lo, 1775, a second and critical stage had been passed. The shots at Lexing- ton had wakened the sleeping spirit of war and the British in Boston were besieged. As the tidings of the slaughter on Lexington Common made its way south the people everywhere were aroused. At New York the royal troops were disarmed and their military supplies were seized. At Philadelphia the Independence bell was loudly rung. Day by day the news went farther south and stirred up new manifestations of patriotism. In Maryland, in Virginia, in the Carolinas, the powder of the public sentiment was fired. The people of Charleston seized the arsenal, and their provincial assembly proclaimed themselves ready to sacrifice their lives and fortunes in the cause of liberty. In Savannah the populace took possession of the powder magazine and planted a liberty pole. Even in far-off Kentucky, where Daniel Boone and his band of hunters lay en- camped, they gave the spot the name of Lexington. And Lexington it remains to this day. When the new Congress met, it was in a new mood. The line between peace and war had been crossed, and professions of loyalty to King George were no longer heard. This was especialty the case after November ist, when the king's proclamation denouncing the Americans in arms as rebels reached Philadelphia. The hesitation which had existed was now at an end, the Continental Congress began 8 114 Seeds of Independence Planted to make secret preparations for war, its tone growing resolute and determined. In some of the colonies, indeed, hesitation continued. Pennsylvania, New York and the adjoining provinces expressed strong loyalty to the king. But New England and Virginia alike were hotbeds of rebelHous feehng, and this was also the case with other parts of the South. It is not our purpose to tell all that was done in that Congress. It will suffice here to say that when a commander was wanted for the new army in the field, Virginia was applied to and its noblest ONE SIXTH OFA SPANISH MUiU iyollar:orthe\^diw thereof Cn GolclorSilver la lie given in. exchaiig eat Treasury o£ VIRGINIA^ Tursuani fo ACT oj ASSE'MBlLiY ONE sixth: OFABOIiLAR JDEA.TI£ TO COUNTERTEIT VIRGINIA CURKEIVCX son, George Washington, was chosen for the important post. A wise and fortunate choice it proved, for it is doubtful if any other man in America could have successfully grappled with the terrible task. Had we not had a Washington ready for the work it is more than doubtful if this country would have achieved its independence at that time. As the months went on the demand for a rupture of the political bonds that united us to England grew steadily more acute. The feeling in New England was fully repeated in the South. South Carolina ordered a fort to be built on Sullivan's Island, and on March 21, 1776, adopted a constitution which practically created a new state government. The addresses delivered by John Rutledge during the preceding deliberations rivaled those of Patrick Henry Seeds of Independence Planted us in force and in defiance of English rule. North Carolina went farther still, giving her representatives instructions, on April 12, to vote for independence. Within two weeks South Carolina did the same, Chief-Justice Drayton declaring that the government of the province was independent of that of Great Britain. Virginia was soon in line, the House of Burgesses declaring on May 6 that their ancient constitution had been overthrown. The assembly, thereupon, dissolved, and a convention succeeded which declared for complete separation. A committee was appointed, consisting of Patrick Henry, James Madison, and George Mason, to prepare a declara- tion of rights and a plan of government. The resolution drawn up by this committee was general in its language, but breathed the spirit of liberty throughout. Many of its expressions recall those of Jefferson's famous declaration. It states: "All men are by nature equally free, and have inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. All power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; mag- istrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them. Government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit and security of the people, nation, or community; and when- ever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable and indefensible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such a manner as shall be judged most conducive to the common weal. Public ser- vices not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge to be hereditary." When the people were thus freely and defiantly speaking their minds, the time had evidently come for Congress to act decisively. It did not hesitate. And it is interesting to find that Virginia, the "Mother of States," was the first to take the radical step from which the more timid of the members had been fearfully holding off". On the 6th of June, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, one of the leading representatives of that state, rose on the floor of Congress and offered a set of resolutions that put the alternative flatly before the House. These resolutions declared, "that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are 1 16 Seeds of Independence Planted absolved from all allegiance to the British crown; that all political connection between them and Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; that it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign alliances; and that a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the several colonies for their consideration and approbation." THE CAPITOL AT RICHMOND, VIRGINIA The Congress of the Confederate States of America came here in 1861 from Mont- gomery, Alabama, and sat until the day in April, 1865, when Lee was turned back at Petersburg and "ail was lost save honor." These resolutions did not fall still-born. Congress was ripe for such action. John Adams, of Massachusetts, was prompt to second them, and a committee of five, consisting of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Seeds of Independence Planted 117 Livingston, was appointed to draw up a declaration in accordance with the spirit of the resolutions. Jefferson was at that time a comparatively young man. He had reached his thirty-third year; but Adams was seven or eight years older, and he was a mere juvenile as compared with FrankHn. Yet Jefferson had made his reputation as an able thinker and a facde and graceful writer, and the difficult task of drawing up the Declaration of Independence was intrusted to him. The task was one of great difficulty. However he expressed himself, he was liable to be open to severe criticism. Yet he did not hesitate to undertake the work, and on the 28th of June the famous and remarkable state paper was completed and read to a deeply atten- tive and approving audience. On the 2d of July Lee's resolutions were put to a vote and passed by a majority of the delegates. It was the first great step in the solemn proceedings, and John Adams wrote home that he considered that day the most memorable epoch in the history of America, one that "ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore. " The American people have not accepted his suggestion in full, for they have chosen the 4th of July, the day on which Jefferson's V Declaration was adopted, as the true Independence Day. The change of date was well made. The passage of the resolutions was a mere legislative act; the adoption of Jefferson's magnificent paper was far more than this. America placed herself on record before the world, justified herself grandly for what she had done, and in an unanswerable argument laid down the new creed of Hberty and democracy. All must admit, English and American alike, that the Declara- tion of Independence is a production of splendid power, appealing, in noble and forcible language, to the highest principles of political right and virtue. This is done in no Utopian spirit, in no mood of vindictiveness, but with decorum, dignity, and good sense. The principles advocated by Jefferson were not new, they had long been extant in England. They had been insisted on in the early days of the colonies, but they were applied by him under novel circum- stances, and clearly and plainly put before the world the great principles of political liberty. Certainly, no more important act has ii8 Seeds of Independence Planted ever taken place in the history of the world. On that day the great Western Republic, the United States of America, came into exis- tence. The United Colonies became the United States, and George III was deposed from a portion of his kingdom which in the future was to advance to a level with the noblest of kingdoms known to history. PATRICK HENRY'S GREAT SPEECH The Great Southern Patriot electrified his audience by boldly declaring that the colonists would not endure the oppression of the Home Government and eloquently ar- gued for Independence. CHAPTER VI. THE SOUTH AND ITS HEROES IN THE REVOLUTION Southern aid to Boston — Lord Dunmore and the People — Fort SulUvan and Sergeant Jasper — The first flags of the Repubhc — Light Horse Harry — Morgan and his riflemen — Morgan at Quebec — His defeat of Tarleton — The British take Sa- vannah and Charleston — Marion, the Swamp Fox — Marion and the British officers — Jack Davis and the dragoons — King's Mountain — ^Tarleton and the witty lady — Cornwallis at Yorktown. THE echo of the fatal shots at Lexington, with which the British soldiers in the North broke through the thin ice that lay between peace and war, awakened a responsive thrill in the southern heart from Maryland to Georgia. The patriotism of the South, indeed, had been strongly declared years before, from the time when Patrick Henry sent his electric words flashing through the House of Burgesses to the time when the southern colonies came to the relief of Boston in its day of dire need. The Boston Port Bill, passed by Parliament, had ruined the commerce of that port, and Boston was left without business and almost without food. In that time of distress the South vied with the North in sending supplies. South Carolina, for instance, sent the Bostonians two hundred barrels of rice, and North Carolina sent nearly ten thousand dollars in hard cash. When the news of the fights at Lexington and Concord reached the South, its sentiment of sympathy and patriotism blazed out in supreme ardor. Georgia and the Carolinas spurned the authority of their governors, seized arms and ammunition, and defied the rule of the British king. In Virginia the liberty-loving spirit quickly led to a warHke outbreak. Lord Dunmore, the governor, seized some public powder and loaded it on a vessel. This took place on April 119 120 The South and Its Heroes 20, 1775, the day after the fight at Lexington, and days before the news of it reached Virginia. But the instant it was known the spirit of the citizens was ablaze. An armed body of Virginians, with Patrick Henry at their head, quickly appeared and demanded a return of the public stores. The doughty Dunmore, faced by muskets in the hands of men who were ready to use them, found it wise to pay for the powder he had taken, and hastened to put his pompous person in safety on a British man-of-war. Fuming with anger — like his predecessor Berkeley of a century before — he determined to punish the "rebels" for their contumacy. He armed several vessels, manned them with some of his Tory adherents and a number of slaves to whom he promised freedom, and landed to attack the provincials. Great Bridge, near the Dismal Swamp, was the locality of the sharp fight that followed. To the dismay of the governor, the provincials showed the courage of old soldiers, and he met with a disastrous defeat. Regaining his vessels, the irate Dunmore took a cruel revenge, by setting fire to Norfolk, a town of six thousand inhabitants, some of whom had fired on his ships, and burning it to the ground. After some more fighting Dunmore hastened to put himself beyond the reach of the Virginian patriots, and the southern colonies soon saw the last of their royal governors. The events here related are of particular importance as they began before any news of the affair at Lexington and Concord had reached Virginia, and showed that the patriots of the South did not wait for a New England initiative. In a measure it repeated the events of a century before, Patrick Henry taking the place of the "rebel" Bacon, and Dunmore of the autocratic Berkeley. In June, 1776, an event of more national importance took place. Washington had driven the British out of Boston, and hastened to New York with the expectation that that city would be attacked by the fugitive fleet. But Sir Peter Parker, the British admiral, had another object in view. Charleston, in South Carolina, seemed to lie temptingly open to attack, and he sailed thither with all speed, thinking he could easily take this rebel seaport. He did not know the South Carolinians. They were ready for him. On Sullivan Island, in Charleston harbor, they had built a fort of logs of the palmetto tree of the south, and within it was a band of true-hearted sons of Charleston, headed by the brave Colonel Moultrie. Upon The South and Its Heroes 121 this wooden fort the warships poured a shower of iron balls, but they were wasted on its walls, burying themselves harmlessly in the spongy palmetto wood. The return fire from the fort was far more effective, and at one time Admiral Parker was left alone upon the deck of his flagship, Moultrie's hot fire having swept all others from the deck. Troops were then landed to attack the fort in the rear, but with no better fortune, for they were met with a rifle fire which they could not be brought to face. In the end Parker sailed disconsolately away, followed by the triumphant cheers of the brave defenders of the fort. We have not told the whole story of this affair. It was made famous by one of the most daring deeds in American history. Over the walls of the fort waved Colonel Moultrie's flag, a banner of blue with a white or silver crescent in the right hand corner, and bearing the one word "Liberty." A shot from the fleet cut the flag-staff in twain and the proud emblem fell to the strip of beach outside the wall. To attempt to recover it seemed an errand of certain death, for the fall of the flag was followed by a storm of plung- ing balls from the fleet. But a daring sergeant, William Jasper by name, without a moment's hesitation, sprang over the walls, seized the fallen flag, and climbed hastily back to the parapet, bearing his prize triumphantly in his grasp. Death passed him by un- touched, and amid the cheers of his companions he tied the flag to a new staff and set it again defiantly afloat. The next day Colonel Moultrie met the gallant fellow, with thanks and praises, and told him that he proposed to make him a lieu- tenant for his courage. Jasper modestly declined the proffered honor, asking to be left in the humble place to which he was fitted by his training and education. "I am only a sergeant,'- he said. "I am not fit for the company of officers." The flag of Fort Moultrie was not the first to fly in the South. Some of the Virginia militia who fought with Lord Dunmore had marched under another and a more notable one, the famous rattle- snake flag. The device on this was a coiled rattlesnake, with the warning motto, "Don't tread on me." It also bore Patrick Henry's words, "Liberty or Death!" This is much better known than the pine-tree flag of Massachusetts, used about the same time. The flag hoisted by Washington in the siege of Boston bore thirteen red and white stripes with the British "Union Jack" in the corner. 122 The South and Its Heroes It showed that the separation from the mother country was only half completed. To Washington we largely owe the final development of the "Stars and Stripes," adopted by Congress in June, 1777, and made under his orders by Betsy Ross, the famous flagmaker of Philadelphia. Two and a half years passed before the South saw any more of the war, the British being kept busy dur- ing this period in a strenuous effort to subdue the northern states. But they had Washington, the noble Virginia soldier, to deal with, and in the end found themselves baffled at eveiy point. At the close of this period of the war the city of New York was nearly the only impor- tant place in their hands. In his great labor Washington was ably aided by brave men and gallant offi- cers from all the col- onies, the South con- tributing its full share A HOUSE ON BULL STRLEi , SAVANNAH of skilled and patri- For almost half its distance, this street runs through otic Supporters. beautiful parks. Chief among thosc of southern blood was General Henry Lee, the famous "Light- Horse Harrv, " who was one of Washington's most efficient and trusted officers. This gallant Virginian has three high claims to distinction: first, his eminent services as a daring cavalry leader in the Revolutionary War; second, his noble eulogy on Washing- ton, to whom he applied the memorable phrase, "First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen;" third, in the The South and Its Heroes 123 deeds of his eminent son, Robert E. Lee, the brilliant military- leader of the Southern Confederacy in the Civil War. Lee's first service w^as in 1776, when he, at that time only tv^enty years of age, became a captain of cavalry. Joining Wash- ington's main army in September, 1777, he distinguished himself by several daring exploits. The best known and most brilliant of his enterprises in the North was the capture of the British fort at Paulus Hook, on the Hudson, opposite New York, in 1779. For this bold exploit Congress voted him a gold medal. Lee's later important services were in the South, where he joined General Greene's army in January, 1781, and in command of a cavalry legion formed the rear-guard of Greene's army in his famous retreat before Lord Cornwallis. *' Light Horse Harry," as he came to be called in the army, rendered important services in the engagement at Guilford Court House and at Fort Ninety-six, assisted in the capture of Augusta and the battle of Eutaw Springs, and in October joined Washington at Yorktown, where he won his share of the glory in the final affair of the war. We need only further to say that he afterward served as Governor of Virginia and as mem- ber of Congress, dying in 18 18. There was another of Washington's right hand men, the notable Daniel Morgan, widely known as the leader of a corps of rifle- men in the patriot army, who carved his name well and deeply in the records of the war. Morgan, though born in New Jersey, had lived in Virginia from childhood, and while still a youth was fond of the rough life of the frontier, in which he had some narrow escapes from the Indians. In 1755 he served as a wagoner in Braddock's expedition, showing in this duty the bold independence of the fron- tiersman. A British officer having insulted him, Morgan promptly retorted with a knock-down blow from his wagon whip. For this he was sentenced to the terrible punishment of five hun- dred lashes. These were given less one, and Morgan always afterward said that he owed King George one more lash. The time came when he amply repaid his debt. No sooner had the Revolution begun than he enlisted a company of riflemen and marched away for Washington's camp before Boston. Hardy young fellows were his followers, wearing linen hunting shirts with "Liberty or Death" emblazoned on their breasts. When they reached Boston, after a six-hundred-mile march, it was evening. 124 The South and Its Heroes Washington, who was riding out, stopped as he saw them approach. Morgan stepped forward and saluted him, saying: "General, from the right bank of the Potomac. " Tears came to the general's eyes as he heard these words. He sprang from his horse, walked along the line, shook hands with the sturdy young recruits, and then mounted and rode off again without a word. His emotion was too deep for language. Of Morgan's exploits we must speak briefly. He joined Arnold in his terrible winter journey through the Maine forests, and was taken prisoner at Quebec in that desperate night attack in which the brave Montgomery was killed. He had fought with such valor that the British general sent for him and offered him a colonel's commission in the English army if he would join them. Morgan's reply was a stern rebuke for what he deemed the insult of the offer. Exchanged at length, he lost no time in rejoining Washington's army, and was made colonel of a rifle corps which won high celebrity under his command. It was especially distinguished at Saratoga, where Burgoyne's defeat is said to i---'-? been due to Morgan's daring attack. But his most famous exploit took place in the South, where he met the redoubtable Colonel Tarleton at Cowpens in South Carolina, and sent his boasted troops whirling back in utter defeat, such of them as did not remain in his hands. Up to that time the Americans had, except at King's Mountain, met with disaster in the South, but Morgan's splendid exploit changed the situation and did much to raise the spirit of the patriot bands. Soon after this victory a severe attack of rheumatism, a result of his long years of exposure, forced the gallant old rifleman to retire to rest upon his laurels. The war in the South practically began in December, 1778, when Savannah was attacked in force and taken. Augusta next fell into British hands, and Georgia, with its scanty population, was easily overrun. One of the great disasters of the war took place in the following September, when General Lincoln, aided by the French fleet, sought to recapture Savannah. He was repulsed with a loss of more than a thousand men slain, among them the noble Pole, Count Pulaski. But of more moment to Americans is the fact that Sergeant Jasper here gave up his life in his country's cause, clasping in his dying hands the banner which his regiment had received at Fort Moultrie. \ The South and Its Heroes 125 As if thoroughly discouraged by their non-success in the North, the British devoted the final two years of the war in a vigorous endeavor to conquer and hold the South. In 1780 Charleston was besieged by a powerful force under General Clinton. General Lincoln defended the town with skill and courage, but, attacked by land and sea, besieged for forty days, and finally bombarded for forty-eight hours by two hundred cannon, he was at length obliged to surrender, and on May 12th the leading city of the South fell into the hands of the enemy. Lord Cornwallis was now put in command of the British forces in the South, and prepared to overrun South Carolina, as rf^SST-a-fiSa: |f r^ THE BATTERY, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA This is the favorite promenade and the chief residence quarter. Georgia had been previously overrun. Expeditions were sent in various directions and many localities were occupied. The bold and ruthless Colonel Tarleton, the hard-riding cavalry leader, swept all before him, and General Gates, who had been given the credit of conquering Burgoyne, lost all credit by his utter defeat at Camden. His army was so completely scattered that he was seen soon after- ward eighty miles away without a soldier left of all his force. Two days afterward, August i8th. General Sumter's corps was met and almost annihilated by Tarleton's dragoons. When the summer ended South Carolina seemed at the mercy of CornwaUis and his army. 126 The South and Its Heroes Did the patriots of South Carohna think so ? That is another question. Certainly the British troops found the old South State a very hot place to hold, the gallant partisan commanders, Marion, Pickens, Sumter and others darting about like so many stinging wasps and giving their foes little rest. Small as were the forces under these daring men, they were incessantly active, quick to attack and as hard as a weasel to catch. They continually an- noyed the invaders, cut off detachments, dispersed convoys and carried off their stores, and in a hundred ways made their presence felt. Yet to pursue them was almost in vain, for they were as skilled in hiding as alert in attack. Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox" of the South Carolina swamps and forests, is the most famous of these men, and as a hero of romance he has few equals in history. We can not serve our readers better than by giving a brief sketch of the brilliant career of this daring soldier and of the character of his exploits. . We may open it in the summer of 1780, when Gates was marching southward from North Carohna, with hopes of defeating the British forces. We have seen what came of those hopes at Camden, but we are here concerned with an episode of his march, preceding the period of his disastrous battle. The army had crossed the Pedee River, on its way southward, when there joined it a volunteer corps which was received with jest and laughter. It consisted in all of about twenty men, such scare- crows of soldiers as those that made up Falstaff's famous recruits. Some were boys and some men, some whites and some blacks; while their clothes were in tatters, their equipments laughable in their queer variety, their horses parodies on the fabled Rosinante. A motley troop it was, and at its head a small, spare-faced, modest looking horseman, his attire not much superior to that of his men, but with a flash in his eye that suppressed the mirth of the soldiers as he rode past. Yet unintrusive as this personage appeared, and ridiculous as his followers seemed to the Continental troops, he was not a man to be treated with disdain, for he was the famous Francis Marion, the Robin Hood of revolutionary days, the Swamp Fox, as he was called by the people of his state. But the self-sufficient Gates had no welcome for this ragged squad. Its leader ventured to give him some advice about the military condition of the .South, but found his The South and Its Heroes 127 suggestions none too politely received, and he was soon got rid of by being sent on a scouting expedition in advance of the army, the work for which he and his men were best adapted. Small as was his following, Marion bore the title of colonel. He left the army as a general. Governor Rutledge, who was present and knew him and his work, gave him a brigadier's commission, with authority to enhst a brigade for partisan warfare in the swamp and forest region of the state. Away went General Marion with his score of scarecrows, doubtless leaving the army in a broad grin of laughter. They did not know then how soon their disciplined array would be broken and dispersed by the fire of the foe, and Marion be left almost alone to keep up the spirit of patriotism in his state. Until General Greene came into the field, Marion, Sumter and a few other partisan warriors with slender foUowings alone kept Hberty alive in the broad domain of the South. Marion was not long in adding to the numbers of his troop. In truth, his corps was constantly changing in size, now shrinking, now swelhng, now reduced to the motley score with which he joined Gates, now expanded to a hundred or more in dimensions. It rarely grew to any great size. Its home was the swamp, and food or shelter could not there be found for any large body of men. Lurk- ing in the swamps of the Pedee, he kept sharply on the watch for passing bodies of British and Tories, his men darting out like hornets to sting their incautious foes, and then vanishing into their coverts before the enemy could gather in dangerous strength. There were hiding places in abundance in the secret depths of the swamp-region, thicket-covered islands, reached by narrow paths which the foe could not hope to find. From these coverts he darted out to all quarters of the compass, striking the foe when least expected, quickly appearing at points many miles separated, and vanishing like a flitting cloud whenever strongly pursued. Rarely has so small a body of men proved so annoying to an enemy, or done so much to make a conquering army uneasy in its hold on a subjected country. At the point where Lynch's Creek joins the Pedee River there rose in the swamp a space of higher land, known as Snow's Island. It was a thickly forested region, abundantly supplied with game, and offering an excellent lurking ground for the partisan band. Its surface rose high and dry above the swamp level, covered with 128 The South and Its Heroes thicket and canebrake, and crossed only by paths known to the patriot band. This was Marion's headquarters. He had various other hiding places in the swamps, but Snow's Island was his chosen home. There is an interesting anecdote that forms part of the romance of American history, and which goes to show how the Swamp Fox lived in this well-chosen retreat. A British ojfhcer had been sent to treat with Marion for an exchange of prisoners, and was welcomed to the camp, for captives were a burden for which the Swamp Fox had no use. But the envoy had to submit to be blindfolded and led through canebrake and thicket to the hidden camp, whose secret no enemy could be permitted to trace. When the bandage was removed from his eyes, the officer looked around him in surprise, almost fancying that he was in one of the old-time haunts of Robin Hood. Over him spread the boughs of grand old trees, so laden with moss that the sunlight had trouble to make its way in patches to the sward. On the ground below, amid the columned trunks, reclined groups of stalwart men, no two dressed alike, and with scarce a pretense of uniform. Their horses, on the island edge, contentedly cropped the thin herbage. It resembled a forest camp of outlaws, well content to dwell in the greenwood depths. That this ill-dressed, lounging party and their diminutive, quiet- looking commander were the celebrated band which had kept the British so long in alarm, was more than the astounded envoy could well believe. Yet it was past doubt, and Marion lost no time in concluding the business for which the officer had come, ending with a cordial request that he should dine with him. The officer looked round in inquiry. Where was the table, where the essentials of a civilized meal ? It looked as if he would have but Lenten fare. "We dine here in woodland fashion. Captain," smiled Marion. "Pray be seated." He took his seat on a mossy log, and pointed to an opposite one for his guest. Soon, from a brushwood fire at a distance, came the camp cook, with a heap of roasted sweet potatoes smoking on a large piece of bark. "Help yourself. Captain," said Marion, taking a potato from the rustic platter. "Surely, General," cried the officer, looking at the viands with eyes of wonder, "this cannot be your ordinary fare .?" The South and Its Heroes 129 "Indeed it is," said Marion. "And we are fortunate on this occasion, having a guest to entertain, to have more than our usual allowance." The envoy had nothing more to say. He helped himself to the proffered viands with the appetite given by his journey. But tradi- tion reports that on his return he lost no time in resigning his com- mission, saying that a people who could go to war with no better fare than roots could not and should not be subdued, and that he, for one, would not fight against them. So greatly were the British annoyed by Marion that in the end they sent Col. Wemyss, one of their best cavalry officers, to hunt him down and crush him. Marion was then far from his hiding place, and found himself hotly pursued by Wemyss, who had got upon his trail. But the Swamp Fox proved hard to catch, and was too wary to fight where he had no chance to win. He led his pursuer a lively chase, making his way swiftly northward into North Carolina by a route intersected by swamps and streams. Wemyss lost the trail, and found it only to lose it again. At length, hopeless of overtaking the wily partisan, he turned back, revengefully desolating the country from which he had driven its most active defender. He reckoned without his host if he fancied that he had the game in his own hands. Marion, who had but sixty followers, halted and sent out scouts as soon as the pursuit ceased. In a short time he was back in the ravaged district. The people, infuriated with their losses, joined him in numbers with horse and rifle, and he was soon in condition to strike a heavy blow. Riding in all haste to the Black Mingo, below Georgetown, he surprised, at midnight, a large body of Tories there assembled and attacked them with such suddenness and vigor that they were almost annihilated, while he lost but a single man. Discouraged by this swift retribution, the British gave Marion a period of rest. Then Tarleton, the hard-riding marauder of the South, took upon himself the task of crushing the wily Swamp Fox. He scoured the country, burning and destroying in his usual fashion, but, with all his skill and speed, faihng to catch the hornet of the swamps. Marion was at home now. He did not fly from the foe, but managed to remind him unpleasantly 6f his constant presence. More than once Tarleton fancied that he had run him down, and halted for the night within a few miles of him, expecting to 130 The South and Its Heroes crush him at break of day. But in some neighboring thicket or morass Marion would be watching his over-confident foe, and at midnight would strike him sharply in rear or flank. In the end Tarleton withdrew from the task as Wemyss had done before him, cursing this fellow who "would not fight like a gentleman and a Christian." He had no sooner withdrawn than Marion was at his old work again. Major Lee — the noted "Light Horse Harry" — was sent by General Greene to join him, that the two might make an attack on the British garrison at Georgetown. Lee had no little trouble in finding him. He was so constantly in motion that friend and foe alike found him hard to trace. At length they met, and a midnight assault was m.ade on Georgetown. It proved unsuccessful, but helped greatly to add to the uneasiness of the foe. In the spring of 1781 another attempt was made to "crush Marion." Colonel Watson, with a force of five hundred men, now succeeded in finding him, but not much to his own comfort. Marion was then at his Snow's Island camp, and from this point struck several quick and heavy blows in widely diff^erent localities. At length he and Watson unexpectedly met and a fight ensued. Wat- son had field-pieces, and Marion was forced to retreat. Reaching Black River, he kept back the foe with sharp volleys until he had burned the bridge by which he crossed. Then a peculiar contest followed. The two parties marched down the stream for ten miles, constantly skirmishing across the water, but neither able to get near the other, until darkness ended the fight. Each pitched his camp on his own side of the stream, and for ten days Watson remained there, unable to get at his foe, and losing daily from Marion's constant raids. In the end he made a midnight flight, in fear of being de- stroyed in detail. To him is due the remark, already quoted, that Marion would not "fight like a gentleman and a Christian." When too hotly pursued by a superior force, and with none of his lurking places at hand, Marion had another way of discomfiting his foes. His command would break up into small parties, and these into smaller, until nearly every patriot was making his way alone, by routes unknown to the foe, to some distant meeting place. There is a story apropos of this which is worth repeating. "We will o-ive fifty pounds to get within reach of the scamp that galloped by here, just ahead of us," exclaimed a lieutenant of The South and Its Heroes 131 TARLETONS LIEUTENANT AND THE FARMER (JACK DAVISJ . 132 The South and Its Heroes Tarleton's cavalry, as he and three other troopers drew up before a farmer, who was hoeing in the field by the roadside. The farmer looked up, leaned on his hoe, took off his old hat and, mopping his forehead with his handkerchief, looked at the angry soldier and said: "Fifty pounds is a big lot of money." " So it is; but we'll give it to you in gold, if you'll show us where we can get our eyes on this rebel. You must have seen him." " He was all alone, wasn't he ? And he was mounted on a black horse with a white star in his forehead, and was going like a streak of hghtning. " "That's the fellow!" exclaimed the questioners, hoping they were about to get the knowledge they wanted. " It looked to me like Jack Davis, though he went by so fast that I couldn't get a square look at his face, but he was one of Marion's men, and if I ain't greatly mistaken it was Jack Davis himself." Then looking up at the four British horsemen, the farmer added, with a quizzical expression: "I reckon that ere Jack Davis has hit you chaps pretty hard, ain't he V "Never mind about that," replied the lieutenant; "what we want to know is where we can get a chance at him for just about five minutes." The farmer put his cotton handkerchief into his hat, which he now slowly replaced, and shook his head: "I don't think he's hiding round here," he said. "When he shot by Jack was going so fast that it didn't look as if he could stop under four or five miles. Strangers, I'd like powerful well to earn that fifty pounds, but I don't think you'll get a chance to squander it on me." After some further questioning, the lieutenant and his men wheeled their horses and trotted back toward the main body of Tarleton's cavalry. The farmer plied his hoe for several minutes, gradually working his way toward the stretch of woods some fifty yards from the roadside. Reachmg the margin of the field, he stepped in among the trees, hastily took off his clothing, tied it up in a bundle, and shoved it under a flat rock from beneath which he drew a suit no better in quality, but showing a faint resemblance to a uniform. The South and Its Heroes 133 Putting it on and then plunging still deeper into the woods, he soon reached a dimly-marked track, which he followed only a short distance, when a gentle whinny fell upon his ear. The next mo- ment he vaulted on the back of a bony but blooded horse, marked by a beautiful star in his forehead. The satin skin of the steed shone as though he had been travehng hard, and his rider allowed him to walk along the path for a couple of miles, when he entered an open space where, near a spring, Francis Marion and fully two hundred men were encamped. They were eating, smoking and chatting as though no such horror as war was known. It scarcely needs to be said that the farmer who leaned on his hoe by the roadside and talked to Tarleton's lieutenant about Jack Davis and his exploits was Jack Davis himself. It must be stated that, while well filled with patriots, the Carolinas were not lacking in a very undesirable element of the population, those known by themselves as Loyalists but by the patriots as Tories, a class with which all the colonies in rebellion were far too well suppHed. They swarmed in the Carohnas, many of them joining the British army, others plundering and often murder- ing their patriot neighbors. It was against these fellows that Marion and Sumter directed much of their efforts, and in October, 1780, the Tory forces met with a disastrous defeat in one of the most notable battles of the war. To go back a step, it needs to be said that after the defeat of Gates, he was succeeded by General Greene, a man of very different caliber. Greene was able, active and vigilant, but he sadly lacked men and money, and the North Carolina governor, fearing that his state might suffer the fate of South Carolina and Georgia, made an earnest appeal to the bold backwoodsmen of East Tennes- see to come to the aid of the Old North State, on whose soil nearly all of them had been born. The frontiersmen responded eagerly, nine hundred of them — no braver men ever sat in saddle — riding across the mountain passes to encounter Colonel Ferguson, who, with a party of British and Tories, eleven hundred strong, had gathered upon King's Mountain, preparatory to raiding the low country. Ferguson was a good soldier, and he had the advantage in numbers and position. But the men of Tennessee were there to win and were not to be stayed in their advance. Ferguson handled his men skilfully, but the sharp-shooting riflemen of the Tennessee 134 The South and Its Heroes mountains pressed him steadily back, and finally a rifle bullet laid him low. There was little resistance after that. Over four hundred and fifty of the enemy had fallen before the unerring rifles of the frontier, when the remainder threw down their arms and yielded themselves prisoners. It was an inspiriting victory, that filled with joy the heart of patriotic America. "The joyful turning of the tide," Jefferson called it. Bancroft, the historian, speaks of it more enthusiastically still. He says, "The victory of King's Mountain, which in the spirit of the American soldiers was like the rising at Concord, in its effect, like the success at Bennington, changed the aspect of the war. " Such seemed to be the case, for from this time on the tide of affairs turned in favor of the patriots. Ably aided by two gallant southern generals, Lee and Morgan, Greene soon made the British feel that they had new blood to deal with. Morgan, as we have stated, won at Cowpens, a place near King's Mountain, a victory as important in its results; and though Greene lost the battle of Guilford Court House, his defeat had the effect of a victory, and Cornwallis dared not attempt to pursue. In fact he was soon obliged to retreat, and eventually found it necessary to seek the soil of Virginia and leave the Carolinas to their fate. Reverting to Morgan's victory at Cowpens, of which we have already twice spoken, it is of interest to say something of another gallant Virginian who took part in that affray. This was Colonel William Washington, a cousin of the commander-in-chief, and a dashing cavalry leader. During the battle he had a personal en- counter with Tarleton, on whom he inflicted a sword wound, the doughty Briton escaping capture only through the speed of his horse. This fact did not add to Tarleton's love for the patriot colonel. Soon after, in a company of South CaroHna ladies, the Briton sneeringly remarked: "I have been told that Colonel Washington is very illiterate, and can scarcely write his name." "At least he can make his mark," retorted one of his fair hearers. On another occasion Tarleton said that he would like to see Colonel Washington. The same witty lady was ready with an answer: "You might have had that pleasure if you had looked behind you at the battle of Cowpens. " The South and its Heroes 135 General Greene continued to seize one position after another, driving the scattered bodies of the British through South Carohna and finally meeting them face to face at Eutaw Springs, where another severely contested battle took place; in which, as at Guilford, the British claimed the honors of the day, but which also resulted in their ultimately giving way before the Americans and entrenching themselves in Charleston. Now, indeed, the British decided to move into Virginia, not, as originally planned, after having subdued the Carolinas, but because the more southern states were no longer tenable. It seemed almost as if Greene were dehberately driving them northward so that in the end they might lie between two American armies. Cornwallis, at any rate, being near the northern seacoast of North Carolina, deemed it advisable to try his fortune among the Virginians, whose state for some time the traitor Arnold had been raiding, with Lafayette in the field against him. What followed is too familiar to all readers to need more than a few words of de- scription. Incautiously shutting himself up in Yorktown, Corn- wallis suddenly found himself besieged by Washington, at the head of a combined army of Americans and French. In the bay outside lay the French fleet. Cornwallis had put himself in a trap from which there was no escape by land or water, and after a week's severe bombardment was forced to surrender his whole army. "O God, it is all over!" cried Lord North, when he heard of this event. It was, indeed, all over, and American independence was won. It is of especial interest to us, in view of our subject, that this great event took place on Southern soil, and that it was a son of Virginia to whose military genius American independence was due. CHAPTER VII. FAMOUS PATHFINDERS AND PIONEERS OF THE SOUTH Daniel Boone as a boy — Boone's inscription — John Finley — Boone seeks Kentucky — Adventures with the Indians — Colonel Henderson and the Land Company — A Kentucky fort — Boone's daughter captured and rescued — Boone a prisoner — His escape and the siege of the fort — George Rogers Clark and his project — The British in the Northwest — Clark's expedition sets out — The ball at Kaskaskia and its capture — The British at Vincennes — The march through the overflow — Clark captures Vincennes — The important result of Clark's expedition. COOPER, in his thrilling "Leather-stocking" tales, has given us a vivid picture of the hfe of the daring scouts and Indian fighters of early American days. Imaginative as some of his stories of adventure are, they do not far transcend reality, for in the life of the indomitable Daniel Boone we have a record of hair- breadth escapes and "moving accidents by flood and field" that rival those of Cooper's famous frontier hero. It is to Boone we owe the settlement of Kentucky and the addition of a new pearl to the Southern crown, and our record of the building of the Old South would be far from complete without the story of this prince of hunters and frontiersmen. Daniel Boone was a boy when his father made his way from Pennsylvania to North Carohna, where he built a new home in the mountainous western region of that colony. He was a born hunter and forester. On one occasion, while still a child, he disappeared from home, and was found, after a long search, beside a fire he had kindled in the woods, where he was cooking the game he had shot and playing the backwoods hunter to perfection. His love of hunting, his skill with the rifle, and his expertness as a scout grew with his years, and there was no one in the country better fitted to 136 Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 137 circumvent the wiles of the savage foe than this young settler in the Carolina wilds. West of the home of the Boones ran the great Appalachian mountain system, a region nearly fifty miles in width, traversed by parallel chains, all rugged and some almost impassable. It seemed like a Chinese Wall of nature's building which no foot could cross, yet the frontier hunters of Carolina were not easily daunted, and years before Boone's story began some of them had made their way across the mountain barrier and set foot on the soil of Tennessee. Inspired by the stories told by these pioneers. Dr. Thomas Walker, -- ^ -- J- ' ^^-^t AN OLD INDIAN FARM-HOUSE of Virginia, led an expedition in 1756 into this region and laid claim to its new and virgin land for that state. Other parties followed from time to time, and there is strong evidence that young Boone went with one of these parties as early as 1760. At any rate, on an old tree near the stage road between Jonesboro and Blountsville, Tennessee, there has been found, carved in the bark, the following inscription: "D. Boon cilled a Bar on tree in The year 1760." Evidently, if Boone actually wrote this, his skill with the pen was far less than with the rifle. While the pioneer settlement of Tennessee was thus set in train 13^ Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South Kentucky remained unknown. Dr. Walker probably trod on its soil in one of his journeys, but its true discovery and exploration were left for the famed hunter of North Carolina. Yet Boone had a prede- cessor from his own neighborhood. A bold hunter named John Finley, with some companions, crossed the mountains in 1767 and gazed upon this new Eden, a land full of game, salubrious in climate, and seemingly formed by nature for the planting ground of a great state. Finley and his fellows returned with marvelous stories of what they had seen, the woods, the glades, the streams, the abun- dance of animals, the delights of the climate and situation. Their story was one to excite and inspire all men of adventurous spirit. This was the effect it had on Daniel Boone. He burned with desire to explore and settle this hunter's paradise, and in 1769 entered upon that career which was to make him the most famous of American pioneers. It was no land of ease, no haven of safety, to which he proposed to go. The right to settle Tennessee had been purchased from the Cherokees, who claimed that region as their own. But Kentucky was a no-man's land. No tribe of Indians possessed it, and it served as a hunting ground for all the neighboring tribes. Hostile to each other as these frequently were, desperate battles were not uncommon on its soil, and it had won the grimly significant title of "The dark and bloody ground." Such was the land of peril which Daniel Boone, in company with John Finley, John Steuart and several others, set out in 1769 to traverse and explore. Among these adventurers Boone from the first showed himself the master spirit. It was no light task to cross those fifty miles of mountains, but the explorers finally stood on a mountain crest overlooking the fertile valleys watered by the Kentucky River. There were herds of buffalo and of deer in sight, and evidences of game were everywhere abundant. The country was luxuriant almost beyond description in its vegetation, and it seemed indeed, as Finley had described it, "a hunter's paradise. " From the cane-brakes in the river bottoms to the forest trees that crowned the wooded hills it appeared to be a land of peace and plenty, and there was nothing to indicate the perils which lurked within its forest depths. Boone and his party encamped within view of all this beauty and wealth of nature, in a rock-cleft over which had fallen a giant tree. This camp from time to time they improved and enlarged. Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 139 and it remained their headquarters during the succeeding summer and autumn. Through all that time they roamed and hunted freely, finding abundance of game, exploring the country thoroughly, but meeting with none of the red inhabitants. In the autumn Boone and John Steuart one day left their com- panions and plunged into the forest for a little longer excursion than usual. One cannot but imagine what the scene must have been at that season of the year in the forest primeval. The rich luxuriance of vegetable life and the plentiful supply of game must have appealed strongly to the feelings of these hunters, whose sense of security had not yet been disturbed by any encounters. Of all this domain they had literally been in peaceful possession until then. Suddenly the feeling of safety was rudely dissipated by the appearance of a band of Indians, who surprised Boone and Steuart so completely that resis- tance was out of the question, and they were taken prisoners. Making their way with their captives toward the villages of their tribe, on the seventh night after the capture the Indians en- camped in a cane-brake and built their fire. Perhaps the fatigue of a long march made them abate something of their customary caution; at all events, as they slept by the fire, Boone, who was always on the alert, saw his opportunity to extricate himself from among them and escape. Refusing, however, to abandon his companion, although knowing that the risk of waking him was very great, as the slightest noise would alarm their captors, he went to where Steuart was sleeping, and taking hold of him, succeeded in rousing him without noise. They crept silently away and by morning were out of reach of the Indians and far on their way back to camp. They reached there without being overtaken, but only to find that Finley and the others had disappeared. They were never heard of again. Early in the next year Squire Boone, Daniel's brother, arrived with a companion. On their approach to camp they were sharply challenged, not being at once recognized; but the meeting was naturally one of great rejoicing when the hermits found who their visitors were. Now, for the first time since leaving home, Boone heard from his family, received messages from his wife, and learned how his boys were progressing with the little farm. It was not long after this that Boone and Steuart were again attacked by the Indians, and this time Steuart was killed. Not long afterward Squire Boone's companion strayed from camp, to which he never returned. I40 Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South These misfortunes left the two brothers entirely alone, and as ammunition was running low the later comer decided to return home and get the necessary supphes. We hardly know which to admire most, the courage of the man who would face the perils of that return journey by himself, or the fortitude of the other who remained alone in that wild country, infested by his enemies, and for three months obhged to shift his camp constantly to avoid discovery. From his own account of this part of his life we find, however, that those days which he passed alone in the wild woods of Kentucky, depending upon his own skill and vigilance, eluding his enemies and tracking his game, were far from being the least pleasant in his life. To dwell alone in the solitude of the woods was to him the essence of romance and enjoyment. After an absence of three months Boone's brother returned with the needed supplies, and the two hunters continued their perilous yet much loved work. But hunting was only one of the purposes of these hardy and daring men. The exploration of the country was a still more important one, and when they finally returned to North Carolina in 1 771, it was with a satisfactory knowledge of the character and promise of that new land. Certainly Boone's account of it was warm and enthusiastic. He could not speak too highly of its fertility, the beauty of its mountains and streams, and the delightful character of its climate, and but for the difficulty of the journey and the peril which lurked in its forest depths, half the colony would have been ready to follow him across the mountain barrier. History of late years has shed a new light on Boone's exploits. It is said that a Colonel Henderson, a noted character of that time, with several others of prominence had formed a land company to purchase the new country from the Cherokees, or at least its southern part, to which this tribe laid claim, and to found there a State or Republic independent of English rule. This they proposed to name Transylvania. There is some reason to believe that it was in the interest of this company that Boone made his first exploration of "The dark and bloody ground" of Indian war and legend. His second journey was unquestionably for the purpose of negotiating with the Cherokees, and making all the preliminary arrangements for the purchase of the tract. If his report of the nature of the land had induced the formation of the company, he was no less successful in conducting the second part of the business. Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 141 When he had arranged terms with the Cherokees, Colonel Henderson joined him on the Watauga to conclude the bargain. There he met the Indians in solemn conclave, took part in their council, smoked the peace pipe, and paid in merchandise the purchase-money for Kentucky, receiving from the Indians a deed for the same. The Cherokees sold Kentucky as they had already sold Tennessee, but with far less rightful claim to the land. Colonization was next in order, and Boone undertook with a party to open a road from the Holston River to the Kentucky River, and to erect stations or forts. Gathering a party for the purpose, they eventually, after a laborious march through the INDIAN AGENCY It was to these agencies that the Indians came to exchange their valuable blankets and skins for trinkets, liquor and ammunition. wilderness, in the course of which they lost several men, arrived at the spot where Boonesborough now stands. There they fixed their camp and built the foundations for a fort. Near this place was a salt hck. A few days after the commencement of the fort a member of the party was killed during an attack by Indians, but for some time after that there was no disturbance. This was the beginning of colonization in Kentucky. It was, of course, commenced under the impression that the Cherokee purchase was good, but the vaUdity of the Indian deed was at once denied by the governor of North Carolina and also by the Govern- 142 Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South ment of Virginia, as well as by that of Tennessee. Yet each of these states, granted to the land company large tracts of land on the same territory, so that while unsuccessful in founding an independent repubhc, Colonel Henderson and his associates became very wealthy. For a long time those who were doing the actual work on the frontier, bearing the hardships and the brunt of battle, did not know that any question had been raised as to the vahdity of the title under the Indian purchase, and still supposed themselves to be engaged in the founding of a new and free commonwealth. A fort at that day meant a structure of a very primitive kind. Butler, in his History of Kentucky, says: "A fort in those times consisted of pieces of timber sharpened at the ends and firmly lodged in the ground. Rows of these pickets enclosed the desired space, which embraced the cabins of the inhabitants. One or more block houses, of superior care and strength, commanding the sides of the ditch, completed the fortifications or stations, as they were called. Generally, the sides of the interior cabins formed the sides of the fort." About thirty or forty new settlers came to Boonesborough with Colonel Henderson, to whom Boone had written. So far the new- comers were all men. Before long, however, the leader returned for his own family, and others, to the number of twenty-six men, four women, and half a dozen boys and girls, accompanied him back through the Cumberland Gap. Before arriving at Boonesborough the little caravan separated, part of them settling at another point, where they built a fort of their own. Mrs. Boone and her daughters were the first white women to arrive at Boonesborough and settle there. Other settlers followed with new colonies, and these began to make Kentucky their home. One of the stations was called Harrod's Old Cabin, another was named Logan. Among the men of prominence were Simon Kenton, John Floyd, Colonel Richard Callaway, and others whose names appear again and again in the early annals of the country. Among the exciting episodes of the first years in Kentucky was the capture of one of Boone's daughters and two of Callaway's daughters by the Indians. The oldest of these girls was about twenty and the youngest fourteen years of age. They were sitting in a canoe under the trees which overhung the bank of the river opposite the fort. There they were surprised by the Indians and BATTLE OF RESACA DE LA PALMA. Captain May leaped his steed over the parapet, followed by those of his men whose horses could do a like feat, and was among the gunners the next moment, sabering them right and left. General La Vega and a hundred of his men were made prisoners and borne back to the Amer- ican lines. Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 143 taken away before their friends discovered their peril. This happened so near nightfall that pursuit was impossible, but in the morning Boone and Floyd started in pursuit. They surprised the In- dians that day as they halted to cook, and, killing one or two, drove the rest away. FeeHng their own force too weak for pursuit, they were glad to return with the rescued girls. The account of this event, affording, as it did, evidence of the hostility of the savages, induced nearly three hundred people to return to their former homes during the next few months. It may well be imagined indeed that the Indians did not view this invasion of their ancient hunting grounds by the whites with equanimity. Bitterly hostile to these white invaders, they lay in wait for them, and sought every opportunity to cut them off. To leave the fort on the hunt for game was at the risk of the hunter's being hunted as game. The story of the adventures of these bold foresters is full of thrilling incidents and hair-breadth escapes, in which Boone figured prominently. But so great was his skill and prowess, so many his escapes from Indian wiles, that the savages came to look upon him as bearing a charmed life, and to admire him highly for the qualities which most appealed to them. Good fortune, however, at length deserted the daring hunter. He was taken prisoner with a party who were surprised by a strong band of Indians while making salt at the Salt Lick Springs. The Indians were overjoyed to get their great enemy into their hands. Their captives were taken north, and all but Boone were ransomed by the British at Detroit. For the great hunter the red men would accept no ransom. He was taken to their village at Chillicothe, and there was formally adopted into their tribe, the Shawanee, he being made a member of the family of Blackfish, a distinguished chief. Boone accepted the situation with much assumed equanimity and became as good an Indian as any of his new associates. Yet the wily savages did not trust his easy acquiescence in his fate; he was keenly watched and, while permitted to hunt, was given too little ammunition to serve him in an attempt to escape. They knew he would not venture on a journey of several hundred miles without the means of obtaining food. But, by cutting his bullets in half and using very small charges of powder, Boone managed gradually to accumulate a small supply of this necessary material. A crisis came at length. Though familiar with their language 144 Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South he so shrewdly concealed this fact from his captors, that they spoke freely in his hearing, and eventually he overheard them discussing a plot they had formed for the capture ot Boonesborough. Boone v^ell knew^ that a sudden assault on that place would probably be successful, in the bad condition of the fort and the lack of suspicion in its inmates. If taken, his own wife and children might be among the slain. The only hope of safety for the settlers lay in him. Unless he could escape all was lost. Hiding his apprehensions behind a smiling equanimity and apparent ignorance, he waited his time. On the r6th of June, I777' he set out as usual to hunt. He failed to appear when the ordinary time for his return had arrived and the Indians, suspecting something wrong, sent out several of the young men of the village upon his track. Their report was alarming. The hunter had disappeared. Without delay the best scouts and fleetest runners of the tribe were sent out to trace the fugitive and bring him back. Boone was then well on his way to far-ofi^ Kentucky, with the ammunition he had saved, but at first he dared not fire for fear of some keen ear catching the distant report. And if he had killed any game, he would not have ventured to kindle a fire to cook it, lest some sharp eye should see its smoke. A Httle dried venison which he had secreted was all the food he possessed during a journey of several days in length. But keen and sharp of sight and of wits as were his pursuers, Boone was more than their match at their own game. There was not one of their wiles with which he was not familiar. Despite their active pursuit he kept well out of reach, and at length found himself on the banks of the Ohio River, having distanced all pur- suit. But the river was swollen into a turbid torrent a half mile wide. With all his skill in woodcraft Boone was not a good swimmer, and dared not trust himself to this wild flood. Fortunately, good luck here befriended him. An old canoe lay stranded on the shore. There was a large hole in one end, but he succeeded in closing this and safely crossed the stream. Once more on Kentucky soil, he felt safe in shooting a wild turkey and kindling a fire to cook his meal. It was the first food beyond his scant ration of venison that he had tasted for five days. Danger of capture was now at an end, but he hurried on at all speed to the fort, the peril of which was imminent. There he was greeted as a dead man come to Hfe, and learned that his wife and Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 145 children, believing him dead, had gone back to North Carolina. The fort itself was in no condition to sustain an Indian assault, and it needed all his experience and energy to put it in a proper state of defence in time to meet the coming peril. READY FOR THE TRAIL Modern Pioneers of the Wilderness. We must tell briefly what followed. There were but fifty men in the fort. There were nearly four hundred and fifty of the Indian braves who soon after appeared against it, led by Captain Duquesne and some other Frenchmen, in addition to their own chiefs. The 146 Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South situation seemed desperate. Dividing into two parties, the assailants kept up an incessant fire for nine days and nights. They sought to enter the fort by digging a mine from the river. They attempted to burn it by aid oi blazing arrows. They endeavored to capture Boone and his chief men in a pretended parley. They tried every savage subterfuge, but at length, despairing of success, they gave up the attempt and marched away, much to the relief of the garrison. This ended the last effort to drive the whites from Kentucky. From that time on its population grew rapidly, the Revolutionary War having the effect to divert many settlers westward. So full of people indeed did it become that, as the tradition goes, Daniel Boone, finding that he had neighbors within three or four miles, concluded that the country was fast becoming too thickly settled for his comfort, and set out for the wilderness of Missouri beyond the great river of the west. This story, very pretty as tradition, is probably not very good as fact, and does not agree with the actual incidents of Boone's later life. He really went to Mis- souri because he had been unjustly deprived of his lands in Ken- tucky through a defect in the title. Of all the pioneers of America there are none who have won so high a reputation as a hunter, Indian fighter, and settler of new lands, as the redoubtable Daniel Boone. But there were many among his followers and associates as daring and little less skilful than himself. And among them was one who in his way did a still greater work for his country than Boone himself. This was the indomitable path- finder, George Rogers Clark, whose service to his country was, in its way, unsurpassed by that of any other Southern leader in the War of the Revolution. It is to Clark we owe the fact that the struggle for independence did not end with the great region north of the Ohio in the hands of Great Britain. What this would have meant to our country it is not easy to say. With the great range of states west of Pennsylvania lost to us, with the Ohio as the southern border of Canada, the United States would have been frightfully handicapped in its development, unless it escaped from the difficulty at the terrible cost of another war. It was from this that George Rogers Clark, one of the early settlers of Kentucky, saved us, by an enterprise which, for boldness of conception and skill and daring in execution, has scarcely a rival in the whole history of our land. It reads like romance. No novel could be of more intense interest. Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 147 Yet with all this it has the further advantage of being the sober truth. Clark was a native of Virginia, a man of good family and education, whose career, like that of Washington, had begun in the active and arduous life of a frontier surveyor. Strong of frame, and adventurous in spirit, he early made his way to Kentucky, where he spent a year in surveying, hunting, and fighting with the red men; now camping out alone in the woods, now seeking shelter in the forts, and winning for himself the reputation of being one of the ablest of the men of the frontier. But Clark, while he lived the life of a backwoodsman, revolved larger schemes in his mind than those of the rude hunters among whom his life was passed. To make it evident what these were we must briefly describe the situation of ajffairs in the great West. The settlements at that time were confined to Kentucky and Ten- nessee. But in 1776 the highest dignity that Tennessee had attained was that of "The County of Washington in North Carolina." Kentucky, in 1777, possessed only three military stations, the abiding places of its mighty hunters and fighters. In 1776 it had been made a county of Virginia, not gaining a separate territorial organization until 1790. In the great region north ot the Ohio there was at this period not an American settlement and scarcely an American hunter. It was claimed by the British and formed part of the province of Quebec. The only settlements were those formerly made by the French, including Detroit on the lakes, Vincennes on the Wabash, Kaskaskia and Cahokia on the Illinois, and others of minor note. Quaint little frontier towns those, inhabited by French Creoles but under the rule of British ofiicers. None of the Atlantic states, then battling for independence, possessed an acre of land in all this vast expanse. This was not all. Numerous Indian tribes dwelt and hunted within this wide domain, and these the commanders of the British posts did their utmost to stir up to murderous incursions on the American settlements. Many a merciless Indian foray upon the settlers of the west owed its origin to the efforts of the officers of those British forts. It was this state of affairs that Clark had in view in the enterprise which he undertook. In the states the people were fighting for life against the British armies. The savage raids of the Western Indians upon their rear added seriously to the difficulty 148 Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South of their task. Here was work for a patriot to do. The man who put an end to this would do a great deed for his country. The young Virginian surveyor resolved to be that man. Clark began his work by sending two young hunters north ot the Ohio as spies. On their return they told him of the condition of the British posts, which they had found very weak. Their report convinced him that with a small body of trained backwoodsmen he could not only put an end to the Indian raids, but could win for his country the whole vast northwest. Clark was not the man to hesitate when once he saw his way clear. Returning to Virginia, he made known to Patrick Henry, its patriotic governor, the daring plan he had in mind. The gover- nor warmly approved of it, and gave him full authority to enlist a force and take all the necessary measures, supplying him with money for the purpose. Thus equipped Clark, in the spring of 1 778, wade his way back to Kentucky, and at once took active steps to carry out his plan. Many were the difficulties, many the causes for delay, under which he labored, but in the end he found himself at the head of one hundred and fifty hardy, self-reliant hunters, men in whose hands the rifle was the most familiar implement and to whom adventure was the spice of life. These he proposed to lead for nearly one thousand miles through a wilderness bristling with foes. The journey began on the Ohio, down which the party floated on flatboats. At the Falls of the Ohio Clark built a log; hamlet. It was the foundation of what is now the great city of Louisville. Here some of his men left him, scared by an eclipse of the sun. But others joined him and when he started on again he had with him a hundred and eighty of the stalwart frontiersmen, armed with the long, small-bored rifle of the backwoods, a deadly weapon in their hands. Hamilton, the English lieutenant-governor of Detroit, was at that time actively engaged in the vile work of sending out parties of blood-thirsty savages against the settlers and rewarding them for their dreadful work. It was his purpose to try to capture "the rebel forts on the Ohio," with the belief that there were many loyal subjects of the king in that region who were kept in subjection by these strongholds. He was soon to have work enough to occupy him at home. Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 149 Leaving their boats at the mouth of the Tennessee River, Clark and his men marched overland to Kaskaskia, the principal British post in that region. Its garrison, as he was aw^are, had been weak- ened to reinforce Fort Niagara. Still, the Creole militia and the British detachment that remained outnumbered his force, and they A SCENE ON THE PLAINS The brands of two neighboring ranchmen were similar enough to cause dispute about ownership. were m close alliance with the Indians around. His hope lay in a surprise. After crossing "the great prairie," he approached the town with the utmost caution, marching by night and hiding in the forest by day. It was on the evening of July 4th, the second anniversary 15° Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South of the natal day of American Independence, that he reached the vicinity of the place. Here his party lay concealed in the woods till evening fell, and then, under the veil of darkness, advanced silently upon the town. Fortune favored them. That evening a ball had been given by the British officers to the villagers, and dancing was going on blithely within the walls of the fort, where were gathered all the British and French capable of bearing arms. Reaching its vicinity without an alarm being given, Clark posted his men, walked boldly through the open doorway, and quietly took his station against the wall, like a spectator who had entered to watch the couples whirhng gayly in the dance under the light of blazing torches. Here he stood for some minutes unobserved, and then the hilarity of the dance was suddenly interrupted by a starthng war-whoop. An Indian who had been lying with his eyes fixed on the dancers had caught sight of this tall stranger, looked carefully over his dress and appearance, and had sprung to his feet with the wild alarm of his race. Instantly the dancing ceased, the men stood in blank dismay and confusion, the women ran to and fro in wild alarm. Clark stepped forward with smiling face. "Do not be alarmed," he quietly said; "go on with your dance, but remember that from this moment you dance under the rule of Virginia, not under that of England." The surprise was complete and resistance useless. Outside the fort could be seen the stern faces of the frontiersmen, the fore- most of them crowding into the gate. There was nothing for it but to submit. The Creoles were in terror, not knowing how they would be treated by their captors, who were not without just cause for revengeful feelings. But after giving them twenty-four hours for reflection, Clark called their chief men into the fort and told them that he was their friend, not their enemy, and that all he asked of them was to become citizens of the American republic. If they agreed to this they would have no cause to complain. The Creoles had no occasion for faithful allegiance to Great Britain, but rather for the contrary. They had, moreover, the French versatility of spirit. They, therefore, gladly accepted the propo- sition, and at once became enthusiastic in their loyalty to the States and to Clark as their representative. They went farther in their allegiance, sending messengers to their kinsmen at Vincennes, whom Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 151 they persuaded to become allies of the new repubhc and to hoist the American flag. Another Creole settlement was as easily captured. Clark sent a detachment under Bowman to Cahokia, a settlement farther up the Mississippi, which at once submitted. The people were not willing allies of Great Britain, and readily agreed to be- come citizens of the new republic. Vincennes had been won over by the intercession of Gibault, a Catholic priest, who had advised Clark to remain at Kaskaskia while he, with some others, tried what persuasion could do. It was successful, as has been said. The inhabitants readily took the oath of allegiance to the United States. Gibault then sent five belts to the Indians on the Wabash: a white one for the French; a red one for the Spaniards; a blue one for the Americans, and for the Indians a green one as a peace offering, a blood-colored one if they preferred war. "The King of France has come to life," was his message. "We wish you to leave a very wide path for us to pass through your country to Detroit; for we are many in number and might chance to hurt some of your young men with our swords. " So far Clark had been far more successful than he had reason to hope. But danger now threatened him. As soon as Hamilton at Detroit heard of the bold movement of the Americans, he pre- pared to drive the invaders from the land. Gathering a force of soldiers and Indians, 500 strong, he started with a fleet of canoes on the Wabash, reaching Vincennes on December 17. The Creoles of the town refused to hght and the American officer who had been left in charge by Clark had the best of reasons for surrendering. Hamilton had marched up with warlike heedfulness, skilfully in- vested the fort and demanded a capitulation with the pomp and circumstance fitted to the occasion. His chagrin, therefore, must have been considerable when, having granted the honors of war to the garrison and drawn up his force to receive them, there marched out an officer and a single man, the sole and whole tenantry of the fort. Rarely had such a mountain of preparation brought forth such a mouse of result. Five hundred men had marched in all the pano- ply of war to the capture of Captain Helm and his army of one. Had Hamilton now marched against Kaskaskia his superiority in force would have given him an easy victory. But the season was late and the road long and difficult, and he decided that victory could well wait for a more favorable season. Unluckily, victory 152 Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South is rarely disposed to wait on a man's will, as Governor Hamilton was destined to learn. Having come to this decision he dismissed his Indians to their tribes, sent back a part of his troops and held the fort with the remainder, saying that he would march upon Kaskaskia in the coming spring, and also seek to drive the Americans out of Kentucky. It was late in the winter when this news reached Colonel Clark, who had returned to Kentucky after the capture of Vincennes. With it came the tidings that the Wabash River had risen and over- flowed its banks, laying hundreds of square miles under water. A great shallow lake of chilly water surrounded Vincennes, which could be reached only by miles of wading. But Clark felt that he must act promptly if he was to act at all. Hamilton had only eighty white men with him, and now or never was the time. Gather- ing a force of one hundred and seventy Kentuckians, he set out on his difficult journey, through wet woods and over water-soaked prairies, the rains pouring down daily, so that every night they had to dry and warm themselves by blazing bivouac fires. It was a task demand- ing hardihood and severe training, especially after the drowned lands of the Wabash were reached, and it became necessary to wade. There were many miles to cross, ankle or knee deep and in places waist deep. For nearly a week they trudged through this shallow lake, finding here and there islands of dry land to rest or build their fires upon. But game was hard to find and their food ran so scarce that for two days they had to go hungry. A section of the party, forty strong, under Captain Rogers, had been sent by boat up the Wabash to the mouth of White River, taking two small cannon with them. At this point the waders and boatmen joined company, and for the rest of the route they dragged or rowed the boat. Much the worst part of the journey lay before them, a lake of water surrounding the fort four miles wide and deeper than any they had yet encountered. Some of the men hesitated, but Clark sternly ordered them on. He plunged boldly into the cold water, leaving one officer with orders to shoot any man who refused to follow. This was enough; they all waded in. It was a frightful walk. Much of the water came to their waists; some of it reached their necks; they had to hold their guns and powder above their heads to keep them dry. By the time land was reached some of them Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South 153 were so exhausted by the cold and fatigue that they fell prostrate and had to be raised and made to run up and down on the land before their animation was restored. The next morning, February lo, 1779, they crossed the river in a boat which they found, and set out for the town of Vincennes. A Creole who was out shooting ducks fell into their hands, and from him they learned two matters of vital interest; first, that there were many Indians in the town; second, that the British did not dream of their approach. Their leader was now in a quandary. There was danger, if a sudden night attack should be made, that the Indians and townsmen would join the British in defense. This danger must be avoided if possible. He accordingly decided to send in his Creole captive, bidding him warn the Indians and French that he meant them no harm, his only hostile purpose being against the British. Those who stayed in their homes would not be molested. The news brought into town by the duck hunter made a com- motion. The French settlers at first did not know what to do. As for the Indians, they magnified the assailing force in their minds and sHpped from the town into the adjoining woods, leaving their British allies to shift for themselves. The settlers ended by taking the advice given them and retiring to their houses. The duck hunter had also been given a letter to Colonel Hamil- ton, telHng him that they had come to take the fort and that he would save trouble by surrendering it. The news utterly astounded the colonel. Where had these men come from .? It seemed impos- sible that they had crossed the icy lake. But wherever they came from, he had no notion of surrendering and sent back a defiance. Without loss of time Clark's men gathered around the fort and besieged it on all sides. Before morning they had thrown up small entrenchments from which to conduct their attack. Soon their two cannon were thundering at the fort and the riflemen were raining bullets over its walls. The next day there arrived a party of Indian warriors who, sent out by Hamilton, had been doing their bloody work in Kentucky. In their belts were the scalps of slain settlers. Marching carelessly toward the fort, full of their tale of triumph, they suddenly found themselves in the hands of the backwoodsmen. Furious at the sight of the encrimsoned scalps, some of which might have come from 154 Pathfinders and Pioneers of the South the heads of their own friends, the men of the frontier were in no merciful mood. The savages, taken red-handed in their work, were cut down before the eyes of their friends in the fort. The siege hotly continued. The British had two small guns, but they became useless before the rifles of the hunters, who picked off every gunner that approached them. So deadly became the fire from the rifles of the backwoods-marksmen, that in the end no soldier dared approach a porthole. Further resistance was impos- sible, and Hamilton felt himself obliged to surrender. This ended the conflict. The British of Canada made no further attempt to reconquer the northwest. When peace was concluded this whole region became part of the United States, whose frontier became the Mississippi instead of the Alleghany range. This vast territory had been won solely by the courage and daring of George Rogers Clark and his small force of frontier riflemen. CHAPTER VIII. HOW THE STATESMEN OF THE SOUTH LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE GREAT REPUBLIC Virginia, Maryland and the Union — Cavalier and Puritan ideas — The Southern Statesman — A weak Union — Maryland and the western claims — The Articles of Confederation — New York collects duties from its neighbors — The Father of the Constitution — The meeting at Alexandria — Madison and Washington — The Conventions at Annapolis and Philadelphia — Madison's plan — The Constitution as adopted — Contests for ratification — The great struggle in Virginia. IT is to the Southern States of Virginia and Maryland that we owe the first steps toward the formation of the Constitution of the United States, that mighty platform of political prin- ciples upon which this county has rested sohd and secure during more than a century of prosperity and adversity, war and peace, storm and calm. Upon that firm foundation has been built up a superb edifice, which has outlived a dozen tempests, growing firmer after every tornado, and steadily spreading wider and mount- ing higher until to-day the whole world gazes upon it with eyes of wonder and admiration. Viewed with contempt by the autocrats of Europe at its origin, it has grown to proportions which now all nations must respect, for the hand of Columbia is coming to hold in a firm grasp the reins of the world. It was, as we have said, the states of Virginia and Maryland that made the first move in the formation of the Federal Republic, and it was the statesmen of Virginia who had the chief hand in building the constitutional platform upon which this great republic rests. To these states and these statesmen, then, we must give credit as the foster-fathers of the American Union and Constitution. 155 156 Foundations of the Great Republic If we go back to old colony days, we find a marked distinction existing between the mental processes of the North and the South, or rather between those portions of these sections which we may specially designate as the Puritan and the Cavalier settlements. In Puritan New England the great subject of thought and discussion was theology. The purposes of God, the design of the universe, the destiny of man, the inner meaning of a multitude of texts of scripture — such were the subjects of most vital interest to the hard-headed tenants of many a New England village, who seemed to care much less about the conditions of the world they lived in than of those of the world to which they looked forward as their future place of residence. In the Cavalier settlements, on the contrary, the popular subject of discussion was government. Politics formed the hobby of the people, who were fully content to leave the affairs of the next world to be looked after by the ministers of the gospel, while they gave their attention to those of the present state of existence. The result was that, while many of the New Englanders became skilled theologians, the South gave rise to a large number of able statesmen and diplomats. It is not our purpose to discuss here which of these two classes of people was the more profitably occupied, but we may safely assert that the Southerner had chosen the more practical field of thought, and the one far the most likely to lead to immediate and demonstrable results. The outcome of this favorite mental exercise of the Southern gentleman, alike the man of the plantation and the man of law, the village magnate and the legislative member, is to be seen in the remarkable group of statesmen which the South had to offer in the stirring times of the conflict with England and the formation of the American Union. Never has such a period been distinguished by a more able body of experts in the service of government, and this country owes a deep debt of gratitude to the great men whose hands fashioned its ship of state, and set it afloat, solid and staunch in every part, fitted to swim safely over all the waves of faction, to pass unhurt through the severest storms of party or policy. The Revolution passed, a question of prime importance rose before the patriots of this country, and especially before those whom nature and education had made adepts in the art of government. The country emerged from the War of Independence in a deplor- Foundations of the Great Republic ^57 able condition. It had won what it fought for, its freedom from British rule, but in the struggle it had thrown everything else MRS. JAMES MADISON (dolly PAYNE. ) During the burning of Washington in 1812 by the British, Doily Madison's heroism saved the Cabinent papers and a large portrait of Washington, which she carried with her from the White House. overboard, and it came out of the contest with httle left but debt and penury. It was penniless; it had the merest shadow of a govern- 158 Foundations of the Great Republic ment; the feeble union which war had held together was ready to drop asunder with the coming of peace; state jealously prevailed; anarchy and disunion threatened; the new nation was no stronger than its weakest part, and all its parts seemed weak. As for the freedom gained by seven years of war, what would it be worth if the bond that held the States together were broken and each of them left to become the separate prey of some European power, as seemed very likely to be the final result ? Evidently patriotism and political skill of the highest quality were needed if the great American experiment were not to prove a sad and sorry spectacle of failure. Such was the outlook before our people in 1783, when, the treaty of peace signed and the army disbanded, the leaders in the new nation looked abroad, and saw nothing but bankruptcy, disunion and ruin impending over the new republic, which had been built and cemented with the blood of the dead and the valor of the living. Let us look back upon the picture which the American union presented in the period of stress and strain between 1776 and 1787 — the first date signalized by the Declaration of Independence, the second by the United States Constitution. Before the 4th of July, 1776, there were only the United Colonies of America, in rebellion against the mother country. After that date the colonies took on the dignity of united States, free from allegiance to any mother coun- try, and fighting desperately for an acknowledgment of their independence. But their union was of the feeblest, their Congress absurdly devoid of power. It held together in some sort of fashion while the war continued, but the moment the war ended its innate weakness was exposed, and it proved to be joined by the weakest of bonds. In 1777 the Continental Congress had adopted what were grandiloquently termed "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union," but the war was near its end before these v/ere finally ratified by all the states. Maryland held out to the last, and would not join the Confederation until those States which claim.ed to extend the Mississippi or the Pacific had agreed to give up the lands claimed by them in the west to the general government. Only when this was done did Maryland sign, and by its determined stand that State laid the first strong plank in the platform of the American Union, by giving Congress sole jurisdiction over a vast area of wilder- Foundations of the Great Republic 159 ness destined in the coming future to be formed into populous states. One by one these state claims were yielded. New York gave up hers in 1780, Virginia in 1784, Massachusetts in 1785, Con- necticut in 1786, South Carolina in 1787, North CaroHna in 1790, and Georgia in 1802. The greatest of these claims was that of Virginia, and it was the one most immediately in touch with and under the jurisdiction of the mother state, so that the "Old Domin- ion" made the most conspicuous sacrifice in giving up her western territory in the cause of the country at large. To return to the Confederation, it never deserved its proud title of a " Perpetual Union," nor, in fact, of a union at all. Each state retained the powers and the position of a sovereign common- wealth, and the central government had to move as the states pulled the strings. It was not a government in any full sense, but a temporary expedient imperfectly adapted to use during war, but quite unsuited to times of peace. The Articles of Confederation gave Congress no power to lay taxes or to enlist soldiers. In this lay their specially weak point. The Continental Congress had to ask the states for men and money, and wait till they were ready to send them. It could make treaties, but could not enforce them; could borrow money, but could not repay it; could declare war, but could not call out an army. Money it made during the war, tons of it — paper money; but when the war ended this was hardly worth its weight. There was a heavy war debt, but no cash to pay it. The states would not supply the cash. They were jealous of each other and of Congress, and proposed to remain independent. "We are," said Washington, "one nation to-day and thirteen to-morrow." That told the story. No actual union existed, and it was very doubtful if in the end there would be one strong nation or thirteen weak ones. There certainly could be no strong nation under the existing "Articles." It was a desperate state of affairs. Maryland had taken the first step toward giving power to Congress, by insisting that the great western wilderness should be placed under its control. In time this would yield cash to carry on the government; but as yet it had few settlers and the states were slow in keeping their promise. There was only one thing that prevented the states from break- ing loose utterly from each other. This was their fear of England and Europe. Left alone they might become the prey of the country i6o Foundations of the Great Republic from which they had broken loose. Their only safety lay in union, and this their statesmen could not help seeing. Yet jealousy and local interest were stronger than common sense, and many of them acted like independent countries. We find Maryland bidding for the commerce of Virginia by lowering the duties on imported goods. Later on reason prevailed and a commercial league was formed be- ^_____ _________^ tween these two states, I * land another between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The most threatening of these troubles rose between New York and her neighbors to right and left. At one time we find New Jersey com- plaining that New York State was levying duties on her imports into the port of New York City. But the nearest approach to disunion came in 1787, when the Legislature of New York passed a bill levying duties upon the local commerce between New Jersey and Connecticut and the city of New York. New jersey supplied New York City with the fruits and vegeta- bles grown on its fer- tile plains. Connecti- cut was the source of its firewood. There was a bitter complaint when these states found that they were treated as foreign coun- tries and forced to pay duties on their goods at the New York custom house. New Jersey retaliated as well as she could by JAMES MADISON (1751-1836.) Two terms, 1809-1817. " The Father of the Constitution," the most scholarly President the South has produced. Foundations of the Great Republic i6i laying a tax of £^o a month on the light-house on Sandy Hook. The whole affair showed that, so far as these states were con- cerned, the union was practically at an end. Elsewhere it held feebly together, but each state was laying its own rate of duties and in other ways acting for itself alone. Local interests were coming into dominance to an alarming extent. Such was the state of affairs between the close of the Revolution and the convening of the Constitutional Convention. Congress still held its sessions, but it was weak and despised. The strong men of the country no longer sought membership, the members were careless about attending its sessions, the laws it passed were of little importance and httle heed was paid to them. It earnestly begged for the power to lay a national duty on imports. To this most of the states in time agreed, but unanimous consent was neces- sary and that could not be had. This failure made many patriots despair. Washington, to whom independence was due, feared that all was at an end. In those perilous times the American Union was like a ship at sea which had long been tossed in the waves and battered by storms, and which was staggering onward, aleak and dismantled, without a pilot at the helm or a light-house in the offing. It was in this des- perate contingency that the great statesmen of Virginia took the wreck in charge and steered it safely into port. And chief among these we must place the name of James Madison, the " Father of the Constitution." Madison was one of the first of those who saw the need of giving new powers to Congress. In 1781 he advocated that the Articles of Confederation should be changed, and Congress enabled to enforce its laws. In 1783 he was zealous in favor of a plan by which Congress would be given for twenty-five years the power to lay and collect customs duties. He wrote an address to the states advocating this plan, a paper so able that this alone placed him in the front rank of American statesmen. But it was not until 1785 that the first loop-hole of escape from the difficulty was opened, and this is the way it came about: Between Virginia and Maryland lay the navigable waters of Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River. Independent states, as they virtually were, the question of rights of commerce and naviga- tion upon these waters became important. Disputes had arisen; i62 Foundations of the Great Republic some agreement was necessary. Madison at that time, a member of the Virginia Legislature, proposed a meeting of commissioners, to be held at Alexandria, in March, 1785, for the settlement of this difficulty. Out of small seeds great trees arise. The discussion of this local question led the way to the great one of the Union of the States. The commissioners met. The commercial problem at issue was satisfactorily settled. Then the members began to talk over questions of general policy and the condition of the country at large. Near by was Mount Vernon, the home of Washington, and many of them visited him and asked his views on the situation. Among those from Virginia was George Mason, a statesmen of much abihty, and one who was strongly influenced by Washington's far-seeing views. Mason was appointed to report the doings of the convention to the Virginia Legislature. It had gone in its dis- cussions far beyond its original purpose, and recommended a uniformity in duties on imports, in rules of commerce and in forms of currency between the states. This far-seeing action of the commissioners was approved by Maryland, and Virginia quickly followed with a similar approval. Maryland broadened the scope of the original purpose by proposing that Pennsylvania and Delaware should be invited to cooperate in the making of a ship-canal between Delaware and Chesapeake Bays. When the report was brought before the Legislature of Virginia the discussion upon it broadened into the expediency of investing Congress with adequate power over commerce, a subject upon which Madison spoke earnestly and feelingly. The dissolu- tion of the union, he argued, would be the signal for standing armies in each of the states, burdensome taxes, clashing systems of foreign poHcy, and an appeal to the sword in every petty squabble. He spoke strongly, for he felt strongly, and he laid plainly before the members the perils which confronted them and all Americans. Wash- ington, being appealed to for his opinion, answered in as strong terms, saying: "If the states individually attempt to regulate commerce, an abortion or a many-headed monster would be the issue." The final result of the discussion was a resolution by Madison, to the effect that all the states should be invited to send delegates to a meeting at Annapolis in the following year, to take steps toward a general American system in matters of commerce and trade. Such was the second step in the great work before the statesmen of Foundations of the Great Republic 163 America. So far only Virginia and Maryland had acted. Now the whole thirteen states were invited to take part. The convention met on the i ith of September, 1786. But it was evident that the real nature of the exigency was not appreciated by the states, for only five of them — less than a majority of the whole — ■ sent delegates. These were the four Middle States, and Virginia, which alone represented the South. The Eastern States had failed to respond to the request. Evidently a minority could not take binding action, and the convention adjourned, after passing a resolu- tion caUing for a similar meeting at Philadelphia in the following May. By the time this date approached the several states had been made to see the importance of the work proposed, and when the 25th of May arrived there assembled in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, the most dignified and momentous assemblage ever known in the history of our country. It included delegates from all the states except Rhode Island, and embraced not only the ablest men in the country, but some of the ablest statesmen any land had ever produced. Washington, the "Father of his Country," presided. Among its members were Hamilton of New York, Franklin and Morris of Penn- sylvania, Madison, Mason and Randolph of Virginia, Rutledge and the two Pinckneys of South Carolina, and men of high ability from other states. Virginia, to which state the convention was due, held the leading position in its membership. Washington, its noblest son, was its president, Madison, the promoter of the convention, played so impor- tant a part that he afterward became known as the " Father of the Constitution." In fact, we must give the South credit as the great agent in the formation of the American Union. In all that was done it took the lead, and the Constitution as it stands to-day is very largely the work of the able statesmen of that section of our country. Madison prepared himself for the work before him by an extended study of confederacies, ancient and modern ahke. He came to the conclusion that no confederacy could be successful which acted on, states only, and not on individuals as well. This he expressed in a letter to Washington, before the convention met. He declared that the individual sovereignty of the states could not be reconciled with the aggregate sovereignty. Some middle ground must be found, in which both the states and the people would have a voice. A simple republic, under the circumstances, was an impossible idea. He i64 Foundations of the Great Republic proposed a legislature of two branches, one of many members elected for a short term, the other of few members, for a long term. This, with some modifications, was the Virginia plan of government, as presented in the convention by Edmund Randolph, and it became the basis of the deliberations which continued for four months, before the Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787. When the convention met, the members in general had no clear idea what it was to do. It had been called for the Regulation of commerce and the currency, and many held that it had no power except to revise the Articles of Confederation. Madison had broader views, and Hamilton agreed with him. To attempt to revise the old Articles would be a waste of time and strength. They were hopelessly inadequate, and they must be thrown aside and a new system formed. This opinion, after some discussion, was accepted, and the conven- tion closed its doors and began its work. For four months it con- tinued its labors, while the public remained in ignorance of what was being done. Then the doors were flung open and the convention came forth bearing as the fruit of its mighty labors the completed Constitution of the United States, the greatest state paper in the history of the world. No record was kept of its proceedings, but Madison, its most deeply interested member, made daily notes which were aftei-ward published. To those we are chiefly indebted for our knowledge of what took place. The Constitution proved to be a series of compromises between conflicting interests. The small states were afraid of being thrown into the shade by the large ones. This fear was overcome by giving them equal representation in the Senate. The people had not been represented under the Confederacy. They now gained a voice through the House of Representatives. A compromise was made with the strong slavery interest by counting every five slaves as equal to three white men in fixing the basis of representation. The Con- federacy had no executive head to carry out its decrees. One was provided in the President. The Supreme Court was added as a balance wheel, by whose aid the Constitution could be made always to run true, no law being valid which this Court decided was not in accordance with the Constitution. The Constitution, as wrought out behind closed doors in that memorable convention in Independence Hall, was by no means yet the law of the land. It was the work of less than forty men, who Foundations of the Great Republic 165 affixed to it their signatures. Some of the members themselves refused to sign it, among them George Mason, of Virginia. It had still to pass the ordeal of the states, with their strong trend toward separate powers, their varied interests, their diversity of ideas. Nothing but the absolute necessity of a stronger government could have carried it through. The wisest of the people saw before them the Constitution on one side or anarchy and ruin on the other, and dread of the unknown future drove many to accept what they would otherwise have bitterly opposed. We find even such ardent Americans as Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry unyieldingly opposed to it, a fact which speaks loudly for the hostihty which it excited. The greatest contests over the ratification of the Constitution took place in two states, Virginia and New York. Here they were so earnest and vigorous as to become matter of history. In New York George Chnton was the powerful opponent, Alexander Hamilton the strenuous advocate, of the Constitution. Hamilton won, after a long and ardent debate, in which he defeated his op- ponents by gaining the support of the people. In Virginia as bitter a contest took place, a number of the ablest statesmen of the South being pitted against each other in the convention called to deal with the question of ratification. Among these we find such famous names as those of Patrick Henry, James Monroe, and George Mason on the one side, warm patriots all, but unyieldingly hostile to the new instrument. James Madison and John Marshall were the chiefs of those massed on the side of the Constitution. It was a remarkable scene, one with few counterparts in Ameri- can history, that in which orators like these were arrayed against each other in criticism or defense of the most marvelous production of American political genius. Certainly it was a mighty struggle that enlisted such men as Henry, whose fiery eloquence had sounded the tocsin bell of the Revolution; Mason, one of the ablest debaters of the "Old Dominion;" Madison and Monroe, both afterward to become Presidents of the United States; and Marshall, the greatest Chief- Justice that ever presided over the United States Supreme Court. The opposition to the Constitution was based on the argument that it gave too much power to the federal government. Mason contended that it tended toward kingship in the executive, and i66 Foundations of the Great Republic Henry declared that it had "an awful squint toward monarchy." Strongest of these was Henry, the fiery Revolutionary orator. The speeches he made against the Constitution were full of impassioned eloquence, and worthy of his best days. Madison, his chief opponent, had none of his passion, but he had a strong basis for argument, and dealt with it in an earnest and convincing manner, answering all objections with a logical reasoning and a zealous eloquence that had a powerful effect upon his hearers. He had a strong supporter in Marshall, one of the finest legal minds this country has ever produced, and destined to become the great expounder of Consti- tutional law in later years. For days the fervent contest went on, speech after speech was made, sparkling with brilliancy or solid with reasoning, while hun- dreds listened with absorbed intentness to the great debate. In the end Madison and Marshall carried the day, not alone against the eloquence of their opponents, but against a public opinion at first adverse to the Constitution. Their side was the strong one, since whatever might be said, the absolute nead of a central government "with power to act" could not be set aside. There loomed before the country the vital alternative of the Constitution or disunion, and the Constitution won. Virginia ratified it on the 25th of June, 1788, being the tenth state to fall into line. Nine states were needed to make it the law of the land, and the ninth had been secured on June 21, by the vote of New Hampshire. The last to come into line were North Carolina, on November 21, 1789, and Rhode Island, on May 29, 1790. But before these late dates the United States of America had been fully organized under its new Constitution, Virginia had given her noblest son to serve as President of the new Union, and two others to act as members of the Cabinet — ^Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State and Edmund Randolph as Attorney-General— and the great Federal "Ship of State" was afloat with sails set and banners streaming on the stormy ocean waves of time. CHAPTER IX. GEORGE WASHINGTON, THE IDEAL AMERICAN, SOLDIER, STATES- MAN, AND PRESIDENT Washington's parents — In the French War — Marries and settles — Commander-in- chief in the Revolution — The great feat at Trenton — Valley Forge and Yorktown — Refuses a crown and kingdom — Plans for canals to the Ohio — Washington's concern about the country — Presides over the Constitutional Convention — Elected the first President — The troubles of office — Called to the army again — Sudden illness and death. MONG the multi- tude who in differ- ent countries and times have won fame, a few stand out so far above the rest that their Hves constitute distinct eras of the world's progress. By them we measure our growth; by them we test our advance or decline. We no longer judge them, but rather judge ourselves by them, by the extent to which we can appreciate and understand them. An age in which they are honored is glorious; a generation by which they are 167 MARY BALL AFTERWARDS THE MOTHER OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. 1 68 George Washington not esteemed is contemptible. Among the few thus truly great is Washington, the ablest and greatest son, not only of the South, but of the American continent. A thousand times has the story of his noble life been told; yet never were men so eager to hear it as now. His character has endured every test; his fame is secure. "It will be the duty of the historian in all ages," says Lord Brougham, "to omit no occasion of commemorating this illustrious man; .... and until time shall be no more will a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington." Two centuries ago Virginia was almost an unexplored wilder- ness; but the climate, the soil, the rivers, bays, mountains, valleys, all combined to render it one of the most attractive spots upon our globe. Two young brothers, Lawrence and John Washington, were lured by these attractions to abandon their home in England, and seek their fortunes in this new world. They were both gentle- men. Lawrence was a fine scholar, a graduate of Oxford; John was an accomplished man of business. The two brothers had purchased a large tract of land about fifty miles above the mouth of the Potomac, and on its western banks. John built himself a house, and married Anne Pope. Augustine, his second son, inherited the paternal homestead. Augustine's first wife, jane Butler, as lovely in character as she was beautiful in person, died, leaving three little motherless children. The disconsolate father, in the course of years, found another mother for his bereaved household. He was singularly fortunate in his choice. Mary Ball was everything that husband or child could desire. She was beautiful in person, intelligent, accomplished, energetic and prudent, and a warm-hearted Christian. Augustine and Mary were married on the 6th of March, 1730. On the 22d of February, 1732, they received into their arms their first-born child. Little did they dream, as they bore their babe to the baptismal font and called him George Washington, that that name was to become one of the most memorable in the annals of time. When George was ten years of age his father died, leaving him to his mother's care. How nobly she discharged her task his later character reveals. Throughout her life he was devoted to her and her least wish was to him a command. George Washington 169 Mrs. Alexander Hamilton tells the story that, when George Washington was in the meridian of his fame, a brilliant party was given in his honor at Fredericksburg, Va. When the church-bell rang the hour of nine his mother rose and said, "Come, George, it is nine o'clock: it is time for us to go home." George, like a dutiful son, offered her his arm, and they retired. Mrs. Hamilton admits, however, that after Washington had seen his mother safely home he returned to the party. We have elsewhere told the story of Washington's early life, — his service as a surveyor in the wilderness when but sixteen years of age, his memorable journey to the French forts when twenty-one, his subsequent career as a soldier and his final capture of Fort Duquesne. In those years of service he was laying the foundation of his great future career. There is an anecdote which is worth teUing here, as showing how fully the Legislature of Virginia appre- ciated the remarkable endurance and judgment shown by Governor Dinwiddie's young envoy to the French. The Virginia House of Burgesses was in session at Williamsburg when Washington returned. Modestly, and unconscious that he would attract any attention, he went into the gallery to observe the proceedings. The Speaker chanced to see him, and, rising, proposed that "The thanks of this House be given to Major Washington, who now sits in the galler}^, for the gallant manner in which he has executed the im- portant trust lately reposed in him by his excellency, the governor. " Every member of the House rose to his feet; and Washington was greeted with a simultaneous and enthusiastic burst of applause. Embarrassed by the unexpected honor, and unaccustomed to public speaking, the young hero endeavored in vain to give utterance to his thanks. Out of this painful dilemma the eloquent speaker helped him as generously as he had helped him into it. "Sit down. Mr. Washington," said he, in his most courteous manner, "your mod- esty equals your valor, and that surpasses the power of any language that I possess." Nothing could be more neat or skilful than this double stroke, which not only reUeved Washington, but paid him at the same time the highest compliment that could be bestowed. We shall not repeat the well-known story of how Washington, with his handful of Virginians, saved the British troops under the vain-glorious Braddock from utter destruction. Placing themselves behind trees, they fought the Indians in their own wild-wood way, 1 70 George Washington and checked their pursuit of the panic-stricken British regulars, who, as Washington wrote, "Ran Hke sheep before the hounds." Braddock's defeat rang through the land as Washington's victory. The provincials, who, submitting to military authority, had allowed themselves to be led into this valley of death, proclaimed far and wide the precautions which Washington had urged, and the heroism with which he had rescued the remnant of the army. The Indians, elated by their victor}^, at once began their usual course of death and ruin among the white settlers. As a result a force of about seven hundred men was raised and placed un- der the command of Washington, to protect the scattered villages and dweUings of this broad frontier. For three years, while the war with the French was being fought else- where, W a s h i n gton gave all his energies to this arduous enter- prise. It would re- quire a volume to re- cord the awful scenes through which he passed during these three years, in deahng GEORGE WASHINGTON The greatest gift of the South to our Country. (1732-1799.) Two terms, 1789-1797. with the savage foe whom the French on the Ohio aided and abetted in their merciless raids. At length, in November, 1758, a second expedition was sent against Fort Duquesne, Washington again taking part in it. It would have failed, as the former did — this time through an excess of caution and delay in the leader^had not Washington been given permission to lead a party George Washingtorl 171 through the woods upon the fort. Upon his approach the French fled and the contest for the valley of the Ohio was at an end, George Washington had completed the first era in his career by capturing for his country this vast and fertile realm. Washington was now twenty-six years of age. The beautiful estate of Mount Vernon had descended to him by inheritance. On the 6th of January, 1759, he married Mrs. Martha Custis, a lady of great worth and beauty. Washington was already wealthy; and his wife brought with her, as her dower, a fortune of one hundred thousand dollars. After the tumultuous scenes of his youth, he retired with his bride and her two children to the lovely retreat of Mount Vernon, where he spent fifteen years of almost unalloyed happiness. He enlarged the mansion, embellished the grounds, and by purchase made very considerable additions to his large estate, to whose cultivation he devoted himself with the ardor of a man to whom agriculture was the chief end of life. The Revolution came, and with it began the second era in Washington's public career. The day of Lexington and Concord arrived; patriots, shot down within sight of their homes, lay bleeding on the sod; the people were infuriated and were rushing to arms; Congress looked around for a man to lead its gathering armies. It had not long nor far to look. Among its own members was the man it wanted. The Cincinnatus of Mount Vernon was the one soldier in America to whom all instinctively turned in the emergency. His splendid service in the French and Indian war had not been forgotten, and without hesitation they selected Colonel Washington for the position of commander-in-chief. Washington accepted the dignity with the true spirit of a patriot. He wanted no money for doing his duty. It was for his country, not his personal benefit, that he took up arms. This was shown in his patriotic words to Congress. " I beg leave to assure the Congress that, as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept this arduous employment at the expense of my domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep an exact account of my expenses. Those, I doubt not, they will dis- charge. That is all I desire," To his wife, the object of his most tender aflFection, he wrote that it was his greatest affliction to be separated from her, but that duty called and he must obey. He said that he could not decHne 172 George Washington the appointment without dishonoring his name, and sinking himself even in her esteem. It may well be questioned if there was any other man on the continent of America who could have discharged with success the task which lay before Washington, and have come victoriously out of the terrible struggle in which, with heart and soul, he engaged. The biography of Washington during the seven years that followed is the history of the Revolution. Where not present in person, he was present in spirit, and it was to his directing hand and mihtary genius that final success was due. If Virginia had not possessed a Washington, it may well be that America would not have won freedom at that time. It was a terrible task which Washington had undertaken. The ability to win battles was only one of the faculties he needed. The power to bring success out of defeat; to endure starvation, calumny, desertion; to face the enemy without food, without ammunition, almost without men — all this demanded a man with far higher quahties than those of the mere soldier. He had to make an army, to make conditions, to make funds, to hold starving men together in the face of defeat — and all this and more he did. His brilliant success at Boston was followed by a depressing defeat at New York. By the time he had crossed New Jersey and forded the Delaware in the face of persistent pursuit by a victorious army, he had but a few thousands of worn-out men left, and the cause of the colonies seemed hopelessly lost. Washington was one of the few who did not despair. " My God, General, how long shall we flee ^ " asked General Reed. Washington replied, "We shall retreat, if necessary, over every river of our country, and then over the mountains, where I shall make a last stand against our enemies." Fortunately this last resort of desperation was not needed. Recrossing the Delaware on the dark and chill night of Christmas, 1776, with the fragment left from his late army, Washington marched through wind and storm to the British post at Trenton, and there by a sudden and successful blow turned the tide of fate. Cornwallis, in alarm, rushed on the victorious Americans. At the close of a cold winter day he appeared before their lines at Trenton. "To-morrow, at break of day, I will attack them," he said. "The rising sun shall see the end of the rebellion." George Washington i73 The rising sun heard the thunder of Washington's guns at Princeton. The daring American had out-maneuvered the con- fident CornwaUis, and again snatched victory out of defeat. Thus ended the most briUiant mihtary movement in Washington's career. Its effect was tremendous when considered in comparison with the small forces engaged. It inspired the country, it brought men to Washington's camp, it put the triumphant British on the defensive, and it radically changed the opinion of Europe. Before that Christmas night the nations of Europe had looked upon the Ameri- can war for freedom as hopeless. Now they saw success in the air, and were filled with admiration for Washington as one of the great captains of the age. We do not propose to tell the story of Washington's career in the Revolution. Our readers all know it. A few pictures of critical periods are all we need present. A second time, in the winter of 1777-78, all looked black for the colonists. Philadelphia, the capital city, was in the hands of the British army, and Washington's despairing force lay starving and freezing at Valley Forge. Again a period of dread and discouragement had come, in which the voice of calumny was seeking to blacken Washington before Congress and deprive him of his command. But the coming spring told another tale. An alliance had been made with France, and the British commander at Philadelphia, in fear of being caught be- tween the American army and a French fleet, hastily evacuated the city and fled for New York, barely escaping a disastrous defeat at Monmouth through the treachery of one of Washington's most trusted aids. From this time on the war languished in the North, and the British turned their attention to the South, which they fancied to be far less capable of successful resistance. Savannah and Charleston were taken, Georgia and the Carolinas were overrun, and it seemed as if that section of the Union was lost. Lost it was not, for it had able and brilHant men to defend it. How they did so we have al- ready told. As the spring of 1781 opened, the war was carried into Virginia. Richmond was laid in ashes, and a general system of devastation and plunder prevailed. The enemy ascended the Chesapeake and the Potomac with armed vessels. They landed at Mount Vernon. The manager of Washington's estate, to save the mansion from pillage and 174 George Washington flames, furnished them with abundant suppHes. Washington was much displeased. He wrote to his agent: "It would have been a less painful circumstance to me to have heard that, in consequence of your non-compliance with their request they had burned my house and laid the plantation in ruins. You ought to have considered yourself as my representative, and should have reflected on the bad example of communicating with the enemy and making a voluntary offer of refreshments to them, with the view to prevent a conflagration." Lord Cornwallis was now at Yorktown, in Virginia, a few miles from Chesapeake Bay. There was no force in his vicinity seriously to annoy him. But Washington was master of the situation, and saw the opportunity, in conjunction with the allies from France, to make a bold movement for the capture of CornwaUis and his men. An army of six thousand men, under Count Rochambeau, had been sent by France to aid the American cause. A French fleet was in the Atlantic. Washington availed himself of their aid. He succeeded in deceiving the English into the behef that he was making great preparations for the siege of New York, and thus prevented them from sending any aid to Yorktown, while by rapid marches he was hastening to Vir- ginia. Early in September Lord Cornwallis, as he arose one morn- ing, was amazed to find himself surrounded by the bayonets and batteries of the Americans. At about the same hour the French fleet appeared, in invincible strength, before the harbor. Cornwallis was caught. There was no escape; there was no retreat. Neither by land nor by sea could he obtain any supplies. Shot and shell soon began to fall thickly into his lines. Famine stared him in the face. After a brief period of hopeless conflict, on the 19th of October, 1781, he was compelled to surrender. Seven thousand British veterans laid down their arms. One hundred and sixty pieces of cannon, with corresponding military stores, graced the triumph. When the British soldiers were marching from their entrench- ments to lay down their arms, Washington thus addressed his troops: " My brave fellows, let no sensation of satisfaction for the triumphs you have gained induce you to insult your fallen enemy. Let no shouting, no clamorous huzzaing, increase their mortification. Pos- terity will huzza for us. " This glorious capture roused renewed hope and vigor all over the country. The joyful tidings reached Philadelphia at midnight. A George Washington ^75 watchman traversed the streets, shouting at intervals, "Past twelve o'clock, and CornwaUis is taken!" Candles were lighted; windows thrown up; figures in night-robes and night-caps bent eagerly out to THE MOTHER OF WASHINGTON RECEIVING LAFAYETTE Previous to his departure for Europe, in the fall of 17S4, the Marquis de Lafayette repaired to Fredericksburg to pay his parting respects to Washington's mother and to ask her blessing. catch the thrilling sound; shouts were raised; citizens rushed into the streets, half clad — they wept; they laughed; they danced with joy. The news flew upon the wings of the wind, nobody can tell how; and the shout of an enfranchised people rose, like a roar of thunder, from our whole land. With such a victory, republican America would never again yield to the aristocratic government of England. 176 George Washington When the news of it came to the ears of Lord North, the British prime minister, he threw up his hands and cried in wild despair, "Oh, God! it is all over." Over it was. Early in May, 1782, the British Cabinet opened negotiations for peace. Hostilities were, by each party, tacitly laid aside. Negotiations were protracted in Paris during the summer and the ensuing winter. Early in the following spring the joyful tidings arrived that a treaty of peace had been signed at Paris. The intelli- gence was communicated to the American army on the 19th of April, 1 783, — ^just eight years from the day when the conflict was commenced on the Common at Lexington. Late in November the British evacuated New York, entered their ships, and sailed for their distant island. Washington, marching from West Point, entered the city as his vanquished foes departed. America was free and independent. Washington was the savior of his country. After an affecting farewell to the officers of the army, Washington set out for his Virginia home. At every town and village he was received with love and gratitude. At Annapolis he met the Conti- nental Congress, before which he was to resign his commission. It was the 23d of December, 1783. All the members of Congress, and a large concourse of spectators, were present. His address closed with the following words: "Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life.' We have briefly outlined the story of the great Virginian as a soldier. We have next to deal with him as a statesman. Occupied as he was, during so many years of his life, with military affairs, he was as keenly alive as any man in America to the political develop- ment and industrial advancement of the country, and no man held saner or wiser views. During the years between the end of the French war and the beginning of the war for freedom he was repeatedly elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was no speech maker, but he showed himself here an earnest thinker and adviser. As early as 1769 he saw that the British policy might lead to war, and took a prominent and radical part in the struggles against Governor Dunmore, the king's right hand in George Washington 177 Virginia. Petitions to the king he opposed; why should Americans beg for what was theirs by right ? " Shall we after this, " he wrote, "whine and cry for relief ?" But it was after the Revolutionary War that the genius of Wash- ington as a statesman was first fully revealed. He came out of that war as the leading man of the country. It was well for America that he was not a C?esar or a Napoleon, but an American patriot, whose only ambition was to set his country free. A word from him would have made him king if he had craved a throne. The country was in the hands of the army, and a company of its officers wrote to him asking him to accept the crown and estabHsh an American kingdom. Washington's reply is worthy of being engraved in letters of gold. History presents us no record of any other conqueror, under like circumstances, flinging away ambition in favor of patriotic duty. He wrote in reply to the letter he had received: "With a mixture of great surprise and astonishment, I have read with attention the sentiments you have submitted to my perusal. Be assured, sir, no occurrence in the course of the war has given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the army, as you have expressed, and I must view with abhorrence and reprehend with severity. ... I am much at a loss to con- ceive what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an address, which to me seems big with the greatest mischief that can befall my country. . . . Let me conjure you, if you have any regard for your country, concern for yourself or posterity, or regard for me, to banish these thoughts from your mind, and never com- municate, as from yourself or any one else, a sentiment of the like nature." After that, as may well be conceived, there was no further suggestion of crowning Washington as king. The only kingdom he was willing to rule over was his farm; the only throne he was con- tent to fill was his armchair at Mount Vernon; he was more interested in the rotation of crops and the planting of trees than in the balance of power and the control of affairs of state. Never was there a man less carried away by the fever of ambition. Yet Washington, in his retirement at Mount Vernon, did not cease to be a patriot and a statesman. His eye was on his country and he was in close rapport with all that took place. He was in 178 George Washington constant correspondence with its public men. The study of the poHtical side of history was a subject of his earnest attention, and the material development of his country was ever in his mind. In 1784 he made a tour to the west, beyond the Alleghanies, his main object being to see if the headwaters of the Potomac and James Rivers could be connected by canals with the streams flowing into the Ohio. He recommended that a complete survey should be made of the land between these streams, saying that if such a water con- nection could be made, it would be of immense advantage to the country. This advice was accepted by the Legislature of Virginia. Thus it is to Washington we owe the first suggestion of the great sys- tem of internal improvements which has done so much for the material interests of the American people. In addition to this, Washington showed great interest in the advancement of education. The establishment of a national uni- versity was with him a favorite purpose, and a school known later as Washington College was founded by him. During life he gave much aid to poor scholars, and in his will left a legacy of four thousand dollars to aid the education of indigent children in Alexandria. The shares in the new canal companies, voted him by the Virginia legislators, he devoted to the cause of education. O ... But the subject in which Washington was most warmly con- cerned was the disturbed political condition of the country. The old confederation was fast falling to pieces and no steps had been taken towards a new union. Unless something were done to strengthen it the confederation could not much longer hold together, and the states would be left to face separately the greed and power of Europe. Hostile feeling was arising between the states themselves; custom houses were rising on their borders; and the Congress which professed to act for them was left bankrupt and powerless, almost a thing of contempt. All this we have treated in the last chapter, and need only say here that Washington had great reason to be concerned for the future of the country whose existence was so largely due to him. In March, 1785, the commissioners appointed by Virginia and Maryland to meet at Alexandria and consider how commerce should be regulated on Chesapeake Bay, took occasion to visit Mount Vernon and talk the matter over with Washington; and no doubt he had much to do with putting into their minds larger views than George Washington 179 the mere question of tariff charges between Virginia and Maryland. The result of their meeting, as we have seen, was a convention at Annapolis the next year to consider the general question of commerce between all the states; and this led directly to the great convention of 1787, to form a new union between the states with a Constitution suitable for its government and control. With all these movements Washington had much to do. He kept a close supervision over them, and his advice was constantly sought. When the constitutional convention met at Philadelphia he was one of the delegates from Virginia — sent there sorely against his will. His objections were strong, he had hoped to spend the remainder of his life in retirement, but the pressure upon him was so great that he felt obliged to yield. On the assembling of the convention, Washington was at once and unanimously elected its presiding officer. As such he took no part in the debates, other than to offer hints from time to time, but these seem to have been very suggestive. Thus when some one proposed to restrict the standing army of the United States to 5,000 men, Washington presented the sarcastic amendment that any enemy should be forbidden to invade this country with more than 3,000 men. No doubt his influence, even though unsustained by oratory, had much to do with the formation of the Constitution. When completed, indeed, many parts in it were not to his liking, but he looked on it as "the best Constitution that could be obtained at that epoch," and used all his influence to have it accepted by the states. That his influence greatly aided in this there can be no question, for Washington at that time was almost worshiped by the people of the new republic. When the time came to elect a President for the new Union there was no more question concerning the candidate than if this country had been a kingdom and Washington the heir to the throne. The office of President had been "cut to fit the measure of George Washington," and no one else was thought of- for it. His practical wisdom, solid judgment, and great influence were needed to start the new country upon its untried course, and though he was very anxious to be left at home, he could not resist the solicitations of his friends. The day of election came andGeorge Washington was chosen, by the unanimous vote of the electors, and probably as the choice of every man in the nation, as the first President of the United States. lOO George Washington The new government, under the new Constitution, was a success from the start. That it would have been such a success, with any other man than Washington at the head of affairs, may be doubted. His influence in preventing party contests in the early days of the government was supreme. He stood between the parties, balanced faction against faction, divided his Cabinet between the parties and did his utmost to prevent dissension while the new gov- ernment was settling into the traces. His first term ended, he was again unanimously elected, but it was to a new state of affairs. The passions of the party leaders could no longer be controlled, and Wash- ington himself was virulently and shamefully attacked. He pro- claimed neutraHty between France and Great Britain, and the party in sympathy with France was furious. His support of Jay's treaty stirred up new fury. He was accused of drawing more than his salary; some spoke of him as the "stepfather of his country;" it was even hinted that the guillotine should be set up for his benefit. Washington declared in 1793 that he "had never repented but once having slipped the moment of resigning his office, and that was every moment since." Yet these attacks came from a small faction of the poHticians; the people were as devoted to Washington as ever, and he would have been unanimously elected in 1796 if he had not had quite enough of office holding. The virulent attacks upon him were not the only source of trouble to the President. The dissensions in his Cabinet gave him more immediate concern. Jefferson and Hamilton, his ablest and most trusted advisers, were at sword's point politically, and their hostile relations proved a source of deep distress to the calm and judicious mind of Washington. In consequence of all this he welcomed the close of his official fife. Before withdrawing from it, however, he issued a "Farewell Address" in which his fine powers as a statesman were conspicuously displayed. It emboaied the results of his long experience in public affairs, and advised a wise system of policy for the government of the country, especially warn- ing the people from letting themselves be drawn into the maelstrom of foreign complications. For the vigor of its language, the soundness of its maxims, the wisdom of its counsels, and its force and elevated sentiments, this paper is unrivaled, and it was everywhere received with the deepest admiration, some of the states printing and publishing it with their laws. His last word to the country thus George Washington i8i WASHINGTON MONUMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C. (Height, 555 feet) 182 George Washington spoken, Washington gladly laid down the burdens of office and returned once more to the comforts of domestic life. Washington's military life had been laid down, as he supposed forever, in 1783. Yet in 1798 he was again called to the head of the army. The difficulties with France had grown to the verge of war. THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT IN RICHMOND, VIRGINIA From photograph made by Edyth Carter Beveridge. Actual war broke out in 1799 upon the ocean. On land an army of ten thousand men was authorized and Washington was appointed to its command. He accepted, with the provision that he should not be called into the field until necessity demanded. Luckily for him the necessity never came, but he was miserably fretted during George Washington 183 the short remainder of his Hfe by the quarrels of politicians about the selection of officers for the new army. He was still engaged in mihtary preparations when death came suddenly and unexpectedly upon him. The 12th of December, 1799, was a damp and chilly day. Washington took his usual round on horseback to his farms, returning late in the afternoon, wet with sleet, and shivering with cold. Though the snow was clinging to his hair behind when he came in, he sat down to dinner without chang- ing his dress. The next day three inches of snow whitened the ground, and the sky was clouded. Washington, feeling that he had taken cold, remained by the fireside during the morning. As it cleared up in the afternoon, he went out to superintend some work upon the lawn. He was then hoarse, and the hoarseness increased as night came on. He, however, took no remedy for it, saying, "I never take anything to carry off a cold. Let it go as it came." He passed the evening as usual, reading the papers, answering letters, and conversing with his family. About two o'clock the next morning, Saturday, the 14th, he awoke in an ague-chill, and was seriously unwell. At sunrise his physician. Dr. Craig, who resided at Alexandria, was sent for. In the meantime he was bled by one of his overseers, but with no rehef, as he rapidly grew worse. Dr. Craig reached Mount Vernon at eleven o'clock, and immediately bled his patient again, but without effect. Two consulting physi- cians arrived during the day; and, as the difficulty in breathing and swallowing rapidly increased, venesection was again attempted. It is evident that Washington then considered his case doubtful. He examined his will, and destroyed some papers w^hich he did not wish to have preserved. His sufferings from inflammation of the throat and struggHng for breath, as the afternoon wore away, became quite severe. Still, he retained his mental faculties unimpaired, and spoke briefly of his approaching death and burial. About four o'clock in the after- noon he said to Dr. Craig, "I die hard; but I am not afraid to go. I believed, from my first attack, that I should not survive it: my breath cannot last long." About six o'clock, his physician asked him if he w^ould sit up in his bed. He held out his hands, and was raised up on his pillow, when he said, "I feel that I am going. I thank you for your attentions. You had better not take any more trouble about me, but let me go off quietly. I cannot last long. " 184 George Washington He then sank back upon his pillow, and made several unavailing attempts to speak intelligibly. About ten o'clock he said, "I am just going. Have me decently buried, and do not let my body be put into the vault until three days after I am dead. Do you under- stand me ?" To the reply, "Yes, sir," he remarked, "It is v^ell." These were the last words he uttered. Soon after this he gently expired, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. At the moment of his death Mrs. Washington sat in silent grief at the foot of his bed. "Is he gone ?" she asked, in a firm and collected voice. The physician, unable to speak, gave a silent signal of assent. " 'Tis well, " she added, in the same untremulous utterance. "All is now over. I shall soon follow him. I have no more trials to pass through." On the 1 8th his remains were deposited in the tomb at Mount Vernon, where they still repose; and his name and memory live on immortal, forever enshrined in the hearts of a grateful people. " How sleep the brave who sink to rest By all their country's wishes blest! By fairy hands their knell is rung; By forms unseen their dirge is sung; There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray. To bless the turf that wraps their clay; And Freedom shall awhile repair To dwell, a weeping hermit, there." CHAPTER X. THOMAS JEFFERSON ADDS NEW STARS TO THE SOUTHERN GALAXY The constellation of the South — The discovery of the Mississippi — La Salle's famous exploration — What the treaties did — Louisiana in l8oi — Thomas Jefferson at home and in college — The Declaration — Governor of Virginia — Minister to France — Secretary of State — Vice President — Elected President — His Demo- cratic ways — Combats aristocratic customs — The question of the Mississippi — - War in the air — The work of Monroe and Livingston — The President and Congress approve the Louisiana Purchase — The Lewis and Clark expedition — Three new States of the South — Jefferson's life at home — Rescued from misfortune — Dies on the anniversary of Independence. WHEN, in 1783, the treaty of peace with England was signed, and the United States of America emerged from the tem- pest of war as a free and acknowledged nation, only five stars shone in the galaxy of the South — Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. The years to come were to more than double the number of stars in this splendid constel- lation, and it was to Thomas Jefferson, the planter statesman of Virginia, more than to any other man, that the South owed the three great commonwealths which lie upon the Mississippi's western shores. For it was he who, by the Louisiana Purchase, obtained for this country the vast area from which these states were carved. During the very stress of the War for Independence the peopling of the eastern side of the great river began and slowly went on. Daniel Boone and his fellow adventurers had then recently crossed the mountain backbone of the Atlantic States and made themselves new homes in the wooded wilderness west of this broad upland barrier. Before the nineteenth century came in Kentucky and 185 i86 New Stars in the Southern Galaxy Tennessee had grown from counties into states, while farther south the flow of population was beginning to fill up the great fertile realm of western Georgia, from which, in years to follow, were to be carved the rich agricultural States of Alabama and Mississippi. But the vast region west of the mighty stream was still foreign territory. It had belonged to France; it was now held by Spain; soon it was to be restored to France again. The American pioneers FERNANDO DE SOTO, DISCOVERER OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER looked across the broad river of the west, and saw foreign forts and foreign faces rising before them in hostile defiance. The situation was one that might soon grow intolerable. Let us look back in history and see what gave rise to this situation. We have already told how Fernando de Soto, in 1541, reached and gazed upon the mighty river which we know as the Mississippi, New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 187 Beneath its waters his body was laid in death, as if to hold it captive for Spain. But it was by the French that the great stream was first explored. The missionary Marquette descended it in 1673, to the mouth of the Arkansas, in company with the famous explorer Joliet. In 1680 the missionary Hennepin ascended it to the Falls of St. Anthony. But the man who truly won its shores for France was the great explorer Robert de la Salle. The career of this most daring of adventurers was one full of the elements of romance. It was he who first discovered the Ohio River, the claims to which afterward gave rise to the great colonial war between England and France. This discovery was made about 1669. In 1679 La Salle launched the first vessel ever seen dn the Great Lakes. Going forward to 1682 we find him afloat in frail canoes on the Mississippi, trusting himself to the unknown waters of that mighty stream, which bore him and his men downward to where its waves pour their great flood into the Gulf of Mexico. Here, on the 9th of April of that year, he raised the banner of France and claimed for his country and its king the great river and its neighboring lands. He named the country Louisiana, after Louis XIV of France. Much more happened to the explorer than we have space to tell, and, like de Soto, he paid with his life for his work, being murdered by his mutinous followers after he had set out to make his way on foot to far-off Canada. Thus it was through the exploits of her adventurous sons that France won her claim to the lands bordering on the Mississippi. This claim was a broad one, covering the whole valley of the Mississippi east and west, from the Alleghany to the Rocky Moun- tains. But all she held was the lir"^ of the river, at long intervals along which forts were built and settlement; made. There was one of these where St. Louis now stands, another on the site of Natchez, and others on the Gulf and on the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers. Mobile was founded in 1701 and New Orleans in 1708. Thus France was the first to settle the region of the Gulf States, and Louisiana in a few years gained several thousand inhabitants. We must go on now to 1673, in which year the war between the French and the English colonists, and between England and France elsewhere, ended in a treaty of peace, by which France lost all her possessions in America except a few small islands. The territory in the Ohio Valley, concerning which the war had broken out, was 1 88 New Stars in the Southern Galaxy now given up to England. England also gained Florida, trans- ferred to her by Spain in exchange for Cuba and the PhiHppine Islands, which EngHsh fleets had captured during the war. The City of New Orleans and the territory between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains were still held by France, but these she handed over to her ally, Spain, to repay that country for the loss of Florida. Thus France gave up all her hold on North America, which was now divided between England and Spain, — England holding all east and Spain all west of the Mississippi River. In 1783, twenty years later, another treaty of peace was made, this time between England and the triumphant colonists. This made a new and important change in the dominion over America. The republic gained the great region lying between the Atlantic and the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes, but England gave Florida back to Spain. And as Florida was held to extend by a strip of land fifty miles wide to the Mississippi, the southern section of our country was cut off from the Gulf, between which and the territory of the United States lay half a hundred miles of foreign land. It was thus that matters stood in 1801, the first year of the nineteenth century. Then a new and alarming deal was made. By a secret treaty, Spain gave Louisiana back to France, and the ambition of Napoleon gained a new field of exercise on the Ameri- can continent. Before relating what followed, we must take up the story of Thomas Jefferson, one of the greatest statesmen of the South, and the man into whose hands this great question came for settlement. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the people of the United States may be said to have been divided into two classes — - those who thought Thomas Jefferson the greatest and wisest of living men, and those who believed him the worst and most dan- gerous. The French Revolution, that great uprising of the masses against the oppression of despotic power, had then divided public opinion throughout the whole civilized world. Jefferson was at the head of the party which sympathized with the common people, and advocated their cause. The opposite party, shocked and horrified at the excesses committed by the revolutionists in France, looked upon everything democratic with the greatest fear and aver- sion. These extremes of opinion make it difficult, even at this day, to get a fair and moderate opinion of Jefferson. But whether the /§-■■ / 'O.n — U rt =: G rt ,U K -^" C'5 < ^J o >> — ' ~' n ~ . '■/"' o '■^ =co ) 1 rt o o -t3 . "H •— o *^ .— (U ■■r. ^ D rt OJ rt ^-T^h O-^ > g +^ C S i> New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 189 principles for which he stood be approved or condemned, their success at least cannot be denied. Jefferson was the pioneer of democracy, the apostle of the sovereignty of the common people, which from his time to the present has become every year more firmly rooted in American poUtics; and whether it be for good or ill, it is for this that he will be remembered in the centuries yet to come. Jefferson, as we have said elsewhere, descended from one of the early settlers of Virginia who was a member of the original House of Burgesses, the first legislative body in America. His statesman- ship thus came to him by hereditary descent. His father, Peter Jefferson, owned a plantation of fourteen hundred acres near where Charlottesville, Virginia, now stands. When he was born, in 1743, this was a wilderness. Few white settlers lived within many miles of the manor house, which stood on a swell of land on the slopes of the Blue Ridge giving it a splendid outlook over mountains and forest. It was a spacious cottage, a story and a half high. On the lower floor were four large rooms and a wide hall. Above there were good chambers and a large garret. Two huge chimneys on the outside gave the mansion a picturesque appearance. This house was burned in 1770 and soon after Jefferson built himself a new home on the top of a hill five hundred and eighty feet high, which had long been a favorite resort of himself and his friend Dabnev Carr. Monticello ("Little Mountain") it was called, and this name was given to the handsome mansion which he built on its summit. No house in America commands a nobler view. The story of the early life of Jefferson must be briefly told. Bv nature he was inclined to be serious and reflective, and in school was very studious. The best teachers Mere found for him, and in 1760 he entered William and Mary College, at Williamsburg. In college and in the town he was a favorite. He lived somewhat expensively, kept fine horses, but was a close and earnest student. Making the law his profession, he began its practice in 1767, and was soon after elected to the Legislature. In 1772 he married a rich and handsome young widow who brought him an estate of forty thousand acres. Thus rich, learned, able as a thinker and as a writer, with a well-disciplined mind and poHshed ar'dress, Jefferson was fitted to play a prominent part in the stirring events then at hand. When the First Continental Congress was convened in 1775* igo New Stars in the Southern Galaxy Jefferson was one of its members — -the youngest of them all but one. But, young as he was, he quickly took a leading position in that body. He seldom spoke, not being gifted with powers of oratory, but he had long been known as an able writer and a firm and earnest patriot. His modesty and suavity of manner, and the frankness and force with which his views were expressed, won over even his opponents, and it is said that he had not an enemy in Congress. When the time came for writing the "Declaration of Independence," Jefferson was chosen for the momentous task, as the best equipped man for the purpose either in Con- gress or in the country. The paper prepared by him, in which few changes were made by his fellow members of the committee, still stands as one of the ablest assertions on record of the inherent rights of man, and especially of his right to resist oppression and tyranny. In 1779 Jefferson was chosen governor of Virginia. He was then thirty-six years of age. The British were now pre- paring to strike their heaviest blows upon the South. Georgia had fallen helpless into the hands of the foe; South Caro- lina was invaded, and Charleston threatened. At one time the British officer, Tarleton, sent a secret expedition to Monticello to capture the governor. Scarcely five minutes elapsed after the hurried escape of Jefferson and his family before his mansion was in the possession of the British troops. A detachment of the army of Cornwallis, in their march north from the Carolinas, ROBERT DE LA SALLE Explorer of the Mississippi. New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 191 seized another plantation which he owned on the James River. The foe destroyed all his crops, burnt his barns and fences, drove off the cattle, seized the serviceable horses, cut the throats of the colts, and left the whole plantation a smouldering, blackened waste. Twenty-seven slaves were also carried off. "Had he carried off the slaves," says Jefferson with characteristic magnanimity, "to give them freedom, he would have done right." In 1784 Jefferson was sent by Congress to represent the new republic in France, succeeding Dr. Franklin in that important embassy. He returned in 1789, having passed live years in that country, then on the verge of a revolution that was destined to overthrow the worn-out institution of feudalism and despotic govern- ment, and bury it in a torrent ol blood. He came back with a warm sympathy for the people of France, whose suffering he vividly realized. He returned before their excesses began. A democrat in grain, he had seen enough of the pomp and folly of couits. Appointed Secretary of State by President Washington, he accepted that high post, and on the 1st of March, 1790, set out for New York, which was then the seat of government. He went by way of Richmond and Alexandria. The roads were horrible. At the latter place he took a stage, sending his carriage round by water, and leading his horses. Through snow and mud, their speed seldom exceeded three or four miles an hour by day, and one mile an hour by night. A fortnight, of great fatigue, was con- sumed in the journey. Occasionally Jefferson relieved the mo- notony of the dreary ride by mounting his led saddle-horse. At Philadelphia he called upon his friend Benjamin Franklin, then in his last illness. Jefferson had seen so much of the pernicious influence of kings and courts in Europe that he had become an intense republican. Upon his arrival in New York he was much surprised at the freedom with which many persons advocated a monarchical government. He writes: "I cannot describe the wonder and mortification with which the table conversation filled me. PoHtics were the chief topic ; and a preference of a kingly over a republican government was evi- dently the favorite sentiment. An apostate I could not be, nor yet a hypocrite, and I found myself, for the most part, the only advocate on the republican side of the question, unless among the 19^ New Stars in the Southern Galaxy guests there chanced to be some member of that party from the legislative houses." Washington, however, did not think that such views were widely entertained, and wrote: "As to the idea of transforming this government into a monarchy, I do not believe there are ten men in the United States, whose opinions are worth attention, who enter- tain such a thought." However this be, there was certainly a strong diversity of sentiment in the Cabinet, especially between Hamilton and Jefferson, the former the leader of the Federal party and the advocate of a strong central power, the latter the chief of the Democratic-Repub- Hcan party, as the opposing party was called, and the supporter of the doctrine of State rights. So hot did the contest become that Jefferson retired from the Cabinet early in Washington's second term, greatly against the President's wish. In 1796 he was the candidate of his party for President, but the Federalists won — John Adams being elected. Jefferson became Vice-President — the two offices at that time being divided between the two leading candidates. This new honor, which he was far from desiring, rendered it necessary for him to leave his home at Monticello for a few months each year to attend the sessions of Congress. His numerous letters to his children show how weary he had become of party strife, with what reluctance he left his home, with what joy he returned to it. In June, 1800, Congress moved from Philadelphia, which for ten years had been the capital, to Washington. The new seat of government, literally hewn out of the wilderness, was a dreary place. Though for a number of years workmen had been employed in that lonely, uninhabited, out-of-the-way spot, in putting up the public buildings, there was nothing as yet finished; and vast piles of stone and brick and mortar were scattered at great distances from each other, with swamps or sandbanks intervening. Mrs. John Adams, who had seen the residences of royalty in Europe, — Buckingham Palace, Versailles, and the Tuileries, — gives an amusing account of their entrance upon the splendors of the "White House." In trying to find Washington from Baltimore, they got lost in the woods. After driving for some time, bewildered in forest paths, they chanced to come upon a black man, whom they hired to guide them through the forest. "The house," she writes, "is upon a grand and superb scale, requiring about thirty New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 193 servants to attend, and keep the apartments in proper order. The fires we are obliged to keep, to secure us from daily agues, are another very cheering comfort; but, surrounded with forests, can you believe that wood is not to be had, because people cannot be found to cut and cart it ?" In 1800 Jefferson was again the candidate for President. His party — that of the people — had now grown greatly in strength, and the rule of the Feder- alists was at an end. Adams was defeated, and the Democratic candidates, Jefferson and Aaron Burr, were elected. As they re- caived an equal num- ber of electoral votes the contest was thrown into the House of Rep- resentatives, by which Jefferson was chosen for President, Burr for Vice-President. The news of the election of Jefferson was received in most parts of the Union with the liveliest demon- strations of joy. He was the leader of the successful and rapidly- increasing party. His friends were found in every city and village (1743-1826. Two terms, 18OI-I8O9.) in the land. They had been taught to believe that victory for the opposite party would be the triumph of aristocratic privilege and of civil and religious despotism. On the other hand, many of the Federalists turned pale when the tidings reached them that Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States. Both the pulpit and the press had taught them that he was the incarnation of all 13 THOMAS JEFFERSON, Author of the Declaration of Independence and one of the framerg of the Constitution. 194 New Stars in the Southern Galaxy evil, — an infidel, an atheist, a scoffer at all things sacred; a leveler, a revolutionist, an advocate of mob government — false ideas set afloat by political hostility. Jefferson was exceedingly simple in his tastes, having a morbid dislike of all that court etiquette which had disgusted him so much in Europe. Washington had ridden to the halls of Congress in state, draw^n by six cream-colored horses. Jefferson, on the morning of his inauguration, rode on horseback to the Capitol in a dress of plain cloth, v^ithout guard or servant, dismounted without assistance, and fastened the bridle of his horse to the fence. Very probably he had allowed his mind to become so thoroughly imbued with the con- viction that our government was drifting towards monarchy and aris- tocracy, that be felt bound to set the example of extreme democratic simplicity. The political principles of the Jeffersonian party now swept the country, and the new President exerted an influence which had not been exceeded by that of Washington himself. It may be well, at this point, to revert to some important results of Jefferson's democratic views in his earlier life. In his younger days two of the moth-eaten aristocratic institutions of England prevailed in Virginia, brought over and established there by the Cavalier settlers. One of these was the law of primogeniture, under which the oldest son inherited the family estate, and the younger were obliged to shift for themselves as best they could. The second was that of taxation for the support of the Episcopal Church — the established church in Virginia as in England. Dis- senters there, as in the mother country, were obliged to pay for the support of a church which they did not attend, and with whose views they were not in harmony. Both these institutions of aristoc- racy were vigorously assailed by Jefferson, and through his influence, the laws supporting both were removed from the statute books of Virginia. Returning now to the topic considered in the first part of this chapter, that of the foreign control of Louisiana, we may repeat what was there said, that in 1801 — the opening year of Jefferson's term as President— Napoleon acquired this province from Spain by a secret treaty. This was not made known until 1802, and its dis- covery aroused an uproar in the United States. The question of the control of the mouth of the Mississippi by Spain had long been making a stir in the West, beginning as soon as settlements had New Stars in the Southern Galaxy iQS extended along the Ohio to the greater stream. This feehng grew stronger as the number of settlers increased. It became intense when the Spanish authorities at New Orleans manifested a hostile policy. That a foreign power should hold the mouth of such a river as the Mississippi and prevent the free use by the West of its natural channel to the sea was intolerable. But when it was learned that Louisiana had been secretly handed over to France and that we had such an aggressive personage as Napoleon Bonaparte to deal with, the sentiment arose that the Mississippi must be made free to American commerce, even if we had to fight for it. There was a strong war spirit in the air when the Spanish commandant at New Orleans, still in control in October, 1802, issued an order closing the port of New Orleans to American vessels. For seven years the people of Kentucky and Ohio had been floating their tobacco and flour, bacon and hams, down the Mississippi in rude flat-boats, and depositing this material in New Orleans warehouses, to await the vessels to carry it to the West Indies or the Atlantic coast. Now the right of deposit was cut off' and the frontier settlers began to take down their old rifles and clean and load them for the coming alternative of right or fight. When the news of the Spanish action reached Congress, the Federalists in that body strongly advocated war, and demanded that the President should seize a suitable place of deposit on the Mississippi and call out a sufficient force to guard it. The Demo- cratic party opposed this, but passed a bill calling out eighty thousand militia and providing for the building of arsenals in the West. The military spirit ruled strong in the land. Jeff"erson, however, wisely looked upon diplomacy as better and cheaper than war. If the island of New Orleans could be bought, and the navigation of the two branches of the river which it controlled be set free, the difficulty would be at an end. His friend and fellow Virginian, James Monroe, was sent to France as a special envoy for this purpose, commissioned to off"er two millions of dollars for this area. Robert R. Livingston, then Minister to France, was negotiating with Talleyrand for the same purpose when Monroe reached Paris. Talleyrand did not want to sell. He hoped to see France win back her old power in America, Believing that Talleryand was playing with him, Livington wrote directly to Napoleon, and with a quick and unlooked for result. 196 New Stars in the Southern Galaxy Just at that time the First Consul of France had too much on his hands at home to wish to add to it the care of distant colonies. War clouds were gathering thickly around him; he wanted money more than colonies; the English people were demanding that Louisiana should be attacked; if he delayed he might lose both the land and its value. He asked what America would give for the whole of Louisiana. At that critical interval Monroe reached Paris, and joined Livingston. After some debate upon the unexpected offer, the price was fixed at fifteen million dollars. Neither Living- ston nor Monroe had any authority to close with such an offer. Monroe had been sent to purchase an island. He and his fellow were offered a huge slice of a continent. But there was no time to lose; it was now or never; without hesitation they closed with the offer, and sent the President word of what they had done, not knowing how their precipitate action might be received in America. The news of what had been done put Jefferson in a quandary. He had proposed to buy an island; his agents in Paris had contracted for a domain almost of continental extent. The two millions which the Senate had authorized him to spend were increased to fifteen. Jefferson construed the Constitution strictly and in his view this instrument gave him no authority to purchase foreign territory. Yet the offer was an immense temptation. The evils which might result if France held Louisiana no man could foresee. The good which might follow if this vast region belonged to the United States it was easy to conceive. If the Constitution could not break it might bend. Jefferson's common sense got the better of his scruples. He determined to accept the treaty, and to call Congress together and ask them to ratify his action. If necessary to the purchase the Constitution could be amended. Congress was called and the debate became hot, the old Federal party strongly opposing the purchase. The stupendous addition to the national debt of fifteen million dollars troubled them sorely. Writers and orators sought to show the people how enormous a sum this was. Never had so vast a price been paid for a wilderness. Pile it up, dollar on dollar, and the pile of silver dollars would be more than three miles high. Hire a laborer to shovel it into carts, and though he filled sixteen a day, it would take him two months to finish the job. And for whose benefit was it .? The South and West. What would they be willing to pay toward the debt ? But New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 19 7 opposition was of no avail. The mass of the people were wise enough to see the vast advantage in the purchase. Congress became their mouthpiece, the treaty was ratified, and on the 20th of Decem- SIGNING THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE TREATY Reading from left to right, the figures represent Livingston, Monroe and Marbois A Sculpture exhibited at St. Louis, 1904. ber, 1803, Louisiana became a part of the United States. Dollars instead of bullets had been fired to obtain it, and a bloodless victory was gained which no warlike triumph could have surpassed. 198 New Stars in the Southern Galaxy What was Louisiana ? Nobody knew. Travelers had gone a short distance into it; hunters and trappers had gone farther; but very httle was known concerning it, and the most extravagant stories about its marvels were told. There were tribes of giant Indians; there was a mountain of salt a hundred and eighty miles long and forty- five miles wide; there was an immense grassy prairie whose soil was too rich for trees to grow, and which was filled with vast herds of buffalo; there were tall bluffs carved by nature into the shape of ancient towers. Fact and fable were so mingled in these stories that the President decided to find out the truth, and two adventurous Virginians, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, were sent with a party to explore the vast unknown region. Clark was a brother of George Rogers Clark, who, with his gallant Kentuckians, had won the northwest from England during the Revolutionary War. Setting out on May 14, 1804, the party crossed the plains and the mountains, continuing their journey until they reached the Pacific. Returning in 1806, after a journey of 8,000 miles, replete with strange adventures, they had a remarkable story to tell of the extent, the wonders and the natural wealth of the country, and after their story had been told there was no longer any question of the value of the great purchase which Thomas Jefferson had made for the United States. The Louisiana Purchase, as was said in Congress, was of special benefit to the South and West. The South gained from it the territory out of which three splendid States were afterward made — - Louisiana, which entered the Union in 18 12; Missouri, whose time came in 1821; and Arkansas, whose advent was delayed till 1836 — States full of splendid possibilities, Louisiana with her sugar and fruits, Arkansas with her cotton and corn, Missouri with her iron and cattle — to name a few out of their many valuable products. We shall say nothing more of them here, other than to repeat that these were the three stars which the foresight of Thomas Jefferson added to the galaxy of the South. Another Presidential election came in 1804. Jefferson was reelected President with wonderful unanimity; George Clinton being chosen for Vice-President. Jefferson was sixty-two years of age when, on the 4th of March, 1805, he entered upon his second term of office. Our relations with England were daily becoming more complicated, from the British insistence on the right to stop New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 199 any of our ships, whether belonging to either the commercial or the naval marine, and to take from them any sailors whom they felt disposed to claim as British subjects. The course England pursued rendered it almost certain that war could not be avoided. Jefferson humanely did everything in his power to prevent the Indians from taking any part in the war, if it should come. The British, on the contrary, were disposed to rouse them to deluge the frontiers in blood. Strange as it may now seem, the measures of government to redress these wrongs were virulently opposed. But notwith- standing the strength and influence of the opposition to Jefferson's administration, he was sustained by the general voice of the nation. In the year 1808 Jefferson closed his second term of office, and James Madison succeeded him as President of the United States. In the following terms the retiring President expressed to a friend his feelings upon surrendering the cares of office: "Within a few days I retire to my family, my books, and farms; and, having gained the harbor myself, I shall look on my friends, still buffeting the storm, with anxiety indeed, but not with envy. Never did a prisoner, released from his chains, feel such reHef as I shall on shaking off the shackles of power. Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science by rendering them my supreme delight; but the enormities of the times in which I have Hved have forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on the boister- ous ocean of political passions. I thank God for the opportunity of retiring from them without censure, and carrying with me the most consoling proofs of public approbation." Jefferson's subsequent life at Monticello was very similar to that of Washington at Mount Vernon. His mornings he devoted to his numerous correspondence; the hours from breakfast to dinner he passed in the shops and on the farms; from dinner to dark he devoted to recreation and friends; from dark to early bedtime he read. He was particularly interested in young men, advising them as to their course of reading. Several came and took up their residence in the neighboring town of Charlottesville, that they might avail themselves of his Hbrary, which was ever open for their use. Toward the latter part of his life, from a series of misfortunes, Jefferson became deeply involved in debt, so that it was necessary for him to sell a large portion of his estate. He was always profuse 200 New Stars in the Southern Galaxy in his hospitality. Whole families came to Monticello with poaches and horses, — fathers and mothers, boys and girls, babies and nurses, — some of them remaining three or even six months. One family of six persons came from Europe, and made a visit of ten months. After a short tour they returned, and remained six months longer. Every day brought its contingent of guests. Such hospi- tahty would speedily consume a larger fortune than Jefferson pos- sessed. His daughter, Mrs. Randolph, was the presiding lady of this immense estabhshment. The domestic service required thirty- seven house-servants. Mrs. Randolph, upon being asked what was the greatest number of guests she had ever entertained any one night, replied, "I beheve fifty." In the winter Jefferson had some little repose from the crowd of visitors. He then enjoyed, in the highest possible degree, all that is endearing in domestic life. It is impossible to describe the love with which he was cherished by his grandchildren. One of them writes, in a letter overflowing with the gushing of a loving heart, "My Bible came from him, my Shakespeare, my first writing-table, my first handsome writing-desk, my first Leghorn hat, my first silk dress; what, in short, of all my treasures did not come from him ^ My sisters, according to their wants and tastes, were equally thought of, equally provided for. Our grandfather seemed to read our hearts, to see our individual wishes, to be our good genius, to wave the fairy wand, to brighten our young lives by his goodness and his gifts. " Another writes: "I cannot describe the feelings of veneration, admiration, and love that existed in my heart toward him. I looked on him as being too great and good for my comprehension; and yet I felt no fear to approach him, and be taught by him some of the childish sports I dehghted in. Not one of us, in our wildest moods, ever placed a foot on one of the garden-beds, for that would violate one of his rules; and yet I never heard him utter a harsh word to one of us, or speak in a raised tone of voice, or use a threat. " The year 1826 opened gloomily upon Jefferson. He was very infirm, and embarrassed by debts, from which he could see but little hope of extrication. An endorsement for a friend had placed upon him an additional twenty thousand dollars of debt. He applied to the Legislature for permission to dispose of a large portion of his property by lottery, hoping thus to realize a sum sufficient New Stars in the Southern Galaxy 201 to pay his debts, and to leave enough to give him a competence for his few remaining days. Though opposed to all gambhng, he argued, in support of his petition, that lotteries were not immoral. He w^rote to a friend, that, if the Legislature would grant him the indulgence he soHcited, "I can save the house of Monticello and a farm adjoining to end my days in, and bury my bones; if not, I must sell house and all here, and carry my family to Bedford, where I have not even a log hut to put my head into. " To Jefferson's great gratification, the lottery bill finally passed. But, all over the country, friends who appreciated the priceless value of the services which he had rendered our nation began to send him tokens of their love. The mayor of New York, Philip Hone, sent him, collected from a few friends, eight thousand five hundred dollars; from Philadelphia, five thousand dollars were sent; from Baltimore, three thousand dollars; and one or two thousand more were sent from other sources. These testimonials, Hke sunshine breaking through the clouds, dispelled the gloom which had been so deeply gathering around his decHning day. Very rapidly he was now sinking. His steps became so feeble that with difficulty he could totter about the house. There was something pecuHarly gentle and touching in his whole demeanor. His good-night kiss, his loving embrace, his childlike simplicity and tenderness, often brought tears to the eyes of those whose privilege it was to minister to his wants. It was evident that he was conscious that the hour of his departure was at hand. He was exceedingly careful to avoid making any trouble, and was far more watchful for the comfort of those around him than for his own. His passage was very slow down into the vale of death. To one who expressed the opinion that he seemed a little better, he rephed: "Do not imagine for a moment that I feel the smallest solicitude about the result. I am Hke an old watch, with a pinion worn out here and a wheel there, until it can go no longer. " On Monday evening, the 3d of July, he awoke about ten o'clock from troubled sleep, and, thinking it morning, remarked, "This is the 4th of July. " Immediately he sank away again into slumber. As the night passed slowly away, all saw that he was sinking in death. There was silence in the death-chamber. The mysterious separation of the soul from the body was painlessly taking place. 202 New Stars of the Southern Galaxy About noon, July 4th, 1826, the last breath left the body, and the great statesman and patriot was no more. It was exactly half a century since his great production, the "Declaration of Indepen- dence," had been adopted by Congress. It is a singular coincidence that John Adams, who was on the committee with him to prepare the Declaration, died on the same day, his last words being, "Thomas Jefferson still survives." He did not know that Jefferson was then crossing with him *'the Great Divide." CHAPTER XL OLD HICKORY, THE HEROIC SON OF THE CAROLINAS AND TENNESSEE Jackson and the British officer — Studies law and goes to Tennessee — Is sent to Con- gress — Supreme Court judge — In business — Hurt in a quarrel — The Creek War — Jackson's victory — ^Weathersford surrenders — The burning of Washington — The British at New Orleans — Their terrible defeat — Jackson in Florida — The end of the trouble — A candidate for the Presidency — His election — The chief acts of his administration — His death. SOMEWHERE in the western border land of North and South Carohna, it is not sure in which, there was born in 1767 a child who was destined in after life to play a very important part in the history of the South and of the whole United States. He came from that hardy and aggressive Scotch-Irish stock which naturally gravitated to the frontier of the colonies, and held its own sturdily wherever it went. Among all its descendants it produced no more daring and belligerent example than Andrew Jackson, the famous "Old Hickory" of later days. It is to him that the South owes its greatest military event, the victory of New Orleans. To him it owed the defeat of its greatest Indian confederation. To him it owed the addition of a new star to its crown, the rich Spanish province of Florida. And to him it was due that South Carolina did not secede from the Union in 1832. In that memor- able act he dealt with South Carolina on the basis of a son of the soil, for in his proclamation he addressed the nullifiers in the fol- lowing words: "Fellow citizens of my native State." In all his career he was a true scion of the South, and proved himself a hero of whom it might well be proud. As such, the story of his life fitly demands a place in our pages. While a mere boy Jackson was left an orphan, to make his own way in the world. His father died before he was born, and his youth was one of severe privation. He was only thirteen when the British ravaged South Carolina, killed one of his brothers, and 203 204 Old Hickory carried him and another brother away as prisoners. Their mother managed to rescue them from British hands, but her son Robert had taken the small-pox and died in a few days, and she soon followed him to the grave. Andrew was left alone, without a relative or a dollar, to fight his way in the world. In 1781, at fourteen years of age, he was in arms against the British. He was taken prisoner, and being a mere lad, an English officer sought to make a lack- ey of him and ordered him to black his boots. The defiant young American re- fused, and the irate officer struck him in the face with his sword, leaving a scar which he carried to his g r a ve. Thirty- three years afterward he had his revenge on the British army and its officers. The war over, the boy entered a sad- dler's shop to learn the trade; but he was wild and reckless, fond of g a m b 1 i n g , cock- fighting and horse- racing, and thoroughly unmanageable. He became an excellent horseman and a capital shot, and was of the very stuff" for the life of the frontier. Decid- ing that he would make himself a lawyer, he rode to SaHsbury, North CaroHna, for that purpose, entering a law office there. At twenty he had grown to be a slender and tall young man, six feet one inch in height, was distinguished for courage and activity, and become noted for his grace of manner and dignity of bearing. He was fond of wild adventures, could ride like a centaur, and had A:sDKEW JACKSON It is to "old Hickory" that the South owes its greatest military event, the victory at New Orleans. Old Hickory 205 so fiery a temper that few thought it wise to rouse the young spit- fire to anger. Such was Andrew Jackson at the beginning of his mature hfe. At that time the whole of the region which we now call Ten- nessee was almost an unexplored wilderness. It was hunted over by bands of Indians, who had been so outraged by vagabonds among the whites that they had become bitterly hostile. There was a small settlement of pioneers, five hundred miles west of the summit of the AUeghanies, near the present site of Nashville, on the banks of the Cumberland. Andrew Jackson had not long been a lawyer be- fore he was appointed pubHc prosecutor for this remote district. It was an office of little honor, small emolument, and great peril, and one which few men could be found to accept, but he did not hesitate. Early in the spring of 1788 he joined a party of emigrants, who rendezvoused at Morgantown, the last frontier settlement in North Carolina. They were all mounted on horseback, with their baggage on pack-horses. In double file, the long cavalcade crossed the mountains by an Indian trail, which had been widened into a road. Late in October, 1 788, this train of emigrants reached Nashville. They brought with them the exciting news that the new Constitution had been accepted by a majority of the states, and that George Washington would undoubtedly be elected the first President. It was estimated that then, in this outpost of civilization, there were scattered, in log huts clustered along the banks of the Cumberland, about five thousand souls. The Indians were so active in their hostilities that it was not safe for any one to live far from the stockade. Every man took his rifle with him to the field. Children could not go out to gather berries unless accompanied by a guard. Jackson was not long in Tennessee before he began the practice of law. The collection of debts became a prominent part of his practice, and this was a duty that required nerve and resolution among those wild frontiersmen. Jackson had the requisite quahties. During the first seven years of his residence he traversed the almost pathless forest between Nashville and Jonesborough, two hundred miles apart, no less than twenty-two times. In these wooded wilds hostile Indians might at any time be met, and a traveler was Hable at any moment to be shot down in his tracks. Andrew Jackson was just the man for this service — a bold, rough, daring backwoodsman. 2o6 Old Hickory Daily he was making hairbreadth escapes. He seemed to bear a charmed hfe. Boldly, alone or with few companions, he traversed the forests, encountering all perils, and triumphing over all. In January, 1796, the territory of Tennessee then containing nearly eighty thousand inhabitants, the people met in convention at Knoxville to frame a constitution. Five were sent from each of the eleven counties. Andrew Jackson was one of the delegates from Davidson county. They met in a shabby building in a grove outside the city. It was fitted up for the occasion at an expense of twelve dollars and sixty-two cents. The members were entitled to two dollars and a half a day. They voted to receive but a dollar and a half, that the other dollar might go to the payment of secretary, printer, doorkeeper, etc. A constitution was formed which was regarded as very democratic, and in June, 1796, Tennessee became the sixteenth State of the Union. The new state was entitled to one member in the national House of Representatives. Andrew Jackson, who had won his way to leadership, was chosen that member. Mounting his horse, he rode to Philadelphia, where Congress then held its sessions — a distance of eight hundred miles. A vacancy chanced soon after to occur in the Senate, and A^ndrew Jackson was chosen United States Senator by the State of Tennessee. John Adams was then President; Thomas Jefferson, Vice-President. Many years later, when Jackson was candidate for the Presidency, Daniel Webster spent some days at the home of the sage of Monticello. He represents Jefferson as saying: — "I feel much alarmed at the prospect of seeing General Jackson President. He is one of the most unfit men I know of for such a place. He has very little respect for law or constitutions, and is, in fact, merely an able military chief. His passions are terrible. When I was president of the Senate he was senator; and he could never speak on account of the rashness of his feelings. I have seen him attempt it repeatedly, and as often choke with rage. His passions are no doubt cooler now. He has been much tried since I knew him; but he is a dangerous man." In 1798 Jackson returned to Tennessee and resigned his seat in the Senate. Soon after he was chosen judge of the Supreme Court of the State, with a salary of six hundred dollars. This office he held for six years. It is said that his decisions, though sometimes ungrammatical, were usually just. Old Hickory 207 In subsequent years Jackson engaged in various pursuits. Growing weary of the judgeship, or perhaps dissatisfied with the salary, he resigned in 1804, bought a stock ot goods in Philadelphia, and engaged in trade. His store was about thirteen miles from Nashville, and consisted of a small block-house, from whose narrow window, with his trusty rifle near to his hand, he sold goods to the Indians. This occupation also he soon grew tired of, and gave up store-keeping to cultivate his plantation, which was several thou- sand acres in extent. His wife — a woman divorced from her brutal first husband and whom he had married early in his Tennessee career — was an excellent manager and one of the most cheerful and entertaining of companions, and his home was a very happy one. As they had no children, they adopted a son of one of Mrs. Jackson's sisters, and this boy became the pride, hope and joy of his life. Hot tempered as he was, it is said that he never showed even as much as impatience in his deahngs with any member of his own household. Feuds and duels were no uncommon events on the frontier at that time, and Jackson's passionate disposition brought him into more than one affair of this kind. The most notable of these was an aff"ray with the celebrated Colonel Thomas H. Benton, which ended in Jackson's receiving a severe wound in the arm and shoulder from the pistol of Benton's brother. This took place in September, 18 13, just before one of the most critical periods in Jackson's career. We have dealt with him so far in times of peace. We must now follow his striking record in war. Jackson's beUigerent disposition had early led him into military life, and for a number of years he had held the rank of major-general in the militia of Tennessee. When the War of 18 12 broke out he was quick to offer his services and those of 2,500 Tennessee back- woods volunteers, to the government, and was ordered to lead them to New Orleans. But before reaching there this order was counter- manded and his small army was disbanded. The quarrel with Benton, which led to the subsequent duel, took place while the latter commanded a regiment in Jackson's army. Meanwhile troubles with the Indians were developing. The famous chief, Tecumseh, in his efforts to unite all the tribes against the whites, and if possible drive them from the country into the sea, had made his way south and put mischief into the heads of the chiefs ^o8 Old Hickory of the powerful Creek confederation of the old Georgia territory. From the Gulf to the Lakes the Indians rose and committed terrible ravages on the white settlements. The Creeks took a bloody part in it, and on the last day of August, 1813, they surprised Fort Mimms, Alabama, in which a large number of settlers had taken refuge, and massacred nearly the whole number. Tennessee was quick to take action in this crisis. Five thousand men were ordered to be raised and put under Jackson's command, with the purpose of punishing the Indians. Among those under "Old Hickory," as his admirers called him, were Samuel Houston and David Crockett, afterward famous in the Texan war for independence. Jackson was in a very unfit condition to lead an army. The fractured bones were just beginning to knit from his dangerous wound of a month before. He was unable to mount a horse without assistance. Yet he was as vital as ever with combative energy, and at once went to work to enlist an army which was directed to gather at Fayetteville, on the border line of Alabama, on the 4th of October, 18 13. Jackson was still suffering severely from his wound when he took the field, and continued to suffer throughout the campaign, but no man in the fullness of health and strength could have pushed the savage foe with more relentless energy. He pursued them without cessation, and finally brought them to bay at Talluschatches, where a fierce fight took place in which two hundred of the warriors were killed, and many of their women and children made prisoners. The final battle was fought at a strong fort which the Creeks had built in one of the bends of the Tallapoosa River, near the center of Alabama, about fifty miles below Fort Strother. With an army of two thousand men. General Jackson traversed the pathless wilderness in a march of eleven days. He reached their fort, called Tahopeka, or Horse- shoe, on the 27th of March, 18 14. The bend of the river enclosed nearly one hundred acres of tangled forest and wild ravine. Across the narrow neck the Indians had constructed a formidable breast- work of logs and brush. Here nine hundred warriors, with an ample supply of arms and ammunition, were assembled. The fort was stormed. The fight was utterly desperate. Not an Indian would accept of quarter. When bleeding and dying, they would fight those who endeavored to spare their Hves. From ten Old Hickory 209 in the morning until dark the battle raged. The carnage was awful and revolting. Some threw themselves into the river; but the unerr- ing bullets struck their heads as they swam. Nearly every one of the nine hundred warriors was killed. A few probably, in the night, swam the river and escaped. This ended the war. The power of OSCEOLA'S INDIGNATION Osceola, the Seminole chief, drew his hunting knife and drove it through the treaty which some of his fellow- chief's had signed, thus starting the Seminole war of 1832, in which Zachary Taylor was engaged. the Creeks was broken forever. This bold plunge into the wilder- ness, with its terrific slaughter, so appalled the savages, that the remnants of the bands came to the camp, begging for peace. Jackson was anxious to kill or capture Weathersford, the half- breed Indian who had led the Creeks at the massacre of Fort 14 210 Old Hickory Mimms, but this chief escaped. His power was at an end, however, and a few hours after the battle a stalwart Indian stalked into Jack- son's tent and stood in proud dignity before him. "I am Weathersford," he said. "lam in your power; do what you please with me. I have done the white people all the harm I could; but I can do no more, my voice cannot call back the dead. When they lived I never asked for peace, but they are gone, and I ask it now for my people and myself. " This was an appeal that spoke to Jackson's heart. He could not but admire the courage and dignity of the chief. His surrender was accepted and peace was made, the bold action of the chief no doubt softening its terms. An important result of the war, so far as Jackson was concerned, was his appointment as major-general in the United States Army. This gave him an income of over six thousand dollars, and made him a rich man for those times. The period was near at hand in which he would amply justify the government for this appointment. Immediately upon the fall of Napoleon, in 1814, the British Cabinet decided to strike the United States a crushing blow. With their veteran army relieved and their great fleet free to descend in force on the American coast, they hoped to lay all our seaport towns in ashes, annihilate our navy, and drive our armies into the forests. In pursuance of this plan an army of veterans was sent to the Chesa- peake, landed near the mouth of the Patuxent River, and marched on the National Capital. The force of untrained militia gathered to oppose them was soon put to flight, and the city of Washington fell into their hands. The President fled, and after him his wife, taking with her the valuable Cabinet papers and a portrait of Washington which was screwed to the wall. The public buildings of the Capital were burned and all the records destroyed, an act of vandalism of which the British have ever since been ashamed. Baltimore was also attacked, but here the invaders were driven ofi^. A leading feature in the British plan was the capture of New Orleans. If that city were taken, it might be held at the end of the war, and the control of the Mississippi fall into British hands — as long, at least, as the South and the West would permit such a state of aff^airs to continue. A British fleet sought the Gulf and landed troops at the Spanish settlements of Pensacola and Apalachicola, where they gave arms to the Indians and prepared Old Hickory 211 for a descent in force on New Orleans, America's most Important center of population and commerce in the southwest. Most of the hostile Indians, flying from the tremendous blows which General Jackson had dealt them, had taken refuge in Florida. Jackson, far away in the wilderness of Tennessee, was left to act almost without instructions. He decided to take the responsibility, the crisis being too vital for delay. The whole South and West were fully aroused to meet and repel the foe. By the ist of November General Jackson had in Mobile an army of four thousand men. He resolved to march upon Pensacola, where the Spaniards were sheltering the foe, and, as he expressed it, "rout out the EngHsh." He advanced upon Pen- sacola, stormed the town, took possession of every fort, and drove the British fleet out to sea. Having garrisoned Mobile, he next moved his troops to New Orleans, a distance of one hundred and seventy miles. He was at this time so feeble that he could ride but seventeen miles a day. He reached New Orleans on the ist of December. This city at that time contained about twenty thousand inhabitants and every available man in the place and the country near by was brought into service. A British fleet of sixty ships, many of them of the first class, and which had obtained renown in the naval conflicts of Trafalgar and the Nile, was assembled in a spacious bay on the western end of the Island of Jamaica. This fleet, which carried a thousand cannons, was manned by nearly nine thousand sailors and marines, and transported a land force of ten thousand veteran soldiers, fresh from the wars of Europe, and flushed with victory over Napoleon. The fleet entered Lake Borgne, a shallow bay opening into the Gulf of Mexico near New Orleans, on the loth of December, 1814. There were five small cutters in the lake, which were soon overpowered by the immense force of the foe. Unaware how feeble was General Jackson's force, their leaders did not deem it prudent to move upon the city until they had greatly increased their numbers. This delay probably saved New Orleans. At two o'clock in the afternoon of the 23d General Jackson learned that the foe, marching from Lake Borgne, were within a few miles of the city. He immediately collected his motley force of the men of the frontiers, about two thousand in number, and marched to meet them. Falling upon them impetuously in a night 212 Old Hickory attack he checked their progress, and drove them back toward their landing-place where, surprised by the fury of the assault, they waited for reinforcements. These soon came up in large numbers, and General Pakenham, on the 28th, pushed his veteran battalions forward on a reconnois- sance, intending to sweep, if possible, over Jackson's unfinished breastwork. It was a brilliant morning. Jackson, an old borrowed telescope in his hand, was keenly on the watch. The solid columns of red-coats come on, in mihtary array, as beautiful as awe-inspiring. The artillery led, heralding the advance with a shower of Congreve rockets, round shot, and shell. The muskets of the infantry flashed brightly in the light of the morning sun. The Britons were in high hopes. It seemed absurd to suppose that a few thousand raw militia could resist the veterans who had conquered the armies of Napoleon. General Jackson had not quite three thousand men behind his breastwork; but every one had imbibed the spirit of his chieftain. Many of them were his fellow settlers of Tennessee, experts with the rifle and full of courage and daring. There were eight thousand Veteran soldiers marching upon them. For a few hours there were the tumult, the horror, the carnage of a battle; and then the British host seemed to have melted away. With shattered ranks, leaving their dead behind them, a second time they retreated. A third attack, on January ist, 1815, had the same result. On Friday, the 6th, General Jackson became assured that the enemy was preparing to attack him on both sides of the river. At half an hour before the dawn of Sunday morning, January 8, a rocket from the hostile lines gave the signal for the attack. In two solid columns the British advanced upon the Americari ramparts, which were bristling with infantry and artillery, and behind which General Jackson had now collected an army of about four thousand men, all inspired with the zeal of their commander. Jackson's men were well protected. With trained resolution the British marched upon the embankment, from which there was poured forth an incessant storm of bullets, balls and shells which no flesh and blood could stand. It was one of the most awful scenes of slaughter which was ever witnessed. Scarcely a bullet failed in its mission, spending its force in the bodies of those who were driven forward to inevitable death. Two hundred men were cut down Old Hickory 213 by one discharge of a thirty-two pounder, loaded to the muzzle with musket-balls, and poured into the head of a column at the dis- tance of a few yards. Regiments vanished, a British officer said, "as if the earth had opened and swallowed them up." The American line looked like a row of fiery furnaces. General Jackson walked slowly along his ranks, cheering his men, and saying: — "Stand to your guns! Don't waste your ammunition! See that every shot tells! Let us finish the business to-day!" Two hours passed, and the work was done — effectually done. As the smoke lifted, the whole proud array had disappeared. The ground was so covered with the dying and the dead, that, for a quarter of a mile in front, one might have walked upon their bodies; and far away in the distance the retreating lines of the foe were to be seen. , On both sides of the river the enemy was repulsed. The British had about nine thousand in the engagement, the Americans only about four thousand. Their loss in killed and wounded was two thousand six hundred, while the American loss was but thirteen. Thus ended the great battle of New Orleans. In those days intelligence traveled so slowly that it was not until the 4th of February that tidings of the victory reached Wash- ington. The whole country blazed with illuminations and rang with rejoicings. Ten days after this came the welcome news that a ti^aty of peace had been signed at Ghent. It was dated on Christ- mas Eve, 1 8 14, two weeks before the battle was fought. The British had paid dearly for the lack of rapid communication. Had the telegraph existed in those days that great battle would not have been fought and Andrew Jackson, in all probability, would never have been President of the United States. Yet new warlike work awaited the daring and impetuous hero of Tennessee. The Indians of Florida began to make raids into Georgia and Alabama, and Spain, when asked to stop them, failed to do so. The Spanish authorities either would not or could not keep order, and a state of border warfare arose. In 18 1 8 General Jackson was sent to put an end to this trouble. He was given the right to pursue the raiders into Spanish territory, but he was directed not to attack any of the Spanish posts without orders from Washington. The administration should not have sent a man Hke Jackson with such instructions. He was the last man 214 Old Hickory in the world to wait for orders when contingencies arose. Raising a force of four thousand men, many of them Creek Indians, he pursued the Seminoles into Florida, drove them from point to point, and captured several Spanish forts, among them that of Pensacola, on the plea that their commanders were aiding the enemy. Two British traders, who were thought to be supplying the Indians, Vv^ere seized and executed, though their guilt was not fully estabhshed. The headstrong Tennessean had managed to bring the country into hostile relations with both Spain and Great Britain. Jackson's disregard of orders and of treaties, and his hasty deal- mg with his British pris- oners, raised a storm of protest against him, though he found many defenders. But he had Congress and the Presi- dent ahke on his side. Spain was in high resent- ment against the inva- sion of her territory, but she had never held Flori- da with a strong hand, and as the controversy went on it became evident that it was likely to prove a very troublesome pos- JACKSON MONUMENT IN NEW ORLEANS session. To get out of the difficulty Spain offered, in 1819, to sell the whole province to the United States for five million dollars. Here was a cheap and easy way to settle an annoying question, especially as Spain offered to add to the bargain all her claim to territory west of the Rocky Mountains and north of the forty-second parallel of latitude. The bargain was concluded, and a new and valuable addition was made to the territory ot the South — the more valuable as it gave us ac- cess to the entire eastern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Jackson was rewarded for his services by being made Governor of Florida. He did not stay there long, however, but went back to his home and his plantation in Tennessee. Andrew Jackson was now the great mxilitary hero of the country, Old Hickory 215 before whose luster that of all the other leaders in the late war paled. His name soon began to be brought forward in connection with the Presidency of the United States. He was elected United States Senator from Tennessee in 1823, and in the stormy Presidential election of 1824 he received more electoral votes than any of his competitors. He was evidently the choice of the people, but as he had not a majority of the whole vote the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, and John Quincy Adams was chosen. In the campaign of 1828 he was triumphantly elected. But any sense of elation that the victor in this campaign might have felt was turned into bitter grief by the death, just before he assumed the reins of government, of his beloved wife. His devotion to her was one of the strong passions of his life, and from the shock of her death he never recovered. He ever afterward appeared like a changed man. He became subdued in spirit, and, except when his terrible temper had been greatly aroused, seldom used profane language. It is said that every night afterward, until his own death, he read a prayer from his wife's prayer-book, with her miniature likeness before him. Jackson was made by nature for a general, not for a President. He was the first man not trained in statesmanship to fill the Presi- dential chair, and he filled it as though at the head of an army. He took his views of affairs strongly, and being innately obstinate, and always sure he was right, he was not to be moved by argument. No President was ever less inclined to yield to the opinions of his Cabinet officials. His one strong quality was honesty. In all he did he meant well by his country, and he attacked what seemed to him corruption without a thought of whom it might hurt. The marked acts of his administration were those of his inau- gurating the principle of " rotation in office, " in favor of the adherents of the dominant party, his vetoing the bill for re-chartering the United States Bank, and his determination that the Federal laws should be obeyed in South Carolina and secession checked by force if necessary. As he considered himself a native of South Carolina, probably he felt that he had a more jntimate right than that given him by his office as President to a voice in the affairs of that State. However that be, Jackson, while an advocate for low tariff, had no belief in the right of secession, and in his beliefs lay the mainspring of his actions. 2i6 Old Hickory His administration was one of the most memorable in the annals of our country; applauded by one party, condemned by the other. No man had more bitter enemies or warmer friends. It is, however, undeniable that many of the acts of his administration, which were at the time most unsparingly denounced, are now gen- erally commendedc With all his glaring faults, he was a sincere patriot, honestly seeking the good of his country. With the masses of the people Andrew Jackson was the most popular President, with veiy few exceptions, who ever occupied the chair. He was looked upon as a man of the people, and a safeguard agamst the danger of an aristocracy, which many of the people feared. He retired from office in 1837 to the "Hermitage," his Ten- nessee home. Here his life ended m 1845. On Sunday morning, June 8th, it was seen that his last hour was at hand. He assembled all his family around him, and, in the most affecting manner, took leave of each one. "He then," writes one who was present, "deliv- ered one of the most impressive lectures on the subject of religion that I have ever heard. He spoke for nearly half an hour, and apparently with the power of inspiration." Soon after this he suddenly, and without a struggle, ceased to breathe. Two days after he was placed in a grave by the side of his wife. He had often said, "Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there.*' CHAPTER XII. THE MONROE DOCTRINE, THE PAL- LADIUM OF LIBERTY IN AMERICA The benefits of the Monroe Doctrine — Sketch of James Monroe — The Louisiana Purchase — Monroe as President — Early expressions of American statesmen — Jefferson's views in 1808 — The Spanish Colonies revolt — The Doctrine a South- ern measure — The Holy Alliance and its purpose — Russia's attitude — Canning's action — The Monroe Doctrine stated — Its effect — Its history — England's designs on Nicaragua — The Cuban question — President Polk restates the Doc- trine — The French in Mexico — They are forced to withdraw — The Venezuelan boundary dispute — President Roosevelt on the Monroe Doctrine — The blockade of Venezuela — Secretary Olney's opinion — The Drago Doctrine. THE famous Monroe Doctrine, the most dominant political question in the Western Hemisphere at the opening of the twentieth century, the wall of defiance before which the ambition of Europe stands baffled and perplexed, is distinctively of Southern origin, and as such it calls for treatment here. In the words of Secretary Hay, before the New York Chamber of Commerce, in November, 1901 : "Our rule of conduct is the Monroe Doctrine and the Golden Rule." As regards the Golden Rule, there are many among us who might call this statement in question; but that the Monroe Doctrine is one of our most decided and impor- tant rules of conduct is certainly not open to doubt. Several of the governments of Europe have excellent reason to acknowledge the truth of this statement, eince this rule, with the great power of the United States behind it, has undoubtedly proved the salvation of the republics to the south. But for this vigorous declaration of Ameri- can poHcy, South and Central America might long since have gone as spoil to the spoilers and been cut into convenient slices for Euro- pean digestion, as China was recently in danger of being dealt with. 217 2i8 The Monroe Doctrine Before describing this vital doctrine of American policy, let us say something of its author, James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States, the only one besides Washington who was the choice of the people and not of a party. Monroe was a true son of the "old Dominion." Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1758, he was only eighteen years old in 1776 when patriotism led him into the army of the Revolution. There was no more ardent and able soldier in that army of dehverance than young James Monroe. Washington recognized his abihty and made him a Heutenant soon after his enUstment, and as such he served in the battles of Harlem Heights and White Plains. In the famous battle of Trenton, the turning point in the early war, Monroe was wounded, and showed such courage and ability that he was promoted to the rank of captain. He served with distinction at the battles of Brandy- wine and Monmouth, as aide-de-camp to Lord Stirling. Having lost his rank in the regular army by acting as aide to Stirling, he retired in 1778 and began the study of law under Thomas Jefferson. He was still only twenty years of age. Monroe's later career may be treated concisely. He was elected to the Virginia Assembly in 1782 and entered Congress in 1783. In 1788 he became an active member of the Anti-Federahst party, opposing the Constitution strongly on account of the great power which it conferred upon the Federal government. In 1790 Virginia elected him to the United States Senate for four years. In 1794 he was sent as Minister to France, and after his return was Governor of Virginia from 1799 to 1802. Then followed one of the momentous events in Monroe's career, that in which he took part in the famous purchase of the great territory of Louisiana. President Jefferson sent Monroe to France in 1802 as envoy extraordinary, to unite with Minister Livingston in an effort to purchase the city of New Orleans and its surrounding territory, with the purpose of doing away with the obstructions to American navi- gation of the Mississippi. Their efforts met with an unlooked-for and remarkable response. Napoleon unexpectedly offering them the whole vast territory of Louisiana, extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, for the small sum of ^15,000,000. Here was a position in which men of force and decision were needed. The envoys had no authority to close with any such offer. They had been sent to buy a city and were offered an empire. Weak The Monroe Doctrine 219 men would have hesitated and perhaps lost the opportunity. Na- poleon was a man of immediate action. Before they could send the proposition to America and get an answer he might have withdrawn the offer. And the answer might have been adverse. As it proved Monroe and his colleague were equal to the occasion. They accepted the offer without hesitation, and as such won the plaudits of all long-sighted Americans, though at first even Jefferson hesitated at confirming their act, and vigorous opposition developed in the Senate. How the people of the United States now look upon the decisive act of Monroe we have had abundant evidence in the magnificent Louis- iana Purchase Exposi- tion at St. Louis. In 1803 Monroe was sent as Minister to England, remaining until 1808, during which time he per- formed several impor- tant diplomatic duties. Elected Governor of Virginia for a second time in 1811, he was appointed by Madison Secretary of State in the same year, and act- ed as Secretary of War in the gloomy period that followed the burn- ing of Washington. He retained the post of Sec- retary of State till the beginning of his Presidential career in March, 181 7. Elected by a large majority in 1816, he was reelected without opposition from party or opponent in 1820, only one electoral vote being cast against him, and that by a member of the electoral body who was determined that no one should rival Washington in JAMES MONROE The originator of the Famous Monroe Doctrine. (1758-1831. Two terms, 1817-1825.) 2 20 The Monroe Doctrine a unanimous election. Among the leading events of his eight years of service were the purchase of Florida from Spain in 1819, the recognition of the independence of the South American States, and the celebrated message of December, 1823, in which the famous "Monroe Doctrine" was enunciated. Monroe died on the Fourth of July, 1 83 1, being the third President to die on the country's natal day. His remains now He in the beautiful Hollywood Ceme- tery, at Richmond, Virginia. This is ail we need say here of the life of this distinguished son of old Virginia, the successor of Madison, the notable events of whose career we have already described, and the last and among the ablest of that coterie of Southern statesmen who came down from revolution- ary times and filled the office of President of the great western repub- lic. It is the work upon which his fame will especially rest, the re- nowned Monroe Doctrine, that forms the subject of this chapter. This great " Doctrine" was in nearly every particular a measure of Southern origin. Credit has been given to John Quincy Adams as if he were its true originator, but to do so is to go much too far, as the demand for American independence from foreign sovereignty arose long before 1823. It began with the beginning of our national life and has continued throughout its course. Thomas Pownall, who had been Governor of Massachusetts and of New Jersey in colonial times, remarked, as early as 1780, that a people "whose empire stands singly predominant on a great con- tinent" could not with equanimity "suffer in their borders such a monopoly as the European Hudson Bay Company." He further said that "America must avoid complication with European pohtics, " or "the entanglement of alliances; having no connections with Europe other than commercial. " These were far-seeing sentiments at that period, when the desperate struggle for independence was not yet at an end. In the immediately following years, Jefferson, Monroe and Washington expressed opinions similar in tendency, these culminating in 1796 in the view of our foreign relations expressed in Washington's Farewell Address: "The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreio-n nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible." Presidents Adams and Jefferson expressed themselves some- what similarly, and in 1808 Jefferson made the significant remark in relation to the States of the Spanish colonies: "We consider their The Monroe Doctrine 221 interests and ours as the same, and that the object of both must be to exclude all European influence in this hemisphere. " It was the Spanish uprising against Bonaparte, and the effect it might have upon the political position of Cuba and Mexico, that gave rise to this remark. Jefferson objected strongly to the possible seizure of these colonies by France or England. A declaration to the same effect, in reference to the territory of West Florida, was made by Madison in 1811. Subsequent events brought the political relations of the Spanish American countries more decidedly into the foreground. Revolts, beginning in 18 10, spread rapidly through their whole extent, and by 1821 their freedom from Spain was practically won, though not yet acknowledged. During this protracted war warm sympathy was felt in this country for the struggling colonists and aid reached them from the United States. Henry Clay was outspoken in advocating "the emancipation of South America." President Monroe made a cautious movement in the same direction in the first year of his Presidency, sendmg a commission to South America to study the situation and report if any of the revolutionary govern- ments were in a position to demand recognition. In the following year news came from Europe of a startling character, to the effect that some of the powers of that continent were likely to intervene in favor of Spain in the South American conflict. These tidings aroused the United States government to positive action. John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, curtly announced that, "if the European alliance undertook to settle matters which concerned us so closely, they should not be surprised if we acted without con- sulting them." He sounded the British minister upon the attitude of his country in the matter, the President desiring Great Britain to join with the United States in recognizing the independence of the South American colonies. At a Cabinet meeting held in May, 18 18, President Monroe suggested that the American ministers abroad should be instructed to inform the European powers that the United States would not "join in any project of interposition between Spain and the South Americans which should not be to promote the complete inde- pendence of those provinces." This action seems to have had the desired effect, the allied powers of Europe giving assurance that they did not contemplate armed interference in favor of Spain. Thus the stringency of the situation passed away. 222 The Monroe Doctrine It will be seen from what is above stated that the doctrine of "America for the Americans" was, in all its preliminary steps, distinctively a Southern measure. With the exception of Adams, Monroe's Secretary of State, and presumably acting under his direction or his influence, all the voices raised in its favor had been those of far-seeing Southern statesmen. The same continued the case. The next expression of opinion on the subject came from Thomas Jefferson, Virginia's distinguished son, in a letter dated August 4, 1820. In it he expressed hopes of a cordial fraternization of all the American nations and the formation of a distinctive American system of policy, and said: "The day is not distant when we may formally require a medium of partition through the ocean which separates the two hemispheres, on the nether side of which no European gun shall ever be heard, nor an American on the other; and when, during the rage of the eternal wars of Europe, the lion and the lamb within our regions shall he down together in peace." Here was the principle of the Monroe Doctrine clearly outlined, — as a suggestion, however, not as a declaration of principles. The latter needed to be left to one armed with the authority of official position. After 1 8 18 the exigency apparently ceased to exist, and cause for alarm was not revived until 1823. In May, 1822, the United States formally recognized the new repubUcs of the south, whose unofficial guardian this country was destined to become. The new difficulty arose from the action of the " Holy Alliance," a compact of the auto- cratic rulers of Europe formed after the fall of Napoleon, its purpose being to put an end to all popular governments. The aUied powers succeeded in banishing for the time being all representative insti- tutions from Europe, and there were indications that they purposed to take a similar course in America, aiding Ferdinand of Spain to regain his last colonies, and doubtless proposing to pay themselves richly out of the territory of the transatlantic republics. Hints of this proposed action of the "Holy AUiance" got abroad and reached the United States, whose leading statesmen at once took the alarm and rose in vigorous opposition. A significant step had already been taken by Russia, the owner of Alaska in the Ameri- can northwest. In 182 1 the Emperor Alexander I issued a ukase in which he claimed the coastal regions down to the fifty-fiist parallel of latitude, and forbade any foreign vessel to approach within one The Monroe Doctrine 223 hundred miles of these shores. A Russian settlement had also been made on the coast of California, and it was very probable, if Spain should recover Mexico, that the Czar of Russia would claim Cal- ifornia as his share. In a conversation between Secretary Adams and Baron Tuyll, the Russian minister, Adams plainly gave the Baron to understand that any such effort would be opposed by the United States, as would a similar attempt on the part of any European power. The difficulty with Russia was ami- cably settled in the following year, the southern boundary of Alaska being fixed at the parallel of 54° 40', and the more southern colonies abandoned. Such was the first vic- tory of the United States over the Euro- pean desire to colonize America. The United States was not the only coun- try disturbed by the projects of the Holy Al- liance. Great Britain, which had gained a profitable commerce with Spanish America, WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON was also concerned, The fifth Virginian to become President of the United States. ^.Tld Prime Minister Canning questioned Minister Rush on the expediency of an aUiance between the two countries to oppose any invasion of the new republics by the allied powers. When this suggestion reached Washington it created some degree of alarm in the mind of President Monroe, who was now for the first time made aware of the imminence of the danger. He, however, in the spirit 2 24 The Monroe Doctrine of Washington's recommendation, declined to enter into any "en- tangling alliance" with Great Britain. Canning thereupon decided to act alone, and gave the French Minister to understand that England would oppose any effort of the aUied powers to subjugate the late colonies ot Spain. We mention particularly Canning's action in this matter, as* it gave him the credit with some as being the true father of the Monroe Doctrine. Charles Sumner gave him this credit, saying that "the Monroe Doctrine proceeded irom Canning," and that this British statesman was "its inventor, promoter, and champion, at least so far as it bears against European intervention in American affairs." It need scarcely be said that this is an unjust statement of the case. The statesmen of the South did not wait till 1823 to express themselves plainly on this question. We have already shown how it was led up to from the preceding century, and how Monroe and Jefferson had stated their views several years before. The exigency now existing, however, called for more decided steps, and an official rather than a personal expression of opinion. Monroe felt it incum- bent upon him to take decisive action, but in advance of doing so sought advice not only from his Secretary of State, but from such dis- tinguished statesmen of the South as the renowned author of the "Declaration of Independence," Madison, his predecessor in office, and Calhoun, his Secretary of War. These all firmly sustained him in his proposed action, Jefferson writing him at length, and saying; "Our first and fundamental maxim should be, never to entangle our- selves in the broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe to intermeddle with transatlantic affairs." Thus strongly supported by America's ablest statesmen, the President wrote those celebrated words which have become the leading clause in the American Decla- ration of Principles. In his annual message to Congress, under date of December 2, 1823, President Monroe, after speaking of the pending negotiations between Russia and the United States for the settlement of their respective rights in the northwest, proceeded to say: " The occasion has been judged proper for asserting, as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and wMintatn, are henceforth not to be con- sidered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers. The Monroe Doctrine 225 "The political system of the allied powers is essentially different from that of America. This difference proceeds from that which exists in their respective governments. And to the defense of our own, which has been achieved with the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by the wisdom of our most enhghtened citizens, and under which we have enjoyed une*xampled felicity, this whole nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers to declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dan- gerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the governments who have declared their independence and maintained it, and whose independence we have, in great consideration and on just principles, acknowledged, ive could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power, in any other light than as the manifestations of an unfriendly disposition towards the United States. "It is impossible that the aUied powers should extend their political system to any portion of either continent without endan- gering our peace and happiness; nor can any one believe that our southern brethren, if left to themselves, would adopt it of their own accord. It is equally impossible, therefore, that we should behold such interposition, in any form, with indifference. If we look to the comparative strength and resources of Spain and those new gov- ernments, and their distance from each other, it must be obvious that she can never subdue them. It is still the true policy of the United States to leave the parties to themselves, in the hope that other powers will pursue the same course." The passages in italics constitute what has since been known as the "Monroe Doctrine." Had it been given to the world ten or more years previously it might have been regarded by the proud empires of Europe with disdain. But the United States had now become a power whose official utterances it was not wise to ignore, and Monroe's message, with the adherence of Great Britain to its policy of non-interference, put an end to any purpose of intervention that the Holy Alliance might have had in view. The effect of the message, with its significant passages, was 15 2 26 The Monroe Doctrine immediate. It was received with warm approval in the United States, all party spirit being set aside in the general commendation of its purport. Its effect in Europe was quickly shown by the rise in the funds of the Spanish American repubHcs, an indication that the financiers looked upon it as a decisive victory for these new countries. It was received with enthusiasm in England, for com- mercial reasons, the only part of it objected to being that referring to colonization, which, aimed especially at Russia, applied to all foreign powers. As for the projects of the Holy Alliance, they died a sudden death. Nothing more was heard of intervention in behalf of Spain, and the pernicious conspiracy to extend despotism through- out the world began from that time to decHne. As regards the reception of this measure by Northern statesmen, we have already seen how strongly it was supported by John Quincy Adams, and may quote from a speech made by Daniel Webster on April II, 1826. After asserting that the honor of the country was involved in the Monroe Doctrine, he said: "I look upon the message of December, 1823, as forming a bright page in our history. I will help neither to erase it nor to tear it out; nor shall it be by any act of mine blurred or blotted. It did honor to the sagacity of the government and I will not diminish that honor." Such was the Monroe Doctrine, such its origin, and such its reception by the country and the world. It was, as we have seen, the work of Southern statesmen, only one of Northern birth taking part in it, and just how far that part was original with himself we do not know. This being the case, some review of the later history of the doctrine is in place. While the Powers of Europe have been in the habit of speaking of it rather contemptuously as a mere expres- sion of opinion, without standing in international law, they have been chary of rousing up the force behind the sentiment, especially as that force grew more potent with the passing of the years. The Monroe Doctrine has been like the claws withdrawn within the fur, unseen but ready, and dangerous to meddle with. On various occasions the claws have been shown. We shall proceed to describe the more important of these. During more than twenty years following the enunciation of the Monroe Doctrine it was suffered to lie dormant, though several events took place in the Spanish-American States which seemed to involve its principles. The South American republics demanded its The Monroe Doctrine 227 application whenever their lawless acts brought them into difficulty with European nations, and roundly denounced the United States for abandoning its principles when it decided to interfere. But the great nation of the north bided its time, and was not to be aroused by every feeble bark. The first occasion for the assertion of United States' protection -[ of its sister repubUcs I arose from the en- ! roachments of England upon Nicaragua. These became pronounced in 1835, and the lion of the west grew alert, but still bided its time. They went on until 1848, when a British force seized the port of San Juan, as the property of the Indian " King of Mosquitia, " and 1849, when the island of Tigre was occupied by British troops. This was the first open de- fiance of the Monroe Doctrine, and the lion growled o m i n o u s ly . Great Britain hastened to say that it was all a mistake and the Clayton-Bulwer treaty settled the question for the time being. JAMES K. POLK The first President to reassert the Monroe Doctrine (1795-1849. One term. 1845-1849.) A question arose about the same time concerning the island of Cuba, which England and France were eager to take under their "protection." In 1822 and again in 1825 the French threatened to seize the island, and Great Britain showed a similar hankering, while the United States kept quiet but watched them keenly. As time went on the attentions of the two European powers to this 2 28 The Monroe Doctrine Spanish island grew more marked, but the eyes of the lion were upon them and they hesitated to act. In 1843 our government spoke out: "The United States never would permit the occupation of that island by British agents or forces upon any pretext whatever;" and in 1852 this country declined to join England and France in a three- sided agreement not to disturb Cuba, Secretary Everett saying: "The President does not covet Cuba for the United States. At the same time he considers the condition of Cuba as mainly an American question." In 1854 a resolution was introduced into the Senate which declared that the Monroe Doctrine appHed directly to the Cuban question, a statement which the Senate strongly indorsed. Other international questions arose about 1845. One of these had to do with the annexation of Texas, to which France and Eng- land were opposed, hoping, perhaps, to get a footing in the Lone Star Republic themselves. The other concerned Oregon, which England was seeking to occupy. James K. Polk, of Tennessee, was then President, and in his message of 1845 the Monroe Doctrine was again strongly asserted from the executive chair. Concerning the Texas question he used these words: " It is well known to the American people and to all nations that this government has never interfered with the relations subsisting between other governments. We have never made ourselves parties to their wars or their alliances; we have not sought their territory by conquest; we have not mingled with parties in their domestic struggles; and, believing our own form of government to be the best, we have never attempted to propagate it by intrigues, by diplomacy, or by force. We may claim on this continent a like exemption from European interference. The nations of America are equally sovereign and independent with those of Europe. They possess the same rights, independent of all foreign interposition, to make war, to conclude peace, and to regulate their internal affairs. The people of the United States cannot, therefore, view with indifference attempts of European powers to interfere with the independent action of the nations on this continent." In regard to the Oregon question he quoted the Monroe state- ment concerning European colonization, and said, "This principle will apply with greatly increased force should any European power attempt to establish any new colony in North America. In the existing circumstances of the world the present is deemed a proper INCLINE RAILWAY AT CHATTANOOGA. This view was taken from the city, and shows one of the railways which ascend Lookont Monntain. Chattanooga began to be important during the Civil War, when it became a place of strategical value. Its situation in the midst of vast mineral and forest resources after the war gave the city tremendous advantages, and it is to-day one of the leading manufacturing towns of the United States. The Monroe Doctrine 229 occasion to reiterate and reaffirm the principle avowed by Mr. Monroe, and to state rny cordial concurrence in its wisdom and sound policy. " In 1848 President Polk was again forced to an expression of opinion on this subject. This time Yucatan was involved. The Indians there were in arms and threatened to exterminate the whites, and the latter appealed for aid, offering "The dominion and sover- eignty of the peninsula" to the United States, England or France, if either would come to their rescue. The President declined to accept this offer, and requested Congress to adopt measures "to prevent Yucatan from becoming a colony of any European power, which in no event could be permitted by the United States. " It will be perceived that the Monroe Doctrine was far from being a dead letter, but was strongly .asserted on several important occasions during its first thirty years. The next occasion arose during the Civil War., France took that promising opportunity to take possession of Mexico and establish an empire upon its soil. The Government at Washington objected mildly but France went on. Congress, in 1864, grew indignant, and seemed strongly inclined to declare war against France, but the prudent counsels of President Lincoln induced this body to bide its time. Its time came when the war was over, when President Lincoln had passed away, and when Andrew Johnson, a second Tennessee President, occupied the executive chair. France, was now given plainly to understand that it must vacate or fight. General Sheridan had been sent to Texas, and was on the frontier with a powerful army of Civil War veterans, who still had the instinct of fight strongly within them, and were so eager to cross the Rio Grande and drive the French out of Mexico that they could hardly be restrained. But the government would not let loose these "dogs of war." Diplomacy came first; war was kept back as a last resort. Diplomacy did the work. Napoleon III dallied and delayed. The pill offered him was a bitter one to swallow. He had put his foot in deeply and hated to withdraw. But the lion^s claws were plainly visible. He was told, in November, 1866, that he must go, and go at once. He delayed for some months still, and then swallowed his pill and withdrew his troops. Through- out the whole affair the Monroe Doctrine had not been once men- tioned. Yet Its end was the most signal triumph for that Doctrine which had ever been given. 230 The Monroe Doctrine For thirty years after this event the Monroe Doctrine was per- mitted to sleep. Europe kept out of American affairs. It looked askance upon the phenomenal growth of the giant across the seas and deemed it wise to let America alone. Then came another affair, this time between Great Britain and Venezuela, in which once more the United States took a hand. The trouble arose in a GROVER CLEVELAND Who vigorously upheld the Monroe Doctrine. (1837 Two terms. 1885-1889—1893-1897.) boundary dispute between British Guiana and the South American State, which had existed from 1840. By 1876 it became acute, and Venezuela appealed for protection to the United States, claiming that land belonging to her had been unjustly seized. In 1886 the trouble again became urgent. Great Britain occupying territory The Monroe Doctrine 231 near the mouth of the Orinoco. All this country did was to offer to arbitrate the dispute. This was decHned and the trouble went on. It was not until 1895 that the Government at Washington felt it incumbent upon it to take a hand in the game. It was growing evident that the Monroe Doctrine had been violated, and President Cleveland deemed it his duty to interfere. A hot war of words arose between Attorney-General Olney and Lord Salisbury, one asserting and the other denying that the Monroe Doctrine was involved, and the President made the matter pubHc in this annual message to Congress of 1895. We need not go into the details of what followed. A commission to investigate the boundary question was appointed by the President, who asked for an appropriation to pay its expenses, and plainly hinted at warHke measures to prevent Great Britain from taking any lands which were found to belong to Venezuela. The lion was now showing both claws and teeth. The commission examined a small mountain of evidence. But before it was ready to report Great Britain backed down and agreed to the arbitration which it had long obstinately refused. A court of arbitration was appointed composed of the leading judicial dignitaries of Great Britain and the United States, with Professor Martens, a distinguished Russian authority on international law, as the fifth member of the court. Its meeting took place in 1899, the evidence collected by the commission was thoroughly considered, and a decision was rendered which was a compromise between the two powers. Once more the Monroe Doctrine had triumphed, and the unofficial position of the United States as the guardian of the weaker American powers had been sustained. Two years passed on, and English public sentiment underwent a radical change. A disposition to accept the Monroe Doctrine was shown. The London Spectator of November, 1901, said: "If America will define the Monroe Doctrine, why should we not pledge ourselves not to infringe upon it .^ If the Monroe Doctrine became part of the law of the civiHzed world, the risk of a war breaking out with regard to European interference in Brazil or Spanish America, now always a possibility, would pass away. " This was not the sentiment in Germany. There a hungry desire to lay hold of certain portions of South America was manifest, and the German press openly declared that the colonizing action of Germany might lead to a trial of strength between the German and 232 The Monroe Doctrine American navies. It was probably this defiant talk in Germany that led President Roosevelt, in his message of December, 1901, to reassert in strong words the doctrine which Monroe and Polk had long before advanced. He said further: "We do not guarantee any State against punishment if it misconducts itself, provided that punishment does not take the form of acquisition of territory by any non-American powers." The German boast about their navy brought out the following significant words: "Our people intended to abide by the Monroe Doctrine and to insist upon it as the one strong means of securing the peace of the Western Hemisphere. The navy offers us the only means of making our insistence upon the Monroe Doctrine anything but a subject of derision to whatever nation chooses to disregard it. We desire the peace which comes of right to the strong man armed, not the peace granted in terms of ignominy to the craven and the weakling." Thus was the great doctrine which had ruled in American affairs throughout the nineteenth century reaffirmed in the opening year of the twentieth. That it still meant more than words was shown before the end of 1902, when Germany, Great Britain and Italy blockaded the coast of Venezuela, ostensibly for the collection of debts, though Germany showed an inclination to go farther. Once more the United States spoke, and 'once more Europe heard and yielded. The blockade was broken and the indebtedness of Venezue- la left to be settled by arbitration instead of by force of arms. In these various ways the great Doctrine, origiriated by Southern statesmen, but accepted as the fixed policy of the United States, was sustained on the several occasions when European powers sought to disregard it. We cannot better close this subject than by a quotation from Secretary Olney's striking argument of 1895: "Thus far in our history we have been spared the burdens and evils of immense standing armies and all the other accessories of huge warlike establishments; and the exemption has highly con- tributed to our national greatness and wealth, as well as to the happiness of every citizen. But with the Powers of Europe per- manently encamped on American sod, the ideal conditions we have thus far enjoyed cannot be expected to continue." This is so true, and it is so evident that still worse results might accrue from the condition stated, that the United States seems The Monroe Doctrine 233 abundantly justified in jealously guarding American soil from foreign domination, and insisting, more strenuously than ever, upon the maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine. President Roosevelt strongly reiterated his views on the subject in later messages than those quoted from, and in the Pan-American Conference held at Rio de Janeiro in 1906, a new doctrine was adopted, known as the Drago Doctrine, which vigorously declared that no nation has a right, forcibly, to undertake to collect debts due its citizens by another nation. Such forcible collection implies territorial occupa- tion, and is therefore claimed to be dangerous to the independence of the nation thus assailed and inconsistent with the Monroe Doctrine. CHAPTER XIII. CLAY AND CALHOUN, THE GREAT SOUTHERN ORATORS OF THE "GOLDEN AGE" The South a nursery of orators — The boyhood of Henry Clay — His gift of oratory — Clay in Kentucky — Speaker of the House — Clay's great popularity — The Mis- souri Compromise — Campaigns of 1824 ^"^ 1844 — Defeated and in debt — The Tariff Compromise — ^The Compromise of 1850 — Clay's character — Calhoun's character and early history — The Nullification Doctrine — Webster and Hayne — Threats of war— Calhoun's great Force Bill speech — Miss Martineau on Calhoun and Clay — Calhoun's last days. THE South was long the nursery of American orators, men born on the plantation, leaders in local politics, educated in oratory in legislative halls, trained with the broad outlook of statesmen, and with a deep and abiding genius in the management of national affairs. We have already spoken of those early giants in debate, Henry, Madison, Lee, Marshall, Rutledge, Laurens, Gadsden and others, who made their fame in the days of the Revolu- tion and gave us the Constitution. The century that followed brought successors of far-reaching fame, Randolph, Wirt, Hayne, Clay, Calhoun, Benton, Crittenden, and others of high note. Here is a list of names far too great for the space at our command, and we must confine ourselves to the two greatest and ablest among them, Henry Clay, of whom Parton says, "Take him for all in all we must regard him as the first of American orators," and John C. Calhoun, whose fiery earnestness and keen logic gave him one of the loftiest positions in what has been well named "the Golden Age of American oratory. " In Henry Clay we have to do with a true son of the South, a scion of the country in its making, a Virginian born in the midst of that mortal struggle which was to give independence to the colonies. He came into the world in the darkest days or the Revolution, in i ']']^i 234 Great Southern Orators 235 the year of the defeats of Brandywine and Germantown and the loss of Philadelphia, the capital of the young nation. His parents were poor. His father died and left the widowed mother with seven HENRY CLAY One of the Greatest of American Orators and Statesmen. Born in Virginia in 1777, he later made his home in Kentucky and there rose to his greatest prominence. He died in 1852. young buds of promise on her hands. The boy had his own career to, make from the ground upward. We find him going bare- foot to school, in a little log hut without windows or floor, where he 236 Great Southern Orators picked up the barest rudiments of education. His chief school was the world at large, but he found it a college full of useful lessons for one with will to learn. Next we find him, still a child, helping his mother; tilling her fields, going miles to mill with his bag of corn strapped on the family horse, the barefoot "Mill-boy of the Slashes," as he was afterward called. At fourteen, an errand boy's place was found for him in a drug store in Richmond. At fifteen he became a clerk in the office of the Court of Chancery. A tall, slender, awkward lad he was, dressed in the costume of the backwoods, so uncouth in appearance as to draw smiles behind his back from his fellow clerks. But the boy grew graceful as he grew older. There was always something about him winning, something commanding. He was never handsome, but his broad forehead, ruddy face, and the speaking intelligence of his countenance were of more moment than regular features, and everywhere he won friends and admirers. Of all Clay's gifts the greatest physical one was his voice, unique and admirable in its tones and powers. There was a depth of tone in it, a volume, a compass, a rich and tender harmony, which invested all he said with majesty. Parton writes that he heard it last when Clay was an old man, past seventy; and all he said was a few words of acknowledgment to a group of ladies in the largest hall in Philadelphia. "He spoke only in the ordinary tone of con- versation; but his voice filled the room as the organ fills a great cathedral, and the ladies stood spellbound as the swelling cadences rolled about the vast apartment. We have heard much of White- field's piercing voice and Patrick Henry's silvery tones, but we cannot beheve that either of those natural orators possessed an organ superior to Clay's majestic bass. No one who ever heard him speak will find it difficult to believe what tradition reports, that he was the peerless star of the Richmond Debating Society in 1795.'* But his voice was only the instrument of his power as an orator. Behind it was his mind, vigorous in power, alert in thought, inspired with enthusiasm and intelligence, logical and persuasive, the deep foundation to which that noblest of voices gave living force. He was born to win men's souls and sway their minds, and he showed this power even in his boyhood days of clerkhood and legal study. Becoming a lawyer, young Clay soon found that Richmond was not the place for his talents. Opportunities for money-making Great Southern Orators 237 were small there, and he followed his mother to Kentucky, whither she had removed years before. He was not yet twenty-one when he reached this as yet untamed wilderness, bent to "grow up with the country." He hung out his shingle in the new town of Lexington with scarce a dollar in his pocket and all his wealth in his head. But he did not have to wait long for business, and in less than two years after his arrival at Lexington, in April, 1799, he had achieved a position enabling him to take a helpmate. He asked for and obtained the hand of Lucretia Hart, the daughter of a man of high character and prominent standing in the state. She was a very estimable woman, and a most devoted wife to him. His prosperity now increased rapidly; and soon he was able to purchase Ashland, an estate of some six hundred acres, near Lexington, which afterward became famous as Henry Clay's home. Such was Henry Clay's early career, and such the steps of progress which led him into the position of one of the leading men in the young state of Kentucky. Thinly settled as it still was, the new state offered excellent opportunities to men of ability, and Clay was soon lifted upon a high wave. His abihty as a lawyer, his powers as an orator, carried him rapidly upward, his fellow citizens soon deemed him worthy of representing them in the legislature, and before he reached the age of thirty his fellow legislators sent him to the United States Senate, to fill a year's unexpired term of a retiring Senator. This was rapid progress, and we may well imagine to what it was due, the effect of his splendid voice and brilliant powers of oratory upon those backwoods legislators. "At thirty," says Parton, "he was, to use the language of the stump, 'Kentucky's favorite son,' and incomparably the finest orator in the Western country." Jefferson, the father of the Declaration of Independence, was then in the Presidential chair, and Clay was one of his chief admirers and champions. He looked upon him as the best and greatest of men, and defended him warmly on the poHtical stump and in legislative and senatorial halls. In 181 1, when he was thirty-four years old. Clay's great career fairly began. Elected to the House of Representatives at Wash- ington, he was immediately chosen Speaker of the House by the party favoring war with England, a party in which Clay had made himself a leader. Except for a brief interval, when he was one of the Commissioners to arrange terms of peace with Great Britain, 238 Great Southern Orators he remained at the head of the House until 1825. He was confessedly the best presiding officer that great body has ever known. His powers were often severely tried, for party feehng was intense and bitter during the earher years of his Speak- ership, but he always maintained his position with dignity and effectiveness. It is agreed that to Henry Clay, Speaker of the House of Repre- sentatives, more than to any other individual, we owe the War of 18 1 2. When the House hesitated, it was he who, descending from the chair, spoke so as to reassure it. When President Madison faltered, it was the stimulus of Clay's resistless persistance that put heart into him again. Clay it was whose clarion notes rang out over departing regiments, and kindled within them the martial fire; and it was Clay's speeches which the soldiers loved to read by the camp- fire. When the war was going all wrong in the first year. President Madison wished to appoint Clay commander-in-chief of the land forces; but, said Gallatin, "What shall we do without him in the House of Representatives ?" On the floor of the house, Mr. Clay was often impetuous in discussion, and delighted to reheve the tedium of debate, and modify the bitterness of antagonism, by a sportive jest or hvely repartee. On one occasion. General Smythe of Virginia, who often afflicted the House by the dryness and verbosity of his harangues, had paused in the middle of a speech, which seemed hkely to endure forever, to send to the library for a book from which he wished to note a passage. Fixing his eye on Mr. Clay, he observed the Kentuckian writhing in his seat, as if his patience had already been exhausted. "You, sir," remarked Smythe, addressing him, "speak for the present generation; but I speak for posterity." "Yes," said Clay, "and you seem resolved to speak until the arrival of your audience." Only once in the course of his long representative career was Clay obliged to canvass for his election, and he was never defeated, nor ever could be before a pubhc that he could personally meet and address. The one searching ordeal to which he was subjected followed the passage of the "Compensation Act" of 18 16, whereby Congress substituted for its per diem rate a fixed salary of ^1500 to each member. This act excited great hostility, especially in the west, then very poor. Great Southern Orators 239 While canvassing the district, Mr. Clay encountered an old hunter, who had always before been his warm friend, but was now opposed to his reelection on account of the Compensation Bill. "Have you a good rifle, my friend?" asked Mr. Clay. "Yes.", "Did it ever flash.?" "Once only," he replied. "What did you do with it, — throw it away?" "No; I picked the flint, tried it again, and brought down the game." "Have I ever flashed, but upon the Compensation Bill?" "No!" "Will you throw me away ?" "No, no!" exclaimed the hunter with enthusiasm, nearly overpowered by his feelings; "I will pick the flint, and try you again!" He was ever afterward a warm supporter of Mr. Clay. Not often does a man whose life is spent in purely civil affairs become such a popular hero and idol as did Clay — especially when it was his fate never to reach the highest place in the people's gift. "Was there ever," says Parton, "a pubHc man, not at the head of a state, so beloved as he ? Who ever heard such cheers, so hearty, distinct and ringing, as those which his name evoked ? Men shed tears at his defeat, and women went to bed sick from pure sympathy with his disappointment. He could not travel during the last thirty years of his life, but only make progresses. When he left home the public seized him and bore him along over the land, the committee of one state passing him on to the committee of another, and the hurrahs of one town dying away as those of the next caught his ear. " One evidence of his popularity is the great number of children named in his honor. An English woman traveling in America during the Presidential canvass of 1844 writes that at least three- fourths of all the boy babies born in that year must have been named for Henry Clay. "Even now, more than thirty years after his death," says Carl Schurz, writing in 1886, "we may hear old men, who knew him in the days of his strength, speak of him with an enthusiasm and affection so warm and fresh as to convince us that the recollection of having followed his leadership is among the dearest treasures of their memory." During the period of Clay's term as Speaker his voice was often heard in speeches of controlling power. But he first stood before the country as one of its ablest and greatest men in the long and exciting contest on the admission of Missouri as a slave state. Clay, while not the originator of the famous "Missouri Compromise," was one of its chief supporters, and his name is indissolubly con-- 240 Great Southern Orators nected with it. It was due to him, above all men, that this great compromise bill was carried through. It was a noble work, for the very existence of the Union was threatened in the hot controversy that raged in House and Senate. "Clay," says Schurz, "did not confine himself to speeches,. . . but went from man to man, expostulating, beseeching, persuading, in his most winning way. . . His success added greatly to his reputation and gave new strength to his influence." The result, says John Quincy Adams, was "to bring into full display the talents and resources and influence of Mr. Clay." He was praised as "the great pacificator," — a char- acter which was confirmed by the deeds of his later fife. In the election of 1824 Clay was one of four candidates for the Presidency of the United States. Andrew Jackson received the highest number of electoral votes, and John Ouincy Adams the next highest, but no candidate had a majority and the decision went to the House of Representatives, which had authority to choose between the three candidates having the largest number of votes. Clay was Speaker of the House; and as his influence at this time was very great, it was at once perceived that he had it practically within his power to decide the choice; and the friends of both Jackson and Crawford began to pay assiduous court to him. He, however, promptly declared his intention of using his influence to secure the choice of Adams; whereupon the Jackson party, a few days before the election^ publicly accused him of having sold his influence to Adams under a "corrupt bargain," by which Clay was to be given the Secretaryship of State in payment for making Adams President. The charge was unfounded, but it was kept alive for years and did great injury to Clay in his later career. Jackson, who never forgave those whom he deemed his enemies, bore a bitter grudge against Clay, and the time came in which he was able to make his power felt. The time came in 1844, when Clay was again a candidate for the Presidency. He had unwisely run against Jackson in 1832, when defeat was sure. In 1840, when the Whig party had a clear "walk over" before it, Clay was set aside in favor of General Harrison, a shght which bitterly stung him. "I am the most unfortunate man in the history of parties," he said; "always run by my friends when sure to be defeated, and now betrayed for a nomination when I or any one else would be sure of an election." Great Southern Orators 241 STATUE TO HENRY CLAY This beautiful marble statue to Henry Clay was erected in the Capitol Square, Richmond, Virginia, by the Ladies' Clay Association. 16 242 Great Southern Orators In 1844 he was unanimously nominated and again success seemed certain. But there were new elements in the situation, hard to estimate. The "Liberty party" — the Anti-slavery faction — was now in the field, and Clay, as a slaveholder, was deserted by many of the Northern Whigs. His support of the annexation of Texas also lost him votes among those who opposed this measure, and his old enemy Jackson took the opportunity to give him a stinging thrust. Letters came from the "Hermitage" which reviewed the old story of the "bargain and corruption" in 1825, when Clay had prac- tically elected Adams and was made Secretary of State. False as this calumny was, many believed it. As the campaign went on its managers began to feel some doubt, in spite of the immense popularity of their candidate, but the masses of the Whigs felt sure of success to the very last. It seemed impossible to them that Henry Clay could be defeated by an almost unknown man like James K. Polk. As in the Cleveland and Blaine contest, forty years later, everything at last depended on New York, and the returns from the interior of that state came in very slowly. There seemed to be still a possibihty that heavy Whig majorities in the western counties might overcome the large Democratic vote in the eastern. The suspense was painful. People did not go to bed, watching for the mails. When at last the decisive news went forth which left no doubt of the result, the Whigs broke out in a wail of agony all over the land. "It was," says Nathan Sargent, "as if the first-born of every family had been stricken down." The descriptions we have of the grief manifested are almost incredible. Tears flowed in abundance from the eyes of men and women. In the cities and villages the business places were almost deserted for a day or two, people gathering together in groups to discuss in low tones what had happened. Neither did the victorious Democrats indulge in the usual demonstrations of triumph. There was a feeling as if a great wrong had been done. The Whigs were fairly stunned by their defeat. Many despaired of the republic, sincerely believing that the experiment of popular government had failed forever. Almost all agreed that the great statesmen of the country would thenceforth always remain excluded from the presi- dency, and that the highest office would be the prize only of second- rate politicians. Great Southern Orators 243 Clay's hopes of the Presidency were forever gone and the disappointment was a bitter one to him. But he had other and more immediate troubles. He was a comparatively poor man, one of his sons had failed in business, pubhc Hfe has its inevitable costs, and he was in imminent danger of losing Ashland, his beloved home, which was heavily mortgaged. How to meet his debts without selling his home he knew not, but here was a dilemma in which his friends could aid him. ReHef came to him suddenly, and in an unexpected form. When offering a payment to the bank at Lexington, the president informed him that sums of money had arrived from different parts of the country to pay off Henry Clay's debts, and that all the notes and the mortgage were canceled. Clay was deeply moved. "Who did this.^" he asked the banker. All the answer he received was that the givers were unknown, but they were presumably "not his enemies." Clay doubted whether he should accept the gift, and consulted some of his friends. They reminded him of the many persons of historic renown who had not refused tokens of admiration and gratitude from their countrymen; and added that, as he could not discover the unknown givers, he could not return the gift; and, as the gift appeared in the shape of a discharged obligation, he could not force the renewal of the debt. At last he consented to accept, and thus was Ashland saved to him. Now to return to the story of Clay's public life. There are three great events in the history of the country during his Con- gressional career with which his name is indissolubly connected. One of these was the Missouri Compromise above spoken of. A second was the Tariff Compromise of 1833. A third was the Compromise of 1850. In all of these Clay showed himself "the great pacificator," the healer of wounds, the appeaser of passions, the unflinching advocate of peace and union. In 1829, ^fter the end of his term as Secretary of State, Clay went to his beautiful Kentucky home for a period of rest. But his host of admirers in Kentucky would not let him stay there, and sent him to the Senate in 1831. He entered it in stormy times. There was the smell of powder in air. The high tariff" then existing told strongly against the prosperity of the South. Bitter words were said about it, and vain efforts to repeal it were made; as nothing could be done in this direction, Calhoun and other leaders in South Carolina determined to treat it as "null and void." The doctrine of "nullification," 244 Great Southern Orators perilous to the Union as it was, was set afloat, and the halls of Con- gress rang with the voices of those masters of oratory, Webster, Calhoun, Hayne and others of abiUty. Jackson the vehement dealt with the nullifiers as he had done with the British at New Orleans. He fired hot shot into their camp, threatening the leaders with arrest and trial for treason if they persisted. In these days of imminent danger Henry Clay came to the rescue. He devised and carried through congress a compromise tariff providing for a gradual reduction of duties, until in ten years they would reach a minimum of twenty per cent. This proved satisfactory to the South, the discontent was allayed, and once more a great peril to the Union passed away. The last and greatest pubhc work of Clay's fife was the famous Compromise of 1850, which, as has often been said, postponed for ten years the great Civil War. In 1849 he was unanimously elected United States Senator by the Kentucky Legislature, in spite of the well-known fact that his views on the slavery question were dis- tasteful, to a large number of his constituents. The truth is that they saw that a storm was gathering, and relied on Clay's wisdom and patriotism to meet the emergency. The sentiment against slavery was increasing in the North. The free states were out- stripping the slave states in wealth and population, and the growing expression of opinion in the North was one that both alarmed and exasperated the South. The division of sentiment between the two sections grew intense, and it was evident that prompt measures must be taken to allay the irritation if the stabiHty of the Union was to be assured. In this critical state of affairs all eyes turned to Henry Clay, the great peace-maker, and he responded nobly to the appeal. In his view the questions at issue could be settled by legislative action and he put himself to the almost hopeless task. When, in the session of 1849-50, he appeared in the Senate with the earnest desire to remove the slavery question from pohtics. Clay was an old man of seventy-two, a veteran warrior who was still in the Hsts of warfare after half a century of service. The marks of age were upon him, but he was hopeful still. His cheerfulness and faith remained, though anxiety for the destiny of his beloved country filled his soul. Never had he worked so faithfully and hard. During that memorable session of Congress he spoke seventy times. Often sick and feeble, scarcely able, even with friendly aid, to chmb Great Southern Orators 245 the Capitol steps, he was never absent when the Compromise Bill was before the Senate. On the morning of his greatest speech on this subject he was accompanied by a clerical friend, to whom he JOHN C. CALHOUN The great South Carolinian Orator and Statesman. said, on reaching the long flight of steps leading to the Capitol, "Will you lend me your arm, my friend .f* for I find myself quite weak and exhausted this morning. " Every few steps he was obliged to stop and take breath. "Had you not better defer your speech ?" 246 Great Southern Orators asked the clergyman. "My dear friend," said the dying orator, "I consider our country in danger; and if I can be the means, in any measure, of averting that danger, my health or life is of little con- sequence." When he rose to speak, it was but too evident that he was unfit for the task he had undertaken. But as he kindled with his subject, his cough left him, and his bent form resumed all its wonted erectness and majesty. He may, in the prime of his strength, have spoken with more energy, but never with so much pathos or grandeur. His speech lasted two days; and though he lived two years longer, he never recovered from its effect on his strength. "Who can estimate," says Parton, "the influence of these clear and emphatic utterances ten years after .? The crowded galleries, the numberless newspaper reports, the quickly succeeding death of the great orator, all aided to give them currency and effect. We shall never know how many wavering minds they aided to decide in 1861. Not that Mr. Clay really believed the conflict would occur; he was mercifully permitted to die in the conviction that the Com- promise of 1850 had removed all immediate danger, and greatly lessened that of the future." "Whatever Clay's weaknesses of character and errors in statesmanship may have been," says Schurz, in his admirable biography of Henry Clay, "almost everything he said or did was illumined by a grand conception of the destinies of his country, a glowing national spirit, a lofty patriotism. Whether he thundered against British tyranny on the seas, or urged the recognition of the South American sister republics, or attacked the high-handed con- duct of the military chieftain in the Florida war, or advocated pro- tection and internal improvements, or assailed the one-man power and spoils politics in the person of Andrew Jackson, or entreated for compromise and conciliation regarding the tariff or slavery; whether what he advocated was wise or unwise, right or wrong; there was always ringing through his words a fervid plea for his country, a zealous appeal in behalf of the honor and the future greatness and glory of the Republic, or an anxious warning lest the Union, and with it the greatness and glory of the American people, be put in jeopardy. It was a just judgment which he pronounced upon himself when he wrote: 'If any one desires to know the leading and paramount object of my public life, the preservation of the Union will furnish him the key, ' " Great Southern Orators 247 Such is the story of Henry Clay, the great Kentucky peace- maker. Now we have to do with another famous orator of the Southland, John C. Calhoun, the great South Carolina legislative warrior, a man whose voice was for war as that of Clay was for peace. His was a unique figure in American history. He beheved to his heart's core in the institution of Slavery, that it was morally and politically right, that it was beneficial to white and black alike, and that the whole welfare of the country was dependent on its contin- uence. No one can doubt his sincerity in this belief. He was one of the most honest and upright of men. In him there was no conceal- ment or falsehood, no fear of result or shadow of turning and his honesty and ability gave him a far-reaching influence. His own state had the deepest trust in him and the warmest faith in his doctrines, and no man in America did more than he to support and sustain the South in the sentiments which were to lead to one of the greatest conflicts the world has known. Calhoun was born in Abbeyville, South CaroHna, in 1782, five years after Clay, and in the same year with his great adversary of later times, Daniel Webster. The Revolution had just ended. For several years the South had borne the brunt of the war and its people were deeply impoverished. Calhoun's father, a north of Ireland immigrant, died when the boy was nineteen, and he had his own way to make. But he was bent on having an education, and he got it, working his way with honors through Yale College. He was a democrat in grain, declared that the people were the true source of power, and maintained this declaration so strongly and ably against President Dwight of Yale, as to induce the latter to sav that Calhoun had ability enough to be a President of the United States. After two years in the South Carolina Legislature, Calhoun was elected to Congress in 18 10, where he served until 18 17, when he became Secretaiy of War under President Monroe. In 1824 he was elected Vice-President, under John Quincy Adams, and again in 1828, when Andrew Jackson was elected President. In 1832 he resigned the Vice-Presidency to become Senator from South Caro- lina, and remained in the Senate during nearly all the remainder of his life. In 1828 Congress passed a tariff bill by which the protective duties were considerably increased. This bill was bitterly opposed in the South, where it was styled the "Tariff of Abominations j" 248 Great Southern Orators and on its passage Calhoun prepared a most remarkable paper, called the "South Carolina Exposition," in which he maintained that the Constitution authorized Congress to levy tariff taxes only for revenue; that protective taxes were therefore unconstitutional; and that a state had the right and power to declare an unconstitutional law null and void, and to forbid its execution in that state. It was the purpose of the people of South Carolina to agitate for the repeal of the obnox- ious law; and, in case their efforts should fail, to resort to the remedy of nuUilication. This paper was issued in December, 1828. In March, 1829, the new government, Jackson at its head, came into power. Calhoun, being reelected Vice-President, still held his chair as President of the Senate. In 1829 the long debate over the question. Does the Constitution make us one sovereign nation, or only a league of sovereign States ^ was at its height. That debate had begun as soon as the Constitu- tion was ratified, in 1788, and was heard at intervals until the out- break of the war in 1 86 1 . For many years the theory of a " compact," from which a state might withdraw at will, was maintained by various advocates, of whom Calhoun was the foremost. He supported his view with great abihty and ingenuity and with industry and devotion which never flagged or wavered. In his own state his doctrines were accepted with almost complete unanimity; and the Senators and Representatives in Congress from South CaroHna were all disciples of the Calhoun school. In the Senate, as he was the presid- ing officer, he could not take an active part in debate; but he had an able supporter in General Robert Y. Hayne, who was a strong and eloquent speaker. In January, 1830, the agitation in Congress culminated in the famous encounter of Hayne with Daniel Webster. Hayne had maintained that nullification was a constitutional remedy, — a "reserved right." Webster, the acknowledged greatest of American orators, responded with his most vigorous effort. Witk a power of satire under which Hayne writhed in his seat, he drew a picture of practical nullification; he declared that an attempt to nullify the laws of the nation was treason, that it led directly and necessarily to armed force, and was nothing less than revolution. South Carolina accepted the decision and proceeded to revolu- tion. The tariff of 1828 was not repealed; and after the presidential election of 1832, under the direction of Calhoun, who had resigned the Vice-Presidency, a convention of the people of the state was Great Southern Orators 249 called, which passed the famous "Ordinance of NuUification," declaring the tariff law of 1828 null and void in South Carohna. This daring step, for which Calhoun must be given the chief credit, roused the people of the country to an intense excitement. It had the force of a declaration of war, and apprehension of an appeal to arms and a dissolution of the Union everywhere prevailed. Events pointing in that direc- tion came with start- ling rapidity. On December, 10, 1832, appeared the memor- able proclamation from President Jack- son, in which he de- clared that he would meet any attempt at disunion with the force necessary to put it down. Governor Hayne —Webster's late opponent — replied with a counter-proc- lamation in which he defended the action of the state. He went further and called out 12,000 volunteers. War seemed at hand. Uni- ^^^^ tyler I^ The first vice-President to become President. (1790-1S62) One partial sent by the President to term, 1841-1845.) Augusta and Charleston. Naval vessels were ordered to Charleston harbor. The State militia in certain sections, were called out, armed and drilled, and depots of suppHes were prepared. Army officers, natives of the state, were ready to resign their commissions and head the State forces, and some foreign military officers in the country went so far as to offer their services to Governor Hayne. 250 Great Southern Orators Calhoun took his seat in the Senate on the 4th of January, 1833, in the heat of this situation, as the great champion of nuUification, and on the 15th and i6th of February he made one of the most powerful speeches of his Kfe in opposition to what was known as the "Force Bill," the object of which was to enable the President to collect the revenue in South Carohna by forcible means. A brief quotation from this great effort in oratory cannot fail to be of interest. Calhoun said, referring to the bill: " It has been said by the senator from Tennessee (Mr. Grundy) to be a measure of peace! Yes, such peace as the wolf gives to the lamb — the kite to the dove. Such peace as Russia gives to Poland, or death to its victim! A peace, by extinguishing the political exist- ence of the State, by awing her into an abandonment of the exercise of every power which constitutes her a sovereign community. It is to South Carohna a question of self-preservation; and I proclaim it, that should this bill pass, and an attempt be made to enforce it, it will be resisted at every hazard — even that of death itself. Death is not the greatest calamity: there are others still more terrible to the free and brave, and among them may be placed the loss of liberty and honor. There are thousands of her brave sons who, if need be, are prepared cheerfully to lay down their lives in defence of the State, and the great principles of constitutional liberty for which she is contending. God forbid that this should become necessary! It never can be, unless this government is resolved to bring the ques- tion to extremity, when her gallant sons will stand prepared to per- form the last duty — to die nobly. "In the same spirit, we are told that the Union must be pre- served, without regard to the means. And how is it proposed to preserve the Union ? By force! Does any man in his senses believe that this beautiful structure — this harmonious aggregate of states, produced by the joint consent of all — can be preserved by force .? Its very introduction will be the certain destruction of this Federal Union. No, no. You cannot keep the states united in their con- stitutional and Federal bonds by force. Force may, indeed, hold the parts together, but such union would be the bond between master and slave: a union of exaction on one side, and of unquahfied obedience on the other." In spite of Mr. Calhoun's efforts, the "Force Bill" was passed; and it is said that President Jackson privately warned him that the Great Southern Orators 251 moment news was received of resistance to the government in South CaroHna, he would be arrested on a charge of treason. But Con- gress was not disposed to push the quarrel to the bitter end. Henry Clay's Compromise Bill for the gradual reduction of the tariff was introduced and passed, and the stringency vanished. The arms which had been lifted in threat were let fall again, and the contro- versy ended in claims of victory on both sides. As for the doctrine of nullification, it re- mained unsettled. Miss Harriet Mar- tineau, who visited the United States at this time, has recorded, in he r "Retrospect of Western Travel," her impressions of Mr. Calhoun. She writes: — "Mr. Calhoun fol- lowed, and impressed me very strongly. While he kept to the question, what he said was close, good, and moderate, though de- DANIEL WEBSTER livered in rapid speech, a782-is52.) and with a voice not sufficiently modulated. But when he began to reply to a taunt of Colonel Benton's, that he wanted to be President, the force of his speaking became painful. He made protestations which it seemed to strangers had better have been spared, 'that he would not turn on his heel to be President,' and that 'he had given up all for his own brave, magnanimous little State of South Carolina.' While thus protesting, his eyes flashed, his brow seemed charged with thun- der, his voice became almost a bark, and his sentences were abrupt and intense. 252 Great Southern Orators "Mr. Calhoun's countenance first fixed my attention; the splendid eye, the straight forehead, surmounted by a load of stiff, upright dark hair, the stern brow, the inflexible mouth, — it is one of the most remarkable heads in the country." Miss Martineau's sketch of the three great statesmen of the time is especially interesting: — "Mr. Clay sitting upright on the sofa, with his snuff-box ever in his hand, would discourse for many an hour in his even, soft, deliberate tone, on any one of the great subjects of American pohcy which we might happen to start, always amazing us with the mod- eration of estimate and speech which so impetuous a nature has been able to attain. Mr. Webster, leaning back at his ease, telling stories, cracking jokes, shaking the sofa with burst after burst of laughter, or smoothly discoursing to the perfect feUcity of the logical part of one's constitution, would illuminate an evening now and then. Mr. Cal- houn, the cast-iron man, who looks as if he had never been born and could never be extinguished, would come in sometimes to keep our understanding on a painful stretch for a short while, and leave us to take to pieces his close, rapid, theoretical, illustrated talk, and see what we could make of it. We found it usually more worth retaining as a curiosity, than as either very just or useful. "I know of no man who lives in such utter intellectual solitude. He meets men and harangues by the fireside as in the Senate; he is wrought hke a piece of machinery, set going vehemently by a weight and stops while you answer; he either passes by what you say, or twists it into a suitability with what is in his head, and begins to lecture again." Miss Martineau also saw Calhoun in South CaroHna, where he was the political teacher and guide, and the acknowledged chief: — "During my stay in Charleston, Mr. Calhoun and his family arrived from Congress, and there was something very striking in the welcome he received, Hke that of a chief returned to the bosom of his clan. He stalked about like a monarch of the httle domain, and there was certainly an air of mysterious understanding between him and his followers." The agitation of the slavery question, from 1835 to 1850, was chiefly the work of this one man. "The labors of Mr. Garrison and Mr. Wendell Phillips," says Parton, "might have borne no fruit during their lifetime, if Calhoun had not made it his business to Great Southern Orators 253 supply them with material. 'I mean to force the issue upon the North,' he once wrote; and he did force it. The denial of the right of petition, the annexation of Texas, the forcing of slavery into the Territories, — these were among the issues upon which he hoped to unite the South in his favor, while retaining enough strength at the North to secure his election to the Presidency. Failing in all his schemes of personal advancement, he died in 1850, still protesting that slavery is divine, and that it must rule this country or ruin it." Calhoun's life came to an end in March, 1850, before the Com- promise Bill of that year had once more postponed the "irrepres- sible conflict." On the 4th of March his last speech was read in the Senate by a friend, he then being too weak to deliver it. Three days afterward, when Webster delivered his famous "7th of March Speech," Calhoun literally rose from his dying bed that he might be present, and sat for the last time in his accustomed seat, his rigid face and intense gaze giving him a weird and unearthly aspect. On the 24th of the same month he died; and his remains were taken to Charleston, there to mingle with the soil of the state to which he had given a Hfe's devotion, and which had rewarded him with unfailing love and honor. CHAPTER XIV. THE LONE STAR STATE, ITS HEROES AND ITS MARTYRS Texas and its settlers — Its size and resources — The revolt of the Americans — Hous- ton's early story — ^Heroes of the Texan War — The splendid defence of the Alamo — The Thermopylae of Texas — Houston's great victory — Texas admitted to the Union — The War spirit in Mexico — Southern leaders of the Mexican War — Results of the War — What Mexico lost and the United States won. THE 4th of July, 1845, the sixty-ninth anniversary of the birth of the great American repubhc, was signaHzed by a noble addition to its territory, while to the splendid galaxy of the South was added a giant star. This was the grand domain of Texas, known for an interval as the Lone Star Republic, but which on that date became a welcome member of the American Union. It was a magnificent accession to the South, adding to it a vast territory almost equal to half its former area and more than four times as large as any of its older states. Amply was it fitted to maintain itself as an independent country, possessing, as it did, resources of immense extent and ability to maintain a great population. But sons of the great republic had settled its soil and won its freedom, and in their souls was no higher hope or warmer aspiration than to come -again under the shadow of the starry flag, bringing their new land with them as a bright star to add to the American constellation. Hope- fully was the new state offered, warmly was it accepted, and Inde- pendence Day of 1845 was grandly celebrated by this splendid rounding off of our national territory to the southwest. It is not much to say that Texas has the area of a nation. It will be more to the point to say that it is larger than either France, Germany, or Austria, those proud and powerful historic nations of 254 Heroes and Martyrs of Texas ^55 ii^. Europe, and that it would make four New Englands or sixNew Yorks. To cross it from east to west one must travel 800 miles, or from north to south 750 miles, while it has a water line on the Gulf of Mexico 375 miles in length. It would hold the whole present population of the United States and then be no more thickly settled than Massa- chusetts is to-day. Such is Texas in area; what is it in capabilities ^ We know it for its vast grazing plains, fitted to feed uncounted herds. ______ We know it for its mighty spread or for- ests. We know it for its magnificent yield of cotton. We know it for its rich mines, its great reservoirs of pe- troleum, its multitude of rivers, its salubrious climate, its rapidly growing cities, its active seaports, the rice fields and sugar plantations of its broad coastal plain. We know it, indeed, for a thousand promises and a thou- s a n d performances, and for a history in which the American spirit of daring and devotion shows at its best. It is this history of Texas, with the story SAMUEL HOUSTON— The Deliverer of Texas of [^^ heroes and its martyrs to liberty, with which we are now concerned. While the United States has its Independence Hall, Texas has its Alamo, a building made sacred to liberty by the blood of the brave. Around the story of the Alamo its whole history turns. Texas began its career as a part of Spanish America. After 1 82 1, when Mexico broke the bonds of Spain, Texas became a province of the new nation. It was a sparsely peopled domain. 256 Heroes and Martyrs of Texas thousands of its square miles having never been troubled by a white man's foot. But, invited by Mexico, multitudes of Americans poured from the neighboring states across its borders, and within ten years there were twenty thousand enterprising Southerners on Texan soil. One may well imagine what followed. These were true sons of the South, daring, high-spirited, liberty-loving Americans to whom tyranny was worse than death. But they had made them- selves citizens of Mexico, were exposed to petty acts of oppression from governors who hated them, and were subject to the rule of a government whose principles they detested. We know what a Spanish American government in those days was, and what in some sections it still is, — a despotism Umited by insurrection. This Hmit the incensed American settlers soon stepped over. Chafing under the annoyances of Mexican rule, they hved in a condition of chronic revolt. In 1832 they broke into open insurrection, took to arms, and drove the Mexican troops out of the country. Thus, for a time, was the air cleared. The troops came back, but they kept shy of the hot-blooded Americans, and for two years Texas was fairly quiet. But during these years new settlers poured over the border in a steady stream, and daily the desire for inde- pendence grew stronger. The Americans, who formed the bulk of the population, detested and despised the Mexicans and chafed under their rule. At length the spark was thrown into the open barrel of gunpowder. The Mexican rulers, in dread of their new subjects, ordered that the people of Texas should be disarmed. In an instant the country was in a blaze of rebelHon. The Mexican troops who came to take the arms of the Texans found them in strong hands, ready and able to use them, and after a brief period of hostilities here and there, the troops were again driven out of the country. The die was cast. Mexican rule would no longer be endured. The insurrectionists organized a provisional government. Samuel Houston was put at the head of affairs, and independence was declared. On the other hand Mexico was astir. Santa Anna, its dictator and tyrant, an able but false and cruel general, crossed the Rio Grande at the head of an army of 7500 men and marched into the country, resolved to put down the insurrection in blood, if necessary. Such was the situation of affairs at the close of 1835. Now let us go back to the man whose name we have mentioned Samuel Houston, the Washington of Texas. An able and brilliant Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 257 leader he was, and his story is well worth repeating, for the story of Texas is inseparably associated with his name, as leader, defender, president, and governor. In the latter part of the eighteenth century the rich but wild regions of Kentucky and Tennessee were the paradise of hunters and pioneers; and there grew up a race of statesmen of a new and distinct type; men like Jackson, Clay, and Benton; strong, brave, and hardy; original and ready of resource, but with little education, and having, as the French say, "the defects of their qualities." Houston was of this class. He was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in 1793. When he was only thirteen, his father died; and with his mother and eight other children he crossed the moun- tains into Tennessee, where they settled on the banks of the Tennessee River at what was then the Hmit of civilization. Beyond the river lay the country of the Cherokees, and during a large part of Hous- ton's boyhood he lived among the Indians, learning their ways and acquiring their language. He was looked up to by the Indians as a leader. A story is told that in 1846, when he was in Congress, a party of forty wild Indians were brought to Washington from Texas by General Moorhead; and when they met Houston, they one and all ran to him, greeted him with delight, hugged him like bears in their brawny arms, and called him "Father." Houston fought under Jackson in the War of 18 12, and was desperately wounded in battle with the Creek Indians. When the famous battle of New Orleans put an end to the war, he studied law, and soon began to practice. He rose rapidly in his profession, was chosen district attorney, was elected to Congress in 1823 and 1825, and in 1827, when thirty-four years old, was made Governor of Tennessee. His progress had been wonderfully rapid; he was one of the most popular men of his state; he might aspire to the highest positions, with every prospect of success. But in 1829 ^" event occurred which completely changed the course of his life. This was a marriage which, for some reason unknown, proved unfortunate. In three months a separation took place, and a feeling of intense excitement arose which fermented the state, and divided the people into factions. The friends of the lady grew bitterly hostile to Houston, charging him with faults and crimes. His friends warmly defended him. But not a word came from him, and he forbade his friends to speak in his vindication. In the end, 17 258 Heroes and Martyrs of Texas disgusted at the situation, he threw up his office of governor, turned his back upon civihzation, and went back for peace to his old friends the Indians. For three years he lived among them, hke one of themselves, but watching keenly what was going on across the Mexican border. At length came the outbreak of 1832, and at once Houston left the wigwams of the Cherokees and set out for Texas, bent on casting in his lot with the new people. He was born to be a leader of men and his abilities were soon perceived. By the time the revolt of 1835 broke out he had won his place and at once took his natural post as the leader of the Texan army of insurrec- tion. The early days of the war for hberty were signalized by the terrible affair of the Alamo, an event which created such fierce exasperation among the Texans that their subjection was thence- forth impossible. After that display of Mexican barbarity their war-cry became Hberty or death. Among the men concerned in these events there are two of whom we must particularly speak, from the notoriety they had won in the early history of the South- east. One of these, James Bowie, grew famous among the wild frontiersmen as a duelist, gaining an unenviable notoriety by his death-dealing skill in handhng the bowie-knife, — a long sharp- pointed weapon invented by himself, and with which he won victory in many hand to hand fights with the lawless characters of the border settlements. In all that horde of rough and fearless men there was none more bold, daring and feared than the far-famed duelist. The other was a man of different character and less lurid fame, David, or to give him his famihar title, "Davy" Crockett, one of the most picturesque personages in American history. Born in Tennessee in 1786, he lived a wild youthful fife and became a hunter whose skill with the rifle was phenomenal. In 18 13 he took part in the Creek War, with Jackson, Houston and other noted border characters. Here he became widely known as an Indian fighter, did very able service as a scout, and served with great credit through the war. When he came back to his Tennessee home he was looked upon as a sort of second Daniel Boone. Tennessee at that time was in anything but a civiHzed condition. It was full of lawless characters, government was limited by the knife and the pistol, and disorder ruled supreme. Crockett placed Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 259 himself among those who sought to redeem Tennessee from this discreditable condition. His home was among a reckless set, and the organization of a temporary government was imperative. Upon its formation Crockett was made magistrate. Afterward he became a member of the Legislature, although one of his biographers states that at this time he could hardly read a newspaper. Later in life he proved that he had some "book lam- ing," for the best ac- count of his life and adventures is found in the autobiography which he wrote. His early success as a pol- itician was due princi- pally to his qualities of humor, good story-tell- ing, hard sense, and true marksmanship with a rifle, a combi- nation that is sure to win favor among back- woodsmen. Crockett served in Congress two terms, and won national rep- utation and popularity as one of the "half horse, half alhgator" class. His career in Washington was brought to an end by a quarrel with General Jackson, of whose party he had at first been an adherent. He then cast his lot with those who were battling for Texan independence, taking his wife and his skill as a marksman to that new country, in whose cause his career was destined to end in a blaze of glory, for he was one of the immortal band who died at the Alamo, ZACHARY TAYLOR Old " Rough and Ready," the Hero of Buena Vista (1784-1850. One partial term, 1849-1850.) 26o Heroes and Martyrs of Texas With these prehminaries we must go on to the story of this famous fortress. On the San Antonio River, at the town of Bexar, was posted a small garrison of the colonists, somewhere between 140 and 190 in number. Two among them were the noted char- acters we have described; Crockett the Indian fighter and Bowie the duelist. Both of these were destined to redeem as members of that band of heroes whatever there may have been of the question- able in their former Hves. They were only two among a group of men equally brave, at whose head was Colonel W. Barrett Travis, one of the most heroic of them all. Upon this town, one of the nearest settlements to the Rio Grande frontier, marched Santa Anna with his thousands. Travis, knowing that he could not face the Mexican multitudes in the open, took refuge within the strong walls of the Alamo, a building about half a mile north of the town. The Alamo was an ancient Franciscan mission-house of the eighteenth century. It covered an area of about three acres, which were surrounded by walls three feet thick and eight feet high. Within the walls were a stone church and several other buildings. Its remains still stand, near the thriving city of San Antonio, the most cherished rehc of the Texan State. Within its walls the little but devoted band of patriots gathered, hopeless but resolute. All hope of succor was cut off, although Houston was doing his best to rally an army of defense. The Alamo and its defenders were left alone, to the mercy of the "Napoleon of the West," as Santa Anna magniloquently called himself. But Lieutenant-Colonel Travis and the little garrison had made up their minds. There was but one idea of duty in the souls of these men. They were resolved to defend the Alamo to the bitter end. Like Leonidas and his Spartans at Thermopylae, they had but one ultimatum, victory or death. For two weeks the Alamo withstood all Santa Anna's assaults. A shower of shells and balls fell incessantly within its walls. Several efforts were made to take it by storm, but in every case the Mexicans were driven back with heavy loss. The Texans fought hke demons, kiUing hundreds of their assailants, but their own Httle band day by day grew less. From the start they were too few to man the extended walls. At length came the day when they had grown too weak to repel their hundreds of assailants. The Mexicans swarmed over the walls, despite all resistance. The defenders fought like Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 261 Spartan heroes, hopelessly but gallantly, with no thought but to die with arms in hand and with face to the foe. Crockett fell at length amid the heap of those he had slain. Bowie lay sick in bed that fatal day and was killed in cold blood. The others fell, one by one, until not a man of the defenders was left — the only survivors of the desperate fight being two women, their two children, and a negro THE ALAMO BUILDING SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS The site where Crockett, Travis, Bowie and the remainder of the brave little band were massacred through the barbarity of Santa Anna. boy. Not even the bones of Travis and his men were preserved. The mutilated bodies were burned a few hours after they fell; and nothing was left but the ashes which the Texans a year after the massacre gathered up and reverently buried. Such was the out- come of that famous fight of the 6th of March, 1836. Little is left 262 Heroes and Martyrs of Texas to-day of the original Alamo. It has not been kept, as it should have been, as an edifice sacred to liberty. But the inscription on the Alamo monument, in the porch of the Texan capitol at Austin, shows the reverence with which it is regarded. It reads "Ther- mopylae had her messenger of death; the Alamo had none." The slaughter of the defenders of the Alamo was quickly followed by another disaster to the Texan patriots. A few days later a company of over four hundred Texans, under Colonel Fannin, besieged at Goliad, were induced to surrender, under Santa Anna's solemn promises of protection. After the surrender they were divided into several companies, marched in different directions a short distance out of the town, and shot down like dogs by the Mexican soldiers. Not a man escaped. While these brutal massacres were taking place, Houston was at Gonzales, with a force of less than four hundred men. Meetings had been held in the different settlements to raise an army to resist the Mexican invasion, and a convention of the people issued a procla- mation declaring Texas a free and independent republic. It was two weeks before General Houston received intelligence of the atrocious events at Bexar and Gohad, and of Santa Anna's advance. The country v/as in a state of panic. Settlers were everywhere abandoning their homes, and fleeing in terror at the approach of the Mexican soldiers. Houston's force of a few hundred men was the only defense of Texas; and even this was diminished by frequent desertion from the ranks. The cause of Texan freedom seemed utterly hopeless. In order to gain time, while watching his opportunity for attack, Houston slowly retreated before the Mexican army. After waiting two weeks for reinforcements, he moved toward Buffalo Bayou, a deep and narrow stream connecting with the San Jacinto River, about twenty miles southeast of the present city of Houston. Here he expected to meet the Mexican army. The lines being formed. General Houston made one of his most impassioned and eloquent appeals to his troops, firing every breast by giving as a watchword, "Remember the Alamo." Soon the Mexican bugles rang out over the prairie, announcing the advance guard of the enemy, almost eighteen hundred strong. The rank and file of the patriots was less than seven hundred and fifty men. Their disadvantages but served to increase the enthu- OUR FOREST WEALTH. The Southern States have seven-tenths of the whole forested area of the United States: and the gross income from the forest products of that reoion last vear was $300,000,000. The lumbermen and dealers m timber lands have made and are making big fortunes. But the greatest timber tracts are now owned by large companies. Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 263 siasm of the soldiers; and when their general said, "Men, there is the enemy; do you wish to fight?" the universal shout was, "We do!" "Well, then," he said, "remember it is for liberty or death; remember the Alamo!" At the moment of attack a lieutenant came galloping up, his horse covered with foam, and shouted along the lines, " I've cut down Vince's bridge." Each army had used this bridge in coming to the battle-field, and General Houston had ordered its destruction, thus cutting off from the vanquished their avenue of escape. Santa Anna's forces were in perfect order, awaiting the attack. They reserved their fire until the patriots were within sixty paces of their works. Then they poured forth a volley, most of which went over the heads of the attackers, though a ball struck General Houston's ankle, inflicting a very painful wound. Though suffering and bleeding, Houston kept his saddle during the entire action. The patriots withheld their fire until it was given to the enemy, with fatal effect, almost in their very bosoms, and then, having no time to reload, they made an impetuous rush upon the foe, who were altogether unprepared for the furious charge. The patriots, not having bayonets, clubbed their rifles, and their onset was so irresistible as to break the ranks of the foe. About half-past four the Mexican rout began, and closed only with the night. Only seven of the patriots were killed and twenty-three wounded, while the Mexicans had six hundred and thirty-two killed and wounded and seven hundred and thirty, among whom was Santa Anna, made prisoners. The victory of San Jacinto struck the fetters forever from the hands of Texas, and drove back the standard of Mexico beyond the Rio Grande, never to return except in predatory and transient incursions. General Houston became at once the leading man in Texas, almost universal applause following him. As soon as quiet and order were restored, he was made the first President of the new republic, under the Constitution adopted November, 1835. Santa Anna was set free, despite the demand that the massacres at Bexar and Goliad should be revenged on his head. But he was first forced to acknowledge the independence of Texas. As has already been said, the citizens of the new republic had no wish to maintain a government of their own. The United States was their mother-land, and to it their hearts turned with warm long- 264 Heroes and Martyrs of Texas ing. As early as 1837 they asked to be admitted to the Union, but for years they were kept out both on account of the protests of Mexico and the fact that the new citizens were slave-holders. This gave rise to a controversy, the anti-slavery element in the North opposing annexation, the South advocating it. In the Presidential election of 1844 the annexation of Texas became one of the promi- nent questions, and it was this that made James K. Polk President over Henry Clay. The result of this election demonstrated clearly that the majority of the people wished for annexation, and before Polk took his seat, in the last hours of Tyler's administration, both Houses of Congress passed the bill for admitting Texas as a state and the President signed it. Texas accepted on July 4, 1845, and on that day it became a member of the Union, though the formal act of admission was not consummated until December of that year. Houston was one of the first Senators of the new state, taking his seat in January, 1846. So popular was he in the South that he was a prominent Democratic candidate for President in 1852. In 1859 he was elected Governor of Texas, and on the 26th of July, 1863, he died. "During the forenoon," writes his daughter, "we heard his voice in a tone of entreaty, and listening to the feeble sound, we caught the words, 'Texas! Texas!' Soon afterward, my mother was sitting by the bedside with his hand in hers, and his lips moved once again; 'Margaret!' he said; and the voice we loved was silent forever. " Thus passed away the soul of the hero to whom Texas owed its liberty and the United States the largest and one of the finest of its galaxy of states. But the war of Texas for independence was but the prelude to a greater event, the war between the United States and Mexico, whose result was to add an immense region of new territory to the former country. While Santa Anna had acknowledged the indepen- dence of Texas, his voice for the time being had lost its authority in Mexico. His action was ignored and Mexico continued to claim Texas, though no effort was made to reconquer it. But the act of annexation to the United States brought up anew the Mexican claim and a warlike fever swept through the Spanish republic. Texas was theirs, cried the hidalgos. They had been biding their time simply to take back their own. The action of the United States seemed equivalent to an invasion of their sacred soil. The Americans must be made to pay dearly for their territory, Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 265 Between a people thus burning for war and a people fully ready to defend its deliberate acts war was very likely to arise. A boundary question brought it on. Texas claimed the Rio Grande River as its western boundary. Mexico insisted that the Nueces River was the true boundary. Between these rivers lay a wide strip of land which both countries claimed and into which both sent troops. What but war could follow a state of affairs like this ? In this " No man's land" were the Mexi- cans, breathing ven- geance. Within touch- ing distance were the Americans, bent on retaining the state which had given itseli to them. A touch, an explosion, and the dogs of war would be loose. On April 24, 1846, the touch came, blood was shed,andthe President, on hearing of it, sent a message to Congress, "Mexico has passed the boundaries of the United States and shed American blood upon American soil. . War exists, notwith- standing all our efforts to avoid it." This message was, in its way, amusing; war existing simply because no effort had been made to avoid it. Texas was ours and we had no thought of giving it up. But with all this we are not here concerned, nor are we with the war itself ex- cept in so far as its result had to do with the South. All we need say is that, while the war was favored in large measure throughout the country, it was especially favored in the South, which looked GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT A Hero of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. 2 66 Heroes and Martyrs of Texas upon Texas, the cause of the conflict, as an integrant part of itself. And it is an interesting fact that all the leaders of the war, with the exception of General Kearny, the conqueror of New Mexico, were of Southern birth. General Taylor, the chief hero of the war, whose defeat of Santa Anna at Buena Vista was its most dramatic event, was a native of Orange County, Virginia. General Scott, who in- vaded the heart of the Mexican republic and ended the war by taking its capitol, was also a Virginian, born near Petersburg. And Fremont, to whose daring we owe CaHfornia, was a Georgian born, a native of Savannah. As for the army, it was made up oi Northern and Southern troops, and was led by officers from both sections, and it is a matter of deep interest that Lee and Grant, the subsequent great adversaries in the Civil War, were fellow-soldiers in Mexico and took here their first practical lessons in the art of war. Another Southern hero of the war was Colonel Jefferson Davis, one of Taylor's right-hand men at Monterey and Buena Vista, and of whose gallant and able conduct Taylor spoke in tones of un- stinted praise. That is all we need say about this war. The South has been accused of fomenting it for purposes of its own, especially to gain new area for the extension of slavery, but the fact is that it was a national, not a sectional affair, and its opposers were a faction, not a party. The signal defeat of Henry Clay, America's most popular orator and statesman, by an almost unknown candidate, shows this. Polk was an earnest advocate of annexation. Clay hesitated and failed to speak out plainly and the great public favorite was defeated. And the war followed the act of annexation as an inevitable con- sequence. It could not well have been avoided, while Mexico held the attitude it did, without a square back-down on the part of the United States. And the United States does not back down. It has not learned the art. There were some interesting results of the war. Santa Anna, who had been so signally defeated in Texas, again headed the Mexican armies and again went down before American valor. Before Taylor at Buena Vista and Scott at Cerro Gordo he twice met defeat, and when Scott and his army marched into the city of Mexico, Santa Anna found it convenient to go into exile. Of the two leaders named, Taylor was rewarded by being made President of the United States. Four years later Scott tried fox the same high honor. But Heroes and Martyrs of Texas 267 he had trusted his fate to the derelict Whig party and a great wave of Democratic success swept over the land, burying him and his party from sight under its immense majority. While Scott was the chief leader, Taylor was the great popular hero of the war. The war with Mexico had political results of vast importance. All claim upon Texas was abandoned by Mexico, and New Mexico and California, conquered and held by American armies, were surrendered as spoil to the victors. As a salve to Mexican pride the United States consented to give this surrender the form of a purchase and sale, by paying Mexico the sum of ^15.000.000. There is in this a singular coincidence wjth the Louisiana purchase which does not seem to have been put on record. In both cases SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, FROM FORT HOUSTON 1^15.000.000 was the sum paid, and the area of the two tracts obtained was almost precisely the same. The area of French Louisiana was approximately 920,000 square miles. That of the Mexican accession, including Texas, was 921,916 square miles. There is another coincidence. Each tract when obtained was looked upon as of small value; each developed into extraordinary wealth. Considerably more than half of the area of Mexico was thus within two years added to the United States, for there remained to Mexico only 750,000 square miles. Yet practically her loss was small. She retained her settled and developed section. She 268 Heroes and Martyrs of Texas abandoned to the United States a vast unpeopled territory, the haunt of wandering tribes of savages, but almost barren of white men. It was at that time almost worthless to Mexico, and it is a question if she was not well paid for its value, as it then appeared. Nearly all the development it possessed at that time had been given to it by American ipimigrants. And certainly, if Mexico was not fully repaid at the time, she was some thirty years afterward, when the United States rescued the remainder of the republic from the strong grasp of France, and gave it back to its people to develop into the prosperous nation of to-day. One thing further needs to be said before this chapter in American history is closed. The question of the admission of slavery into the newly gained territory was the great political question of the few succeeding years. It was finally dealt with in Clay's famous "Compromise of 1850," which left its settlement to the vote of the people themselves. CHAPTER XV. THE NEGRO AS AN ELEMENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE NATION Beginning of the slave trade — Its horrors — Slavery in New^ York and Boston — ^Slavery unpopular in early days — England sustains the slave trade — Washington and Jefferson on slavery — Slavery in the Constitutional Convention — The Slave Trade abolished — The cotton gin — The Missouri Compromise — The work of the Abolitionists — Garrison and the "Liberator" — The economic relations of Slavery — The treatment of the slave — The Compromise of 1850 THE history of the negro in America is, in brief, the record of slavery agitation, poHtical struggle, civil war, emancipation, and gradual growth of the emancipated slave toward true citizenship. When, over two hundred and eighty years ago — it is in doubt whether the correct date is i6i9or 1620 — a few wretched negroes, some say fourteen, some say twenty, were bartered for provisions by the crew of a Dutch man-of-war, then lying off the Virginia coast, it would have seemed incredible that in 1900 the negro population of the Southern States alone should reach a total of eight milHon souls. The peculiarity of this form of slavery, begun, almost by chance as it seemed, in that act of barter in the feeble little colony of Virginia, was that it was based on the claim of race inferiority. African negroes had, indeed, been sold into slavery among many nations for perhaps three thousand years; but in its earUer periods slavery was rather the outcome of war than the deliberate object of trade, and white captives no less than black were ruthlessly thrown into servitude. As regards the latter, it has been estimated that in historical times the vast number of forty million Africans have been enslaved. The discovery and colonization of America gave an immense stimulus to the African slave trade. The Spaniards found the Indian intractable in slavery, and for the arduous labors of coloniza- 269 270 Negro Element in the Nation tion soon began to make use of negro slaves, importing them in great numbers, and declaring that one negro was worth, as a human beast of burden, four Indians. Soon English adventurers took up the traffic. It is to Sir John Hawkins, the ardent discoverer, that the English-speaking peoples owe their participation in the slave trade. He has put it on record as the result of one of his famous voyages, that he found "that negroes were very good mer- chandise in Hispaniola, and might easily be had on the coast of Guinea." For his early adventures of this kind he was roundly taken to task by Queen Elizabeth. But tradition says that he boldly faced her with argument, and ended by convincing the queen that the slave trade was not merely a lucrative but a philanthropic un- dertaking. Which of these considerations most influenced the queen, we are not told. Certain it is that she acquiesced in future slave trading, while two of her successors, Charles II. and James II., char- tered four slave-trading companies and received a share in their profits. A PROGRESSIVE NEGRO ^^'^ insdtution of This ex-slave has saved and bought himself an ox and cart Slavery, mtroducea aS and does a good business supplying wood to the Virginians, -^g have seen into Virginia, grew at first very slowly. Twenty-five years after the first slaves were landed the negro population of the colony was only three hundred. But the conditions of agriculture and of climate were such that, once slaveiy obtained a fair start, it spread with continually increasing rapidity. In some of the Northern colonies slavery seemed to take root as readily and to flourish as rapidly as in the South. It was only after a considerable time that social and industrial conditions arose which led the former to its gradual abandonment. In New York a mild type of negro slavery was introduced by the Negro Element in the Nation 271 Dutch. The relation of master and slave seems in the period of the Dutch rule to have been free from great severity or cruelty, but after the seizure of the government by the English the institution was officially recognized and even encouraged. The slave trade grew in magnitude, and we find a series ot severe laws forbidding the meeting of negroes together, laying down penalties for concealing slaves, and the hke. In the early years of the eighteenth century fears of insurrection became prevalent, and these fears culminated in 1 741 in the episode of the so-called Negro Plot. Very briefly stated, this plot grew out of a succession of fires supposed to have been the work of negro incendiaries. The most astonishing con- tradictions and self-inculpations are to be found in the involved mass of testimony taken at the different trials. It is certain that the per- jury and incoherent accusations of these trials can be equaled only by those of the alleged witches at Salem, or of the famous Popish plot of Titus Oates. The result may be summed up in the state- ment that in three months one hundred and fifty negroes were imprisoned, of whom fourteen were burned at the stake, eighteen hanged, and seventy-one transported. Here was an atrocity which, fortunately for the credit of our people for humanity, has had no counterpart in the South, where no such blind and cruel panic has ever appeared. Another result was the passing of even more stringent legislation, curtailing the rights, and defining the legal status, of the slave. When the Revolution broke out there were not fewer than fifteen thousand slaves in New York, a number greatly in excess of that held by any other Northern colony. Massachusetts, the home in later days of so many of the aboli- tion agitators, was from the very first, until after the war with Great Britain was well under way, a stronghold of slavery. The records of 1633 tell of the fright of Indians who saw a "Blackmoor" in a tree-top whom they took for the devil in person, but who turned out to be an escaped slave. A few years later the authorities of the colony officially recognized the institution. It is true that in 1645 the general court of Massachusetts ordered certain kidnapped negroes to be returned to their native country, but this was not be- cause they were slaves but because their holders had stolen them away from their masters. Despite specious arguments to the con- trary, it is certain that, to quote Chief-Justice Parsons, "Slavery was introduced into Massachusetts soon after its first settlement, and 272 Negro Element in the Nation was tolerated until the ratification of the present constitution in 1780." The curious may find in ancient Boston newspapers no lack of such advertisements as that, in 1728, of the sale of "Two very likely negro girls," and of "A likely negro woman of about nineteen years and a child about seven months of age, to be sold together or apart." A Tory writer before the outbreak of the Revolution, sneers at the Bostonians for their talk about freedom when they possessed two thousand negro slaves. Even Peter Faneuil, who built the famous "Cradle of Liberty," was himself, at that very time, actively engaged in the slave trade. There is some truth in the once common taunt of the pro- slavery orators that the North imported slaves, the South only bought them. It is stated that Massachusetts was the first colony to indorse the slave trade by legal enactment and that there was equipped the first slave ship that sailed from an American port. Certainly there was no more active center of the slave trade than Bristol Bay, whence cargoes of rum and iron goods were sent to the African coast, and exchanged for human cargoes. These slaves were, however, usually taken, not to Massachusetts, but to the West Indies or to Virginia. One curious outcome of slavery in Massa- chusetts was that from the gross superstition of a negro slave, Tituba, first sprang the hideous delusions of the Salem witchcraft trials. As with New York and Massachusetts, so with the other col- onies. Either slavery was introduced by greedy speculators from abroad or it spread easily from adjoining colonies. Oglethorpe tried to keep it out of Georgia, but the needs of the planters rendered slave labor indispensable. By the year 1740 about one hundred and forty thousand negroes had been brought to this country. In 1776 the slave population of the thirteen colonies was almost exactly half a million, nine-tenths of whom were to be found in the Southern States. In the North they were kept chiefly in the cities as house- servants; but in the South they were needed as field-hands, and proved very useful in the cultivation of tobacco, indigo and rice. Malarial fever rendered the rice-fields dangerous to whites, while it rarely attacked the blacks. It should be said here that the slave trade was regarded in colonial times with great disfavor by the colonies, and movements in favor of emancipation began soon after 1700. Many of the Negro Element in the Nation 273 people of Virginia, and also of Carolina, where slave labor was more essential, disapproved of the institution, and showed a prefer- ence for white labor. The rapid increase of negro slaves in this country was due to England, not to America. It was to the greed of the English kings that the colonies owed in great part their unwel- come institution. Laws to restrict slave importation were frequently passed in the colonies, the Assembly of Virginia protesting against it no less than thirty-two times. England found the trade profit- able, and the colonists were forced to accept the negroes whom the monarchs and merchants persisted in sending, despite all protests. Bancroft clearly indicates the true state of affairs when he says "The sovereigns of England and Spain were the greatest slave- merchants in the world." Laws passed by Virginia in 1770 forbidding the bringing of slaves into that colony were practically vetoed by George III, who on December loth issued, under his own signature, a strict instruc- tion to the governor, commanding him "under pain of the highest displeasure to assent to no law by which the importation of slaves should be in any respect prohibited or obstructed." This vigorous order was earnestly debated in the House of Burgesses in 1772, and a memorial to the king was prepared, declaring the importation of slaves from the coast of Africa to be "A trade of great inhumanity and dangerous to the very existence of his Majesty's American do- minions." It prayed that the interests of the few in Great Britain who might "reap emolument from this sort of traffic" should not be placed in competition with the interests of whole colonies. But the petition proved of no avail, and the slave trade was sustained by England's king until the Revolution ended his power over the Amer- ican colonists. All this plainly shows that the introduction of slavery in America was the misfortune, not the fault, of the Americans themselves. In 1778 Virginia passed an act forbidding, under heavy penalty, the importation of slaves by land or water. With the debates preceding the adoption of the present Constitution of the United States the political problem of slavery as a national question began. Though under the colonial system the responsibility for the traffic was due to the mother country, from the day when the Declaration of Independence asserted "That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that 2 74 Negro Element in the Nation among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," the peoples of the new, self-governing states took upon themselves the responsibility. There is ample evidence that the fixing of the popu- lar mind on liberty as an ideal bore results immediately in arousing anti-slavery sentiment. Such sentiment existed in the South as v^ell as in the North. Even North Carolina in 1876 declared the slave trade of "evil consequences and highly impolitico" All the Northern states abolished slavery, beginning with Vermont in 1777 and ending with New Jersey in 1804. It should be added, however, that many of the northern slaves were not freed, but sold to the South. As we have already intimated, also, the agricultural and commercial conditions in the North were such as to make slave labor less and less profitable, while in the South the agricultural conditions and the character of the climate were gradually making it seemingly indispensable. The change in sentiment in the North was therefore economic, not philanthropic. Most of the Northern States provided for gradual abolition, and in some of them slaves were Kving until nearly the date of the Civil War. In Pennsylvania for instance, there were sixty-four slaves in 1840, and in New Jersey there were two hundred and thirty-six in 1850. When the Constitutional debates began the trend of opinion seemed strongly against slavery. Many delegates thought that the evil would die out of itself. One thought the aboHtion of slavery already rapidly going on and soon to be completed. Another asserted that "slavery in time will not be a speck in our country." Mr. Jefferson, on the other hand, in view of the retention of slavery, declared roundly that he trembled for his country when he remem- bered that God was just. In the first session of the Continental Congress after the close of the Revolutionaiy War (March i, 1784), Jefferson proposed an ordinance for the government of the territory including the projected states of Tennessee, Alabama and Missis- sippi, one article of which required that "After the year 1800 there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, otherwise than in punishment of crime." This measure was lost, though a similar one was soon after adopted in the ordi- nance establishing the Northwestern Territory. Jefferson was not alone in his feehng about slavery, various other leaders in the South holding similar opinions. Washington, who provided in his will for the emancipation of his slaves, said to Negro Element in the Nation 275 Jefferson, that it was "among his first wishes to see some plan by which slavery in his country might be abolished by law. " Madison, Patrick Henry, and others of prominence held similar views, and, so far at least as Virginia was concerned, slavery was the reverse of a popular institution among the pubhc men of the South. John Randolph expressed the situation in his vigorous way by saying that we were holding a wolf by the ears, equally dangerous to hold on or to let go. When the time arrived for the adoption of the new Constitution of the United States the question of slavery came up as one of the most important problems to be disposed of by the Convention. At that time there were over six hundred thousand slaves in the states. The first census taken in 1790, three years later,, gave the number as 657,000 in the South and 40,300 in the North. These were found in every state except Massachusetts, more than twenty thousand of them being in New York, in which state they were employed in farm as well as house labor. The number in Pennsylvania had been kept down by the large employment of indentured servants — prac- tically white slaves — in colonial times. As respects the feeling in the eighteenth century concerning slavery, we may cite the action of the Second Continental Congress, which on April 6, 1776, passed a resolution "that no slaves should be imported into any of the thirteen united colonies. " This decree, however, was not carried out, and the slave trade went on. In 1790 a petition was presented to Congress, headed by the name of Ben- jamin Franklin, asking for legislation looking to the ultimate extinc- tion of slavery. It was fully debated, but Congress finally decided that the question belonged to the states, and was beyond the powers delegated to the Federal Government. The facts above given show that slavery was not a popular institution in the United States, taken as a whole, at the date of origin of its new government. Yet with six hundred thousand slaves in the country at the time of the debate on the Constitution, there could not but be a strong financial and economic interest in favor of the institution. This was especially the case in the states of South Carolina and Georgia, whose rice fields could not have been cultivated without negro labor. The negroes in these fields were property. They represented a large money value to the planters. The latter could not justly be asked to beggar themselves 276 Negro Element in the Nation by the immediate freeing of the slaves, or even to accept a large eventual loss from gradual emancipation without national aid. The new nation was not able to pay its pressing debts, and was in no position to offer to purchase the treedom of the slaves. There could be but one result ot this state of affairs, the delegates representing South Carolina and Georgia absolutely refused to come into the new Union unless slavery were recognized. The feeling entertained by the planters of these states was a very natural one. It would have been felt by the citizens of any state under similar conditions. Their wealth was at risk, and they did not propose to beggar themselves at the demand of those who had no immediate personal interest to temper their philanthropy. Their delegates naturally insisted upon just treatment at the hands of the Convention and the debate ended in a series of compromises. These, as finally agreed upon, avoided the use of the words slave and slavery, but clearly recognized the institution and even gave the slave states the advantage of sending representatives to Congress on a basis of population determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, "three-fifths of all other persons." The other persons thus referred to were, it is needless to state, negro slaves. Another important element in the settlement of this question was that provided for in Article IV, Section 2, of the Constitution, which makes the return of fugitive slaves a constitutional requirement. The entire dealing with the question of slavery, at the framing of the Constitution, was a series of compromises. This is seen again in the postponement of the abolition of the slave trade, the date for which was fixed for the year 1808. As that time approached. Presi- dent Jefferson urged Congress to withdraw the country from all "further participation in those violations of human rights which have so long been continued on the unoffending inhabitants of Africa." The act provided for was at once adopted, and by it heavy fines were imposed on all persons fitting out vessels for the slave trade and also upon all actually engaged in the trade, while vessels so employed became absolutely forfeited. Twelve years later another act was passed declaring the importation of slaves to be actual piracy. This latter law, however, was of little practical value, as it was not until 1861 that a conviction was obtained under it. Then, at last, when the whole slave question was about to be settled forever, a ship-master was convicted and hanged for piracy Negro Element in the Nation 277 in New York for the crime of being engaged in the slave trade. In despite of all laws, however, the trade in slaves was continued secretly, and the profits were so enormous that the risks did not prevent continual attempts to smuggle slaves into the territory of the United States. It must appear evident from what is above said, that up to the date of the beginning of the government of the United States under UNCLE REMUS' EXPRESS The Negro Horseless Carriage. the Constitution of 1787 slave trade and slavery Itself were opposed by the leading men of this country, and were widely unpopular. This was markedly the case in Virginia. The retention of slavery was due to the peculiar industrial conditions of two of the states, and especially to the large financial interests involved in these states. This condition of pubhc feeling continued until 1793, when an event occurred that made a decided change in the situation. That year was marked by the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney. 278 Negro Element in the Nation Prior to that time the cultivation of cotton in this country had been conducted on a very small scale, chiefly due to the difficulty of removing the seed from the cotton fibre. The new^ and rapid method of preparing the cotton by the use of this machine made its cultiva- tion highly profitable, and cotton culture spread with extraordinary rapidity. To its success negro labor was indispensable, and at that time no negro labor except that of slaves was available in this country. The number of slaves in consequence rapidly increased, and the institution became firmly fixed upon the South, as appa- rently an absolutely necessary outcome of its agricultural conditions. The first quarter of a centur)^ of our history, after the adoption of the Constitution, was marked by comparative quietude in regard to the future of slavery. In the North, as we have seen, the institu- tion died a natural death, but there was no disposition evinced in the Northern States to interfere with it in the South. The first great battle took place in 1820 over the so-called Missouri Compromise. Now, for the first time, the country was divided, sectionally and in a strictly political way, upon issues which involved the future poHcy of the United States as to the extension or restriction of slave terri- tory. State after state had been admitted into the Union, but there had been an alternation of slave and free states, so that the political balance was not disturbed. Thus, Vermont was balanced by Kentucky, Tennessee by Ohio, Louisiana by Indiana, and Mis- sissippi by IlHnois. The last state admitted had been Alabama, of course as a slave-holding state. There were then eleven slave and eleven free states. Now it was proposed to admit Maine and Missouri, and, to still maintain the equality of pohtical power, it was contended that the latter should be admitted as a slave state. This gave rise to the most bitter pohtical quarrel the country had yet known. Despite the fact that the South had an acknowl- edged claim to the preservation of a balance of power between the two conditions, there was a strong party in the Middle and Eastern States that strenuously opposed this claim. The bill for the admis- sion of Missouri was fiercely debated throughout two sessions of Congress, the hostile feeling growing so strong that for a time it seemed as if the stability of the Union would not stand the strain. The South was vigorously determined upon having an equitable division of power between the two sections, and the long contest ended in its opponents giving way. This was due to the great per- Negro Element in the Nation 279 sonal influence of Henry Clay, and to a compromise measure which he brought forward. He proposed that slavery should be permitted in Missouri, but excluded from every other new area of the Union north of the parallel of latitude 36° 30', which formed the southern boundary of that state. His plan of settlement, as adopted, was the famous "Missouri Compromise." It removed the question from the arena of national poHtics for more than thirty years, and permitted the country to settle down to some degree of political peace. Yet, as events soon showed, it was a truce, not a peace. During those thirty years, indeed, an agitation began and developed in the North which rendered peace impossible. It was that advocating and demanding the aboHtion of slavery. This was not a new subject of thought or discussion. Anti-slavery sentiment of a mild type had long existed in the South as well as in the North. Washington and Jeff^erson, as we have seen, were among its earnest advocates. But all the early writing and speaking against slavery was general and moderate in tone, and contained no note of aggres- sion. The only method of disposing of the institution suggested had been by colonization or by gradual emancipation. No one advocated in the earlier periods the bandit-Hke idea that the Southern planters should be deprived of this property without compensation. The first American Colonization Society was organized at Washington, in 18 17. It proved a popular movement in Virginia, and auxiHary societies were formed in all parts of that state. The Colonization Society of Virginia was organized somewhat later, and included among its members the leading men of the state, Chief-Justice John Marshall being its President, and James Madison, James Monroe, John Tyler, and others of note among its Vice-Pres- idents. Everything seemed looking forward to the gradual aboli- tion of slavery at least in Virginia, when the movement was checked by the attitude of the abolition societies of the North. It was not until after 1830 that the unjust, illiberal, and revolu- tionary demand for emancipation without compensation was heard. A party of fanatical agitators then arose, who, if they could have had their way, would have made short work of justice or economic free- dom in America by a wholesale looting of unprecedented extent. This era began in 1831 with William Lloyd Garrison and his violent abolition sheet ''The Liberator," which conspicuously bore the motto, "No Union with Slaveholders." 28o Negro Element in the Nation Such was the slogan of the Abolitionists, a band of active agitators who followed Garrison's lead. They were feeble in num- bers, never gaining much strength as a political party, and opposi- tion to them was as vigorous in the North as in the South. They were threatened, mobbed, all but killed. Garrison was dragged through the streets of Boston with a rope around his neck, many gentlemen taking part in the demonstration. Yet he had the courage of the fanatic, and went so far as to advocate a dissolution of the Union, maintaining that to remain united with states that retained slavery was "An agreement with hell and a covenant with death." The ''Liberator" demanded "the immediate and unconditional emancipation of every slave held in the United States. " This wildly impossible demand raised a storm. The Southern planters were not alone in declaring that the editor must be mad; the great bulk of the Northerners seeming to hold the same opinion. Yet Garrison was a man of one idea, and he worked away upon that persistently . till he won many followers of his own type of mind. Chief among these were the fluent and fiery orators, Wendell Phillips and Theo- dore Parker. But Garrison did not carry all the abolitionists in his train. There was a class of more moderate men among them, including such able writers as Greeley, Channing, Emerson and Whittier, men really more dangerous in their hostiHty to the South, because less extreme. These and others kept up an incessant attack, from varied points of view, upon the institution of slavery, each section of the party. adding steadily to its strength by dint of per- sistently keeping its views before the people. As may well be supposed, this increasing assault, violent in many instances, insidious in others, roused a strong sentiment of indigna- tion among the planters of the South. They felt that they were being unjustly and irrationally dealt with, and their sense of injury grew as the party of their enemies extended in the North. The institution of slavery was not of their making. It had been thrust upon their fathers in the past, sorely against their will. Those then living had been born to it. If it had never existed, this country might have found some satisfactory means of doing without it; but exist it did, wrought deeply into the economic life of the South, and to attempt to rid themselves of it suddenly and violently would leave the South in the condition of the temple against whose columns Samson brought his strength to bear. With the fall of the pillars of Negro Element in the Nation 281 its support the whole South would have fallen. It was the policy of ruin that was advocated in the North. Garrison and his followers, who had nothing personally to lose, did not view it in this Hght, but the whole South felt it in the marrow of its bones. Calhoun well expressed the state of affairs in his section of the country when he declared: "Slavery now preserves in quiet and security more than six and a half million human beings, and it could not be destroyed without destroying the peace and prosperity of nearly half the states in the Union." The general feeling in the South toward the Abolitionists was one of bitter hatred. Attempts were made to compel the northern states to silence the anti-slavery orators, to prohibit the circulation through the mail of anti-slavery speeches, and to refuse a hearing in Congress to anti-slavery petitions on the plea that they were incendiary and destructive. Many Northerners coincided with the Southern advocates in this opinion. Though the feeling against slavery spread, there coexisted with it the behef that an open quarrel with the South would mean commercial ruin; and the anti-slavery sentiment was also neutralized by the nobler feeling that the Union must be preserved at all hazards, and that there was no constitutional mode of interfering with the slave system. The actual condition of the negro over whom such a strife was being waged differed materially in different parts of the South, and under masters of different character in the same locality. It had its side of cruelty, very largely due to the overseers, many of whom were men of northern birth; but it had a wider and brighter side of kind- ness on the part of the master and of devotion on the part of the slave. Its dark side has been made familiar to readers by such books as "Uncle Tom's Cabin," Dickens' "American Notes," and Edmund Kirk's "Among the Pines;" its brighter side has been charmingly depicted in the stories of Thomas Nelson Page, Joel Chandler Harris, and Harry Edwards. On the great cotton planta- tions of the Gulf States the slave was often overtaxed; in the domestic life of Virginia and other states, on the other hand, he was as a rule most kindly treated and often a relation of deep affec- tion sprang up between him and his master. Such was the state of public feeling North and South when, with growing bitterness and increased sectionalism, the subject of slavery in new states was debated in the Congress of 1850. A description of what followed must be left for the following chapter. CHAPTER XVI. THE TARIFF AND SLAVERY THE HIGH- ROADS TO SECESSION The work of the Constitution — Tests of its strength — Effects of cHmatic conditions — The demand for emancipation — The Tariff and Slavery in 1787 — Develop- ment of the Tariff idea — Tariffs of 1824 and 1828 — Calhoun and his sentiments — The Ordinance of Nullification — Jackson checks secession — Clay's Compromise — Garrison and abolition — Hostility of feeling — The Compromise of 1850 — The Whigs of the South — The "Impending Crisis" — The Kansas struggle — The John Brown raid — Its effects on the South — A Republican President — The South secedes — Doubt and dismay in the North — A strong peace feeling — The Sumter episode — The issue forced and war succeeds. '^k T EVER was there a greater work done than that accompHshed ^k by the Constitution of the United States, the remarkable ■^ instrument framed by the famous Convention of 1787, and accepted by the states, with much tribulation of spirit, during the few succeeding years. It was like a great net within whose meshes were caught fishes of very different kinds, and very poorly constituted to dwell together as a "happy family." From New England to Georgia, from the far north to the far south, different interests ruled, different people resided, different conditions prevailed. There were differences of race, of rehgion, of climate, of industries, of political opinions, of several relations of physical and mental temperament. Scarcely any two of the new states were alike in character, and as distance separated them they grew more diverse, until between Massachusetts and South Carolina, for instance, there were almost ineradicable differences of condition and sentiment. It was this that made it so difficult to combine the states into a Union. This could not well have been done had not poverty, anarchy, peril of interstate hostihty, danger of loss of independence, rendered union a declared necessity and it was then accomplished only through a 282 Highroads to Secession 283 series of compromises, in which a Httle was yielded on all sides that much might be gained. And as the Union grew, as new states were admitted, as the West was added to the North and the South, other new conditions appeared, other new interests grew up, and the powers of the Constitution were still more severely tried. It was (Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museums.) A HAPPY OLD MAMMY She has just been paid for her week's picking, more than enough for her simple wants. and is a wonderful instrument to do all that it has done and is doing. It could not have done this had not the people whom it united been blessed by nature with common sense and political wisdom in a phenomenal degree, had they not been wiUing to give and take, to 284 Highroads to Secession bear and forbear, and to trust to the healing effects of time upon the ills of the body politic, instead of seeking to cure them by annual insurrections, as among the restless and excitable peoples of the Spanish-American States. It cannot be denied that the strength of the Constitution was often perilously tested. Evils arose which seemed past cure; hostile sentiments became intense; passions blazed out which seemed as if they could be quenched only in blood. More than once the Union tottered on the verge of dissolution, and it was perhaps inevitable that its strength should in the end be put to the dread test of war. For as time passed on questions arose which went beyond the power of legislation to heal, hostihties were developed which worked hke fire in the brain, and differences of opinion came into being with which successive Congresses wrought and struggled in vain. It is not surprising that the sword at length was drawn. It seems, on the contrary, more surprising that it was kept sheathed so long. The ill grew until it was beyond the curative power of legislative remedies, and surgery replaced medicine. When peace failed, war was appealed to. It is at all times a dangerous remedy, but this time it did its work radically, even if violently. If it was inevitable, as it seemed to be, we can only be thankful that it proved salutary, that the Constitution held fast even under the fearful strain of battle, and that the Union emerged stronger than ever and with its worst wounds healed. The sources of disturbance were in a large measure cHmatic. Those that arose between the East and West were of minor import- ance as compared with those between the North and South. The latter can be described in a few words. The South was almost wholly agricultural, the North was largely mechanical. In conse- quence an economic difference began that grew with the years. The system of slavery which prevailed throughout the whole country in time proved to be of no advantage to the North, and the slave- holders there grew virtuous and abolished it. It seemed of great advantage to the South. In the far South it appeared indispensable. It was in consequence retained, and a great industrial distinction between the two sections was added to the economical one. These were the elements of hostility which led to the great test of the strength of the Union. The protective tariff, claimed to be necessary to the development of manufacture in the North, was a serious Highroads to Secession 285 disadvantage and source of loss to the South, and it led to the first great strain upon the stability of the Union. The opposition to slavery, which grev^ to an intensity beyond the control of law and justice in the North, was a second great source of unrest and irrita- tion in the South. It came at length to appear as if the anti-slavery sentiment must soon lead to an attempt to deprive the South of its property in slaves by force, and not until they saw this danger imminently before them did the southern people resort to the arbitra- ment of the sword. It was not so much love of slavery as need of a body of easily controlled laborers that moved them. Time and experience had brought them to believe that their plantations, especially the cotton fields, could not be worked profitably without slave labor, and they naturally clung to it. Their firmness in this was intensified by the demand for emancipation without compensation which was loudly made in the North, for they saw themselves threatened with the loss of the great property in slaves which they had inherited from their fathers, and which constituted their chief wealth. In addition to these financial considerations were the emotional ones aroused by the false representations made by anti-slavery advocates; the loud accusations of cruelty in which a whole people were held responsible for the faults of a comparatively few individuals; the unfounded calumnies which were set afloat; the stories of suffering and tyranny which only proved that those who gave them currency were densely ignorant of the kindly and patriarchal relations existing as a rule between master and slave. People who talk of something they know nothing about find it easy to make mountains out of mole-hills, and this was widely the case in the instance of slavery. When all this is considered, who can wonder that deep feeling, growing often into passionate irritation, was aroused, and that the Southern planters felt driven to fight for their households and their wealth before it should be too late. All this has nothing to do with the fact that to-day the South would not accept slavery again if it were offered, and that it has been learned that free labor is as profitable as slave. This was not known then, either to North or South, and as regards emancipation without compensation, we know now thoroughly what it meant in the many years of poverty into which the South was thrown after the Civil war, the utter loss of wealth in hundreds of cases, the penury to which thousands of the delicately 286 Highroads to Secession born and nurtured were reduced, and the depths of depression in which nearly the whole South lay sunk for several decades. Returning to the story of interstate subjects of controversy, especially those vital ones, the tariff and negro slavery, it may be said that neither of them existed as serious problems in the early days of our national history. When the tariff was first devised, it was as a portion of Hamilton's wise scheme for raising a revenue — the idea of protection to industry was then barely thought of. And in those days, as we have sought to show, slavery was widely looked upon rather as an evil than a benefit. The North discarded it. Some of the states of the South were ready to do the same. Vir- ginia's ablest sons were strongly opposed to it. Nowhere was it earnestly maintained. Only for the invention of the cotton gin and the development of the great cotton industry it would prob- ably have died a natural death before the nineteenth century had far advanced. But the development of cotton culture in the South and of manufacture in the North changed the whole industrial situation, slave labor and protective tariff became firmly fixed institutions, and the evils which they engendered seemed to have come among us to stay. In the inquiry before us, the question of the tariff takes pre- cedence. The first tariff bill passed in this country was signed by President Washington on July 4, 1789. It was a revenue measure pure and simple. Hamilton had taken into consideration the importance of protection to our infant industries, but all he asked for were revenue duties. And thus matters continued, in a measure, until 18 16. Protection to industry entered to some extent into all the tariff bills subsequent to the first, but it was dealt with very mildly and revenue continued the principal consideration. In 1816 a change took place. The end of the war with Great Britain and the opening of our ports to commerce brought the products of England's looms here in vast quantities, at prices with which the poorly equipped American factories could not compete. There was reason to beheve that the prices were made specially low in order to break down American competition and force this country to depend upon English manufacturers. Petitions for a protective tariff poured in upon Congress and such a tariff was enacted, increasing the duties on cotton and woolen goods as a measure of protection to American factory industries. This tariff was not specially a Highroads to Secession 287 Northern measure. In fact, while many Southerners supported it, many New England merchants, whose interests were mercantile, opposed it. Though it was passed, its benefit was not marked, for- eign goods still coming largely into our ports. The actual tariff trouble between North and South began in 1824. By that time manufactures had largely developed in New THE FIRST CAPITOL OF THE CONFEDERACY, MONTGOMERY, ALA. In this building President Jefferson Davis was inaugurated, February 18tli, 1861. The Alabama Convention assembled here January 17th, 1861. and declared the State independent. England and protection was vigorously demanded in that section. In the South a different sentiment had recently arisen. Free impor- tation of goods, with their consequent cheapness, was evidently most advantageous to agricultural communities. The tariff question now first came strongly into politics and made its appearance as a 288 Highroads to Secession sectional problem. The congressional debate on the subject was earnest and protracted, but New England won over the South, and a new tariff with increased rates of duty was enacted. In 1828 the tariff question became vital. The "Era of Good Feehng," which had prevailed during Monroe's non-partisan administration, vanished with the election of 1824. A nev/ party arose, the National Republican, headed by President Adams and strongly advocating protective duties upon imports; while the Demo- cratic party came out firmly in opposition, with free trade or tariff for revenue only as the strong plank in its platform. But the new party controlled Congress and the radical steps which it took were such as could not fail to arouse vigorous opposition. The tariff of 1828 embodied the protective principle in an extreme form, very high duties being laid on wool and hemp and increased duties on many other articles. The result was a feeling of exasperation in the South, where the new measure became known as the "Tariff of Abominations." The opposition to it was bitter and intense. While it gave strong support to the feeble manufacturing interests of the North, it largely raised the cost of Hving to agriculturists in all sections, and was especially distasteful to the South, at that time almost wholly devoted to agriculture. It was strongly contested in Congress, it was hotly reprobated throughout the land of cotton and corn, and its ill effects were particularly felt in South Carolina, or at all events that state was most outspoken in opposition. John C. Calhoun, then Vice-President of the United States, and the ablest advocate of the rights of the South, now came out vigorously in print, in his striking "South Carolma Exposition," in which he declared that the Constitution gave Congress power to levy taxes only for revenue; that protective duties were therefore unconstitutional; and that any state had the right to declare an unconstitutional law null and void and forbid its execution within the state Hmits. South Carohna, he declared, would agitate for its repeal. If this proved of no effect, the offensive law would be declared null and void. Such was the first appearance of the famous doctrine of "nuUifica- tion," which in four years was to bring the Union to the verge of dissolution. Jackson was elected President in 1828, with Calhoun again as Vice-President. As chairman of the Senate, the famous orator was removed from the arena of discussion and was not able to make his remarkable powers felt upon Congressional movements, :: o oj ^"^3 3 --« a ;:: IJ 03 .'= a^ LO r< ' ^j ' ' < r-1 ^^§ bCCiS >^ !:- tn (U C 1J !-, ^ O _C ^^ n e> rvl • =:c/5 C o -^-^ '^- c o ^ o ii '-J >^. --^ s . rt • - (U o Cii X ^ c/ .-T3 rt '^ ■^ a rt'O rt c/u « tC.-^ < ■x-5'^ o rt IJ V u j:: a rt -M -.rj n CD (L) O Highroads to Secession 289 but he continued decisively at the head of the opposition to the protective poUcy. From 1788 to 1861 one question continually made its appearance in Congressional debate: Was this a single sovereign nation, or was it a league of separate states ? Debate on this question reached its height during Jackson's first term. Cal- houn and his following held that the Union was a "compact," from which any state might withdraw at will. This was not alone his view, but it was the South Carolina view. All the Congressmen from that state supported it. As Calhoun was prevented from presenting it on the floor of Congress, Robert Y. Hayne, a strong and eloquent speaker, took his place, his great debate on the subject with Daniel Webster being the most famous passage at arms in oratory which the legislative halls of the United States have ever beheld. Hayne maintained that nullification was a constitutional rem- edy for state ills, it being a " reserved right" of the states. In debate it must be acknowledged that he met with more than his match in Webster, one of the world's great masters in oratory. But victory in oratory does not mean conviction. Calhoun, Hayne and their party retained their opinions still, and the refusal of Congress to repeal the tarijBF of 1828 brought the difficulty to a head. In 1832 Calhoun resigned the Vice-Presidency, called a Convention in South Carolina, and the famous "Ordinance of Nullification" was passed. This declared the tariff of 1828 "null and void" in South Carolina. The state went farther than this, threatening, if inter- fered with in this action, to secede from the Union. For the first time in the history of the United States the Union of the states was in imminent peril. The doctrine of the right of secession was definitely promulgated. Had the other states of the South joined South Carolina in this action it is impossible to tell what the result might have been. The Civil War would perhaps, have been antedated by thirty years, and possibly have had a dif- ferent ending. But the other states remained impassive. There were no Calhouns to stir them to action. Apparently the evil did not appeal to them as demanding so perilous a cure. However strongly their citizens may have felt about the tariff, they were not wrought up to the pitch of secession, and South Carolina was left to bear its burden alone. There could be but one result, with a man like Andrew Jackson 19 290 Highroads to Secession in the Presidential chair. Southern born and advocate of low tariff as he was, he could not perceive that there was any warrant for such extreme action, and felt it his duty as President oi the United States to take immediate and effective measures to sustain and enforce the action of Congress in its tariff enactment. Calhoun was then back again in Congress, now a member of the Senate. A bill was before that body to give the administration special powers in the collection of the duties — the "Force Bill" it was called. Calhoun opposed it in one of the most famous speeche's of his career; but the bill was passed, and Jackson is said to have privately warned the orator that the instant any resistance was made to the government in South Carohna he would be arrested for high treason. Yet however stern and determined "Old Hickory" may have been, Congress proved more phable. It either recognized that it was in the wrong or feared the consequences of its sectional action, and made important concessions to South Carolina. Henry Clay, the South's ablest orator and statesman, came forward with his famous compromise bill, under which the existing duties were to be decreased by a fixed proportion each year, until they reached a minimum of twenty per cent, in 1842. This healed the sore, both parties — as seems the fixed rule in such controversies^claiming to have triumphed, and both, doubtless, glad enough to have escaped the danger that lay before them. South Carolina, finding herself unsupported by her sister states, had excellent reason to be gratified; and Congress, knowing well that it stood on the brink of a volcano whose explosion might involve the whole country, must have felt an equal sense of relief. It need only be said further, that though the tariff question has remained a prominent source of political agitation from that day to this, no thought of deahng with it in any other way than by legislation has ever since arisen. The facts here given were stated in the biographical sketch of Calhoun, but this repeti- tion at this point seems in place. The removal of this peril only disclosed another which was then just rising into view, and was destined greatly to surpass the other in the magnitude of its results. This was the anti-slavery agitation. It had existed, as we have seen, for many years in a mild form in which slavery was to be cured by gradual emancipation. No one objected to this, and it may be that no one imagined that anything would come of it. But in 1831 anti-slavery took on a new Highroads to Secession 291 and aggressive form, when William Lloyd Garrison issued his Liberator, in which he proclaimed slavery as a mortal sin, declared for immediate emancipation without compensation to the slave- holder, and maintained that all laws upholding slavery were, before God, null and void. Here was "nullification" with a new applica- tion and a very dangerous one. As the great crisis of tariff nullifica- tion passed away, this infant doctrine appeared, noisy but feeble, few as yet regarding it otherwise than as a discordant example of fanaticism, scarcely worth notice. But this feeling did not persist. The agitation was kept up. The anti-slavery faction grew. In time it evolved from a faction into a party, from a party into a power, and the whole country was torn and rent with the dissension to which it gave rise. It is true that even until i860 there was a strong party in the North which sympathized with the South and held that it was fully justified in maintaining its institutions. With others the anti-slavery sentiment was neutralized by the feeling that the Union must be preserved at all hazards and that there were no constitutional means of interfering with the slave system. But with a rapidly growing number all such sentiments were lost beneath the vehement demands of the abolition advocates. Naturally the South was moved to bitterness by this fierce detraction and especially by the extreme and unfounded statements which accompanied it. Examples of occasional ill treatment of a slave were luridly pictured and paraded as ordinary occurrences, while the real kindness and consideration with which the slaves as a general rule were treated found no abiding place in the anti-slavery papers or the platform fulminations. A large party in the North was blinded by these misrepresentations to the actual condition of the negro under the slave system, the masters being made to pose as cruel tyrants, the slaves as victims of frightful atrocities. While there were many who knew the untruth of this, it was so widely circulated and strenuously insisted on as to find a multitude of believers. The growing hostility of feeling in the country made its way into Congress, whose membership represented the varying shades of public opinion, and on whose floors the subject of slavery led to acrimonious debates and growing irritation. The abolitionists of the North did not fail to bombard Congress with petitions of varied kinds, and John Quincy Adams, the late President, who was a 292 Highroads to Secession member of the House from 1 83 1 to 1 848, diligently presented and argued in favor of these, much to the irritation of Southern members. The trouble grew pronounced in 1846, at the outset of the war with Mexico. An appropriation bill was introduced in the House to pay for the territory which it was expected we would gain by the contest. David Wilmot, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, offered an amendment to the effect that slavery should be prohibited in this territory when acquired. This was the famous "Wilmot Proviso," which precipitated one of the most acrimonious debates yet held on the subject. It was defeated, but only by a small majority, and the members from the South clearly saw in it the swelling of the tide of anti-slavery sentiment which was accumulating against them. It was the beginning of a war of opinion on the floors of Congress which did not end until actual war began in the field. In 1850 the storm burst. There was war in House and Senate. Above all the other political problems of the day rose high the over- mastering one of the extension of slavery. Congress was torn by prolonged and bitter discussion. The country was stirred by threats and denunciations. Strong hints of secession arose on both sides. All the great weights of oratory. Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Douglas and Seward chief among them, took part in these debates, which have never been equaled in our history for eloquence and acerbity. Should California be admitted as a slave state ? What should be the status of the rest of the new territory ^ Such were the primary questions, from which various secondary ones arose. To what the fierce Congressional struggle might have led but for the moderate counsels and convincing oratory of Henry Clay it is impossible to say. This great orator, now an old and feeble but intensely earnest man, came forward as a peace-maker and proposed a compromise which for the time being settled the question, though at the cost of his own life, for he never recovered from the exhaustion of this greatest effort of his career. The end reached in these acrimonious debates was a com- promise which admitted Cahfornia as a free state, permitted ths new Territories of Utah and New Mexico to settle for themselves the question of slavery, forbade the slave trade in the District of Columbia, but enacted a strict fugitive slave law, a law for which the Constitution already provided, and which was sustained by the Highroads to Secession 293 Supreme Court in the famous Dred Scott decision of 1857. Such was the "Compromise of 1850," which many thought would bring to a final end the controversy between the two great sections of the country. To the Abolitionists the fugitive slave law was as fuel to fire. They defied it in every possible way. The Underground Railway was the outcome of this defiance. By it a chain of secret stations was estabhshed, from one to the other of | which the slave was I guided at night until at last he reached the Canada border. The most used of these routes in the East was from Baltimore to New York, thence north through New England. That most employed in the West was from Cincinnati to Detroit. It has been estimated that not fewer than thirty thousand slaves were thus assisted to escape from their owners. That the feel- ing of hostility in the South was intensified by this illegal and de- fiant action of the Aboliti onists need scarcely be stated. Its people felt they were being maligned, viUified, misrepresented, wronged in every way. They w^ere being, in disregard of law, robbed of property that represented a great money value to them. Their rights were scorned, the Acts of Congress and the decision of the Supreme Court ignored and defied, and the law of the land set at nought. Between the friends and foes of the ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1809-1865. Two terms (died in office), 1861-1865.; 294 Highroads to Secession institution of slavery to be found in the North was a large body of people who, while opposed to slavery, were obedient to the laws, and confined their efforts to opposing its extension. But their voice was little heard, while that of the much smaller class of uncon- ditional abolitionists was loud in the land, and it was the latter that set the tune to which the whole country marched as the decade of danger slowly moved on. The death of Clay, shortly after the passage of his great com- promise bill, left the moderate party in the South without a leader. Clay was at the head of the Southern Whigs, who looked upon slavery as a necessity, but opposed its extension and were in favor of its eradication by gradual emancipation. John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, Attorney-General in Fillmore's Cabinet, and John Bell of Tennessee, a Senator in Congress, became rivals for the leader- ship after Clay's death, Bell winning by his strong opposition to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, in 1854. It was this that gave him the Southern Whig nomination for the Presidency in i860. Yet in the Congress of 1853-54 nearly all the Whig members of Congress from the South voted in favor of the repeal, while all the Whig members from the North voted against it, a fact which broke up this old party into two factions, and in 1856 led to the absorption of the Northern Whigs into the new Republican party, together with the Free Soil, American, and other organizations of like character. A powerful new party was thus made, whose cardinal principle was opposition to the extension of slavery. Only twenty-five years had passed since Garrison's Liberator first appeared, but in that brief period political evolution in this country had been so rapid that the people had become divided into two great parties, with the question of slavery as the great bone of contention. It is not to be wondered at that many in the South, seeing the force of its opponents growing into what might become a crushing weight, began to feel that the die was cast, and that their one hope of salvation now lay in the strength of the "good right arm." Danger was near at hand and they might be forced to strike for safety before it became too late. At this juncture there appeared a book which served only to throw oil on the flames. It was called "The Impending Crisis in the South," and was the work of one Hinton R. Helper, a native of North Carolina, who professed to be the son of a slave-holder and a Highroads to Secession 295 Southerner by instinct, thought and habit. His book did not accord with his proiessions. While its statistics were true and its history correct, its language was violent and threatening, its conclusions exaggeration, and its general tone incendiary. Its denunciation of the great slaveholders, who were given such names as "Oligarchs," "Slaveocrats, " "Lords of the Lash," etc., was certainly very ill- calculated to put an end to the system which he so intemperately assailed. During the period in question the struggle was for a time diverted to a part of the western territory then growing rapidly in population. The territory of Kansas demanded admission as a state, and this demand led to the Kansas-Nebraska bill, introduced by Stephen A. Douglas. This bill in effect repealed the Missouri Compromise, since it left the question as to whether slavery should be carried into the new territories to the decision of the settlers them- selves. As a consequence, immigration was directed by both the anti-slavery and the pro-slavery parties to Kansas, each determined on obtaining a majority that would enable it to control the form of the proposed State Constitution. Then began a series of acts of violence which almost amounted to civil war. "Bleeding Kansas" became a common phrase in the abolition camp, and the struggle on its soil between the two factions went on with a bitterness that in the end took the form of armed conflict. Prominent among the armed supporters of tree-state ideas in Kansas was John Brown, a fanatical abolitionist whose watchword was at all times Action. "Talk," he said, "is a national institution; but it does no good for the slave." He believed that slavery could be coped with only by armed force. His theory was that the way to make free men of slaves was for the slaves themselves to resist any attempt to coerce them by their masters. He was an unreasoning fanatic in that he did not stop to measure probabilities, or to take account of the written law, while the right of slaveholders to the possession of their property had no place in his code of morals. His attempt at Harper's Ferry was without reasonable hope, and as the intended beginning of a great military movement was a ridiculous fiasco. But there was that about the man that none could call ridiculous. Rash and unreasoning as his action was, he was yet, even by his enemies, recognized as a man of unswerving conscience, of high ideals, of deep belief in the brotherhood of mankind. No 296 Highroads to Secession reasonable man at that day could be found to applaud his plot, but the incident had an effect on the minds of the people altogether out of proportion to its intrinsic character, its effect being to increase the strength of abolition sentiment in the North. The strenuous efforts made to put John Brown in the attitude of a martyr had much to do with this result, in the minds of those in whom feeling was supreme over reason. John W. Burgess, a professor of political science in Columbia University, in ''The Civil War and the Constitution," thus expresses himself in reference to the John Brown attempt: "Seen from the point of view of the influence of such fears (those of slave insurrection) upon the growth of the still half-con- scious anti-slavery spirit existing through large sections of the South, nothing could have been more untoward, wickedly harmful, and positively diabohcal than the John Brown raid at Harper's Ferry on the night of the i6th of October, 1859. If the whole thing, both as to time, methods and results, had been planned hy His Satanic Majesty himself, it could not have succeeded better in setting the sound conservative movements of the age at naught, and in creating a state of feeling which offered the most capital opportunities for the triumph of political insincerity, radicalism and rascality over their opposites. No man who is acquainted with the change of feeling which occurred in the South between the i6th of October, 1859, and the 1 6th of November of the same year can regard the Harper's Ferry villainy as anything other than one of the chiefest crimes of our history. It established and re-established the control of the great radical slaveholders over the non-slaveholders, the little slaveholders, and the more liberal of the larger slaveholders, which had already begun to be loosened. It created anew a solidarity of feeling between them all, which was felt by all with an intensity that overcame every other sentiment." The long examination made by the Senate committee failed "to reveal the conscious complicity of anybody in the atrocity out- side of the twenty-one villains who followed Brown." But the demonstrations in parts of the North in favor of Brown certainly did not tend to convince the people of the South that he and his fellows stood alone in their purpose. Professor Burgess continues: " Brown and his band had murdered five men and wounded some eight or ten more in their criminal movement on Harper's Ferry, Highroads to Secession 297 Add to this the fact that Brown certainly intended the wholesale massacre of the whites by the blacks in case that should be found necessary to effect his purposes, and it was certainly natural that the tolling of the church bells, the holding of prayer meetings for the soul of John Brown, the draping of houses, the half-masting of flags, etc., in many parts of the North, should appear to the people of the South to be evidences of a wickedness that knew no bounds, and which was bent upon the destruction of the South by any means necessary to accomplish that result. It was reported throughout the South that the Senate of Massachusetts came within three votes of passing a resolution for adjourning on the day of the execution. "It was of course possible for people far removed from any peril to make a distinction between approval of Brown's act and commiseration for his fate; and to attribute all of these demon- strations to the latter feehng, but it was simply impossible for those surrounded by all the dangers which Brown's movements threatened to call up to appreciate any such distinctions. To them they appeared the veriest cant and hypocrisy. Especially did terror and bitterness take possession of the hearts of the women of the South, who saw in slave insurrection not only destruction and death, but that which to feminine virtue is a thousand times worse than the most terrible death. For those who would excite such a movement or sympathize with anybody who would excite such a movement, the women of the South felt a hatred as undying as virtue itself. Men might still hesitate, and consider, and argue, but the women were united and resolute, and their unanimous exhortation was: ' Men of the South, defend the honor of your mothers, your wives, your sisters, and your daughters. It is your highest and most sacred duty.' " Certainly the Harper's Ferry attempt to create a slave insurrec- tion, hopeless and insane as it seemed, went farther than any other occurrence of the times to unite all classes in the South, and to make inevitable that appeal to arms which before was simply possible. The seeming wide sympathy in the North with this attempt added immensely to its effect upon Southern sentiment, and the conviction grew among all classes that now the white men of the South must stand together and all internal differences be set aside in the presence of the terrible catastrophe with which they had been and at any time might again be threatened. This was no political difference of 298 Highroads to Secession opinion, but the threat of a mortal peril to every household in the South, and one that could be safely met only by the rifle and the sword. When the time for the election of i860 arrived this feeling was still strong in men's minds throughout the South. It was a great social peril added to the poHtical and property perils which had long impended. The anti-slavery party had shown itself strong in 1856; would it win in i860, and if it won what course would the adminis- tration based on its principles take ^ It was said and was widely beheved by the masses that if Lincoln was elected men of similar character to John Brown and Hinton Helper would be chosen to fill official positions in the South, and every government bureau would be a hatching place for conspiracies and negro insur- rections. To those who thought such a result probable there seemed no way to escape murder and pillage except secession from the Union and the setting up of a government of their own. Such was the feeling with which the men of the South went to the polls on that November day in i860. Those of the North went there with a feeling as serious, for imminent peril to the country was in the air. In 1856 Fremont, the RepubHcan candidate, had carried eleven out of the fifteen free states. How many could Lincoln carry in i860 .? But one hope remained to the South. It still had hosts of friends in the North. The Democratic party there continued strong and was largely in sympathy with Southern institutions. But unfortunately for their hopes this great party became divided against itself at this critical juncture. Its strongest champion, Stephen A. Douglas, had lost the confidence of the leaders of the party in the South, and the perilous step was taken of nominating two candidates. Even without this, however, their triumph at the polls would have been hopeless, for Lincoln was elected over all his opponents by a plurality of seventy-seven electoral votes. The problem was now squarely before the South. Should it accept the result and rest quiet under the supremacy of an anti- slavery President and Congress, trusting to their generous considera- tion .? It seemed to the Southern people too much Hke the case of the lamb resting under the paws of the wolf. Would peace, honor, and harmony result; or confiscation, gradual or immediate emanci- pation, possibly slave insurrection and assassination ? The situa- tion was critical. The issue was before them and they did not take Highroads to Secession 299 long to decide. A§ before, South Carolina did not wait for the verdict of her sister states, but boldly took the initiative. A con- vention of her citizens was called and on the 20th of December, 1 860, a step big with threat of dire consequences was taken; an ordinance of secession from the Union was passed. This time South Carolina was not left to stand alone. Swayed by a common feehng, state after state swung into line, and before the end of January, 1861, five others of the sovereign communities of the South — Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana — had seceded. Texas followed early in February, and the whole line of Gulf States was out of the Union so far as an ordinance of seces- sion could accompHsh this purpose. The middle tier of States — Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia — ^were slower in falling in with this movement. Not until Fort- Sumter had been fired upon and armies were actually in the field, did they join their more southerly sisters. The three border States of Maryland, Ken- tucky and Missouri held aloof, though strong efforts were made in the latter two states to bring them into the fold. On February 4th delegates from the first six seceding states met at Montgomery, Ala- bama, and organized a new government, under the name of "The Confederate States of America." Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was chosen President, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice- President; a Constitution was adopted in March, and the new nation was fairly launched. Such was the outcome of the two great elements of dissension that arose between the states after the formation of the Constitution in 1787. At that date one of these was non-existent and the other gave little concern. Yet they afterward gathered like rolling snow until they became appalling in magnitude. One of them, the tariff issue, threatened the dissolution of the Union in 1833. The other, that of slavery, for the time being accomplished it in 1861. Before the Government at Washington lay a frightful task. Before the Government at Montgomery lay a desolating struggle. But in the intense excitement of the moment neither perceived the magnitude of the crisis, and both plunged into the dread alternative of war, moved by fallacious hopes. Both sides were desrined to be terribly undeceived. At first indeed it looked almost as if the seceding states would be allowed to go in peace, The Government at Washington vacil- 300 Highroads to Secession lated and was uncertain in its movements. A Peace Conference was held at Washington which proposed to offer terms of conciliation to the South and suggested radical amendments to the Constitution of the United States, which would have removed all possibility of future legislation in regard to slavery. Delegates from North and South alike took part in this conference, but its proposals were rejected by the Senate. In fact, Virginia had refused to accept them in advance, and movements of this kind were hopeless from the start; the lower South had gone too far to recede. It had taken its stand and pro- posed to abide by it. And the North was far from inclined to assume the roll of a suppliant. The old administration passed away and the new one began. The whole country waited in strained expectation to learn what action it would take. Abraham Lincoln was a new element in the situation. He was known to be active and able in the political field, but his character as a man of action was yet to be shown. Would he prove a Jackson or a Buchanan, a man of war or a man of peace ? Before him lay as dread a situation as any man had ever been called upon to face. The strength of his anti-slavery sentiments was well known, but would he have the boldness and daring to draw the sword against the South or would he be moved by pacific counsels and shrink from the frowning front of war .? The opening weeks of his administration left all this in doubt. He seemed in a hesitating and doubtful mood. In this, much of the North was with him. The party which had elected him grew faint- hearted and demoralized when it faced the consequences of its victory. It seemed frightened by what it had done. Its press was all at sea. Even Horace Greely, the leader in Republican journal- ism, argued in favor of the right of secession, and said, "We hope never to live in a Republic whereof one section is pinned to the residue by bayonets." Meetings were held by the people in which conciliation and compromise were alone preached. The Demo- crats of the North strongly opposed any attempt at coercion. Even the AboHtionists spoke to the same effect, and Wendell PhilHps, their great orator, said that the Gulf States had done only what they had the full right to do, and that "Abraham Lincoln has no right to a soldier in Fort Sumter." This feeling existed even in the Presi- dent's cabinet. Seward was bent on maintaining peace, and most of the other members agreed with him. Highroads to Secession 301 Such being the state of feeHng in the North, it is not surprising that the new President remained inactive, nor that the Confederate government grew confident. Commissioners were appointed to visit Washington and arrange for a peaceful separation and a just division of the pubHc property and pubhc debt, and to all outward appearance events seemed moving toward the pacific consumma- tion of the radical step that had been taken. Upon the surface it began to look as if two nations might peacefully exist side by side upon the soil of the United States. Yet this was exceedingly unhkely to be the case. The aggres- sive element in the North v/as stunned for the time being, but was sure to rise again. All it awaited was an event to justify it and a voice to call it into action. The event soon came, and the voice was soon heard. The fate of the great nation vibrated around Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, nearly the sole stronghold in the Southern states which still remained in Federal hands. Upon this fortress now all eyes were fixed, about it the full tide of events turned. The government at Montgomery seemed inclined to force the issue, for they sent Beauregard to Charleston and practically placed Sumter under siege, surrounding it with threatening guns. President Lincoln accepted the issue, determined to maintain the Federal garrison in the fort, and took steps to supply it with provisions, — though he promised to make no attempt "to throw in men, arms, or ammunition, except in case of an attack on the Fort." The provision transports were sent, and the Confed- eracy at once took decisive action. General Beauregard demanded the evacuation of the fort. This was declined and at about half- past four in the morning of April 12, 1861, the guns of the Confed- erate batteries began to hurl their balls against the walls of a fort over which floated the United States flag. All must acknowledge at this day that the step thus taken was, to say the least, precipitate. Members of President Davis's own Cabinet protested strongly and bitterly against it, declaring that the first shot fired at Sumter would put an end to all hopes of a peaceful separation and hurl the country into practical war. Their protests were in vain, the shot was fired, and the result which they predicted came. The North rose in multitudes in response to the President's call to arms. The sentiment was widespread that the South had begun the war; the old flag had been fired on; the honor of the 302 Highroads to Secession national standard must be maintained; and in the wave of feeling that swept through the North all doubts and vacillations vanished and all parties united in the determination to avenge what was declared to be an insult to the flag. Had the Confederate Government committed an error in its action ? Could war in any event have been avoided ? This question we may safely answer in the negative. In the hostile state of feeling existing, even if that event had not happened, some other would inevitably have brought the two sections to blows. Such a result was probably unavoidable, and it was perhaps as well that the issue should be forced at once. Yet no action could have been taken by the South better calculated to cement all parties in the North and strengthen the hands of the government at Washington by a united popular support. A new issue had been given to the people. The question of slavery versus abolition vanished and that of the honor of the flag arose, and under this war-cry the young blood of the North swarmed in thousands to the ranks. In the South a similar unity of feeling prevailed. Regiments, corps, armies gathered and marched exultantly northward, eager to strike for their homes and their cause. The angel of peace fled in dismay from the land, the lurid demon of war swooped downward upon its smiling fields, and over a vast area the roar of the cannon replaced the cheerful sounds of peaceful industry. The greatest war in recent history had begun. CHAPTER XVII. THE GREAT CONEEDERATE LEADERS OF THE CIVIL WAR Lessons of the Civil War — Able Commanders of the South The character of Ro- bert E. Lee — His early career — General Imboden's tribute to Lee — Lee's Pro- phetic forecast — His simple habits — Lee in command — The final struggle — Lee after the war — A touching story — Stonewall Jackson — His life in col!e^3 There was the dashing Mosby, the bold guerrilla of the service, the hornet whose sting had the sharpness of that of the famous Marion. There was the intrepid Forrest, whose career was one of daring, venture and brilliant success. There was the audacious Morgan, who carried the war into the heart of the North, sweeping like a besom of destruction through Ohio and Indiana. There was Joe Wheeler, great of soul while small of body, who led his men to glory in many a stirring fight. There were various others of dash and daring, but chief among them all was "Jeb" Stuart, Lee's right hand in the cavalry as Jackson was in the i n f a n t ry service, and worthy a name among the fa- mous cavalry captains of his- tory. We speak of him here as one of those who died for h i s cause as well as fought for it, but he did not fall before he had won a noble meed of fame. James Ewell Brown Stuart was the grandson of an officer of the Revolution and the son of an officer of the War of 1812. He inher- ited the spirit of a soldier, studied the military art at West Point, and GENERAL JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON First Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate forces at Richmond. 324 Great Confederate Leaders saw much service in Indian warfare. When Lee was sent to put down the John Brown raid, Stuart went with him as aide. And when Virginia seceded he resigned from the Federal army to take up arms in the service of his native state. Appointed colonel of cavalry in July, 1861, he began that bril- liant career which never declined until his death in battle. To ride round the Federal Army of the Potomac and leave dismay and havoc in his track was a common exploit in his history. In the first battle of the war, when Johnston marched from before Patterson to the field of Bull Run, it was Stuart and his horsemen who screened this move- ment. Then, hastening to the field of battle, he lent such able help to the forces in the field as to bring him the rank of brigadier-general. During the McClellan campaign in the Peninsula and before Richmond, Stuart was one of the most active of Lee's lieutenants. His first famous exploit was that of June 12-15, 1862, when, at the head of 1200 of his gallant horsemen, and with a handful of flying artillery, he cut loose from all communication, made a grand sweep round the Army of the Potomac, destroyed a large quantity of army stores, and returned at leisure across the Chickahominy and up the James, with McClellan's army on one hand and the Union gunboats on the other. One man only was lost from his troops in this brilliant adventure and his prisoners were many, while the information he brought Lee was the prelude to the great seven days' fight, in which Stuart played an active part. For these splendid services he was promoted to the high grade of major-general, though not yet thirty years old. This famous raid was of the type of many of Stuart's later exploits. In the great Second Bull Run battle, in which Jackson and Lee so absolutely crushed the over-confident Pope, Stuart and his cavalry rendered inestimable service. Early in the fight he made a daring ride round Pope's rear, in a heavy rain storm, setting fire to the trains at Catlett's Station, capturing Pope's despatch book and baggage, an ^h^i^ ^//^ taJjz '/a J. iJsi-i r / / THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CONFEDERACY. First page of the permanent Constitution of the Confederate States as reported by the committee. This is the handwriting of General Thomas R. B. Cobb, who was a member of the committee. Taken from the original which is in possession of Mr. A. L. Hull, Athens. Ga., and used liy permission. I Government of the Confederacy 33^ He was dignified, grave, almost severe, and decided even to impe- riousness. He was often impatient, and rather inclined to suspect those who differed with him in opinion of being influenced by wrong motives. But withal he was noble, kind, generous in his feeling, if not in his intellect, brave, self-sacrificing, and grandly devoted to duty as he understood it." In person, says Burgess, "Davis was tall, well-formed, erect, handsome, dignified and graceful. He bore all the marks of a well-born, well-bred, cultured gentleman." Such a man was well fitted by nature and experience to be President of the Confederate States Government, and when it came to be decided who among the Southern statesmen should hold this high office, the name of Mr. Davis stood far above all others. He was at once the leading representative of the doctrine of State Sovereignty, the ablest and clearest thinker among them all, and the man of most varied experience in public affairs, while his high ability as a soldier was likely to be of essential service to the new government. Mr. Toombs was the only other whose name was seriously consid- ered, and of the two Davis was far the calmer, more prudent and more judicious. The choice could not have been bettered, for no man in the South could have surpassed Mr. Davis in the capable work which he did as Executive of the Confederacy. It was a provisional government of which Davis was elected the head in February, 1861. But in November he was reelected President, for six years, of the Confederate States, and was inau- gurated February 22, 1862. Of his services during the years of the war little adverse criticism can be made. The situation in which he was placed was an eminently difficult one and it is doubtful if another man could have been found in the South to fill it with equal judgment and political acumen. All that could well be done in the aid of his cause was done by him, — the efforts to obtain European recognition and aid, the encouragement of blockade running, the fitting out of privateers, the setting of machinery in motion to supply the army with the much needed munitions of war, the building of iron-clads, — in a doz&n such directions he was actively employed. On taking his seat he found the country under his control largely deficient in military supplies. In the spring of 1861 he made a statement showing a great lack of ammunition and other materials, and set himself earnestly to work to provide for the army these absolute essentials to successful warfare 33^ Government of the Confederacy Before 1861 was over powder mills were established in half a dozen of the States, eight arsenals and four depots were suppHed with machinery for the manufacture of arms and equipments, several chemical laboratories were in operation, foundries for the casting of artillery were established at Richmond, New Orleans and Nashville, cloth factories, tanneries, etc., were springing up, and the blockade runners were bringing in warlike material in great abun- dance. And to the end of the war the Government at Richmond succeeded in keeping its armies supplied with the munitions nec- essary for military operations. Such were some of the directions in which President Davis kept himself usefully occupied. It must be borne in mind that he was not alone a statesman of large experience but also a soldier of long train- ing and high distinction. As executive official of a Government whose history was war and to which peace was unknown this width of experience and wealth of powers were highly .essential. His ability as a soldier, indeed, was the most needful, for, while not personally in the field, he had to provide constantly for those under arms, to devise methods of supplying food, arms, clothing, and other necessities from an impoverished country, mostly destitute of manu- facturing facihties, for the struggling hosts in the field. And the armies themselves were under his constant supervision, to a far greater extent than were those of the North under that of President Lincoln. The latter had no training in war, and his meddling with the armies and their commanders did more mischief than good. President Davis, on the contrary, had been trained in the art of vv^ar, and had followed his academy training by strenuous experience on the battle field, and he knew very thoroughly what he was about. Few movements of importance were made without his advice and super- vision, and some of his suggestions were followed by strikingly successful results. We cannot go into the details of the strategy due to his advice, and must confine ourselves to a single example. It was one in which the military capacities of the two Presidents came most fully into contrast, that of the famous operations in the Shenandoah Valley during McClellan's siege of Richmond. President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton took occasion at this time to do a little soldiering of their own. McClellan lay between Washington and Richmond, with his base at White House, on the Pamunkey, instead of on the Government of the Confederacy 333 James, as it should have been. He was kept there as a cover to Washington, and McDowell's corps, which lay at Manassas, was promised him if he would remain there. As this juncture the strategists at Washington put their plan into effect. Stonewall Jackson was in the Valley, where he and Shields had recently been sharply engaged. In pursuance of the new plan McDowell was or- THE W^HITE HOUSE OF THE CONFEDERACY, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA President lefferson Davis lived in this imposing building after Richmond became Capital of the Confederacy. The large grounds attached to the house were beautifully laid out and adorned with statuary, flowers and fountains. dered to advance to the Rappahannock and Shields commanded to join him. Banks was ordered up the Valley with a strong force, the design being to crush Jackson between his army and that of Fremont, which lay at Moorefield and Franklin, to the westward of Staunton, 334 Government of the Confederacy And now President Davis came into the game with a bit of strategy of his own, in its way the most briUiant of any in the history of the Civil War. He advised Jackson of his plan, and found in him a ready and able auxihary. Foreseeing with mihtary insight what the authorities at Washington would do, he skilfully prepared a checkmate for them. Ewell and Johnston were sent to Jackson, giving him in all about twenty thousand of the Confederacy's best soldiers. With these Jackson at once began operations. Ewell was sent down the Valley to find Banks. With the remainder of his army Jackson sought to surprise Fremont. Meeting two of Fre- mont's brigades in the mountain passes west of Staunton, he drove them back on and through Frankhn, and forced Fremont to with- draw all his forces to Moorestown. The line of communication between the two Federal generals thus broken, Jackson hastened to join Ewell and follow Banks, who had taken the alarm and was retreating down the Valley. Jackson did not pursue him directly, but crossed the ridge which runs down the Valley, fell upon Front Royal and captured its garrison, and then started on a race for Win- chester, toward which Banks was marching. Banks had a few hours the start and got there first, but he was chased so closely that he was forced to turn and fight, with the results that, as history gives it, he was sent "whirling through Winchester," and the plan to crush Jackson between two armies went all amiss. But while the original plan had failed, Lincoln and Stanton now fancied that Jackson had put himself into a worse trap than before. Fremont was ordered to march to Strasburg, Shields to hasten through Manassas Gap to Front Royal, McDowell to support him with two divisions of his corps, and Banks to follow Jackson the moment he showed signs of retreating. This had been foreseen in Davis's design. McDowell's corps had been by his stratagem sent in pursuit of Jackson and could not be used to reinforce McClellan. This done, the remainder of the plan was quickly carried out. Jack- son, who was kept advised of what was going on around him, evaded his foes by making a rapid march up the Valley to Port Republic, passed through Brown's Gap in the Blue Ridge to Gordonsville, and hastened southward by the railroad, reaching Richmond while he was still being hunted in the mountains far to the north. Thus was accomplished one of the most brilliantly successful Government of the Confederacy 335 movements of the war. All readers of history know what followed; how Lee, reinforced by Jackson, fell upon McClellan's right wing with the purpose of seizing his base of supplies, cutting off his line of retreat, and capturing his entire army. The strategy of President Davis had robbed McClellan of McDowell's support, while bring- ing Jackson to Lee's aid, and there followed the memorable Seven Days' Fight before Richmond, which ended in McClellan, after terrible losses in men and supplies, being driven back on the James, leaving the road to Washington open to the forces of the Confederacy. We have described this strategic series of operations at some length, as the credit of devising it is known to have belonged to Presi- dent Davis, the result indicating that the Confederacy, in making him President, lost a brilliant army leader. Doubtless it gained far more than it lost, in having a man of his fine military acumen in the executive chair. We must briefly bring his story to an end. Taken prisoner at the end of the war, he was treated differently from any other leader, military or civil, in the war, being held prisoner in Fortress Monroe for two years, under threat of trial for treason. He was then released on bail — Horace Greeley, who could not perceive on what principle he alone should be singled out for punishment from the Confederate leaders, going on his bail bond. Though never brought to trial, he was excluded from the general amnesty of December 25, 1868, and spent the remainder of his life in retirement. Some fifteen years later Colonel A. K. McClure, a distinguished journaHst of Philadelphia, visited him at his home in the Gulf coast region of Mississippi, and gave, in his work on "The South," an interesting description of "the soldier-statesman without a country." He said: "I expected to find the strongly marked traces of a grievously disappointed life, and severe civihty and studied reticence in discussing all things of the past; but those who believe Jefferson Davis to be misanthropic in temperament and embittered against the nation and the world greatly misjudge him. Nor is he the broken invalid that he is generally regarded. "His yet abundant locks and full beard are deeply silvered, and his face and frame are spare as they always have been; but his step is steady, and the hard fines of his brow, which are so con- spicuous in his pictures, are at once effaced when he enters into conversation. Instead of impressing the visitor as a political recluse who has no interest in the land to whose citizenship he will live and 2,3^ Government of the Confederacy die a stranger, he at once invites the freedom of the planter's home by chatting without reserve, save when his contemporaries are Hkely to be criticized, when he adroitly and pleasantly turns the discussion into inoffensive channels. "I have long desired to know the exact truth from the fountain of Southern knowledge on the subject in regard to several important events of the war, and I was agreeably surprised at the freedom with which Mr. Davis met my inquiries. Why Beauregard was ordered to fire upon Anderson in Fort Sumter, after his surrender was inevitable at a specified time without assaulting the flag, has never been entirely understood. It was the act of madness, as it made division in the North impossible, and I have always beheved that the real cause of the order to open fire was to unify the South and end the threatening movements for reunion on terms. Mr. Davis answered promptly and emphatically that the order was given solely because faith had been broken by the Lincoln administration in attempting to reinforce Anderson, and that the South needed no war to solidify its people. I think he errs in underestimating the probable power of the movement in the South for concentration before the war, but it is evident that in deciding to issue the fatal order for the assault upon Sumter he believed the Confederacy invincible, and defiantly resented what he regarded as a violation of the pledge of the Federal government. That act practically consolidated the North, and thenceforth the Confederacy was a fearfully hopeless venture. On another important point he answered with the same freedom. When asked whether the aggres- sive movement of Lee that culminated at Gettysburg was adopted as purely military strategy or was the offspring of poHtical necessity in- side the Confederacy, he answered that it was the wisest of both mili- tary and poHtical strategy, but that it was not dictated at all by poht- ical considerations. He said that the wisdom of the military movement was proven by the recall of Meade from Virginia and the transfer of both armies to northern soil; but, he soberly added, the battle was a misfortune. "As a military movement, Mr. Davis says the Gettysburg campaign had the entire approval of Lee, and there were no political divisions in the South to dictate any departure from the wisest mih- tary laws. I desired, also, to know whether, at the time of the Hampton Roads conference between Lincoln, Seward, Stephens, Government of the Confederacy 337 and others, Mr. Davis had received any intimation from any credit- able source that Mr. Lincoln would assent to the payment of four hundred miUions as compensation for slaves, if the South would accept emancipation and return to the Union. He answered that he had no such intimation from any source, but that if such a propo- sition had been made, he could not have entertained it as the Execu- tive of the Confederacy. He said that he was the sworn Executive of a government founded on the rights of the States; that slavery was distinctly declared to be exclusively a State institution, and that such an issue could have been decided only by the independent assent of each State. Some of them, he added, would have accepted such terms at that time, but others would have declined it, and peace was, therefore, impossible on that basis. " On the principle here indicated, that of the right of the states to form and maintain their own institutions, Davis was persistent throughout his political career. In this he was the direct and most unyielding successor of Calhoun. The latter had held to the theory of state rights, including the right to secede from the Union, through the stormy days of the "nuUification" excitement and the great contests of oratory in Congress, and died in the faith. Davis held firmly to it through the dark era of the Civil War, and likewise died in the faith. Was he right or wrong .? Was he justified or unjustified in the course he pursued ^ Even to this day it is not easy to answer this question. It must be remembered that from the very days of the acceptance of the Constitution a large party, North as well as South, maintained the sovereign rights of the states, and refused to accede to the Constitution on that ground. With these men — and Davis stood as one of the foremost in their ranks — the citizen of a state owed no primary allegiance to the United States. His alle- giance first of all, was to his native state. He owed allegiance to the Union while his state remained within its folds, but when his state felt it incumbent upon it to withdraw, he withdrew with it, and yielded to its command. Such was the pohtical article of faith and duty held widely through the South, and those who clung to their state even through war and into desolation, did so under high convictions of honor and duty. As Dr. Brown strongly says: "Treason is the highest crime and deserves exemplary punishment, but not where there has been no treasonable intent; where they who 33^ ' Government of the Confederacy committed it did not believe it was treason, and on principles held by the majority of their countrymen, and by the party that had gen- erally held the government, there really was no treason. Concede state sovereignty, and Jefferson Davis was no traitor in the war he made on the United States, for he made none till his state seceded. He could not then be arraigned for his acts after secession, and at most only for conspiracy, if at all, before secession." Certainly he was earnest and honest in his faith until the end. We have justly given large space to Lee, as the great military leader of the Confederate States, and to Davis, as the great civil leader. The other numbers of the civil administration must be much more briefly dealt with. Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice- President, was in the position of Vice-Presidents in general, having very little voice in the conduct of affairs. Had the course of events brought him to the head, he could doubtless have proved a very feeble substitute for the " Soldier-Statesman. " Able he was, but his ability was legal and legislative, not executive, and nature had not designed him for the difficult task which lay before the President of the Confederacy. The English author from whom we quoted a description of Davis, also gives us an excellent one of Stephens, whom he saw at Richmond during the war. He says: " Mr. Stephens is distinguished as an orator, although he does not look like one that can command attention. His health from childhood has been very feeble; and he suffers from an organic derangement of the liver, which gives him a consumptive appearance. He has never weighed over ninety-six pounds, and to see his atten- uated figure bent over his desk, his shoulders contracted, and the shape of his slender limbs visible through his garments, a stranger would never select him as the modern John Randolph, more dreaded when in the United States Congress as an adversary, and more prized as an ally in debate, than any other member of the House of Representatives. When speaking, he has at first a shrill, sharp voice; but, as he warms with the subject, the clear tones and vigor- ous sentences roll out with a pleasing sonorousness. He is witty, rhetorical, and solid, and has a dash of keen satire that puts an edge upon every speech. He is a careful student, but so very careful that no trace of study is perceptible, as he dashes along in a flow of facts, arguments, and language that to common minds is almost bewildering. Government of the Confederacy 339 DISTINGUISHED MEN OF THE CONFEDERACY Beginning at top and going to right areJudah P. Benjamin, John Slidell, William L. Yancey, Major-Genertl John C. Breckinridge, Governor Henry A, Wise, James M. Mason, Alexander H. Stepheni. 340 Government of the Confederacy ''I passed one evening with Mr. Stephens, when he came up from Georgia to attend Congress at Richmond, and must confess that I was greatly entertained. His knowledge is immense; his grasp of mind wonderful. His geniality of disposition is, however, somewhat marred by a sHght tincture of dogmatism, which, perhaps, is pardonable in such a man. Spare, cadaverous, and slightly stooping in his shoulders, his person gives no indication of the dignity and grace which characterize his appearance when his smgular genius is aroused. His countenance is grave and thought- ful, somewhat stern in repose, and strongly marked with Hues of deep, patient, even painful reflections, which infuse over it an air of forbidding severity. Mr. Stephens is universally and justly beloved in the South; and, no doubt, if he survives, will be elected the future President of the new Republic. " He survived, instead, to be elected to the Senate of the United States in 1865, very shortly after the end of the war. He was not permitted to take his seat, but he entered Congress as a Representa- tive in 1874 and served in the House for several terms. He was not inconsistent in this, for he had opposed secession to the end, making a strong speech against it in August, i860. In consequence of his view of the case, as soon as his state was ready to reenter the Union he was fully ready to go back with it and to treat the Con- federacy as a thing of the past, and did not hesitate to accept an election to the Senate. It must be said, however, that he would have shown far more dignity and consistency of character if he had fol- lowed the example of his chief and been less ready to desert the cause which he had accepted as his own. The earlier career of the Vice-President of the Confederacy may be briefly given. Born in Georgia in 1812, he was left an orphan at fourteen and a poor one, as his share of his father's estate yielded only about five hundred dollars. But by the aid of a benevo- lent lady he was enabled to pass through the University of Georgia, graduating at the head of his class. He subsequently studied the law, and early in his legal career was engaged in a case of the highest importance, in which he won the reputation of being one of the ablest members of the Georgia bar. His eloquence exerted a specially powerful influence upon juries, from the admirable sim- plicity of his arguments, and the earnestness and weight of legal authority with which he supported them. The writer jfrom whom we have already quoted says of his legislative career: Government of the Confederacy 34^ "Mr. Stephens became a member of the Georgia Legislature in 1837, which position he held for three years. In 1842 he was elected to the State Senate, and the following year entered Congress. He was connected with the Whig party, in its palmiest days; but, since its dissolution, has acted with the Southern politicians. Such has been the upright, undeviating, and patriotic policy he has pur- sued, that not a solitary individual in the present era of faction, selfishness and suspicion has mooted, 'even with bated breath, and whispering humbleness,' an accusation of selfish motives or degrad- *15 LIBBY PRISON, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA An old warehouse once, it became a prison for captured Union soldiers awaiting exchange. ing intrigues against him. In Congress he served prominently as chairman of important committees, and effected the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill through the House when its warmest sup- porters despaired of its success. The pohtical course he pursued on various measures has occasionally excited the transient dis- pleasure of the Southern people; but he has invariably succeeded in emerging from every contest with honor, and even with approba- 342 Government of the Confederacy tion. His elevation to the Vice-Presidency of the Confederate States of America is conclusive of the profound esteem entertained for him, and of the pubhc appreciation manifested for his qualities as a statesman." The first Cabinet of the Confederacy consisted of Mr. Toombs of Georgia, Secretary of State; Mr. Walker, of Alabama, Secretary of War; Mr. Memminger, of South Carolina, Secretary of the Treasury; Mr. Mallony, of Florida, Secretary of the Navy; Mr. Benjamin, of Louisiana, Attorney-General; and Mr. Reagan, ot Texas, Postmaster-General. Of those, the two men of greatest ability were Mr. Toombs and Mr. Benjamin. The latter in 1862 succeeded Toombs as Secretary of State, the latter entering the Senate, and subsequently becoming a brigadier-general. They both were Senators of the United States at the time of the secession ordinances. In November, i860, shortly after the election of Lincoln, Toombs made an earnest effort to have the question of secession voted upon immediately, but in this he was opposed by Stephens, and the meet- ing of the Convention was postponed until January 17, 1861. Toombs and Benjamin both took part in the efforts at conciliation in Congress along with Davis and other Southern members, but the amendments to the Constitution which they proposed, and the demands which were especially formulated by Mr. Toombs, were much more stringent than the Repubhcans were prepared to accept and all efforts at pacification failed. Shortly afterward the Southern members bade a long adieu to the Halls of Congress and the country moved swiftly onward toward the yawning gulf of war. Of the members of President Davis's Cabinet, the Secretaries of War and the Navy had the most stringent tasks before them and wrought with most diligence and effect. We have already spoken of the strenuous and able work performed for the army, necessarily under the immediate supervision of the Secretary of War. Mr. Mallony, Secretary of the Navy, was one of the few members of the original Cabinet who remained in office to the end of the war, and the work done under his jurisdiction was so considerable and im- portant, in view of the scantiness of means and material at his command, that some allusion to it here will be of interest. We refer especially to the numerous iron-clad war vessels prepared for the Confederate Navy, the building of which showed such a vigorous grappling with difficulties as to make the ill fortune which attended most of them somewhat pitiable. Government of the Confederacy 343 The first of these monsters, the famous Merrimac, had a career of remarkable historical interest, destroying two of the finest vessels in the Federal navy, and creating a panic at Washington w^hich approached that of the British invasion of 1814. But the most notable event in its career was its mighty battle with Ericsson's Monitor, that great naval fight which transformed the navies of the world. The Merrimac, an old United States frigate sunk at Nor- folk, and subsequently raised, given a sloping roof and covered with thick iron plate, held its own for hours against the enormous guns of the Monitor, upon whose nearly submerged hull its own balls were poured with little effect. It was, in the fullest sense, a drawn battle, but the authorities at Washington were thrown into such a panic that they would not permit the Monitor to try conclusions with its adversary again. Dire consequences were feared if this monster of the deep should overcome its puny antagonist and be left free to roam the seas at will. The foes of the Merrimac got the best of it at last by a land attack, taking Norfolk and forcing the Confederates to destroy this powerful iron-clad champion. The Merrimac was but the first of a considerable number of powerful iron-clads which were built and set afloat by the naval department of the Confederate Government. The industry shown in this direction, and the ingenuity displayed, in view of the feeble resources at command, were worthy of high praise. Yet formidable as were these vessels and high as were the hopes based upon them, a singular fatahty attended them all. The Merrimac was the only one that repaid the labor bestowed upon it. Others were launched at New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, and Wilmington, only to meet with swift and sure disaster. The Atlanta, constructed at Savannah out of the Enghsh blockade runner Fingal, was regarded by its builders as the most dangerous engine of naval war yet constructed, and it was expected to make short work of the blockade at Savannah and to raise the blockade along the whole coast. Admiral Dupont sent two of his best monitors, the Weehawken and the Nahant, against it, but he did so with fear and trembHng, dreading frightful results from this formidable antagonist. Yet four shots from the great guns of the Weehawken settled the contest. The first penetrated the armor of the Atlanta, and prostrated half its fighting force by the concussion. The second and third damaged its plating, wounded both pilots and demolished the pilot house, and the fourth crashed 344 Government of the Confederacy through a port shutter. The fighting powers of the Altanta were at an end. Strong as she was, the great guns of the Monitors proved too much for the resisting power of the iron-clads of that day. The ram Manassas, used in the naval battle on the Mississippi, was a singularly effective war vessel. The portion of it which appeared above water was of the shape of a sharp-pointed egg-shell, so rounded everywhere that shots were sure to glance from every point of its surface. Bar iron an inch and a half thick covered twelve inches of soHd oak. Yet there were openings through which the shots of the Federal fleet penetrated, and after a brief fight the formidable ram took fire and burned. Unfortunately for the Con- federacy, Farragut's attack was too soon. Had it been delayed a few weeks it would have had to face a veritable monster of the seas. An iron-clad of the most formidable character was being rapidly built at New Orleans, which would have been capable of destroying the entire Federal fleet could it have been set afloat in time. Both Admiral Farragut and General Butler confessed this on being told of its character. Admiral Farragut was well advised of the re- ception that was being prepared for him, and hastened his assault in consequence, with the result that the great vessel on which the naval department of the Confederacy based such high hopes had to be blown up to escape capture. There were two similar eff"orts equally promising and equally unfortunate. The Tennessee, a very powerful iron-clad built at Mobile, was unfortunate in the exposure of its steering apparatus. This was destroyed by the shots of Farragut's assaiHng fleet, leav- ing the vessel a helpless prey to the hordes of cruisers that thronged around her hke wolves around a mired bison. And the Albemarle in the Roanoke, after a successful attack on the blockading fleet, was destroyed by a torpedo at the wharf of Plymouth while waiting for a consort to aid in her work. Thus, admirable as was the naval work of the Confederacy, misfortune followed it in all its most promising efforts. In its privateering ventures it had far greater success. Its swift armed cruisers scoured the seas and did vast damage to the commerce of its foes. This was especially the case with the renowned Alabama, whose speed and the skill and daring of her commander and crew made her a veritable terror of the seas. She met the fate of ocean rovers at last, but not until she had destroyed ten million dollars Government of the Confederacy 345 worth of shipping and almost driven the commerce of the Northern ports from the seas. Such were the naval efforts of the Confederacy and their resuks. They reflect the highest credit upon those to whom they were due, in view of the paucity of resources at their command, while the misfortune which attended the most formidable among them must be classed among those contingencies to which all human eff"orts are subject. CHAPTER XIX. WAR'S DREAD HERITAGE AND THE POLITICIANS' FATAL CLUTCH Conditions in North after Civil War — In South — Courage and devotion of the South- ern soldier — Causes of conquest — Desolation of the South — Great decline in value of property — Effect of war on negroes — Steps toward restoration of indus- try — Congressional interference — The problem of reconstruction — Negro suffrage and its results — The carpet-bag invasion — Legislative theft and demoralization — A black picture of negro legislation — The Southern white rises in revolt — The negro in the South Carolina State-House — End of the reign of terror and restora- tion of property. IN April, 1865, the sun of peace, after a long eclipse by the clouds of war, cast its enhvening beams once more over the broad realm of the United States; but what did its welcome hght reveal ? In the North and West it lit up a scene of plenty and prosperity, a land which had been practically free from the withering tread of invading armies, a region of developing cities, active indus- tries, vast fields prepared and planted for the coming harvest, and a triumphant population to hosts of whom the war had come no nearer than in the columns of their daily newspapers. A stranger might have traversed the streets of hundreds of Northern cities and seen nothing to indicate that a four years' desolating contest had just reached its end. In the South it lit up ravage and ruin; a land torn and rent by the tiger claws of war; its cities half empty, with their warehouses and often their homes in ashes; its fields deserted and desolate; its people sunk into a poverty and destitution from which it seemed as if they could never emerge; the whole country plunged into a veritable Slough of Despond. The demon of war had come to them in their homes, roused them at midnight from their beds, swept with the blood-stained sword and the flaming torch through their cities, 346 War's Dread Heritage 347 tore up their railroads, burned their bridges, destroyed their gran- aries, stifled their industries, and left the country a weed-grown wilderness, peopled by a foodless and despairing population. In the war the North had staked its wealth; the South had staked its all. Against the abundant re- sources of the North it had put its life- bloodin pledge. Vastly sur- passed in t h e "sinews of war," — money, commerce, p o p ul ation, manufactures, — it had fought on under a fearful disad- vantage, h a V - ing only its native valor and far weaker resources to oppose to the great strength of its foe. Nev- er had the world seen more valorous armies, greater devotion to a cherished cause, abler leaders, more resolute purpose. Courage, dash, and daring were theirs to an unsurpassed extent, and with half an equal- ity in resources the meed of victory must have come to the MONUMENT TO THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS Erected on the Capitol Grounds, Montgomery, Alabama, by the Ladies' Memorial Association. 348 War's Dread Heritage cause of the South. But in wealth and resources they were vastly surpassed, and they hurled themselves with terrific force against the mighty wall of Northern strength, brave and heroic to the end, but beating out their lives in vain against the far superior power of their foes. Victory comes to the heaviest purse and the strongest battalions and never has there been a truer exemplification of this adage than in the American Civil War. Steady attrition, day by day, and year by year, wore out the valor and energy of the South, and when at length it dropped the sword, it was because its grand army had been worn down to a frayed handful, so near starvation that they had only the swelling buds of the woodland to eat. The South had fought itself out to the bitter end, and while it was forced to accept the cross of defeat, it had won the crown of the world's admiration for a valor and devotion such as had rarely been seen. The war ended, what lay before the vanquished cause .? Con- trast the South of i860 and the South of 1865. In the former year we see a country which for years had been rapidly increasing in wealth, coming into active competition with the North in railroad building, in commerce and other forms of enterprise, and steadily growing in prosperity through the Old World demand for its great agricultural staple, the fleecy fibre of its fields. In the latter year we find it at the close of a most disastrous war and plunged into a depth of poverty and woe which language finds it difficult to portray. For four years contending armies had occupied its territory, and the terrors of their presence had proved that General Sherman was correct, if profane, when he said that "war is hell." Desolation had swept over the site where happy homes and busy factories had stood, fences were gone, farms were in ruins, and the soldiers who had given four years to battle and returned to take up again the burden of industrial life, were met by conditions as appalling as the people of any nation had ever faced. Over the whole land poverty and, worse than poverty, despair brooded. Debts had accumulated, wealth had vanished, and the outlook for the future was more gloomy than even a Dante could have fully depicted. Hundreds of thousands who had been among the best men of the South had been killed or maimed in battle, or wrecked in health, while thousands, unable to see any hope of business in their ruined land, fled in despair from the impoverished soil and went west or north to find a home. Then came the absolute demoraHzation War's Dread Heritage 349 of the labor system, followed by political misrule and debauchery of the State governments, with unscrupulous white adventurers using ignorant negroes as their tools to enable them to carry out every gigantic swindUng operation which fertile brains could invent. The census of 1870 showed a decline in the assessed value of property m the South from that of i860 of ^2,100,000,000, followed by another decrease of ^300,000,000 between 1870 and 1880. And this was only part of the loss. The cost of the war, the vast injury done by the armies, the hundreds of thousands of vigorous men who died in the field, were permanently disabled, or had sought a new field of industry, the South's share of national indebtedness, made a total loss which if it could be expressed in money would sum up to fully ^5,000,000,000. The significance of such figures is not easy to comprehend, but the mere statement shows us the vast extent of the disaster which the havoc of war had brought upon the South. It was not alone war's desolation and the complete overthrow of its two century old system of labor with which the South had to contend. A cup more bitter still was held to its lips to drain, that of Reconstruction, with its multitudinous insults and injuries. Its loss of material resources it would have bravely borne and set itself earnestly to the task of winning new wealth, but the unmentionable evils of "carpet bag" government were worse in their way than the ruin caused by the war. The latter they had dared and were ready to abide; the former was an affliction which cut them to the bone. The effect of the war on the negroes of the South was as distress- ing in its way as its effect on the whites. Broken loose from their moorings and set adrift on an unknown sea, these helpless beings were in a state of demoralization not easy to describe. Few of them knew what freedom meant. Densely ignorant of political and ordinary industrial conditions, to many of them liberty signified release from labor and support without work. Their state of irresolution and bewilderment was pathetic, annoying, as it proved to those who were seeking to set in motion again the wheels of industry. Under the circumstances there was only one thing that saved the South from what might have proved a terrible social revolution. This was the pacific disposition of the negro, the warm affection which hosts of the recent slaves felt for the famihes of their old masters and the refusal of many of them to leave those whom 35^ War's Dread Heritage they had long before learned to trust and love. Others were not long in learning that liberty did not mean freedom from labor, but it proved a difficidt task to bring them even then dov^n to steady w^ork under their new and untried conditions. And one cannot well blame those who, after their long fixation to one spot, made free use of their new-born freedom to rove at will, and to work or be idle as they pleased. However natural this might have been, under the circumstances, it was a sore vexation to those who were striving with might and main to restore some vestige of the vanished industrial condition of the South. The fields needed to be planted, the crops to be culti- vated and harvested; labor, steady and diligent, was a vital neces- sity, and the restlessness and disregard of contracts by the negroes threatened to render the renovation of the harried country an almost hopeless task. Some decisive action had to be taken, or the planta- tions might as well be abandoned. What took place may briefly be told. President Johnson in 1865 devised a plan of restoration under which he appointed temporary governors for the seceded states. These called conventions of delegates, who were elected by the former white voters of those states. The conventions met and lost no time in declaring the ordinances of secession void, pledging themselves to pay no debt of the Southern Confederacy, and ratifying the Thirteenth Am.endment, which abohshed slavery. But they saw that something must be done to induce the inconse- quential negroes to work, and for this purpose they passed com- pulsory laws. Those who would not work were to be treated as vagrants, and put to hard labor in jail. Under the circumstances some decisive action was necessary, and the one taken was well calculated to bring the trouble to a quick conclusion. For the law would have had to be put in efi^ect a few times only to bring to an end the idleness of the blacks, and its seeming harshness would have ceased with the need of calhng it into play. It was one of those severe but effective remedies which are at times absolutely necessary in dealing with a stubborn disease. But it caused an outbreak in the North which hindered its useful- ness. The late abolitionists loudly denounced it as a device to bring back slavery under a new name, and the RepubKcan majority in Congress went farther by refusing to acknowledge the new govern- ments or to consent to any of their acts of legislation. As a result War's Dread Heritage 35^ a bitter quarrel arose between Congress and the President, leading to hostile measures on both sides, and bringing about no end of fresh trouble for the South. To the physical discomforts with which they had to contend, to the difficulty of teaching the negroes that hard work was necessary for black and white alike, was added a crop of po- litical horrors still harder to bear, all bound up in that word which bitter experience made hateful to their ears. Reconstruction. The struggle between Congress and the President began in the organization of the Freedman's Bureau, its purpose being to protect the recent slaves against those adjudged as their enemies. Then came the Civil Rights Bill, which gave to the late slaves all the rights of citizens except that of suffrage — the latter being a State issue. This measure deprived the whites of the South of the right to hold office, with the exception of those who could swear that they had taken no part in the work of secession. Few of the intelligent class could take this "iron-clad oath," and office-holding was practically taken out of the hands of the Southern whites. The next step in reconstruction was to frame military governments for all the seceded States except Tennessee, which early became "reconstructed." Under these governments the freed slaves were given the right of suffrage. They formed the majority in several of the states, and in their supreme ignorance of political conditions constituted a mass of voters such as no country had ever been cursed with before. The worst of it was yet to come. Down from the North, like a ffight of locusts, came a horde of adventurers who saw a chance for profit in the situation. "Carpet-baggers" they were called, it being said that they could put all they owned into a carpet-bag. Possibly some of them were honest men; certainly many of them were thieves, and the rule which they inaugurated was one of unblushing brigandage. These men undertook to teach the negroes the game of poHtics, while the Southern whites, utterly disgusted and dis- heartened, held aloof. Securing the support of the ignorant blacks by falsehood and misrepresentation, they controlled the state legislatures and managed the finances in a way of their own. The negroes elected many of their own race to the legislatures, in which men who could hardly write their own names exultingly made laws for their former masters, while the latter remained in sullen silence at their homes, wondering what sore affliction would come next. It was worse to them than the war; there they could act, here they could only endure. 352 War's Dread Heritage As a result of negro legislation under carpet-bag dictation the states were well nigh ruined, a frightul waste of the public funds going on, while enormous debts were heaped up. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were stolen; extravagance, corruption and debauchery ran riot; as one public man has remarked, a general conflagration, sweeping from the Potomac to the Gulf of Mexico, could not have wrought more devastation in the South than the legislation during the years in which it lay under carpet-bag mis- management. Mr. Edward King, author of "The Great South," visited South CaroHna during this period, and graphically describes what he saw there. A quotation from his work will be here of interest: " The negroes nearly filled both Senate and House; there were but few white members during the first session, when the ignorant blacks were learning parliamentary forms; for which, by the way, ANDREW JOHNSON ^^ showed an extra- The second man to rhe^Jom^aWhern log c^^^^ ordinary aptitude. (1S08-1875. One partial term, 1865-1869.) Jobs bcgan tO appear, and the first drawing of blood may be said to have been in connection with the job for the redemption of the bills of the state banks. The strong influenced the weak; the negro, dazzled and enlivened by the prospect of the reception of sums which seemed to him colossal fortunes, soon became an apt scholar, and needed but little prompt- War's Dread Heritage 353 ing from his white teachers. Measures for authorizing the Governor to borrow on the credit of the State were at once inaugurated; and then began a series of acts whose results are without a parallel in the history of revolutions. "Although it would seem an infamy simply to deliberately increase the debt of a State which had been so terribly impoverished as had South CaroHna by the war (her total valuation having decreased in ten years from ^489,319,128 to ^164,409,941), this was but the beginning of the outrage. Not only was the debt increased, but the revenues of the State were diverted from their proper chan- nels into the pockets of the thieves; and it has been incontrovertibly proven that millions have been added to the State debt without the authority of the Legislature. By the official statement of the Treas- urer of the Commonwealth, the public debt at the close of the fiscal year ending October 31, 1871, amounted to ^15,851,327.35. This showed an actual increase since the advent of the reconstruction legislature of 1^10,500,000, of which amount only ^4,389,400 had ever been in any manner authorized by the legal representatives of the State. And it is considered certain that in 1872 there were already afloat upon the market, very possibly in the hands of inno- cent holders, without any authority in their original issue, some ^6, 000,000 in conversion bonds ; and it was found necessary to introduce an act, in 1872, to ratify and confirm this illegal issue, for which the "Financial Board," composed of the Governor, the State Treasurer, and the Attorney-General, were responsible. "The frauds to which the Legislature lent itself and which private individuals perpetrated, were contemptible. A Land Com- mission was established. It was ostensibly beneficent. Its ap- parent purpose was to buy up lands, and distribute them among the freedmen. An appropriation of ^700,000 was granted for that purpose. The State was at once robbed. Worthless land was purchased and sold at fabulous sums to the Government. The commissioners were generally accused of extensive corruption. When at last an honest commissioner came in it was found that a quarter of a million dollars had been stolen. The Sinking Fund Commission, is another 'oubliette' into which money raised from the State sinks mysteriously. The commissioners of this fraud were authorized to take and sell real and personal property belong- ing to the State, and to report annually to the Legislature the sums 23 354 War's Dread Heritage received. Public property has rapidly disappeared, but no report has ever been made. The pockets of an unknown few contain the proceeds of much valuable state property. "This is mighty theft; colossal impudence like this was never surpassed. Never was a revolution, originally intended as humane, turned to such base uses. Never were thieves permitted to go unpunished after such bold and reckless wickedness. Never before were a people, crushed to earth, kept down and throttled so long. The manhness which we received as a precious legacy with our Anglo-Saxon blood demands that we should cry out, 'Hold off your hands! Fair play!' "The complete centrahzation which has been the result of the long continuance in power of an ignorant legislature, controlled by designing men, is shown in the history of the elections since recon- struction. The governor has the power to appoint commissioners, who in their turn appoint managers of elections in the several counties. In this manner the governor has absolute control of the elections, for the managers are allowed to keep and count the votes, and are not compelled to report for some days. The chances thus given for fraud are limitless. For the last four years men who have been elected by overwhelming majorities have been cooly counted out, because they were distasteful to the powers that be. The negroes intimidate their fellows who desire to vote reform tickets, much as the Ku-Klux once intimidated them. 'The villainy you teach me I will execute.' "People will say that this is a black picture. It is; there is no light upon it. There seems small hope for a change. The election this year will oust some plunderers, but will not be likely to check corruption. The white people of the State are powerless to resist; they are trampled completely down." For several years the riot of corruption here indicated went on almost unopposed. The whites indeed, finding themselves powerless to check this unspeakable misrule, naturally banded for self-protection, and some among them, finding mild measures useless, felt themselves forced into acts of violence. The Ku-Klux Klan was organized, and for a time succeeded in terrorizing the negroes. But revolutionary measures are very apt to far overstep the mark, and this secret and irresponsible organization was finally brough to an end by military force. War*s Dread Heritage 355 In 1870 the whites of South Carolina, sick at heart at the total disregard of honesty and decency in the existing government, made a vigorous effort to regain control of their state. They nominated R. B. Carpenter, a RepubHcan circuit judge of well proved honesty, for governor, retrench- ment and reform being the sole planks ! in their platform. A j few negroes were on their ticket, and the novel circumstance was seen of negroes and southern whites speaking together on the same political ros- trum. But the powers that be were too strong ; the negroes would not vote for the Conservative tick- et; and defeat was the fate of this first step of revolt. The plun- derers were jubilant at the result, such honest Republicans as were in the state hung their heads with shame, and the native whites, not knowing to what ex- cesses the negroes might go, organized a "council of safety," as a measure of possibly necessary protection — a step which, as usual, led to adverse criticism in the North. But, despite the discouraging result of this first active effort to stay the tide of corruption, the reign of carpet-bagism was near its end. Reconstruction had been completed, all the seceded MONUMENT TO THE CONFEDERATE DEAD IN HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA Here lie 12,000 Confederate dead, to whose memory Virginia's noble women erected a monument of rough Virginia granite nearly 100 feet tall in the shape of a pyramid. 356 War^s Dread Heritage states were again in the Union and fully represented in Congress, the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteeing negro suiBFrage had been adopted, and the provisional military governments were at an end. The whites of the South began to take a resolute hold of the politics of their states. Negro legislation was still a strong element, but it was nearing the end of its absolute control. To depict the condition of affairs that existed, we cannot do better than to quote again from "The Great South" a description of what Mr. King saw in a visit to the State-House at Columbia about this time. He tells us: "The mammoth building, which yet lacks the stately cupola to be given it in a few years, is furnished with a richness and elegance which not even the legislative halls of States a hundred times as rich can equal. In the poorly constructed and badly hghted corridors below are the offices of the State Government — that of the Governor, the Treasurer, the Secretary of State, and the Superintendent of State Schools — each and all of them usually filled with colored people, discussing the issues of the hour. The Secretary of State is a mulatto, who has entered the law school at the University, and carries on his double duties very creditably. "In the House and Senate the negro element stands out con- spicuous. On the occasion of my first visit I was shown into the room of the House Committee on the Judiciary for a few moments. While awaiting the assembHng of the honorable members a colored gentleman, in a gray slouch hat, and a pair of spectacles, engaged me in conversation, and, as I inquired what was the present question which was exciting the patriotism and sacrifice of the virtuous members, he rolled up his eyes, and with a tragic air, said: "'Dar's a heap o' bizness behin' de carpet heah, sah.' "It was true, in m.ore senses than one. "The House, when I visited it, was composed of eighty-three colored members, all of whom were Repubhcans, and forty-one whites; the Senate consisted of fifteen colored men, ten white Repubhcans, and eight white Democrats. The President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, both colored, were elegant and accomplished men, highly educated, who would have creditably presided over any commonwealth's legislative assembly. In the House the negroes were of a much lower grade, and more obviously ignorant, than in the Senate. They were perpetually preventing the transaction of necessary business by 'questions of privilege/ War's Dread Heritage 357 and 'points of order,' of which, sometimes, as many as a hundred are raised in a single day. It being an extra session, they were endeavoring to make it last until the time for the assembling of the regular one; and their efforts were extremely ludicrous. The little knot of white Democrats, massed together in one section of the hall, sat glum and scornful amid the mass of black speakers, a member rising only now and then to correct an error of his friend, the colored man, who had the floor. "But some of the sable brethren were trying to the visitor's patience even, and after I had heard one young man talk for a half hour upon the important subject of what his constituents would say if he allowed himself to be brow-beaten into an immediate adjourn- ment, it was with difficulty that I could suppress a yawn. This youth persisted in repetitions; his voice occasionally would he heard rising above the general hum, precisely reiterating the words he had uttered five minutes before. "The negro does not allow himself to be abashed by hostile criticism. When he gets a sentence tangled, or cannot follow the thread of his own thought in words, he will gravely open a book — ■ the statutes, or some other ponderous volume lying before him — ■ and, after seeming to consult it for some minutes, will resume. He has been gaining time for a new start. "There are men of real force and eloquence among the negroes chosen to the House, but they are the exception. In the Senate I noticed decorum and ability among the members. Several of the colored Senators spoke exceedingly well, and with great ease and grace of manner; others were av^kward and coarse. The white members, native and imported, appeared men of talent at least. The black pages ran to and fro, carrying letters and documents to the honorable Senators; and a fine-looking quadroon, or possibly octoroon, woman, and the ebony gentleman escorting her, were admitted to the floor of the Senate, and sat for some time Hstening to the debates. "To the careless observer it seems encouraging to see the negroes, so lately freed from a semi-barbaric condition, doing so well, because their conduct is really better than one would suppose them capable of, after having seen the constituency from which they were elevated. One cannot, of course, prevent reflections upon vengeance and retribution drifting into his mind, — it was, doubtless, to be 35* War's Dread Heritage expected that some day the negro would lord it over his master, as the law of compensation is immutable, — but there is danger in the protraction of this vengeance. We must really see fair play. Ignorance must not be allowed to run riot. If we saw it consummat- ing, as a Commune assembled in Paris, one thousandth part of the infamy which it effects as a legislature in South Carolina, we should cry out angrily for interference." While the political condition of the South had fallen into such a heart-breaking state of anarchy, from which it did not fairly emerge until a decade had passed after the close of the war, what was the history of its material condition ^ The extreme depression in industries which followed the war we have already seen, the condi- tions existing in the industrial world being such as to discourage the most enterprising. The flourishing state of affairs which had existed before the war had utterly vanished, and, despite the pressing needs, there was so little to do that half the population was without employment. The manufacturing industries of the past had been nearly all destroyed and development in this direction was completely arrested. Agriculture remained almost the sole channel for labor, and cotton was the only crop for which a ready market could be found. It was also the only crop which could be mortgaged in advance to provide the money needed for its cultivation. Fortunate- ly for this industry, the scarcity caused by the war had increased the price of the staple by a large per centage, and there was more profit in cotton than ever before. Yet the restoration of old conditions, even with this incentive, was necessarily a slow process. In 1859 the cotton crop had yielded 3,851,481 bales. In 1869, after four years of effort, it yielded only 2,439,039 bales, and ten years more passed before the former conditions were fully restored. We may perhaps take 1880 for the period in which the reorgan- ization of the South, politically and materially, had become complete. The ascendancy of the negro in legislation had earlier come to an end, and the Southern white had regained the natural ascendancy which for years he had lost. The effort to put an inferior over a superior race had been tried and it had led to the most pitiable failure which political history records. Whatever the future con- dition of the South, it had become assured that the white man must be master of the situation in the future as he had been in the past, if utter ruin was to be averted. The material reorganization had War's Dread Heritage 359 gone hand In hand with the political one, and the Southern section of the country appeared in a fair way of attaining a degree of pros- perity greater than it had ever known. The planter was raising as much cotton as ever before, and with a hopeful prospect of raising far more as the years went on. And while the agricultural condi- tion was thus restored, the mechanical one had advanced far beyond anything known in the past. For the local manufactures of the ante-war period there was substituted a national manufacture. The cotton mill had made its way southward, the iron forge and furnace were blazing and clattering, the iron and coal mines were yielding their precious products in abundance, and the South awoke from the horrid dream of reconstruction to find itself in a fair way to take rank among the busy manufacturing regions of the earth. CHAPTER XX. THE PROBLEM OF THE NEGRO AS A FREEDMAN AND CITIZEN Lincoln's views on slavery — Effect of emancipation — A new negro problem — The negro a voter and legislator — The Fifteenth Amendment and its effect — The results of an evil measure — Relations of Southern whites and blacks — Mental conditions of the negro race — Desire for education after the war — Immaturity of the negro mind — Life for the passing moment — The negro's instinct of affec- tion — Deterioration in manners — Slavery a benefit to the negro race — The negro vote as an asset — The system of industrial education — Progress of the Tuskegee Institute — Booker T. Washington's speech at Atlanta — Views as to the condition and progress of the negro race. THE story of the negro as a slave has been dealt with in a former chapter. The story of the negro as a freedman needs now to be considered. These stories are separated by a period of volcanic outburst in American history, that of the great Civil War. They are separated by a radical act, — a revolutionary act we may justly term it, — the signing of the Proclamation of Emancipation by President Lincoln on September 22, 1862. This was announced by the President as distinctively a war measure. He had previously stated his view^ of the relations of the war to slavery in the following words: — "If I could save the Union without freeing a slave, I would do it ; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it ; if I could do it by freeing some, and leaving others alone, I would also do that. My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to destroy or to save slavery." And not until he felt convinced that the insti- tution was an element of strength to the South, and might help to disrupt the Union, did he issue his epoch-making proclamation. That such a step might sometime be taken, as an act of military expediency, had been long before foreseen by one of the leading patriots of the South. Patrick Henry, in the debates before the Virginia Convention on the ratification of the Constitution, spoke 360 The Problem of the Negro. 361 of the powers of Congress — with its majority of Northern members — in the following words: "Have they not power to provide for the general defense and welfare? May they not think these call for the abolition of slavery ? Among ten thousand imphed powers they may, if we be engaged in war, liberate every one of our slaves if they please. They have the power in clear, unequivocal terms and will clearly and certainly exercise it. " It is not Hkely that he foresaw a war in which the institurion of slavery would be one of the chief issues involved. But such a war came, and his prediction was made good. The slaves were de- clared free by Abraham Lincoln in the interest of the "general defense and welfare" of the North. There is excellent reason to beheve that Lincoln did not desire or propose to injure the individual slave owners by his act. It is a matter of history that at the time of his assassination the President was considering a measure to compensate the South for the loss of its slaves, provided the Con- federate States would recognize the sovereignty of the United States. He would have proposed his plan of compensation to President Jefferson Davis, if the Confederate commissioners had not told him, at the outset of the interview in which peace propositions were dis- cussed, that President Davis represented a number of sovereign States, and that he could not speak for them without submitting the matter to each. But whatever were Lincoln's wound-healing plans, the hand of the assassin cut them short in one dire moment, and threw the country into the maelstrom of dismay and disoirder that succeeded. Let all this be as it may, the fact remains, that Abraham Lincoln with a stroke of his pen absolutely transformed the conditions of labor through a large section of the United States. The effect of his revolutionary proclamation, when the end of the war made it effective, was tremendous. The war had brought ruin to the South as a whole. The proclamation brought ruin to many thousands of its individual citizens, who were at one fell stroke reduced from affluence to penury. The four millions of slaves in the South represented a vast money value. The act of emancipation swept away this value as by a mighty wind and left destitution in its track. Not alone those who were engaged in the war, but numbers who had taken no active part in it, doubtless many who disapproved of it, found themselves suddenly reduced from wealth to indigence. The 362 The Problem of the Negro suffering was widespread and extreme. Ruin spread like a devastat- ing flood over the fair fields and homes of the South. Rarely has so great a population been so suddenly and disastrously overwhelmed. To-day, after forty years have passed by, the aftermath of the ruin still remains visible. There are thousands who have never recovered from the effect of the loss of their property in slaves, and many of whom are struggling to win a living, or are dependent in their adver- sity upon the aid of their friends. This has nothing to do with the fact that the people of the South as a whole perceive and admit that A NEGRO FARMER'S CABIN OF A FEW YEARS AGO they are better off with free than they were with slave labor. It is of individuals, not of states, that we are speaking, and to many indi- viduals the cup was a bitter one, whose dregs are not yet drained. Time has cured much of this trouble; time will cure it all; but it will take more than time to cure another trouble that has followed in the wake of the war. With the ending of the war and the freeing of the slaves it was a natural conclusion to those of optimistic mind that the long disturbing negro problem was effectually shelved, and the great source of hostile feeling between the North and South finally removed. Those who thought so, reckoned hastily, not The Problem of the Negro 363 foreseeing what opportunities for mischief this problem might still present. The violent removal of Abraham Lincoln, with his pacific intentions, and his immense influence over Congress and the people, added greatly to the complication that was sure to follow the war. Peace had hardly come before the negro problem loomed up in a new shape, and with an aspect little less threatening than that of the past. The inevitable African was with us still, and "What shall we do with him ?" was one of the most vital questions of the time. Was this state of affairs a necessary result of the close of the war and the process of reestablishment of the Union ? It certainly does not seem so. It seems rather a mischievous result of that ugly thing called poHtica expediency, that versatile monster which may take so many threatening shapes. It sprang directly from that partisan and ill-advised measure, the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, by which the negro was invested unquaHfiedly with the right to vote. In the whole history of the United States there has been no more unwise and mischief-breeding performance than this precipitate act of a Congress in whose veins the heated blood of a fratricidal war still ran. Let us consider the influence at work in the enactment of the Amendment to the Constitution. The recently manumitted slaves of the South were already voting and holding office under the temporary provisional governments in the Southern States and were as a rule showing about as much capacity for their new functions as so many chimpanzees. Under the early reconstruction acts the so called "carpet-baggers" swarmed into the sorely harried South Hke a swarm of hungry locusts. They secured the support of the ignorant blacks, who voted or rather were voted en masse, blindly accepting the tickets put into their hands. Many of them were elected to the state legislatures, in which a saturnalia went on that threw the very name of legislation into contempt. Negroes who could not write their own names exulted in the power to make laws for their former masters, who remained in helpless silence at their homes, wondering what affliction would come next. Debt was heaped up, hundreds of thousands of dollars were stolen, and extravagance, corruption, and debauchery ran riot. As one public man remarked, a general conflagration, sweeping from the Potomac to the Gulf of Mexico, could not have wrought more devastation in the South than the few years of carpet-bag government. 3^4 The Problem of the Negro It was in the face of this example of the absolute unfitness of the recent slaves to receive the privilege of voting, and to take part in legislation, that the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, "dire mother of unnumbered ills," was passed. The reasons for its adoption we do not need to go far to seek. The negroes had cast their votes solidly for the RepubUcan party, represented in the South by the carpet-bag politicians. Doubtless they would have voted solidly for " Massa Linkum" if other tickets had not been given them. In the fact of this subserviency there seemed, to the average politician of that day, a flattering promise of the permanent Repub- lican control of the South. Reconstruction would set free a host of white votes, which might overturn Republican supremacy in the Southern states, and, if the party in power wished to maintain its ascendancy now was the time to act. In this desire to retain the reins of power we see the moving cause of the policy that was pur- sued, the passage by Congress and the State Legislatures of the North of a Constitutional Amendment giving negroes absolutely the privilege of the franchise, and forcing the states of the South to accept this as an essential to their readmission to the Union. The time was not one for hasty measures or partisan acts. If ever there was a time when wise deliberation and farseeing and impartial judgment were called for, it was then. Precipitate action, under the instigation of party ambition, in such an exigency, was more than a fault, it was practically a crime. Yet that the influences which led to the Amendment were largely political ones seems self-evident. Certainly no such measure would have been passed if the negroes had seemed likely, in any considerable proportion, to vote the Democratic ticket; yet this should have had no influence whatever if the sufi^rage were deemed their due by right of manhood, or by Divine Command. The worst feature of the inconsiderate measure was, that no thought of the capacity of the negro for an intelligent exercise of the new duty thrust upon him seems to have been taken. No limitation was placed upon the power of the blacks to vote, though most of them were no more likely to vote with reason and discretion than the cattle in their fields. They were invested with the fullest rights of citizenship in utter disregard of their ignorance and incapacity, and the evident lack of ability in the great mass of them to exercise with intelligence a function which certainly calls for educational reason A BUSINESS STREET IN BIRMINGHAM TO-DAY. Through its coal mines, iron furnaces, coke ovens and cotton mar- ket, Birmingham has become a great city, in touch by trolley with 150,000 people. Every office in the tall building shown in the picture was rented as soon as the building was finished. This is a typical business street of to-day. The Problem of the Negro 365 and discretion. The statesman of that da^ might justly have quoted from Hamlet: "It is not, and it cannot come to good." In truth, the negro has suffered as much from the overzeal of his assumed friends as he ever did under the bonds of his old con- dition. A negro writer, who is one of the historians of his race, has declared that the government gave the negro the statute book when he should have had the spelling book; that it placed him in the legislature when he should have been in the school-house; and that, "the heels were put where the brains ought to have been." Ills of this kind inevitably cure themselves, but rarely without days or years of pain and annoyance from the wound. As might have been foreseen, a vigorous opposition arose among the whites of the South to having their intelligent exercise of the suffrage negatived by the votes of those who frequently did not know even the names on the tickets which they cast. And this opposition could not fail to carry the question back toward that point at which it should have begun, that of a limitation, intelligent or industrial, to the exercise of the suffrage. The pendulum has long been swinging steadily and surely backward, and it will not come to rest until the evil done by unwise and indiscreet legislation has been fully undone. A wrong done has the one inevitable result, that of righting itself sooner or later. Such must be the outcome of the wrong done by the Fifteenth Amendment. The gift of suffrage to the negroes, in view of the inability of the great mass of the race to exercise it intelligently, simply acted to lay upon the neck of the nation a new negro question, immediately after the old one had been settled "by pike and gun." It was one that quickly assumed prominent im- portance. That the whites of the South would yield the governing power into the hands of a vast mass of incapables of inferior race and lower mental power was more than could be expected, and the gradual disfranchisement of the negroes was an unavoidable result. This disfranchisement cannot be looked upon as absolute. The Constitutional provision holds good against that. What it will do, and is doing, is to separate the wheat from the chaff, gradually building up a body of negro voters with the intelligence and the personal and property interest in their state affairs, and in good government as a whole, which will fit them to exercise their privileges wisely and well. The measures taken by the South are simply measures of precaution and self-protection. Without them the 366 The Problem of the Negro position of the South would have become pitiable. As regards the negro himself, white ascendancy is a good, rather than an ill. No one can affirm that any obstacle has been thrown in the way of his advance in education and industry. Every such step meets with a warm welcome, showing that the white has the best good of the negro at heart. The negro, as a mass, must long remain in tutelage. As individuals many of them are, and many more will become, capa- ble of self-control and poHtical discrimination. As fast as this "Sir* A type of Negro farmer's cottage which is rapidly replacing the one room log cabin. level of development is reached the suffrage will come with it. To permit the mass of the incompetent to vote might be to make ir- remediable mischief. At the meeting of the Southern Society at New York on Febru- ary 21, 1903, the president, Augustus Van Wyck, spoke of the race question in the following words: "What the South needs and must have is peace at home, and jointly with the rest of the nation, international peace. There is but one unsettled problem peculiar to that section, commonly called The Problem of the Negro 367 the negro question. The South understands it, and if left alone it will be settled rightly and justly in a Christian spirit. The natural friendship between whites and blacks of long standing (with no idea of social equality) is well known to those at all familiar with the subject. The best friends of the black race are the white race of the South. The future welfare and development of the former rests upon the absence of conflict between the two, and he who des- troys or lessens the amity so long existing between the two is not a friend of the black man, but an enemy, intentionally, or unintention- ally, to civilization. Let no American citizen who loves his country be a party to stimulating a war of race. " The question of negro suffrage was dealt with at the same meeting as follows by Mr. A. Caperton Braxton of Virginia: *'No white man believes in the Fifteenth Amendment, save as a theory to be applied to some other man's case. The loudest advocates of its appHcation to the South stood aghast when they met it face to face in the city of Washington, in the State of Califor- nia, and in our new insular possessions. It is wrong in principle; it is impossible of enforcement where the inferior race is numerous; it is demoralizing to the negro; it is corrupting to the white man; to abandon that ignorant and helpless race to their own devices and control would be the greatest cruelty; to set them up as rulers over the race that produced Washington and Lee would be a crime against nature and a sin against God ? "The Southern people entertain not the slightest animosity against the negro. They are, in fact, the best friends that he ever had. In this their acts speak louder than their words. In every- thing that pertains to his welfare as a man and a citizen, in his rights of life and liberty, in the acquisition of property and the pursuit of happiness, he has for thirty-five years enjoyed more in the South than he ever did elsewhere in all this world, since the morn- ing stars sang together. "His condition in the South to-day is far better, his opportuni- ties for moral and material improvement are far greater, than in any other country upon the face of the earth; and none of the rights guaranteed to him under the Fourteenth Amendment, as it was understood when adopted, are either denied or begrudged to him there. But, while all tnis is true, still in the South, just as every- where else in the world, white men are unalterably resolved that 368 The Problem of the Negro come what may, no black, red or yellow man shall ever rule over them or their children so long as time shall roll. This is the decree of nature, which no human statute can reverse. As well try to set up crows to rule in a nest of eagles, or jackals to make laws for lions. "Just as Washington and his fellow-patriots for eight long years fought to gain the independence of our country, so has the living race of Washington striven against disheartening obstacles, for thirty years and more, to preserve that independence for them- selves and their children, and to rescue their country from the brutal degeneracy of attempted negro domination. Thanks be to God, they also have been successful." An apt quotation bearing upon this same subject may be made from "The South," by A. K. McClure, a Northern journalist, whose study of the results of negro rule in the Southern States were of a most disenchanting character. He says: "The problem of negro seli-rule has not been solved, as the true solution must be the work of years of opportunity for growth in fitness for it, but it has been fairly tried in two portions of the Union since the war, and in both instances it has resulted in de- bauched leaders and demoralized followers, leaving the general condition of the race worse because of the experiment. To assume that the black man, who has been a slave in the South, and a menial in the North, and whose education was either positively inter- dicted or neglected, should prove himself proficient in self-rule, without aid or even sympathy from the mass of whites, is to judge him by a standard that would overthrow every principle of popular government; but a country that is struggling to solve the problem of universal suffrage, with great states subject to the numerical majority of ignorant and thriftless masses, must carefully study every recurring phase of the effort. In Washington City, where the negro was first enfranchised, the nation exhibited to the world the most corrupt, profligate, and demoralized government to be found in the Union, and the same political power that gave the ballot to the black men of the capital was compelled to revoke the elective franchise and save the credit and good name of Washington by making the negro voiceless in his own government. It was a sad necessity, and a sad confession of the failure of suffrage when exercised by race prejudice without intelligence; but the same RepubHcan statesmen who gave the right of self-rule to the black The Problem of the Negro 369 man in the capital of the nation, had to rescue the capital from destruction and shame by sweeping disfranchisement." The question before us is not one involving two races which are equal in mental capacity, the chief distinction between them being an industrial and educational one. The negro not only differs in color from the white, but he differs as greatly in mental capacity. It is no argument against this to adduce instances of negroes of marked intellectual powers. Among all races and in all times such prodigies have arisen, towering far above their kind. But in dealing with races, we cannot confine ourselves to selected individuals, but must consider them as wholes. And in any such broad view of the present instance, it would be sheer folly and bHndness to deny that the negro race is mentally inferior to the white. This is no subject for sentiment, but a plain matter of fact. The evident distinction is an educational one. For many years past the negroes have had facilities for education, excellent ones in many instances. The whites have done their best to foster and uplift them, and not without promising results. Eminent educators of their own race have done their part in the same useful work. Yet the results are not highly encouraging. While occasionally one may attain a fair level of scholarship, as a rule they stop short with a rudimentary education. This is not through lack of effort; it is chiefly through lack of ability. The negro when freed from slavery manifested an intense eagerness for education. As a slave he had long gazed with wonder and envy upon the supremacy and evident superiority of the whites, and seems to have come to the conclusion that the difference was due to education, and that the book would prove for him the "Open Sesame" to the great world of wealth and distinction that loomed so far above him. This trust in the magic influence of the book and the pen was shown in the pathetic earnestness with which the freed slaves sought to attain the arts of reading and writing. Their thirst for knowledge, while less pronounced than of old, still in some measure exists — but high scholarship rarely comes. The youthful student of African race is apt to display a marked brightness and alertness in the early days of his school career, and to give the im- pression that he is on the high-road to distinction. But this fair promise is soon nipped in the bud. All is well while his powers of memory and observation alone are called upon, but when the faculty of insight is demanded, when logical thought becomes necessary, 24 370 The Problem of the Negro his mind finds itself pushing against a stone wall. He has reached the upper level of his powers of intellect and can ascend no higher, while the more reflective white leaves him far in the rear. The reasoning faculty, while not fully denied him, is possessed in a much smaller measure than by the whites, and the higher elements of learning soar far beyond his reach. If we look on the white, intellec- tually, as having reached the age of maturity, we must consider the negro, in this respect, as still in childhood. TEACHING THE NEGRO USEFUL TRADES A corner in the Machine Shop, Tuskegee Institute. In fact there are many respects in which the negro is a child. The negro as a race we mean, for it is not easy to draw any rule to which there are not many individual exceptions. But looking upon the blacks as a whole we find them displaying various traits of character which belong to the childhood of mankind. Such a trait IS their widespread lack of prevision, of preparation for the morrow. To the genuine African there is no to-morrow. The world is a great to-day. He lives for the passing time. His only use for money is to spend and enjoy it, That want and suff'ering may The Problem of the Negro 37 ^ come when work and money are gone is too big a concept to enter his undeveloped intellect. That he was driven to beggary last winter, and is likely to suffer from cold and hunger in the coming winter, troubles him not a whit. The summer sun is shining, and the insects of summer are on the wing. Tell him that it v/ill not always be summer, and you waste your words. He will admit anything you wish, but the logic of economy touches only the surface of his mind and the love of present enjoyment is the ruHng power in his soul. He is happy as the lower animals are happy when they are well fed and the sun shines warmly. The happiest of men are they who take no thought for the future, but enjoy the passing moment as it flies. The happiest, but not the most thoughtful or the most progressive. It is largely absence of thought that gives rise to such a temperament, non-development of the reasoning faculty, the childish state of the mind. The negro happy! Listen to his hearty laugh on the slightest of occasions. There is no shadow of care in that, no reservation of dread of coming trouble such as broods so often over the white man's soul. It rings with the utter joy of the shadowless moment. Behold the untrammelled zest of his enjoyment of every festive hour — the dance, the song, the music of the banjo or the band. He is capable at an instant's notice of throwing all thought aside and becoming a human embodi- ment of purely animal enjoyment. It is true there are whites, numbers of them, of whom the same may be said, but men of this mental temperament form the minority among the whites; they form the majority among the blacks. Forethought, prevision, heedful- ness for the future, discounting of the demands of the present, are prevailing sentiments with the mature-minded white race; they rarely control the immature intellect of the black. There is a warm and noble instinct that may rise to a high level in the soul of the negro, that of affection. In the old days of slavery he often fairly worshiped the members of his master's family, and during the dark days of the war nothing shows out more brightly than the faithfulness and devotion of many of the slaves. Eager as he was for liberty — even when densely ignorant of what the word meant^he usually showed a strong sentiment of affection for his old master, and after the war, when many of the planters were reduced to poverty, their former slaves frequently clung to them, and were often ready to endure any privations for their benefit. We are told 372 The Problem of the Negro by the eloquent Southern orator, Henry M. Grady, that "History has no parallel to the faith kept by the negro in the South during the war. Often five hundred negroes to a single white man, and yet through these dusky throngs the women and children walked in safety and the unprotected homes rested in peace. A thousand torches would have disbanded every Southern army, but not one was lighted." These few words speak volumes for the relations of amity which existed between the whites and blacks before the war, and go far to prove that the stories of ill treatment of the slaves had to do only with local instances. In the annals of the manufac- turing industries of the North it is highly probable that examples of cruel treatment of the laboring class were much more common than on the plantations of the South, though it did not take the same form. The feeling which the blacks entertained toward their master's family was reciprocated, the relation between them being largely a patriarchal one, with much warm affection between the ruling and the serving races. A. K. McClure, from whose work on "The South" we have already quoted, says in regard to the sentiments of North and South in this particular: "The prejudice of race is five-fold stronger in the North than in the South. The Northern people have no love for the black man, and even those who battled for his freedom and enfranchisement, as a rule, cherish vastly more profound prejudice of race than do the Southern people. While the North maintains its deep prejudice of race, the people of the South have a general and strong sympathy for the negro. Nearly all of them have played with the negro in childhood, have been nursed by the black "mammy" and have grown up with more or less affection for them. Classify it in what type of affection you may, it is none the less an affection that tempers the hard, unyielding prejudice of race that prevails in the North." It is in many respects a pity that the patriarchal condition of Southern life has passed away. A pity, that is, so far as the senti- ment formerly existing between whites and blacks is concerned. The two classes are separating, and the domestic intimacy of their former relation has disappeared, certainly in many respects to the disadvantage of the blacks. There were two particulars in which they were benefited under the old conditions. They received a training in domestic service — in the kitchen, the laundry, the planta- tion workshop, the garden — which they no longer obtain, and they The Problem of the Negro 373 have distinctly retrograded in consequence. For instance, not many examples exist to-day of the famous old black cook of planta- tion times. She is a character that is not being reproduced. And they received a training in courtesy, which has Hkewise largely vanished. With their strong bent toward imitation, the domestic negroes of the past copied the manners of their masters and mis- tresses and of the younger members of the household, and acquired a degree of deference and politeness of manner which it is rare now to find. The intimate domestic relations which formerly existed between the two races has passed away, and with it has come a marked deterioration in this particular in the colored race. This is especially shown in the cities, where the blacks herd together, and lose much of that education in manner which they formerly instinc- tively absorbed. To return to what is above said about the undeveloped mental condition and the tendency to yield to emotional impulse in the negro, there is something to be added. We have spoken of the negro as an African, but at the present day this is largely a mis- nomer, the blacks in America having advanced far beyond the former status of their ancestors in Africa. If returned to their ancestral home to-day, a marked superiority in many respects would be shown by the American over the African black. Much has been said by emotional writers about the serious injury done to the negroes in bringing them from their native land and selling them into slavery. Yet, in great measure this applies only to the individuals thus dealt with, not to their descendants. These, as a whole, have derived a very great benefit from their life in America, and if transferred back to their original tribes to-day would be apt to feel severely the marked contrast between their two conditions. It would be like going many steps down the ladder of progress. While the negro in Africa has stood still in his pristine barbarism, the negro in America has made decided steps forward in the essentials of civilization. The slaves imported from Africa were valued and sold at an average price of $50.00 a head. Their counterparts could probably be bought in Africa to-day, if the trade were permitted, at one dollar a head. It looks like a most decided improvement in their character and condition to find them seUing in ante-war times for as much as $1000 a head. Indeed, from the financial standpoint slavery seems to have been greatly the opposite of an injury to the 374 The Problem of the Negro race. The slave was a piece of property for which his master had paid a good price, and certainly the planters must have been few who would do anything to reduce his value. We do not find the farmer willing to injure his horse or cow, and the slave-holders would, if merely from sordid motives, have been little likely to mal- treat a far more valuable laborer, — even if the tact that the laborer was a man like himself did not bring far higher motives into action. In fact the institution of slavery was a blessing, even if it be considered a blessing in disguise, to the blacks. Their association with the whites taught them a thousand useful things they would never have learned in their original country. It civilized and made Christians of them. It trained them in the arts and amenities of enlightened lands. It benefited them mentally as well as physically, and no greater injury could to-day be done to them than to transfer them back to the tribal conditions of their ancestors. And even granting that this advance was gained through a long period of servitude, it has lifted them to-day into the lofty position of free American citizenship, the highest position, we venture to assert, possessed by any people on the face of the globe. All that is above said holds good even if the privilege of voting be withheld from them until they show themselves capable of exer- cising it. It is certainly difficult to see what advantage there can be either to black or white in the permission to deposit a ballot in a box, while unable to read the name on the ballot, while densely ignorant of the principles of the party voted for, and while knowing nothing of the character and probable action of the candidate even if familiar with his name. The suffrage, under such conditions, is a pure mockery. As regards the right of being represented in the legislative councils of state or nation, what kind of a representation is it if the voter does not know what policy his candidate stands for, or what kind of legislation he is likely to support ? There is far too much voting of that sort already in our land, and to add to it by the votes of a vast group, millions in number, is to reduce the principle of representative government to the proportions of a farce. An intelligently cast vote is always welcome, no matter from whose hands it falls. Votes of this kind go to build up the stabihty of our nation. But the vote of the average negro is a very different thing, and its effect is distinctly injurious to the cause it is called upon to sustain and to the innate principle of republican institutions. The Problem of the Negro 375 The negro himself recognizes this. He has quietly subriiitted to the degree of disfranchisement which it has proved necessary to adopt. If he had understood the principles or apprehended the value of the suffrage would he have done so .? There is much reason to believe that the appeal of the suffrage to very many of the negro voters was of the character indicated in the following incident, AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION FOR THE NEGRO Drawing plants from the hot bed for transplanting on the farm, Tusltegee Institution. stated by a writer who asked a negro in his employ if he wished to go to the election. The darkey voter replied: "No, Boss; I cannot afford it. I am getting one dollar a day for my work, and I can't get but fifty cents for my vote. The fact is, Boss, if I can't get any more for my vote than I have been getting lately, I don't care if I never see another election. We used to get two and three dollars, and now, just think, I can get but half a dollar, No more elections for me, Boss, at that price. " 376 The Problem of the Negro Here was a fact which the negro was quick to learn, that his vote was an asset, something that had a cash value, and there is excellent reason to believe that this is all the value or significance it had for the great bulk of them. Is it surprising in view of all this, that several of the Southern states have felt it necessary to amend their constitution, so as to winnow out from the electorate the ignorant, debased and corrupt voters, limiting manhood suffrage to the intelligent classes ? Certainly many of the Northern states would be greatly benefited by a similar reform. The requirement that the voter should be able to read and write, or own a small amount of property, personal or real, is no hardship. The negro is satisfied with it. The complaints made about it came not from him, but from his sentimental friends. No one can say that it has worked an injury, while it has effectually removed a cause of active hostily between the whites and blacks. Nothing could have gone farther to solve the negro problem to which the acts of the reconstruc- tionists gave rise than the wise and limited restriction of the suffrage. If any one asks, how is the negro to be regenerated, the most pertinent answer that can be given is, by education. But the educa- tion here referred to is not that kind which many educators are unwisely and uselessly seeking to force upon him, but that kind which the foremost educator of his own race, Booker T. Washing- ton, has done so much to develop, industrial training. This, in the Tuskegee Institute, is not confined to the teaching of trades, but takes in also training in the amenities and decencies of life, the use of soap and the tooth-brush, the living in houses with separate rooms, the moralities of domestic existence, the value of economy, the habit of self restraint and intelligent provision and the other requisites of civilized society. The effort to make a scholar of the negro is sure to be attended with failure and disappointment. His mental capacity does not adapt him to more than a very limited range of scholarly education. This, of course, is not all-embracing . There are members of the race of expanded intellect and capable of advanced scholarship — - men usually with a considerable infusion of white blood in their viens. But these are the exceptions. The great mass of the race cannot be pushed far beyond the primary elements of education — reading, writing, a limited amount of arithmetic, and a minor sum of other The Problem of the Negro 377 studies. We cannot do better in this connection than to quote from a recent report by Mr. J. Y. Joyner, Superintendent of Public In- struction in North Carolina. He says: "In the South the sphere which the negro must fill is industrial and agricultural, and therefore his education must be largely agri- cultural and industrial. He must be educated to work, and not away from work. By directing his education into these channels we may be able to save him from idleness and the vices that follow in its train, and to make of him a potent factor in the industrial and agricultural development of the State, and a happier, more prosper- ous and useful citizen. "Have we not. . . .sadly erred in trying to force on the negro race, but one generation removed from bondage and ten generations from savagery, with essentially different racial traits and endow- ments, the same sort of education that our own race, with its different endowments and its thousand years of freedom and education, has been preparing itself for ?" Among the first to perceive the fact here alluded to was Booker T. Washington, one of the ablest men and advanced thinkers which our country holds among men of negro blood. Mr. Washington's story is a highly interesting one. Born a slave — a few years before the Civil War — he became in early boyhood filled with an intense thirst for knowledge, and after years of hard struggle with indigence, made his way on foot from the mining region of West Virginia to Hampton Institute, the pioneer establishment for the education of the negro upon common-sense grounds. At Hampton his dihgence, his eagerness, his intelligence and high sense of honor, gave him distinction, he won the affection and respect of his teachers, and when the request came for one capable of handling a normal school for negroes, to be established at Tuskegee, Alabama, young Washing- ton was selected as the best student in the institution for the place. At Tuskegee his progress was remarkable. Beginning in 1 88 1 in a weather-beaten shanty with thirty students, he has under his control to-day property valued at several hundred thousand dollars, includ- ing 2,267 acres of land upon which the students themselves have erected a large number of buildings. The students number over one thousand and the instructors nearly one hundred, while twenty- six different industries are taught, and every year young men and young women are sent out to inaugurate the Tuskegee system in 378 The Problem of the Negro other parts of the South. And for all this we must give Mr. Washington almost the sole credit. There is no man more hon- ored and esteemed to-day in the United States, North and South aUke, than this pioneer in the true field of progress of the negro race, and we cannot do better than quote some of his views. Probably the best exposition of them was in the address which he made at the opening of the Atlanta Exposition of 1895, before the directors of the Exposition and an immense audience, to whom he was introduced by Governor Bullock as "A representative of negro enterprise and negro civihzation." He said: "Ignorant and inexperienced, it is not strange that in the first year of our new life, we began at the top instead of at the bottom; that a seat in Congress or the State Legislature was more sought than real estate or industrial skill; that the political convention or stump speaking had more attractions than starting to do farm or truck gardening. "A ship lost at sea for several days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate vessel was suddenly seen a signal, 'Water, water, we die of thirst!' The answer from the friendly vessel at once came back, 'Cast down your bucket where you are.' A second time the signal, 'Water, water; send us water!' ran up from the distressed vessel, and was answered, 'Cast down your bucket where you are." And a third and fourth signal for water was answered 'Cast down your bucket where you are.' The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River. To those of my race who depend upon bettering their condition in a foreign land, or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbor, I would say, 'Cast down your bucket where you are.' Cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded. " Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domestic service, and in the professions. "And in this connection it is well to bear in mind that, what- ever other sins the South may be called to bear, when it comes to business, pure and simple, it is in the South that the negro is given a man's chance in the commercial world, and in nothing is this Exposition more eloquent than in emphasizing this chance. Our The Problem of the Negro 379 greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the production of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labor, and put brains and skill into the common occupations of life; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaws of life and the useful. No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top. "To those of the white man who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habit for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted I would repeat what I say to my own race, 'Cast down your bucket where you are.' Cast it down among the eight millions of negroes, whose habits you know, whose fidehty and love you have tested in days when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your firesides. Cast down your bucket among the people who have, without strikes and labor wars, tilled your fields, cleared your forests, builded your railroads and cities, and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, and helped to make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the South. Casting down your bucket among my people, helping and encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds, and to educa- tion of head, hand and heart, you will find that they will buy your surplus land, make blossom the waste places in your fields, and run your factories. "While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as in the past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, law-abiding and unresentful people that the world has seen. As we have proved our loyalty to you in the past in nursing your children, watching by the sick-bed of your mothers and fathers, and often following them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, so in the future, in our humble way, we shall stand by you with a devotion which no foreigner can approach, ready to lay down our lives, if need be, in defense of yours, interlacing our industrial, commercial, civil and religious life with yours in a way that shall make the interests of both races one. In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to material progress. 380 The Problem of the Negro "The wisest among my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equaUty is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all the privileges that will come to us must be the result of severe and constant struggle, rather than of artificial forcing. No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized. It is important and right that all the privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of these privileges. The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is worth infinitely more than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera- house." We have given the bulk of this address from the fact of its remarkably favorable reception. The speaker was highly congratu- lated by Governor Bullock and many others of note in the audience, and the press of North and South afike published it with highly complimentary remarks. Said Mr. Clark Howell, editor of the Atlanta ''Constitution," "Booker T. Washington's address was one of the most notable both as to its character and to the warmth of its reception, ever delivered to a Southern audience. The address was a revelation. The whole speech is a platform upon which whites and blacks can stand with full justice to each other." As regards the negro question as it stands to-day, we cannot do better than to quote from the words of a recent writer: "There is but one solution to the so called negro problem. Let it alone. Let it severely alone. Every interference from the outside but comphcates the problem of the South, and, indeed there would be no problem but for this interference. Booker Washington knows this to be true, and his poHcy is to make useful citizens of the negroes by teaching them how to work. He knows that without the moral support of the Southern people his mission is bound to prove a failure. Let the negroes alone. The Southern people, of all the white races, value their services most highly. Self-interest alone, if no other consideration presented itself, would prompt the South- ern people to treat the negroes with justice and give them opportuni- ties in life, but they will never submit to have their property virtu- ally confiscated by putting the ballot in the hands of the negroes. The horrors of reconstruction made a more enduring impression on the Southern mind and heart than all the hardships and dangers of the battlefield. The Problem of the Negro 381 "The South to-day is by far the most peaceful, law-abiding and industrious portion of the United States. Where there is one male- factor there are ten thousand quiet, energetic citizens pursuing their daily vocations and increasing their fortunes. The negroes of the South, let it be confessed, are doing their part to advance its prosperity. Their work on the cotton, tobacco, rice and sugar plantations is one of the greatest factors in the world's progress. Let the South stand by the negro in everything short of social equal- ity and the abuse of the ballot." Clark Howell, above quoted, says further in regard to this subject: "As for the negro, he is being treated more fairly in the South to-day than in any other part of the Union. The best people of both races understand each other. If there is a problem, it will work itself out in God's own way, and in His appointed time. The result cannot be forced. To attempt to do it is to lose all the progress that has been made, to hinder instead of to help the negro, to make it harder for those in the South who do understand him and his conditions, to help the race in its effort at practical elevation." At the negro industrial conference held at Tuskegee in Febru- ary, 1903, the following pertinent resolutions were adopted: "We believe that our progress centers largely around the ac- quiring of land, homes, the exercise of economy, thrift, the payment of taxes, and thorough education of head, hand and heart to the end that we constantly grow more fit for all duties of citizens. "Since the greater portion of us are engaged in agriculture, we urge the importance of stock and poultry raising, the teaching of agriculture in the country schools, the thorough cultivation of a small acreage rather than poor cultivation of a large one, attention to farm work in winter, the getting rid of the crop mortgage system, and the habit of living in houses with but one room. "We urge better schools in the country districts, more protection to life and property, better homes for tenants, and that home life in the country be made more attractive, all this mostly with a view of keeping our people out of the large cities in such great numbers. " In connection with better schools and churches, we emphasize the need of careful attention to the moral character of our ministers and teachers, and all others acting in the capacity of leaders. "Prosperity and peace are dependent upon friendly relations 3^2 Xhe Problem of the Negro between the races, and to this end we urge a spirit of manly forbear- ance and mutual interest." In conclusion we quote the following pertinent remarks from Senator McEnery of Louisiana: "Property in large holdings will in time be divided. When the large plantations in the South are divided into small farms owned by white men, and the negro is employed as a farm hand, there will then commence the better formation of his character in the recogni- tion of his industrial worth and his personahty. He will become a better and more intelligent and useful citizen, and can on his own responsibility exercise the privilege of voting. There will be a gteater incentive for him to improve when he becomes the owner of land and consults with his white neighbors on all matters pertaining to his farm, to roads and the well being of the neighborhood, in the suppression of the smaller crimes to which the shiftless of his race are addicted. If the negro in the South is left alone, if he is not deluded with false promises, if he is not forced into places where he has no business, he will get along with his white neighbor without friction and work out untrammeled his salvation. This would be the best pohcy to pursue toward him with our present knowledge of his capacity, his racial characteristics and history. ' In concluding this chapter it may be well to refer to the suffrage requirements of the Southern States, which are by many supposed to discriminate against the negro voter. The fact is, no such legal discrimination exists except in the case of Louisiana. There is an educational qualification in the suffrage law of South Carolina and Mississippi, but this applies to all alike, as in the similiar laws of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Virginia gives the voting privilege to all who have served in the army or navy of the United States or the Confederate States; but as any one can vote who, six months before the election, has paid poll tax for the three preceding years, this privilege can scarcely be looked upon as a discrimination against any citizen. In Louisiana all can vote who can read and write, or who have ^300 worth of property assessed in their names — also all whose fathers or grandfathers were entitled to vote on January 6, 1867. This Is the famous "grandfather clause," about which so much has been said. As probably most of the whites affected by it can read and write, and could therefore vote in any case, the special privilege it grants is of small importance. CHAPTER XXL KING COTTON THE SNOWY MONARCH OF SOUTHERN INDUSTRY Cotton is king — Beginning of cotton culture — The seed and its annoyance — The cotton gin invented — Its wonderful effect — Varieties of plant cultivated — Life on the plantation — The fascination of the business — The negro laborer in Mississippi — A home-coming procession — The seed an item of value — Great yield of cotton-seed oil — Other by-products — Cotton cultivation — Ginning and pressing — Fluctuations in cotton growing — Increase in consumption — The cotton mill in the South — Rapid progress in Southern manufacture. THAT "Cotton is King" was an article of faith long held by political economists in the United States, and certainly not without ample warrant, for the snowy fibre of the South reigned supreme for many years among the industrial products of this country. And cotton was King in a fuller sense even than this, for it brought the great manufacturing nations of Europe into subjection to the cotton planter, their people being largely dependent upon him for labor and the necessities of life. A great white monarch was King Cotton, sitting high enthroned among the rulers of the world, but never tyrant nor oppressor, rather one of those beneficent lords of mankind whom the world kneels down to bless. The reign of King Cotton began near the end of the eighteenth century and extended throughout the nineteenth, though as the latter approached its close other rulers rose to dispute the throne, chief among them King Corn, King Iron and King Coal, though none of them succeeded in dethroning him. The story of the culture of cotton in the United States is a highly interesting one. It began as a snow storm is apt to begin, with a few scattered flakes, which give little promise of the great coming fall. The first event to attract our attention in the American cotton culture dates from 1784. In that year William Rathbone, an American merchant in 383 384 Cotton the Snowy Monarch Liverpool, received from a Southern dealer a consignment of eight bags of cotton, weighing about 1200 pounds. On its arrival at Liverpool the custom-house officers laid hands'of violence upon this stranger, declaring that it could not possibly have been grown in the United States, and that its importation in a foreign vessel was a breach of the laws. It took some trouble to convince the doubt- ing officials that it was truly of United States and not of West India growth, and even after that it lay long unsold, the spinners being afraid to deal with this untried material. This was not very encouraging to the planters, and years passed before much was done in handling the new field crop. Up to 1792 the annual exportation reached only 138,324 lbs. But there was then a great spring upwards, and by 1900 it had reached the large total of nearly 18,000,000 lbs. Tht reason for this immense increase it is easy to understand. The great difficulty in the early cotton culture had been to get the hard, bean-like seeds out of the fluffy masses of white fibre in which they lay closely concealed. This was work for the slaves, for it had to be done by hand, and it took a good workman a full day to prepare a pound of the fibre for mar- ket. Unless some cheaper and faster method than this could be found cotton was likely never to prove a profitable crop for American growers. The way out of the difficulty was found by a Yankee inventor named EH Whitney, who had gone south to teach in a Georgia family. The widow of General Greene, who Hved in Savannah, became his friend, and discovering that he was very clever in mechanical devices, she and some of her planter friends induced the young man to try his hand upon a machine for taking the seed out of the cotton in a more rapid way than by aid of the fingers. Whitney knew nothing about cotton picking, but he was alert and ingenious, and it was not long before he had produced a machine that did the work admirably well. A workman could clean more cotton in a day by the use of this instrument than he could have done in many months by hand. The ''cotton gin," as it was called, has been much improved since Whitney's day, but its principle remains the same as when it left his hands in 1793. It consists essentially of a hopper of which one side is formed of strong parallel wires, with a set of circular saws behind them whose teeth project between the wires. When the cotton is fed into the machine, the sharp Cotton the Snowy Monarch 385 saw-teeth catch the lint, tear it off from the seeds, and drag it through the wires, while the seeds, which are too large to pass through the openings, sHde down to the bottom of the hopper. A revolving brush sweeps the lint from the saws as they turn and leaves them clean to continue their work. A slave who could clean only a pound of cotton a day by hand, could prepare a thousand pounds by this machine. Whitney had the ill-fortune of many inventors. The story of his remarkable success got abroad, and before his model was ready THE COTTON GIN, INVENTED IN 1793 A machine which does the work of more than 1,000 men. for the patent-office his workshop was broken open and the model stolen. The thieves who abstracted the gin made money from it, but all that the inventor ever received was fifty thousand dollars voted him by the legislature of South Carolina. Truly he might justly have changed the Scriptural phrase, "the way of the trans- gressor is hard," to "the way of the inventor is hard." The effect of Whitney's invention upon the cotton culture was extraordinary. Thousands of acres of Southern land, which lay waste as unsuited for the production of indigo, rice, or tobacco, were planted in cotton, and before the end of the century the prod- 25 3^6 Cotton the Snowy Monarch uct had increased nearly a hundred fold. In the year before the Civil War it had grown to the enormous total of over two billion pounds, or about four milHon bales, and since then has again much more than doubled in amount. A curious story is told in this connection. In 1794, the year in which Whitney's invention was patented, the crop had so increased that 3200 bales, of 500 lbs. each, were sent abroad. This seemingly immense production so frightened the farmers that they pledged themselves to abandon cotton culture. One of them, looking at his year's crop, exclaimed; "I have done with the cultivation of cotton; there is enough in that gin-house to make stockings for all the people in America." Little did he dream that within a century the cotton crop would be 3000 times as great, and that the world, like Oliver Twist, would still be calling out for "more." There are in all nearly twenty varieties of the cotton plant (Gossypiutn), but only two of these are cultivated in the United States. One of these is the Sea Island cotton (G. Barbadense), which demands the saHne ingredients of the coast soil, and is grown upon the islands and sea-coast of South Carolina and Georgia, in Florida, and on the coast lands of Texas. This pro- duces a fibre valuable for its length and silky texture. It is used in the finest work for laces, fine musHns, spool cotton, etc., but its yield is unimportant in quantity. The other variety, from which the great commercial crop of the country is obtained, is the woolly-seed cotton (G. hirsntum), which is grown in all the remaining portion of the cotton states, and yields an immense annual crop. The cotton fibre, which yields material for clothing for much the larger part of the human race, is the wing of the seed, intended, by nature to convey it to a distance through the aid of the wind, but found by man adapted to very different uses. Before the seed boll ripens and bursts, the fibre is represented by a cell containing watery sap, which wraps itself in many folds around the seed. In ripening the sap dries out, and the fibre flattens and takes the form of a twisted ribbon, something like a twined shaving. It becomes elastic, bursts the boll, and protrudes in readiness to be caught and blown out by the wind, carrying the seed with it. It is the twisted character of the fibre which gives cotton its great value, the fibres adhering closely to each other in consequence of their convolutions. It is easy to twist the cotton fibres by aid of the fingers so as to form Cotton the Snowy Monarch 387 a strong cord of any desired length. All other fibres require mechan- ical or chemical treatment before this can be done. There is no state of the South, with the exception of Maryland, in which cotton is not grown, but the product of Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri is very small, and the great bulk of the crop comes from the ten remaining States — Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas being decidedly in the lead. In 1900-01, for instance, these four States yielded nearly 7,000,000 out of the total of 10,425,000 bales. In 1904-05 however, South Carolina and Louisiana came strongly into the field, with more than 1,000,000 bales each. In the year mentioned Texas had a yield of 3,235,000 bales, nearly one- fourth of the total great product of that year, which reached the vast total of 13,557,000 bales, the greatest crop to that time produced. This superiority of Texas is, of course, a result of its much greater acreage. For many years Mississippi was well in advance in product, and to-day, if worked to its full capacity, could probably yield a total equal to the whole product of the Southern states. For of the acreage adapted to cotton in the states indicated, only a small percentage has been brought under cultivation for that crop, the remainder being otherwise usefully employed. The great fertile district extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Panhandle of Texas, from the curving boundary lines of the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana to the Rio Grande River, has been called the Land of Cotton. The most beau- tiful, as well as the most typical, plantations are those in the valleys of the Red and the Mississippi Rivers, where the soil is a rich red loam, easily cultivated as well as productive and responsive. The climate is mild and salubrious, and all natural conditions are favor- able to the cultivation of the cotton plant. In all its stages of growth it is the most interesting of those plants that fall under the class commonly designated as "useful." Its very seed is a mystery of the life principle, for that small, woolly, rusty little cocoon con- ceals the warp and woof of the great proportion of humanity's covering. After lying all winter in neglected heaps about the old gins and barns, the seeds are tossed into the moist earth, and soon the three-leaved plants appear, running in long straight rows for miles across the fields of bottom-land. The blossom, appearing as a pink bud, becomes white petaled, filling the land with a rare fragrance. All the while the process of cultivation goes on, the 3^8 Cotton the Snowy Monarch dark-faced laborers plowing, thinning, hoe'ng, and weeding. It is a leisurely work which suits the indolent nature of the negro, the ordained cultivator of cotton. During the summer drouth the green stalks turn brown, and the leaves fall away, giving place to the cooped boll with its contents of snow. Soon these bolls burst, and out comes the fine dry fabric. "Cotton-pickin' time" begins, the merriest, jolliest, "flushest" season the darkies ever know. With good natured hardihood they desert their town homes, for it doesn't pay to tend horses, run errands, nurse and cook while the vast fields of cotton stretching beyond invite their nimble fingers, and promise pay for actual number of pounds picked. Some of these plantations are small colonies in themselves. Their boundaries include many miles square of prairie and timber lands. Upon each is the store for general merchandise, a post- office, church, and school house, besides the mill, gin, press, com- press, and warehouses. There are the renters' houses, the "hands' " cabins, each with its truck patch and pig pen, the owner's house, stables, barns, and carriage houses. There are an ice-house, a dairy, an apple-house and smoke house, and buildings innumerable. Fruit orchards and vineyards, hammocks and rustic seats, all contribute to make the life of the Southerners as enviable as possible. About these old plantations fingers the atmosphere of ante- bellum grandee life. Things are done on a large scale. Suppfies are laid in by the barrel and hogshead, and produce is planted and garnered accordingly. Yet everything is subservient to King Cotton, who fills the measure of the hearts and expectations of his subjects. Year after year, and crop after crop, bring no great profits to the owner. He does not seem to take into consideration the diff'erence between the former times, when he owned both labor and product, and the present condition with its divided interest, daily wages, inequafity of labor, and decreasing capabilities, which have warped the conditions of the industry since the war. Paid labor is not equal in many ways to slave labor, for the slaves worked for the interest of their masters. As many as five hundred slaves often grew up to- gether on one plantation. They knew but one home and one occupation. Their first toddhng steps were between the rows of young cotton, and they learned to sing the cotton-field songs as soon as they could talk. Their wants were few; their knowledge of Cotton the Snowy Monarch 389 life and its possibilities was bounded by the blue rim of the horizon which set on their master's plantation. Now they are a set of shiftless nomads, wearying of the new broom of their spasmodic energies at one plantation, and moving on to a fitful spell of work at another. This in a great measure accounts for the uncertainties. Em- ployer and employee have no longer a mutual interest. As for white cotton hands, they do not pay. The hot seasons are too intense for them and the returns too precarious. Yet the Southerner clings to his cotton fields, for the business possesses a peculiar fascination alike to planter and worker. There are the green fields in the spring-time; the blossom fields in the summer; the brown fields of early autumn; and the snow fields of harvest-time. There are the pickers in wagon- loads and tramping crowds, weary and care-free. They sing all day as they fill their baskets, joking and depreciating each other's skill as they wait about the weigher's stand at night for their weights and pay, and singing again to the merry tinkle of the banjo, as they lounge about their cabin doors before bedtime. There are the gins with their creaking machinery and snow-drifting lint room; presses with the ties and bagging, roUing out great bales, which are crowded into a sixth of their original size by the mighty elbows of the com- presses. Then there are the wagons, loaded bale upon bale, jogging along the road, the happy tenant driving, wife and children perched upon the bales, "goin' to trade." There are visions of cotton ex- changes, where gambling in futures runs high, and millions change hands every day; of huge vessels at the seaport and long freight cars in the inland, laden and groaning with the precious freight. Edward King, in "The Great South," gives us some interesting information about the status of negro labor on the great Mississippi plantations about 1875 — conditions which in some respects remain unchanged. He says: "Under the slave regime, the negroes working a arge plantation were all quartered at night in a kind of central group of huts, known as the 'quarters;' but it has been found an excellent idea to divide up the hundred or five hundred laborers among a number of these Httle villages, each located on the section of the plantation which they have leased. By this process-, commonly known as 'segregation of quarters,' many desirable results have been accomplished; the negro has been encouraged to devote some attention to his home, and been 390 Cotton the Snowy Monarch hindered from the vices engendered by excessive crowding. On some plantations one may find a dozen squads, each working on a different plan, the planters, or land owners, hoping in this way to find out which system will be most advantageous to themselves and most binding on the negro. "Clairmont, a plantation of three thousand acres, of which one thousand are now cultivated, on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi river, opposite to Natchez, is cut up into lots of one hundred acres each, and on each division are ten laborers who have leased the land in various ways. It was amusing, by the way, to note the calculation that one negro made when negotiating for one of these tracts. He was to be allowed one-half, but was vociferous for one- tenth. As ten is more than two, he supposed a tenth to be more than a half. On this Clairmont, in i860, the owner raised 1,000 bales of cotton and 8,000 bushels of corn; now he raises about 500 bales, and hardly any corn. "Still, the conduct of the laborers is encouraging. The Httle villages springing up here and there on the broad acres have a ten- dency to localize the negroes, who have heretofore been very much inclined to rove about, and each man is allowed to have half an acre of ground for his garden. The supplies spoken of as furnished the negroes are of the rudest description — pork, meal and molasses — all brought hundreds, nay, thousands of miles, when every one of the laborers could, with a little care, grow enough to feed himself and his family. " But the negro throughout the cptton belt takes little thought for the morrow. He works lazily, although, in some places, pretty steadily. In others he takes a day here and there out of the week A COTTON LEVEE Thousands of bales of cotton awaiting shipment at New Orleans. Cotton the Snowy Monarch 391 in such a manner as to render him almost useless. The planter always feels that the negro is irresponsible and must be taken care of. If he settles on a small tract of land of his own, as so many thousand do now-a-days, he becomes almost a cumberer of the ground, caring for nothing save a living, and raising only a bale of cotton or so wherewith to get 'supphes.' For the rest he can fish and hunt. He doesn't care to become a scientific farmer. Thrift has no charms for him. He has never been educated to care for himself; how should he suddenly leap forth, a new man, into the changed order of things ? "Nevertheless, some of the planters along the river near Natchez say: 'Give the negro his due. The merchant will ordinarily stand a better chance of collecting all his advance from fifty small black planters than from fifty whites of the same class, when the crop is successful.' But if the negro's crop fails, he feels very loath to pay up, although he may have the means. He seems to think the debt has become outlawed. In success he is generally certain to pay his store account, which is varied and comprehends a history of his progress during the year. " From the overseer's conversation I learned that cotton-picking is done quite as thoroughly under the system of free labor as in the days when slave-driving was permissible; but that the 'niggers' require constant watching. On many plantations where the yield is abundant, it is difficult to concentrate labor enough at the proper time to get the cotton into the gin-house the same year that it is planted. I have seen cotton fields still white with their creamy fleeces late in December, because the negroes were either too lazy or too busily engaged in their annual merry-makings to gather the harvest. But on the large lowland plantations along the Mississippi the crop is usually gathered early, and the picking is very thorough. I could not discover that there was any system of 'forced labor' now in use, and I thought the overseer's statement, that a 'good field- hand now-a-days would pick 250 pounds of cotton daily,' was excellent testimony in favor of free labor. He added, however, that on many plantations the average hands would not pick -4Tiore than 100 pounds per day. "The laborers were coming in from the field in a long pictu- resque procession. As it was spring-time many oi them had been ploughing, and were mounted upon the backs of the stout mules 392 Cotton the Snowy Monarch which had been their companions all day. Some of the men were singing rude songs, others were shouting boisterously and scuffling as they went their way along the broad pathway bordered by giant cypresses and noble oaks. The boys tumbling and wriggling in the grass perpetually exploded into guffaws of contagious laughter. Many of the men were tall and finely formed. They had an intelli- gent look, and were evidently not so degraded as those born on the Louisiana lowlands. The overseer sat on the veranda of his house, now and then calling out a sharp command or a cau- tion, the negroes looking up obsequiously and touching their hats as they heard his voice. When the mules were stabled the men came lounging back to the cabins, where the women were pre- paring their homely supper, and an hour afterward we heard the tinkle of banjos, the pattering of feet and uproarious laughter. The interiors of the negro cabins were of the rudest descrip- tion. The wretched huts in which the workmen live seem to them quite com- fortable, however. I saw no one who appeared discontented with his surroundings. Few of these laborers could read at all. Even those who had some knowledge of the alphabet did not seem to be improving it." Cotton, as ordinarily considered, has a single significance only, that relating to the Hnt or fibre, which ranks among the world's most useful and valuable agricultural products. Yet in the economy of nature this fibre is of secondary importance, a mere side-issue as compared with the seed, the leading purpose in the fife of the plant. And of late years the seed has acquired a commercial value as well, as the source of immense quantities of valuable oil, which have gone far to take the place in cuHnary and table use of the favorite olive oil. COTTON PICKING IN ALABAMA Cotton the Snowy Monarch 393 This utility of the seed has been developed within the past thirty years. Formerly nearly the only use made of the seed was to return it to the soil as a fertilizer. For a century before efforts had been made from time to time to extract the oil profitably from the seed. In 1833 a large factory for the production of cotton-seed oil was established at Natchez, and others elsewhere m the South. But they did not prove a success and the business languished for years. It was not until 1855 that the machine necessary to success was invented. This is known as Knapp's decorticating machine, which separates the hulls from the kernels of the seeds, leaving the latter to be crushed for oil. After the Civil War, the new process came gradually into use, there being by 1885 about 100 mills in steady operation through the cotton belt. This number has since been greatly mcreased and the production of cotton-seed oil has grown into a very important industry. Estimating the cotton crop at 10,000,000 bales, the yield of seed, after saving the necessary seed for planting, would be about 4,000,000 tons. This, if it were all manufactured into oil, meal cake and other products, should yield a value of about $125,000,000. The crushed seeds yield, on a commercial scale, twelve to eighteen per cent, of crude oil, of a dark reddish-brown color. This, when refined, yields eighty to eighty-five per cent, of a clear, limpid, light-yellow oil, without perceptible odor, and resembling the best olive-oil in flavor. It is largely used as a substitute for linseed, sperm, lard, almond, and olive oils, and in cooking as a substitute for lard or butter. It is said that it constitutes nine-tenths of the salad oil used in the United States. The oil is only one of the useful products of the seed. The "cake," which remains after pressing out the oil, is largely used as fodder for cattle. It is especially rich in nutritious matter and causes them to fatten rapidly and to produce very rich milk. A fine Hnt which cHngs to the seeds is removed by extra ginning, and makes an excellent paper. The hulls are burned as fuel, and the residue left after clarifying the oil is employed in soap making. Even this is not all. The stalks yield a fibre which is considered equal to jute m the manufacture of gunny and similar cloths. Thus the whole cotton plant is to-day utiHzed. These by-products are of such value that in many places in the South the cake and the hulls pay for the seed and the expense of 394 Cotton the Snowy Monarch grinding, leaving the oil as clear profit. The planter even finds it profitable to haul his seed to the mill and haul back in payment the cake and the hulls, leaving the oil as toll to the crusher. As may be seen from the above statement, the cotton crop is of immense importance in the domestic economy of the United States, and especially of its Southern section. The plant which yields this white treasure of the Southland is a very dehcate one, and cannot be grown profitably except in a soil and climate adapted to its de- mands. It needs a country blessed with long, warm summers, and nowhere on the earth does it find itself more fully at home than in the states of the Gulf region and the Southern Atlantic slope. It is cultivated in many countries, and in much the same manner, but nowhere so skilfully and under such a perfect system as in our fertile American soil. The cotton plant is not an annual, strictly speaking, yet it is found to yield better by destroying the old stems every year, after the gathering of the crop, and sowing new seed for the next year's growth. The winter is the season of preparation. The ground is thoroughly plowed and, after the season of frost is surely over, is laid in rows from three to four feet wide, according to the quality of the soil. In the centre of these the seed is sown in straight furrows, or, as in some plantations, in holes from a foot to a foot and a half apart. This work begins in March and is continued through April, or into May if frosts come late. About eight or ten days after planting the young shoot peeps above the ground, and the work of cultivating begins, weeding and thinning being dihgently attended to. Early in June the time of blooming arrives, the fields now presenting a broad and showy display of yellow flowers at times verging to a purple tint. During this early life of the plant a warm steamy sort of weather, moisture in the soil from frequent rains, a hot sun and Httle wind, are best fitted for its development. But after the flowers have fallen warm dry weather is essential to arrest the growth of the stem and develop the boll. The picking time begins in August — occasionally in July — and continues till the frosts of late October or early November put an end to the growth of the plant. During this season all the hands of the plantation, young and old alike, find abundant occupa- tion in gatherign the fleecy bolls. With bags or baskets suspended from their sho- lers they rapidly pick the ripe heads, which are Cotton the Snowy Monarch 395 then spread out to dry preliminary to being given over to the saw- teeth of the gins. It may be said here that the Sea-Island cotton is much more easily cleaned than the upland variety. In this the hard smooth seeds do not cling strongly to the Unt, as in the upland THE SPINNING ROOM OF A COTTON MILL Most of the children work in the spinning room tying threads together when they break, crop, and it is only necessary to pass the cotton through tv^o small rollers w^hich revolve in opposite directions and easily loosen and throw off the seeds. The modern methods of preparing the cotton product for market 396 Cotton the Snowy Monarch are of interest, as compared with those of early date. The primi- tive saw gin was operated by hand and of necessity was exceed- ingly hmited in capacity. The first very substantial advancement, resulting from years of research, was the horse-power attachment for ginning and baling, which yielded the old fashioned cotton gin- nery and screw. The motive power for this ginnery consisted of two, four or more horses or mules. The cotton was hauled in wagons to the gin-house, unloaded by hand into bins, carried again by hand to a platform, and thence fed by hand into the gin. By the old fashioned ginnery and screw the lint cotton was blown by a brush from the saw gin into a Hnt room, where it was often allowed to accumulate, awaiting a rainy day or other opportune occasion for baling. It was then conveyed in baskets or sheets to the single press box of the old "wooden screw," which was located some 30 or 40 feet from the gin-house. There it was dumped into the box and trampled by foot until a sufficient quantity was inclosed to make a bale, the heaviest negroes on the plantation being chosen to do the pressing. By means of a horse at the lever or wing of the press the follow block, upon which the screw was pivoted, was forced down or up, as the case might be, until the desired bale density was attained. Jute bagging was generally used as a wrapping, and the shape of the bale was preserved, at first by the use of rope, and later by means of iron bands, called "ties." A few of these "landmarks" are yet found throughout the country. It is scarcely necessary to say that this old method of handling cotton at the gin was exceedingly laborious, wasteful, and unhealthful, and that nothing but cheap labor and high prices for the staple allowed it to continue as long as it did. Much time, labor, and money have been expended in efforts to combine ginning and baling plants, to the end that greater speed might be gained, labor economized, and other desired reforms attained in handling seed cotton. The outcome is automatic ginneries, practically doing away with labor, and yielding from five to ten times as much lint cotton per day as was possible by the earfier processes. Many inventions have been made to increase the compactness of pressing the fibre into bales. Of these there are only two in practi- cal operation, the Bessonette or Round Lap system and the Lowry system. In the first the cotton is wound round a cone under a gradually increasing pressure, the bale produced being round instead Cotton the Snowy Monarch 397 of square as in the old system, and with a density of 35 pounds per cubic foot instead of 22.5 pounds as in the old square bale. The Lowry is also a round bale system, working on a different principle, and yielding a density of about 45 pounds per cubic foot. These bales are 18 inches in diameter and 36 inches long, and average only 250 pounds "n weight instead of 500 pounds as in the old system. The fluctuations in the growth of cotton in the different states is a matter of interest. In 1800, when the industry was in its infancy, cotton culture was confined to five states. South Carolina producing nearly the total, followed in succession by Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. In 1820 South Carolina and Georgia produced about half the crop, and Alabama, Mississippi and Louisi- ana had entered the field. In 1840 Mississippi had taken the lead, and in i860 was far in advance, with Alabama and Louisiana follow- ing. Arkansas and Texas now appeared as large growers. In 1880 Mississippi regained her advantage, though closely pressed by Georgia, while Texas had advanced nearly to the same level. In the years that followed Texas took the lead and advanced with remarkable rapidity, until in 1900, of the total product of 10,425,000 bales, Texas stood for 3,550,000, or more than one-third of the whole, while Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi were close together, with something over 1,000,000 bales each. Texas, indeed, is the marvel of the cotton belt. No other state rivals it in its rapid growth. Yet nearly 90 per cent, of its great product in 1900 was grown in 75 of its 246 counties, and not more than a third of the area adapted to cotton was under cultivation. This great state, therefore, is readily capable of yielding 10,000,000 bales. Where does all the vast weight of cotton go, and for what is it used ^ Mr. J. L. Watkins, of the Census Bureau, gives us some useful information on this point: "Since 1870 the increased consumption on the Continent, in the United States, and in India has been enormous. It has also been very large in Great Britain, though much less than in the United States and Germany. Indeed, the United States is now the largest cotton-consuming country in the world, having in 1898 taken the lead from Great Britain, which had held the supremacy in the cotton industry for over a century. Undoubtedly this expansion could never have taken place (outside of India) except for the contin- ually increasing crops of the Southern States. We are supply- 398 Cotton the Snowy Monarch ing the world with more than 85 per cent of the cotton it manufac- tures into clothing, and Mr. Ellison declared some years ago, when our crops were very much smaller than now, that the cotton crops of the United States provide the raw material for more than half the calico used by the entire human race, from which he inferred that there was a great deal more nakedness in the world prior to the development of the cotton industry in the South than there is at the present time. Mr. Wu Ting-fang, the recent Chinese minister to this country, in an interview stated that until within the past few years his people made all the material for their own shirts, but, owing to the cleverness of American manufacturers, China was being supplied with shirt stuffs superior to its own. Consequently, these goods have crowded out those of China, and not only do the well-to-do, but the poor also, wear American shirtings, and no matter how far you travel into the interior, you will see natives, who never laid eyes on a for- eigner, clad in shirting from the United States." As concerns our trade in raw cotton, the most surprising develop- ment has taken place in the Far East. In 1870 we did not ship a pound of cotton to that part of the world, but since then Japan has made such progress in cotton manufacture that in 1900 it drew on the fields of the South to the extent of over 323,000 bales. East India and China have also come into the market for this product of the American soil. Mr. Watkins further remarks that "The consumption of cotton has increased so greatly within the past quarter of a century that there would appear to be no limit to its future possibiHties, It is estimated that of the world's population of 1,500,000,000, about 500,000,000 regularly wear clothes, about 750,000,000, are partially clothed, and 250,000,000 habitually go almost naked, and that to clothe the entire population of the world would require 42,000,000 bales of 500 pounds each. It therefore seems more than likely that the cotton industry will go on expanding until the whole of the inhabited earth is clothed with the products of its looms. This is not an unreasonable conclusion when we consider the fact that cotton is the cheapest material for clothing known to man. In the meantime it may come to pass that the world's area suitable for cotton culture may have to be seriously reckoned with, just as was. the case during the Civil War." During this war every effort was made by the English spinners Cotton the Snowy Monarch 399 to foster the growth of cotton in Egypt, India, and other parts of the world, and with some success, in consequence of the high prices then ruHng, but when the war ended and prices fell back to their old level, the effort to compete with the fields of our Southern states proved a failure, Egypt alone increasing her supply. As a result, the cotton spinners of the world are more than ever dependent upon the planters of the United States for their raw material. We have now another story to tell, of great interest in this con- nection, namely, that one of the important facts in the industrial growth of the United States is the development of the cotton mill on its soil, and one of the leading facts in the recent history of the South is the extraordinary growth of cotton manufacture in that section of the great republic. The cotton mill has at length made its way to the place where the cotton is grown, and it has evidently come there to stay. The manufacture of cotton goods began in America in a small way about the beginning of the nineteenth century. Its progress was slow and it was long confined to New England and the Middle States. As the years went on American competition began to make itself more and more severely felt by the spinners of Great Britain, until in 1898, for the first time in its history, we find the mills of the United States consuming more cotton than those of the mother land. In 1901-02 the United States left Great Britain in the rear to the extent of 800,000 bales. But meanwhile a new fact in the history of cotton-weaving had appeared. The competition which had long existed between the Old World and the New, now made itself felt between the North and the South, and the spinners of New England saw with growing alarm their great industry beginning to slip out of their hands and into those of the enterprising sons of the South. This is a fact of such far-reaching importance that we must give it some extended attention. We cannot do better than to quote from Edward Stan- wood's contribution to the census reports on the subject of cotton manufacture. "Speaking broadly, the cotton manufacturing industry did not exist in the South before the Civil War, and it existed only on the most restricted scale before 1880. There are now single establish- ments in Massachusetts which pay annually a larger sum in wages than the entire cost of labor in Southern cotton mills in 1880. The 400 Cotton the Snowy Monarch mills were small, equipped with antiquated machinery, engaged in spmning the coarsest numbers only, and in producing from cotton grown in the neighborhood the stout fabrics used for clothing by the negroes. It is probably not an exaggeration to say that prior to 1880 there was not a mill south of the latitude of Washinp-ton that O would be classed as an efficient modern cotton factory, even accord- ing to the standard of that time. Before the Civil War the people of the South were almost exclusively engaged in agricultural pursuits. The ruling classes looked with disfavor upon manufactures and discouraged the introduc- tion of the industrial arts save as they were neces- sary to meet local wants. "After the war closed it was some years before people had recovered sufficiently from the dis- aster to undertake manu- facturing. There had been attempts in the direction of cotton spin- ning and weaving before 1880, but the cotton ex- position in Atlanta, in ^„ 1 88 1, gave the industry THE WARP ROOM IN A COTTON MILL . ' ^ 1 • 1 • i an impetus which it has never since lost. The possibiHties of the region were shown when the governor of Georgia appeared at the fair dressed in a suit of clothes made of cottonade manufactured on the grounds irom cotton which had been picked from the stalk on the morning of the same day, in the sight of the visitors to the fair. That the local product of cotton could be worked up into finished cloth without transportation to a distant manufacturing town, together with the fact that the region had abundance of unem- ployed labor of a class similar to that which in the early days operated the mills of Waltham, Lowell, and Manchester, brought before the people the vision of a new source of individual and pubHc wealth to which they had previously been blind. "Once the opportunity had been presented to them the chance Cotton the Snowy Monarch 4^^ was eagerly seized, and all who were able to do so contributed to make the new enterprise successful. The press urged it upon those who had capital to invest, hailed joyfully every manufacturing proj- ect, and made much of every successful establishment. Municipal aid was given in the shape of exemption from taxation for a term of years. The railroads favored the scheme by arranging their freight schedules so as to encourage Southern manufacturers. The factories first established under the new regime showed large profits, and thus attracted more capital to the new industry. The advantage of the Southern country for cotton manufacturing began to attract attention in the North; and in many cases corporations already established increased their capital and built new mills in the South Atlantic states. "The earliest Southern enterprises were not in all cases begun as first-class establishments. Some of them were equipped with discarded machinery from Northern mills. But the manufacturers quickly learned the lesson that there is no industry in which profits are more directly proportioned to the perfection and speed of the machinery than in the spinning and weaving of cotton; and the old spindles and looms were speedily replaced with others of the newest pattern. A great proportion of the mills built and started within late years have been thoroughly up to date in all respects. In fact some improvements in mill construction are to be found in that section which are not yet introduced in the manufacturing regions of the North. Thus the first factory operated wholly by electricity, without shafting or belts, was located in the South. By the use of electrical power it is possible to place the mill on high ground at a suitable distance from mill race and water wheel, and thus to secure accessibility, the health of operatives, and other benefits which could not be enjoyed when it was necessary to put the foundations of the mill below the foot of the waterfall. "For the most part the product of Southern mills has been coarse or medium goods, as is usually the case in the early stages of the industry. But not a few mills have been constructed to make yarns of the higher medium numbers and cloth which approaches the lower limit of those classed as fine. A considerable part of the product of the region is exported. The industry is now important enough in the four states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama to consume nearly one-third of the crop of cotton 26 402 Cotton the Snowy Monarch grown in those states; and both North Carolina and South Carolina spin more than half the cotton grown within their Hmits. It is also becoming of importance in the other cotton states." We have here a highly encouraging exhibit of the present con- dition of cotton manufacture in the South. When we consider that it is still in its infanc}^, and take into account the advantages of weaving the fibre in the immediate vicinity of the fields in which it is grown, we can readily see a brilliant promise for the future growth of this new Southern industry, and its probable disastrous effect on the cotton mills of the North. There are other elements in the problem, it is true, and it is never wise to predict, but that the South will remain an active and able competitor in this industry is already assured. CHAPTER XXII. THE PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE OF THE FARMING INDUSTRY IN THE SOUTH The South a land of many products — A glimpse at its products — An economic regula- tion — The negro as a farm holder — Corn and tobacco — The story of rice culture — Rice in Louisiana and Texas — The Louisiana sugar — The peanut crop — What the South has done and can do — Phosphates — Fruit and vegetable raising — The peach of the South — The melon and strawberry — The Florida orange and pineapple — Cattle raising in Texas — The blue grass region of Kentucky and its thoroughbred horses — The blooded stock of Tennessee — Secretary Wilson on Southern agriculture. THE sentiment has long been entertained that the South is preeminently a land of cotton, upon which barely enough food is grown to feed the laborers in the cotton field. This sentiment was long a true one, at least as regarded the more souther- ly range of states. And it is true in a measure to-day, for more land is devoted to cotton than ever and the vast yield of more than 10,000, 000 bales is yearly harvested. But it must be borne in mind that the South is imperial in its dimensions, and quite capable, while supply- ing the world with cotton, of producing a superabundance of the other treasures of the field. Certainly it is no longer solely a land of cotton. It is as well a land of corn, a land of cattle, a land of forests, a land of tobacco, a land of fruits and flowers, a land brim- ming with possibilities, and capable of feeding the population of the Union without taking an acre from the area of the cotton fields. There have been vast and radical changes in Southern agricul- ture since the end of the era of slavery. The old plantation, vast in extent, peopled by great colonies of negroes, consisting mainly of cotton and corn fields and virgin forest, has ceased to exist. The land has been broken up into farms of much smaller dimensions, diversified agriculture has been introduced, and the art of farming 403 404 Farming Industry in the South in its fullest sense is rapidly making its way. We cannot present the case better than in the words of Mr. B. F. Clayton, of Indianola, Iowa, a gentleman of Southern birth, and a member of the National Farmers' Congress, held at Macon, Georgia, in 1902. He says in reply to a letter from the editor of the Southern Farm Magazine: "I take pleasure in responding to your request as to the South being an agricultural field. In doing so I Vv^ould prefer to treat it as the Old and the New South. The Old South was almost exclusively agricultural. Kentucky and Tennessee furnished its cotton belt with mules, horses and the principal part of the provisions prior to the development of the great Northwest. In the South cotton was considered 'King,' and was the great staple crop. "Conscientiously believing in the divine right of slavery, upon that institution was erected a magnificent aristocracy that became a social and political factor that dominated this government for the first eighty-five years of its existence. It was slave labor that leveled the forest, plowed the ground, and planted the seed, and the rich, new soil responded with tremendous crops. There was no continent or island of the sea that could compete with the South in its product. The world's price was practically fixed by the Southern planters, and they grew immensely wealthy from the cotton crop raised by slave labor. They had no time and less inclination to develop diversified farming. Why should they .? There was nothing that could take the place of the cotton plant as a money-maker. Manu- facturing and industrial pursuits in general were neglected, and everything was swallowed up in the mad passion for more cotton. Under this old regime the white population know but little of mechanism and of other industrial pursuits. Manual labor was degrading; the white laborer was considered the 'mudsill of society;' labor was not held in that high regard with which it is met in this age. While it might become a serious problem for the planter inheriting a large slave property to keep the wolf from the door of his home and his slave quarters, yet he seldom failed to maintain the character of a Southern gentleman and to dispense that elegant hospitahty that belongs to no continent or people to the extent practiced by the people in the 'Land of Dixie.' "As the result of the Civil War, slavery, the foundation of this social and poUtical splendor, was swept away in a conflict fought to the bitter end. Thus ended the 'Old South. ' Farming Industry in the South 405 "When the Confederate soldier returned to his home he was confronted with desperate conditions and with new problems. Much of his property had been destroyed or confiscated during the ravages of war. Devastation and black despair covered his fair Southland. Socially, politically and financially he was a bankrupt. His environment would have discouraged a less energetic and pro- gressive people. The New South had to be organized in the face of difficulties seldom met with in the world's history. The enfran- chisement of the black race made them the lawful equal of the former master, without the sHghtest comprehension of the duties of a free- man. In the very nature of things the black could have no know- ledge of the duties and the responsibilities of citizenship. The greatest problem was to teach him how to care for himself, and that citizenship and freedom meant that he must earn his bread by the sweat of his brow; that prosperity came through industry, economy and frugaHty. "The restoration of peace found the Southern farmer a financial wreck, flat on his back, not knowing how or where to begin. Accept- ing the conditions before him, and steeling himself to his environ- ment, he rose and began anew the battle of life. Having faith in his fair land, he reorganized the South. In doing so he seized upon every natural resource. He started on a new road of diversified farming. Agriculture, horticulture and stockraising, all the diversi- fied blending of these industries, became his occupation. All kinds of vegetables and fruits were planted, and step by step he began again. He digs in the forgotten gold mines of North Carolina; he utilizes the forests of Georgia ; he goes down into the earth and brings up the iron ore of Alabama; he forces the earth to yield up its coal, by which he warms his people and fires the furnace of the factory; he starts the music of the trip-hammerand the spindle of the factory, whose smoke darkens every sky; he raises cotton and wool, and manufactures it into cloth for the use of his own people; he presses the cotton-seed, and its product brings to him enormous wealth; he sells the hulls, and it makes splendid fodder; he furnishes New York with the first melons of the season at fabulous prices, and Boston with its fruits, from which he reahzes ^loo per acre plus the cost of production; he starts North with his early vegetables and small fruits, and brings home milHons of dollars, while his family is conducting a successful family dairy on pea vines." 4o6 Farming Industry in the South We have here an inteUigent and just review of the situation. It cannot indeed be said that the problem has been fully solved. It is not the work of a day or a year to revolutionize the economic conditions of a great community. But such a revolution is in rapid process of accomplishment. Diversified agriculture, the restoration of the worn-out lands by fertihzation, the use of modern farm imple- ments, intelUgent attention to the demands of soil, cHmate and markets, all these are making their way with rapidity and promise, — many of the intelligent blacks aiding the whites in the work of regeneration, — and as a result of this enterprise and well-directed industry the South sees before it an assured prosperity for the future. The progress thus brightly indicated is not so absolutely depen- dent upon negro labor as many assume. "If the negro should ever abandon the Southern corn, cotton, rice, and sugar fields — and this is conceivable to some extent should the number and the pestif- erous activity of his false prophets increase — the Southern white man would succeed him. It is a mistake to suppose that white men cannot do field work under the suns of South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Southern Texas. Millions of white men, either natives of the South or acclimated immigrants from the North, are sowing, plowing and harvesting there to day, and what is more they enjoy excellent health and make good livings out of their industry. More than three-fifths of the cotton crop is planted, cultivated, and gathered by white labor. The Acadians of Louisiana can raise corn and rice quite as well as their colored brethren. They will keep the negro as long as they can, but should his false advisers lure him away in search of city life and political office, they will turn to white laborers — and Americans at that — as the best alternative. But the need of such a condition of affairs as this is certainly not probable in the near future." In fact, the statistics of the census of 1900 lead us to a very different conclusion, in their statements regarding the number of negroes who are engaged in farming in their own account, either as owners or tenants of farms. The progress in this direction has been immense since the era of emancipation, and it is certainly a matter of interest to find that in several of the States more than half the farms are in negro hands. Thus in Louisiana 50 per cent, in South Carolina 55 per cent, and in Mississippi 58 per cent of the farms are estimated to be held by men of the negro race. Negro Farming Industry in the South 407 land-holding is indicated in Alabama to the extent of 42 per cent, of the farms, and in several other States the colored holders range from a third to a fourth of the whole number. But the above statement does not accurately indicate the true situation, as the farms held by negroes are on an average much smaller than those of the whites. Their product also is at a lower level, indicating much less in- dustry or intelHgence in their labor. But taken as a whole, the showing here given is a very suggestive one as to the economical future of the negro race. The development of the negro as an independent land-holder is no doubt due in considerable measure to the industrial education of the colored race, which has been so actively and wisely pursued in the Tuskegee and similar institutions, and adds to the strength of the growing conviction that the true advancement of the race in the future must be largely dependent upon education of this character. Cotton, as above said, is holding its own in the South in spite of the new diversity of agriculture. So are the other great staples of the past, tobacco, sugar, rice, and corn. Corn, the great American grain, whose annual yield vastly exceeds that of all the other grains combined, has for centuries been the great food staple of the South. It is the one grain native to America, and to-day fully three-fourths of the total maize product of the world is grown in the United States. Of the 2,100,000,000 bushels harvested in 1900 more than one-third was produced in the Southern States, and was probably consumed there as an article of food in a much larger proportion than elsewhere. The famous "hog and hommy" have long been the favorite food staple of the negroes of the South. Another great crop of the South is tobacco, a plant of native American origin which has proved as useful for the solace of man- kind as maize has for his sustenance. Since the days when it was first planted by John Rolfe in Virginia, and was used as money and exchanged by the early immigrants for wives, it has been one of the chief products of Southern fields, at least of those north of the cotton belt. From the first it has been an article of export, and continues so to this day, though the world's supply now comes from many locahties beyond the Hmits of the South, ahke in the Northern States and in distant lands and isles. Yet despite this extension, tobacco continues a great staple of Southern industry, replacing cotton m those states to which the white fibre is ill-adapted, such as Kentucky 4o8 Farming Industry in the South and Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. Virginia, upon whose soil the culture of tobacco began, remained the leading tobacco grower till 1870, when Kentucky came to the front as the greatest producer of the "weed." By 1900 Kentucky had forged enormously ahead of all others, its crops amounting to 314,288,050 pounds, or 36.2 per cent of the total yield of the United States. At a later date than Kentucky, North CaroHna also forged ahead of the "Old Dominion," and in 1900 had a showing of 127,503,400 pounds, as compared with Virginia's output of 122,884,900 pounds. f^ f. tC »-'-'TgaSj|BiAgi AN OLD-TIME FORM OF THE TOBACCO FACTORY Tennessee stood in 1900 fourth in the Southern rank, with a yield of 49,157,500 pounds, these four States yielded 70 per cent of the total production of the country. The growth of tobacco has increased enormously in the United States since 1850, when the yield was about one-fourth its present amount, and the demand for it grows with its growth. Of two products of the United States confined in this country to the South, rice and cane-sugar, the former is among the early agricultural experiments of the country. This highly valuable grain, Farming Industry in the South 409 little as it is eaten in the North Temperate Zone, forms the favorite provender of the tropics, and serves as the principal foo.d supply of one-half the human race, no other cereal being nearly so widely used. In 1693, as v^e have elsewhere stated, the Governor of South Carolina was given a small bag of rice by the captain of a vessel from Madagascar, who put into the port of Charleston. This the gover- nor planted as an experiment, and found it to grow so luxuriantly that its culture soon began on an extensive scale, a large population settling about Charleston and engaging in this new industry. Rice is a plant that demands an abundance of water. There is, it is true, an upland rice grown in some tropical lands, but the American growth is mainly of the lowland variety, and to it the swamp regions of the Carolina and Georgia coast lands proved excellently adapted. The introduction of cotton did not check the rice culture in the Carolinas, and it continued to be grown in large quantities to the period of the Civil War. For nearly two centuries after the introduction of rice South Carolina and Georgia were the chief growers. For fifteen years prior to 1861 the annual production of rice in North CaroHna, South Carolina, and Georgia averaged more than 105,000,000 pounds of cleaned rice. Of this South Carolina produced more than three-fourths. But the industry in these states was wrecked by the war, and changed labor conditions, lack of necessary capital, and other causes had since prevented its full restoration. From 1866 to 1880, inclusive, the annual production of the three States averaged a little less than 41,000,000 pounds, of which South Carolina pro- duced more than one-half. Since 1880 their average annual produc- tion has been, in round numbers, 46,000,000 pounds of cleaned rice, of which North CaroHna produced 5,500,000, South Carolina 27,000,000, and Georgia 13,500,000 pounds. Coincident with the breaking out of the civil war began the development of the rice industry in Louisiana. For a number of years the product was small, but during the seventies the industry began to assume large proportions, averaging nearly 30,000,000 pounds annually for the decade and exceeding 51,000,000 pounds in 1880. In 1885 the production of Louisiana reached 100,000,000 pounds, and in 1892 182,000,000 pounds; but these were years of exceptionally large crops. The average crop of the state since 1880 has been, in round numbers, 86,000,000 pounds of cleaned rice. 4IO Farming Industry in the South The great development of the rice industry in Louisiana since 1884 has resulted from the opening up of a prairie region in the southwestern part of the state, and the development of a system of irrigation and culture which made possible the use of harvesting machinery similar to that used in the wheat fields of the Northwest, thereby greatly lessening the cost of production. In 1896, however, a new difficulty began to be heavily felt. The varieties of rice which yielded best and were otherwise most satisfactory from a cultural standpoint under the new system, proved inferior commercially A modern building replacing the factory represented on page 408, and showing the remarkable progress made in this industry within recent years. because the percentage of grains broken in the process of milling was very large, and the proportion of "head rice," made up of the unbroken grains, was low. As the Japanese rices possess superior milling quaUties, yielding a high percentage of head rice, it was desirable that they should be experimented with in this country, and with this idea in view the Department of Agriculture, in the spring of 1899, imported from Japan about ten tons of Kiushu rice, which was distributed to experimenters in southwestern Louisiana, and else- where in the rice belt. This proved so successful that more than 100 tons of the seed rice were imported in 1900. Farming Industry in the South 411 The rice area soon spread from Louisiana into the lowlands of Southwestern Texas, which proved equally adapted to it. The land suited to the culture was the great Southern prairie which extends along the coast for about 140 miles from the parish of St. Mary in Louisiana to the Texas line and in Texas extends over a similar belt of prairies, stretching from the Saline River for a hundred miles or more along the coast. Large farms have been opened here, which produce this cereal abundantly, and during the decade ending in 1900 these two States increased their rice area to such an extent that they now produce nearly three-fourths of all the rice grown in the country. Irrigation is effected partly by the use of canals and partly from artesian wells, it having been found that south-western Louisiana yields artesian water in great abundance. Upland rice is grown to some small extent, but the chief attention is given to the lowland variety. The present production of rice in the United States, nearly 400,000,000 pounds, supplies only about one-half the consumption, there being as much imported as grown. In view of this demand the outlook for the further extension of the industry in this country is very promising. According to the best estimates there are about 10,000,000 acres of land in the five States bordering the Gulf of Mexico well suited to rice cultivation. The amount which maybe successfully irrigated by present methods, using the available surface and artesian flows, does not exceed 3,000,000 acres. The balance of the land could probably be brought into cultivation were it neces- sary, but the cost would, perhaps, be prohibitive at present prices. Three million acres is a conservative estimate of the area which can be successfully irrigated. The best results require rotation of crops; consequently only one-half of that amount, or 1,500,000 acres, would be in rice at any one time. At an average yield of 10 barrels (of 162 pounds) per acre, 1,500,000 acres of rice would produce nearly 2,500,000,000 pounds of cleaned rice, about six times the amount of our present production. There is no satis- factory reason why the United States should not grow all the rice it needs and become an exporter of this useful cereal. The other special product named, that of cane sugar, has been almost wholly confined to Louisiana. The first cane seed was sent thither in 1751 by the Jesuits of Hispaniola, and planted and culti- vated by the Jesuits of New Orleans, There was little success in its 412 Farming Industry in the South culture until after 1800, and the crop rarely exceeded 100,000 hogs- heads until after 1840, while the highest amount produced before the Civil War was 459,000 hogsheads in 1861. At the end of the war the industry had practically vanished, and its subsequent restoration was very gradual. The Louisiana cane-fields are on the northern edge of the region of possible culture, and the occasional inroad of frost rendered the industry a precarious one, in view of the sharp competition of the cheaply made Cuban sugar, and the rapidly increasing crop of beet sugar. The Louisiana sugar industry took a start upward when the troubles in Cuba from 1869 to 1879 largely cut off the importations from that island, and the United States government fostered the culture in this country by a system of bounties. These remained in force until 1894, in which year Louis- iana gave us 600,000,000 pounds of sugar, on which a bounty of ^10,000,000 was paid. In 1901-02 the output was about 800,000,000 pounds and it still remains at nearly this figure. There is another crop which, Hke cotton, sugar and rice, is confined to the South, or practically so, at least, 99 per cent of it being grown there. It, therefore, while of no great economic importance, is worthy of mention from the fact stated. This is the peanut crop. These nuts are grown in nearly every state of the South and yield an annual total of about 12,000,000 bushels. While not precisely nuts, being the product of a pod like the bean, they have a nut-like flavor, and are very popular from their cheapness and pleasant taste. They yield a very sweet oil, and are grown to some extent for its production. We have dealt here with the principal farm crops which are peculiar to the South, and with tobacco and corn, which have also a large growth in the North. It may be of interest at this point to introduce a few figures. In the twenty years from 1880 to 1900 the population of the South increased 44 per cent. In the same period the value of the farms of the South increased from nearly ^2,300,000,- 000 to nearly ^4,000,000,000, while the value of their products nearly doubled. Of the leading grains, the value of the annual crop in 1900 was, corn, ^233,445,552; wheat, $47,432,730; oats, $15,764,739. In wheat and oats the South fell far below the total product of the country, and the only other farm product in which it reached a high percentage was sweet potatoes, valued at $16,706,- 635, being 84 per cent of the total United States yields. Farming Industry in the South 413 These figures make it evident that the South has scarcely given a hint of its capabihties in agriculture, even as far as general food crops are concerned. It has not touched its hmits as to crops pecuharly its own, and it has vast opportunities in crops with which it has comparatively made only a beginning, such as barley, rye, buckwheat, broom-corn, sugar-beets, grapes, nuts and nursery products, to say nothing of additional tropical plants. It dominates in cotton growing, tobacco raising and rice culture, and it has demon- strated its ability to raise practically every crop that may be grown in this country. In the phosphate beds of South Carolina, Florida and some other states the South has a great promise of future agricultural prosperity. This is pointed out by Col. J. P. KiUigrew, in a letter to the Manu- facturer s Record. He says: "The phosphate discoveries of the South are the marvels of science. There are three distinct fields, each one representing a diflFerent geological formation. The quantity is practically inex- haustible for a century to come. The influence of this industry upon Southern agriculture is far-reaching and is destined to be permanent. It will make a great deal of land valuable that is now valueless; it will transform many an old gullied field into fields of profit; it will multiply and diversify all the crops now grown in the Southern States; it will enable the farmers to put their crops into market at an earlier date. Already many experiments have been made with the acid phosphate upon the wheat fields of Tennessee, with the result that many old farms where four or five bushels of wheat per acre were formerly produced are now making twenty to twenty-five. It is safe to estimate that by the appHcation of 200 to 250 pounds of acid phosphate to the acre upon wheat fields, taking a series of years, the yield will be increased 50 per cent. It is hard to estimate how great will be the increased value of farms when these phosphates are manufactured and used as they should be by the wheat-growers of the Southern States. In my opinion, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Georgia, North Alabama, North Mississippi and Arkansas are des- tined to become, through the influence of these phosphates, one of the most productive wheat areas in the world. It will not be a sur- prise to me if the census of 1910 does not show the production of wheat for the State of Tennessee to equal that of the best wheat- growing States in the Northwest. I have seen so many instances of 414 Farming Industry in the South the excellent results derived by the application of these fertilizers that I cannot doubt the final result upon the wheat crops of the Middle South. Again, the tobacco interests will be largely in- creased through the same agency." In addition to the large farm and plantation crops, the Southern agriculturist has found it greatly to his advantage of recent years to devote much attention to what we may designate as orchard and garden crops, the fruits and vegetables to which the soil and climate of the South are so admirably adapted and for which there is a large and growing market in the North and West. It is not that the latter sections cannot grow for themselves these toothsome products of the soil in abundance, but that they ripen so much earlier under the warm spring suns of the South as to lengthen their season from weeks to months, while the rapid and plentiful railroad service enables the Southern grower to lay the ripe fruits of his orchard and the palatable produce of his fields at the door of his Northern customer in full perfection and in all its freshness of odor and flavor. And in addition to the table plants common to the whole land, are those tropical growths which only the South can yield, the orange, the pineapple, and other juicy fruits, which can be laid down in Northern markets almost as cheaply as they are sold in the cities near which they are grown. Fruit raising as a vocation was hardly known in the South until after the Civil War. It would have been beneath the dignity of the " fine old Southern gentleman " to part with his orchard delicacies for money. The best his land could produce belonged always to his family, his friends, and the chance stranger within his gates. But when the civil strife was over, and his occupation gone, he wisely turned to the products of the rich soil for his livelihood, and to-day we find an abundance of our best and most prohfic fruits grown in the South, being largely raised for early Northern markets. Fruit growers remember the wave of fruit culture which, be- ginning in Delaware, swept southward, through Maryland, Vir- ginia, the Carolinas, and all the states warmed by the Gulf Stream. Prominent among the fruits thus cultivated is the peach, which, be- ginning with Georgia, ripens in succession northwardly, until by the time it is ready for sale from the orchards of the Middle States the market has for several months been fully suppHed with the juicy peach of the South. Of the states devoted to the peach Georgia Farming Industry in the South 415 stands in the first rank. Georgia, indeed, from the mountains to the sea, is an ideal orchard state. Fruits of all kinds thrive and flourish there, but supreme among them is the peach, a fruit which for its beauty of color, its dehcious scent, its nectar-Hke flavor, is amply worthy the verses of the poet. Some twenty or fifteen years ago this favorite of the Southern orchard began to make its way into Northern markets, and year by year the shipments have in- creased and the peach fields widened, until to- day Georgia has become the greatest peach-grow- ing stare in the Union. In 1896 its crop amounted to 6,500,000 baskets, and . this splendid yield has since been largely in- creased. The peach belt, beginning about forty miles below Atlanta, ex- tends to Fort Valley and Columbus, a distance of 150 miles in length by from ten to thirty miles in width. Here there are millions of peach trees, while the growth of this most luscious of the fruits of the temperate zone has spread to many other parts of the South. The pear, while not finding so large a market in the North, is grown to a considerable extent in the South. While Cahfornia produces more pears than any other state, and the California pear has no rival in the regard in which it is popularly held, the Southern states, particularly Texas, have experimented with the fruit and produced fine varieties. The objection to planting pear-trees com- monly made, that one must wait so long for any returns, is met by the fact that the demand for fine pears, as for all high-class native fruit, is constantly increasing. A large capital is not necessary to A PINEAPPLE PLANTATION, AT PALM BEACH, FLORIDA The pineapple industry is a recent addition to the splendid agricultural wealth of Florida. 4i6 Farming Industry in the South insure success in this branch of the fruit industry. The grower needs only to avail himself of the experiences of others in regard to the best soil, best methods of producing, and best varieties for cultivation. Among other fruits which seek an early Northern market the melon deserves a prominent place. It is grown in vast abundance in the Gulf States, and while largely consumed at home, especially by the darkey, to whom a ripe and jucy watermelon is a foretaste of celestial bliss, hundreds of train loads are sent north every year, taken from the fields and deHvered in Northern cities while still crisp, fresh, and sweet. And here we must speak of the strawberry, that quintessence of fragrance and delicate flavor, so long a favorite dessert dish of the epicure. In past times the coming and going of the strawberry season, limited to local sections, was confined within two or three weeks of time, but now the fresh fruit may be enjoyed from mid-winter to mid-summer. Months before the vines of the North begin to show the deep red of the ripe berry, the Southern grower is gathering his perfected crop and consigning great quantities of it to the cars, to be borne at express speed to all the expectant cities lying to the northward. In the Gulf States the picking begins very early in the season, and thence creeps slowly up through the Carolinas and Virginia during April and May, to reach the profuse orchards of Maryland in early June. In these later days no one can well say when the strawberry crop begins, while it ends in such a profusion of other fruits that its outgoing is scarcely perceptible. Such is a glimpse of the multitude of toothsome delicacies with which the South now regales the North. We have said nothing here of the early vegetables, — peas, cabbages, onions, potatoes, etc. — which make their way northward long before their season of ripening comes in northern fields. As regards the tropical and semi-tropical fruits, which Florida in especial provides in such luscious plenitude, some words of commendation may be said. It is scarely fair to speak of Florida distmctively as the "land of flowers," in view of the fact that the whole lower South is a glowing garden of bloom, but it may justly be called the "home of the orange," California being its only rival state in the growth of this delicious product of tropic suns. The orange is not native to this continent. We owe its intro- duction to the Spanish cavahers. But it has taken root and grown I Farming Industry in the South 417 abundantly, and with a sweetness of juice and delicacy of flavor which are very rarely equaled elsewhere. The finest fruit in the world grows and ripens on the banks of the Indian River, in Florida. Here, basking in the warm Gulf Stream breezes, the trees bear globes of swelling sweetness as large as croquet balls, deep and rich in color, thin-skinned, bursting full of delicious juice and flavored as if for a feast of the gods. ORANGE GROVE, SOUTH JAC CSONVILLE, FLORIDA A prolific home of the "Golden Apples" of the present day. While the orange has long been grown in Florida, its culture as a profitable industry is a recent one. The fruit was first raised in this country for market by Dr. Clayton Cargill, of Delaware, in 1865. Soon after this Mrs. Harriet BeecherStowe, visiting the region in Florida, wrote glowing letters on the possibilities for orange cul- ture. Since then the trackless pine woods have been largely convert- 27 4i8 Farming Industry in the South ed into orange bowers, beautiful to look upon, delightful to the senses,and profitable to the owner. There are many millions of dollars now invested in orange groves in Florida, and the yearly return is great. Fifty varieties are yielded by the tall, graceful, shining-leaved trees in that state alone, and fully 10,000 square miles are adapted to the production of the bridal blossom and the favorite fruit. The orange does not stand alone. Its near relative, the grape fruit, is grown in Florida and elsewhere in the Gulf region, as also the larger but less palatable shaddock. And in addition the lemon, lime, fig, guava, pineapple, banana and other fruits of tropic origin are cultivated. Pineapple culture in this country is of recent origin, dating back to 1879, the largest plantation in Florida being that oP Thomas E. Richards, the pioneer in this industry. It is a fruit crop that seems capable of large extension and profitable returns. While the orange requires seven or eight years to become fruit bearing, the pineapple plant will bear a full crop within a year and a half after setting, and a cheapening of this dehcious fruit must lead to a much greater demand. This rapid review of the progress of market gardening in the South has been necessarily sketchy in character, but we hope it may prove suggestive. We have said nothing for instance, of the culture of the grape, of which some of the finest American varieties are native to the South, and which is grown everywhere in profusion, alike for the fruit itself, and for the delicious wine which is made from its juice. We allude to it here in passing, but the merits of the Southern grape are worthy of a large space devoted to its praise. In conclusion of this section of our subject it must suffice to say that the shipments of fruits and early vegetables annually made from the South now reach a value of about ^50,000,000, and this is in rapid process of increase. Norfolk alone ships northward about ^8,000,000 worth of these profitable crops, to which the farmers of that vicinity now pay much attention. Farther South, through the Carolinas to Florida, the rate of progress in this direction has been great, millions of dollars being drawn to the foot-hill and mountain sections for such products as apples, cabbages, potatoes and other hardy crops, and to the lowlands for fruits and finer vegetables. In the coastal plain of Texas also the cultivation of orchard fruits and kitchen garden vegetables has made a promising advance. The mention of Texas brings us to another highly important Farming Industry in the South 4^9 product of the farms and plantations of the South, that of live stock, to which this state in particular has been so largely devoted. For many years past the vast cattle-ranches of Texas have been subjects for the verse of the poet and the enthusiastic descriptions of the traveler. An undulating and forestless table-land, clothed with nutritious grasses, cattle-raising is its most natural industry, and millions of cattle and sheep feed over its vast plains. Two-thirds of the immense area of the state are pastoral, and a vast domain is fed over by enormous herds and flocks, many of the ranches being leagues in length. In former times the cattle of Texas were of the crude Mexican variety, and were allowed to wander in primitive fashion over enormous districts whence they were driven annually to the North in great herds to be fattened for market. All this is a thing of the past. The area of settlement is spreading out rapidly over the former wilderness, and restricting the lawless freedom of the cattle- men. The owners have found it profitable to improve the breed of their cattle, by the introduction of blooded stock, and to "ripen" them on their own pastures, this enables them to ship direct from Texan ports and to handle their own meats and hides. In cattle- raising Texas ranks first in the United States, and is almost without a rival in its number of sheep, horses, mules and swine, while its annual wool clip reaches a great total. Throughout the whole South, indeed, live-stock is raised in great abundance, there being an extensive area of pasture lands for cattle and of woodland suitable to swine. As regards the horse, we must seek the Blue-Grass region of Kentucky and Tennessee for the locality of its noblest development. Nowhere else in the world are there such pastures. The grass is a soft-folded and fine-textured green — not blue in any visible sense — and covers the pastures in spring and autumn like a matted moss. It is remarkably hardy, pushing up even through the snow of winter, and affording a year- round pasturage. It is supposed that the hard limestone water of the region aids in the strength of development of the bones of the animals grown here, not alone the horses, but the thoroughbred cattle, Coltswold and Southdown sheep, and Berkshire hogs. In fact, the improvement of the breeds of domestic animals has been for many years carefully sought for by Kentucky farmers, and with very encouraging success. The Blue-Grass region is famous for the raising of blooded stock of all kinds and in particular for its 430 Farming Industry in the South thoroughbred trotting horses, which have no superiors in the world. These splendid animals add to the endurance of their Anglo-Vir- ginian ancestors the quaHties of speed derived from fine imported stock, and combine in a remarkable degree fleetness of foot and staying power. There are no finer horses in the world, and the whole country looks to Kentucky for its racing stock, for which high prices are paid. Horses indeed are sent from here to various countries of the old world, and to Australia and New Zealand in the South Seas, their reputation having become world-wide. From an early date in the history of Kentucky the horses of the Lexington district were esteemed, races being run here regularly as early as 1787. In 1809 the Lexington Jocky Club was formed, and in 1826 the Kentucky Association, to whose efi^orts the speed and beauty of the modern Kentucky racer are largely due. Fayette County, in which Lexington is seated, is almost wholly devoted to stock raising. The Blue-Grass region is one of great rural beauty and charms, with the graceful folds of its undulating surface, the soft shades of its woodland pastures, its rich farm lands and splendid highways. It extends southward into Tennessee, which state is also famous for its thoroughbred horses and its great herds of fine breeds of cattle, sheep and swine. The most notable stock farm in the country. Belle Meade, lies five miles out of Nashville, and is now some hun- dred years old. It was founded by John Harding, whose son. General W. G. Harding, a close friend of "Old Hickory," took steps to improve his stock by importing fine blooded stallions from Europe. He was succeeded in charge of the estate by his son-in-law. General W. A. Jackson, who kept up the traditions of the estate, its sales of thoroughbred yearlings having long been events of note in the history of the American turf. The estate covers 53,000 acres, and from it have come some of the finest running horses this country has known. There might be more said about the agricultural and stock- raising performances and promises of the South, but what has been above given will serve to show the great progress that has been made since the recovery of the South from its many years of poverty and political anarchy, the favorable position it has attained, and what a splendid future looms before it. With a few statistics indicative of present conditions this chapter may fitly close. The value of Southern farm products, as given in the census of 1900, came to the Farming Industry in the South 421 large total of $1,271,654,273. Of this great money value, farm crops alone embraced $939,323,405; including for cotton and its seed $361,924,673 and for corn $233, 445,552, these two items covering nearly half the total yields. The remainder was divided among the numerous articles of cultivation indicated in the preceding state- ments. Honorable James Wilson, Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, in his annual report for 1900, outlined an interesting plan for the development of diversified farming in the South, and said: " In line with this plan there is now being undertaken in different parts of the South demonstration experiments for the purpose of showing the possibilities of more diversified farming. With the co- operation of farmers, working plans are being devised whereby the present system of growing only one crop will be changed so as to secure more diversification, thus insuring greater profits and the building up of the fertility of the land. There are many thousands of acres in the South where the same system of farming has been carried on for years and where it would be a great advantage to inaugurate changes which would lead to the building up of the fer- tihty of the soil and give broader opportunities to those handling the same. As a specific example of this work there is now being devel- oped in the South, as object-lessons, a system of what will be called 'one-man' farms. These are small areas of land in the pine-woods region upon which a system of farming is being developed of such a nature as to appeal directly to the class of farmers who must neces- sarily handle such land. Instead of a single crop, simple systems of rotation are being put into operation, which can be handled by one in- dividual. In other regions, where the conditions are different, more elaborate plans are under way, whereby considerable tracts of land which have for years been cropped to cotton are being arranged for a regular rotation, introducing stock as an element for the purpose of showing the possibilities of such diversification and its bearing on the welfare of the different communities." CHAPTER XXIII. THE VAST MINERAL AND FOREST RE- SOURCES OF THE SOUTH The coal and iron area of the Appalachians — Of Missouri, Arkansas and Texas — The petroleum regions — The marbles of Tennessee and other states — Noviculate, salt and gold — Hot springs and caverns of the South — The region of the cypress and pine — ^The hardwood forests. PROJECTED through the eastern section of the South, and extending southwest from Mason and Dixon's Line to die away gradually in the plains of Georgia and Alabama, is a vast mountain system seven hundred miles in length and one hun- dred and fifty miles in average width, covering an area of more than a hundred thousand square miles. This is the great Appa- lachian system — commonly known as the AUeghanies — whose north- western side is a practically continuous field, forty thousand square miles in extent, and containing within easy reach of the pick forty times as much coal as the coal fields of Great Britain ever held. And iron is here too, in unlimited quantities, iron enough to supply the world for many future centuries. Especially in Alabama, in its mountainous northern section, there exist in vast profusion the minerals named. Here are 5,500 square miles of exceedingly rich coal measures and iron ore in quantities practically unlimited. Take the Red Mountain vein alone, and we find a basin of iron ore half a mile wide, thirty feet thick, and one hundred miles long. And this is but one of numerous veins of red hematite and brown ores, varying from six to one hundred and fifty feet in depth. Close beside them are practically inexhaustible veins of bituminous coal, the combination making this region one of the most favorable in the world for cheap iron production. These mineral beds extend eastward into Georgia, which pos- sesses 200 square miles of excellent bituminous coal, vast in quantit)^, 422 Mineral and Forest Resources 423 while near at hand are immense deposits of red fossiliferous iron ore, covering 350 square miles. An abundance of limestone is an im- portant addition to this great supply of iron and coal. Northward as well as eastward this great deposit extends, the mountains of Tennessee being very rich in mineral wealth. The coal fields of this state occupy 5000 square miles of the Cumberland plateau, and iron is here in abundance enough to keep the forges of Chat- tanooga, Knoxville and Nashville supplied for many centuries. With them other metals are found, copper, lead, zinc and gold, all of which are mined to some extent. THE COAL FIELDS OF THE SOUTH Coal unmined, 600,000,000,000 short tons, or more than one-quarter of the total coal reserve of the United . States. Coal mined in Southern States, 1905; 80,000,000 tons valued at $80,000,000. Coal mined in Southern States to date ; 800,000,000 short tons. Northward into Kentucky extend these rich deposits of nature's treasures, the coal area covering 9000 square miles, while iron is present in abundance, though as yet Httle has been done in mining and manufacture. Similar conditions exist in Virginia, in whose mountains rich deposits of iron ore are found, the beds being from twenty to one hundred feet thick and many miles in length. Along the western foot hills of the Blue Ridge brown hematite ore extends for 300 miles, and solid masses of ore crop out in the Alleghanies. West of the Alleghanies is a rich coal-bearing region, 1000 square 424 Mineral and Forest Resources miles in area. These valuable minerals extend northward into. Maryland, where they are extensively mined, and westward into West Virginia, whose coal fields underlie nearly the whole state, being over 16,000 square miles in area, with many veins of great thickness and easily and cheaply worked. Iron ore also exists in enormous deposits, as yet but httle developed, though coal is largely produced in this state, it being third in the Union in its output. The states west of the Mississippi are similarly rich in iron and other minerals, especially Missouri, which has some of the most remarkable deposits of iron ore in the world, this metal occurring here in mountain masses. Iron Mountain is a low hill, of 500 acres area and covered with a vein of very rich ore from six to thirty feet thick. While not a mountain of iron, as it is usually called, the deposit is vast in quantity, and millions of tons of it have been mined. It is eighty miles south of St. Louis, and in the same district rises Pilot Knob, 600 feet high, and containing a bed of ore of equal thickness, each of them yielding more than fifty per cent of excellent iron. Shepherd Mountain is very rich in specular and magnetic ore of fine quality, and there are various deposits elsewhere, while the abundance of smelting coal and fluxes aid greatly in the working of these ores. The coal beds, bituminous and cannel in quality, extend under 26,000 square miles with many workable areas, fine bituminous coal in strata from twenty to eighty feet thick occurring along the Osage River. Another mineral which occurs in vast deposits in this state is lead, coming to the surface of the ground at Granby and Joplin, from which thousands of tons are suppHed. Millions of pounds were found in the magnesian limestone adhering to the roofs and sides of the Washington County caves. Other metals of value in the state are zinc, copper and nickel. Arkansas is little less rich in minerals, its coal strata underlying 12,000 square miles of area. A valuable basin extends along both sides of the Arkansas River. Iron ore also occurs in considerable quantity, and there are deposits of lead, copper, zinc, manganese, and other minerals. But the coal supply forms the great treasure- house of the state, which at some time in the future it must greatly enrich. Crossmg the Texas border, we find iron there in vast deposits in Llano and Burnet Counties, and along the Rio Grande, and very choice magnetic ores in Mason County. In the east are abundant hematite ores. Copper and lead are found, with some Mineral and Forest Resources 425 gold and silver, and coal extends over a wide area, though not of good quality. A broad region along the coastal plain and the Rio Grande yields Hght fibrous Hgnite, or brown coal, in beds twenty feet thick. This is of little use in itself, but makes good fuel when pressed into briquettes and soaked with crude petroleum. Courtesy of the Forest Serviee, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. PULLING OR CHIPPING BARK FOR TURPENTINE IN SOUTH CAROLINA An enormous trade in this industry has been developed in recent years. Closely affiliated with coal is petroleum or rock oil, and this valuable gift of the earth, which has done so much toward enriching Pennsylvania and the states north of the Ohio, has of late years been found in vast quantities in Texas, adding enormously to the natural wealth of the Lone Star state. The oil of Pennsylvania, with its rich extension into Ohio, belongs to what is known as the Appalachian oil field, and follows the mountains, on their western border, south- ward into Alabama, though it has as yet developed no special rich- 426 Mineral and Forest Resources ness except in West Virginia, whose yield in some recent years has rivaled that of Pennsylvania, and reached to nearly a fourth of the total petroleum yield of the whole United States. Of recent years hundreds of wells have been sunk in Kentucky and Tennessee, and prospecting is going on with much rapidity. The yield as yet has not been large, but there is excellent promise and the search for oil is being prosecuted with much enthusiasm. The development extends as far south as Alabama, in which state recent discoveries have been made. The great event of late years in the petroleum field, however, has been the rich discovery at Beaumont, Texas, where a gushing well was struck on January lo, 190 1, which threw a six-inch stream of oil 195 feet high and formed a small lake of petroleum before it could be brought under control. Its discovery led to the whole surrounding region being dihgently explored and numerous rich wells sunk, all of them in Spindle Top Hill, within half a mile of the original well. During the summer of 1901 the yield reached 1,000 barrels a day. By 1903 the flow had greatly decreased, the oil then lying thirty feet below the surface, and needing to be pumped out. This Texas oil is thick and heavy like the Russian, excellent for fuel, for which it is being extensively used, and yielding a con- siderable percentage of illuminating oil. It is produced at low cost, and has cheap transportation to the coast, so that it is finding a large market and must enrich Texas greatly. Beaumont is seated on the Nueches River, twenty miles from its mouth, in the extreme south- eastern corner of the state and near the Louisiana border, and the search of oil has extended with success into the latter state. There are oil wells elsewhere in Texas, and an annual yield of over 700,000 barrels was reached before the Beaumont strike. So great is the yield of oil, and so advantageously are the petro- leum fields of Texas, Louisiana and Alabama situated for water transportation, that their discovery must create in the Gulf region an activity and prosperity greater than anything which the South has yet seen. MiUions of dollars are being expended in the construction of refineries in the Beaumont section; millions of dollars are being invested in transportation projects to handle its oil for coastwise trade, as well as for Europe, and the prosperity which oil has added to Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio must be duplicated many times over in the Gulf oil region. Mineral and Forest Resources 427 While the minerals we have named are those upon which the South must chiefly depend for its prosperity in mining and manu- facture, there are others of importance which call for mention. Building stones of great variety and utihty are very abundant, and among these we must especially speak of the beautiful marbles of East Tennessee, which are among the finest in the world, and, beino- free from iron and sulphur, are not hable to stain or tarnish. Every color and variety of tint exists, — white, red, yellow, black, gray, blue, fawn colored, chocolate, claret, variegated, and many other hues. The white marbles are second only to those of Carrara in fineness and delicacy of texture and the colored varieties yield many exquisite tints and combinations. The magnificent stairways of the Capitol at Washington were made of the light mottled straw- berry marble of the Holston River, and Tennessee marbles have been profusely used in the superb Congressional Library and in State and National buildings in various parts of the Union, includ- ing the costly State Capitol of New York. The white marble of the Knoxville Custom House is claimed to be unequaled as a building stone, it presenting a dehcate pink hue when poHshed. Knoxville is the center of the marble industry, there being numerous quarries in its vicinity and mills in the city for sawing and shaping the marble. Millions of dollars are added to the state resources by these splendid quarries, there being no more exquistely beautiful building material in the world than the marbles of Tennessee. In Arkansas occur marbles of grey, pink and variegated hues which rival those of Tennessee. They exist in great quantity and in excellent shape for quarrying, but as yet are allowed to rest as nature placed them. They must add largely to the wealth of the state in the Arkansas of the future. Texas is also rich in beautiful marbles and Georgia has a great wealth of this splendid building material. The people of Georgia have shown great activity in this field of industry, the fine marbles of this state having been diligently quarried since 1885. They occur in many difi^erent tints, as pure white, white spotted and veined with black, dark mottled and. variegated blue, pink, salmon, orange and olive. This beautiful decorative material has been produced in immense quantities and sent all over the United States, being used extensively for floors, mantels and wainscots, for tombs and monuments, drug counters and soda fountains, and various other ornamental and industrial pur- 428 Mineral and Forest Resources poses. These marbles are of unusual strength and density, are greatly varied in tint, and possess a useful non-absorbent quality which gives resistance to stain from all liquids. The deposits are extensive enough to supply all demands for many centuries. Among the many varieties the green, or verd antique, is of supreme beauty, and is sure to come into very large use for ornamentation. Its great strength makes it far superior to any similar foreign marble, as it can be cut in slabs and columns of large size without showing seams and cracks. The South is rich in building stones other than marble, and Arkansas boasts a product peculiar to itself, in its rich deposits of noviculate or whetstone rock, a material found only in this State. Here it covers a large area in Hot Springs, Garland, Montgomery and Polk counties. All our razor hones, and the finer whetstones used by jewelers, dentists, and engravers, come from this region, the fine grained quality of whose noviculate is unrivaled. Another mineral of which we may speak in passing is salt, that indispensable necessity of every table, and of which the South possesses various deposits, both in the shape of brine and that of rock salt. Of the brine deposits those of Texas are of importance, salt being produced at Colorado City and El Paso, and at the Grand Saline, one hundred miles east of Dallas. Large supplies are also yielded by the lagoons about Brownsville and Corpus Christi, and Hidalgo County possesses a lake a mile in width and very rich in salt. For generations past the Mexicans have obtained salt from this locaHty. But the great salt deposit of the South belongs to Louisiana, a state generally destitute of mineral wealth but possess- ing the largest and finest deposit of rock salt in the country. This is found on the little island of Petit Anse, in the coast sv^amp region. Here is a salt mine lying sixty feet below the level of the neighboring Gulf of Mexico, and in which the miners have hewed their way downward through fifty-eight feet of solid salt, cutting out the crystal material in solid blocks. Extensive workings have gone on here for many years, the salt being of a very superior quality, unsurpassed for purity by any other salt the country possesses. Last but not least to be here mentioned among the sources of mineral wealth in the South is the precious metal gold, which was mined in paying quantities before it was known that the United States had any richer veins of gold. This valuable metal is found Mineral and Forest Resources 429 chiefly in Virginia, the CaroUnas and Georgia, the yield of it on record being valued at ,$45,000,000, of which more than ,$3,000,000 came from one North Carohna mine. The greatest yield has been from North Carolina and Georgia, the former being credited with ^21,700,000, the latter with ^16, ioo,oco. While considering the mineral w^ealth of the South, it is desirable to speak of its great abundance of mineral and thermal springs. Those of Virginia are very numerous and have long been famous for their medicinal qualities. They include sulphur, alum, iron and hot springs, many of which are still favorite places of resort. At Farmville is the strongest lithia water in America, which is shipped all over the states, while several of the sulphur springs are highly esteemed for their medicinal properties. Others of the Southern States possess heaHng springs, especially Arkansas, whose hot springs are of world-renowned fame. Ten thousand people seek them yearly to be cured of their ills, and a little city has grown up, crowded with hotels and stores. They occur in a narrow mountain valley, the springs in the mountain side being piped down to the bath-houses, which the water reaches at so high a temperature that cold water has to be added. The hot springs along the creek are used for drinking. These waters con- tain but a small quantity of mineral matter, but are held to be very beneficial in diseases of the skin, blood and nerves. The state possesses various other springs, some of them containing sulphur, iron and alum. We cannot close this description of the mineral deposits of the South without passing reference to the great Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, the most stupendous and wonderful of all the caverns of the world. Its labyrinth of grottoes winds away for over two hundred miles under the green hills of the state, now widening into great halls, now narrowing into corridors, and everywhere beautiful or quaint with its vast variety of marvels in snowy stalactite. It is a small world in itself, with its deep and wide rivers and its dark, sullen lakes. Virginia boasts a natural marvel of the same kind in Luray Cave, which, while a dwarf beside the Kentucky wonder, is famous for its beauty. It possesses various other caverns, and in its far famed Natural Bridge has one of the natural wonders of the world. Passing now from the consideration of the mineral wealth of the 430 Mineral and Forest Resources South to that of its forest treasures, we find ourselves in a field of industry little less in value. The production of lumber is, in fact, the fourth in importance among the great industries of the country, being surpassed only by the iron and steel, the textile, and the slaugh- tenng and meat packing industries. For many years it was very largely confined to the North, the vast forests of the South being left in great measure undisturbed, except as the land was needed A COUNTRY SAW-MILL When the "stand" at one place is cut, the mill is moved to another section. for the purpose of agriculture. But within the past twenty years there has been a marked change in this particular, and the South is becoming a great lumber producer. The white pine of the North, so long the favorite building material, has been cut off so recklessl}' that it has become necessary to seek new supplies of good workable timber, and these the South now chiefly affords. Mineral and Forest Resources 431 The Southern conifers embrace chiefly the cypress and yellow pine, though hemlock follows the mountains downward as far as North Carolina. The cypress is a tree of low marshy regions, and occurs along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from the Dismal Swamp in southeastern Virginia nearly to the Rio Grande. It is found in the lowlands and marshes of the Mississippi from southeastern Missouri to the mouth of the river. Little is known of the amount of this timber, though it is of great value. The total amount reported in 1900 as owned by lumbermen was 6,562 million feet, and this is probably but a small fraction, probably not more than 10 per cent, of the total stand. The cut in the census year was 495 million feet. Most valuable among the forest trees of the South is the widely disseminated yellow pine. This valuable timber tree, of the several species known as long leaved, short leaved, loblolly, and Cuban, is found in all the Southern states, but more than nine-tenths of it is in the CaroHnas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas. In these states it occupies the Atlantic plain, with the exception of the low, marshy strips near the coast occupied by cypress, while inland it extends beyond the Fall Line to varying distances in the Piedmont region, from 100 to 200 miles in width, passing slowly by different stages of admixture into the hard wood forests of the interior. Over most of its range it forms pure forests of open stand, with little or no undergrowth. The area occupied by pure pine forests in the nine states above enumerated is approx- imately 150,000 square miles, or about 100,000,000 acres. The average stand of timber on this area, from the best information obtainable, is not far from 3,000 feet per acre, giving a total stand on this area of 300 billions of feet. An estimate made in 1880 (Tenth Census) by Prof. C. S. Sargent gives at that time but 237 bilhon feet, but there is abundant evidence to show that this estimate was much too low. The holdings by lumbermen of yellow pine in 1900 in these states showed a total of 46,507,000,000 feet, or 15 per cent of the total estimated stand. The cut in the census year 1900 was 8,523,000,000 feet, or 3 per cent of the estimated stand, and 18 per cent of the amount held by lumbermen. If the estimate of the total stand given above is approximately correct, there is sufficient yellow pine to supply the present cut for thirty-three years, without allowing anything for growth in the interval. The central part of the United States, including the eastern 432 Mineral and Forest Resources portion of the Upper Mississippi Valley, is a region of hard woods, composed of a great variety of species. The principal of these, from an economic point of view, are the oaks, which, with gum, poplar, maple, cottonwood, elm, and ash, make up the great bulk of the forest. The forest is nowhere composed of any one species, but is commonly mixed, not only with various species of hard woods, but with more or less conifers intermingled. The area in which hard woods form a predominant element of the forest is large, comprising several hundred thousand square miles, but it is ill defined. The stand differs greatly in different parts, hence it is impossible to make even a guess at the amount of timber of this variety. The amount reported as owned by lumbermen is in the neighborhood of 30 biUion feet, half of which consists of oak. This amount reported by lum- bermen doubtless forms only a small part of the stand, which may be five or ten times as great. The total cut of oak in the census year was 4,438,000,000 feet, of poplar 1,115,000,000 feet, with smaller quantities of maple, elm and ash. Of these hard woods, the greatest bulk and variety exist in the Southern states, comprising the great forests of the region adjoining the Mississippi and those of the Alleghany mountain ranges. The states of Kentucky and Tennessee and the northern parts of Ala- bama and Georgia are famous for their splendid mountain forests of hardwood timber, they being notable for the huge girth and great height of tuHp, oak and other species. In the west hardwood forests are found in the Yazoo delta region of Mississippi and range from the broad wooded plains of Arkansas across the great river to Tennessee and Kentucky. More than two hundred species of trees exist in the Southern hardwood forests, of which at least forty-five are of high economic value. The most important of these are several species of white and red oaks, attaining sizes of four to five feet diameter, with clear trunks fifty to sixty feet; the chestnut oak, furnishing excellent tanning materials for the leather industry; the tulip poplar, five to six feet and more in diameter, towering more than one hundred and fifty feet above the remainder of the forest; ash and hickory of excellent dimensions and quality; red gum, vying in size with the tulip trees, a species despised a few years ago, now a well-estabHshed article of utility; chestnut, beech, elm and hackberry, not to forget black walnut and cherry, in which the South is still rich. CHAPTER XXIV. THE IRON FORGE AND THE COTTON MILL REGENERATE THE SOUTH The South in 1880 — The outlook before it — The results of progress— Early iron manufacture — Conditions in i860 — Judge Kelly on the South — The dawn of regeneration — Great progress in cotton spinning — Its present status — Iron and steel in Alabama and elsewhere^Rivalry with Europe — A vast spread of forest — The yield of lumber — Other industries of the South — A land of great resources. WE have spoken of the year 1880 as the period in which the powers of redemption of the South became fairly inaugurated. Fifteen years had passed since the close of the war, and within those years the South had risen above the ashes of its desolation, passed though the reign of terror of recon- struction, dismissed the horde of thieves known as "carpet bag- gers," thrown off the incubus of negro legislation, and emerged upon the dawn of a new day, lit by the early rays of a prosperity of a new type, one such as that section of the land had never before known. For centuries industry in the South had been almost wholly agricul- tural. Now there shone upon it the bright promise of a great me- chanical development, and it rose exultantly to meet the new con- ditions. It was the grand storehouse of the cotton fibre which for so many years had kept the mills of England and the North in busy operation, and there was needed only the strong hand of manufacturing enterprise to bring about new prosperity in the South. In its hills slept the coal and iron necessary to lift it into line with the enormous iron and steel industries of the North and of Europe. In short, in the word manufacture was spelt the regeneration of the South, and to this it now turned with hope and energy. Let us compare the South of 1880 with the remainder of the country. The South at that time was burdened with debts, both state and private, and its people hardly dared to credit that the worst 28 433 434 Iron Forge and Cotton Mill of its afflictions were really over. Its railroads were in miserable condition, its manufacturing business was still in the experimental stage, its population largely exceeded any demand that could exist for labor under the prevailing conditions, and it had few banks and very feeble financial backing. The North and West, on the contrary, were in a state of almost unprecedented progress and prosperity. An active immigration had been drawn from Europe to the West by the aid of land-grant railroads, and a steady flow of men and money from the East had poured into that section, bringing it up to imperial COTTON AREAS AND PRODUCTION, 1906 Each dot represents two thousand bales, or 1,000,000 pounds of cotton. This year's production was 11,345,989 bales, worth $641,720,435. proportions, opening to industry millions of acres of land, building thriving cities, and supplying a market for wares that taxed the factories of the East to supply. Enormous grain crops, meeting a great lack in Europe, brought on a new era in our foreign grain trade, burdened the railroads with wheat and corn, and gave wealth to farmers, railroaders and merchants alike. Everywhere except in the South were felt and heard "the thrill of the music of progress, the whirr of the spindle, the buzz of the saw, the roar of the furnace, and the throb of the locomotive." Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 435 Such were the conditions with which we must set out, in any effort to study the record of progress made by the South after 1880 and compare its advancement with the growth of the North and West. Any one who should have predicted in 1880 that in the next ten or twelve years the South would develop its agricultural, indus- trial and railroad interests more rapidly than the country at large would have been deemed an insane optimist. Yet what would then have been looked upon as the wild chatter of a visionary enthusiast is what time has brought about. The progress of the South, in all its fields of industry, has been proportionally more rapid than that of the rest of the country. And if such a change as this has been brought about in the face of the vast difference in conditions which prevailed in 1880, who shall set the measure of what will be done during the years still before us } In a Httle more than two decades from the time the work of development fairly began it has ceased to be a question whether Alabama can compete with Pennsylvania in iron, and the question has taken the form whether Pennsylvania can compete with Alabama. The same may be said of the cotton industry. Who among us now doubts that the South can compete with New England in the manu- facture of cotton goods .? But how many doubt that New England can compete with the South ^ Lumber manufacture is another industry which has become a leading one in the South, which is developing there, as it is declining in the Northwest, and it seems highly probable that for the future of its lumber supply the country will need to look to its Southern forests. Then there is the great production of cotton-seed oil and the development of other active industries, immense in their development and their possibilities. Since 1880 the growth of manufactures in the South has, in fact, become something astounding, when we consider the state of affairs from which it emerged. Up to the present time, as recently stated by Mr. D. A. Tompkins, the South may be said to have brought about the following results: " I. It has shaken off the idea of dependence on the negro as the laborer, and the latter is falling into the relation of helper to the white laborer. "2. It has accumulated capital enough to undertake very ex- tensive manufacturing, without in many cases the need to borrow capital from the North. 43^ Iron Forge and Cotton Mill "3. It has demonstrated that the Southern man makes as successful a manufacturer and as skilled a mechanic as the Northern man or the EngHshman, and that the cHmate is rather advantageous than otherwise to successful and profitable work. "4. In iron, cotton, and lumber manufacture it is not a question whether the South can hold its own against other sections, but wheth- er other sections can compete with the South." For the remarkable progress here outlined the credit fully belongs to the man of the South. It was the Southerner who lifted this section of the country out of the desolation that followed the war, and Ht there the torch of prosperity. The Southerner it was who built cotton mills and iron furnaces, who exploited the abundance of the forests, who developed the mineral resources of the Appa- lachian hills, and built up the iron city of Birmingham. The Atlanta of to-day, one of the most active and progressive cities of the United States, is solely a product of Southern business enterprise. No one would wish to deny that Northern capital flowed in to aid this development, but it was mainly the natural flow of capital to the quarters where the opportunity for profitable investment had been demonstrated. To the Southerner we must give the full credit for the opening up of new channels for investment, and for carrying forward the ambitious enterprise of the New South to a successful culmination. Although the great profits of cotton culture long drew the atten- tion of the Southern man of enterprise to the development of the plantation as the most promising field of labor, it must not be imag- ined that manufacture was absent from the South even in the earlier periods of its history. In truth, the South deserves far more credit for productive activity than it has ever received. Especially in iron-making was enterprise early shown, the first settlers in the Southern colonies giving much attention to this line of business, and producing large quaHties of iron of high grade. Mr. James M. Swank, in his "History of Iron in all Ages," says in reference to the early furnaces and bloomeries of the South : "The people who built these furnaces and bloomeries were not only bold and enterprising, but they appear to have been born with a genius for making iron. Wherever they went, they seem to have searched for iron ore, and, having found it, their small charcoal furnaces and bloomeries soon followed. No states in the Union Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 437 have shown in their early history more inteUigent appreciation of the value of an iron industry than North CaroHna and Tennessee, and none have been more prompt to establish it. The enterprise of these early iron workers assumes a picturesque aspect when viewed in connection with the primitive methods of manufacture which were employed by them. They were pioneers and frontiersmen in every sense; from the great world of invention and progress they were shut out by the mountains and streams and hundreds of miles of unsubdued forest. It is a curious fact that the daring men who pushed their way into the wilds of Carolina and East Tennessee in the last century, and who set up their small furnaces and bloomeries when forts yet took the place of hamlets, founded an iron industry which still retains many of the primitive features that at first charac- terized it." The early Virginians were equally enterprising. Among those who engaged in iron production were Governor Spotswood, who built furnaces as early as 1716, and Augustine Washington, the father of George Washington. Others engaged in similar enterprises, and for years the industry continued active, despite the adverse Eng- lish laws. When the period of wars and political troubles passed away this industry revived. Mr. Swank says: "About 1790 the iron industry of Virginia took a fresh start, as did many other manufactures of the state. This activity con- tinued for many years, but it was partly checked in subsequent years by the greater attention given by the people of Virginia to agricultur- al pursuits. No states in the Union gave more attention to domestic manufactures after the close of the Revolution than Virginia. Richmond, Lynchburg, Stanton, Winchester and some other places became noted for the extent and variety of their manufactures. Household manufactures were also everywhere cultivated. The manufacture of nails was one of these industries. Thomas Jefferson required about a dozen of the younger slaves owned by him to make nails, and it is said that they made about a ton of nails a month at a considerable profit." In 1856 Virginia possessed nearly a hundred charcoal furnaces, sixty forges and bloomeries, and twelve rolling mills, those being scattered widely throughout the state. In South Carolina iron works were first built about 1773, and most of the other colonies engaged at various periods in this enterprise, the development of which 438 Iron Forge and Cotton Mill continued into the next century. The advance in mechanical pur- suits of the negro race, as exhibited at the Atlanta Exposition, leads us back to the fact that in the days of slavery there w^ere many skilled mechanics among the negroes, good carpenters, good bricklayers, and good v^orkers in other industries, many planters training their slaves to skill in such pursuits. But the tendency so widely mani- fested to develop manufactures received a decided set back after the invention of the cotton-gin. This opened so alluring a channel for Southern capital and energy in the cotton field that it is not sur- prising that they were turned almost wholly in this direction, and the THE PART OF THE SOUTH W^HICH IS BECOMING A GREAT COTTON- MANUFACTURING DISTRICT Each dot represents a cotton mill. development of the plantation kept back for many years that of the furnace and the factory. While New England, discouraged from agriculture by the poverty of the soil, was engaged to a great extent in manufacturing pursuits, the South, reaping great profits from its planting interests, was with equal energy and success devoting its powers to the cultivation of corn, cotton, sugar, rice and tobacco. In the growth of these staples it was producing great wealth, and its agricultural prosperity fully rivaled that which wheat and corn gave to the West. Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 439 Then active enterprise displayed by the South in the exten- sion of its agricultural interests Vv^as fully as great as that displayed in the development of New England's manufactures, and this agricultural development v^as the outgrowth of a native energy that built in the South the first railroad of the country, that construc- ted more railroad mileage between 1850 and i860 than the New Eng- land and Middle States combined, and that gave to the city of Savannah the distinction of sending out the first regular trading steamship that ever crossed the Atlantic. In reference to the remark made about railroad mileage it may be stated that, in the decade mentioned, the South built 7,562 miles of new road against 4,712 for New England and the Middle States, and in i860 possessed 9,897 miles of road against 9,510 for the other sections named. In 1850 the mileage of the two Northern sections exceeded that of the South by 2463 miles. The decade that followed showed a marked reversal in conditions, and in i860 the South led by 387 miles. Here was a display of enterprise for which the Southerner rarely gets credit. In reference to the possibilities of the South, Judge Kelley, the famous Pennsylvania economist, years ago remarked: "The states south of the Ohio, and east of the Mississippi, with their half miUion square miles of area, contain a wealth great enough for a continent — a wealth so vast, so varied in its elements and character, so advantageously placed for development, that these states alone can sustain a population far greater than the population of the United States to-day. "It was the building of an empire in the West that relieved and enriched the East as well as the West. The enormous energies, the 'Plant' used in that task, unparalelled in the magnitude of the work and the greatness of the reward to all, is now seeking a new field of investment, and there is no spot on earth sufficient for it and within its reach, but the South. I do not consider that there ever existed in the \Vest, great as its wealth is, or in any other portion of the country, anything Hke the natural wealth of the South." Coming now to the more special consideration of the develop- ment of Southern manufactures, it is of interest to state that this showed decided indications of development before the Civil War. In the decade from 1850 to i860 there were marked steps of advance in lumber, flour, cotton and iron manufacture, these nearly doubling within that period. In i860 we are told that the South possessed 440 Iron Forge and Cotton Mill In all 24,590 mills and factories of all kinds, with an aggregate capi- tal of 1^175,000,000. While flour and meal were the leading prod- ucts, cotton, lumber and iron manufacture showed some marked indications of a coming importance. But this all ended with the war, after which many years passed before the old conditions were restored. Not until about 1876 did the manufactures of the South begin to lift their heads again, but by 1880, they were once more fairly on their feet. Proverty still was the lot of the South, while the North and West were at that time rolling in wealth. But the day of the South had come and It set energetically to work to regain what it had lost, and make an opportunity for Itself. Let us put in figures some of the chief achievements of the succeeding Interval. Taking the cotton-weaving Industry for our theme we" may extract from the United States census returns some illuminating figures. In 1880 the South possessed 161 establishments only which made reports to the census; in 1890 there were 239, an increase of 78, or 48.4 per cent; and in 1900 there were 400 separate estabHsh- ments, an increase from 1890 of 161, or 67.4 per cent. A scrutiny of the returns by States shows that substantially the whole increase of manufactures in the South was in the four States of North Caro- lina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. The number of estabHshments In these States was 119 in 1880, 191 in 1890, and 355 in 1900. In the other States of the Southern group the number was 42 in 1880, 48 in 1890, and 45 in 1900. It is, however, to reveal but a part of the truth to rest the statement of Southern industrial expansion upon the number of establishments; for in the decade 1880-1890 the number of spindles in the four leading Southern states increased almost threefold, from 422,807 to 1, 19^^,256; and the average number of spindles to a mill increased from 3,553 to 6,258. In the decade from 1890 to 1900 the progress was in an even greater ratio, for the total number of spindles in these states in 1900 was 3,791,654, the numerical increase 2,596,398, the percentage of increase 217, and the average number of spindles to a mill had become 10,651. The Southern cotton industry, in fact, has expanded in all directions, in capital, consump- tion of material, employment of labor, and quantity and value of product, and the phenomenal growth of this industry In the South is the one great fact in the history of cotton manufacture in the final decades of the nineteenth century. Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 441 During the early years of the Southern development it was not unusual to equip mills with m.achinery discarded by Northern mills. But in the decades mentioned the numerical increase of frame spindles in the South was 2,672,128, and the number of new spindles 3,283,884, showing that not only were all, or substantially all, the spindles in the new mills of the most modern type, but that about 600,000 old spindles in old mills were replaced by new. Combining the twenty years we find that there was in 1900 a total of 4,117,654 frame spindles in the South, and that 4,152,592 new spindles had been suppHed to them in that time. And not only had the number of spindles in the Southern states become nearly threefold that re- ported in 1890, but the spindles themselves are for the most part of the latest and most efficient types. In the years that followed this growth went on with accellerating rapidity, 1902 for in- stance, adding over 1,000,000 spindles and 31,000 looms, the total additions indicating an investment of over ;^22,ooo,ooo. If now we take into consideration the con- sumption of the cotton mill product, we find that the South has gone ahead of the North in its proportion of cotton goods exported to foreign lands. The various mills of the country furnished goods for export during the year 1 899-1900 to the value of $15,357,502, or about five-eighths of the value of cloth exported during the fiscal year. Almost 60 per cent of the total value represented the product of Southern mills, and nearly 37 per cent the goods of New England. It is an interesting fact that South Carolina, which was historically and politically, during the years preceding the Civil War, the most conspicuous champion of a policy favorable to the exportation of raw cotton, upon which the planters most relied, and opposed to the fostering of manufactures of cotton, spun in its own mills in 1900 a quantity A FOUR-ROOM HOUSE RENTED AT $2 A MONTH TO MILL WORKERS 442 Iron Forge and Cotton Mill of cotton exceeding the half of its own crop, and exported close upon one-half of all the cotton cloth reported to the census as having been dispatched to foreign countries. The exact percentage of South Carolina of the total export reported was 45.5. Starting in 1880 with very small capital and with but little experience, the South has practically monopolized the coarse cotton- goods trade, and is pushing into finer goods with great energy. It is useless for Great Britain or New England to argue against this. The logic of facts disproves all arguments. No one pretends to say that the South will spin and weave every bale of cotton that it raises. New England, Great Britain and the Continent will continue to be cotton-manufacturing centers, but an immense growth of this industry is in the air for the future of the South. The world's needs are steadily growing, and in the supplying of them the mills of the South will take a very important part. Cotton-manufacturing is a Southern industry in a fuller sense than any other line of manufacturing in the South. Its development is mainly due to the energy and enterprise of Southern people, though of late years many of the leading cotton-mill companies of New England have given the strongest proof of their belief in the preeminent advantages of this section by building branch mills in the South, these having gradually become as large as, and in some cases larger than, the parent mills in New England. It is not alone the saving of freight of raw material, but the greater cheapness of labor and the abundance of water power, which have had to do with this recognition of the superior advantages of the South. And in this connection we may speak of the great development of another indus- try based on cotton, that of cotton-seed oil. In 1880 there were only forty mills, with a capital of ^3,500,000, concerned in this industry. In 1900 there were over 500 mills, with $34,500,000 capital and an annual consumption of 2,500,000 tons of seed. The iron industry has developed in the South side by side with that of cotton, though it is more confined in its field of exploitation. While cotton grows everywhere and the cotton loom may be set whirling in almost every city, the profitable handling of iron depends upon the near vicinity of mines of iron ore and coal, and at present Alabama possesses these conditions in the most available form. As a result, the great development of iron manufacture in the South has been largely confined to this state. Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 443 The importance of the iron and steel industry in Alabama is directly due to the development of extensive deposits of iron ore, coal, limestone, and dolomite, which are found in most unusual proximity in the Birmingham district. This combination of natural advantages makes it possible to produce pig iron at very low cost. A charcoal furnace was built as early as 1818 but it was not until 1874 that the manufacture began to assume importance. Birmingham, named after England's iron center, was founded in 1871, Anniston in 1872, Sheffield in 1883, and Bessemer in 1887. An important epoch in the history of the industry began in 1895, when it was demonstrated that Alabama pig iron could be laid down in Liverpool, grade for grade, at less than the price of Middlesboro iron shipped across England to that point. Exports to England, continental Europe, and Japan in igoo amounted to 113,185 tons, a quantity greatly in excess of that reported for any other state. The total production of pig iron in Alabama in i860 was valued at ^64,590, in 1870 at ^210,258, in 1880 at ^1,405,356, in 1890 at ^10,315,691, and in 1900 at ^13,465,616. The most important' grade manufactured in the state in 1900 was foundry iron, no other state producing so large a quantity. It is noteworthy that the great development of manufactures in the northern part of the state has taken place largely without the advantage of navigable water for the cheap shipment of products. For years efforts have been made to connect the Birmingham district with tidewater at Mobile Bay by means of a canal and the construc- tion of locks on the Warrior River. Of the five locks projected three were cornpleted in 1895, and a route for the canal was surveyed by engineers of the United States. It is estimated that water com- munication with Mobile would reduce freight charges on iron 80 per cent. The manufacture of steel has been much delayed from the fact that the large proportion of phosphorous and silica in the Alabama ores renders them unsuitable for the Bessemer process of steel mak- ing, so that manufactures are largely confined to the more costly open-hearth process. Attempts were made to produce steel in 1888, but little success was attained until 1897. About that time many engineers and architects began to show a preference for open- hearth steel, with the result of greatly stimulating its production in Alabama. In 1900 there were twelve furnaces in the state, with 444 Iron Forge and Cotton Mill an annual yield of 1200 tons of steel ingots, and the manufacture of steel has since then largely increased. Closely related to the production of iron and steel is that of foundry and machine shop products, the value of which advanced in Alabama from ;^2,I95,9I3 in 1890 to ^5,482,441 in 1900. This industry has been stimulated by the large production of pig iron, and has in turn reacted to increase that production. One of the most important of Alabama's foundry products is cast-iron pipe. There were eleven estabhshments, most of them at Bessemer, Anniston, and Birmingham, engaged in this manufacture during the census year. Some of these exported products to foreign countries. Other important iron products of the state are stoves, car wheels, boilers, and engines. The various iron industries continued to advance after the close of the census year. One of the largest plants in the United States for the manufacture of wire and wire nails was put into operation at Ensley, a large establishment for the manu- facture of steel cars was built at the same place, and a tube works and cotton-tie plant were started at Helena, while marked steps of prog- ress in the same direction took place elsewhere. As the case now stands, Alabama yields more iron products in a month than the whole South did in earlier days in a year. Northern iron-makers were long loath to perceive or acknowledge that any serious rivalry could come from the South, but in view of the fact that this section has advanced from six per cent of the country's production of pig iron in 1870, to some twenty-five per cent at the present time, and is progressing with increasing rapidity, a very lively alarm is now felt. Europe has now only three countries — - Great Britain, Germany and France — that excel the South in pig iron production, the other European countries being left decidedly in the rear. Though Alabama is the great iron state of the South, it does not stand alone in this industry. Maryland and Virginia in the north are large producers, and the central state of Tennessee yielded over ^5,000,000 worth of iron products in 1900, Chattanooga and Knoxville being the chief centers of the industry. Georgia also came actively into line in this industry in 1903, in the estabhshment of a great ^10,000,000 steel plant, the Mohawk Valley Steel and Wire Company, at the seaport town of Brunswick. This establishment, of which the corner stone was laid on April 30, Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 445 o . 1— I -i-J (U O o < "^ S J Ji a, <- o >'5 3 O 446 Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 1903, is one of the most ambitious enterprises started as yet in the South. And while speaking of Brunswick, it is in place here to state that the growth of exports through Southern ports is increasing with phenomenal rapidity, reaching by 1906 nearly ;S6oo,ooo,ooo a year, or about 30 per cent of the total exports of the country. In connection with iron may be mentioned coal, which has become a large and valuable product of the South, expanding from about 3,500,000 tons mined in 1880 to over 30,000,000 in 1900, a very rapid rate of increase. Another great development in Southern industry has to do with the production of lumber, which is becoming one of the great industrial enterprises of this section of the country. The Southern states now contain the largest area of marketable timber of any section of the continent, nearly 40 per cent of their total area being wooded, as contrasted with 18.2 per cent for the country as a whole. While they do not equal the Pacific region in the quantity of timber, they have the great advantage of being much nearer to the regions of consumption. The great Southern pine belt, varying from 100 to 200 miles in width, and extending throughout the Atlantic and Gulf States, covers nearly 150,000,000 acres, and embraces not less than 25,000, 000 acres of unculled virgin pine. This timber, especially the Long- leaf, Georgia or Yellow varieties, is unequaled among the pine timber for strength and durabiHty, while the Shortleaf and Loblolly are excellent for finishing work. In the Appalachian Mountain region and along the Mississippi are magnificent stretches of hard- wood timber, embracing more than two hundred species, one-fourth of which are now widely used. Chief among these are the white and red oaks, the tulip poplar, the ash, hickory, red gum, chestnut, beech, elm, and black walnut. Many of these trees are of immense size, and the forests are of inestimable value. The value of the lumber produced in the Southern states shows the great increase from ^40,000,000 in 1880 to ^188,000,000 in 1900, one-eighth of the whole product coming from Arkansas, while several other of the states show a large and important yield. In addition to their yield of lumber, the Southern pineries furnish a very large supply of naval stores, — rosin and turpentine, — a product which is obtained without impairing the timber value of the trees. For very many years, reaching back to the early colonial period, North Carolina was the chief producer of this valuable Iron Forge and Cotton Mill 447 material, which in 1850 yielded naval stores valued at ^2,476,252, or 86.7 of the total product of the country. The industry reached its height in this state about i860, and since then has gradually fallen off, while it has grown to large proportions in some other states. South Carolina and Georgia followed in this industry about 1850, and the latter state has since become the great producer of the countr}^, while Florida ranks second. In 1900 the product of Georgia amounted to 305,791 barrels of spirits of turpentine and 950,582 barrels of rosin, valued at $8,110,468; Florida yielded over three- fourths this quantity, valued at $6,469,605, and Alabama had a prod- uct valued at $2,033,705. Mississippi has also a considerable yield and Louisiana a small one. These constitute the more important of the general manufac- tures of the South, though there are others more restricted in locaHty of large yield and much importance. The refining of sugar and mo- lasses in Louisiana, for example, is a business of large proportions, employing a capital of $53,000,000. Kentucky has $17,000,000 capital invested in Hquor production and $9,500,000 in the manu- facture of tobacco. In the latter Virginia is a close rival, while Florida has $5,500,000 invested in the same business. South Carolina and Florida have a localized industry in the production of fertilizers from the valuable phosphate beds of those states, South CaroHna having $10,500,000 invested in this industry and Florida a much smaller amount. The South possesses other industries of much importance, that of flour and meal, for instance, being large in nearly all the states. Of the output of oil and other products ot the cotton-seed we have elsewhere spoken. Building stones form another valuable product, especially the splendid marbles of Tennessee, whose exquisite beauty form much of the charm of the Capitol and Library build- ings at Washington. These are quarried to the value of millions of dollars annually. We have confined ourselves in the above pages to a condensed statement of the great progress in manufacturing industries made in the South during the twenty years from 1880 to 1900. This progress has been immense, yet it is only a beginning. In 1880 the South was largely destitute of capital and had no resources beyond the product of its fields and the treasures of nature growing in its forests and buried in its hills. In 1900 it had accumulated a large capital and 448 Iron Forge and Cotton Mill was making the product of field, forest and mine the basis of an active industry and fast growing prosperity. Yet it had still only fairly started in its career. But the vista of a vast success was open- ing before it, wide and long, and with eager feet it was treading rapidly onward to a resolute and close rivalry with the great pro- ducing regions of the world. It possessed advantages in this con- test unequaled elsewhere. On its soil was grown three-fourths of the whole cotton crop of the world. Its forests held more than half the standing timber of the United States. It possessed iron and coal in close proximity and unlimited supply, and the low cost of mining and nearness to the centers of manufacture enabled it to produce pig iron and steel at a specially low cost. To the advantage of cheap coal it added that of a great abundance of water-power. In fact, no other section of the land equaled it in its natural resources, among which we may name its many navigable rivers and fine sea- ports. To these may be added the artificial but necessary resource of the railroad, which is now penetrating every section of the South. In brief, this section of our land has everything necessary to give it a great and prosperous future, and we may safely predict for it a bright and brilliant destiny. CHAPTER XXV. FROM COMMON SCHOOL TO UNIVERSITY Schools in early Virginia — School laws in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia — The era of academies — Peabody and Slater gifts to education — Progress of public schools — William and Mary College — ^Washington and Lee College — University of Virginia — Other Virginian Colleges — Maryland Institutions — Universities at Nashville and Knoxville — Colleges in the Carolinas — Education in Kentucky — Missouri and Arkansas — ^The University of Georgia and other Institutions of that State — Florida and Alabama Institutions — The Tuskegee Institute — Tulane University of Louisiana and other advajiced schools — Te«as and its colleges — Baylor University — The problem of negro education. IT was to the citizens of towns that we owe the earliest schools in the American colonies, and as New England was especially the seat of town life it was there that public education first prospered. Among the scattered population of the rural districts, to whom existence was severe and labor incessajit, there was little thought of and less time for school-life, and though laws were passed making education compulsory, they were largely dead letters. In the South, a country very largely rural, and of which the laboring population was almost wholly servile, the education of the poor was long much neglected. In Virginia efforts were made at an early date to organize free schools, and even to found a college, but they were not very successful. Large grants of land and about ten thousand dollars in money were devoted to the purpose. In 1619 the Virginia Company bade the Governor to see "that each town, borough and hundred procured, by just means, a certain number of their children to be brought up in the first elements of literature, that the most towardly of them should be fitted for college. " A free school was early opened in Charles City, and another in Elizabeth City in 1624, and four years before John Howard endowed his 29 449 45° Common School to University college the School at Ehzabeth City was endowed by a far-seeing Virginian with two hundred acres of land and "the milk and increase of eight cows." In 1649 ^^^^ school possessed a "fine house," together with "forty milch kine and other accomodations." Yet despite these laudable efforts, the cause of pubhc education was greatly neglected. We are told by Burk, the historian, that "until the year 1688, no mention is anywhere made in the records of schools, or of any provision for the instruction of youth. " Seven- teen years before this date Governor Berkeley had made the famous declaration which we have already quoted: "I thank God there are no free schools or printing; and I hope we shall not have these WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE This rare print is the oldest picture of the College known to be in existence. hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world; and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep us from both." With governors of this disposition, we can well understand why educa- tion did not flourish in the old Commonwealth. Yet five years after this was spoken, one citizen bequeathed six hundred acres of land, "together with ten cows and one breeding mare, for the maintenance of a free school forever;" and before the century closed William and Mary, the second college in America, was founded at WiUiamsburg. Such were the first feeble efforts to estabHsh a system of public Common School to University 451 education on Southern soil. Similar steps were taken in Maryland, and in 1694 an act was passed by the legislature of that colony for the establishment of free schools. To support them, taxes were laid on imported spirits and negroes and exported furs, skins, beef and pork. This system was not put into effect until 1723, when a board of visitors for each county was created, with authority to purchase land for boarding schools and to employ teachers. Hildreth tells us that Maryland provided more liberally for the instruction of her youth than any of the other colonies. Yet nowhere in the colonies could the cause of public education be said to have flourished previous to the Revolution. The severe laws passed in New England were constantly broken, the people being too poor, and too much disturbed by Indian wars and other causes, to trouble themselves much about the education of their children. A law of New Hampshire required that every town of a hundred families should support a school to fit scholars for college, but very little heed was paid to this edict. North Carolina, in its State Constitution of 1776, required that scholars should be en- gaged for the instruction of youth, "With such salaries to the mas- ters paid by the public, as may enable them to instruct at low prices, and all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promo- ted in one or more universities." Yet this requirement was prob- ably very ineffective in its results. Georgia was one of the first of the states to affirm the necessity of a system of common schools, doing so in its Constitution of 1777. Six years later the legislature set aside 1000 acres in each county as a school endowment, and in 1792 it gave each county ^5000 for the establishment of an academy, besides making large provision for the founding of a university. Yet in spite of all that was done in North and South alike education lagged in all parts of the country. The constitution of society in the South had much to do with the meagerness of public instruction. The laboring population was composed to a large extent of negro slaves, of the half-enslaved "Apprentices" sent over from England, and of the rude class of " poor whites " who descended from them. As for the children of the planters, they were commonly sent to England to be educated, or to such high class institutions of learning as William and Mary College, which, up to the date of the Revolution, was one of the leading collegiate institutions of America. 452 Common School to University THE SCHOOLHOUSE OF THE PAST The conditions existing in the South, indeed, stood in the way of the successful estabHshment of a common school system in that section until after the Civil War. Governor Hammond of South Carolina said in his message of 1844: "The free school system has failed. Its failure is owing to the fact that it does not suit our people, our govern- ment, our institutions. The paupers for whose children it is intended, need them at home to work. " The only part of South Carolina in which it maintained itself was in the city of Charleston. It also existed, though in a feeble condition, in the States of Louisiana, Kentucky and Missouri. Elsewhere in the South it had gained no foot- ing. But though the free school had made much less progress in the South than in the North, pay schools, for the children of the better class of citizens, were well supported. These were numerous and prosperous in the states down to the year 1830, as incorporated academies, frequently under the care of a religious denomination. In the South they were generally under the control of the state. After 1830 they declined in the North, in consequence of the growing adoption of the free school system, but they had a longer lease of existence in the South. THE SCHOOLHOl'Sl'. «)F IME PRESENT Common School to University 453 Since the Civil War the free school system had been established in every part of the South, and statute laws in all the states have provided for the education of all children at pubHc expense. Every- where the system has gained a firm footing and is strongly supported by public sentiment. In addition to the schools for primary and secondary education, others, usually called normal schools, are provided for the training of teachers, the result being a decided advance in the character of instruction given and the general stand- ing of the schools. The poverty into which the South was thrown after the war rendered the task of establishing schools for the free education of the young an onerous one. This was partly relieved by the munifi- cent gifts of George Peabody in 1867 and 1869; he establishing a fund of ^3,500,000 to be devoted to education in the Southern states. Unfortunately, more than a third of the sum was in bonds that proved valueless, but the remainder has been carefully nursed and judiciously used. In the earlier employment of the fund it was devoted to the establishment of pubHc schools. It being no longer needed for this purpose, the income is now used for the support of Normal Schools and Teachers' Institutes. In 1882 Mr. John F. Slater, of Connecticut, gave a sum of $1,000,000 for the purpose of "upHfting the lately emancipated population of the Southern states and their posterity." This fund has now increased to $1,500,000, while half a million of income has been expended. It is an important agent in working out the prob- lem of the education of the negro, which las been pushed forward with an encouraging rapidity. No part of the Slater fund is ex- pended for lands or buildings, but it is used to promote education in industries and for the instruction of teachers in well-established institutions. The gifts here mentioned have been of great benefit to the South in its earnest endeavor to advance the cause of public education among its youth, and have aided in estabHshing its system of common schools on the firm foundation upon which they now stand. What has been accomplished since the war can be best shown by a few statistics, which indicate that the South now stands on a level with the other sections of the Union in the development of its public school system. The figures show that the enrollment of pupils in the elementary and secondary common schools of the South is above 454 Common School to University the level of the remainder of the Union, the percentage of the popula- tion enrolled in the South Atlantic States being 21,06 and in the South Central and Gulf States 21.20, while that of the United States as a whole is 20.20. The average daily at- tendance is fairly up to the general level. In 1 90 1 the daily attend- ance in the public schools of the South was in round numbers 3,300,000, while that of the remainder of the Union was 7,500,000, a very fair proportion in view of the respec- tive numbers of the population and the dif- ference in conditions. Amone the active THIS SCHOOLHOUSE HAS TAKEN THE PLACE OF THAT SHOW^N IN THE CUT BELOW acrents in the work should be named the Southern E:ducation Board, a useful organization under the chair- _ „ manship of Robert C. f * Oo-den of New York. THESE rWO PICrURES ARE INDICATIVE OF THE SOUTH'S PROSPERITY Its Other officers in- clude C. D. Mclver of Greensboro, N. C, Secretary; G. F. Pea- body of New York, Treasurer; J. L. M. Curry of Washington, Supervising Director, and C. W. Dabney of Nashville, Tennessee, Director of the Bureau of Investigation, Infor- mation and Literature. The object of this organization is to awaken and inform public opinion and secure additional legislation and revenues for the better- ment of the public schools, "The supreme need of our time." As Common School to University 45s concerns the question of revenue the Board is amply equipped, Mr. John D. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil magnate, having come to its aid with a gift of ^1,000,000, while further sums have been received from other sources. With this passing glance at the development of the common school, the most potent agent in the uplifting of the masses known in modem times, some more detailed account of the institutions in the South for higher education becomes desirable. Among these we must specially refer to the venerable William and Mary College, of WiUiamsburg, Virginia. This lays claim with some warrant to being the oldest institution of learning in the United States, on the ground that it is the lineal descendant of a school dating back to 1 6 1 7. At any rate it is the second oldest college in the country, if Harvard be given the precedence in date, its charter having been approved by King WilHam and Queen Mary in 1693. King William aided in the original endowment, and the jfirst President was the Rev. James Blair, who had secured the charter. The college was founded under the auspices of the English Established Church, then dominant in the Southern colonies. The first college building, designed by the distinguished archi- tect, Sir Christopher Wren, was burned in 1705. A new one quickly arose, and the institution remained under the original president till his death in 1743. At that date it was highly prosperous, and when the War of the Revolution began, it was the wealthiest college in America. That conflict proved a sad injuiy to its prosperity, all its endowments vanishing, except a tract of 20,000 acres of land, by sales of which some ^200^000 were secured. Still more injurious to the venerable William and Mary was the Civil War. When that dread conflict ended the old college was a wreck. Almost everything it had possessed was gone, several of its buildings, as well as its library and apparatus, being destroyed. A desperate eflFort was made to retrieve its fortunes, and in 1869 the school was reopened in a new main building. But the weight of its misfortunes was too heavy to carry, in view of the more flattering inducements offered by richly endowed colleges elsewhere, and in 1882 lack of funds and growing debts forced it a second time to close its doors. To many of the friends of education, and especially to those with a veneration for the early monuments of American enterprise, it 456 Common School to University seemed a burning shame to let this venerable home of the classics sink into decay, and soon liberal hands were opened in its aid. Gifts came from the wealthy in the North and in England, the Virginia Legislature made it a yearly appropriation, and in October, 1888, the old college once more opened its doors, and invited those athirst for education to its halls. In 1893 Congress sought to repay the injury done it during the war by an indemnity sum of ^64,000, and since that date the college has been fairly prosperous. Some two hundred students yearly seek its classic shades, and it possesses an endowment fund of $154,000, with aid from yearly benefactions. No institution in the land has been more highly honored with students of national fame than William and Mary College. Among its distinguished Alumni may be named such men as Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Tyler, Presidents of the United States; Benjamin Harrison, Carter Braxton, Thomas Nelson and George Wythe, who with Jefferson were signers of the Declaration of Independence; Edmund Randolph, the first Attorney-General of the United States; John Marshall and Bushrod Washington, famous jurists, and Winfield Scott, the first lieutenant general of our army. From 1788 to his death Washington was chancellor of the college. The Phi-Beta-Kappa College Society was founded in its halls in 1 776. While William and Mary ranks second in date among American institutions of learning, Washington and Lee stands sixth in date, being preceded, in addition to the early institutions named, only by Yale, Pennsylvania and Princeton. It had its origin in a collegiate institution founded in 1749 by Robert Alexander, an emigrant from Ireland in 1736. This bore at first the modest name of Augusta Academy, from the county in which it was estabhshed. In 1776 it was moved to Mount Pleasant, near Fairfield, and was given the name of Liberty Hall Academy. A second moving came in 1780, it being then located at Lexington, the capital of Rockbridge County, in which is Virginia's scenic wonder, the Natural Bridge. Its first endowment came from General Washington, to whom the General Assembly of Virginia had voted 100 shares of stock in the James River Canal Company, an enterprise which he had originated and developed. As Washington would not accept any payment for his services to his country or state, he donated this stock to the Liberty Hall Academy, which sought to reward him for the gift by adopting in 1798 the name of Washington Academy. The legislature had Common School to University 457 commuted the stock to an interest-bearing fund of ^50,000. In 1803 the Society of the Cincinnati gave the institution $25,000. The title of Washington College was adopted in 1813. The college went on, through days bright and dark, till the era of the Civil War, which led to its closing and the destruction of its scientific apparatus. When it opened its doors again in 1865, it was under the presidency of the most famous soldier of the South, Gener- al Robert E. Lee, who dropped the sword to take up the pen, and without a sigh of regret exchanged the command of victorious armies for the control of college boys. He did his duty in this humbler position with all the earnestness and serenity of soul he had shown in the tented field, and laid down his hfe in 1870 with the heartfelt tribute of respect and esteem: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." The college showed its gratitude to the distinguished man who had "rescued the institution from the obHteration that threatened it after the Civil War," by adding his name to its title, which now became the Washington and Lee University. Since that date the honored old college has found many friends in the South and North aHke, and it now possesses an endowment fund of $750,000 and an excellent annual attendance. Virginia possesses one other collegiate institution dating from the eighteenth century, the Hampden Sidney College, situated in Prince Edward county, seven miles from Farmville and sixty-eight from Richmond. It dates back to 1776, in the stirring early days of the Revolution, when a struggling school was started, which was raised to collegiate dignity in 1783. Among its incorporators were James Madison, Patrick Henry, and others of Virginia's illustrious sons, and many men of prominence have graduated from its halls. The college was founded as a Presbyterian institution. To-day it is in a fair state of prosperity and it has always maintained a high stand- ard of scholarship. A more flourishing institution, that dates back the greater part of a century, is the University of Virginia, situated near the pleasant- ly placed city of Charlottesville, on the eastern skirts of the Blue Ridge Mountains. A few miles distant, on the summit of a hill rising abruptly from the plain, stands Monticello, famous as the home of Thomas Jefferson, the true father of the college, for the institution owes its origin to Jefferson, by whom it was originated 45^ Common School to University and who was its first rector. Chartered in 1 8 19 and opened in 1825, it possessed the high honor of having its buildings planned by Jefferson, who produced in it the most artistic piece of academic architecture in America. His designs have been strictly adhered to in the recent additions to the classic structure. His purpose in founding it was to carry out his ideas of the objects of the higher education, which he classifies as follows: "(i) To form the statesmen, legislators and judges, on whom pubHc prosperity and individual happiness are so much to depend; " (2) To expound the principles and structure of government, the lav^s which regulate the intercourse of nations, those formed municipally for our own government, and a sound spirit of legislation which, banishing all unnecessary restraint on individual action, shall leave us free to do whatever does not violate the equal rights of another; " (3) To harmonize and promote the interests of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and by v^ell-informed views of poHtical economy to give a free scope to the public ministry; *' (4) To develop the reasoning faculties of our youth, enlarge their minds, cultivate their morals, and instil into them the pre- cepts of virtue and order; " (5) To enUghten them with mathematical and physical sciences, which advance the arts, and administer to the health, the subsistence and comforts of human life; " (6) And, generally, to form them to habits of reflection and correct action, rendering them examples of virtue to others, and of happiness within themselves." This institution is non-sectarian, and is singular m that it possesses no general curriculum, but is divided into separate indepen- dent schools, each under the charge of a professor, with assistants where needed. It receives an annual appropriation from the State, which grew from ^15,000 in 1825 to ^40,000 in 1884; and has had numerous gifts in equipments and endowments, including an observatory and a museum of natural history and geology. At the beginning of 1896 it possessed a library of about 54,000 volumes, but a fire in October of that year destroyed the rotunda and pubHc hall, several valuable paintings, and two-thirds of the Hbrary. Its Hbrary has grown again to about 60,000 volumes. Its attendance has varied Common School to University 459 greatly at different periods of its existence, and now numbers about 750. While not very largely endowed with productive funds, it has an annual income of nearly ^200,000. Virginia possesses several institutes of education of later date and of considerable interest. Oldest among these is the Randolph- Macon College, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church South in Mecklenburg County in 1830. Suffering severely in the Civil War it was removed in 1866 to Ashland and re-endowed. In 1893 a branch institution, for the education of women, was founded at Lynchburg. There are also two Randolph-Macon Academies, preparatory schools for the college, the whole four being under one body of trustees. In 1839 there was founded at Lexington the -Virginia Military Institute, which furnished numerous soldiers to the Virginia line in the Civil War, chief among them being the far famed Stonewall Jackson, who was a professor in that Institute from 1852 until he laid down the pen to take up the sword. In April, 1861, at the call of the State, the corps of cadets marched to Richmond, under the command of their professor, then Major Jackson, who had no higher ambition than to resume his duties in the Institute at the close of the war. Unfortunately, death prevented his carrying out his intention. In June, 1864, Lexington was visited by the military expedition under General David Hunter, who carried the brand of destruction up the valley of Virginia and devoted the buildings of the Institute to the flames, as if these were " contraband of war. " The war over, the buildings and equipments were rapidly restored, and the Insti- tute — the West Point of the South, as it has been called — entered upon a career of prosperity which it still maintains. The Virginia Polytechnic Institute, founded at Blacksburg in 1871, is a prominent and interesting institution, turning out annually a large class of well-instructed graduates in mechanical engineering and scientific branches of study. It has an annual attendance of about 600 students. Blacksburg possesses also a flourishing Agricultural and Mechanical College, founded in 1872, under a Congressional grant of public lands. In connection with the college is a fine farm of 338 acres, where instruction in practical and theo- retical agriculture is given and an agricultural experiment station is maintained. 46o Common School to University Another Virginia institution which has attracted much atten- tion is the Hampton Institute, founded in 1868 at Hampton, near Fortress Monroe, by General Hampton, for the instruction of Indian youths. Negro students were soon added, and large numbers of teachers were sent from here to the colored schools of the South, among them the well-known Booker T. Washington. The school has reached a very flourishing state of normal and industrial educa- tion, and has an annual attendance of about 1400 Indian and negro students, with an endowment fund of over ^1,000,000. Oldest among the collegiate institutions of Maryland is George- town University, which was founded under Roman Catholic control in 1789, while its location was still Maryland territory. Georgetown subsequently became a part of the city of Washington, and the uni- versity an institution of the District of Columbia, among which it ranks among the chief collegiate enterprises. The university en- joys a good income and has an annual class of nearly 700 students, with a large and valuable library, containing over 90,000 volumes. Maryland contains various other institutes of education, chiei among them being the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and the Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore. The latter stands very high among American universities, it occupying the position of a post-graduate institution as well as of a college for undergraduates. Founded in 1867, under a munificent gift from the wealthy merchant Johns Hopkins, it was not opened for instruction till 1876, and has since won the highest standing in the fostering of advanced scientific, historical and political research, the results being embodied in many volumes of original papers written by students of the university. The productive funds of the institution at present amount to ^4,400,000. Seeking the location of others of the early educational institu- tions of the South, we find one of much interest at Nashville, Ten- nessee, known as the University of Nashville. As early as 1785, when what is now the State of Tennessee was part of North Carolina, and was chiefly a wilderness within which white settlers were just beginning to build themselves homes, there was organized in the then small settlement of Nashville a school called the Davidson Academy. As the town grew, the school grew with it, expanding in size and dignity. In 1806 it was rechristened the Cumberland College, and in 1826 became the University of Nashville. It has Common School to University 461 continued to flourish, and now has an enrolment of about 1400 students. It is a coeducational, non-sectarian institution. In addition to this educational institution, Nashville possesses several others of prominence, of the most important of which we shall speak. On January 24, 1872, a convention of delegates represent- ing the Methodist Episcopal Church South met in this city to devise some method of promoting higher education under the auspices of that Church. A plan was adopted, a board of trustees chosen, a charter obtained under the title of the Central University, and every- thing was done except the essential one of raising the necessary funds. These were not forthcoming, and the enterprise seemed at the point of death when Bishop McLyeire induced the elder Cornelius Vanderbilt to endow the projected school with a fund of ^500,000. In gratitude for this gift the name was changed to Vanderbilt University. The institution has since been an object of the special beneficence of the Vanderbilts. The founder doubled his original donation; his son W. H. gave it in all ^450,000; his grandson, Wil- liam K. added ^140,000, and another grandson, Cornelius ^80,000. Smaller gifts were received from other quarters, and the institution now possesses, in addition to its various buildings and its seventy-six acres of ground, productive funds to the Value of $1,500,000. It has 100 instructors, about 800 pupils, and a library of 30,000 volumes. Fisk University at Nashville, an institution for the instruction of colored teachers, was among the first founded for that purpose, it dating back to 1866, shortly after the close of the Civil War. It arose through the efforts of General E. B. Fisk, and has been active and useful in the work of providing tutors for the manumitted race, having graduated over 600 since its organization. At present it is in a flourishing condition, having 43 teachers and over 500 pupils. In addition to the regular course of study, it has normal and industrial branches and schools of theology and music. Its charge for tuition is put at the very low annual rate of $15, while the expenses of students are scaled down to about $103. This institution has been of great benefit in the work of advancing the condition of the negro race. Nashville has still another school of this character, the Roger Williams University, founded in 1863. Among the mountains of Eastern Tennessee is another univer- sity city, that of Knoxville, in which is situated the University of Tennessee, an institution of early date and considerable importance. 462 Common School to University Knoxville, seated in the center of a highly productive coal and iron region, with zinc mines and a large number of fine marble quarries in its vicinity, has naturally become an active seat of industry, and has a large shipping and distributing trade. Its institutions em- brace the State University, the State Agricultural College, a Deaf and Dumb School and an Insane Asylum. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became a state, the University has grown into an important and highly useful seat of learning, its classes now numbering about 700 pupils, with 80 teachers, while it has an endowment of ^425,000. Co- education of the sexes is a feature of the school, and no restriction is made as to color. Promi- nent among the re- maining educational institutions of Ten= nessee are the Grant University at Chat- tanooga, the Univer- sity of the South at Sewanee, the Cum- berland University at Lebanon, the Waldon University and the Peabody Teachers' College at Nashville. It is a little singular that the daughter State of Tennessee had established institutions of learning before the mother State of North CaroHna had any to her credit. But the latter was not far in the rear, the University of North CaroHna being founded in 1795, under a charter granted in 1789. It is a non-sectarian institution, under state control, its earhest endowment being a gift of 201,000 acres of land in Tennessee, made by Benjamin Smith, who officiated as Governor of the state in 1810-1811. The University Is situated at Chapel Hill, Orange County, Its wealth in productive funds at THE DECREASING ILLITERACY OF THE SOUTH The white section represents the illiteracy in 1900; the white and black, together show the illiteracy in i8po. The decrease from tpoo to igo7 has been much more rapid. Common School to University 463 present is not large, but, under annual appropriations from the state, it is doing excellent work, and has a yearly attendance of over 700 students. Among the other educational institutions of the state are the College of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts at West Raleigh, the Biddle University, the Asheville, Davidson, Wake Forest and sever- al other colleges, and for the higher education of the colored race, the Shaw University, the Scotia Seminary, the Livingston College, and the St. Augustine Normal College. North CaroHna has had for years one of the most efficient agricultural departments of any state in the Union, this including an experimental station and farm of 5000 acres, the first in the South and the second in the United States. The neighboring state of South Carolina also boasts an institu- tion of early origin, the South Carolina College — now the University of South Carolina — founded at Columbia, the State Capital, in 1801. This was by no means the first collegiate institution of the state; one had been founded in 1785 and others projected, but they were in advance of pubHc demand, and the state felt obHged to take hold of the question by founding the above named college at the new capital city in the opening year of the nineteenth century. The institution became full fledged as a college in 1806, and in 1880 it was reorganized with two branches, the South CaroHna Agricultural and Mechanical College in the original building at Columbia, and the Claflin University at Orangeburg, The latter, despite its ambitious title, is the humbler in its purposes, being intended for the education of negroes. The original institution had been open to the colored race from 1866 to 1877, and it was the strong objection to this that led to the 1880 division into separate institutions for whites and negroes. So far as attendance goes, the colored branch is the ii.ore flourishing of the two, having an annual class of about 750, as com- pared with less than 350 for the white branch. The list of graduates from the parent college includes many names of illustrious citizens, and it has entered its second century of existence with a high standard of attainment and excellent promise. The state has several other educational institutions of impor- tance, chief among them the Clemson Agricultural College, with 650 students, the Converse College at Spartanburg, with an atten- dance of 300, and the Furman University at Greenville, 464 Common School to University Kentucky possesses no college of ancient foundation like those of the neighboring state of Tennessee, though it has a number of flourishing institutions. The Kentucky University, founded at Lexington in 1858, has an annual attendance of 1200 students under 60 instructors. Tiie Central University, a Presbyterian estabhsh- ment at Danville, founded in 1874, has an equally numerous atten- dance, and a productive endov^ment of ^500,000. Another flour- ishing institute is Berea College, estabHshed at Berea in 1855, w^hich has an annual attendance of over 1000 and an endowment of ^500,000. At Lexington is also the State College of Kentucky, founded in 1865, and with 800 students. For the higher education of the colored race Louisville possesses the State University of Kentucky, founded in 1879 under Baptist auspices and with an annual attendance of about 250. Missouri possesses a number of flourishing institutions, chief among which in prosperity is the Washington University of St. Louis, a non-sectarian institution incorporated in 1853. It embraces six separate schools started at different times: — the undergraduate department, which includes the college (1859); ^^^ ^^- Louis Law School (1867); the OTallon Polytechnic School (1870); the Henry Shaw School of Botany (1886); the St. Louis Medical College (1891), and the Missouri Dental College (1892). There are also three secondary schools attached to the university. The several depart- ments have in all arx attendance of nearly 2000, with 225 instructors, and the endowment of the institution amounts to ^5,500,000. Situated in the town of Columbia is the University of Missouri, an institution founded in 1840, and which has since added to its academic work departments of agriculture and mechanics, mines and metallurgy, medicine,engineering, etc. It is coeducational and non- sectarian in character and is largely attended, its classes numbering some 2400 students. It possesses a library of 64,000 volumes, while its income, including tuition fees, is over ,^500,000. Of the other institutions of the State it must suffice to mention the St. Louis University, a Roman CathoHc College, founded in 1829, and with an annual attendance of over 800. There are 50,000 volumes in its library. The leading scholastic institution in Arkansas is the State University, situated at Fayetteville, where it was founded in 1872. It has at present an attendance of about 1800 students under a Common School to University 465 faculty of over 100 instructors. Little Rock, the State Capital, possesses an institution known as the Philander Smith College, which attracts to its halls some 600 students, and there are various other colleges in different sections of the state. Among the Gulf States of the South, Georgia came early into the field of higher education, the University of Georgia in its early humble form dating back to 1785. In 1801 steps were taken to raise REPRODUCl ION OF THE F1K.S1' TUSKEGEE BUILDING It was in this building that the Tuslcegee Normal and Industrial Institute began on July 4th, 1881. it to the dignity of a State University, and the first commencement took place in 1804. This seat of learning has had a prosperous his- tory, and is now in a flourishing condition, with an annual attendance in its various departments of over 2700 students, and an endow- ment fund of ^500,000. The college proper (The Franklin College at Athens) admits annually free of charge "fifty meritorious young men of limited means" and also students for the university who need 30 466 Common School to University aid. Connected with it is a medical college at Augusta and an agricultural college of Dahlonega. The State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts is also a branch of the university, and has a special endowment supplied by the United States of ^240,000. There are in addition a law department and a preparatory school. The Baptist denomination in Georgia entered the field of education in 1833 with a manual-labor school called the Mercer Institute, situated at Penfield. In 1838 this developed into the Mercer University, a collegiate establishment which pursued a course of usefulness until the Civil War. The war over, it started afresh, and in 1871 was removed from the retired village of Penfield to the bustling city of Macon, where it has grown and prospered. This institution has, in addition to the academic course, schools of law and theology. Its classes number about 300, its library contains 15,000 volumes, and it has an endowment of nearly ^300,000. Macon also boasts the Wesleyan Female College, chartered in 1836, and one of the first, if not quite the first, colleges for women in the world. In the same year Emory College was founded at Oxford in Newton County, under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. It has a valuable college apparatus and a good working library, but lacks an endowment. Its annual classes approach 300 in number. The above are the more important of the many educational institutions of Georgia, a state which has taken an advanced position in the field, not alone in the liberaHty of its appropriations, but by the adoption of modern methods in its public school system, and its normal school establishments. Intelligent care has been taken of the education of the colored race, these having an important seat of collegiate instruction in the Atlanta University, founded in 1867 by the Freedman's Bureau, and now aided by the State with an annual appropriation. Its endowment amounts to ^60,000, and it accommo- dates 300 pupils. Atlanta has in Clark University a second institu- tion devoted to the same purpose, being open to students "regardless of race or color. " It is well attended, its classes numbering over 600, and it adds to its collegiate courses instruction in agriculture and an active and useful manual-training department. It is under the fostering care of the Methodist denomination. The neighboring state of Florida has not as yet made much progress in education, on account of the lateness of its development. Common School to University 467 Its most promising institutions are the John B. Stetson University at De Land, a Baptist College with about 450 students, and the RoUins College, founded in 1885 at Winter Park, a beautifully situated lake- side town designed to be a center of educational influence. There is also a State University at Tallahassee, a recent institution; a State Agricultural College at Lake City, and for the education of negro preachers and teachers, the Florida Institute at Live Oak and the Cookman Institute at Jacksonville. Alabama has kept pace with Georgia in the development of educational institutions, and the science of instruction has made promising steps of development in that progressive state. In this movement the city of Mobile, one of the first centers of population in the state, has played a prominent part. A century and a half ago, when Mobile was a French city, the establishment of a college there was suggested by the royal government, and this city became the site of the first American school. While still a Territory, money was appropriated in Alabama for schools at Huntsville and St. Stephens. In 1820 the State Legislature passed a law for the establishment of the University of Alabama, which institution opened its doors at Tuscaloosa in 183 1. It was endowed by the Federal Government with a splendid grant of lands, and has had a flourishing career. Most of the University buildings were burned by Federal Troops in April, 1865, but they have been fully restored and the institution is admirably equipped in buildings, apparatus and hbrary. In 1884 Congress made restitution for the destruction of the buildings by a grant of a tract of about 46,000 acres of mineral lands, including some of the most valuable coal lands in the state. Some 16,000 acres of this have been sold, while the remainder promise to make the University one of the best endowed institutions of learn- ing in the land. The state owes the University ^300,000 derived from the original grant of lands, which forms the present productive endowment. There are fourteen departments of instruction, including professional schools of law and medicine, the annual classes at present numbering 470. Another institution of importance is the Alabama Polytechnic College at Auburn, founded in 1872 as the Agricultural and Mechan- cal College. This is conceded to be the best school of its kind in the state and one of the best in the country. Its course of education is both liberal and practical, and it aims to present such "facilities for 468 Common School to University technical and scientific education as the future development of Alabama demands." This useful school has an annual attendance of about 600 and a library of 20,000 volumes. It is unendov^ed, de- pending for support on tuition fees. Among the various other institutions of the state may be named the Industrial School for v^hite girls at Montevallo, numbering 400 students, the Southern University at Greensboro, founded under Methodist auspices in 1856, and the Normal Schools, of which there are four for white and three for colored students. The colored race has also a progressive inistitution in Talladega College, founded by the American Missionary Association in 1887 for theological instruction. It has an endowment of $235,000, and an annual attendance of 600 students. Best known to the country at large among the educational institutions of Alabama is the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, which has been made widely famous by the abihty and enterprise of its president, Booker T. Washington. Organized in 1 88 1 by a graduate of Hampton Institute, who had been born in slavery, and made his way upward by indomitable spirit and thirst for knowledge, he opened this institution in an old frame shanty with a few pupils, and in twenty years afterward had under his control a flourishing establishment, with 2500 acres of land, and more than fifty buildings, all of them built by the students themselves, who numbered in 1906, 1,630 under 156 instructors. In 1899 Congress added to the endowment by a grant of 25,000 acres of mineral land, and the Institute has at present property valued at $400,000 and productive funds amounting to $1,238,000. No man in the country has done so much for the true progress of the negro race as the capable, sensible and indefatigable President of Tuskegee Institute, of whom Alabama is justly proud. While the pubHc school system of Mississippi dates back only to 1871, it has been managed with such energy and efficiency that it now ranks among the best in the Union, this state expending perhaps more for education in proportion to taxable valuation than any other state in the Union. The state appropriation for public school purposes is more than a million dollars annually, and for educational purposes generally nearly a million and a half. Among its leading educational institutions it possesses at Oxford the State University, founded in 1848, and enjoying at present an endowment of $695,000. Common School to University 469 This has been derived from the sale of lands appropriated by Con- gress in 1879. The institution ranks high among the colleges of the country. In addition to the ordinary collegiate course, it has facili- ties for professional education, including a school of law and depart- ments of science, literature and the arts. Tuition is free to all except law students, who pay a small sum. Another institution owing its foundation to aid from the Federal Government is the State Agricultural and Mechanical College, founded under a donation of 207,920 acres ofpubHcland, which has been converted into a fund of ^$227, 150. This sum was divided in 1878 by the legislature between two institutions, the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College at Starkville, and the Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College, the latter being devoted to the instruction of negro youth. The former possesses a farm of 1940 acres, well stocked with improved breeds of cattle and with a complete farming outfit. 600 acres are under cultivation, and the annual attendance is over 800, and is rapidly increasing. Tuition is free both in this and in the negro school, which has also been very successful. The oldest of Louisiana schools is Tulane University at New Orleans, whose original foundation as the University of Louisiana dates back to 1834. Its present title was given in 1884, in recogni- tion of a munificent donation made to it by Mr. Paul Tulane, a wealthy resident of the city. Aided by this endowment, the institu- tion has made rapid progress, and includes Colleges of Arts, Science and Technology, and the Newcomb Memorial College for Women established in 1886. The University is now in a flourishing state, with an annual attendance of over 1300, a library containing 35,000 volumes and an endowment fund of ^2,184,000. New Orleans possesses a collegiate institution for the higher education of negroes, founded in 1874, with the title of New Orleans University, under the leadership of Dr. J. C. Hartzell, now Bishop of Africa. This embraces a college of Liberal Arts, a Normal, and a Medical College, the latter known since 1 901 as the Flint Medical College, in recogni- tion of an endowment by John I. Flint, of Fall River, Massachusetts. The attendance numbers about 800 annually, tuition being free. The Louisiana State University located at Baton Rouge, is a military school, but has an important industrial department, in which the mechanical arts are taught. Another institution of similar aims is 470 Common School to University the Audubon Sugar School, which has supplied the sugar industry of the state with a large number of scientific workers. In addition to the New Orleans University the state possesses several other institutions devoted to negro education, one of these being the Leland University, also situated at New Orleans, organ- ized in 1870 under Baptist auspices. It is credited with the large attendance in 1902 of 1270. Gilbert Industrial College at Winsted, St. Mary's Parish, is devoted to the same purpose. It is supported THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY OF THE TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE by the Freedman's Aid and Southern Educational Society, and includes in its Hues of instruction the ordinary English branches, with agriculture and the mechanical arts. Texas, the final State with which we are concerned, possesses a number of flourishing collegiate institutions, the oldest among them being Baylor University, founded in 1845 in the then independent Republic of Texas — ^while free from Mexico but not yet annexed to the United States. It was named after Robert E. B. Baylor, a former member of Congress from Alabama, and for twenty-five Common School to University 471 years a judge in Texas. This institution, seated at Independence, was given a university curriculum and classes in 1851 by the Rev. R. C. Barleson, its President from 1850 to i860. In the latter year he and all the faculty resigned, and inaugurated at Waco a new school under the name of Waco University. In 1882 the two were united into one under the original name of Baylor University, with Dr. Burleson still as President. Waco became the seat of the com- bined institution, which is under Baptist control, and in 1906 had classes numbering nearly 1200 students. Fort Worth also possesses a flourishing university founded in 1881, and with an annual attendance of some 800. In 188? was founded at Austin the University of Texas, for which the state had set aside 1,226,000 acres of land. This is in a flourishing condition, with nearly 1500 students, over 40,000 volumes in its library, and productive funds amounting to ^2,000,000. It furnishes free tuition. Texas has in addition an Agricultural and Mechanical College, founded under a grant of land from Congress. For the higher education of the colored race the leading institution is Wiley Univer- sity, founded at Marshall in 1873 under Methodist auspices. It makes a very small charge for tuition, and its classes number about 500 students. In conclusion some woras may be appended on the subject of negro education in the South, an undertaking which has made an encouraging advance since the Civil War. The pathetically eager desire for learning manifested by the newly freed slaves, apparently with the idea that in this lay the secret of white ascendancy, has died away in considerable measure as the years have rolled on, yet earnest eff'orts have been made to give the negroes the fullest opportunities for instruction, alike through the large provision for common school education, the institution of normal schools and the establishment of colleges in the several States, the principal of which we have named. As regards the latter institutions, however, it must be said that the eff"ort to make a cultured scholar of the negro has proved in great measure a delusion and a snare, and the prevailing opinion sets strongly in favor of such institutions as Tuskegee Institute, in which industrial education is made the leading feature. For instruction in agriculture and mechanics the negro is ripe. These he is capable of absorbing and the field for this exercise is large. But the higher branches of collegiate education are very apt to go over his head, 472 Common School to University leaving him only a smattering which will never make him a scholar but may make him a conceited prig. Much may be done in the direction of making him a capable worker, but the attempt to make him an able scholar is quite sure, except in some rare instances, to be waste labor. No one recognizes this more fully than Booker T. Washington, whose intelligent work at Tuskegee has gone so far toward solving the negro problem, and whose trained students are now among the leaders of their race in a hundred localities. The object of the Institute is, as stated in its circular, "to furnish to young colored men and women the opportunity to acquire thorough moral, Hterary and industrial training, so that when they go out from Tuskegee, by putting into execution the practical ideas learned here, they may become the real leaders of their communities, and thus bring about healthier moral and natural conditions." In this laudable enterprise the Institute has had an encouraging success. CHAPTER XXVL THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOUTHERN LITERATURE Early American literature — Political genius of the South — Page on the lack of an early Southern literature — The pioneer writers — Early magazines — Kennedy and Simms — Cooke and Carruthers — Former women novelists — Edgar A. Poe as a poet — His stories and criticisms — Other poets of his period — Humorous writers — Effect of the war on the South — The new period and its writers — Page and Harris — Lanier, Hayne and Timrod — Novelists of a new type — Later writers of fiction — The characteristics of Southern literature. WHEN we compare the literary development of the two great original sections of the United States, the South and the North, it is to find the former lagging far behind the latter in early accompHshment. This the late able and ample hterary achievement of the South definitely proves to have not been due to lack of intellectual power, and its cause must be sought in the special conditions of Southern hfe and society in the early times. In the colonial period the South had practically no hterature. But the North was nearly in the same condition. It had writers, but very little that deserves the name of Hterature. It was not until this country became a nation that literary work of value as compared with the finer productions of Europe began to make its appearance. We can well understand why this literature was confined to the North. The intellect of the South at that time was otherwise trained and otherwise employed. PoHtics was the passion of Southern thinkers, and oratory one of the principal forms in which their thoughts found vent. From the early and passionate outbursts of such masters of oratory as Patrick Henry, to the more subdued and classical efforts of Richard Henry Lee, "the American Cicero," Madison, Marshall, Wirt and others of fame, the literature of oratory flourished, the principles of government being set forth with great abihty, clearness, and philosophic breadth of appreciation by a series 473 474 Southern Literature of speakers and thinkers of fine powers. And political thought was by no means confined to oratory. Among the three authors of the splendid political essays of the "Federalist," Madison, the Virginian, ranked second to Hamilton, the West Indian. It need scarcely be said that for pure Engfish and fine powers of reasoning the " FederaUst" is a monument to the genius of our early statesmen. Jeff'erson was another noted political writer of this time, a man of much cultivation, scholarly tastes and high aspirations. As the most famous produc- tion of his pen we must needs point to the great American gospel of liberty, the "Declaration of Inde- pendence," but his writings as a whole were full of pith and power. We shall, however, not dilate upon this subject. While such productions evince fine power of thought and logical penetration, they are not looked upon as litera- ture in the ordinary sense. The purpose of literature in its usual significance is entertainment; in- struction entering into it only in a minor degree. Of literature, as thus defined, the South was practi- cally deficient until well within the nineteenth century, and though ndeared niauy writcrs appeared in the half century before the Civil War, they were greatly outnumbered and surpassed in reputation by the Northern writers of the same period. The reason for this is so well put by Thomas Nelson Page, in "The Old South," that it seems preferable to give it in his words rather than to offer a sep- arate explanation of it. He says: — ■ " It has been generally charged, and almost universally beHeved, that the want of a literature in the South was the result of intellectual poverty. The charge, however, is without foundation, as will be apparent to any fair-minded student who considers the position held by the South, not only during the period of the formation of the Government, but also throughout the long struggle between the South and the North over the momentous questions generated by the institu- JAMES LANE ALLEN The well known Kentucky Author, who has e himself to the citizeus of his state by his de ful stories of the " Blue-Grass " Region. Southern Literature 475 tion of slavery. In the former crisis the South asserted herself with a power and wisdom unsurpassed in the history of intellectual resource ; throughout the latter period she maintained the contest with consummate ability and with transcendent vigor of intellect. "The causes of the absence of a Southern literature are to be looked for elsewhere than in intellectual indigence. The intellect- ual conditions were such as might well have created a noble litera- ture, but the physical conditions were adverse to its production and were too potent to be overcome. "The principal causes were the following: — • " I. The people of the South were an agricultural people, widely diffused, and lacking the stimulus of immediate mental contact. "2. The absence of cities, which in the history of literary life have proved literary foci essential for its production, and the want of publishing houses at the South. "3. The exactions of the institution of slavery, and the absorp- tion of the intellectual forces of the people of the South in the solution of the vital problems it engendered. "4. The general ambition of the Southern people for political distinction, and the application of their hterary powers to polemical controversy. "5. The absence of a reading public at the South for American authors, due in part to the conservatism of the Southern people. "No merely agricultural people has ever produced a literature. It would appear that for the production of literature some center is requisite, where men with literary instincts may commingle, and where their thoughts may be focussed. The life of the South was in the fields, and its population was so diffused that there was always lacking the mental stimulus necessary to the production of a litera- ture. There were few towns and yet fewer cities. But these few — Baltimore, New Orleans, Charleston, Richmond and Louisville — all attested the truth of this observation. From them radiated the occasional beams of light which illumined the general darkness of the period." He further says: "What might not the eloquence and genius of Clay have effected had they been turned in the direction of litera- ture, or what the mental acumen, the philosophic force, the learning of Calhoun, of whom Dr. Dwight said when he left college that the young man knew enough to be President of the United States! 476 Southern Literature How much did literature lose when Marshall, Wirt, the Lees, Martin, Pinkney, Berrien, Hayne, Preston, Cobb, Celingham, Ruffin, Legare, Soule, Davis, Roane, Johnston, Crittenden, devoted all their brilliant powers to politics and the law! John Randolph boasted that he should *go down to the grave guiltless of rhyme, ' yet his letters contain the concentrated essence of literary energy; his epigrams stung like a branding-iron, and are the current coin of tradition throughout his native state two generations after his death." Yet we must not give a false impression by quoting this some- what pessimistic view of the paucity of Southern literature. While little was done from a comparative point of view, much was achieved. While Southern authors of the ante-war period were far fewer than those of the North, they were nevertheless considerable in number, and some among them men of genius and abihty. This can be best shown by naming the leaders among them. John Marshall, the great Chief-Justice of the United States, found tim^e among his varied duties to write an admirable "Life of Washington," which has been called "the first great contribution to American historical literature." WiUiam Wirt, distinguished as one of the chief lawyers in the prosecution for treason of Aaron Burr, produced a very able "Life of Patrick Henry," which has made him more famous than all his reputation as a great lawyer. He also contributed to literature "The Letters of a British Spy," and "The Old Bachelor," works in lighter vein. Jefferson's contribution was in his "Notes on Virginia," which attracted general attention throughout Europe. Among the more distinctly Hterary authors of the early period was Edward Coate Pinkney, whose well-known poems, "The Health" and "The Picture Song," have won a fixed abiding plane in our literature. His uncle, Ninian Pinkney, pre- ceded him in hterary production, writing a book of "Travels in the South of France," of which Leigh Hunt said, "It set all the idle world to going to France to live on the charming banks of the Loire." These, and most of the other writers of whom we propose to speak, were deeply immersed in the law, there being such slight pecuniary returns from literature that few thought of adopting it as a profession. Among those lawyers who wrote occasionally as a relaxation were the Tuckers of Virginia, a family of writers, who have left us poems and essays, and such romances as "The Partisan Southern Literature 477 Leaders" and "Hansford, a Tale of Bacon's Rebellion," and John Pendleton Kennedy, of Maryland, who might have made a great name as an author but for the persistent demands of legal and political business. We could say the same of a score of others, scattered widely throughout the South. The openings, indeed, for profitable literary labor in the South were few, and many of the authors had to seek publishers or periodicals in the North. Of Southern magazines of prominence at that period may be named Niles's Register, published in Baltimore from 1811 to 1849, and serving as a channel for the Pinkneys, Kennedy, Francis Scott Key and many others. The Southern Re- view, published in Charleston from 1828 to 1832, and followed in suc- cession by The Southern Literary journal and The Southern Quar- terly Review, occupied a useful po- sition. Others of utiHty to South- ern writers were The Southern and Western Magazine and Review, The Southern Literary Gazette, The Cosmopolitan, The Magnolia, etc., in which Simms, Legate, Hayne, Timrod, DeBow, and others found a channel for the productions of their pens. Prentice's Courier Journal, of Louisville, opened its SAMUEL langhorne clemens columns to literary aspirants, and ''^t^^':Eittt::)^i::rZ::K^::i^ made that city the literary center ''''^^:\:'l^'tZ^^TJ^:^'- of a wide section, its contributors humorists and authors. including such well known authors as Prentice himself, Amelia B. Welby, Mrs. Betts, Mrs. Warfield, and Mrs. Jeffrey. The Southern Literary Messenger, begun in 1835 at Richmond, Virginia, and continued until 1864, was the most noted literary magazine of that period which the South produced. Its success was largely due to the writings and editorship of Edgar A. Poe, and it was supported by the literary talent of Virginia and the South. Yet of these magazines we can but quote Page's statement that MARK TWAIN' 478 Southern Literature "They enlisted whatever literary ability there was to be secured, but they received no encouragement and met with no success. The hab- its of life and the expenses of Hfe at the South were against them. " Returning to the consideration of the authors, the name of Francis Scott Key occurs as the first to produce a poem of enduring fame. "The Star-Spangled Banner," written during the bombard- ment of Fort McHenry, at Baltimore, in 1814, survives and prom.ises long to survive as the most famous national song of America and the one with the truest and most distinctive American flavor. Struck out in the inspiration of the moment, it has lived down hosts of more pretentious productions and elaborately wrought poetic effusions. Passing from poetry to romance, we meet as chief among the early Southern writers in this field with the name of John Pendleton Ken- nedy, above mentioned, author of three novels, "Swallow Barn," " Horse-Shoe Robinson," and " Rob of the Bowl, " in which we have vivid and pleasing pictures of some of the characteristic aspects of Southern Hfe. These productions gave him a position among the leading novehsts of his day. Among his other works is the sarire en- titled "Annals of Quodlibet." Kennedy, as we have stated, made the law and the legislature his business, literature his recreation. Such was not the case with William Gilmore Sirnms, of South Carolina, one of the very few early Southern writers who pursued literature as a profession. Of all the distinctly literary men of the South he was the most prolific, his industry being immense, his devotion to literature exacting, and his ability high. His pen dealt with poetry, romance, history, biography and essay, in all of which he made a respectable showing. From his first venture, a volume of poems published at Charleston in 1827, till his death in 1870, he toiled unceasingly in the field of Southern literature. Though he wrote poetry during much of his life, it is as a writer of fiction that his name is known. Beginning with "Martin Faber" in 1833, he issued novels in rapid succession, most of them based on the romantic fea- tures of Southern life. Of these "The Yemassee" is perhaps the best, yet most of them were widely read In his day. His works have the faults of his time, too much prolixity and description, and too great a tendency to wander from his subject, but Poe considered him second only to Cooper as a novelist. His choice of subjects resembled that of Cooper, and In dealing with Indian heroes he doubtless came much nearer than Cooper to the truth of nature. f; ■r. hr 1J -n ^ Pi ^ |V o <^J p: c: •V 'X 1- '_5 "{i < o ^ UJ !< -*-' ^ o rt tu •^ -^j •v o 5 o 1^ , H rf 1 — 1 .^ o r/i ^ Cci o 1 — > P en oi P w ^ O K H OJ >> () 'O _-j:^ IL> (Tl C/J Oj ID .^ 'Si) u, S < O ■ca o t! CJ 'i^ cr. ^ cAj 'jz; J3 bf) > > r- ^ rt H rt - Southern Literature 479 Somewhat later in time comes the third of the ante-war novel- ists of the South, John Esten Cooke, whose best work, however, was produced after the war. His early productions included "Leather Stocking and Silk," "The Virginia Comedians," "The Last of the Foresters," "Bonnybel Vane," and "The Youth of Jefferson." Of these "The Virginia Comedians" is looked upon as the best novel produced by the South before the war. It is an interesting picture of life at Williamsburg, the old capital, in the colonial period. To the modern taste its style is high-flown and extravagant, yet it may still be read with interest as a live portrayal of colonial times. In the Civil War Cooke served on the staff of General Stuart, the renowned cavalry leader, and his later works, based partly on this war experience, — "Surrey of Eagle's Nest," "Mohun," "Hilt to Hilt,"" Hammer and Rapier," and "Wearingof the Gray," — surpass in ability those of his early period. Better still are his works in biography and history. A novelist of earlier date and lesser fame was Dr. William A. Carruthers, a native of Virginia who made his native State his theme. "The Cavaliers of Virginia, or the Recluse of Jamestown," pub- lished in 1832, dealt with the romance of Bacon's Rebellion. The novel by which he is best known is "The Knights of the Horseshoe, a Traditioner's Tale of the Cocked Hat Gentry in the Old Dominion, " based on a famous episode in the history of Virginia of which we have elsewhere written. Bacon's Rebellion also gave the cue for "Hansford," by St. George Tucker, Jr., a work very popular in its day. So much for the men; now a word for the women. The writ- ings of some of these not only much exceeded in volume nearly all the authors we have named, but they were also more successful in attracting readers. Best known among the women novelists of the class in question were Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth, Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz, Mrs. Catharine Ann Warfield, and Miss Augusta J. Evans, all of whom found a wide circle of readers in North and South alike. Their success gave the inspiration to numerous others, and had we space at command we might give the names of some two hundred, whose works include novels, poems, sketches of travel, etc. Of those named Mrs. Hentz and Mrs. Southworth were very prolific and won an immense popularity, though not an enduring fame. Among Mrs. Hentz's best romances are "The Mob Cap," "The 48o Southern Literature Planter's Northern Bride," "Linda," and "Rena," while of Mrs. Southworth's more than fifty novels, "Retribution," the first, had an immense sale, and was followed by "The Deserted Wife," "The Missing Bride," and a rapid succession of others. Both these authors were born in the North, but they spent their lives in the South and wrote on Southern themes, though in a very exaggerated and untrustworthy way. Much superior to them in literary ability is Mrs. Terhune ("Marion Harland"), who pubhshed before the war "Alone," "The Hidden Path," "Moss Side" and "Nemesis." These possess a literary character and an artistic touch to which the others named did not aspire. We have hitherto spoken only in passing of the greatest of all the authors of the South, and one of the most original of the writers of America, Edgar A. Poe, whose fame has grown with the years and who now is held to rank among the ablest poets and sketch writers of the world. Among the geniuses of literature there are few names whose history is so completely dark and sad. The author of "The Raven" and "The Bells," and of those wonderful romances which have made his name famous, was the son of a pair of actors on the variety stage, and was born in Boston in 1809. His parents, how- ever, were of Southern birth and he came of an ancient and honorable Maryland family. The death of his mother in Richmond in 181 1 left her three children to the care of the pubHc. Edgar, who was a beautiful and precocious child, was adopted by Mrs. John Allan, by whom he was brought up in luxury. He was a brilliant scholar, and had the best educational advantages; but at the University of Vir- ginia, which he entered at the age of seventeen, he formed the habit of drinking, — a habit which wrecked his whole life. After graduat- ing, he spent a year in Europe, and became editor of the Southern Literary Messenger and afterward of the Gentlemen s Magazine and Graham's Magazine. He married his cousin, Virginia Clemm, when she was only fourteen years of age, and the two, with Virginia's mother, led a life of the deepest poverty for ten years, until his wife's death. This marriage, rash and fooHsh as it seems, was one of the best things in Poe's life. He was a kind and devoted husband, and his wife repaid him with an aff'ection that was little short of worship. His career as an author began with the publication in 1827 of a small volume of poems entitled "Tamerlane and other Poems," followed by a second volume two years later, As for the fife of the Southern Literature 481 poet at this time nothing very creditable can be said. After various escapades he was sent to West Point, but here so wilfully neglected his military duties that he was court-martialed and dismissed in 183 1. This ended his connection with Mr. Allan, who refused him any further aid, and he was thrown on his own resources. These soon settled into the hard task, at that time, of supporting himself by his pen. In 1833 came his first literary success, the story of "The MS. found in a Bottle," which won him a prize of one hundred dollars. Two years later the marriage above mentioned took place, His life after that was a desultory one, his pen giving forth productions in poetry and prose of extraordi- nary originality, yet which yielded him little money, while his habits grew steadily worse, especially af- ter the death of his wife in 1847. Two years after that he himself died, the victim of drink or opium as is usually claimed, though this is by some denied. Poe ever declared himself a Virginian, and, in the opinion of Page, his poems "Are as distinctly Southern in their coloring, tone and temper as Wordsworth's are Enghsh. The wild landscape, the flower-laden atmosphere, the de- licious richness, are their setting, ^^ ^^^^^^ Allan poe , , . , . '^ 1 he most original poet or our country and a more than tropical passion and the creator of the Short Story. interfuses them as unmistakably as the air of English lawns and meadows breathes through Tenny- son's masterpieces." Yet "the creations of his genius, by reason of their very originaHty, were condemned as the ravings of a disordered and unbalanced mind, and, unrecognized at home, Poe was forced to wander to an alien clime in search of bread. " Yet even in the North he failed to receive any adequate reward for the productions of his pen. The "Raven," wonderful as are its marvelous music and its mystic charm, and wide as became its fame, brought the author only ten dollars in cash. What would 31 482 Southern Literature such a poem bring at the present day, preceded, as it was, by many musical poems, any one of which would now give its author a high place in the poetic field ? Splendid in rhythm and striking in theme and handling as were Poe's poems, many of his prose works have gained a still higher place in literature. His short stories created a new field, and in their peculiar vein they remain unequaled, while for force, art, and originality they are unsurpassed by productions in any vein. What is more clever and absorbing than "The Gold Bug," in its skilled handling of a cryptogram ? Where is there a neater display of detective reasoning than in "The Mystery of Marie Paget ?" Who has equaled the somber thrill given by "The Fall of the House of Usher?" Poe's stories and poems occupy a place in Hterature of their own, each of them standing in its way separate and alone. It is but just to say, in conclusion of this brief notice of the greatest genius of the South, that Poe was much more voluminous as a worker in the field of criticism than in that of original composition, and that in this direction also he showed fine powers and clear dis- crimination.- despite the prejudices and personaHties which made their way into his work. In this role he was earhest and best known, though his critical writings have sunk from view beneath the stronger flow of his original productions. Yet his skill and depth of insight as a critic were such that in 1835, by a single review of a crude but popular author, he raised the Southern Literary Messenger to the level of the best American magazines. He was the first to hail Hawthorne as a novelist of the highest rank when he was one of the obscurest of writers, and it may be said that in his work in the Messenger he inaugurated a new era in American criticism. After Poe, of whom shall we speak among the poets of the South ? There are others who have done excellent work, even if at a more prosaic level. There is Richard Henry Wilde, whose popu- lar, " My Life is like the Summer Rose," he seemed himself ashamed to acknowledge, as derogatory to his dignity as a lawyer. Quite as fine is his "Sonnet to a Mocking Bird." Philip Pendleton Cooke seemed equally ashamed of his "Florence Vane" and "Froissart Ballads," yet Poe declared the former the sweetest lyric ever written in America and it has been translated into many foreign tongues. We have already spoken of Pinkney's fine lyrics, and among others who won high fame as poets were Henry Timrod and Paul H Southern Literature 483 Hayne. These belong mainly to the period after the war, though they had done fine work in the eadier period, the poeric inspiradon of their work enritling them to rank next after Poe. Among the Southern authors of the period under review it will not do to neglect the humorists, who, while few in number, have won much reputarion by their keen sense of the ridiculous. Chief among them may be named Joseph G. Baldwin, who, like so many other writers, was a lawyer by profession, yet who found rime be- tween the intervals of his duries at the bar to write his " Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi," one of the raciest collections of sketch- es America has yet seen. Two of its characters, "Ovid Bolus, Esq." and "Simon Suggs, Jr.," grew as well known in the South as "Sam Weller" and "Micky Free" abroad, while the case of "Higginbotham versus Swink, Slander," won a wide audience. A second writer in the field of humor was Augustus B. Longstreet, of Mississippi, whose best known work is his "Georgia Scenes, Charac- ters, Incidents, etc., in the First half Century of the Republic." WilHam Tappan Thompson won his fame by the humorous character of Major Jones, in "Major Jones' Courtship" and other volumes with the Major as hero. Yet another was Dr. George W. Bagby, of Virginia, whose ''Old Virginia Gentleman" is a highly appreciated and beautiful sketch of old-time Southern life and character. These are far from all the Southern authors of the period before the war. And in addition to those of purely literary handling we might have named the historians, biographers, travelers, and writers in other fields. In fact our story is by no means all told, but we have given enough to show that the South was far from being a barren field in that period which is usually spoken of as sadly lack- ing in performance, and that it produced authors of whom it could justly be proud. The far greater development of Southern Hterature since the war shows clearly that there could never have been any lack of the literary faculty. What was wanted was opportunity, inspiration and an appreciative audience. Literature is a deUcate plant, which will not grow without careful culture, and to which neglect is apt to be fatal. There were readers in the South in those days, numbers of them, but their tastes had been cultivated to the enjoyment of the classics of English Hterature, and they gave httle welcome to the new thought — given, as it often was, in a form to which the term classical could not justly be appHed. 484 Southern Literature The war came, and when it passed away the South was as a land under which a vast charge of dynamite had been exploded and whose fragments as they fell settled into new forms. The old institutions had vanished, old habits of thought were shaken to their roots, and the intellect of the South began to run in new channels and crystaUize into fresh shapes. The days of the great plantation were gone; those of the small farm had come. In the past a patriarchal spirit brooded over much of the land. Life moved on in quiet dignity, — restful, mellow, genial, courtly, in rustic comfort and peace, every man of intellect an oracle for his neighborhood, while the changeful spirit elsewhere manifested had little effect upon this bucoHc self-content. Such Hterary stir as existed was mainly confined to the cities, into which alone the spirit of the modern age had deeply penetrated. Charleston, for instance, gathered within its hospitable bounds a distinguished coterie of writers, including Simms, Hayne, Timrod, and others of fine powers. Other cities had their bards and prose writers of eminence, but their products did not deeply penetrate the realm of the manor-house, whose readers were too well satisfied with their Addison and Pope and other favorites of an earlier age to care especially for the writings of their own time. The sentiment of many toward literary cultivation is shown by one of Pendleton Cooke's neighbors, who, on learning that he was the author of "Florence Vane," said, "I wouldn't waste time on a damned thing Hke poetry; you might make yourself, with all your sense and judgment, a useful man in settling neighborhood disputes and difficulties." The Civil War changed all that. After it had passed, with its dreary aftermath of reconstruction, a new spirit invaded the South. The patriarchal era was at an end. Slavery had vanished, and with it the manorial life. An active stir pervaded the land. The restless- ness and love of change of Yankeedom made its way southward and found welcome in men's mind. Agriculture no longer ruled supreme. Manufacture and trade came into contest with it for the empire of the South. The restful old cities wakened up, population flocked into their confines, the rattle of the loom and the ring of the hammer drove the genius of rest from their streets, and the restless spirit of modernism took full possession of the land. With this came the writer and the book. Dozens of new authors sprang up and thousands of Southern readers welcomed their works. Southern Literature 485 It was abundantly proved that the South in no sense lacked literary ability; what it had lacked was merely a home audience. The readers once gained, the writers were quickly at hand. A new litera- ture was developed, with a character of its own. It is to this literature that we must turn for the best examples of retrospective romance. Idealization has always been the South- erner's peculiar gift; in the comparatively successful days before the war it was apt to run into bombast and grandiloquence, but the dis- asters of invasion and conquest subdued it to the pastoral, the pathetic, the retrospective. In the days of slavery politics absorbed all the best energies and intellect of the South, but after the period of reconstruction more than one Southerner of promise found in literature an attractive vocation. In a number of short dialect stories of plantation days, as well as in the tender, musical, visionary poems of Sidney Lanier, the South contribu- ted new and artistic elements to American literature. Indeed, the South is the home of our most characteristic short stories. The typical Southerner is still imbued with an intense local patriotism. Every village under his native skies is a little world to him. He finds compacted within its Hmits many a theme for a brief romance, full of human interest. The excitement of its vicissitudes in war, the charm of its love scenes, — where love is still looked upon as the grand passion, — the pathos of the disasters it suffered in the South's defeat, and the quaint humor of its colored folk, make a union of elements in the story-teller's art. The South has produced at least two authors to do justice to these gifts of circumstance. Mr. Thomas Nelson Page depicts in his pages the South before the war. Under his hand, an idealizing JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS The Georgian Author, whose "Uncle Remus" stories are known and loved the world over. 486 Southern Literature regret beautifies the past till it seems a golden age. He seldom, if ever, depicts the meager externals, but he does exquisite justice to the poetic aspirations of his countrymen. His tales are pathetic, romantic, picturesque, catholic, and toward both races sympathetic and appreciative. Of very different temperament is his compeer, Mr. Joel Chandler Harris. Mr. Harris's sketches are artistically true, not, as is the case with Mr. Page, because they reveal the aspi- rations of the old-time Southern temperament, but because of their author's alert observations of Hfe as it is. He is alive with a vitahty which makes for cheerfulness, quickness, deftness, appreciativeness. Though he deals with a passing, if not a past, civilization, he looks back to it neither regretfully, nor inimically, nor indifferently. He even goes to it for invigoration. Though there is pathos in his stories, they are full of hope and freshness of life. On the one hand he does not touch such deep chords as does Mr. Page; on the other, he is more vivacious and stimulating. In poetry Sidney Lanier holds the post of honor, as Poe's greatest successor in the new days after the war. Born in 1842, Lanier served in many of the battles of the war, and was afterward captured as captain of a blockade runner and held for five months in imprisonment, being finally discharged without money and without health, and with a hard struggle before him in the world. His first book, "Tiger Lilies," a novel, depicted his romantic adventures in war times. Entering warmly into literature, and especially into poetry, the remainder of his short life was given to the making of books. His poems were usually elaborately wrought, in consonance with his theory that poetry is one of the varieties of music and that symphonies in verse may be produced. But many of his verses were as limpid and spontaneous as bird-songs. With all its shortcom- ings, his verse is a noble addition to American literature, and must in time win greater appreciation than it has yet received. Hayne, who has with justice been called "The Laureate of the South," and Timrod, whose sympathy with nature was warm and true, resumed their literary careers after the war, which had swept away all their belongings and forced them to trust to the pen for a livelihood. Timrod, indeed, was brought to the verge of actual starvation, and misfortune pursued him till his death. Hayne, far the more prolific of these two writers, was an able lyrist, of whom we are told, "His verse displays the wealth and warmth of the landscape Southern Literature 487 of South Carolina, the loneliness of the pine barrens where nature seems unmolested, or the swish of the wild Southern sea." He made himself the lyric poet of the war, doing for the South what Whittier had done for the North. Of other poets of the period in review we must name the dialect writers Irwin Russell and Stephen C. Foster. The songs of the latter, homely and true to nature, like the favorite "Old Folks at Home" and "Old Kentucky Home," still have a vital survival, holding their own against the host of more recent songs. Of the later poets of the South we shall have nothing to say. Their names are bewilderingly numerous. Shake the woods of Southern litera- ture and a full flock of these winged bards will fly out, humble song- sters, no doubt, most of them, but among them a goodly number who have made their mark and hold a well-earned place in the pantheon of American poesy. Descending from the heights of the muse, we find among the new prose writers of the South a multitude who have won well- deserved honors in the domain of literature, and who count their readers by the myriad in all sections of the land. Fiction has been the great field worked by these writers, and it has been well and skilfully wrought. Their ruling theme has been the many-sided life of the South, especially in its less familiar aspects, while its ordinary phases have often been treated with a freshness and fidelity which give to their writings vitality and charm. None of these writers has done fresher and more picturesque work than George Washington Cable, whose word-pictures of the Louisiana Creole are of the finest quality and most enduring worth. Born in New Orleans, he was fully familiar with the modes of life and thought of the Creoles, a distinct people, with the blood of old France and Spain in their veins, surviving drowsily in the midst of the wide-awake Americanism. His sketches of those people in "Old Creole Days" made an instant hit, and was followed by other works which kept the interest well alive. Chief among these were "The Grandissimes, " "Madame Delphine," and "Dr. Sevier," in which are admirably depicted the characteristics of this strange people and their unique social system. The period of the restoration was also distinguished by the beginning of another series of novels depicting a people fully as peculiar as the Creoles and living as far outside of the swishing 488 Southern Literature currents of modern life. Those were the mountaineers of Eastern Tennessee, the dwellers on the hills and in the valleys of the Great Smoky Mountains, whom a new writer, Mary Noailles Murfree, long known only as "Charles Egbert Craddock," first presented to the world of readers after 1880. She was a native of the soil and knew its people well, with all their oddities and peculiarities, and her *'In the Tennessee Mountains" immediately attracted a wide circle of readers, whose interest was kept up by "The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains, " and the various other novels that followed from her pen in the same field of fiction. Cable and Miss Murfree were by no means alone in this pho- tographic handling of new scenes and strange phases of life. Among their compeers we may name Alice French, ''Octave Thanet," who has made the world familiar with the cane- brake region of Arkansas and the rustic dwellers therein. Joel Chandler Harris, of whose deft sketches of Southern life we have already spoken, made himself the spokesman of the old negro life and superstitions of Georgia in a way that gave him world- wide fame. There is nothing in folk lore to surpass in charm the inimitable animal lore of "Uncle Remus," with "Brer Rabbit" as the hero of the old negro's tales. Harris does not stand alone in giving the negro a place in literature. Among his other biographers may be named Ruth McEnery Stuart, whose tales are brimful of genial humor. Thomas Nelson Page, as we have already said, has brought again upon the stage the landed gentry of old Virginia. Richard Malcolm Johnston, who dates back somewhat earlier, has humorously but faithfully JOHN TROTW^OOD MOORE One of the new authors of the New South. Author of " The ' Bishop' of Cotton- town" and other Southern stories. Southern Literature 489 depicted life in Georgia, in his "Georgia Sketches," "Old Times in Middle Georgia," and the like. Grace King has followed Cable in the portrayal of Creole life and character; and many others who might be named have added to the portrait gallery of local life and character in the South, so auspiciously begun. Among the writers of recent date must be especially mentioned James Lane Allen, a Kentuckian to the manor born, who has opened a vein of poetic prose rich in psychological analysis and delightful alike in its depth and its lucidity. First and one of the best of his works was "John Gray," later on revised and repubhshed as "The Choir Invisible," whose depth of thought and insight and fine touch of introspection made it widely famous. His " Kentucky Cardinal," "A Summer in Arcady, " "Aftermath," etc., are equally instinct with poetic feeling and fine description. The name of Allen brings us down to our own days and to a circle of authors far too numerous for us to mention in detail. It must suffice to name among them Miss Johnston, with her romantic historical novels, "To Have and to Hold," and others; Miss Glas- gow, a rival of Page in tales of Virginia life, and especially of the humble career of the poor whites; Sara Barnwell EUiot, whose stories so ably depict life in Tennessee and Georgia; Francis Hopkinson Smith, a Maryland author whose "Colonel Carter of Cartersville," "Tom Grogan," and other works well warrant his admission to the modern Pantheon. These are given merely as examples. There are others abundantly worthy of naming, but the Southern literature of late date is too abundant to seek to do it full justice in the space of a chapter. It is by no means confined to poetry and fiction, as might appear from the names we have given, our warrant for doing so being that these are among the most distinctive forms in works of literature as technically Hmited. If now we seek to gauge the depths of this literature of the New South, we find in it a freshness and truth to nature which are some- what lacking in the work of the older writers. Over much of the latter, as it has been said, there is "the trail of the amateur, the note of the province, the odor of the wax flower. " In the latter we find evidence of a new and powerful impulse which has given the work of the writers a continental audience. The production of the Southern author no longer goes begging, but is gladly welcomed and widely read. Divided from the Old South by the war, having before him 490 Southern Literature the recollections of a generous and serene life which no longer exists, the writer of to-day has a rich and ample background for his labor of thought. A broad and fine perspective stretches backward, filled with pictures of a past that will return no more. Before him lie the broad plantation; the noble manor-house, with its ease, repose, comfort and courthness; the gentleman of the old school, imperious but kindly and high-minded; narrow in his views of Hfe, yet born with a genius for pubHc affairs; Hving Hke a patriarch among his troop of contented and happy slaves — all these scenes, vanished yet familiar, seen through a glass of memory that softens all harsh out- lines, give the Southern writer an ample field for the exercise of his powers of Hterary art. Then, there is the negro, with his quaintness of expression, simpHcity of character, unconscious humor, rich dialect, an element that kindly offers itself to the hand of the word artist, like Page in fiction, Harris in folk-lore, Russell in dialect verse, or to name a recent author of his own race, Paul Dunbar in fiction and verse alike. The work of the writers of the South is not simply that of the study of new localities and peculiar people. It has a distinct char- acteristic of its own which separates it from the hterature of the North. It is full of a richer coloring and warmer blood. Let us compare Hawthorne with Page, and we find ourselves passing from a world of introspective thought and deep mental analysis into one of vital action. Here we pass out of the land of deep-spun problems of living into a land of fife itself; from the keen and clever dissection of character in repose to the display of character in action. It is a world of story of which we never tire, a world of heroes who charge to the cannon's mouth, of simple-hearted servants whose fideHty no temptation can overcome, of women who seem to belong to the famous heroines of the past. And with this full throb of living impulse, we have also the tropic warmth and color of the Southland, a rich and glowing atmosphere which differs essentially from the colder skies and landscapes of the North. The Southern writer does not lose himself in a maze of analytic thought, as is the habit with many writers of the North, but moves freely and jovially on, painting for us fair women and brave men, full of warm and living impulses, and set in a background of glowing tropical scenery which only the sun of the South can call into life. CHAPTER XXVII. HISTORIC CITIES OF THE SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES Baltimore, its history and industries — Richmond and its features of interest — Norfolk, Virginia's chief seaport — ^Wilmington and the Blockade runners — Raleigh, the city of oaks — Charlotte and Asheville — Charleston and its history — Its attrac- tions and industries — Columbia, a busy capital city — Savannah, Georgia's pioneer cit)^ — ^The port of Brunswick — Atlanta, the young giant of the South — ■ The progress of Augusta — Macon and its advantages — Columbus and what it stands for — Antique St. Augustine — Jacksonville, Pensacola, Tampa and Key West. IN the preceding chapters we have dealt with the South mainly in its general aspects, detailing its political, social, and industrial conditions, the characteristics of its population, its products of the farm, the forest and the mine, its educational and literary development. In the few following chapters we propose to be more local in our treatment, passing from the field to the city, and describing the various thriving centers of population which have grown up upon its extended area, beginning with the older cities of the Atlantic slope and making our way gradually over the land. While many of the cities with which we here propose to deal possess great historic interest, several of them dating back to the earliest date of colonization in the South, our purpose is descriptive rather than historical, to tell what these cities stand for to-day rather than what they stood for in the past. In dealing with them, there- fore, we shall touch their history with a light hand, and devote our attention mainly to their present status and the position to which they have attained in the record of development of the South. Chief among the South Atlantic cities and, with one exception, the most populous city of the Southern states, stands Baltimore, the metropolis of Maryland, the leading seaport of the South and one of the most interesting cities of the Union. Founded in 1729, and named after Lord Baltimore, the proprietary of Maryland, in i745» 491 492 Historic Cities it is the nearest of Southern cities of note to Mason and Dixon's Line, the northern border of the Southland area. The history of Bakimore has not been a stirring one. Its medium situation kept it afar from the tide of war, which at intervals overflowed the North and South alike. Only once in Baltimore's career was it threatened by war's ravaging hand. This was in 1814, when the British fleet under Admiral Cockburn, after the foul deed of burning the national capital, sailed up the Chesapeake with intent to make Baltimore its prey. For nineteen hours it poured shot and shell upon Fort McHenry, the military outpost of the city, and then withdrew in dismay from the hot lire of the valiant sons of Maryland. Lord Ross, the army commander, landed and marched on Baltimore, saying that he did not care if "it rained militia." It rained bullets, one of which stretched him dead on the field, and the assailants of Baltimore retired bafiled to their ships. The attack on the Monumental City left as a heritage of proud remembrance to Ameri- can hearts the noble national song, "The Star-Spangled Banner," which was written by a Baltimorean detained on the British fleet, Francis Scott Key. Other events of interest in the history of Baltimore are the fact that it was the first American city to use illuminating gas, that from it was built the first passenger railroad in the United States, and that the first telegraph line began within its limits, stretching south to- ward Washington. The first news message ever sent by wire was from Baltimore, telling of the result of the presidential convention held in that city in 1844. Since that date Baltimore has gone on growing and improving, its chief history being one of steady advance in industry and commerce. Long has it been famous for the loveli- ness of its women and the excellence of its cuisine, the neighboring Chesapeake Bay being the chosen feeding ground of the delicious canvas-back duck, and the home of the aristocratic diamond-back terrapin, the soft-shell crab, and oysters of the choicest varieties. These dehcacies, when prepared by Baltimore cooks, are of unrivaled excellence. Admirably seated for commerce on the broad and deep Patapsco, twelve miles from Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore has grown into the position of one of the leading commercial cities of the United States; its foreign trade, alike in exports and imports, having grown to enormous dimensions. Steamers run from its wharves to all the Historic Cities 493 chief European ports, and it enjoys an immense coastwise trade. It was at an early date a grain and flour market of importance, and now is one of our principal centers of export for grain, tobacco and petroleum, while iron, cofi^ee, salt and many other articles are largely imported. Its numerous railroads make it a favorite shipping point for western produce. In manufactures it has also risen to a position of great importance, its iron-mills, sugar-refineries, ship-yards, cotton mills, and other industries making it prominent among local- ities of productive industry. With a population of only 8000 in 1 782, and 31,514 in 1800, in 1900 it had passed the half million mark, its population being 508,957. Baltimore has much to recommend it aside from its business record. It is in many respects a place of great attraction, and has won the name of the Monumental City from its numerous monu- ments. Its public features of interest include the Johns Hopkins University, in its special field unapproached among the educational institutions of the United States, the nobly endowed Enoch-Pratt Free Library; the venerable Cathedral, famous in American Catholic history; the Norman basihca of St. Paul's, an EpiscopaHan temple of worship; the noble Peabody Institute; the Masonic Temple; the Odd Fellows Hall; and various other buildings of striking character. Chief among its celebrated monuments is the column of Maryland marble 180 feet in height, known as the Washington Monument, and crowned with a statue of the noblest son of the South. Battle Monument, a small Egyptian temple of marble, supporting a colossal fasces, in which stands a statue repre- senting the city of Baltimore, is in memory of the heroes who fell in defending this city in 1814. In addition there are numerous statues dedicated to the leading men of Baltimore and Maryland. Chief among the pleasure grounds of the city is Druid Hill Park, a picturesque tract of 700 acres, famous for its noble oaks, and containing a fine old colonial mansion, dating back to 1688. The drives and rambles, lakes and fountains, bridges and statues, towers and kiosks, and other special features of the park add much to its beauty, and the citizens of Baltimore are justly proud of their noble place of pubHc resort. The waterworks of the city bring water from Lake Raven, on the Gunpowder River, to the great reservoirs at Clifton and Druid Hill Park, the water passing through a five mile tunnel cut through solid gneiss rock. 494 Historic Cities Passing southward in our journey and leaving behind us the noble city of Washington, in many respects the most beautiful the world possesses, — but which, though built on Southern soil, belongs to the whole nation as the capital of the Union, — we come to Vir- ginia's capital, historic Richmond, seated charmingly on the James, and attractive in a score of ways. Richmond is far surpassed in antiquity by venerable Williams- burg, the old capital of the state, founded in 1632, yet little more than a village still, with ancient William and Mary College as its one point of interest. Richmond was founded in 1737, more than a century later, but has gone far beyond the other cities of the Old Dominion in its growth, attaining in 1900 a population of 85,050, without counting its populous suburbs. The city is well situated for a career of prosperity. Seated at the head of tide-water on the James River, 150 miles from its mouth, it can be reached by vessels drawing fourteen feet of water, while the river in the upper part of the city breaks beautifully into rapids, and the James River Falls, just above the city, furnish immense water-power for the rolling mills, paper works, flour mills, and other active industries of the city. Richmond has also large iron works and extensive tobacco factories. The situation of Richmond is beautiful and picturesque. Like Rome, it is said to be built on seven hills, though its hills at the present day number more than seven. From the summits of some of them there are fine outlooks over the city and the surrounding section of the state, with the winding James as the prominent feature. The summit of one of these elevations — Shockoe Hill — is occupied by the State Capitol, built in 1 796, and of very attractive architectural features, it being modeled closely after the Maison Carree, a noble Roman structure still standing at Nimes, France. This handsome edifice stands in the center of a square some ten acres in extent, which contains also the State Library buildings and some fine examples of statuary. Chief among these is the handsome equestrian statue of Washington, the work of Crawford, the sculptor, and unsurpassed for artistic beauty in the country. There are also fine statues of Henry Clay and Stonewall Jackson, and in the rotunda of the State-House is the highly artistic statue of Washington by Houdon, executed in 1785 and a noble presentation of the "Father of his Country." Richmond possesses other statuary of much merit. In Lee Centre, a verdant space occupying the crossing of Historic Cities 495 two wide streets in the west end of the city, stands a noble equestrian statue of General Lee; and in the very handsome Jefferson hotel — or what remains of it from a recent conflagration — is a beautiful mar- ble statue of Jeflerson, which was fortunately rescued from the fire. Richmond has been the capital of Virginia since 1779. In 1861 it was chosen as the capital of the Confederate States Government, and during the war was twice subjected to a long siege, in addition to attempts to capture it by cavalry raids. But it defied all efforts at capture until the flanking movement of April, 1865, rendered its hasty evacuation necessary. Much of the city was burned in the conflagration that followed, but since that period its former beauty has been fully restored, and its prosperity and importance immensely enhanced. The Richmond of to-day possesses many monuments of his- torical interest. In the old St. John's Church is pointed out the pew in which Patrick Henry stood when he delivered his famous oration of 1775, ending with the spirit-stirring words, ''Give me hberty, or give me death!" At a quiet corner of Broad Street stands the large two-storied mansion in which lived and died John Marshall, the great Chief-Justice of the United States. Eastward on the same street is the handsome residence which served as the "White House" of the Confederacy during the Civil War, and which is now fitly converted into a Confederate Museum. In the street beside it rests the propellor shaft of the famous iron-ciad Merrimac. Finally, in the beautifully situated Hollywood Cemetery in the western part of the city, rest the remains of two Presidents of the United States, Monroe and Tyler, and of Jeff"erson Davis, President of the Con- federate States, beside whose grave rises the beautiful marble angel placed above the tomb of his daughter, Winnie Davis. Of Virginia's remaining cities, the largest, and the one or most importance in a business sense, is Norfolk, which may claim to possess the finest port on the Atlantic south of New York. Seated on the east bank of Elizabeth River, eight miles from Hampton Roads, it boasts a harbor of splendid proportions, ranking among the most capacious in the world. Here may be seen the sails of every maritime nation, and the ships of Norfolk sail to every sea, the city having a large and growing ocean commerce. The steam- ship lines engaged in foreign and domestic trade number fully a score, and the value of the exports reaches many miUions of dollars. 49^ Historic Cities Prominent among them is the produce of a large section of the back country, brought to Norfolk by its abundant railroad facilities. Hundreds of vessels leave the harbor in the summer season, laden with berries, melons and other fruits and vegetables for the northern market. In the near vicinity of Norfolk are several popular seaside resorts, chief among them the renowned Old Point Comfort, on the point of land occupied by Fortress Monroe. Between this place and Norfolk stretch the historic waters of Hampton Roads, into which flow the James and the Elizabeth Rivers, and which was the scene of one of the most famous events in naval history, the mighty battle of the pioneer ironclads, the Merrimac and the Monitor. It is not our purpose here to give the details of this epoch-making conflict, with which all readers of history are familiar, and it must suffice to say that the Merrimac was Hfted from the bottom of Norfolk harbor to prepare her for her remarkable career, and that she went to rest again on the harbor bottom at the close of her brief but eventful history. Norfolk, aside from its busy commerce, possesses active manu- facturing industries — ship-building, iron works, and agricultural implements being among them. The population in 1900 reached the respectable total of 46,624, not counting the people of Portsmouth, on the opposite side of the river, with its navy yard and dry dock. Among the features of historical interest is old St. Paul's Church, a century and a half old, in whose ivy-covered walls is imbedded a cannon ball, fired from a ship of Lord Dunmore's fleet at the opening of the Revolution. In revenge for his defeat by the provincials at Great Bridge, the incensed royal governor attacked and burned Norfolk, then a city of 6,000 inhabitants. While on this subject we cannot justly pass over the great shipbuilding plant at Newport News, a city on Hampton Roads in the vicinity of Norfolk. Here some of the great vessels of the United States Navy have been built, and there are contracts on hand sufficient to employ the 7,000 or 8,000 hands of the immense works for some years to come. South- ern industry has estabHshed itself here to stay. The "Old North State" possesses for its commercial and busi- ness metropolis the city of Wilmington, situated on Cape Fear River, 34 miles from its mouth. Large vessels ascend to this point, and sloops can sail nearly a hundred miles farther up the stream. Where Historic Cities 497 Wilmington now stands Was originally a town named Newton, laid out in 1733. Six years afterward the name was changed to Wil- mington, and the place emerged into civic dignity in 1866. Its population was then about 12,000; it is now over 20,000. During the Civil War it was an especially active place, as one of the few open ports of the Confederacy, and the one that latest held open intercourse with the sea. Here came blockade runners in numbers, disdaining the Federal fleet which hung round the river's mouth, and dashing into port with goods of inestimable value in that period of stress and strain. In a single year 300 vessels ran the gauntlet of the blockading fleet, carrying outward more than 100,000 bales of cotton and bringing back goods just then more precious than diamonds. In 1864 Admiral Porter and General Butler sought to close the port, by capturing Fort Fisher, at the river's mouth, but found they had undertaken too large a task. Early in 1865 Porter and General Terry succeeded in capturing the port and closing the stream — not for long, as it happened, for the close of the war soon opened it again. Wilmington is to-day a busy mart of commerce, with a large foreign trade, and with steamship Hnes to the chief northern cities. The principal articles of trade are lumber, naval stores and cotton. The abundant pine woods of the locahty yield great quantities of turpentine and rosin, products which never want a market. Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina, is situated about 148 miles north by west from Wilmington, on an elevated tract of land in the upper valley of the Neuse River. Selected as the seat of government in 1788, it was laid out in 1792 and made a city in 1794. It is a handsomely laid-out city, with a central square of about ten acres, from which four wide streets radiate, and in which stands the domed and dignified capitol, built of granite, and very attractive in architecture. The fine old trees which have come down from the original forests have given this place the title of "City of Oaks. " There are various other state edifices, educational and other institu- tions, among them the Shaw Institute for the higher education of colored pupils. Raleigh had in 1900 13,643 inhabitants, and is a central point of trade in cotton and tobacco, while it possesses a variety of manufacturing establishments. Charlotte, a progressive city with a population of 18,000, lies in the gold-bearing region of the State, and formerly had the honor 32 49S Historic Cities of possessing a United States Mint, which is still in active existence as an Assay-office, Among the recent manufacturing cities of the South, Charlotte has an excellent standing. It has a number of cotton mills, and is a central point in this industry, there being more than 200 mills within a hundred miles surrounding. Among its various manufactures that of clothing stands high, the place having the reputation of being the greatest producer of trousers in the country. The celebrated Mecklenburg Declaration of Indepen- dence, of May 20, 1775, was made in this city, and it is proposed to erect a monument to the signers of this document of defiance to England and its king on the spot fronting the court-house, where this event took place. Passing to the ruggedly picturesque "Land of the Sky," the broad mountain region of North Carolina, we meet with various popular summer resorts, chief among them Asheville, a mountain town of charming situation and possessing over 14,000 inhabitants. This city has a greater elevation than any other east of Denver, its altitude being 2,300 feet above sea level. It stands in the midst of mountain scenery of the greatest grandeur and beauty and has the double advantage of attracting winter guests from the North and summer guests from the South, who ahke find here health and recreation. Chief among the many beautiful residences in its vicinity is George Vanderbilt's magnificent country home of Bilt- more, the costliest private residence in the United States. The cost of the building is said to have been ^3,000,000, while as much more has been expended upon the magnificent grounds and the vast estate, a hundred thousand acres in area. Throughout the region under survey are numerous other delightful places of resort for tourists in quest of health or of the beautiful in mountain scenery. South Carolina has the honor of possessing one of the most famous and historically interesting cities of the South, the long renowned sea-port of Charleston, after Baltimore the chief Southern city on the Atlantic slope. It dates back to the very earliest settle- ment of the state. In 1670 two shiploads of immigrants from Eng- land settled on the bank of the Ashley River, at a locarion which, ten years later, they abandoned for a new one on the peninsula between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. They called their new settlement Charlestown, after King Charles II. In time this became shortened to Charleston. Historic Cities 499 From its origin events of interest have centered around this city. Here the culture of rice in America first began, in the planting of a small bag of rice which a sea-captain brought from Madagascar in 1693. It quickly proved a very valuable article of agriculture, and hundreds flocked to that region to engage in its cultivation. In 1741 a daughter of Governor Lucas tried to cultivate the indigo plant. She fought against the discouragement of frost and worms for three years, and finally succeeded. Indigo proved a profitable crop, and its culture spread until Charleston came to export over a million pounds in a single year. At a later date cotton drove out indigo, but the growth of rice in its vicinity has continued actively to this day. The history of Charleston is abund- antly diversified by events of war, more so than that of any other American city. In 1706 it was attacked by a Spanish and French fleet, but the citizens defended themselves bravely and drove off their assailants with heavy loss. A few years afterward it was threat- ened with destruction by a great Indian raid, ^^^ park, CHARLESTON, south Carolina and early in the Revo, lutionary War it was attacked by a powerful British fleet. But Colonel Moultrie, in the fort afterward honored with his name, defeated the British by sea and land and saved the city from their grasp. In 1780 it was besieged by a powerful army under General Clinton, the seige lasting forty days. It did not surrender until after a bombardment for forty-eight hours by two hundred cannon. From this point the Carolinas were overrun by British armies, and the British held on to the city till the end of 1782. Something very like war threatened Charleston during the nullification excitement of 1832, when President Jackson sent Farragut with a naval force to its harbor, and ordered General Soo Historic Cities Scott to occupy it with troops. Fortunately the dangerous crisis passed without coming to blows, and peace reigned until the spring of 1 86 1, when the great Civil War was inaugurated by the bombard- ment of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. From that time to the end of the war the city was closely blockaded by a strong Federal fleet, yet it held its own stoutly against bombardment and assault until February 17, 1865, when Sherman's great army, sweeping up from the south, forced the Confederate garrison to withdraw from an irresistible assault by sea and land. During these long four years of siege fire did much more damage than shot and shell. A great conflagration which broke out in 1861 laid half the city in ashes, and the burning of the great cotton warehouses after the evacuation in 1865 added to the area ox ruin. Twenty-one years afterward, on August 31, 1886, the city was shaken by the most violent earthquake to that time known in the United States, nearly seven thousand of its buildings being destroyed or seriously injured, and damage done amounting to millions of dollars. But shot nor shell nor earth- quake shock could check the prosperity of the good old city, and to- day it stands as one of the most beautiful and progressive cities of the South. Charleston has an architecture all its own, and still retains many of the quaint characteristics of its early Huguenot days. Its streets are broad and spacious and are abundantly shaded by the Pride of India and other handsome trees. From its verdant and aristocratic Battery it faces a broad harbor, the resort of a multitude of ships, among them those of steamship lines to all the great sea- ports of the Union from Boston to Savannah. Up to some eighty years ago the commerce of Charleston surpassed that of New York, and it is still of much importance, the chief exports being cotton, naval stores, and phosphate rock, the latter obtained abundantly from the banks and bed of the Ashley River. The harbor of Charleston, though rather difficult of access, gives an abundance of deep water close up to the wharves, beside which vessels of consider- able draught lie moored. The city itself is one of acknowledged attractiveness, its streets presenting a varied succession of public buildings and private resi- dences, many of the latter being adorned with piazzas and embower- ed in luxuriant foliage. Charleston was incorporated as a city in 1783, and was the state capitol till 1787, when a more central location Historic Cities 5°! was chosen at Columbia. Of its many institutions, one of the most ancient is the Medical College of the state, founded in 1785. The city, with its 55,000 population, is very active industrially, much its most important article of manufacture being that of fertilizers, for which it has abundant material in the near-by phosphate rock. The capital employed in manufacture showed the great increase between 1880 and 1900 from ^1,718,300 to $12,473,187. Going inland from Charleston to a distance of 124 miles, we meet on the Congaree River, below the junction of the Saluda and the Broad, the city of Columbia, the capital and one of the handsom- est towns of the State. It lies in a fine location, at the head of navigation on the Congaree, and is laid out in the rectangular method, covering an area of over ten square miles, and having a population in 1900 of 21,108. The houses, as a rule, are built of wood, and are prettily sheltered by parterres of trees. The town, founded as the capital of the State in 1787, has as its most venerable building the College of South Carolina, a thriving institution with a large and valuable library. There are various other educational institutions, while the city possesses a fine granite State-House, erected at a cost of $3,000,000. Columbia is an active center of manufactures, ranking next to Charleston in this particular. The Columbia Canal, three and a half miles long, furnishes ten thousand horse-power within the city limits, which is used in the cotton and other mills of the city. It is of interest that the first extensive use of electricity in cotton manu- facture in the United States was at Columbia, 1340 horse-power being employed. Pelzer, another center of cotton manufacture in this state, came second with 3,000 horse-power. It is also a matter of interest that South Carolina has been engaged in the manufacture of cotton goods nearly back to the colonial period, a factory for weaving homespun having been founded at Murray's rerry, by Scotch-Irish settlers, several years before 1790. From 1870 to 1890 the state ranked second only to Georgia in Southern cotton weaving and in 1900 it stood first in the South and second only to Massa- chusetts in the whole country. The goods manufactured are mostly of the coarser grades, large quantities of which have of late years been exported to China. Of the centers of cotton manufacture in the state Columbia stands in the lead, it possessing several large mills. There are also 502 Historic Cities in this city two large mills for the production of cotton-seed oil, together with hosiery mills, fertiHzer factories, machine shops, wood- working plants, etc. The great electric power-house, with its eight huge turbines of 1,250 horse-power each, is a sight worth visiting the city to see, the power being readily delivered in any part of the city, while there is no cheaper source of power anywhere in the country. We may say further in praise of the South CaroHna capital that it is a city with a charming winter climate, and is unsurpassed as a health resort. Standing on a spur of the Piedmont hills, 350 feet above the sea, it is beautifully laid out in streets 100 to 150 feet wide, with fine shade trees in double or triple rows. Every residence, even the humblest, stands apart from its neighbors in its own garden, the city being essentially a city of gardens, many of them very beautiful. Of its history, it must suffice to speak of the great conflagration which followed the visit of Sherman's army to this city in 1865 and which left it a heap of ruins. Among the manufacturing states of the South Georgia takes a high rank, it having several cities of large population which, while possessing active industries, are highly attractive from situation and beauty of architecture and adornment. Occupying the leading place among these are Atlanta and Savannah, the former, with a population of 89,872, the latter nearly equaling Charleston in size, with its 54,244 people. Among the cities of the state Savannah must be given first place on the score of its antiquity and its historical interest. When Oglethorpe brought out his first colony of debtors, rescued from the English prisons, in i y^^, they chose a place of settle- ment in a picturesque spot near the mouth of the Savannah River, giving the town the same name as the river. For a whole year Oglethorpe dwelt here in a tent, set up under four pine trees. Others besides debtors soon sought the colony, — including German Moravians and Lutherans and Scotch Highlanders, who gave a new impulse to the settlement. The colony had its subsequent tale of war. A hot contest broke out between the British in Georgia and the Spaniards in Florida, but scarcely the wind of this reached Savannah, whose first experience of war's havoc came in 1778, when it was attacked and captured by the British. In the following year General Lincoln, aided by a French fleet, sought to recapture it, but met with one of the most serious defeats of the Revolutionary Historic Cities 503 struggle. In the assault more than a thousand of the American force were killed, among them Count Pulaski, a noble Pole who had joined the Am.ericans, and the brave Sergeant Jasper, the hero of Fort Moultrie. In December, 1864,3 second army marched into its streets, that of General Sherman, Savannah being the chosen goal of his devastating march across Georgia. Such is Savannah historically. Industrially there is one nota- ble point in its record. It was in its vicinity that Eli Whitney, in 1792, made his famous invention of the cotton-gin, the most signifi- cant event in the industrial history of our country, which owes to it one of its greatest sources of wealth. Picturesquely it may claim to be one of the most beautiful cities in the South. Standing on a sandy plain, forty feet above the broad Savannah River, it presents a panorama of wide streets delightfully shaded with beautiful trees, and made doubly charming by dozens of attractive small parks. Almost in the city's center is Forsyth Place, thickly planted with forest pines, in which stands a monument to the Confederate dead. The dweUings of the city display all the beauty which umbrageous surroundings can give them, and its semi-tropic climate adds to the delight of life within its confines. Savannah is a very important mart of commerce, especially in naval stores, for which it is the greatest market and exporting pomt in the world. In cotton exportation it also stands high, being surpassed by only two American cities, while it ships great quantities of lumber and phosphate rock. Its imports are also important, and it possesses a variety of manufacturing plants, including rice, flour, cotton and paper mills, foundries, cotton presses, planing mills, packing houses, ice and furniture factories, etc. Brunswick, Georgia's second seaport, situated sixty miles south of Savannah, stands on a peninsula surrounded by salt water and sheltered by islands lying seaward. Live oaks and cedars, magnolias and palmettos, shade the streets, and many Northerners seek its hospitable confines in the winter season. It possesses a magnificent harbor, deep, spacious and well protected, and is grow- ing very rapidly in importance as a commercial port, its population increasing with great rapidity. It numbers now over 10,000. This town forms the ocean terminus of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad, and is the seat of a great ^10,000,000 steel plant, started in 1903 and one of the largest manufacturing enter- prises in the South. 5^4 Historic Cities Atlanta, the most thriving and prosperous city of which Georgia boasts, and as a business city the pride of the state, is of recent origin, having developed in 1847 out of the village of Marthasville, which dates back to 1840. It made a considerable growth before the period of the Civil War, but in 1864 it was caught in the high-tide of army movements, fierce battles being fought for its possession. When General Sherman left it in October, after a month's occupa- tion, he left chiefly behind him ruin and desolation. The whole business part of the city had vanished, and little was left of the once active place but a name on the map. No city of the South, except Columbia, South Carolina, suffered more from war's ravages, only some 300 out of its 1,000 houses being left, and these scarce worthy, in their desolated condition, to be called houses. Sherman took care to prove the truth of his own apothegm, "War is hell." But the men of Atlanta remained, and these were of fibre too stout and firm to be put down by events like this. The war over, the resurrection of the city at once began and it grew with a marvelous rapidity, until in forty years it had won a population, including that of its spreading suburbs, of not less than 125,000. Situated 294 miles northwest of Savannah, and on a site ele- vated 1,100 feet above sea-level, Atlanta is deficient in many of the facilities on which the prosperity of manufacturing cities usually depends. It has not, for instance, the mighty water power which is whirling the wheels of so many factories in other cities and trans- forming villages and hamlets into Fall Rivers and Manchesters. Then, again, it is unfortunate in the fact that it has no water high- way to the outer world. All that it brings in and all that it sends away must come and go by railroad. Hence it has not the benefit of the water rate in freights. It costs 33 per cent more to move things to and from Atlanta than it does from various other cities of the state. The absence of this water competition in the transportation of freight is a serious handicap as compared with cities that have it. But Atlanta sustains the handicap, and, notwithstanding the fact, is going ahead at a surprising pace. With the disadvantage removed there undeniably would open up a still wider field. The city cannot successfully compete with water rate freights in manufactures which involve a long haul for raw material as well as for the manufactured Historic Cities 5^5 product, and must confine itself to a certain extent to the making of things for nearby consumption — things that are made from contigu- ous material. But for all that, the impression must not be conveyed that manufacturing languishes in this city. Nothing languishes in Atlanta, and its manufactures are distinctly robust. There is plenty of raw material near at hand, and the neighboring market is growing with the rapidity with which everything that indicates prosperity is growing in the South. And notwithstanding the freight rate disadvantages, many of Atlanta's manufactured products reach remote parts of the country. It was the Atlanta Exposition of 1881 that gave the first lively impetus to the city's development. The Exposition of 1895 gave it another send upward, and proved beyond a doubt that the place had in it the making of a great city. The eyes of the country were first fairly opened by the 1881 exposition to the manufacturing possibilities of the South. Factories began to spring up in its wake here, there, and everywhere. Naturally, Atlanta was not behind in the movement. In 1882, the year following the exposition, the Ex- position Cotton Mills Company was organized and the main exposi- tion building itself was utilized as a factory. This concern was successful from the start and now has a capital stock of ^500,000, a plant of 50,000 spindles and 1,500 looms, a working force of 1,000 hands and a capacity annually of 28,000,000 yards of sheetings, shirtings and drills. Its product goes in considerable quantities to China and other countries of the Far East. This was but a start. The city possesses now several other flourishing cotton mills, with other active industries, including large foundries and machine shops and furniture factories, extensive stove works, and numerous other active manufacturing establishments, one of the latest being a carwheel works covering nine acres and of great capacity. With ten fines of railroad radiating in all directions and with the coal fields of Alabama and Tennessee furnishing steam coal defivered in the city at $1.75 per ton, Atlanta has great advantages as a manufacturing point. One of its disadvantages, as compared with some of the neigh- boring cities, in the matter of manufacturing facifities, is about to be removed in a way that inevitably will have an important and far- reaching effect in the development of the city. While Atlanta is 5o6 Historic Cities some sixteen miles from the Chattahoochee River, with its tremen- dous water power, that power converted into electric energy will soon be brought directly into the city over a wire which will harness the wheels of Atlanta's industries to the tremendous force of the swift-descending stream. A company is now engaged in building one of the largest and strongest dams ever made in the country across the Chattahoochee, at a point as near the city as possible; and near the dam a great A VIEW FROM THE CAPITOL, ATLANTA. GA. Showing a part of the business section. electric plant will be erected capable of producing thousands of horse power for lighting, heating and driving machinery and cars. As the capital city of Georgia, Atlanta possesses a handsome State House and other notable buildings, including a number of flourishing educational institutions. It has splendid hotels and hosts of charming residences, while it resembles a Northern business city in the number of "skyscrapers" which have gone up within recent years, each of them a great hive of industry. It is different Historic Cities 5^7 in this respect from any other city in the South. Except that it is on the whole better built than any of the Northern cities of between 100,000 and 400,000 inhabitants, it might, so far as appearances go, be a city of the North lifted up bodily and dropped down here. But so far as that is concerned the transformation of the Southern cities in this respect is one of the most impressive features of the great industrial evolution that is going on in this part of the country. The only difference is that here in Atlanta the transformation is complete. In other cities the transition stage is betrayed here and there, even among those which are progressing most rapidly. Some relic of the old days, of the old life, lingers sadly in an out-of-the-way corner, here and there. But in Atlanta all has gone; the old everywhere has made way for the new. Augusta, the "Lowell of the South," is one of Georgia's most progressive and thriving cities, whose 40,000 inhabitants will be more than doubled, if prediction comes true, by the time of the next census. Located, as it is, at the head of steam navigation on the Savannah River, it has advantages of cheap transportation which must greatly aid its development^. The greatest canal in the South is here, and is owned by the city, which furnishes power for manu- facturing plants at the nominal cost of ^5.50 per horse power, the cheapest in the world. The electric railway system of thirty miles is operated by power from this canal. The Savannah, upon which Augusta is located, ranks high among the rivers of the United States and of the world. Its valley is vast and rich and empties its rich product into the lap of Augusta. The value of its agricultural products reaches into the millions. Its timber and minerals are yet hardly touched. It is one of the most charming valleys in the world; the cHmate equable, the products varied. Protected by the AUeghanies from too severe winter winds, neither too far south nor too far north, the winters are mild and the summers more agreeable than those of many regions in higher lati- tudes. The Savannah River is famous for its water power. There is no range of mountains so beautifully set in relation to a sea as the AUeghanies are to the Atlantic Ocean. The distance from these mountains to the sea is less than three hundred miles through Georgia and South Carolina. Between the foot of the mountains and the ocean rolls a beautiful land traversed by a large number of rapidly 5o8 Historic Cities running streams, furnishing more water power for manufacturing purposes, it is said by all high authorides, than any other similar area perhaps in America. The reason of this is obvious. The water power of the Savannah River all lies above and at Augusta, which is 121 miles from the sea, and is upon the dividing line between the level or lower country and the upper country stretching to the mountains. These large water powers should be utilized by capitalists, and no doubt will be, for better or cheaper power can not be found elsewhere. So far as cotton is concerned, Augusta has to perfection the three things essential to a first-class cotton market — a steady demand for all grades, prices that compare favorably with those of other markets, and, lastly, good banking and storage facilities. Add to these the advantages given by its exceptional equipment in railroad and water transportation, and it is not surprising to learn that this city is the largest inland cotton market in the South Atlantic states. In what are known as Augusta cotton mills — that is, mills whose offices are in this city and a large part of whose invested capi- tal is supplied by Augusta — there is employed close to ^6,000,000 of capital. There are thirteen of these mills, operating 329,740 spindles and 9,360 looms, and giving employment to close upon 10,000 people. Handling so much cotton as this city does, the manufacture of that marvelous later-day source of wealth, cottonseed oil, naturally is one of the greatest industries here. Augusta, as a matter of fact, is one of the largest producers of cotton-seed oil of any of the cities in the South Atlantic states. Another successful enterprise of the city is an extensive bleachery, the first of any considerable size in the South, and the pioneer of an industry which must rapidly develop. Two hundred tons of cotton cloth are produced daily within a radius of two hundred miles of Augusta, and there is no just reason why such of it as is consumed in the South and West should have to go to New England to be bleached. This is a waste of opportun- ity not likely long to be permitted. Augusta enjoys a splendid climate and is a beautiful city, facts which are having effect in attracting mid-winter residents from the North. Like so many of the charming Southern cities, its streets were planned to be wide, elongated parks with great rows of oaks lining both the sidewalks and the center of the streets — superb Historic Cities 5^9 colonnades of trees and long reaches of lawns on every hand. In the delightful suburb of Summerville — long known as Mount Salubrity — the pines and the great oaks representing centuries of growth, the broad, finely-made drives and streets, the wide, far-spreading area covered by fine mansions, the home-Hke, quiet security, and, last but not least, the attractions of the beautiful old Southern city lying at its feet, have found their way to the hearts of many people who at first came here only as transient visitors, and many have made here their permanent winter homes. The air is so dry all the winter through upon that favored spot that the brightest metal hardly tarnishes there. For those who find the fogs and cold and damp of the New York winters so trying, this particular part of Augusta, as it is becoming better and better known, is becoming more and more popular. Macon, another of the progressive business cities of Georgia, with a population in 1900 of 23,272 and rapidly increasing, stands among forest-clad hills, at the head of navigation on the Ocmulgee River, 103 miles southward from Atlanta. The story of the develop- ment of Macon is a repetition, of course with variations, of the story of the development of many interior Southern towns within the past two decades. Hand and hand with the extension and perfection of the great railroad systems went manufacturing industry, and with this came swift development of population and growth of merchan- dising, both wholesale and retail. And that is not all. The forty- six counties which Macon, rightfully enough, looks upon as her particular trade preserve, are among the richest in the state. Their farms alone, irrespective of the buildings and improvements, repre- sent a value of well on toward ^57,000,000. These counties include in them the wonderful Georgia peach belt, which sends peaches by the hundred of carloads to New York and the Northern market — perhaps the finest peaches, by the way, that are grown in all the South. Fully 2,000 carloads of peaches are handled by the business men of Macon every season. This peach country comes right up to the city's doors, as do the vast mines of kaolin, that beautiful white chalky clay which Trenton, New Jersey, and East Liverpool, Ohio, turn into such handsome pottery and tiling. The largest vein of this valuable clay, and that, too, of the finest quality found anywhere in the country, lies within seven miles of 510 Historic Cities Macon, a vein that is fully thirty miles in width with an average depth of from thirty-five to seventy feet. Four companies are engaged in mining and shipping this clay, sending out an average of twenty carloads a day, worth ^loo a carload delivered on the car. In addition to these four concerns, another company has pur- chased a tract of lOO acres of kaolin lands. It is the purpose of this company to manufacture roof tiHng. Add to the kaolin and peaches and strawberries; to the pears, the plums and the raspberries by the ton; which are shipped away from here for the North^add to these an abundance of many varieties of fine hardwood timber, to say nothing of the famous Georgia pine which grows in abundance at no great distance from the city; and add also the cotton and fine crops of grain of all kinds grown in the counties of which Macon is the logical trade center, and you have an explanation of one cause of the city's soHd growth. The progress of Macon may be largely traced to its railroad facihties, eleven Hues radiating out from the city and aiding immense- ly in giving vitality to its manufacture. These consist of cotton textiles, cotton-seed oil, wood-working products, and other industries, more than forty different manufacturing concerns being here, with an annual output valued at ^25,000,000. In the inland raw-cotton trade Macon stands fourth among the cities of the United States, being surpassed only by Houston, Memphis and Augusta. Macon is of interest also as an educational center. Here is the Wesleyan Female College, the first in the world to confer academic degrees upon women. Mercer College, a Baptist institution of importance, is also located here, with two CathoHc colleges, St. Stanislaus College and Mt. DeSales Academy. Columbus, another of the manufacturing towns of Georgia, is on the Chattahoochee River, and like the towns just named has a large trade in cotton and extensive manufactures, consisting of cotton, woolen, and iron goods. Its population in 1900 was 17,614, The water power here is immense, the river falling 368 feet in thirty- six miles, of which 115 feet are practically within the city limits. The gross horse-power available is estimated at over 200,000, which is rapidly being made available, about 30,000 being so far developed. The city has six large cotton factories, operating 154,000 spindles, while it possesses two of the largest compressors and the largest cotton-gin works in the state. Iron manufacture is also important. Historic Cities 511 Steps have been taken for an immense development of the water- power of the Chattahoochee River. This enterprise is of leading importance, since it means at a not very distant date, such a chain of factories for miles along the bank of the river as can hardly be matched anywhere in the entire country. It is possible, of course, to be over sanguine even about the marvelous Southern progress, but with the visible, tangible fact of what already has been achieved within an incredibly short time no prediction, however extravagant, seems beyond the bounds of possibihty. One thing is certain, and that is that since the financial depression of 1893 ended, and during the era of phenomenal prosperity through which the country has been pass- ing from that time up to the present day, the manufacturing develop- ment of the South, as typified in such cities as Columbus, has been so enormous and is established on such a bed-rock foundation, that however much future business depression may temporarily check progress here, the movement is bound to go on, however difiicult it may be to foretell the future shifting of the balance of manufaturing power. All that we can be sure of is that it is going to be vast, and pregnant with great results in the social and political economy of the country Columbus has two distinctions which entitle it to honor through- out the country. One is that this was the first city in the entire South to establish a graded system of schools, and the other is that it was here, the inspiration of a noble-hearted Columbus woman, that originated that beautiful custom of setting apart a day for decoration of the soldiers' graves which now every year makes a special Sabbath throughout the entire country — a Sabbath that follows the flowers northward every spring from Texas, where they first of all come in bloom. The peninsular State of Florida, into which manufacturing industries have barely made their advent, but which competes vigorously with California in the growth of tropical fruits, — the southeast and southwest being in hot rivalry in this field, — -has among its claims to distinction the honor of possessing the oldest city in the United States. Venerable St. Augustine, founded in 1565, nearly half a century before a British settlement was established in the New World, holds its place srill; not large, but quaintly pictur- esque and umbrageously beautiful. Founded by Spaniards from the West Indies, there is a tale of terror in its early history, that of the 512 Historic Cities massacre of the French Huguenots who had dared to settle in what Spain claimed as her demesne. Later on St. Augustine repelled attacks from the settlers of Charleston and Savannah and remained in Spanish hands until the sale of Florida made it a city of the United States. . To-day, with its quaint Spanish lanes and balconied buildings, its crumbHng gateway and storied castle, it retains some of the flavor of its olden story, while much has been done to bring it into line with cides of the most modern birth. Among these are its costly and magnificent hotels, two of which, the Ponce de Leon and the Alcazar, cost ^5,000,000. These are built in Spanish Rennaisance style, with semi-Saracenic features. A third is the splendid Moresque structure known as the Hotel Cordova. There is also to be seen here the most elaborate Pompeian villa in the world, with all the anrique characterisrics of the dwellings of the ancient Roman city. St. Augustine no longer repels invasion from the north, as in its Spanish days, but lays itself open to annual capture by the invalided host which annually seeks its hospitable walls. Its mild and equable climate, the beauty of its situation, its umbrageous wealth of noble magnoHas, palms and oleanders, and the fame of its splendid caravanseries, render it a favorite place of winter resort, especially for those broken down by the austeriries of northern climates. While St. Augusrine is a sleepy old place, with only about 4,000 permanent inhabitants, Jacksonville, on the St. John's River, is a flourishing city, whose popularion has grown from 5,377 in 1880 to 28,429 in 1900. In it five railroads meet; it has varied manufactur- ing estabhshments, an acrive export trade in lumber, cotton, moss, oranges, etc., and possesses several colleges and a variety of state insriturions. Fruit-packing is one of its important industries, the country in its rear being prohfic in tropical products. Hither also come hosts of visitors from the northward, to the number of nearly 80,000 annually, to enjoy its health-giving climate. The broad avenues and suburban shell roads, shaded with Hve oaks and made beauriful with fragrant flowers, form favorite carriage resorts. Florida possesses other old Spanish cities of modern as well as ancient interest. These include Pensacola, on the Gulf coast, a city of historic fame, and which boasts a noble harbor of 200 square miles in extent, and an acrive lumbertrade; Fernandina, an old sea port, with one of the best landlocked harbors on the Atlanric coast, Historic Cities 513 and an export trade In lumber and naval stores; and Tampa, a very ancient little city, whose importance lies in its cigar factories and its West India trade. Still more important as a center of the cigar industry is Key West, on a southern island of the peninsula, which exports, in addition to its famous cigars, such spoils of the sea as turtles, sponges and salt. Like many others of the southern cities, it has also come into prominence as a health resort. 23 CHAPTER XXVIII. GULF STATE SEAPORTS AND CENTERS OF INDUSTRY Progress in Alabama — Mobile and its commerce — Mobile's attractions — Birmingham and the iron industry — Other iron centers — Montgomery, the state capital — ■ Its history and progress — Mississippi's industries — Vicksburg and Natchez — • Meridian and Greenville — What Louisiana stands for — Metropolitan New Orleans — Its great commerce — Baton Rouge and Shreveport — The great sea- port of Texas — Commerce of Galveston — A frightful disaster — The grit of the people^San Antonio and its history — Houston and its trade — Austin, a beauti- ful capital city — Dallas and Fort Worth — Denison and Waco. IN the wonderful development of manufacturing industries in the states of the South during the final quarter of the nine- teenth century Alabama occupied a highly important place. This was not especially in cotton manufacture, in which this state held the fourth place, South CaroHna, North Carolina, and Georgia forging far ahead, but in iron production and manufacture, in which Alabama took distinctively the lead, coming into active rivalry, not with her sister states of the South, but with Pennsylvania herself, the empire of iron. In the whole industrial history of the country there is no spectacle more remarkable than the extraordinary pro- gress of the iron manufactures of Alabama within the brief period of two decades. Before speaking, however, of the centers of this rapidly-growing industry, we must turn our eyes upon Mobile, Alabama's one ancient and historic city. No city in the United States can rival Mobile in the variety of nationalities under which it has served since its birth in 1702. Successively French, English, Spanish and American, it passed a quiet and somewhat slumberous existence under them all, first waking up to its true destiny within the final years of the nineteenth century. The original French settlement of 1702 at the mouth of Dog River perished by inundation, and in 171 1 its name was given to a new town at the mouth of Mobile River. It was the capital of the colony of Louisiana until 1726. England obtained the city 514 Gulf State Seaports 5^5 from France by the treaty of 1703, and in 1780, near the end of the Revolution, it was captured by Spain, which had joined France in aid of the struggling colonists. In 1813 Spain ceded it to the United States. The only remaining event in the history of Mobile that calls for mention is the fierce sea fight in Mobile Bay in August, 1864, between the Confederate and the Federal fleets, in which Farragut, a sea-hero of Southern birth, won his greatest glory. Located at the head of Mobile Bay, one of the noblest natural harbors of the world, and in the midst of an agricultural region unsurpassed for richness on the earth, Mobile has long possessed special advantages as a commercial center. Before the Civil War this city ranked third in export trade among American cities, cotton being the great staple of its active commerce. Such prosperity as it retained after the war was wrecked by the great panic of 1873, and for ten years or more afterward depression prevailed. It was not, in fact, until 1896 that Mobile fairly wakened up to its true mission and entered upon the striking career of prosperity which it now enjoys. One is scarcely prepared to think of Mobile, the city with the soft and slumberous name, whose very title reminds us of the magnolia and the traihng festoons of Spanish moss, as rousing into an activity that makes us think of a busthng city in the busy West; to find it throwing out railroads, tapping great reservoirs of wealth; to find it developing into a great coal and iron trade center; to hear of its cotton mills and lumber mills and manufactories of all kinds and more coming; to have the fact brought irresistibly home to us that here is to be a great bustling seaport and industrial center, one that has already developed unmistakable symptoms of being on the verge of the sky-scraper era of development. Yet that is the fact. Mobile is on the way to be a big city. All the conditions are here save one, the deepening of the channel to the lower bay and that is an event of the near future. By the time the Panama Canal is built Mobile will already be one of the most im- portant seaports of the American coast, and all ready and equipped to handle the enormous trade that surely will come hither when once that great floodgate of commerce between the Atlantic and Pacific is thrown open, and the Gulf of Mexico is transformed into another vast Mediterranean, swarming with shipping from all nooks and corners of the world. 5i6 Gulf State Seaports This is no dream of the people here. The dreaming days of Mobile are over. It is wide awake and alert and filled with that amazing electricity of go and progress with which the entire atmos- phere of the South is becoming charged. At this present moment the city is growing in population, growing in wealth, stretching far out beyond the corporate limits, and transforming acres of what five years ago was vacant land into beautiful streets lined with fine resi- dences, and, above all, covering the old central portions of the A VIEW OVER LOWER NEW ORLEANS, SHOWING THE CRESCENT IN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER town with all that is best and most substantial in modern building and municipal improvement. Among the recent steps of progress are the building of cotton mills, the deepening of the water channel to admit vessels of twentv- three feet draught, and a rapid and substantial increase in commerce, which showed between 1896 and 1902 the handsome growth from ^8,000,000 to $16,000,000, the ocean trade doubling within six years. Quite recently three steamship companies running regular lines of steamers have been added to the long and growing list of Mobile's Gulf State Seaports 5i7 waterway systems of commerce, and now there are no less than eleven lines of steamers coming here, whereas comparatively a few years ago nearly all the ocean commerce of the place was done by means of tramp vessels, that came irregularly and at uncertain intervals as occasion required. One of the great oceanic branches of trade of the city is the importation of fruit from South and Central America, in which several steamship companies are engaged. Within a year's time some 300 cargoes of bananas and other tropical fruits have been received at Mobile's wharves, and with its excellent railroad facilities it seems destined to do an immense business as a point of distribution of perishable fruits. Bananas for instance — of which from 2,570,000 to 3,000,000 bunches are brought here annually— are shipped in cargoes that average about 17,000 bunches. Such a cargo, which will make two trains of twenty cars each, is unloaded, put aboard the cars and made ready to rush away to the Northern and Western markets within six hours after arrival. As a cotton port Mobile has grown rapidly in importance, now handling upward of 150,000 bales annually, and this is another hne of business which is destined to grow rapidly when the improvements of the harbor waterway now in progress are completed. For accessi- biHty to a vast cotton growing district few Southern cities are so well situated as Mobile. Altogether there is something like 2,200 miles of river navigation back in the state which finds outlet here through the Alabama, Tombigbee and Mobile rivers, and this vast stretch of waterway reaches up into the very heart of one of the finest cotton growing regions in the South, to say nothing of the miles upon miles of untouched forests — forests which contain in perfection of growth every variety of hardwood known to this climate. Soon this waterway will be opened up into the Iron and coal regions in the vicinity of Birmingham, and then, with the cheap water freight rates and the other advantages as a manufacturing and shipping center which Mobile possesses, the growth here is certain to receive a very great impetus. The opening up of the Mobile, Jackson and Kansas City Railroad as far as Hatdesville, Mississippi, one hundred miles to the northwest, has already materially added to the prosperity here, and when the line is pushed farther onward, as it soon will be, srill another great timber and mineral region will be opened up with Mobile for its natural outlet. Mobile's lumber Si8 Gulf State Seaports trade already amounts to some 300,000,000 superficial feet cut every year by the mills either here or close at hand and shipped from here to every part of the w^orld, though the lumber exports to foreign countries are falling off very considerably for the simple reason that the home demand is growing so enormous that there is a steadily diminishing quantity to send abroad. Mobile, v^hile active as a business city, retains much of the beauty vs^hich has grown up with the passing of the years. Except- ing where the growing business districts have encroached, many of the typical old Southern homes remain, dotted among the more modern residences, with their acres of shaded lawns, wealth of tropical plants and flowers and broad avenues leading from the streets, arched by gigantic oaks whose leaves are ever green, and whose great gnarled branches spread out over hundreds ot feet of ground. The scenic effects in and about Mobile add charm to the city for resident and visitor alike. It is difficult to say which is the most dehghtful season of the year, though perhaps in the spring months, when the sweet-scented magnolia is in bloom, this charming cHmate reaches its greatest perfection. There are always some varieties of flowers in blossom. There are many historical and beautiful drives in and about the city, by far the most popular being the Shell Road, which follows the west shore of Mobile Bay for a distance of seven miles. It was chartered in 1854 by a private corporation, and a vast fortune has been expended in giving Mobile one of the finest and most pictur- esque driveways in the world. There are sites for homes along the Shell Road which it would be hard to match anywhere in the country for beauty and as a place of residence in the winter and early spring months. The day is coming when that superb driveway will be lined with fine residences and will be famed as one of the places in America where it will be a distinction to live for certain months of the year. In 1870 the county of Jefferson, in Central Alabama, was with- out a city, without a railroad, with nothing but plantations of cotton and corn and a few thousands of rural inhabitants. To-day it has a population of 162,000, of which probably 12,000 belong to the county at large and the remainder to an Arabian Night's city, which has sprung up as if by magic and set the sleepy old county in a breezy swim. This city is named Birmingham, after the great English Gulf State Seaports 5^9 manufacturing city of that title. Founded in 1871, it has gone ahead by leaps and bounds, and though the 1900 census credits it with only 38,415 people, this refers merely to those within the corporate limits, outside of which thousands more spread on every hand, all outgrowths of Birmingham. If it be asked to what this astonishing develop- ment is due, we need but answer, to coal and iron. Birmingham is an inevitable development of the vast veins of these two invaluable minerals of which Alabama justly boasts. To show the wealth of these, and what is being done with them, it will suffice to quote from a speech of L. W. Johns, a careful statistician, in December, 1900. He said: "You will please remember that you are now in what is called the Birmingham district, surrounded by coal, iron ore and limestone under the ground and cotton and corn above the ground. You are about four miles away from the coal and one and one-half miles from the iron ore. We have in Alabama a larger area of coal than Great Britain, larger than Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Texas, Mary- land, Georgia or British America. Great Britain has 6,195 square miles of coal fields, while Alabama has 8,350. The Warrior coal field alone has 780 square miles, fifty seams, twenty-five workable. Cahaba coal field has 400 square miles, twenty seams, five workable. Coosa coal field has 150 square miles. These three coal fields con- tain in round numbers 110,000,000,000 tons of coal, which will supply 150 furnaces, making 150 tons a day for 1,000 years. "In i875there was not a coke oven in this state; to-day we have nearly 6,000 ovens, making us nearly 9,000 tons a day of good coke. We have in this Birmingham district twenty-seven blast furnaces, twenty-six now in blast, making an average of 3,600 tons a day of pig iron. We are sending ore to Tennessee, sending pig iron to Boston, to New Hampshire, to Maine and to Mexico. Show me any other country except this where cotton and corn grow on top of coal and iron ore. I can show you a sight on Red Mountain that no eye hath seen nor ear hath heard of. You can there stand on twen- ty-four feet of iron ore and in sight of you are the great Warrior coal fields on one side and the Cahaba and Coosa on the other, with limestone enough lying in the valleys to flux the ores of the world, and above all you can see cotton and corn growing over the ore, coal and limestone. "Our great Red Mountain iron ore vein runs parallel with the 520 Gulf State Seaports Alabama Great Southern Railroad for 164 miles — the vein averaging in thickness over twenty feet by two miles wide, with an average analysis of over 50 per cent of metallic iron. We have enough ore in this district to supply all the furnaces of America for 1,000 years. We also have great steel mills here making boiler plates, rods and rails. We will have in this district the largest car factory in America. In fact we want for nothing. If you will build a Chinese wall around this district we will want for nothing save tea and coffee. " These words suffice to tell what has made Birmingham what it is. It represents the form of that marvelous development of manufacturing industry which has seized upon the South and is carrying it forward into competition with the business section of the North. We need say nothing further about Birmingham except to specify some of its industries. In addition to its furnaces and forges, its rolling mills and steel plants, it possesses the industries below enumerated. There is here a wire, rod and nail mill, employing 1,500 men, consuming from 150 to 300 tons of steel daily and turning out 3,000 kegs of nails every twenty-four hours; there is a steel-car plant that employs 1,000 men and represents a capitalization of ;^6oo,ooo; there is a cast-iron pipe plant making pipe from 3 inches to 13 inches in diameter, employing 600 men and turning out 300 tons of pipe a day; there are three other iron pipe companies employing nearly 1,000 men among them, all told; there are stove foundries, plough and agricultural works, boiler-making concerns, CorHss engine works, bolt and nut works, two cotton factories, two cotton-seed oil mills, chemical works, knitting mill, overall and clothing factory, two wagon factories and so on through the gamut of nearly everything that can be imagined, and yet with something new and something big either just starting up or just looming in sight on the horizon. There is magnetism in Birmingham's big iron mountain right within the city gates. It is drawing wealth and wealth producers hither from far and near. A great metropoHs of the great South is to exist here before many years have passed. Birmingham does not exhaust the iron industries of the state The enterprise of Alabama in this direction has been extraordinary and there are several young cities racing fast on the track of the older one. There is Anniston, an outgrowth of the mining industry and with flourishing car wheel and axle works, great car-building works. Gulf State Seaports 521 pipe mills and other active industries. There is Sheffield, founded in 1884 and named after another great Enghsh home of industry. Here are five great blast furnaces yielding iron of the finest quahty, to the extent of 700 tons of pig iron daily. There is Bessemer, a fourth of these iron-working settlements, founded in 1887, and to- day possessing seven blast furnaces, large rolHng mills, pipe works, and other industries. Elsewhere in Alabama the iron working industry is making itself apparent, and it is rapidly coming into DEXTER AVEiNUE, MOi\ TGUMERV, ALABAMA In the distance may be seen the Capitol Building. Dexter Avenue is modeled after Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington. competition in the markets of the country and the world with the famous centers of iron manufacture in the North. Pennsylvania must look well to its laurels, for Alabama is in the field and in the race, and can justly cast aside its olden title of "Here we rest" for the modern one of "Here we strive." Leaving the centers of commerce and manufacture, we come to a typical Southern city of the past-time type, a place of business 522 Gulf State Seaports instead of manufacture, of inland trade instead of ocean commerce. This city is Montgomery, Alabama's beautiful capital, and memor- able as the place where the Southern Confederacy came formally into being, gave itself a name, a constitution, and a government, and inaugurated Jefferson Davis as its first and only President. The spot on v^hich he stood v^hen he took the oath of office is not forgot- ten, but is marked by a brass star on the capitol portico as one of the distinctive spots m the history of the South. From Montgomery v^as sent the order to fire that shot on Fort Sumter which was the tocsin peal of one of the most desperate struggles in the world's history. On the day of this momentous event Montgomery was still a typical Southern city, a lazy, drowsy place, where men took life easily and leisurely and indolent darkies dozed in the sun in summer weather; just a quiet, wholesome, slowly incubating place, not yet caught in the whirl of the modern world. But then, as always, it was a delightful place of residence; resting on undulating hills, with wide vistas of superb agricultural country all about, pure air, delightful climate, and a social fabric woven all through and through with the golden threads of refinement and kindliness and generous hospitality. As Montogmery was when the dreadful storm of civil war broke upon the country, so it had been for many years, and so, as regards its preservation of what was best and most lovable in the characteristics of the old ante- bellum days, it is to-day. There is the life and the stir and the spirit of buoyant hopeful- ness in the city that are typical of the South of to-day but with them there is the mellowing influence of times gone by, still lingering like a perfume about the old city and giving it a charm of its own. Montgomery is growing — ^just as Savannah and Augusta and Knoxville and others of the older towns of the South are growing — along soHd and conservative lines. It was as a cotton market and as a distributing point for plantation suppHes and stores of all sorts that the foundations of its wealth were laid far back in the past. It is as a cotton market and as a distributing point on a far larger scale than ever before that its prosperity of to-day is based. Indeed, Montgomery's jobbing trade in its quiet, conservative way is con- siderably larger than that of bustling Birmingham itself. Without bluster and fuss or blowing of trumpets, Montgomery can justly claim a business amounting to ^45,000,000 a year, and of this fully ^ ■_) s I — I '_) > ti o ^-- o 7 -p g is .i:: O CO o o — (J (D P (O ^ ij ° S^ ^ en •^.^"Q 'P '-' •-;P-i Gulf State Seaports 523 ^ia,000,000 is in the wholesale grocery business alone. Railroads reach here from all parts of the country, and by their inspiring aid they have made this inland city one of the largest jobbing centers in all the South. Built on the navigable Alabama River, 343 miles by water from the Gulf and 180 miles by rail above Mobile, and situated on the edge of the famous black belt — that marvelous stretch of rich dark soil, fifty miles wide, which runs across the State of Alabama from east to west and reaches far over into Mississippi — Montgomery is in the heart of one of the finest cotton-growing regions in the entire country, while corn and every variety of vegetable grow there with marvelous results. Indeed, like so many other rich agricultural regions of the South which the trunk fine railroads have reached, the vicinity of Mont- gomery is fast becoming one of the great trucking centers whence vegetables of all varieties are sent in vast quantities to the Northern markets, while there are from 150,000 to 175,000 bales of cotton turned out in its presses every year, placing it among the largest inland cotton cities of the South. As a business center Montgomery has other advantages in addition to the lines of railroad which reach it from all parts of the land. It is famous in the South for its many miles of good road, macadamized or other hard-bedded avenues of traffic, stretching in all directions into the country, and traversed daily by long lines of wagons bringing cotton and other farm products into the city. And the highroads and railroads are not the only means of communi- cation with the world abroad, since it is an important river town as well as a railroad center. The Alabama River is navigable all the year round between Montgomery and Mobile. Three lines of steamers ply regularly between the two cities and the two or three days' trip in the early spring of the year from the heart of the state down to the waters of the Gulf is counted one of the pleasantest excursions that can be made anywhere in this part of the South. But the great advantage, of course, is in the value of the river to Montgomery as a shipping point. Freight can be loaded on steamers or barges in Montgomery and floated down the Alabama at almost a nominal rate to Mobile and there loaded directly on seagoing craft for foreign ports, with through bills of lading from the Montgomery wharf direct to Liverpool or London, 524 Gulf State Seaports Aside from its beauty — and it is one of the most beautiful cities in the South — -Montgomery's advantage as a place of residence lies in its healthfulness, and its healthfulness is due to its elevation, its pure air, its fine sewers and pavements, and, above all, to the almost chemically pure water which flows into its hydrants from the series of artesian wells from which the city is supplied. Add to these advantages those of an admirable climate that is free from extremes in either winter or summer, excellent schools and churches, and RESIDENCE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS, BEAUVOIR, MISSISSIPPI people who are refined and kindly to a degree, and it is not difficult to understand why it is that those who come here as strangers to live grow so fond of the place, to say nothing of those for whom the city has the traditions of a home dating back through many generations. Mississippi, long the premium cotton-growing State, is still one of those members of the Union in which agrcultural surpass muni- cipal interests, its cities being comparatively small in size, though several of them have thriving industries and are growing in Gulf State Seaports 525 population and importance. It is the richness of the soil that gives it this rural disposition, and also the fact that New Orleans, the great Southern outlet of the Mississippi River, serves admirably for the business interests of the state. On the great river are seated the tv^o leading business tow^ns, Vicksburg and Natchez, and adjoin- ing It lies that wonderfully rich stretch of soil, the Yazoo Delta, 6,250 square miles in area, and constituting one of the most fertile districts in the vast valley of the Mississippi. And the soil of the state generally is of remarkable fertihty, except in the region of grey and white clays in the northeast and the section covered by the forests of long-leaf pine. The chief interest surrounding Vicksburg lies in its history. Standing on the river bluff, about midway between Memphis and New Orleans, it was a strong strategic point in the Confederate system of defence of the Mississippi, and the contest for its possession was one of the most striking events of the Civil War. Prior to the war it was a river port of some importance, having in i860 a popu- lation of 4,951. As early as Januar}% 1861, immediately after passing an ordinance of secession, the authorities of Mississippi planted can- non at Vicksburg to command the river. It was looked upon as the key to the control of the great waterway, and as time went on it bristled with fortifications and cannon. The story of its long seige by Grant, the obstinate defense by Pemberton and his gallant army, and their surrender on July 4, 1863, — to starvation rather than to Grant, — are matters of history on which we need not dilate. The war over, Vicksburg grew and spread. Situated in the midst of the most fertile cotton region of the country, it became one of the principal inland shipping ports for that staple. In addition to its commerce it has some manufacturing industries, including iron works, railroad cars, lumber and cotton-seed oil. Except when the river is high, steamboats have to land two miles below, whence a railroad runs to the city. For miles the Walnut Hills extend along the river, five hundred feet high and affording very picturesque scenery. The city itself has many elements of attraction. Climbing by almost perpendicular streets up the face of the bluff from the range of elevators and warehouses at the river side, we reach the plateau upon which the main city stands. Here it runs back over a fine series of terraces, with many handsome residences in the upper streets, and the Court-House rising from their highest elevation. 526 Gulf State Seaports Below one sees the river curling in a great loop, sweeping past in a broad current, while in the distance may be seen the famous "Cut- off" by which Grant vainly sought to divert the current of the Missis- sippi and convert Vicksburg into an inland town. Not far to the south of Vicksburg stands Natchez, the second river port of the state, the most beautiful of Mississippi towns and with few rivals for loveliness in the South. It is a city with an interesting ancient history. Fort Rosalie was built here in i'ji6,hy Bienville, the founder of New Orleans. It was destroyed by the Natchez Indians and rebuUt in 1729, and was a French trading post until 1763, when the British took possession and named it Fort Pan- mure. It was one of the few places in the Gulf States that had a Revolutionary history. It was attacked by an American force in 1778, which was repulsed, and old Fort Panmure rebuilt by the Tory inhabitants. In 1779 a force of Spanish infantry and Ameri- can volunteers captured it, and it was held by the Spaniards for three years, when an American force bombarded and took it. The Spaniards subsequently drove them out and held Natchez till 1798, when it was given up to the United States. The Natchez of to-day is a charming and very promising city, with its pubHc buildings and handsome dweUings on the bluffs, or Natchez-on-the-Hill, its wharves and shipping facilities below, at Natchez-under-the-Hill. The latter in the old days of the city bore anything but a salubrious reputation, being accounted one of the wickedest places in the United States. The first cotton-seed oil mill In the United States was built at Natchez in 1834. To-day it possesses cotton mills and other manufactures and has a busy river trade. He who, from a river steamboat, sees only Natchez-under-the- Hill, gets a very false impression of this city. He must scale the cliffs to the beautifully shaded town on the summit of the bluffs, to get a just idea of the charm of the place. Here he will find hosts of pretty dweUings, an impressive cathedral, a handsome Masonic temple, and delightful walks under the shade of the China-tree and the water-oak, the cedar and the laurimunda, so closely grouped that the glare of the sunbeams rarely reaches the pavement below. Here are luxurious gardens and charming lawns, and a wealth of flowery bloom that one would need to journey far elsewhere to see. The city is quiet, serenely so, but it is certainly very attractive. Gulf State Seaports 527 The cotton manufacture of Mississippi is chiefly centered at Meridian and Greenville^ the former having the largest mill, the latter the greater number of mills. Meridian has various other manufactures and is notable for its enterprise and rapid growth, its population— 14,000 in 1900 — having doubled since that date. Louisiana, like Mississippi, is very largely an agricultural state, remarkable for the fertihty of its alluvial region, and dividing its farming interests between sugar, cotton, rice and corn. More than half the state is covered with vast forests of the valuable yellow pine, which are estimated to contain nearly 50,000,000,000 feet of this desirable timber. There are other forests of oak, of cypress, and of hve-oak. The alluvial regions, forming the wide bottom land along the Mississippi and the other large rivers, cover about one-fourth the state, and fully an eighth of its surface is embraced in the great marsh region adjoining the Gulf, with extensive and fertile prairies rising like islands above the level of the marsh. A state like this seems one more calculated for agricultural than civic interests, but through its eastern section flows the mighty Mississippi, one of the few supreme rivers of the world, and an artery of trade extending, with its numerous great affluents, through many thousands of miles of the central region of the continent. It has within and along Louisiana alone 585 miles of navigable waters, and the state possesses in all 3,782 miles of navigable streams, having a greater length of inland navigation than any other state of the Union. Of these streams, those of greatest flow make the Mississippi their channel of connection with the sea. So mighty a river as this could not otherwise than attract population and busi- ness interests to its banks, and on its lower waters has grown up a great city, the metropolis of Louisiana as of a large district beyond, and far the greatest and busiest city in the states of the Gulf New Orleans, which in 1900 passed the quarter million mark in population, reaching a total of 287,104 inhabitants, is a city of triple nationality, French, Spanish, and American, and displays to-day marked traces of all these national strains. A vigorous eff"ort was made in 18 14 to add a British nationality to the three named, but it was nipped in the bud by Jackson and his Tennessee rifle- men. The site of this great city — on the east bank of the Mississippi 107 miles from its mouth — was first visited in 1699 by the Frenchmen Bienville, who was made governor of the French colony of Louisiana 528 Gulf State Seaports in 1706, and founded this city in 1718, making it the capital of the colony in 1726. It was ceded to Spain in 1763, but its people had no fancy to pose as Spaniards, and when a governor from Spain ar- rived they drove him out, formed a government of their own, and held the place till 1769, when Spain finally gained control. France took it back in 1802, and quickly transferred it to the United States, as a part of the great Louisiana purchase. Other stirring events in its history are the gallant defense made by Jackson in 18 14-15, the occupa- tion by the Federals in 1862, and the serious pohtical troubles of 1874 and 1877. Since the lat- ter date New Orleans has occupied itself in growing and in developing its trade and business. The United States has no more interesting seat of population than this Gulf State metropolis. France and Spain have left on it indelible marks of their habitation, overlaid by our bustling American- ism, yet still abundantly OLD CITY HALL, NEW ORLEANS discernible. There are It was to this building that the officers of Farragut's p^Q g r O U p S of people fleet came to demand the surrender of the city. here thoSC who are rush- ing furiously onward on the car of progress and those who are resignedly riding and trying to get glimpses of bygone days between jolts. There is room for a little sympathy with those thus relentlessly borne onward. There was much in the old New Orleans, the old light-hearted, pleasure-loving, somewhat disheveled, and woefully dirty New Orleans of yore, to take deep root in the affections of those whose memories go back Gulf State Seaports 529 into the not remote past; much in the old-time generous hospitality, the pleasant, deliberate Hfe and social relations, which took time for all the Httle amenities and courtesies of Hving; there was much in that which was prettier than the abrupt, curt, elbowing, shoving ways of hustle. So there is a kindly tolerance for those who mildly lament the days that are gone — as long as their lamentations do not interfere with business. They know all this, these old Creoles, they know it and are glad of it and take a large pride in it, and yet as they are borne along on the crest of the rising tide they cannot help turning their eyes a little sadly backward to the old landmarks so swiftly melting away in the mists of the past — mists of the past or the dun smoke of factory chimneys, whichever you choose. Business here is absorbing everything, as it is everywhere in the South. Soon it will overrun and change much, if not all, in the physical aspect, as well as the social Hfe, of the Crescent City, which in former times distinguished the place from all other American communities. The rising tide of business that is even now roaring through Canal street, is beating against the boundaries of that old picturesque French quarter, with its overhanging balconies, its houses filled witn the mysteries and tragedies and pretty love stories of the past. Business is already battering at the gates of the old citadel of Creoledom. Canal street is still the dike, the levee between the old French city and the tumultuous seat of commerce beyond. But the spray of the dashing tide is already beginning to fall over within the sacred precincts. There are rumors of real estate speculations and build- ing invasions. Those who would see anything of the old New Orleans of history and romance would do well not to delay their visit there by many years. It is really not more than a decade or two of years since New Orleans began to feel the impulse of the new Hfe which is working such mighty changes throughout all the Southern states. Yet the transformation already wrought here is surprising. To say nothing of the old Creole features, those who delay many years their visit will not even find New Orleans a Southern city when they get there. Atlanta years ago lost those characteristics commonly associated in the mind with cities of the Southern States. New Orleans is shedding the same characteristics at the present moment as rapidly 34 53^ Gulf State Seaports as ever did Atlanta in the most active of her years of transition. Atlanta in appearance, in her commercial and industrial atmosphere, is already a Western city. New Orleans is fast becoming one. Cotton is a great feature of the prosperity of this growing city, which, excepting Liverpool, is the largest cotton mart in the world. Yearly more than 2,000,000 bales of the white treasure of the South is shipped outward from its wharves. It is also claimed to be the greatest sugar and rice market in the world, and imports annually more than 100,000,000 pounds of coffee, 30,000,000 pounds of Texan and Mexican wool, 12,000,000 pounds of hides, and vast quantities of tropical fruits. Its shipping trade also includes lumber, iron and other classes of merchandise. With six trunk lines of railway, fifteen miles of river front, — including six miles of wharves,- several large steamship companies, and with a gross shipping capacity of over 4,000,000 tons, it stands high among American commercial cities, being surpassed only by New York among United States ports. How it will rank after the Panama Canal is completed must be left for the future to tell. Aside from its business aspect. New Orleans has abundance to recommend it. It abounds in rich bits of color and quaint sugges- tions of a drowsy past. It possesses the many-colored streets of the old Creole quarters, the vivid gardens of the French, the quaint gables and peaks and dormers of the Rue Royale, the bright flower beds of Jackson Square, the venerable Spanish fort on Lake Pon- chartrain, the noble old Cathedral St. Louis, the fine driveway on the shell road, the pleasant parks with their statues and monuments, and annually its picturesque festival of Mardi Gras, with its superb revelry. This festival, in which Mobile claims to be the pioneer, is yearly observed with much glitter and entertainment in both cities. New Orleans is largely exhaustive as an example of civic life in Louisiana. On the river, 129 miles above it, stands Baton Rougw, the state capital, a city of some 11,000 inhabitants, with many quaint old houses and an air of languid restfulness. It possesses a trade of some dimensions with the adjoining parishes, and is adorned with a fine State-house. Here are also several state institutions for charitable and other purposes. The Red River has its thriving city in Shreveport, with its 16,000 citizens, its great shipments of cotton, wool, hides and tallow, and its planing and saw mills, foundries and machine shops, cotton- Gulf State Seaports 531 seed oil, carriage and other factories. Much of its prosperity comes from the unsurpassed ferdlity of the alluvial secrion in which it stands. Greatest in area and one of the first in resources among our States, imperial Texas has grown with great rapidity since its admis- sion to the United States in 1845 ^^^ ^^^ to-day point to some dozen of cities ranging from 10,000 to over 50,000 population. Its great cattle ranges, its immense development of cotton culture, its mineral vv^ealth, and especially the vast deposits of petroleum found beneath its surface, have brought to it a rapid influx of immigrants and capital, and have raised Texas to the proud posi- tion of the richest state of the South. Among its swiftly developing cities is one seaport which can boast a harbor of rare excellence, and a growing com- merce srill in its infancy, for the completion of the Isthmian ship- canal will no STATE HOUSE, BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA doubt bring it an immense development. To-day Galveston ranks fourth in the United States in extent of foreign exports, while it is a close competitor with New Orleans for the honor of being the greatest cotton exporter in the land. Having in its rear the vast cotton district of Texas and Oklahoma, which now yield nearly one-third of all our cotton, its progress in this particular promises to go rapidly on. Its exports of cotton-seed products are also of growing importance, having reached an annual value of over ^5,000,000, and the total value of its exports has passed the ^ioo,ooo,« 000 mark. Twenty-eight steamship lines ply between Galveston 532 Gulf State Seaports and foreign and coastwise ports, railroads connect it with every part of the north, and a great future for this well-seated Gulf seaport is assured. This fine commercial city of the Lone-Star state stands among far-extending groves of orange and oleander, on a low island, with a noble beach of over thirty miles in length. The harbor of the "Oleander City," as it is commonly called, is one of the most impressively beautiful in the world. Stretching for miles in a great semi-circle, the ship channel sweeps by the greatest system of docks in the South, and out to sea through the most magnificent system of jetties in the world. Here may be seen elevators towering hgh above the tallest masts in the harbor, where gran and coal are handled by the mil ons of bushels and hundreds of thousands of tons; the endless warehouses where the crops of many states might be stored; also every adjunct of a modern, busy, deep water-port, from a gas buoy to a big ship on a marine railway. Galveston naturally commands the commerce of Texas, but in addition it is the gateway to the sea for that wide expanse of trans- Mssissippi country that is termed the supply house of the world. Kansas is the central state of the United States, and Galveston is the nearest port to that center. Galveston Island in its earlier days was known as a resort of p'rates, with the notorious Lafitte for their chief. After their bands had been dispersed, an energetic population of honest settlers gathered here, and began the work of develop'ng the chief port of the southwest. Settled in 1847, the town rapidly grew. In 1850 it had 4,177 population. In 1900 its inhab tants numbered 37,789. Then came upon it one of the most frightful disasters any American city has ever known. The low-lying island, from a m.le to four miles in width, and clasped between the waters of the outer Gulf and the inner bay, lifted its surface only to an average of five feet above the sea level. More than once the ocean waters had invaded the city streets. The final catastrophe came on the 8th of September, 1900. On that day came a terrific hurricane which raised the waters of the Gulf into foaming waves and hurled them in irresistible fury upon the island shores, until the whole c ty was con- verted into a b llowing lake with surging waves rushing through its streets to a depth of four feet in its highest parts and fifteen feet m its lower levels. Never had city been exposed to a more frightful inva- Gulf State Seaports 533 sion. Between noon and midnight of that fatal day more than five thousand souls had gone to their death, and a full third of the city's area was swept clean of inhabitants, a scene of frightful wreckage alone remaining. Then, having completed its work, the liquid monster withdrew, and Sunday morning dawned smiling, revealing the tiger-like Gulf licking its lips on the desolated beach, as if proud of its work. Such is, in brief, the story of that day of wreck and ruin, death and desolation. We cannot go into its details, and it must suffice to say that the survivors, in their first dismay, were almost ready to abandon the island and build a new city on the adjoiring main. Al- most, but not quite. They were Americans, and that means much. Courage, resolution, the bull-dog tenacity of the true American, soon came back, and they sternly resolved to rebuild the city on its old ground and to chain the sea waters so that they could never again claim the island as their own. The rebuilding of the ruined city began with hardly a day's delay, and it was resolved by an almost unanimous vote to erect a huge sea-wall that the ocean could not overtop, three miles in length and seventeen feet in height above low-water mark. It was also resolved to fill in the wave-swept section of the city so as to bring it all up to the level of safety. All this has been done, but the alert business men of Galveston did not fold their arms to await its completion. Within three weeks after the storm, business had been resumed. They went to work with a will, doing business with the old alertness and activity, so that the years which immediately followed the disaster showed a greater volume than was ever known before. Such is the record of Ameri- can grit and Southern enterprise. One of the largest cities of the Lone-Star state, most progres- sive in inland development, and most famous in historic interest, is San Antonio, the city of the Alamo, the Mecca of Texan history. San Antonio is the outgrowth of an old Spanish city, whose origin dates back to 1718. It became a city, with its present name, in 1738, and though it vegetated under Spanish dominion, it has grown in American hands till it now claims over 93,000 people. This city, the cradle of Texan liberty, built on two beautiful streams, the San Antonio and San Pedro Rivers, is a place of solid and ponderous architecture, Spanish in character in its narrow streets with their quaint dwellings, its Cathedral and other ancient edifices. The 534 Gulf State Seaports acknowledged beauty of the city is largely due to its broad plazas, over-shaded by fine old trees and bordered by busy shops, and its numerous parks. Its historic treasure is the venerable Alamo, now the property of the State. Here it was that in 1836 Travis, Crockett, Bowie, and their followers fought like heroes against ten times their number and died rather than surrender. Their heroism was not surpassed by that of the Spartans of old, and the place where they died has been well called the "Thermopylae of Texas." San Antonio, the only town in the United States with a thorough- ly Spanish aspect, is to-day a thriving center of inland commerce. It lies in the midst of a beautiful and fertile region, and is the distributing point chosen by merchants of the rich republic of Mexico in their trade with the United States, its situation rendering it specially inviting to this traffic. It is also very favorably situated for handling the abundant farm and fruit products of Texas. North of the city and on the coast are orchards of peaches, plums, apricots, pears, apples, and also vineyards of the finest European varieties of grapes; here also barley, rye and oats grow well; everywhere corn and cotton are grown. South of the city, especially near the coast, all kinds of vegetables, melons and grapes are extensively grown, and are on the market three to six weeks ear- lier, while about one-third of the distance nearer the Eastern markets, than the products of California. The prosperity of San Antonio rests at present principally upon the live stock industry of the state. The city has been and is the greatest live stock center of the greatest live stock producing state of the Union. Texas and cattle are almost synonymous words, the one is inseparably linked with the other. And the fame of San Antonio is intimately blended with both. In the earlier days, when the ranchman was the prince of the prairies and San Antonio was the only city of any importance in all Western and Southwestern Texas, it became the natural rendezvous of the cattlemen, and hither the product of the ranches finds its way to-day, this city being the leading market in the state for cattle, horses, mules and swine. It has besides various manufacturing industries and is in every respect an active and thriving city. On the narrow but navigable BuflFalo Bayou, about fifty miles from Galveston, lies the bustling commercial city of Houston, named from the father of the Texan Republic, whose capital it once was. Gulf State Seaports ^35 Here converge a dozen railroads with others fast coming. These spread out to all points of the compass, while between Houston and Galveston steamboats and cotton barges pass continually, traversing the bayou between almost endless groves of magnolias. In addition to its active commerce, Houston possesses thriving manufactures, including extensive machine shops, cotton-seed oil mills, and car- works. Into its warehouses pour vast quantities of cotton, great supplies of pine lumber, corn in profusion, and sugar gathered from fields 10,000,000 acres in area. As a distributing center for these products it has built up an immense business, which has drawn to its streets a population over 80,000 in number. As a city it is beautiful and salubrious. There may be found all the charm of the tropics without their enervating heat. While wheat, corn and cotton grow abundantly about it in summer, mid-winter is rendered sum- merlike here by a profusion of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Centrally in Texas lies Austin, the state capital, seated on the Colorado River in a broad valley with the blue Colorado mountains visible in the distance. Here are the State Capitol and the State University, with other important institutions crowning the neighbor- ing hills. The city has a cheerful appearance, with its building material of light colored brick and cream-colored limestone, which give it a peculiarly attractive tone. The Capitol, a structure of fine Texas marble, stands prominently on an eminence. The state has no more picturesque city, and it is rapidly growing in wealth and population, having advanced from 4,000 in 1870 to 22,000 in 1900, and since then fast increasing. In the northeastern section of the state, on the tortuous Trinity River, stands Dallas, the commercial capitol of Northern Texas, and one of very rapid growth, with a population in 1905 of 42,- 638, it now claims to have reached the 100,000 mark. Surround- ing it is a broad area of rich, undulating prairies, producing cotton, corn and wheat in profusion, and making Dallas its center of distri- bution. This city is claimed as the second largest market for agri- cultural Implements in the Union, has large grain elevators and flour mills, and a trade summing up many millions of dollars annually. Its manufacturing interests are large and thriving, it possessing numerous factories, foundries, woolen mills, etc. Near by, on an oak-crowned blufi^ 200 feet above the city, is the pleas- ant and charming suburb of Oak Cliff', an umbrageous residence town of great attractiveness. 53^ Gulf State Seaports Thirty-three miles west of Dallas, on the Trinity River, close to the northern edge of the cotton-belt and near the center of the corn- belt, lies the city of Fort Worth, a place of 26,688 population in 1900 and possessing a large trade in cotton and corn. Here are the head- quarters of the stockmen of the Pan Handle region, and as late as 1879 this city was the terminus of the largest stage route in the world, reaching 1,600 miles westward to Yuma, Arizona. Here are stock yards, grain elevators, flour mills, extensive railroad repair shops, and various other thriving industries. Of the other important cities of Texas we shall mention only Denison, a city founded in 1872 and the chief trading point for much of the Indian Territory; and Waco, on the Brazos River, a solidly built and prosperous center of manufactures, and the seat of an important educational institution, the flourishing Baylor University. CHAPTER XXIX. FAMOUS CITIES OF THE SOUTH CEN- TRAL STATES The South Central states — Origin of St. Louis — Its business prosperity — The great Exposition — Kansas City and St. Joseph — Little Rock and other cities of Arkan- sas — The founding of Louisville — The city's development — Lexington and the Blue Grass regions — Covington and Newport — The characteristics of Tennessee — ■ The situation of Memphis — Its history and prosperity — Cotton and hardwood — - Chattanooga and its history — Growth of its iron works — Its other industries — ■ Attractions of Chattanooga — Knoxville and its situation — Its history and indus- tries — The record of Nashville — Its institutions. OF the states of the South only four lie wholly inland, all the others having a long coast line on the Atlantic or the Gulf. These states occupy the central region of the great Missis- sippi Valley, two of them lying on each side of the mighty "Father of Waters," while they boast among their streams its two grandest affluents, the Missouri and the Ohio. Rich in mining resources, rich in agricultural wealth, rich in the intelligence and enterprise of their populations, these states occupy a prominent place in the great empire of the Stars and Stripes. They are dotted over with thriving cities, many of them of great importance, one of them the metropolis of the South and the fourth in size of all the cities of the land, noble St. Louis, the imperial city of the middle West. It is an interesting fact that the South possesses alike in its northeastern and its north- western section a great city that has passed the half-million mark, Baltimore and St. Louis, the latter, with its 1900 record of 575,238 population, the greater of the two. It is with the splendid metro- politan city of the Louisiana Purchase, the city of the Great Fair commemora^mg this Purchase, with which we are here concerned. When France discovered and explored the upper Mississippi, ^nd claimed as her own the vast and virgin territory through which 537 53^ Famous Cities it flowed, it took care to guard its new possession by a chain of forts extending from the Great Lakes to the waters of the Gulf, and it is of interest to note that the sites of several of these forts became the localities on which later cities grew. Among these French settlements St. Louis was somewhat late, it being first settled in 1764, after the territory had been transferred to Spain. It was a mere fur-trading post, settled by French families from Illinois, and was not taken under the wing of Spain till 1771. In 1780 it was attacked by a force of British and Indians, who killed about thirty of its people before being beaten off. Then the Spanish authorities fortified the little town, which stood upon the plateau above the stream, and in 1787 retaliated by a successful invasion of the British territory. In 1803, forty years after the Spanish came into possession, the whole territory was ceded to the United States, and St. Louis became the most westerly city of the new republic. At that rime there were not over two hundred houses in the city, which was composed mainly of two streets running parallel to the river, and the whole neighboring locality had not over 3,000 inhabi- tants. The whole of upper Louisiana at that time contained some- thing over 8,000 people, of whom 1,300 were negroes. Such was the early condirion of a district which a century afterward held millions of inhabitants and celebrated its centennial anniversary by a magnificent Worid's Fair. The new city grew at first very slowly. It had less than 1,500 people in 1810 and not 6,000 in 1830, but then its growth fairly began and has since then been steady and rapid, undl it has developed into the great St. Louis of to-day. St. Louis has an admirable situarion on the Mississippi, not far below the inflowing of the Missouri and the lUinois. It occupies a site rising from the river level to 200 feet above in its highest parts, and extends nineteen miles along the river front, with an extreme width of six and a half miles. The total municipal area, partly suburban, is sixty-two and a half square miles. The plan of the city is recrilinear, hke that of Philadelphia, which it also follows in its system of street names. Few cities of the west rival this metropolis of the Mississippi Valley in business activity and volume of trade. Its unequaled opportunity for river navigation and its mighty fleet of steamboats give it control of an immense southward commerce, and the twenty- two railroad lines which enter its confines bring it into business con- Famous Cities 539 tact with all sections of the country. A splendid steel bridge across the Mississippi offers ready access to the multitude of railroad trains coming from the East. The trade of the city is immense, amounting to more than 20,000,000 tons of freight yearly, including consider- ably more than half a milhon bales of cotton. Over 2,000,000 head of live stock reach the city stock-yards annually, and hog products are exported in vast quantities. Wool and grain are other large articles of trade. The commerce of the city is rivaled by its manu- factures, which include large flour mills and sugar refineries, oil and BRIDGE OVER THE ARKANSAS RIVER AT LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS chemical works, beer in vast quantities, boots and shoes to a large value, tobacco and whisky very extensively, and many minor articles. St. Louis has much to recommend it as a city of beautiful archi- tecture and a place of residence. Its public buildings and large business edifices are many and some of them very attractive. The old town was built chiefly of wood, but a devastating fire in 1849 swept much of it away, and since then it has been far more sub- stantially rebuilt. The city is embellished by numerous public parks, many of them beautiful places of resort. Of these Forest 540 Famous Cities Park is 1372 acres in extent. Tower Grove Park, of 277 acres, is closely adjoined by Shaw's Botanical Gardens, which contain the most extensive botanical collection in the United States. Missouri possesses various other cities of considerable business importance, especially Kansas City and St. Joseph, but to none of these any especial interest, beyond that of commercial prosperity, attaches. Kansas City, as far west in the state as St. Louis is east, began its existence in the muddy little Missouri landing for Westport, groveling under its clay banks. At the end of the Civil War, with 5,300 souls, there was little indication of the great city of to- day with a population of 163,752 in 1900, now claiming 250,000. It was made what itisby the coming of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and the grand march westward of the American people, who found here one of their many resting places. With the broad stretch of rich prairie land of Kansas to the west, of which this city became the gateway to the east, its future was assured as Kansas grew into a great farming and grazing state. On the river-side rose huge grain elevators, and along the railroad lines were built immense stock- yards, hog-packing becoming the leading industry of the place, the annual number of hogs handled here reaching 3,500,000, or double the number received in St. Louis. In addition the city has numer- ous manufactories, producing a large variety of goods. Great part of Kansas City is built upon a series of steep hills. On its west lies the state boundary, and a large suburb, holding over 50,000 people, has strayed over upon the soil of Kansas and become the abiding place of great stock-yards and pork-packing plants. On the hills of the city site are streets of handsome residences, and the public edifices include a number of imposing buildings. The Missouri is here crossed by a magnificent railroad bridge used by several of the southwestern lines. Missouri possesses another business city of great importance in St. Joseph, also on the Missouri River and on the Kansas border, no river miles above Kansas City. This place, with more than 100,000 populadon, in 1900, is a large pork-packing place, handling more than 2,000,000 hogs yearly, and possessing extensive stock yards. Laid out in 1843, and made a city in 1851, a fire in 1893 laid a great part of it in ashes. But it has risen again with such energy as to double its population since 1890, and has grown into great importance as a manufacturing and distributing center. Famous Cities 541 Of the other thriving cities of the state, it must suffice to men- don Springfield, a southern city in a rich farming district, and a nest of railroads and factories; Sedalia, in the central district and resem- bling Springfield, Joplin, a busy mining town in the Ozark Hills; Hannibal, a Mississippi river port, with large industries and com- merce; and Jeff^erson City, the capital, a small but handsome city on the Missouri near the center of the state. In dealing with Arkansas we have to do with the most exclusive- ly agricultural state in the Union, a very large proportion of its people being engaged in farming industries. It has extensive forests of yellow pine and other valuable timber, and its mountain region is rich in valuable minerals, but these are little developed, while few of its people are gathered into cities, it possessing but three of over 10,000 population. Of these the largest and most important is Little Rock, the state capital, which held 38,307 inhabitants in 1900, and is a com- mercial city of considerable importance. Situated near the center of the state, on the broad Arkansas River, we find here a handsome and attractive city, its streets well paved, lighted with electricity, traversed by electric cars and lined with fragrant magnolias. The early canoe travelers up the Arkansas found here a little rock near the shore, the first piece of stone they had seen in their 280 mile journey from the Mississippi, and from this the place got its peculiar name. The city is an active cotton mart, baling in its presses 70,000 bales of Arkansas cotton yearly and shipping them southward. The State capitol and other public institutions are here and the city has a large and important local trade. The United States Arsenal is famous for its noble old trees, and has one of the finest parade grounds in the states. At old Fort Smith, on the upper Arkansas, a frontier military station where General Taylor, Hancock, and other well-known officers spent part of their military career, a city of 11,000 inhabi- tants has risen and become a railroad center of some importance. Another city of about equal population is Pine Blufi^, on the same river, a cotton shipping and manufacturing place. A locality well worthy of mention, not as a city but as a center of large resort, is the world-renowned Hot Springs, situated on the mountains fifty-five miles southwest of Little Rock. Ten thousand people come here yearly to seek benefit from the waters, and a settlement of consider- 542 Famous Cities able size has grown up. There are seventy-three springs, varying in temperature from 93° to 168°, and pouring out daily 500,000 gallons of clear water without taste or odor. These waters, in fact, contain little mineral matter, their curative properties being due to their purity and temperature, the benefit being chiefly derived from bathing. There are various other medical springs in the same sec- tion of the state. In 1778 Captain George Rogers Clark, in his descent of the Ohio on the way to his famous conquest of Illinois and Indiana, stopped at the rapids of the river and left there some emigrant families to guard his supplies during his absence. This duty done, they moved from the island on which they had been placed to the mainland and built there a village which they named Louisville, after Louis XVI of France, then the chief friend of the colonies. The village grew into a city, and this prospered so greatly that it has become a place of metropolitan dignity, claiming to have 245,000 people within its confines. At this point the Ohio breaks from its placid dignity into a rushing stream descending twenty-six feet within two miles, and impassable by vessels except in times of flood. A canal was dug around it in 1826-31, and steamboats use this to pass the rapids. The city of Louisville is handsomely built, with wide and regular streets, and a plain sloping up from the river to a plateau seventy feet high, facing the picturesque Indiana Knobs. The city stretches six miles along the river front. In the residence section are broad, shady and well-paved avenues, lined with green embow- ered homes, with abundant evidence of comfort and refinement. Louisville has always been one of the great gateways to the South, but many of its visitors find it pleasanter to sit down in the gate than to pass through, and its population is steadily growing. The city is a very busy place, with large manufactures and a thriving trade. It is abundantly supplied with railroad facilities, the roads from the north crossing the stream on two costly bridges. By the aid of these iron roads and the great river a large and lucrative trading business is done, especially in tobacco, which is extensively grown in Kentucky soil, and of which Louisville is the greatest market in the world. It is also one of the largest centers in the whisky trade, this being also an abundant Kentucky product. The manufactures of the city include leather, cement, cotton goods. Famous Cities 543 flour, agricultural implements, and machine-shop products, goods of more than ^50,000,000 worth being annually produced. A city of a very different kind, seated in the center of the famous Blue-Grass region of Kentucky, is Lexington, the great market for the thoroughbred horses of which the Kentuckian is justly proud. This world-renowned region of the "blue-grass" — -which is not blue at all — is 10,000 square miles in extent, composing a rolling plateau of very rich dark soil, underlaid by a fossiliferous limestone full of JEFFERSON STREET AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS, LOUISVILLE, KY. Few cities have grown more rapidly than Louisville in recent years. the elements of fertility. Tobacco and hemp, two plants highly exhaustive of the soil, grow here of gigantic size without weakening the steadily renewed fertiHty of the earth. The pastures are un- surpassed, and in addition to their herds of fine cattle and sheep are the home of the best blooded stock of American horses, which have been carefully bred for years, and furnish the bulk of the race- %vinning stud of the country. Lexington, the chief railroad center of interior Kentucky, is the principal horse-market of the state, 544 Famous Cities dealers assembling here every spring from all parts of the country to attend the annual auctions, which leave yearly several million dollars in Kentucky. In 1775 a party of the early invaders of the "dark and bloody ground" were encamped upon this spot, when there came to them news of the stirring events of the East, the shots at Lexington in Massachusetts and the opening of the Revolution. They at once named their camping ground Lexington, and Lexington it still remains. It is to-day a handsome city, of 26,000 people, the seat of the University of Kentucky, the State Agricultural and Mechani- cal College, and other educational institutions, and the Eastern Kentucky Asylum for the insane. A short distance out o^ Lexington, on the Richmond road, stands Ashland, a charming mansion with beautiful grounds and fine old forest trees. The present mansion was built by James B. Clay, on the site of the home of his father, Henry Clay, the rich oaken paneHng of the older house being preserved in the new one. Here dwelt the great orator and states- man, in one of the loveliest regions of the land, himself raising thoroughbred horses from which some famous racers have descended. Two of the leading business cities of Kentucky, Covington and Newport, rise on the banks of the Ohio, immediately opposite Cincinnati, having respectively 43,000 and 28,000 inhabitants, and being places of very active business. The Licking River flows between and separates them. They possess large manufactures of glassware, iron goods and other articles, including tobacco and whisky, two abundant products of Kentucky. Another important place on the Ohio is Paducah, a city of 20,000 inhabitants, with abundant railroad facilities. The chief market town of Western Kentucky is Frankford, the capital, on the Kentucky River; while another place worthy to be named for its antiquityis Harrodsburg, the oldest town in the state, and still with less than 3,000 inhabitants. The State of Tennessee is distinctively the central state of the South. While each of the other states is bounded in part either by ocean waters or by States of the North or West, Tennessee lies nestled in the heart of the South, everywhere surrounded and closed in by its sister states of the Southern section. Mentioning this as an interesting feature of this Keystone of the dome of the South, it may further be said that Tennessee has been abundantly blessed by nature, and is remarkable for the diversity of its several distinct Famous Cities 545 regions. West Tennessee is largely made up of the alluvial bottom- lands adjoining the Mississippi, having here a thousand square miles covered with magnificent hardwood forests, cedar and cypress marshes, and beautiful lakes. This section runs eastward to the long steep bluffs of the great undulating plateau, extending eighty- five miles to the Tennessee and 9,000 square miles in area. Middle Tennessee forms a great elliptical central valley, called from its richness of soil the "Garden of Tennessee," and covered with great fields of grain, cotton and tobacco and the largest red-cedar forests in the land. This is the blue-grass region, on which vast herds of domestic animals browse. East Tennessee is a region of mountain and valley, beginning in the great Cumberland plateau, a thousand feet high and 5,000 square miles in area, and embracing a rugged mountain land, covered with some of the richest forests of the country, and with vast stores of coal and iron in its hills. Such, very briefly, is Tennessee, a rich and productive state, containing an intelligent and enterprising population, and dotted over with cities possessing much of historical and industrial interest. Chief among these are four to which we must devote special attention, Memphis in the west, Knoxville in the east, Chattanooga in the south, and Nashville in the north central region, all of large population and well worthy of description. Royally enthroned on the historic Chickasaw Bluffs, command- ing a majestic view of the mighty Mississippi — the commerce-laden Father of Waters — sits Memphis, the Queen City of the Central Mississippi Valley. Occupying a zone midway between the severe cold of the north and the enervating heat of the south, it possesses the energedc ambition of the former with the languorous courtesy and geniality of the latter, absorbing from each its best characteristics and embodying it in a system which has won it both commercial and social prestige. Among all the historical landmarks of this territory the Chickasaw Bluffs, on which Memphis is built, stand conspicuously prominent. Here the gallant DeSoto and his intrepid followers rested in 165 1, in order to construct boats for a voyage down the yellow flood of the Mississippi to the sea, an exploration from which those who embarked in it never returned. Here occurred the early struggles between the Chickasaw Indian tribes, the French and the Spanish for possession of this rich domain, continuing until its 35 546 Famous Cities final control by the United States in 1797. Memphis itself has been swept by flood, scourged by fever, devastated by civil war, and para- lyzed by political adventurers, but the indomitable energy of its people has conquered every opposing influence, and to-day it raises its commercial head higher and with a prouder front than ever in its history. Memphis is located on the fourth Chickasaw bluff", overlooking the Mississippi river from an altitude of thirty feet above the highest water mark ever known in the history of the valley. It covers an area of sixteen square miles and contained a population of 102,320 in 1900. This is said to have increased to 175,000. The original site of the city was laid out in 1819, by Andrew Jackson, John Overton and James Winchester, and covered but a small area along the river front. At this time the embryo city had a population of just fifty souls. It was for many years merely a trading post, where blanketed Indians bartered pelts for supplies and the sons of the hardy pioneers shot squirrels in the woods where now stand imposing marts of commerce. Incorporated as a city in 1827, it progressed until in i860 it had over 22,000 inhabitants and an active and profitable business. Then came the Civil War and with it business paralysis. During the entire period of the bitter strife Memphis was a mihtary storm center, and the very flower of its citizenship rallied to the cause of the Con- federacy. In June, 1862, the city was captured by the Federal forces. It was invaded by Gen. Forrest in August, 1864, and held for a short time; after which it again passed into Federal control, and remained so until the termination of the war. After this date chaos ruled supreme, business being disorganized, enterprise checked, and the city a prey to polidcal brigandage. Yet the citizens soon threw off^ their depression, new population sought the locality, and in 1870 the population had grown to 40,000. Then came new disasters, yellow fever fell malignantly upon the city no less than three times in the decade that followed, and its popula- tion fell off^ by 1880 to 33,000. Taught by bitter experience that the antique system of leaving health to the hands of chance would no longer serve, a modern system of drainage and sanitation was intro- duced, v^ith the result that Memphis became one of the healthiest cities in the Union, and population flocked to its confines until within twenty years it had increased more than threefold. Famous Cities 547 Memphis is to-day on the high road to greatness and rich prosperity. With eleven trunk lines of railway and twenty-seven Mississippi packets, it occupies a commanding position supreme in promise for the future. It stands at the head of all-the-year trans- portation on the great river, and has at all times sufficient depth of water to float ocean vessels. It possesses also the only bridge across the Mississippi south of the Ohio, a great steel structure nearly three miles in length, which makes this city the gateway between east and west for a section of country several hundred miles wide. Among the special features of business distinction possessed by Memphis may be named its claim to be the greatest inland cotton market in the world. Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Southern Missouri, Louisiana and Tennessee are the river states where grow luxuriantly the finer qualities of cotton. For the crop of the white- topped fields of all these states, with the exception of Louisiana and Southern Mississippi, the city of Memphis is the natural and ac- cepted market, handfing from 600,000 to 800,000 bales annually, representing a value of from ^25,000,000 to ^35,000,000. It is also the largest cotton-seed oil producing city in the world. One-twen- tieth of the total cotton-seed oil and cake output of this country is manufactured here. Though the production of this article of commerce is of comparatively recent date, the volume of business amounts to over ^30,000,000 per year. Memphis further claims to be the largest hardwood lumber producing market in the world. There are twenty-six lumber firms and mill owners located here, representing an invested capital of ^7,000,000 and doing a gross business of 300,000,000 feet. From a single mill, of small capacity, in 188 1, the trade has widened out until now the hum of the saw and the ring of the axe make commer- cial music throughout the woodlands of Eastern Arkansas, Northern Mississippi, and West Tennessee. The trade, now enormous, is conceded to be but on the threshold of what the future may have to show. The fertile bottomlands of the Mississippi river and its tributary streams, have, for centuries, been growing vast forests, which re- main in great part untouched while the enterprising foresters of the Northern States have depleted their territory almost to exhaustion. Hundreds of thousands of acres of choicest varieties of hardwood await, in the Central South, the enterprise of lumbermen, and pre- 548 Famous Cities sent a field for endeavor unequaled on the continent. The great rivers and the network of railways afford a system of transportation, both for the raw material and the finished product, that can not be duplicated. The day has passed when factories using hard- wood will depend for it on the forests of Ohio, Indiana, IlHnois and Michigan, and the era of lumber development in the great South has fairly opened with the new century. In these great forests of the Central Mississippi Valley are to be found a greater diversity of hardwood than in any other section of the continent. Massive oaks and giant cypresses stand guard, as it were, over the cottonwood, THE FREIGHT YARDS AT NASHVILLE, TENN. One hundred and twenty-seven freight trains a day are handled here. ash, hickory, maple, mulberry, poplar, tulip, sweet and black gum, walnut, elm, honey locust, holly, redwood, dogwood, until the eye of the experienced woodman grows bewildered as he gazes down the long and stately forest avenues, which, beautiful as they are, repre- sent just so much ungathered wealth. In addition to its cotton, lumber, and grain trade, Memphis is a large market for cattle and horses and is a manufacturing city of great activity, adding to its oil mills a number of large cotton presses, grain elevators and ice factories, and a great variety of productive enterprises, its manufactories numbering 850 in all. As a residence city it has much to recommend it, its climate being temperate and Famous Cities 549 salubrious, its dwellings handsome and commodious, its i,ooo acres of public parks delightful places of recreation, its artesian water supply unsurpassed in purity, and its public buildings and business houses of the most modernized architecture. In the good old ante-bellum days, when the Sunny South was a garden, when every plantation was a kingdom and its owner a king, the Mississippi steamers were the floating palaces which transported these financial rulers from place to place. There is nothing in a busi- ness way in the South around which is thrown such a halo of romance as the dead but not forgotten, days on the "Ole Mississippi." Poet and novelist have embalmed in song and story many romances of the chivalry and beauty of the South, in which the Mississippi steamer was the theater of action. But the march of progress in the shape of railways, and the devastation of plantations by the war, ushered in a new era for the mighty river. The romance is gone and the reality has come; business has driven out poetry; traffic not ro- mance, is to-day, the mission of the mighty stream; and in this modern transformation Memphis has played a prominent part. Passing now to the extreme southeastern section of the State, to where the Tennessee River, after a long excursion through northern Alabama, returns to its native soil, we meet with one of the most active and enterprising of the modern business cities of the South, a city which in iron production is a vigorous rival of Birming- ham, and which possesses other manufactures in profusion. This is the city of Chattanooga, famous for its military history in the Civil War, and famous to-dayfor its industrial record. Chattanooga occupies a central position in the South. In the words of Mr. B. L. Goulding, secretary of its Chamber of Com- merce: "At the intersection of a line drawn east and west from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Little Rock, Arkansas, by one drawn north and south from Cincinnati to Pensacola, is found the center of the central South, and close to this point is Chattanooga. It is not a gateway, but by its position is the central city of this favored region of our land. So well known is it nationally, that a recent writer in Harper s Monthly, wishing to fix in the mind of the average American the relative latitude of Buenos Ayres, the greatest of South American cities, had only to state that it is the same dis- tance south of the equator that Chattanooga is north of it." This reputation of Chattanooga, however, is of recent date. 550 Famous Cities In the ante-bellum days it was only a little out-of-the way country town, with less than 2,000 white citizens, the small importance it possessed being due to the railroad then recently completed to Atlanta, along the line of which Gen. Sherman's advance in Georgia was in after years so gallantly contested inch by inch by the Con- federate Army. The building of that road made Chattanooga a place of some importance as a trans-shipping point for cotton and other products of the Tennessee Valley, and under this stimulus the village, by i860, had taken on the name and dignity of a city with a population of 2,545 inhabitants, over one-fifth of whom were slaves. Such was Chattanooga's status when the war came which was to ha at once its undoing and its making. The almost inconceivable resources of coal, iron, timber and diversified minerals of all sorts, from gold to aluminum clay, all about it then lay utterly untouched, a latent wealth which its Chamber of Commerce now roughly estimates at ^2,500,000,000. Early in the war came a strong realization on both sides of the importance of Chattanooga as a strategic point. It was the key of the central South, the possession of which seemed to mean the success or failure of the struggle to maintain the Union. It loomed at once into national prominence, which from that day to this it has never lost. Like Atlanta, its military importance was based on precisely the same reasons which make it to-day so strong strategically from a commercial view. It is the hub of a vast wheel with spokes radiating out to all parts of the South, and to the remote boundaries of the country. It was a pivotal point for spreading havoc and destruction during the war, just as it now is a pivotal point for the great creative forces of commerce and manufacture. The manufactures came early on the heels of the war — began, indeed, before the war was over. It was no less a person than Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman who first began manufacturing in Chattanooga. He was the father of the iron industry there. He established its first rolling mill and did this when the war was still raging. In the wake of the Confederate and United States armies through Tennessee there was left a mass of bent and twisted rails along the lines of what had been railroads. In order to straighten out these rails and rebuild the lines in his rear. Gen. Sherman established the earliest Famous Cities 551 rolling mill known in Chattanooga or anywhere near it. Then he went on through Georgia and left a trail of bent and twisted iron in his own wake. When the war was over and the disheartening task of upbuild- ing the South from ruin and desolation began, among the first things to be put in order were the railroads that Sherman had wrecked. The rails which his army had twisted into fantastic shapes by heat- ing them in the middle and bending them around trees were sent back here to the rolling mill which the General himself had built, to be straightened out and made useful again. That was the beginning of the great iron industry in Chatta- nooga, which now employs a small army of hands and turns out millions of dollars' worth of products every year. Gen. Sherman's rolling-mill had ceased to be a Government plant and had become a private enterprise before it got the job of straightening out Sherman's twisted railroad iron. It was put up at auction by the Government at the close of the war and bought in by some men who had thus early seen the manufacturing and commercial possibilities of Chattanooga. Some of them were originally from the North and some were from Macon, Georgia. They got their start by repairing the damaged railroad iron. It was in 1866 that this concern, under the name of the Southwestern Iron Company, got under way. The Roane Iron Company, started three years later, consolidated with the Southwestern in 1870, forming an organization which still holds a foremost place in the city's industries. In 1890 the South- ern Iron Company, with a plant estimated to have cost ^6,000,000 dollars, began operations, manufacturing steel, as the Roane Iron Company had long been doing. The manufacture of steel rails, however, dropped out when the price of this article fell from ^80 or $90 to ^30 or ^40 a ton. This was a pressure which Chattanooga was not prepared to stand, with the open hearth steel to which it was confined by the character of its ore. But side by side with the iron industry another had sprung into existence and had greatly prospered. Almost contemporaneously with the opening up of the Southwestern Iron Company's works a little sawmill was started by a couple of enterprising young men, and this has now grown to be the largest individual furniture factory in the South, not even excepting any of those at High Point, in North Carolina, where such marvels in the way of furniture production are 552 Famous Cities being wrought. The iron-working business and the wood-working business, both with unlimited supplies of raw material at the very doors of the city, have grown up side by side in Chattanooga and form the great props on which the place now leans. Taking the Roane Iron Company and the big furniture company in their humble beginning as a starting point, it is surprising to hear the roll call of Chattanooga's manufacturing concerns as it is now read off to the inquiring visitor. There is no better summary of the present status of Chattanooga's industrial achievement than that presented by Captain Goulding, a few years ago. He said: "As the result of low cost of production, good business methods and reasonable transportation rates, the largest slate-pencil, curtain- pole, acetylene-gas burner, kitchen furniture and iron soil-pipe Works in the world, the largest oak-bark tanning and metallic paint works in the United States, and the largest patent medicine, hosiery, furni- ture, boiler, steel-roofing, wagon and refrigerator works in the South are here. In variety and value of products Chattanooga easily outstrips any other Southern city of its size. It is a great and growing center for iron casting and machine work, flour and patent medicine, and in the construction of steam boilers is, next to Penn- sylvania, the chief seat of that industry in the country." As regards the population of the city, estimated by the 1900 census at 30,154, it is well to state that this low estimate was due to the absurdly contracted limits of the municipal area, and did not include the suburbs which are distinctively a portion of Chattanooga. The population is now estimated at 60,000. Its progress was in a measure checked by the speculative "boom" which struck it about 1890, which ran up real estate to ridiculously high prices, and which, when it subsided, left many of the inhabitants stranded high and dry. Its experience in this respect was that of many other cities of the South and elsewhere. And like every community in the country, Chattanooga suffered from the great business depression which came in 1893. But in due course of time things began to stir once more in their old normal, healthy way. The worst of it was all over and the town was rapidly convalescing when along came the Spanish war and the concentration of 60,000 soldiers. Then Chattanooga be- came herself once more. The large amounts of money left here by the soldiers undoubtedly did more to loosen things up, pay off Famous Cities 553 mortgages, and restore spirit and confidence, than anything that ever occurred in the history of the city. Things began coming Chatta- nooga's way once more in real earnest. Manufacturing revived all along the line, new industries were started up, and business of all kinds swept into the great current of prosperity which has flowed over the country ever since. By no means an unimportant feature in the city's resources is the establishment of a permanent army post here by the Government, involving, as it will, the expenditure of fully a million dollars and the concentration here during several months of every year of several thousands of State soldiers to be exercised by Regular Army officers in large evolutions, while the militia officers at the same time will have experience in handling troops. Ultimately it will become a great field of military manoeuvres similar to those in France and Germany, and the events will bring here regularly, every year, thousands of visitors in addition to the large bodies of the soldiery themselves. The work of constructing the barracks is now in progress at Chickamauga Park, and the Seventh United States Cavalry is stationed there. The attractions of Chattanooga's vicinity from a scenic and historical point of view are unmatched by those of any other city in the country. Tourists from all parts of the world come here every year and none of the personally conducted excursions to the South, the Southwest, Mexico and California by way of the Southern Pacific Railway is counted as complete unless it includes Chatta- nooga in its itinerary. The nearly 7,000 acres of land owned by the Government and converted into that marvelously preserved and accurately marked battlefield of Chickamauga, the superb series of boulevards that wind along Missionary Ridge, — likewise built by the Government, — and finally the panorama spread out before those who stand on the dizzy cliff' of Lookout Mountain, are attractions which those who once see are pretty apt to come to see again. For the great work of creating Chickamauga Park and marking all the hundreds of historic spots with splendid monuments and clearly descriptive tablets Chattanooga feels that it is indebted to Gen. H. V. Boynton, and he is held here in correspondingly high esteem. While on the subject of iron manufacture, we must turn for a while to Knoxville, the "Queen City of the Mountains," and the original capital of Tennessee. It is one of the old cities of the state, 554 Famous Cities founded in 1792, while the state to be was claimed by North Caro- lina as one of its counties. The old capitol building is still in a good state of preservation and is one of the show places of the town. Here in the early days of the place dwelt General John Sevier, the hero of the famous King's Mountain fight, and in later times Davy Crockett, Andrew Johnson, Parson Brownlow, and others of note. The city has a population of 32,000 or of 50,000 as locally enumerated, and is beautifully situated in the mountain section of East Tennesee, on the KNOXVILLE, THE MOUNTAIN CITY OF TENNESSEE Tennessee River, which after passing Chattanooga curves far upward through the hill country of the state. The river is navigable for boats for seventy miles above Knoxville, and below it to the far distant Ohio. It is crossed by an unusually large number of bridges for a city of this size, two of them being splendid railroad bridges. Knoxville is a place of solid development, a city abounding in beautiful homes, and surrounded by charming scenery of mountain and river, looking from its throne of hills in the center of the valley southward to the magnificent line of the Smoky Mountains. It Famous Cities 555 is the literary, commercial and political capital of East Ten- nessee. Hither in 1889 were brought from North Alabama the remains of the renowned John Sevier, the first governor of Tennessee, and interred with much ceremony. Here is the flourishing Univer- sity of Tennessee, and other educational institutions, and the city in many ways is a very attractive one. As regards the manufacturing development of Knoxville, its plants number nearly three hundred in all. Among these is a cotton mill with 2,300 spindles; the largest woolen mill in the South; a cotton warp mill of 5,000 spindles, equipped with the most modern machinery; a rolling mill, foundries, stove factories, and other iron- working plants; several large marble works, flour mills, furniture manufactories, and many others. Among them are the large shops of the Southern Railroad, with their eleven buildings spread over one hundred acres and employing some 750 men. In the heart of the great central basin of Tennessee, and on the winding Cumberland River, is seated historic Nashville, the capital of Tennessee and one of the most important and attractive towns of the State. Founded in 1780, very early in the history of that region, a few years only after the first hardy pioneers reached its soil, it was incorporated as a town in 1784 and as a city in 1806. Here came Andrew Jackson and opened a law office in 1788, and here he married one of the fair daughters of the little settlement in 1792. He was rarely absent from Nashville during the remainder of his life, and died there in his historic home, the Hermitage. The legislature met at Nashville, except for an eleven year interval, from 1 8 12 to 1843, though it was not formally made the State capital till the latter year. During the Civil War it was occupied by Federal troops in February 1862, and was held till the end of the war, being so strongly fortified as to repel the resolute assault of General Hood in December, 1864. After the war the town grew and prospered; gaining a popula- tion of 25,865 in 1870, which was more than triply increased in the next thirty years, reaching to 84,865 in 1900. It is now estimated by its mayor at 164,000, double its population in the census year. Its growth in size was largely due to its development in manufact- uring enterprise and in distributing business. The hardwood lumber, which Tennessee grows in such profusion, is very largely manufactured in Nashville, it being unsurpassed in this industry; 556 Famous Cities in the flour milling business it is the chief city in the South, and the second in extent of its jobbing trade, of which cotton and tobacco are the chief staples, cotton being among its materials of manufacture. There is also a large trade in live-stock. As a city Nashville is well-built and handsome, and possesses many attractive public and educational buildings^ The river bluffs upon which it stands rise nearly eighty feet above the river, the city extending along gradual slopes, and being picturesquely grouped around Capitol Hill, on which stands the State-House, one of the most attractive public buildings in the country. The number of important educational institutions in Nashville have given it the name of the "Athens of the South." Here is the University of Nashville, dating back for its first origin to 1785; the amply endowed and important Vanderbilt University; theWalden University, founded by the Methodists; the Fisk University, one of the foremost schools for the education of the colored race; and the Peabody College, as non-sectarian institution. CHAPTER XXX. THE SOUTH AS A SUMMER AND WINTER PARADISE FOR THE TOURIST The South newly discovered — The land of the sky — The American Switzerland — The Asheville region — Virginia's watering places — South Carolina's health resorts — - The attractions of Georgia — Its favorite springs — Jekyl and Cumberland Islands — Florida and its resorts — Gulf coast watering places — Sports in the South — Deer shooting and fishing. WITHIN recent years the North has "discovered" the South in a new and most attractive sense, discovered it as a land of beauty and charm, of health-giving climate and ceaseless enjoyment, of cool resorts in the heats of summer and warm retreats from the chill of winter, of picturesque mountain scenery, delightful lowland regions in which floral and umbrageous beauty runs riot, salubrious seaside localities, and lands in which the tropic and temperate zones meet and mingle and the earth teems with the choicest treasures of both. More and more fully is this discovery being made; more and more numerously are the pleasure seekers from the North invading the South; annually they pour far and wide over its soil from mountain to sea, and more and more closely are the two sections becoming bound together as one by the ties of social amenities, friendly interchange of sentiment, and all that tends to the banishment of prejudice and the birth of kindly fellow feeling. In the line of health and pleasure resorts the South is fortunate, alike in the great number and the wide variety of its places of attraction. Many people, especially those living in the North and West, think of the South only as a place to be visited in the winter season. But this holds good only for its lowland resorts, not for its broad mountain region, with a multitude of heights elevated into the cool upper air. As a matter of fact, there is no region in America superior in its inducements to the tourist at any season 557 558 A Summer and Winter Paradise of the year, both as to scenic and cHmatic advantages, than the "Land of the Sky," in western North Carolina and eastern Tenn- essee. At the mountain resorts in this region the average summer temperature is several degrees loWer than in either the White Mountains or in the Catskills, a fact due to its altitude, which HUNTING LODGE, AIKEN, S. C. Built by the late W. C. Whitney, who selected this spot as the most delightful in the country. ranges from 2,200 to 6,700 feet above sea level. In winter thousands of visitors from the North are attracted to this region by its wonderful freedom from dampness. So remarkable is this climatic characteristic that the United States Government has issued special scientific bulletins In explanation. A Summer and Winter Paradise 559 In summer this fair region, of which Asheville is the commercial and social center, is one of the most enjoyable regions in all the world for recreation and rest, and within recent years it has become what Switzerland is to Europe — an international resting-place. Asheville by no means stands alone as a mountain resort in this region of delight. North Carolina presenting dozens of other spots in which tourists congregate, while on the Tennessee side are Lookout Mountain, Tate Springs and numerous other places suitable for all-the-year-round health and pleasure resorts. The attractions of these and many other places have become known within a decade or two of years, and the hegira thitherward grows annually greater in numbers, while hotels and resting places within which ail the refinements of life may be enjoyed are rapidly on the increase. For an enthusiastic yet truthful account of the North Carolina summering region we cannot do better than to quote from "The Empire of the South," a descriptive volume published by the Southern Railway Company. "Europe may have her Switzerland, the West its Colorado, the Pacific coast may glory in her Sierra Nevada and British Columbia in her Cascade range, but nowhere on the face of the earth is there a region more picturesquely, more charmingly beautiful than the mountain country of western North Carolina, poetically known as 'The Land of the Sky.' It is true there are mountains of greater elevation in each of the localities named, but the greatest canvases in the gallery of art are not the choicest gems, nor is the beauty of nature to be measured on geodetic lines. Where the mountain ranges of the West are rugged, barren and forbidding, those in western North Carolina are robed in deep- hued forests to their highest summits. Where the greater peaks of the Sierra Nevada frown, those of *The Land of the Sky' smile with banks of rhododendrons and azalias. Where the valleys of the one are rocky and impassable gorges, in the other they are fern-carpeted forest labyrinths, through which crystal streams tumble merrily along over moss-grown rocks in their race to the open. "Picture in your mind a region where range after range of heavily forested mountains parallel each other like waves of the sea, where interlacing valleys are rich with verdure and flowers, and where silver streams murmur unceasingly. Imagine an air so light and pure that breathing itself seems a new-found joy, then throw over all a can- opy of bluest of Italian blue, and you have *The Land of the Sky.* s6o A Summer and Winter Paradise "Land of forest-clad mountains, of fairy-like streams, Of low, pleasant valleys where the bright sunlight gleams Athwart fleecy clouds gliding over the hills, Midst the fragrance of pines and the murmur of rills. "A land of bright sunsets, whose glories extend From horizon to zenith, there richly to blend The hues of the rainbow with clouds passing by — Right well art thou christened 'The Land of the Sky.* "A land of pure water, as pure as the air; A home for the feeble, a home for the fair; Where the wild roses bloom, while their fragrance combines With health-giving odors from balsamic pines. "As far from the frigid North as from the zone Where the sun's torrid rays come sweltering down, Upraised toward the heavens whose azure seems nigh — Right fitly thou'rt christened 'The Land of the Sky.' "The mountains that shield from the rude northern blast — Mute monitors, they, of the ages long past — Like sentinels watch o'er the valley below Where the swift crystal streams unceasingly flow. "The pure, healthful breezes, the life-giving air, The beauteous landscapes, oft new, ever fair. Are gifts that have come from the Father on high, To Him be all praise for 'The Land of the Sky.' "This rugged mountain region embraces the extreme western portion of North Carolina and the eastern edge of Tennessee. Within these confines are several districts, alike in their general features, but each having distinct charms and advantages peculiarly its own. The one most generally visited has Asheville for its tourist center. None the less beautiful, however, is that country in and about Blowing Rock and Grandfather's Mountain, of which Lenoir is the entrepot. Southeast of Asheville is the Flat Rock and Tryon region, which attracts many visitors because of its charming environments. Southwest of Asheville, and between that city and Murphy, is the Balsam Mountain country, wild, solitary, and Swiss- like, with the Hayward Sulphur Springs as its chief tourist rendez- vous. Over to the west, and near the Tennessee line, is the less rugged but more picturesquely beautiful territory in and about the A Summer and Winter Paradise 561 Hot Springs, while almost due north from here and across the Tennessee line looms up, in the majesty of its towering height, Roan Mountain, crowned by a hotel, the highest building east of Colorado, and a favorite summer gathering place for people from THE HEALTH OF THE LOWER SOUTH Artesian wells and drainage have banished malaria and fevers and reduced the death- rate (especially of white persons) in many Southern cities and localities much below the average for the rest of the country. This photograph shows one of the 8 artesian wells (950 feet deep) which supply Jacksonville, Fla. The waterworks are in a square in the middle of the city. near and far. Taken as a whole, no similar area in the western conti- nent compares with the 'Land of the Sky' in beauty and sublimity. In square miles it is the equal of Switzerland; in attractiveness, ac- cessibility and health, its rival." 36 5^2 A Summer and Winter Paradise We have not the space at our command to describe the many popular resorts in the mountain region here so warmly and poetically portrayed. Asheville, the center of its most beautiful locality, we have elsewhere spoken of, but it is well to epitomize its attractions, as admirably summed up by S. Westray Battle, M D., in an article recently published in the Medical Record of New York. He says: ** Nestled in the heart of the Alleghanies. cradled by the Blue Ridge and Great Smokies, stretches the Asheville plateau, a most desirable and beautiful section of ccuntry, m close touch with the East and North, and most accessible rorm all points South and West. It has become the great sanatorium of the eastern United States. It enjoys a climate sui generis, representing the golden mean of altitude and latitude and the several meteorological conditions which go to make up a wholesome and fascinating resort. Nowhere east of the Rocky Mountains is there anything approaching it to be found for fall and winter, spring and summer — ^an all-the-year- round retreat. It is cool in summer, yet the winters, shorn of their harsh- ness by reason of its southern latitude, induce almost daily out-of- door exercise in the way of shooting, riding, driving or short moun- tain excursions on foot. For lovers of golf it is ideal; and at Ashe- ville, the center of the plateau, are united the comforts of a city with the delights of the country. "The plateau is an elevated tableland, somewhat triangular in shape, embracing some six thousand square miles of western North Carolina, with a general elevation of two thousand feet above the sea level, though altitudes up to six thousand feet may be had for the climbing any day in the year. Hills, valleys, rivers and forests so diversify this intramontane expanse as to make it lovely and restful to the eye beyond the power of my pen to portray. " Leaving the highlands and descending to the ocean level, we find in the South a multitude of highly desirable summer watering places. Virginia presents us two of these. Old Point Comfort and Virginia Beach, which rank among the most famous of our seaside resorts. The former is upon the historic waters of Hampton Roads, which is formed by the confluence of Chesapeake Bay and the James River. Its fine and popular hotels adjoin Fortress Monroe, one of the largest of the Government's military posts, and overlook the beautiful sheet of water which was the scene of the great naval duel between the Monitor and the Merrimac, and which is now the winter A Summer and Winter Paradise 5^3 station of the White Squadron. The peculiarly delightful climate, added to the brilliant social life, has made Old Point a most popular resort in winter time for Northern people and in summer for visitors from the South. Virginia Beach, at which there is a modern hotel, the Princess Anne, is seventeen miles due east from Norfolk and directly upon the ocean. This beautiful resort is a favorite rendezvous for people from Southern cities during the summer, and the hotel is always filled with guests during the winter from New York and the North. Its beach is a fine white strand, with deep woodlands as a background to the breaking surf. We have said so much about the Alleghany Mountain resorts that nothing further seems here called for, but we cannot leave Virginia without saying that its mountains, and those of Maryland as well, contain numerous picturesque and healthful points of attrac- tion. Among its popular summer resorts is Buford, near the Peaks of Otter; Liberty, eight miles from the Peaks; Roanoke, in the lovely valley of that name; Mountain Lake, 4,500 feet in height on the Alleghanies; Wytheville, with its rare winter climate, and various others. Widely scattered through the mountain region is a pro- fusion of mineral springs, visited annually by multitudes of invalids, including the White Sulphur, Yellow Sulphur and Red Sulphur Springs, alum, iron and lithia springs, hot springs and warm springs, with names too numerous to mention, and many of them highly popular alike as social and health resorts. Passing to South Carolina, we find in its capital city a locality unsurpassed as a health resort. Built on a granite spur of the Pied- mont region, it possesses a highly agreeable winter climate, with crisp and bracing air and admirably free from unhealthful weather. Still more attractive as a health resort is Aiken, a small city southwest of Columbia, near the Georgia line. Its splendid climate has made it one of the leading resorts for invalids and others in the South, and many wealthy Northerners have built handsome residences there. Within a few miles of Aiken are several successful cotton mills, but the city itself has no factories of any kind; it prides itself upon being a health and pleasure resort, and has made no effort in the direction of manufactures. It has recently been made famous by the magnif- icent Palmetto golf links, acknowledged to be the best south of New York, being about three miles around, composed of eighteen holes, 5^4 A Summer and Winter Paradise and laid out by two of the most celebrated players of Boston and New York. The woods for miles around are well stocked with both the gray and the red fox. The mean temperature of Aiken is 52 degrees; it has a strictly temperate climate during the winter season, being just cold enough for one to enjoy a walk, and still so warm in the sunshine that there are very few days when it is not pleasant to sit beneath its rays. Aiken has the driest climate of which there is any record east of the Rocky Mountains. Its hotels are equipped with every convenience of modern comfort. We may say the same of Augusta, Georgia, as of Aiken, its delightful climate making it one of the most popular of the winter resorts in the South, and attracting thousands of visitors annually. Lying as it does in the center of the pine-ridge section of the State, it is remarkably free from humidity. The city is well supplied with modern hotels, especially the popular Hotel Bon Air, one of the best known hostelries of the South. The golf links here rival those at Aiken and golf playing is a favorite sport throughout the winter. Georgia is by no means wanting in other health resorts, includ- ing Marietta, near the Kenesaw Mountain; Thomasville, in the pine region, whose peculiarly dry climate adapts it admirably to those suffering from pulmonary troubles; Eastman, in the park-like upland pinery of Middle Georgia; Hillman, famous for its great electric shaft, where thousands of rheumatics seek relief, making electric circuits by clasping hands while one of them touches the rock. There are in addition various important mineral springs. Lithia Springs, twenty miles from Atlanta, are said to possess the strongest lithia water in the country, and are famous for their powers of cure. There is here a handsome hotel and a well-equipped bath-house. The Indian Springs are one and a half miles from Flovilla, which is on the line to Brunswick, fifty-one miles southeast of Atlanta. The springs were originally purchased from the Indians by the state and their waters have been famous for many years. In the earlier times, and before the excellent hotel accommodations now found there were provided, the spot used to be a common camping ground for the people who came here in great numbers from the surrounding country to seek the benefits to be derived from the waters. The Warm Springs are on the Columbus division of the Southern Railway, forty-two miles from Columbus and seventy-five miles from O '^ ^ m « ^ ■ ^^ •ri ^ >< H £- ra *- u-g^ . ^ CO H ^ "" ^. X ^ ^_J ^ H ^§5 [X. W "-Si O , aj OJ l^ •^ "^ 'J- U < ^3 < G 1) O ^ ■" O ^^2 < aj f" rt > eorg 000, are Ph U d ,r. O C; < M- O +^ O rA, rt ^^m o .B ^^ "O -a JT ii ° rt.«^ g ^ '- r" G CJ O rt (— n 19 ites. of Dep rn O ^ jyi C 4j Ph > ° 'S X 1? ^< 1^ l7i 3 ':5? ^ OJ -C 1> IG >:: S "5 fciE "> rt C > 1— -c/2 o-a o rt '-' "^ C/1 ■^"0 i2 W 1^ "< < •^^.y 1 — , S n ^ CJ -^ W 'z; p c to rr ■x S rt- '^ hJn : — ' =^-i! 2 ^-s = >; 3 o< w & "" 4 S|^~hJW i ^^M i^^ ^^^^^ S^^^^i^ST' KiSfa^^SI 1 H|| K_ 1 I 1 ^H[^^^^k[^^^ 1 ■HH ^^I^hI^ ^H ^K ^H mm- /JHliB l^toHi ■ n m i„ ^M^ra ROCK MARKING THE SPOT WHERE STONE- WALL JACKSON FELL, CHANCELLORS- VILLE, VIRGINIA Expositions of Industry 607 village, peopled by redmen from fifty-one different tribes, weaving their native costumes, and displaying the Indian ways and wiles, above them rising the steep face of an Arizona cliff, with the chance of seeing a cliff-dweller peering from his lofty stone house in the rocks. A feature of much interest Was the Hagenbeck Zoo, in which the showman had sought to give realism to his exhibit by preparing a luxuriant tropical jungle, in which tigers prowled, tortoises waddled, and gorgeous tropic birds gave brilliant color to the scene. Elsewhere were to be seen the glass-blowers, magically con- verting liquid glass into globes or vases, or drawing it out into threads which could be woven into varied designs. In another quarter was the Palace of Costumes, in which one saw dresses of all kinds, from those of ancient Rome to those of modern Paris. Again the trav- eler entered an Eskimo village and beheld the broad-faced Arctic dwellers dressed in pajamas instead of their native furs, as more suitable to the St. Louis climate, but with their dogs and sledges and surrounded with seeming plains of snow and ice. Or a journey might be made on the Siberian railway, stopping at a typical Rus- sian village, with soldiers and peasants in their native attire. Id fact every quarter of the world was represented in costume and by examples of its native inhabitants. A few statistics will suffice to complete the story of the St. Louis World's Fair. It opened its gates April 30 and closed them Decem- ber I, 1904, the total attendance for the 187 davs in which it was open being 18,741,073. The greatest daily attendance was On St. Louis Day, September 15, when 404,450 persons visited the grounds. We have elsewhere given a statement of the cost of this great Exposi- tion. The returns were about ^10,000,000, as estimated from the gate receipts and the amounts paid for concessions of restaurant and other privileges. From this was repaid ^5,000,000 loaned by the United States. The Exposition closed free of debt, but with litde prospect of dividends to the citizen subscribers. In the latter it was in no sense singular, this being the general outcome of great fairs. They are not inaugurated as money-making enterprises, but abundantly pay their way as vast educational displays. In some measure associated with this Exposition was that held at Pordand, Oregon, from June i to October i, 1905, in commemora- tion of the exploration of the Louisiana territory and the Oregon 6o8 Expositions of Industry country, by order of President Jefferson, it being conducted by Captains Meriweather Lewis and William Clarke, both Virginians, the latter a brother of George Rogers Clarke, whose famous exploits we have elsewhere described. This Exposition was one of the most interesting and important ever undertaken in America and the attractive display made at Portland was a fitting honor to the remarkable performance of two hero sons of the Old Dominion in the early nineteenth century. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE JAMESTOWN EXPOSITION, ITS SITE AND HISTORY A great natural event — How Jamestown was settled — The story of the colony — A turn" ing point in its history — The Exposition Company chartered — A site chosen — Historical interest of the locality — Famous fight of the Merrimac and Monitor — Climate of the region — Its points of interest — Death of President Lee — The character of the Exposition defined — The State buildings — The improvement of the Exposition grounds — A fine example of landscape gardening. — The Exposi- tion opening day — Roosevelt reviews the fleets — The inauguration ceremonies —The President's speech — The military pageant — A second anniversary cere- mony — The auditorium and other buildings — A red and white city — The war path — Aquatic events— What the buildings held — A fine government dis- play — Exhibits of the Departments — The great pier — Influence of the Exposi- tion on the development of the South. WITH the year 1907 came another great anniversary date in our country's history, second in importance in conti- nental events only to the discovery of America by Colum- bus, and second to no event in the history of the United States, for it was that of the planting of the seed from which, during three centuries of steady progress, the mighty tree of the Great Western Republic has grown. The event referred to was the founding in 1607, at Jamestown, Virginia, of the pioneer successful English settlement on this continent, the landing of the one hundred and five daring adventurers whose coming was the forerunner of a nation of more than 80,000,000 active and enterprising people. On the soil of the South, in the year named, the foundation stone of the United States was laid. By 1907, three centuries later, a splendid edifice of empire had been erected, that of the noblest and mightiest nation the world of to-day knows. In view of this fact it was deemed expedient to celebrate this event in some adequate way, and from this idea sprung the latest of American World's Fairs and the one with which we are here concerned, as the most recent event of national importance on the soil of the South 39 609 6xo The Jamestown Exposition Let us go back awhile to earlier days and trace in historic outhne the event commemorated by this Exposition. In an earlier chapter the story of the settlement of Jamestown on May 13, 1607, was briefly given. Why then, readers may ask, was April 26, instead of May 13, chosen as the date of opening, and Seweil's Point, instead of Jamestown Island, as the locality .? To explain this a fuller statement of the history of this event is necessary. Attempts to plant colonies had earlier been made. Sir Walter Raleigh wasted his fortune m such efforts twenty years before. In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold set out to found a settlement FORTRESS MONROE, VIRGINIA Showing a complete panorama of the fortifications. on northern shores. But these attempts had dismally failed, and Gosnold was one of the famous one hundred and five who landed at Jamestown five years later. It was in December, 1606, that the first successful colonizing expedition set sail from England, in three small vessels, the Good Speed, the Discovery, and the Susan Constant, under Captain Christopher Newport, one of Raleigh's captains, to cross the seas to the shores of the New World. These little barks met with biting gales and surging waves on their way to an unknown goal. Their The Jamestown Exposition 6ii enterprise was one of the highest historic importance, for it is very possible that, if they had failed, later immigrants might have been discouraged, the Spaniards have obtained control and the destiny of the North American continent been entirely changed. For- tunately they did not fail. Feehng their way up the coast and pass- ing the locality of Raleigh's defeated efforts, on the 26th of April, 1607, they rounded the southern cape of Chesapeake Bay and entered that noble body of water. Here, on the sand dunes of the cape, their first landing on American soil was made and it is this date of this first landing that has been commemorated in the opening day of the Exposition. They did not stay there long, for a party of hostile Indians attacked them, wounding some of them with their arrows and driving them back to the ships. To this cape they gave the name of Cape Henry, while the northern one they called Cape Charles, those names being in honor of the two sons of the King. The next morning the bold adventurers sailed into the great bay spreading out before them and passed through an inner and narrower passage that opened into a splendid harbor, now known as Hampton Roads. Here anchor was dropped in a sheltered place which, in the quaint language of their historian, "gave the emigrants good comfort." The spot received the name of Point Comfort, and it is known as Old Point Comfort to-day. Here they enjoyed the unrivaled oyster of the Chesapeake and found strawberries "four times bigger and better than ours in England.'* That the ocean-tossed emigrants were delighted with the quiet and beautiful haven they had reached scarcely need be said. Ver- dant, forest-clad shores rose all around them, bounding the broad liquid expanse, and the scene, whose beauty is admired to-day must have seemed paradisal to their water-wearied eyes. Here, they decided, was the place for their settlement to be made. They quickly learned that the harbor they had entered formed the outlet of a noble river, to which they subsequently gave the name of Powhatan, after the Indian chief who ruled the region around, but afterwards called the James, in honor of James I., then king of England. After lying in this favored spot a few days, they spread their sails again, desiring to explore the river and seek a suitable spot to land and found their homes in the New World. Finally, on May 13, they reached a peninsula that jutted 6 12 The Jamestown Exposition out into the stream some thirty-five or forty miles above its mouth. Around this the river made a wide curve, leaving a narrow neck to connect it with the main land, a formation that made it easy of fortification and defense against hostile natives. This fact ruled in the choice of what proved to be an unhealthful site, as shown by a quick outbreak of disease and the death of many of the settlers. They first called it Fort James, but later gave it the name of James City, and still later that of Jamestown, its historic title. War, flood, and fire, as time went on, made havoc with this place. Long ago the water of the James washed away the neck of land and converted the peninsula into an island, which for nearly two centuries it has remained. The town itself vanished more than two centuries ago. It narrowly escaped being burned in its early days, when temporarily deserted by its inhabitants. It was set on fire and burned during the warlike outbreak of 1676, known as Bacon's Rebellion. About twenty years later an acci- dental fire broke out and consumed what remained of the old town. It was never rebuilt, the seat of government being removed, in 1698, to Williamsburg. Of the famous old settlement, the first English town in America, scarcely a trace remains, beyond the archway and wall of the old church tower, which still stands as the sole memento of the Jamestown of the past. History and romance cling round this locality. The first edifice to be erected by the settlers was a tent, and by nailing a board between two trees, they made a reading desk for their chaplain, the Reverend Robert Hunt, who here gave the first religious service in the English tongue on American soil. Fortunately for the settlers, they had with them a man of remarkable energy, judgment and decision, the famous Captain John Smith, the ablest man among the early settlers of America. For two years his story was one of adventure and practical activity, and it was due solely to him that the settlement was kept alive during its first uncertain period of existence. He had scarcely set sail for England, severely wounded by an accident, when everything went wrong. Massacre and famine, due to their heedlessness, decimated the settlers. Of the five hundred men left behind by Smith, only sixty remamed alive in May, 16 10, and these so haggard, starved, and miserable, that on the arrival of Captain Newport with a squadron for relief it was decided to abandon the settlement. On June 7, while the drums rolled a The Jamestown Exposition 613 '^^^o hesapeak e. p 9 vT /Z 21 V /y _^o- C. z -i --5 z > (5 h S 6h The Jamestown Exposition dirge, the weary remnant carried their few household treasures aboard the vessels, and only a shred of good advice prevented them from burning the small town they were leaving, as they supposed, forever. Fortunately, when Hampton Roads was reached, a small sail was seen in the distance, and as it came nearer it proved to be the longboat of Lord Delaware, a new governor whom the company had sent out. His ships lay below. Back to their deserted village, at his advice, went the colonists, and there on the following Sunday they stood in military array to present arms to the governor, who landed from his boat, fell on his knees and thanked God that his coming had saved Virginia. Narrow was the interval between success and failure. Had he come a day later he would have found a bare array of empty huts. This was the turning point in the English settling of America. PVom that time forward the colony prospered. Cattle, sheep, horses and pigs were brought over, crops were planted and flourished, and finally the culture of tobacco was introduced and the exportation of this weed began to make the settlers rich. One thing they lacked, the right of self-government, and this was given them by Governor Yeardly in 1619, when he summoned the General Assembly of Virginia, the first legislative body ever known in America. To this important point had the Virginian colony advanced before 1620, when the second English colony was planted by the Plymouth Pilgrims. Such is the historic event which the Jamestown Ter- centennial Exposition was designed to commemorate. The idea of celebrating in some way this leading event in our history arose in the later days of the nineteenth century, but at first only some modest ceremony, of an appropriate kind, was thought of. As the years went on this grew in men's minds, until finally it was deemed desirable to make the occasion a great and memorable one, and instead of a simple ceremonial observance, to celebrate the occasion by a historical and industrial Exposition. This development of the project was reached early in the twentieth century, and in 1902 the legislature of Virginia chartered the Jamestown Exposition Company, its incorporators embracing one hundred of the leading men of the state, and its president being General Fitzhugh Lee, a famed hero of the Civil War and a prom- inent actor in the recent war with Spain. The legislature appro- priated ^200,000 toward the cost of the enterprise and required the The Jamestown Exposition 615 incorporators to obtain subscriptions amounting to ;^ 1,000,000 by January i, 1904. Thus launched, the Exposition project entered upon its diversified career. The selection of a site was the first thing to be considered. Historically and sentimentally Jamestown seemed the only appro- priate locality, but there were economical reasons why it should not be chosen. Ease of access and ready means of accommodating a large influx of visitors are essential to the success of such an enter- prise, and in these particulars the site of the old settlement was sadly lacking. Such an enterprise, to be financially success- ful, must be in or near a large city, and the in- corporators were obliged to look abroad. Richmond was con- sidered but was reject- ed as being too far in- land and remote from the site of the events to be commemorated. The vicinity of Norfolk t was next thought oi ^^^ and was at once seen across "the canoe trail" to be in every WaV ap- Showing the Hospital and the States' Exhibits Building. propriate. It was easy of access by rail and water and was in the immediate vicinity of Hampton Roads, in the waters of which the little fleet of the colonists had first dropped anchor and decided that there was no need to go farther, that here they had come to stay. No better spot could have been chosen, Sewell's Point, the site decided upon, is four miles from Norfolk, with which it is connected by an electric road, and projects into Hampton Roads, across whose waters it can be reached by boat in twenty minutes from Old Point, Hampton and Newport News, while within a moderate distance around it dwells a population of 6i6 The Jamestown Exposition a quarter million of, people. In addition to those economical con- siderations was its close historical association with the original settlement and the scenic beauty given by the noble expanse of Hampton Roads, the *'home of the United States Navy," as it has been called, and offering a splendid opportunity for a display of the naval strength of the nations on original lines of beauty and suggestiveness. Diagram showing the convenient location of the grounds, with circles marking the distances to surrounding towns. There are other historic reasons which render this site a re- markable one, a nodal point in American history. The surrounding region, within the limit of no great number of miles, is vital with events of leading prominence. The locality is notable for its close connection with important incidents in the Revolutionary War, the the Southern portion of which began in the battle of Great Bridge, not far south of Norfolk, in October, 1775, and the subsequent burninf^ of the city of Norfolk by Lord Dunmore, the last royal governor of Virginia. The war ended in this vicinity with its most The Jamestown Exposition 617 significant event, the surrender of Cornwallis at York town, a locality not many miles to the north. Not until that surrender was it sure that the independence of the young country would be won, so that in this region we possess the cradle in which the infant of American nationality was laid and the battle-field on which was finally secured the great boon of American liberty. During the Civil War a Hke interest attached tothis local- ity. At Big Bethel, not far to the north of Hampton Roads, was fought on June lo, 1861, the first battle of that war. Like the later Bull Run it proved a Confederate victory. As the war proceeded the whole neighboring region was fought over by fierce contending armies, and the close of the siege of Peters- burg, up the James River, brought this great conflict to an end, as the close of the siege of Yorktown, up the York River, had brought to an end the Revolutionary War. But that which made the immediate locaHty especially memor- able was a naval, not a mihtary, event, the great conflict, already alluded to, of the pioneer iron-clads, a battle which proved the turning point in the modern naval history of the world. It is this event that has given special significance to the naval features of the Exposition, and it is of such leading importance in this connec- tion that some fuller mention of it is here desirable. During all the many centuries of earlier history ocean battles had been fought in wooden ships. But as cannon became huge in size and rifled guns came into use, their destructive effect grew so great that some stronger defense than walls of wood was called for and some efforts had been made to cover the hulls of war vessels with iron. The value of this new idea in naval warfare was first demonstrated in actual battle on the waters of Hampton Roads, on that historic day in March, 1862, when the iron-clad Virginia— usual- ly known as the Merrimac — came down like a thing of terror from Norfolk and fell upon the strong fleet of old-time war-vessels lying in the Roads. Powerful as they had been deemed, they proved like ships of lath and plaster before the onslaught of this new-born monarch of the main. Then came steaming into the Roads the low-lying Monitor, with raft-like deck and revolving turret of iron, and one of the most momentous battles in naval history took place. It was more than a battle; it was a mile-post event in the world's history. The genius 6i8 The Jamestown Exposition of naval warfare hovered over those two hard-shelled monsters, neither of which seemed capable of inflicting any harm on its opponent. It was evident that a ^reat turning point had come; that the proud fleets of the past were henceforth to be of no more value in warfare than so much kindling wood. The whole world looked on in alarm and hastened to cover its war vessels with thick armor of iron and steel; and to-day there float in all the naval harbors of the world fleets of huge steel fortresses, the successors of the obsolete wooden fleets of the past. It is this that gives a signal significance to the naval display of the Exposition in Hampton Roads. Here, where the first battle of iron-clads was fought, is the appropriate place for a gathering of the world's navies, the first great international modern naval display, and hither was sent a significant detachment of the mighty war brood that has grown from the iron-shelled egg that was laid in these waters forty-five years ago. The vicinity of Hampton Roads is admirably suited to a great Exposition for other reasons. Here nature has done much to create a territory supremely attractive. In this favored region we stand midway between the tropic and arctic realms, the regions of severe heat and cold, the chmate of this midland district being pleasantly mild alike in winter and summer. Here the extremes of temperature vary less from the average than anywhere else in the Atlantic States. Humidity is not excessive and the breezes that blow continuously rarely rise to the proportion of gales, while they prevent the stagna- tion of sultriness so often felt elsewhere. It is a region in which malaria has not taken root and to which the victims of malarial fever come to find relief In short, nature has seemingly done her best to make this an agreeable place of residence, and Old Point Comfort, a few miles distant from the site of the Exposition, across the outlet of the Roads, has long been a favorite place of resort for Northern and Southern visitors ahke. There are various other attractive seashore resorts in the immediate vicinity, Virginia Beach, Ocean View, Willoughby Beach and Pine Beach, all easily accessible from Norfolk, the ocean here presenting a beach front of unsur- passed beauty and safety. Man has done his share to make the locaHty attractive. Near the site of the Exposition are thriving cities, powerful forts, a large navy yard, an immense ship yard, popular hotels, yacht and other The Jamestown Exposition 619 club houses, and other attractions. Up the James River are to be seen some of the finest examples of colonial architecture in America. Fortress Monroe, close to the Old Point Comfort hotels, is a strong- hold of much historic interest, since it had its origin as a fortification in a palisaded enclosure of the early settlers, planned as long ago as 16 14 and fortified a few years later. It is now the largest and finest fortress in America and is the chief artillery station of the United States Government. Midway between this fortress and the Ex- position grounds, rising from the water, is the Rip-Raps, a modern fort. Newport News, a town at the mouth of the James River, possesses one of the greatest ship-building plants of the country. At Hampton, a village between Fortress Monroe and Newport News, are a large Soldiers' Home and the Hampton Institute, a flourishing industrial negro school. Up the Elizabeth River, an estuary of Hampton Roads, are the cities of Norfolk and Ports- mouth and the town of Berkley. Portsmouth is the seat of the im- portant Norfolk Navy Yard and at Norfolk is the chief coahng station of the Government. Yorktown, where the final victory of the Revolution was won, is at the mouth of York River, not many miles to the north. Most of these places are of historic interest, dating back to the seventeenth century, and Hampton, originally a village of friendly Indians, is the oldest place in America where men of English birth have continuously dwelt. Jamestown, the original settlement, has nothing to show of it's former existence but the ruins of its old church tower; Williamsburg, the second capital of Virginia, having replaced it more than two centuries ago. Farther up the James lies Richmond, Virginia's third capital, and a place of interest from its history and its artistic and antiquarian monuments. Such are the places worth seeing, for historic or other reasons, within easy reach of the Exposition site, while the peninsula between the James and the York River has been the scene of more important military events than any other locality of similar extent in our country. Such were the reasons for selecting Sewell's Point as the locality of the Jamestown Tercentenary Exposition and such the varied features of interest attaching to the site. Let us go forward now with the story of the Exposition itself. It met with a serious loss before its work of preparation was fairly underway, in the death, on April 28, 1905, of its strenuous and energetic presiding officer, 620 The Jamestown Exposition General Fitzhugh Lee, who had made earnest efforts to secure a complete representation of all the States of the Union. His activity in this may have brought on the apoplectic attack v^^hich carried Jiim away in the midst of his labors. He was succeeded by Hon. St, George Tucker, a descendant of the celebrated John Randolph, of Roanoke, and a statesman of acknowledged ability. The preliminary ^1,000,000 v\^as quickly subscribed and Con- gress was asked for an appropriation of ^5,000,000, but finally appropriated ^1,575,000 for specified purposes, and at the same time gave a new aspect to the Exposition by deciding that it should take the novel form of an international naval, marine and military cele- bration on the waters of Hampton Roads. This act was passed March 3, 1905, and shortly afterward President Roosevelt issued a proclamation defining the objects of the exhibition and going on to sav: "I do therefore invite all the nations of the earth to take part in the commemoration of an event v/hich has had a far-reaching effect on the course of human history, by sending their naval vessels to the said celebration and by making such representations of their military organizations as may be proper." In accordance with this new idea concerning the controlling feature of the Exposition, President Tucker soon visited Europe, where he had satisfactory interviews with King Edward and other crowned heads, almost every country in Europe promising to take part in the display, w".th battleships and troops. Others interested in the enterprise visited the countries of Asia and Latin America, and interviewed their governing powers, with the result that almost every country in the world agreed to participate, many of them promising to send battleships and other fighting craft and large bodies of their best drilled troops. The American exhibit was to include, in addition to a splendid naval and military contingent, the most complete display of the multiform activities of the government departments ever shown. About twenty-five of the states also made handsome appropriations for buildings and exhibits, Virginia, as was naturally to be expected, erecting one of the largest and most attractive of the state buildings on the grounds, with a handsome colonial portico. It had been decided that the characteristic feature of all the architecture should be colonial, and the various states complied with this. Pennsyl- vania built an exact reproduction of old Independence Hall, the The Jamestown Exposition 621 "Cradle of Liberty." New Jersey contributed a replica of Wash- ington's headquarters at Morristown. Rhode Island copied its first state capitol at Newport. Ohio reproduced "Adena, " the home of its first governor. Maryland copied the home of John Carroll, of Carrollton; Missouri its oldest large colonial building; Kentucky a counterpart of Daniel Boone's fort, and other states made similar historical contributions. An interesting and fitting part of the Virginian exhibit was a representation of the town of Jamestown, as it was supposed to have appeared in its early days with forts, stockades, and Indian villages. These state buildings stretched along the whole water front, many of them direct- ly facing the Roads. Several of them were substantially built, with the idea that they miffht be available as permanent summer residences. Nearly all of them represent- ed good examples of colonial architecture. Between them and the water extended a broad avenue, Wil- loughby Terrace, de- signed to be part of a driveway from Norfolk. Fronting this again and extending more than two miles along the water's edge, was built a broad boardwalk, destined to prove one of the most popular thoroughfares in the grounds. In addition to the state buildings, the Government exhibits occupied edifices along this walk, all giving a view out over the broad expanse of the Roads. Before speaking of the large exhibition buildings, the general lay out and aspect of the grounds must be described. Sewell's Point was originally an unattractive expanse of sand, marsh and woodland, a derelict that the best facilities of landscape art were needed to convert into a thing of beauty. But its situation, facing the splendid expanse of Hampton Roads, was wonderfully in its favor. THE MISSISSIPPI BUILDING A reproduction of "Beauvoir," the old home of Jefferson Davis. 622 The Jamestown Exposition |u,u(ua> With a frontage of some two miles on the waters of this noble harbor, with its i6o square miles of liquid surface, the Exposition grounds were magnificently placed. From the water front they extended nearly a mile to the south, to a thick growth of forest trees, the total area being about 400 acres. For half a mile along one side of this runs Boush Creek, while on the other sides a high woven-wire fence was built. The barrenness of this was over- come by planting beautiful vines thickly along side, these including the trumpet vine, the Virginia creeper, the hon- eysuckle and the crimson rambler rose, which be- fore the opening day had grown into a close green border, variega- ted with brilliant bloom in their blossoming pe- riod. Inside the '^rounds the dec- orators found much to do, in the |tO],4)9.4B> 4..t2LS7l "w FFffim U,»M» UJSIJOS I UI. Diagram showing the increase in amount of capital invested in Southern manufacturing, 1890, 1900, 1905. removal of ragged undergrowth, the opening of streets, avenues and sylvan paths, the building of rustic bridges over the wandering brooks and the setting out in handsome parterres about the buildings and in the open spaces of more than a million choice shrubs and plants. The forest trees were left wherever this could be done without in- terference with the plans, the grounds being well shaded, while The Jamestown Exposition 623 here and there a giant of the primeval woodland was left standing in the center of a picturesque grass plot near the large buildings. The most awkward feature to be dealt with was a spread- ing piece of marsh in the southeast corner of the grounds, unsightly in appearance and irregular in shape, winding for a length of two miles through the area. This bit of pristine ugliness was eventually converted into one of the chief attractions, it being thoroughly ditched, its banks sodded, suitable landings pro- vided, and the marsh turned into a meandering "canoe trail," a, picturesque watercourse for the use of oarsmen, hundreds of canoes being furnished, to be offered to visitors at a nominal rent. The spot chosen, in fact, is remarkable as being in the near vicinity of three of the cardinal points in American history, the settlement at Jamestown, the Yorktown battlefield, and the scene of the pioneer battle of iron-clads, the Merrimac and Monitor, which took place in Hampton Roads immediately opposite Sewell's Point. In view of this interesting fact it was proposed to build similar vessels and give at intervals a reproduction of this famous battle on the exact spot in which it took place. Along this winding canoe trail — two miles long and twelve feet wide— was laid out a romantic walk, following its curves for more than a mile, beautifully bordered by trees and shrubbery, and extending into remote sections of the shaded grounds, it being prettily suggestive, in its rustic charm, of the woodland paths of pioneer times. It was given the name of Flirtation Walk, in sugges- tion of one of the uses to which it was likely to be put. Lovers' Lane is a second appropriate title which it fitly bore. A thousand electric lamps, hung in the vines and bushes, gave it light at night. It will be seen that the landscape gardeners showed artistic taste and skill in converting this flat expanse into a place of beauty and charm. One of its attractive features was the broad level known as Lee's Parade, a sodded and well-rolled field of thirty-five acres area, facing on their southward side, the central buildings. Footpaths surrounded it and an old apple orchard had been transplanted to border it, the trees being set out ten feet apart and shading the walks. This was done two years before the opening, which came at the time of the blooming of the trees. Here it was proposed to hold at frequent intervals parades of our own or foreign soldiers and sailors, while south and southwest of 624 The Jamestown Exposition the parade grounds were level fields, designed to be used for camping grounds. There was room here for large numbers of troops, and for a very attractive display of the methods of camping in use by various nations. To the work done on land the United States government added, at an expense of ^500,000, a monumental piece of work on the v/ater. This consisted of two great piers, each two hundred feet wide and extending 2,000 feet outward from the shore. They were an eighth of a mile apart and their outer ends were connected by a third pier of the same width, with an archway in its center through which all kinds of passenger and other small craft could pass. In this way was formed an enclosed basin of forty acres in area and with a depth of ten feet at mean low tide, which became a very suitable place for minor aquatic and swimming contests. Tall towers were erected on the ends of the piers and used for the exhibit of the lighthouse service and of wireless telegraphy. The entire range of piers was illuminated with electricity at night, and on the shore line handsome passenger stations were built, the starting place for excursion boats setting out to make the round of the outer harbor. On the 26th of April, 1907, the day set aside for the inau- guration of the Jamestown Tercentennial celebration, the sun rose propitiously over Virginia's seaside plains and nature smiled with fervent favor upon the enterprise. The plan, as outlined, had included a salute of three hundred guns at sunrise, one for each year of the three centuries of American growth, but the necessary gunpowder was not at hand and this feature of the occasion was omitted. But noise and the roar of great guns were not wanting, for when, at the hour of 8.30, President Roose- velt appeared upon the scene in his yacht, the Mayflower, the welkin rang as if a new battle was in progress upon Hampton Roads. It was a splendid and impressive spectacle that awaited him. Spread far over the surface of that great body of water was visible a display of warships such as had rarely been seen, embracing fifty steel-clad dogs of war, thirty of them American and twelve present as the vanguard of the foreign fleet. As they lay there, all glowing in the lines of their national flags and of the pennants and bunting that form the international signal code, there appeared from the shore a gleam of rich color in the morning light;the first line formed by the visiting warships, the second by the greatest array of Ameri- The Jamestown Exposition 625 can battleships ever presented— sixteen of the wide-hulled, steel-clad, fighting monsters that form the backbone of the American navy. Stretching away in a curving line up the broad channel, under the command of Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans, they ranged from the great i6,ooo-ton vessels of the Connecticut and Louisiana type to the diminutive 6,300-ton Texas, the sister ship of the old Maine, that came to a lamentable end in Havana harbor. In a third line, largely hidden from the eyes of spectators on shore by the great battleships, were the cruisers and torpedo craft; and clustered far inshore, toward the Exposition water front, lay the naval vessels that were to remain till the close of the Exposition on November i. Such was the impressive spectacle that met the eyes of the President and his guests as the Mayflower steam.ed in from the Chesapeake and approached the great array of banner-bearing ships. The foreign vessels, including the squadrons sent by Great Britain, Germany, Austria and Argentina, held the post of honor in a line parallel with the Exposition shores, looming in deep-shaded relief against the grand background of American battleships, while it hundreds of brilliant flags floated from masthead and peak, from fighting tops and flying truck. Among those present to view were the military and naval ofl&cials of thirty-seven nations, the Ambassadors and Ministers of those nations being prominent among those who witnessed the pageant from the deck of the steamship Newport News. As the Mayflower, with the rainbow flag floating at her peak, glided swiftly from the eastward toward the head of the column of warships, there boomed from the Connecticut, Admiral Evans's flagship, the opening guns of the presidential salute. In a quick echo the other American ships and the foreign vessels took up the strain, a roar of twenty-one guns from every ship pouring out in al- most simultaneous thunder. Pointing her prow up the Roads, the President's yacht passed in review the line of foreign ships "close aboard,*' each of these opening fire in succession with a new series of salutes, which was repeated in turn by every battleship and cruiser of the fleet as the reviewing yacht passed them by. The crews of each ship were drawn up in close order along the forward and quarter decks and on the elevated points, standing at atten- tion as the Mayflower moved past. The outer line left behind, the yacht turned down the long 40 626 The Jamestown Exposition array of heavy American battleships, to be greeted with a deafening roar of cannon fire from the Indiana, this being repeated down the long line until the Georgia closed the thunder of sound with her guns. The circuit of the ships completed, the Mayflower steamed to her chosen anchorage within the group of flagships, and the President received on board the flag officers of the foreign and American ships. Fourteen years before, in 1893, ^" international naval rendezvous had been held in Hampton Roads. But the new American navy A SECTION OF THE PALACE OF COMMERCE was then in its infancy, and nothing could be more significant of the recent immense progress in naval architecture than the contrast between the few and comparatively small vessels shown at that time and the mighty proportions of the Atlantic fleet which Admiral Evans had under his command in 1907, each ship a marvel of fighting strength. The naval review was witnessed by more than twenty thousand persons, grouped on the shores of the Exposition grounds, by the The Jamestown Exposition 627 diplomatic, naval and military representatives of nearly two score of nations, and by the governors of a score of states. The review over, the throng of spectators rushed toward the grand stand to secure places within hearing of the speakers' voices in the inaugural exercises that were to follow. For several weeks previous the Exposition management had made every effort to have the great fair ready by the opening day, but as in all such cases they did not succeed. The weather was against them, contractors were unable to complete many of the buildings in time to install the exhibits, freight congestion on the railway and steamship lines delayed the arrival of shipments, and it proved impossible to unload, unpack and install the thousands of exhibits consigned. As for the removal of the debris that was strewn over the grounds and the scaffolding that inclosed many of the buildings, it was equally impossible, and the only large structures that were ready on the opening day were the United States Govern- ment building and the States' Exhibits Palace. Such was the chaotic state of affairs that greeted the eyes of the visitors and of the President and his party when they left the yacht about noon at Discovery Landing. A distinguished party here awaited them, including President Tucker and the other chief officials of the Exposition, Rear Admiral P. F. Harrington, who had charge of the naval programme, and Major-General Frederick D. Grant, in command of the military contingent. Those ex- changed greetings with the President, while patriotic airs were played by the bands. As the President stepped ashore, he was welcomed by President Tucker of the Exposition company, who warmly grasped his hand, exclaiming, " Old Virginia salutes you, sir. " "I am very glad indeed to be here," was the President's cordial reply. "It is a Roosevelt day and Roosevelt weather," some one remarked. "I hope it will prove a good omen for the Exposition," the President laughingly responded. A grand stand for the inaugural ceremonies had been erected in front of the great Auditorium building, the mighty throng of spec- tators extending over the parade ground upon which this edifice 628 The Jamestown Exposition faced. Here they wildly cheered the official party as they drove up in carriages and took their places upon the stand, the President mounting the platform from which he was to address the vast audi- ence. In eager desire to come within hearing of his voice the thousands upon the outskirts of the crowd began to press forward, with a crushing effect that endangered the lives and limbs of those in front. The guards were being swept aside by the advancing mass and a panic seemed on the point of developing, when the President, seeing the peril, leaped upon a table and waved his arms to the crowding multitude. "If there is one thing that marks a body of Americans, and especially a body of Virginians, " he shouted, "It is that they take good care of women and children." The crowd moved back at these words, but his address had scarcely begun when the forward movement was resumed, and General Grant was obliged to send a squadron of cavalry to restore order. These gradually opened up the congested mass, slowly allaying the confusion and excitement that prevailed and bringing the spectators to a state of calm and quiet. This prompt action averted a probable disaster. Two thousand favored guests were seated on the grand stand when the President and his immediate party entered the special inclosure reserved for them in the center. The sun was very hot, but an awning shielded the President. However the solar rays poured down unbroken upon the heads of the En- glish, French and other Ambassadors. These courteously uncovered as the President began to speak. This he observed as he turned toward them in the opening part of his address. With his usual impulsive goodwill he paused and said: ,.i ..... (ilA BUILDING A reproduction "Bullock Hall," Roswell, Ga., the home of President Roosevelt's mother. The Jamestown Exposition 629 "Put on your hats, please. We are not going to have any sunstrokes here." The crowd loudly cheered as the suffering diplomats quickly and gratefully obliged the timely suggestion. The formal pro- gramme opened with an overture by the bands — "Jamestown Dixie" — expressly composed for the occasion. The Exposition chorus followed with an appropriate selection, and Bishop Randolph, of the Diocese of Southern Virginia, pronounced a fitting prayer. The chorus then sang the official opening hymn, after which President Tucker rose and faced the audience. His remarks were confined to a brief review of the history of the Ex- position, which he ended with an introduction of President Roosevelt to the audience. After allaying the excitement that followed his rising, the President continued to speak from the table which he had mounted in his effort to quiet the crowd. Beginning with a graceful re- cognition of the foreign representatives present, he continued with the following rapid historical review: "The pioneers of our people who first landed on these shores on that eventful day three centuries ago had before them a task which during the early years was of heartbreaking danger and difficulty. "At last they took root in the land, and were already prosper- ing when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. In a few years a great inflow of settlers began. Four of the present States of New England were founded. Virginia waxed apace. The Carolinas grew up to the south of it and Maryland to the north of it. The Dutch colonies between, which had already absorbed the Swedish, were in their turn absorbed by the English. Pennsylvania was founded and, later still, Georgia. There were many wars with the Indians and with the dauntless captains whose banners bore the lilies of France. At last the British flag flew without a rival in all eastern North America. Then came the successful struggle for national inde- pendence. "Two generations passed before the second great crisis of our history had to be faced. Then came the Civil War, terrible and bitter in itself and in its aftermath, but a struggle from which the nation finally emerged united in fact as well as in name, united forever. Rich and prosperous though we are as a people, the ^3° The Jamestown Exposition proudest heritage that each of us has, no matter where he may dwell, North or South, East or West, is the immaterial heritage of feeling, the right to claim as his own all the valor and all the stead- fast devotion to duty shown by the men of both the great armies, the soldiers whose leader was Grant and the soldiers whose leader was Lee. We, too, must show ourselves worthy sons of the men of the mighty days by the way in which we meet the problems of our own time. We carry our heads high because our fathers did well in the years that tried men's souls; and we must in our turn so bear our- selves that the children who come after us may feel that we, too, have done our duty." Continuing with a reference to certain evils incident to the great material progress of this country, and the abuses which have arisen in consequence in the industrial world, he concluded with the following wholesome words; "Above all, we insist that while facing changed conditions and new problems, we must face them in the spirit which our forefathers showed when they founded and preserved this Republic. The cornerstone of the Republic lies in our treating each man on his creed, his birthplace, or his occupation, asking not whether he is rich or poor, whether he labors with head or hand; asking only whether he acts decently and honorably in the various relations of his hfe, whether he behaves well to his family, to his neighbors, to the State. We base our regard for each man on the essentials and not the accidents. We judge him not by his profession, but by his deeds; by his conduct^ not by what he has acquired of this world's goods. Other Republics have fallen, because the citizens gradually grew to consider the interests of a class before the interests of the whole; for when such was the case it mattered little whether it was the poor who plundered the rich or the rich who exploited the poor; in either event the end of the Republic was at hand. We are resolute in our purpose not to fall into such a pit. This great Republic of ours shall never become the government of a plutocracy, and it shall never become the government of a mob. God willing, it shall remain what our fathers who founded it meant it to be — a government in which each man stands on his worth as a man, where each is given the largest personal liberty consistent with securing the well-being of the whole, and where, so far as in us lies, we strive continually to secure for each man such equality The Jamestown Exposition 631 PART OF A $6,000 APPLE CROP IN NORTH CAROLINA. The owner gave up the business of selling jewelry to become a farmer , ^32 The Jamestown Exposition of opportunity that in the strife of Hfe he may have a fair chance to show the stuff that is in him. We are proud of our schools and of the trained intelhgence they give our children the opportunity to acquire. But what we care for most is the character of the average man; for we beheve that if the average of character in the individual citizen is suJBiciently high, if he possesses those qualities which make him worthy of respect in his family life and in his work outside, as well as the qualities which fit him for success in the hard struggle of actual existence — that if such is the character of our individual citizenship, there is literally no height of triumph unattainable in this vast experiment of government by, of, and for a free people. " In the original plan the President was to have pushed a gold button to start the machinery, but as there was no machinery in readiness to start, he conveniently forgot this part of the programme. A roar of guns followed the close of the address, all the bands united in playing the "Star-Spangled Banner," during which the troops saluted the national hymn and the people stood with bared heads. Lunch was then served in the auditorium annex, to the President and the distinguished guests. In this interval the parade ground was cleared for the military pageant to follow, the crowd gathering around the walk to witness it. The parade and review over, a reception was tendered the President in the rotunda of the Auditorium by the officers and directors of the Exposition. Immediately afterv\^ard he returned to the Mayflower and the opening ceremonies of the Jamestown Exposition were at an end. There was a second anniversary occasion on May 13, the date of the landing on Jamestown peninsula three hundred years before. There were simple exercises at the site of the old settlement, a few hundred persons gathering around the old church tower, where addresses were made by Claude A. Swanson, Governor of Vir- ginia, and by James Bryce, Ambassador of Great Britain and famous as the author of "The Holy Roman Empire" and "The American Commonwealth." He fitly noted the great importance of the event and the character of those concerned in it, saying: "The landing at Jamestown was one of the great events in the history of the world— an event to be compared for its momentous consequence with the overthrow of the Persian Empire by Alex- ander, with the destruction of Carthage by Rome, with the conquest The Jamestown Exposition 633 of Gaul by Clovis, with the taking of Constantinople by the Turks — one might almost say with the discovery of America by Columbus." On the Exposition grounds the day was commemorated by the salute of 300 guns which had been omitted on the opening day, and by a parade and review of soldiers and sailors, there being 8,000 men in line, while among the reviewers was General Kuroki, one of the most famous of the Japanese leaders in the war with Russia. At night the warships in the Roads were brilliantly illuminated, search lights threw varied colors across the miles of water, and a striking water carnival took place, there being in the hne reproductions of the vessels that brought the settlers over, the barges that landed them, a viking ship, an Indian village, a huge sea serpent, etc., there being fifty floats in the unique pro- cession. Such were the opening ceremonies of the Exposition of 1907, presented by Virginia to the world. We may follow by a brief account of its character and description of what was there to be seen. The situation of the Exposition and the historical interest attending it gave it a special character, and in a way it was unique among celebrations, as a historical and naval display rather than an industrial one. In such exhibitions industrial progress usually takes the leading place. Here it was subordinated to history and military and naval demonstrations, the grand expanse of Hampton Roads offering splendid opportunity for the latter. We have already spoken of the great array of war-vessels that were present on the opening day. As time went on others joined these, while an interesting exhibit was prepared to illustrate the great historical event of the locality. This was a reproduction of the Merrimac and Monitor, arrangements being made for a mimic representation of their famous encounter at intervals during the fair, on the very spot where the real battle was fought. We have already described the general aspect of the Exposi- tion site and the steps that were taken to convert a neglected waste into a place of beauty replete with artistic attractions. There was so much, however, to be done, and the management met with such financial embarrassments, that the work of preparing the grounds, erecting the buildings, and installing the exhibits was distressingly retarded, it being the middle of July before everything was ready and the Exposition fairly complete. For a marked 634 The Jamestown Exposition feature of this delay the United States Government was responsible, the great system of piers projected by it not being completed till the date named. Yet the delay was not as embarrassing as might be supposed, for it was known that the late summer and autumn months would be the time when the great host of visitors would appear. When all was ready, what was there to show .? Subtending the landscape effects and flower parterres, and the artistic embellish- ments of the out-of-door scene, was a splendid array of edifices, the principal exhibition buildings numbering twenty-five. In addition were as many state and six large Government buildings, making a total of fifty-six, exclusive of smaller structures and those devoted to amuse- ^ " ^ ment, and the large Inside Inn, fronting on Hampton Roads, and capable of accom- modating about 2,000 guests. Landward about one thousand yards from the harbor in- closed by t h e great Government pier rose the central and most beautiful of all the buildings, the splendid Auditorium, a magnif- icent structure 236 by 160 feet in dimensions and flanked on either side by large companion edifices, one devoted to History, the other to Historic Art. Known otherwise as the Administration building and as Convention Hall, the great assembly room of this edifice had a seating capacity for 4,000 persons, and in it was placed, for the benefit of music lovers, a giant organ, claimed to be the largest in the world. Around this central court were grouped the great exhibition palaces of the Exposition. The largest two of these, those of Manu- ufacturers and Liberal Arts and of Machinery and Transportation, each 550 by 280 feet in area, rose between the Auditorium and the Government buildings, the latter fronting on the great piers. In the rear of these edifices and flanking the Auditorium and Historic THE NORTH CAROLINA BUILDING The Jamestown Exposition 635 buildings, were placed a number of other large edifices, including the States' Exhibit Palace, 500 by 300 feet; the Mines and Metallurgy Building, 250 by 100 feet; the Food Products Building, 300 by Whole South 189a— 44,087 1905—67.129 1890 1905 4.601 6.513 3,422 4,854 2.203 4,230 3,360 3.972 2,490 3.629 2,942 3.335 1,433 2.988 1,270 1,441 2,289 3,180 2,767 3,576 2,471 3,708 1,740 4,136 3,128 4,256 1,261 5,263 8,710 12,048] MILEAGE OF THE SOUTHERN RAILROADS IN 1890 AND 1905. The white sections represent the mileage of 1890 ; the blacic show the mileage ad- ded between 1890 and 1905, about 45 per cent of the mileage added in 1906 was built in the Southern States. Nearly 12,000 miles are now in construction or under contract. 250 feet; and the Agricultural Building 250 by 200 feet. Others of smaller size were the Hygienic and Medical, the Pure Food, and the Educational Buildings. 636 The Jamestown Exposition The Exposition in its entirety impressed one as a great red and white city, a splendid cluster of edifices, flanked by Corinthian columns and highly effective in architecture. Surrounding and embellishing these rose shade-trees in verdant abundance, groves of fruit-trees, and innumerable beds of native flowers and decorative plants, the whole composing a vision of floral, umbrageous and architectural beauty rarely seen. The green and red flowering wall enclosing it all gave it from without the aspect of the garden of the Hesperides, in which the golden apples of Hera grew. Directly in front of the Auditorium building extended a broad lagoon, into which spouted the waters of a dozen fountains, electric lights at night causing their spray to sparkle with all the colors of the rainbow. The features so far described did not constitute the whole of the Exposition. It was not all serious; not all an exploitation of history, commerce, and industry. No recent Exposition has been deemed complete without its amusement quarter, as exemplified in the "Midway Plaisance" of Chicago, the "Pike" of St. Louis, and the "Trail" of Portland. The Jamestown Fair had over a mile of such features, designated as the "War Path," in which the spectator might find instruction and entertainment in intimate association. The War Path, lying west of the main buildings and the parade ground, occupied a large square and two parallel avenues, which were lined with a variety of entertaining features to attract the atten- tion of those eager to be amused. No one could miss them, for by day the blare of the megaphone called the wandering feet thither, and by night they were ht up with thirty search hghts, gleaming from a steel tower sixty feet high, with revolving colored screens tinting the light with their varying hues. Within these grounds were grouped the latest novelties and the most complete collection of amusements, huge temporary structures being erected for the purpose. Greatest among them was the im- mense " loi Ranch," brought from Bliss, Oklahoma, and occupying a space as large as two city blocks, its amphitheatre being capacious enough to seat 1 8,000 people. Its personnel included a large number of Indians and in it all the features of Wild West life were shown. Among the Indians present on the War Path was a band of the Pamun- kys, part of the feeble remnant of Powhatan's tribe, and with them the original ( .?) stone on which John Smith laid his head to be smashed, a fate from which he was rescued by the youthful Pocahontas. The Jamestown Exposition 637 Numerous other attractions lined the War Path, including vivid representations of the Battles of Gettysburg and Manassas, Generals Lee and Stonewall Jackson being the leading figures in the latter. Elsewhere might be seen the Screets of Cairo, with attractions that seemed copied from the Arabian Nights, the hon tamer with sub- missive groups of savage beasts, and other attractions in sufficient variety to satisfy the tastes of the most exacting. Best drawing among the war reproductions was the Monitor and Merrimac fight, having a potent historic interest from the fact that it took place on the locality of that world-famous naval contest, while the roar of great guns and the flame and smoke of blazing powder gave a vivid aspect of reality to mimic war. Never was a more magnificent opportunity for aquatic display and sports than thatafi^orded by the noble harbor of Hampton Roads. In addition to the splendid naval and mercantile marine exhibit, the broad waters opened themselves to such events as races of motor boats, an international rowing regatta, and a series of yacht races, of which no less than twenty, designed for American and foreign yachts, were provided for in the plans of the Exposition managers. Sir Thomas Lipton had agreed to take part in these with his latest boat, and offered a prize for races between boats of the 15 and 20 foot classes. King Edward offered a cup for boats of the 22-foot class. President Roosevelt one for boats between the 27 and ^^ foot classes, and the Jamestown cup was open to all boats under the forty-foot class. If to these sports we add arrangements for pigeon flights, a dog show, balloon and airship ascensions, and the like, it will be seen that the item of competitive sports was by no means lost sight of. Much attention was given to educational exhibits, these occupy- ing two buildings on the two sides of the Auditorium. To those interested in the progress of learning, there was here an abundantly attractive, and conveniently displayed exhibition, the most note- worthy of the exhibits being those made by the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, the Baltimore Woman's College, the Teachers' College of Co- lumbia University, and the Ohio, Massachusetts and Virginia Schools. Especially striking were the evidences of recent progress in draw- ing and designing, manual training and the economies of house- hold w^ork. Two other buildings were those devoted to sanitation, so- cial science, welfare work and similar objects, and to aeronautics. 638 The Jamestowa Exposition In these various buildings there was little that the Exposition visitor has not elsewhere seen, the most notable part of the Jamestown Exposition being made by the Government itself. To use the florid language of the managers: "The States and Government exhibits at this Fair are so far superior to any similar attempt ever made as to admit of absolutely no comparison." While this may be saying too much, the United States Government distinguished itself in the display made in its handsome exhibit palace, of stately colonial architecture and the surrounding buildings devoted to colony and other products. These afforded an object lesson of the most impres- sive character, calhng for a description more in detail. In this stately edifice each of the Government Departments put on exhibition some of its choicest treasures. The State Department, for instance, displayed fac-similes of the great historic pubhc docu- ments, from the Declaration of Independence to President Monroe's famous message embracing the Monroe Doctrine; the swords of famous commanders, the Great Seal of the United States, maps showing the expansion of the United States, and many other things of historic interest. The Treasury Department showed the method of printing the paper money of the Government and had a small mint at work dis- playing the method of coining money — gold, silver and bronze. It also operated a Public Health and Marine Hospital and a Life Saving Service. The latter was installed in a station fully equipped, and from time to time gave exhibits of the rescue of men from "wrecks" out on the waters. Very comprehensive were the exhibits of the War and Navy Departments, in consonance with the prominence given to the military and naval features of the Exposition. Thus the Quartermaster's display showed the uniforms worn from the period of the Revolution to the present day, and in the matter of transportation it presented pack mules, the dog sleds of Alaska, and carabaos or buffaloes of the Philippines as examples of the methods of primitive times. The Corps of Engineers had models of forts and batteries, and the Ord- nance branch of fire arms of every variety, from the automatic pistol and magazine rifle to the great rifled cannon. Samples of gun- powder were also shown and armor-plate that had been pierced by the great modern projectiles. The Signal Corps had illustrations of the methods of army signalling, from the old use of smoke by day The Jamestown Exposition 639 and fire by night, to the latest hehograph, telautograph and wire- less electric instruments and field telephones. The Navy Department complemented the grand display in the harbor with models of the chief types of vessels in the naval service, from the great battleships, torpedo boats and submarines of recent times to the obsolete wooden ships of the past. It also showed a model dry-dock, in which a miniature war-vessel was docked and undocked every day. As for the great guns used on ship-board, not only models, but specimens, of those great guns were shown, accompanied with all the smaller varieties of guns, projectiles, torpedoes, and the other instruments of destruction used in modern naval warfare. The Post Office and the Patent Office were not behind their fellow departments in interesting exhibits, the former showing in every way the methods of collecting and distributing the mails and the latter displaying working models of many interesting inventions. The Land Office, the Indian Office, and the Pension Office had also their objects of interest, while the Geological Survey indicated the wealth of the rock surface of the United States by a small museum of minerals. A splendid collection of moving pictures and stereopticon views aided the Interior Department to show the work that is being done in the Indian reservations, in the National Parks, and the Irrigation operations. Very interesting to lovers of nature was the exhibit of the Smithsonian Institution, with its showy exhibit of birds and their eggs, of the large game animals of the world, of miner- als, of the great fossil animals of the West, and the relics of the oldest inhabitants of this continent. It gave especial attention to the new art of museum sculpture, and in the center of its exhibit was the representation of a large group of Jamestown colonists trading with the Indians. The buildings displaying the products of the American island possessions, Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines, and its Alaskan province, held similarly many things of interest, displaying examples of the multitudinous products of these districts, tropical in the case of the Philippines, arctic in that of Alaska, the whole well adapted to illustrate the wide variety of substances produced and articles made in the outlying sections of the United States. As for the Lighthouse and Wireless Telegraph service, these, as already stated, were in- 640 The Jamestown Exposition stalled at the extremities of the two great piers, lofty towers being erected for their needs. These piers, each two hundred feet wide and extending nearly half a mile out into the waters of Hampton Roads, formed one of the most interesting features of the Exposition, with its large enclosed harbor, over whose liquid surface boats and steam vessels of various kinds were in continual motion, while at night the whole length of the piers was lighted by thousands of electric bulbs and from the sum- mits of the towers monster search-lights threw broad lines of light over water and shore. Viewed in all its varied features, the Jamestown Exposition must be looked upon as an event of great importance in the history of our country, and especially of the South, for it celebrates the coming to America of the Cavalier element which played so prominent a part in Southern history. It is distinctively a Southern enterprise, and one is, within the limits of its plan and purpose, worthy of the highest commendation. Its chief benefit to this section of the country will be in calHng attention to the immense, but hitherto Httle appreciated, natural resources of the Southern States. It should have a vital effect in aiding to develop these resources and to divert capital and labor to a quarter in which they have long been needed and whose material development, while now rapidly progressing, still opens vast opportunities to enterprise. In much of its early history the South was a sleeping giant, unaware of its strength, ignorant of its wealth. Of late years it has awakened and is striving toward its true place in our nation's in- dustrial evolution. The time must come, is seemingly near at hand, when it will win this place, and the South stand in wealth and indus- try side by side with the North and West, each a great nation in itself, while South, North, and West, in friendly combination and competi- tion, seem destined to become, in a national sense, the modern Wonder of the World. 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