n o n o IP . E YOUNG AMERICAN JUDSON n ^ is ci d o o n n n c o With Compliments OF Maynaf.d, Merrill, & Co, SPECIMEN COPY The Young American PRICE For Introduction, 60 cts. Books ordered for introduction will be delivered at the above price in any part of the United States, transportation charges paid, and a discount of ten per cent, will be allowed as compensation for trouble and expense incurred in distrib- uting the books. Maynard, Merrill, & Co., Publishers 29, 31, and 33 East 19TH Street, New York ^§0 tMMSWJ GEORGE WASHINGTON TH E BY HARRY PRATTJUDSON,LL.D. HEAD PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE INTHE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MAYNARD MERRILL.&C9 NEWYORK JCVRIOMT IO»7, 9V MAVNANO.MeRHlLI. Si C O. SELF YRL The interest of the day is not thai of mere study, of sound scholar- ship as an end, of good l ks for their own sake, bul "f education as a power in human affairs ; of educated men as an influence in the commonwealth. "Tell me," said an American scholar of Goethe, the many-sided, "whai ili\v do they discharge them? Does the scholar show in his daily walk thai he has studied the wisdom of ages in vain? Does the poetsing of angelic purity and lead an unclean life? Does the philosopher peer into other worlds, and fail to help this world upon it- way ? Pour yeai - s befoi'e our Civil War. the same scholar— il was Theodore Parker — aid sadly : " If our educated men had done their duty, we should ii"t now be in the ghastly condition we bewail." — Qeorg< William Curtis. 2031401 PREFACE Reading is more than mere elocution. Ii implies good articula- tion, accent, inflection, modulation of voice, and all the resl thai has to do with using the vocal organs as a mechanism for conveying ideas. Bui all this is merely mechanical mile— there is also a clear compre- hension of the meaning of the ideas to be conveyed. One may per- haps learn to pronounce a foreign language withoul understanding it. Bui such rendering of a piece of literature in thai tongue would be highly unintelligent. A boot adapted to practice in reading, then, may lie in one of two forms. Ii may contain merely a variety of select inn-, carefully graded to the average capacity of pupils of a given age, and by the variety of ii- contents affording a wide range of interesl ami exercise. Or ii may throu ghoul follow one main line of thought, with such inci- dental variet) as maj be convenient. The former is obviously prefer- able for the main work of teaching to read. Bui no one learn- to read without also learning many things from whal he reads. Ami if this learning, incidental in the use of mosl reading books, is made more prominent, it is clear thai a hook migh! well be constructed on the second plan. This is the thought which underlies the presenl volume. It i- in- tended to fulfill a double function— to afford exercise in reading, ami at the same time to give such knowledge a-, being treated continu- ously, instead of in the usual fragmentary manner, may 1 f -i 1 1 >- stantial value. Nothing need !»■ said of the importance of the study of our civil institutions in the schools. It is a well-known fact that the great G PREFACE mass of boys ami girls finish their schooling in the lower grades. Few reach the high school, still fewer get to college. Whatever teachers can do, then, in the direction of good citizenship, must be done early, or not at all. But much can be done. In many ways love of country may be fostend. No little knowledge of the structure and working of our governmenl may be imparted; and it is quite possible to give a very definite notion of the rights and duties of citizenship. This must be dune, however, by the teacher. No text-book alone will answer. Whatever aid of thai nature is furnished must be supplemented by the teacher's living knowledge and constant interest. It is the hope of the author that this book may serve as a help to teachers in such work — as the nucleus around which such work may gather. Of course each teacher will use it in his own way. But in the appendix will be found a few suggestions which may lie helpful. There has been no attempt to make a comprehensive treatise on civics, or on American history. The outlines only of our system of government have been sketched, leaving the teacher to fill in the -ketch and to adapt it to his particular locality as he may see fit. As to history, that has been treated only when it seemed necessary for understanding given existing institutions. The author will be more than satislied if the brief historical discussions suffice to illuminate the various topics of government, ami at the same time prove sug- gestive — a stimulus to wider reading and more exact knowledge. The selection- which are scattered through the chapters, in prose and verse, it will be seen are largely from American authors. Of course many more might have been added. But perhaps there are sufficient for the purpose. The book is submitted with the hope that it may aid in teaching genuine patriotism and intelligent citizenship. CONTENTS Preface, I. Oub Country, II. The Republic, III. I, \\\ - \M> Tin.ii; M \ki.i:-. I\'. What w i Mean by Qovebnment, . V. How the People of Eubope Found Amebk \ Came to Live in It VI. N \ I TON \i. [ndepek dence, . VII. A Fedebal Repi lil.H ..... VIII. Amebh w Home Rule IX. Till. LAW-MAKER8 X. How Laws Abe Enfobced, XI. The President's Cabinet, XII. How Laws Are Enforced in the States, XIII. Judge \m> Jury, XIV. How mi. Government Gets Money, XV. Who We Are XVI. Who Abe < M r Rulers Appendix A A 1'i.u Wobds to Teachebs, B. A Brief A< < >>i nt of the Constitution, c. Tin. i ionsti 1 1 i ions "i i in. States . Wl I' A I . h 9 29 36 13 18 (il 95 lull 119 126 L37 KIT I-, , L95 202 239 ■Jin 243 SELECTIONS Education \mi I'm. nn - . The True 1' vtbiotism, The St lb-Spangled Banner, 'I'm. Amebii \n Flag, ll ah., ( Iolumbia ! Tin-: Republic, . !> William Curtis, William WatSOU, . Francis Scott A' ./(/»//// Rodman Drake, . Jusi fill llojihinson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 13 24 26 CONTENTS The Necessity of Government, The Landing op the Pilgrim Fathers in New England, The Discovery op Gold in California, Supposed Speech of John Adams in Favob OP A Declaration of Indepen- dence, .... Our Relations with England, On Laying the Cornerstone of the Bunker Hill Mon- ument, .... In Favor of War, Bunker Hill, .... Warren's Address to the American Soldiers at Bunker Hill, Song of Marion's Men, . The Migration to Kentucky, The Patriot Traveler in a Foreign Land, . The Gettysburg Address, Battle Hymn of the Republic Greek War Song, The Bivouac of the Dead, Old Ironsides, . Taxes the Price of Glory, Mrs. Dustin's Escape, Lovewell's Fight, . What Constitutes a State '.' The True Greatness of Na tions, America, .... Jo/in C. Calhoim, Mrs. ffemans. James Schouler, Daniel Webster, Edward Everett, Daniel Webster, Patrick Henri/, B. F. Taylor. John Pierpont, William Cullen Bryant, John James Audubon, Robert C. Winthrop, Abraham Lincoln, . Julia Ward Howe, Translated by Lord Byro Theodore O'Hara, . Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sydney Smith, Charles Carleton Coffin. Anonymous, Sir William Jones, Lord Bacon, . Samuel F. Smith, n, PAGE . 41 . 53 . 59 OS 77 81 85 90 91 92 105 117 135 143 144 145 156 200 214 216 231 232 230 Thanks are due to Messrs. A. W. Bison & Co. of Boston for courteous permission to use reproductions from their admirable series of large photogravures intended for school- room decoration, " The Makers of Our Nation, and Our J 3a t 'ties for Freedom." A UNIT STATES CRUISER THE ¥OUNG AMERICAN THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON The national capitol is a very noble and dignified building. It is built of sandstone and marble, with a multitude of stately columns, and a majestic dome towering over all. The entire building covers three and one-half acres. Crowning a loftyhill and surrounded by spacious gronnds, the capitol is a conspicuous object at a distance of many miles. The corner stone «a* laid by President Washington, September is, 1703. The wings of the central part were completed in 1811, and were burned by the British in 1814. The entire central part was finished in 1827. The present large wings were begun in 1851, and the greal iron dome was completed in 1865 The building faces east. The north w iiiLT contains the Benate chamber, the smith u Ing that of the house of representatives. The supreme court meets in the old senate chamber, in one of the original wings. At the main entrances are magnificent bronze doors, and the halls and corridors are rich with statuary and historical paintings. CHAPTEB I Our Country i. Why We Love Our Country. — Every good Ameri- can citizen loves his country and is prond of it. We have very good reasons both foi the love and for the id Till-: YOUNG AMERICAN pride. Ours is one of the greatest nations of the world, in area of territory, in number of people, in wealth and in power. We also think that the citizens of the greal republic are among the most intelligent in the world. Free public schools make it possible for every one to get some sort of an education, and books and news- papers are found in every home. But better still is the liberty which we enjoy. We have no king or emperor to rule over us. We choose our own officers of state, who, indeed, are not our rulers, but are merely public servants. In some countries the police are constantly interfering with people. A public meeting cannot be held without the consent of the police. The police watch the hotel registers and keep careful track of all strangers. If a club or a debating society is formed, the police have to be notified. Then, too, every young man has to spend several years as a soldier — for most of the nations of Europe keep vast armies always ready for war. Now, with us the policeman and the soldier are much less prominent. As long as one is not a thief or some other sort of criminal, the police let one quite alone. And no one in our country needs to be a soldier at all. Our few soldiers are all volunteers. In short, we live in a free land, in which every one may live his life in his own way, so long as he does not interfere with the rights of his neighbors. 2. These are some reasons for loving our country. There are many other reasons too, but perhaps these are enough to show what we mean. Still, it may be as well to add one more — it is our home. There are few words dearer to any genuine man or woman than home. THE YOUNG AMERICAN 11 Hut just as the liome is the center of the life of the family, so our country is the center of the nation's life. It is oar home land — 1 be land of our fathers ami mothers, of our brol hers and sisters. And he is a poor ingrate who does not dearly love his home. 3. What We Mean by a Patriot. —A patriot is one who loves his fatherland — his country. People show patri- otism in various ways. In t iuie of war, when t he national safety is menaced by a public enemy, men are ready to enter t lie army and to give their lives, it' need be, in defence of their country. A true patriot, too, is pleased by everything which reflects, credit on Ins homeland, lie is anxious that its public aff airash all be stained with no meanness or dishonor. 1 . • scion after 1 1 1« - battle of Lexington. Having entered the anxious that Its BritJ8h ]iosa in NewYo rk to gel information for General government shall Washington, he was detected, and was hanged as a spy, September 22, 1776. Sis lasl words were,"! only regret always be jllSl that I have bnt one life to lose for my country." MOM U I N 1 "i N VIII \N II \1 I. Captain Nathan Hale, of the revolutionary army, was a lie is young graduate of Vale College, who went into theservice 12 THE YOUNQ AMERICAN and generous in dealing with the governments of other nations. He docs not wish an advantage secured from any other nation, especially from a weaker one, by wanton vio- lence or by fraud. He is delighted with every advance of his country in the arts of civilization, and pained at the triumph of evil men or of vicious measures. And he is always ready to do what he can to make his country 1 letter or stronger or safer. 4. What a Patriot is Not.— We have seen some of the reasons which an American has for being proud of his country. But in order to be a patriot it is not at all necessary to be a boaster. Indeed, a true patriot is so -are of the solid merit of his country that he does not need to say much about it. If a man is in the habit of talking about his own honesty, it leads others to suspect that perhaps after all he is trying to cover up a streak of dishonesty. At any rate, bragging is a weak and foolish habit. And bragging of one's country is quite as foolish as it is for a boy to boast of his father's wealth or of his sister's beauty. 5. Neither is it a sign of patriotism to despise other countries. We may love our own the best, but one who does not know that other countries also are great and power- ful and famous, is merely very ignorant. If we respect other nations for their good qualities, we are all the better fitted to understand and admire the like qualities in our own. 6. Sneering at other races is no sign of patriotism. Boys and girls sometimes are apt to think themselves better than one of their mates who was born in a foreign land, and to show their superiority by using for him some sort THE YOUNO AMERICAN 18 of foolish nickname. Bui this is very silly. [a he a German ? The Germans have some of the gri names and have done some of the greatesl deeds in all history. Is he an Italian ? Italy is a beautiful land, famous for some of the finesl painters and musicians, and for some of the wises! statesmen ami the braves! soldiers of any land. Is he a Jew ? They arc a wonderful people, and a list of the greal men who are Jews would be a very long one. Indeed, one may well be glad and proud to belong to any of these races, or of many others which might be mentioned. The True Patriotism An English poet's idea of what patriotism means W" I I.I.I A M W ITSON The ever lustrous name of patriot To no man may be denied because h<' saw Where in his country's wholeness lay the Haw, Where, on her whiteness, the unseemly blot. England ! thy loyal sons condemn thee. Wha! ! Shall we be meek who from thine own breasts drew Our fierceness '. No! ev'n thou shal! overawe Us thy proud children nowise basely got. Be this the measure of our loyalty To feel thee nohle, and weep thy lapse the more. This truth by thy true servants is confess'd Thy sins, who love thee most, do most deplore. Know thou thy faithful 1 Bes! they honor thee Who honor in thee onlv what is best. il THE YOUNG AMERICAN 7. What a Patriot Should Know. — It is not enough for a patriot to thinh that his country is a very good and comfortable land. No opinion is worth much unless it comes from actual knowledge. It is a very commonly observed fact that the more ignorant people are, the more they are stuffed with prejudices. But prejudice is merely a strong opinion which is formed with a very scanty hasis of knowledge. Now. in fact, no opinion is worth much, as we said, unless it belongs to one who knows what he is talking about. A jeweler who has spent all his life in a city, probably would not know much about farming. If, then, he should go into the country and begin giving a farmer advice about the management of his crops, the farmer would laugh at him. The jeweler's opinion about repairing a watch would doubtless be better than the farmer's, but. on the other hand, the farmer would be apt to know more about planting corn. In other words, it is knowledge that gives an opinion its value. 8. Then, our opinions about our country are not worth very much unless we know something of its history. We ought to know how it is governed, how the laws are made, how they are enforced, what the courts are and how they do their work, what are the rights of a citizen and what are not his rights. We ought to know how our country came to lie what it is, who are some of the great men it lias produced, and what they have done. With some of this knowledge our opinions are much less likely to be mere prejudices. 9. There is another importanl reason for knowing some- thing ahoiit the way in winch our country is governed. THE VOUNQ AMERICAN 15 With us aboul every man of full age, thai is, twenty-one years old or over, is a yoter. The mosl n the same principle as our well-known sky-rocket, could be thrown quite accurately at an enemy. It proved, however, to )«• a missile which looked more dangerous than ii really was. The Congreve rocket was used bj tin- Brit- ish in manj battles of the war of i-i-j is 77/ 1: vorxa ami:i;k .\.\ theater in Baltimore, the singer waving a flag as she sang. The audience were wild with enthusiasm. In a very short "* r L>u of ji r ,M \ \W-W e\\\\\„ " \ir?to.v Spannlcd ^niiiu'v. THK OKKilNAL STAK-SI'ANCiLEI) BANNER The flag of Fort McHenry, which Key saw' by the dawn's early light." It will he noticed that tin- flag has tifteen stripes. The original plan was to add one stripe, as well as one star, with each new state. But in 1S18 it was seen that this would some day make the flag an absurdity, so the number of stripes was fixed at. the original thirteen. time the new song went all over the republic, and is now known and loved by all Americans. It is called "The. Star-Spangled Banner." THE YOUNQ AMERICAN 1!» 20 THE YOUNG AMERICAN The Star-Spangled Banner* < > say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming— Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the clouds of the fight O'er the ramparts we watched wei'e so gallantly streaming ! And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there • O ! say, does the star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave ? On that shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes. What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses ? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected now shines on the stream : Tis the star-spangled banner ; long may it wave O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave ! And where is that band who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion A home and a country should leave us no more ? Their blood lias washed out their foul footsteps' pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave ; And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. ' : The song is taken as it appears in Stedman and Hutchinson's Library of American Literature, vol. iv., p. H9. The text, slightly different from the commoi e, corre- sponds to the facsimile of a copy made by Mr. Key in 1840. THE YOUNQ AMERICAN i\ o \ thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand Between their loved homes and war's desolation ! Blesl with victory and peace, maj the heav'n rescued land Praise 1 1 1 « - power that hath made and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, A ml this be our motto ' In God is our trust" : And the star spangled banner in triumph shall wave < >Vi- the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 13. The Storm at Samoa.- In the spring of 1889 there was trouble at the island of Samoa, in the South Pacific, and warships wen- >cnt there by Germany, Greal Britain, and the United States. These vessels lay at anchor in the harbor of Apia. The harbor is a small semi-circular hay. with shoal water extending far from the shore and a coral reef running nearly across the entrance. A narrow break in the reef allows ships to enter the hay. One day in March a heavy storm came up. So fierce was the wind ami so tremendous the waves that the vessels dragged their anchors, and one after another four warships and ten other craft were driven on shore and wrecked. Nearly a hundred fifty of the seamen lost their lives. In the fury of the hurricane the captain of the British ship Calli- ope decided to leave the harhor and force his way out to sea. as the only means of safety from shipwreck. All -team was put on. and inch by inch the gallanl ship fought its wav in the teeth id' the howling wind and the crashing waves. "This manceuver of the British ship is regarded as one id' the most daring in naval annals. It was the one desperate chance offered her commander to save his vessel and the three hundred lives aboard. An THE YOUNG AMERICAN accident to the machinery at this critical moment would have meant certain death to all. To clear the harbor the Calliope had to pass between the Trenton (the American flagship) and The reef, and it required the most skilful seamanship to avoid collision with the Trenton, on the one hand, or total destruction upon the reef, on the other. The Trenton's tires had gone out by that time, and she lay helpless almost in the path of the Calliope. The doom of the American flagship seemed but a question of a few hours. Nearly every man aboard felt that his vessel must soon be dashed to pieces, and that he would find a grave under the coral reef. The decks of the flagship were swarming with men, but. facing death as they were, they recognized the heroic struggle of the British ship, and as the latter passed within a few yards of them a great shout went up from over four hundred men aboard the Trenton. •Three cheers for the Calliope!' was the sound that reached the ears of the British tars 'as they passed out of the harbor in the teeth of the storm; and the heart of every Englishman went out to the brave American sailors who gave that parting tribute to the Queen's ship. The English sailors returned the Trenton's cheer, and the ( 'alliope passed safely out to sea, returning when the storm had abated. Captain Kane, her commander, in speaking of the incident, afterward said : ' Those ringing cheers of the American flagship pierced deep into my heart, and I shall ever remember that mighty outburst of fellow-feeling which, I felt, came from the bottom of the hearts of the gallant admiral and his men. Every man on board the (alliope felt as I did ; it made us work to win. 1 can only The younq America^ ■:■■■ say, 'God bless America and her noble sailort- !' The\ were thrilled with admiration for the dauntless com of the brave British seamen on the Calliope; ami in their own extremity they showed equal courage. Twice Eng- land has been our enemy in war. But, after all, in peace we cannol forge! thai Englishmen and Americans are of one blood. Late in the day, when ship after ship had been dashed to destruction, and the Trenton, shattered and helpless, seemed drifting to certain wreck, the anxious people (in the beach heard music amid the roar of the hurricane. It was the band of the Trenton playing "The Star-Spangled Banner." The gallant sailor- were facing death with the national music in t heir cars and its ringing words in their thoughts. It carried their minds hack to the homeland which they loved and for which they were ready to die. 14. Another Poem About the Flag. — Joseph Rodman Drake was a young American poet of grea! promise. His early death (he died in L820, at the age of twenty-five) came before he had fully shown his rare powers. \\ hen he was only seven years old he had much literary knowledge, and at fourteen he had already written poetry of good quality. His principal poems were "The Culprit Fay" and the stirring stanzas on "The American Flag." * From theacc it in SI. Nicholas, February, 1890, bj Mr. John 1'. Dunning. 24 TEE YOUNG AMERICAN The American Flag Joseph Hodman Drake When Freedom from her mountain height Unfurled her standard to the air, She tore the azure robe of night. And set the stars of glory there. She mingled with its gorgeous dyes The milky baldric of the skies, And striped its pure celestial white With streakings of the morning light ; Then from his mansion in the sun She called her eagle bearer down, And gave into his mighty hand The symbol of her chosen land. Majestic monarch of the cloud. Who rear'st aloft thy regal form, To hear the tempest trumpings loud And see the lightning lances driven, When strive the warriors of the storm. And rolls the thunder-drum of Heaven, - Child of the Sun ! to thee 'tis given To guard the banner of the free, To hover in the sulphur smoke, To ward away the battle-stroke, And bid its blendings shine afar. Like rainbows on the cloud of war, The harbingers of victory ! Flag of the brave ! thy folds shall fly, The sign of hope and triumph high, When speaks the signal trumpet tone, And the long line comes "learning on. THE YOUNG AMERICAN Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet, Has dimmed the glistening bayonet, Each soldier eye shall brightly turn To where thy sky born glories buni ; Ami. as his springing steps advance, Catch war . -Hid vengeance I'mm the glance. Ami. when thecannon ithings loud 1 leave in wild wreaths the battle shroud, And gorysahres rise and tall Like sh<><>ts of flame on midnight's pall. Then shall thy meteor glances glow, And cowering foes shall shrink beneath Each gallanl arm that strikes below That lovely messenger of death. Flag of the seas : on ocean wave Thy stars shall -litter o'er the brave : When heath, careering on the gale, Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail. And frighted waves rush wildly hack- Before the broadside's reeling rack. Each dying wanderer of the sea Shall look at once to Heaven and thee. And smile to see thy splendors fly In triumph, o'er his closing eye Flag of the free heart's hope and holm- \ By angel hands t<> Valor given ! Thy stars have lit the welkin dome. And all thy hues were horn in Heaven. Forever lloat that standard sheet ! Where breathes the foe hut falls before us. With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us 26 the vorxa American 15. Judge Hopkinson's Patriotic Song. — Joseph Hop- kinson (born L770, died L842) was a native of Philadelphia. His father was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Joseph was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, became a lawyer, was a representative in congress, and a judge of the federal courts. He wrote •• Hail. Columbia! " in 1798, when there was danger of a war with France. The popular excitement at that time was very great. The young navy was sent to sea to guard our merchant ships, and preparations were made for the organization of an army. Washington was called from his retirement at Mt. Vernon and given command of this army. John Adams was president. The music, then called the " President's March," was played in the theaters and by bands on the streets as a popular patriotic tune. Young Mr. Hopkinson was asked to write a song for the music, which might be sung at the benefit of a well-known actor. The song was " Hail, Columbia! " and was received by the audience with the wildest enthusiasm. In a very few days it was sung from Maine to Georgia. Hail, Columbia ! Joseph Hopkinson Hail, Columbia ! happy land ! Hail, ye heroes ! heaven-born band ! Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause. Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause, And when the storm of war was gone Enjoyed the peace your valor won. THE YOUNQ AMERICA \ 27 Lei independence !'«' < ►« i r- boast, Ever mindful what it cosl ; Ever grateful for the prize. Let its altar reach the skies. Firm, united, let us be, Rallying round our Liberty ; As a band <>f brothers joined, Peace and safety we shall find. [mmortal patriots ! ris< ce more : 1 >efend your rights, defend your shore : ! iel no nidi' foe with impious hand. Let no rude foe with impious hand. Invade the shrine where sacred lies Of toil and blood the well earned prize. While ottering peace sincere and just. In Heaven we place a manly trust. Thai truth and justice will prevail. And every scheme of bondage fail. Firm, united, etc. Sound, sound, the trump of Fame ! Let Washington's greal name Ring through the world with loud applause, Ring through the world with loud applause ; Let every clime to Freedom dear. Listen with a joyful ear. With equal skill and godlike power, He governed in the fearful hour Of horrid war : or guides, with ease, The bappier times of honest peace. Firm, united, etc. •> THE YOVXU AMERICA X Behold the chief who now commands, Once more to serve his country, stands— The rock on which the storm will heat ; The rock on which the storm will heat. But, armed in virtue firm and true, His hopes are fixed on Heaven and you. When hope was sinking in dismay, And glooms obscured Columbia's day, His steady mind from changes free, Resolved on death or liberty. Firm, united, let us be, Rallying round our Liberty; As a band of brothers joined. Peace and safety we shall find. CHAPTEB II The Republic i. What We Mean by a Republic. — ( Mir of I he things which we Americans like about our country is that it has a republican form of government. All the independent nations in .North or South America, like Mexico. Chili, iiinl Brazil, for instance, arc republics. In Europe, how- ever, only France and Switzerland are republics. AH the other countries are monarchies. 2. [n a republic all the public officers either are chosen by the people or are appointed by somebody who is chosen by the people ; and all the laws arc made by a body of men who arc chosen by the people. If the people do not like the laws which are niadc they have only to choose a new body of lawmakers. And if the public officers d t do their duty as the people want it done, it is easy to make a change there, too. So you sec that in a republic the peo- ple really govern I bemselves. 3. Kings and Emperors. — In a monarchy it is differ- ent. At the head of tic government is a monarch, called usually king, or emperor. He is not chosen by the people. hut holds his place merely because his father was king or emperor before him. Neither can the people, if they do not like him. select some one else to take his place. He re- mains in his office as long as he lives, and when he dies Ids son. or. in some countries, bis daughter, if there is no son. becomes monarch in his place. BO THE YOUNG AMERICAN 4. How Russia is Governed — Russia is a good exam- ple of a pure monarchy. The monarch is called the tsar, which means emperor. When ;i tsar dies his oldest son, or, if he lias no son, his oldest brother, at once succeeds to the throne, and holds it in turn as long as lie lives. So the people have no voice in deciding who shall he their monarch. 5. All the laws are made by the tsar. Of course he has men whose duty it is to advise what the law shall he. lint the tsar selects these men. and he does not have to he guided by their advice. 80 in reality he makes the laws, and the people have nothing to say about it. 6. Again, all the public officers are either appointed by the tsar or by some one who is appointed by the tsar. So the people have no choice of rulers at all. 7. In short, the tsar governs Russia quite as he pleases. If he decides on war, it makes no difference what the peo- ple want. The armies and the fleets obey the tsar's orders ; the taxes are laid and collected at his will. War and peace are at the tsar's pleasure. 8. A ruler who has so much power as this is called an absolute monarch. There are not many such among civ- ilized nations. In nearly every country in Europe except Russia the people have some power in the government. But nearly all of them have a monarch, who rules for life, and is succeeded on his death by his son. 9. An Aristocracy. — .Most monarchies also have an aristocracy. By this we mean a body of men who have some privileges, especially political, which other men do not have. For instance, in England the laws are made by a body of men called parliament. Part of this body are 77/ E TOUNO AMERICA V 31 chosen by tin- people, jusl a- i- the case in a republic. Inn ili.- other part, called the house of lords, consists of men the mosl of whom have the righl to lie members of parliament merely because their fathers did before them. When a lord dies his oldesl son at once take- his place, jusi as in case of the Russian tsar. 10. There was a time when the members of an aristoc- racy had many other privileges. Bui in mosl countries these have passed away. Still, in nations which have mon- archy and aristocracies it is easy to see that the people cannol govern themselves as they do in a republic. ii. No Inherited Rank in a Republic. — We have in our country no monarch and no hereditary lawmakers. It seems to ii- very droll that any man should hold a public office mere- ly because his father did. We know that very often a son does not inherit his fat her's tastes or brains or good charac- ter. And we do not see why there should he a hereditary monarch or lord of parliament, any more than hereditary grocers or teachers or fanners, [nd 1 it i.- not many centuries since nearly all occupations were inherited in just that way. lint people have learned thai a shoemaker's -on may he a xcvx poOr shoemaker, and that if he would rather he a tailor it is better not to interfere with him. And. anyway, we prefer t<> cl se our own public officers, rather than have them selected tor us bv the accident of i.i", in i u una 1 i\< .>i s u \- BORN 32 THE YOUNG AMERICAS' birth. And we prefer to make our own laws, rather than to have them made for us by somebody we have not selected for that purpose. 12. How Success May be Won in a Republic. — In a republic it is quite possible for a very poor boy, if he has Published and copyrighted, 1894, by A. W. Elson & Co., Boston ABRAHAM LINCOLN brains and perseverance enough, to rise to the highest rank. One of our greatest presidents was Abraham Lin- coln. His father was a poor man, and Abraham as a boy lived in a log house on an Illinois farm, and did every day the roughest and hardest work. Books and schooling were not easy to get. But he was determined to learn all he Till: YOUNO AMERICAN could. So after a bard day's work he would spend his evening hours reading and studying by the Lighl of pine knots burning on tin' hearth. On one occasion he bor- rowed an importani book, and became so anxious to own it that he copied it word for word with pen and ink. PnbUabad ■nd W l f j rigll tri, 18U3, b, A. W. EUod (t Co., Boston HENRI WADSWOBTB LONGFELLOW AJter long years of patient toil he had learned enough to become a Lawyer. In this profession he kept on with his hahits <,f tireless industry, always Learning more, always becoming more thoughtful and clear-sighted. Gradually he became a great political leader, and finally was elected president of the United States. In this office he showed 84 THE YOUNG AMERICAN rare wisdom at a time of the utmost public difficulty and danger. There was a bloody civil war. and it seemed that the republic would fall to pieces. But it was saved. And his name will live as long as history tells the story of our republic. Thus the poor lad who hoed corn and split rails for a scanty living, became the head of a great nation. That could hardly happen in a monarchy. But many of our great men — statesmen, generals, orators — have had quite such a record as Lincoln's. ]u a republic there is a chance for every one. 13. An American Poet's Apostrophe. — Henry Wads- worth Longfellow was one of the greatest American poets. He was born in Maine in 1807, and died in 1882. He was graduated at Bowdoin College, in his native state, in 1825, and afterwards held a professorship in his alma mater. From that post he was called to a professorship in Harvard University. There he continued about twenty years, re- signing to give his whole time to writing. In his long life he wrote many poems. The few lines following are from "The Building of the Ship." The Republic Henry W. Longfellow Thou, too, sail on, Ship of State ! Sail on, O Union, strong and great ! Humanity, with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on tliy fate ! We know what master laid thy keel, What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, Tin: YOVNQ A VSRICAN Who made cadi mast, and sail, and rope Wh.it anvils rang, what hammers beat, In what a forge, and what a heat, Were shaped tin- anchors «>t' thy hope : Fear in>t each sudden sound and shock ; 'Tis <>f the wave, ami not the rock ; 'Tis I'ut the flapping of the sail. And not a rent made h\ the gale ! In spite of pock and tempest's roar, In spite of false lights on the shore, Sail on. nor fear to breast the sea ! ( >ur hearts, our hopes, are all with thee ; Our hearts, our hopes, our praj ers, our tears ( )ur faith t rinmphaiit o'er our fears. v re all with thee, are all with thee ! CHAPTER III Laws and Their Makers i. What We Mean by Laws. — People are often con- fused when they talk about law, because they mean very different tilings. But there is no difficulty if only we are quite sure what we mean. For instance, we speak of the "law" of gravitation. Tli is merely means that material bodies attract one an- other ; that a stone tossed in the air will fall towards the ground — as boys say, "What goes up must come down " — and that we know how to calculate the speed of such a falling body. But we see at once that this is a law which men did not make — they have discovered it. It is what is known as a law of nature. 2. When a gentleman meets a lady on the street, if he is acquainted Avith her he lifts his hat as a sign of respect. He wants to be polite, and he wants her to know that he understands what politeness requires. This rule of lifting the hat to a lady is one of the common laws of politeness. There are many such laws. It would be hard to say who made them, but they are obeyed by common consent. They are rules for action which people heed, and so are very properly called laws. But we see at once how differ- ent they are from the laws of nature. The law of gravita- tion is merely the regular way in which we see that bodies THE YOUNG AMERICAN 37 of matter are drawn towards one another. Bui the stone thrown in the air cannoi help falling towards the ground. Endeed it has no choice. On the other hand, a man can be impolite it' he wishes. Many people are very rude in their conduct. We sn\ then thai they are breaking the law- of politeness. Bui no one ever heard of a stone " hreaking" i he law of gravitation. 3. If a burglar is caughl stealings policeman will soon march him to the police station. Presently tin- prisoner finds himself before a judge ami jury. The facts are proved to the satisfaction of the jury, ami the judge then sentences him to prison. This, the judge says, is accord- ing to "law" — a law which explains what is meant by burglary and which tixes a penalty for the hurglar. It is the duty of the policeman and of the court to enforce the law by arresting and punishing the criminal. We see at once that such laws as these are made and enforced in order to protect people in the enjoyment of their own property. If it were not for the courts and the policemen, thieves would do ahout as they pleased. Everybody would have to watch day ami night to keep his things from being stolen. 4. Now. of these various kinds of law. the only one which we shall talk ahout is the third — the kind of law which it is the duty of a judge and jury, a court, to enforce. When we speak of the laws of a country, of law- makers, of lawyers, we refer to law of this kind. 5. Who Make the Laws? — Every country has a set of laws of its own. Some of these explain what ads are for- bidden, ami how such acts arc to he prevented, or. if done, 38 THE YOUNO AMERICAN how they shall be punished. Acts which the law forbids are called crimes, and laws which relate to them arc called criminal laws — just as people who disobey these laws are called criminals. Then, there are other laws which regu- late business affairs, providing ways for collecting debts, for making a record of the sale of land, and the like. And still other laws determine what public officers, like policemen and judges, there shall be, and what shall be their powers and duties. 6. Now, all these laws have to be made by somebody, and it is very important that we should understand just wdio it is that has the right to make rules which everybody is hound to obey. The rules of a school are made by the teacher. Hut they are intended only for the boys and girls in the school. The laws of the United States should be obeyed by every man, woman, and child in the land. 7. In Russia the laws are made by the tsar. To be sure, as we said before, he has a body of men to advise him what laws to make. But he is not bound to take their advice, and, in any case, what they suggest is not law unless the tsar makes it so. He is the law-maker. This is putting a vast responsibility on a single man — a respon- sibility which he is very apt to lessen by usually taking the advice of his courtiers. But the government of Russia is an absolute monarchy. 8. There are some countries in which all the grown men come together in a mass meeting to decide what the laws shall be. This is done in a few of the cantons of the Swiss republic. It is done in the towns of some of our States. the town meeting, of course, not making all the laws, but THE YOUNO AMERICAN merely their own local town laws. This sorl of law-making is just the opposite of an absolute monarchy, and is called a pure democracy. Ii works verj well where there are not many people, and where the countrj i- no1 too large. g. In a republic the laws are usually made by a body of men selected for thai purpose bj the people. This body of men ie railed a legislature. Its members are generally elected for a few r years Only, so that if they do nut please the people others can be chosen in their place. In a large country it is not convenient for all the people to come together to make laws. So the next best thing is for the people to choose a small number of men who shall carry out the popular will. 10. In a country which is a monarchy, hut in which the monarch has nut the absolute power, as he has in Russia, the legislature commonly consists partly of men elected by the people, partly of the aristocrats, and partly of the monarch himself. Bui as the monarch and the aristocrats hold their place without regard to the popular will, it is dear that in such a country the people cannot always gel such laws made as they want. However, on tl ther hand, the monarch and the aristocrats cannol make such laws as ihe\ want unless the representatives of the people consent. ii. Why Laws are Necessary. — Without laws we could not live in any sort of comfort. In every commu- nity there are s e people so selfish and vicious that they are always ready to injure others if they can. They are perfectly willing to steal, to destroy what the) do not want, to injure or even to kill any one who arouses their 40 THE YOUNQ AMERICAN anger. Even in countries where the laws are strict and well enforced there are such criminals. We often read in the newspapers of burglaries and arson and even of mur- der. But if there were no laws, no courts, and no police, we may be very sure that stealing and violence would be greatly multiplied. Everybody would have to protect him- self as well as he could. But no one could do this so well as is now done by the law. So that if we should be even for a short time without the protection of the law and government, everybody except criminals would be very glad to see it restored. 12. Of course, people who are in the habit of breaking the law, hoping that they may not be caught, would be very glad if there were no laws and no police. As the old rhyme runs : " No man e'er felt the halter draw, With good opinion of the law." But people who are not thieves have a very different opinion. 13. This is reason enough for having laws and officers to enforce them. There are many other reasons also, which need not be explained here. We often hear of "uncivil- ized" countries, and we call ours highly civilized. One of the- most important differences between the two is that civilized countries are under a good system of laws, and that in them life and property are safe. If one should go to an uncivilized country, like some lands in Africa, he would have to be ready to defend both his life and his property with deadly weapons, He would be likely to THE YOUNO AMERh .1 \ 11 carry a rifle and revolvers wherever he should L r '>. Bui a merchant in an American city or village does aol have to carry these weapons. Thai is because our country \~ a land of law. and Africa is not. 14. John C. Calhoun. — lohn Caldwell Calhoun was a greal statesman of Smith Carolina. He was born in that state in 1782, and died in the city of Washington in 1850. For forty years he was active in public life, as representa- tive in congress, senator, secretary of war. secretary of state, ami vice-presidenl of the [Jnited Mate-. He was one of the greal orator- of the senate when that body was distinguished for its ability. Calhoun, (lay. and Webster were its intellectual giants. The following extract is from one of his speeches : The Necessity of Government Society can no more exist without government, in some form or other, than man without society. The political, then, is man's natural state. It is the one for which his ( Yea tor formed him. into which he is impelled irresistibly, and the only one in which his race c,- m exist and all his faculties lie fully developed. It follows that even the worst form of government i> better than anarchy : and lli.it individual liberty or freedom must be subordinate to whatever power may be necessary to proteel society against anarchy within or destruction without. .lust in proportion as a | pie are ignorant, stupid, debased, corrupt, exposed to violence within and dangers without, the power ;essary for governmenl to possess, in order to pre serve society against anarchy and destruction, becomes greater and greater, and individual liberty less and less, until the low est condition is reached, when absolute anil despotic power 42 TllH YOCNO AMERICAN becomes necessary on the part of the government, and individ- ual liberty becomes extinct. So, on the contrary, just as a people rise in the scale of intel- ligence, virtue, and patriotism, and the more perfectly they become acquainted with the nature of government, the ends for which it was ordered, and how it ought to be administered, the 1 tower necessary for government becomes less and less, and individual liberty greater and greater. CHAPTER IV What We Mean by Government i. Law and Government.— \\V have Been thai a com- munity could not be peaceful and orderly unless there were law to regulate conduct. Bui we h;i\e ; d-o seen that in a large community all the people cannot come together to decide what the laws shall he. and it becomes necessary for a small body of men to he selected as a legislature. Then, when the laws are made, it is also necessary to see that they are obeyed. For this purpose the people select other men. like the policemen in cities and the constables in villages. However, it is not always exactly plain just what the law means in every case, nor is it always sure that a man whom the police may arrest on the charge of committing some crime is really guilty. So the people select other men whose duty it is to decide what the laws mean and whether accused people are actually guilty. These men are usually called judges. And the whole body of men selected for these three kinds of duties, making laws, seeing that the laws are obeyed, and deciding what the laws mean, are called Uir government. 2. The Two Houses of the Legislature. — Making laws requires very much care, knowledge, ami good judg- ment. The men selected for that purpose oughl to be very intelligent and very honest. Hut, even then mistakes may 44 THE YOUNG AMERICA X be made. In order that these mistakes may be as few as possible, nearly all legislatures are divided into two sepa- rate bodies, usually called houses. One is commonly called the upper house and the other the lower house. 3. House is certainly an odd name to give to a body of men. But if we remember that the word is used in this meaning, as well as applying to a building, we shall have no trouble. 4. The Number in Each House — The number of men in the two houses differs in different countries. In the upper house of the British legislature there are nearly GOO members and in the lower house nearly 700. In our American national legislature we have only 90 in the upper house and 357 in the lower house. 5. How Laws are Made. — If any member of the legis- lature thinks that there ought to be a law of a certain kind, he writes it out and proposes it at a meeting of the house to which he belongs. In this form it is called a bill. This bill is then usually sent to a committee — a small group of members who talk the bill over and report their opin- ion of it to the house. Then it is talked over in the house, all the arguments for it and against it being pretty apt to be thought of by somebody. This talk is called a debute. After the bill has been thoroughly examined and debated, the house take a vote, all members who favor the bill vot- ing aye, and those opposed to it voting no. If there are more ayes than noes the bill is said to have passed that house. Then it goes to the other house, where again it is proposed, debated, and voted upon. But unless it passes this house also, the bill cannot become a law. THE WUNO AMERICAN 15 6. It is easy now to see the advantage of haying two houses in ;i Legislature. As everj bill has to be debated and voted the settler's house, and murder men. women, and children as they ran screaming from the flames. The Indian, too. had a hideous habil of cutting and tearing the scalp from the head of his victim, keeping it as a hi Iv trophy of his success. 6. The Colonists Succeed. — Hut the colonists were brave and persevering, and so, in spite of poverty and hard work and sickness and war. t hey succeeded in building up thrivi ng settle- ments. It was more than a hundred year- after ( 'oluinhiis found the new world before the first Eng- lishmen came to live in America, at Jamestown, in Vir- ginia. And it was less than two hundred years after this settlement was made, that the thirteen English colonies became an independent republic. 7. Why the Colonies Were Separate. — When the people of Europe came over to America to make their homes the\ came in companies at different times and Bettled at different places. Usually each settlement had THE PINTA t >ne of the tiny vessels in which Columbus crossed ill.- Atlantic in 1492 •VJ THE YOUNQ AMERICAN to have a local government of its own, as the different settlements were too far apart to be managed by one gov- ernment. Then, too, the companies of settlers were often ■ ■ I - ■"V .: tHv * ^**5P^&g** SETTLERS ATTACKED BY INDIANS such us wanted to have the management of their own a Hairs. The colonies in New England, especially Massa- chusetts and Connecticut, were settled by English people who were not allowed at home to worship God in the way THE YOUNO AMERICAN 58 which they preferred. So they came to the wilderness for religious liberty. A. similar purpose took the Baptists to Rhode Island, the Quakers to Pennsylvania, and the Roman Catholics to Maryland. .Many of the settlers of Virginia and South Carolina were Episcopalians. It is plain enough that people of these different religious ideas would wani to be free from interference. So they lived apart in their various colonies, each with its own local government, and all obeying the British government at London. The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in New England Mrs. Hi mans* "Look now abroad ! Another race bas filled These populous borders — wide the world recedes, And towns shoot up, and fertile realms arc tilled : 'I'hc land is full of harvests ami green meads.*' — Bryant. Tiik breaking waves dashed hisrh ( )m a stern and rock-bound const. Ami the W Is against a stormy sky Their giant branches tossed ; And the heavy night hung dark The lulls and waters o'er. When a band of exiles moored their bark On the wild New England shore. Not as the conqueror comes. They, the true hearted, came. Not with the roll of the stirring drums. And the trumpet that singS of fame ; * Felicia Dorothea Hemans was an English lady who died in 1835. Some <>( her poems are \ wither there Away from their childhood's land I There was woman's fearless eye, Lit by her deep love's truth ; There was manhood's brow serenelj high, And the fiery heari of youth. Whal soughl they thus afar? — Brighl jewels of the mine : The wealth of sens, the spoils of war '. — They soughl a faith's pure shrine ! Ay. call it lmly ground, The soil where lirst they trod ! They have left unstained what there they found Freedom to worship (rod ! 8. Why the Colonies United. — When the colonies began to oppose the acts of the British government, they had to unite. In L765 a colonial co ngress met at New York to discuss a British Law for taxing the colonies. The colo- nists had had QO share in making this law. and therefore they though! it unjust. This congress consisted of a few delegates from each of nine colonies -four of the thirteen -cut do delegates- and simply adopted resolutions express- ing their reasons for opposing the law. In a shorl time the British governmenl repealed the Law. 9. A few years later another attempi was made to tax the colonists without their consent. This attempt was resisted 56 TEE YOUXG AMEHICAS as vigorously as was the first, and in L774 a second congress of the colonies met at Philadelphia to talk the matter over. They adopted strong resolutions against the tax laws, commended the resistance of the people to the collection of the taxes, and finally, before going home, called a third congress to meet in the following spring. Twelve of the colonies— all but Georgia — had delegates in this second congress. 10. The third congress of the colonies met at Phila- delphia in May, 1775, and found that war had already begun between the colonies and the British government (p. G5). All the thirteen were now represented by their delegates. This congress was a sort of common govern- ment for the united colonies. Of course each colony kept its own government besides, but the congress managed the most important things in the war. It was this congress which made the Declaration of Independence, which chose George Washington commander of the armies, and which finally made peace with Great Britain. Since then we have always called our national legislature "congress." ii. How the West Was Settled — After the revolution many people thought they could do better by going farther west to live, in the wilderness which had not yet been cleared. So they went across the Alleghany Mountains and made their homes on both sides of the Ohio River. They had the same hard life as the first colonists on the Atlantic coast, living in log cabins, raising corn and hogs, and shooting wild beasts. Bears, deer, buffalo, wild tur- keys, and other game were abundant in the woods, so it was easy for these skilful hunters to find food. They used THE AMERICAN LINER STL0UIS.I897 /'///()() in all the thirteen States at the time of the revolu- I'l'UITANS GOING TO CHURCH. (FROM BOUGHTON'S WELL-KNOWN PAINTING.) tion. Now our forty-five states have nearly, if not quite, 70,000,000. 12. James Schouler. — James Schouler has written a history of the United States in five volumes, which gives an excellent picture of the growth of the republic from the formation of the Constitution to the breaking out of the civil war. The selection gives a vivid picture of an event which produced great excitement at the time, and which led to a marvelously rapid immigration to ( 'alifornia. THE TOUNQ AMERICAN 59 The Discovery of Gold in California James Schoi leb Some miles above Sutter's fort, on the American fork of the Sacramento. a saw-mill was in course of erection for turning some pine forests near by into Lumber. Marshall, with a gang of workmen, comprising native Indians and a few white RIor mons, was engaged upon the work. While widening and deepening the channel, where water was lei on to run the mill, yellow particles were brought down by night, mingled with tin- loose mud and gravel, which Marshall discovered as he saiin tered alonjr the tailrace in the morning. Suspecting the truth, which was confirmed by another night's sluicing, he gathered some of the glittering grains in his pouch, and rode down the stream to Captain Sutter, dismounting al the tort on the after- noon of the 2sth.* Sutter weighed the ore, applied such tests of science as he could command, ransacked his Little library upon the subject, and pronounced the substance gold. From that moment the news of the discovery spread, and nun's minds were turned in his little kingdom from saw-nulls, flour- mills, herds. Hocks, and all thai humbler property which hith- erto had absorbed his thoughts and theirs, and. to quote Sutter's own expressive phrase, forhecould not ride luck firmly ata break-neck speed, the curse of the discovery was on him. Neither Slitter nor Marshall could profil by nature'^ confi- dence. They agreed to keep the secrel to themselves ; and a Mexican "/rant heing of course out of the question by that time. Sutter procured a lease of this region from the Indian nativ and then undertook the more difficult affair of procuring title from the United States. Colonel Mason, the American com- mandant at Monterey, could idve no document ; and SO far * Jannarj 88, 1848. 60 Tin: YOUNQ AMERICAN from guarding their joint secret, Sutter and his unwary con- tractor managed to send the news far and wide, which their humble workmen on the stream had wit enough to ascertain very quickly. Sutter's saw-mill stood unfinished, as hundreds and thousands of laborers pushed by for more congenial work. Within four months of the lirst discovery over four thousand persons were about the Sacramento, working as if for dear life, dwelling in coarse canvas tents and huts, and coaxing fortune with the rudest implements. Some with howls, pans, and willow baskets were seen washing out the gravel and sepa- rating the shining atoms by the hand ; others worked with the pick and shovel ; while some, the luckiest of the lot, found places where they could pick gold out of crevices in the moun- tain rocks with their butcher knives, as they lay upon their backs, in pieces which weighed from one to six ounces. Fleets of launches, from the sloop to the cockleshell, left San Francisco in early May for the Sacramento saw-mill region, and the town was nearly stripped of its male population in course of the summer. Soon the whole country, from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and from the seashore to the base of the mountains, echoed the cry of "Gold, gold, gold !" The house was left half-built, the field half -planted ; women looked after the shop. Foreign vessels began to arrive; but before tiny could unload, their crews deserted for the "diggings." Mexicans, scarcely less than Americans, caught the gold fever, and joined in the headlong rush for riches. And quickly as sails or steam could hear the tidings to different points of the compass, adventurers hastened from China, from the Sandwich Islands, from Australia, and from the whole Pacific coast between Vancouver's Island and Valparaiso. CHAPTER VI National Independence 1. The Fourth of July — The Fourth of July is ^mil- iar to every school-bo^ as the national holiday. Fire- crackers and torpedoes, sky-rockets and Roman candles, the booming of cannon, the pomp of military parade, and often a public meeting which listens to patriotic songs and speeches— these are the usual ways in which the day is celebrated. 2. Why do we keep this day ? Because it was or the Fourth of July, L776, thai the representatives of the Amer- ican people adopted a solemn declaration that they would no Longer obey the governmenl of Greal Britain, hut that t hereafter t hey would ha\ e t heir own governmenl and make their own laws. This was the Declaration of Independence. Ami the Fourth of July accordingly is often called Inde- pendence Day. 3. What Independence Means. — If the people of one country have to obey the governmenl of some other, then we say that the first country is dependent on the second. 1 >u i . on the other hand, the people of any country are inde- pendent if they have their own governmenl and do not have to obey any other. 4. There are many independent nations, such as France, Greal Britain, Germany, Russia. Spain, in Europe; the THE TOUNO AMERICAN United Slates. Mexico, Brazil, in America, and many more. Each i>l' these bas a governmenl of its own, makes its own laws, lias its own flag, carries on its own business quite as ii pleases; in short, is completely independent. 5. [f you loot at the map of North Ajnerica, you will see just oorth of tlic United States the Dominion of Canada. Canada is not independent, like the United Mates. I»ut has to obey the governmenl of Greal Britain. Therefore Canada is a British dependency. Bui Mexico, which lies jusl smith of us. is independent. That was not always the case, as Mexico was once a dependency of Spain. Bui many years ago the Mexicans, like the Americans, declared their independence. They bad to go to war with Spain to become actually independent. Hut they wcw notorious, and so the Mexicans no longer have to obey the Spanish gO\ eminent. 6. How the United States Became Independent. — It is only a little over a century since our country became an independent republic. In L775 thirteen of our states. An \ >i 1 i;i ■ \s BlSTORK u. PAINTER. John Ti uiiibiill was the son (if Jonathan Trumbull, the revolutionary governor of Connecticut. The governor w as a firm patriol and a Btaunch friend of Washington, wl ften Bought his advice, it was the general's custom to address the governor as " Brother Jonathan, 11 a term which bas come into jocular use as personifying the 1 nited States. John was graduated at Harvard Collie in 1773 at tlic aire of seventeen, ami two years later joined the revolutionary army. Be became an aid-de-camp of Washington, but before the war was ended resumed his profession of art. After the revol tion lie devoted himself to painting a great - of historical pictures, for which lie made elaborate studies. "The P.attle of Bunker Hill " was finished soon after the war. He made portraits afterwards of the great aet.irs in the revolutionary struggle, painting John Adams in London; Jeffere and the French officers who were engaged in the American war. in Paris, and making several portraits of Washington. In the rotunda of the national capitol he painted four great pictures "The Declaration of Independence," "The surrender of Burgoyne," "The Surrender of Comwallis, 11 •■The Resignation of General Washington. 11 The work of these f ' took the artist seven years fr 1815 to 1822. The pictures are Interesting a- containing authentic portrait-. Mr. Trumbull lived until 1- 64 77/ A' YOUNG AMERICAN those along the Atlantic const from New Hampshire to Georgia, were colonies belonging to Great Britain. 7. A colony is a settlement which people have made in a Copyright, 1897, by A. W. Elson 4 Co , Boston SAMUEL ADAMS Samuel Adams, one of the most influential leaders of Massachusetts in the revolu- tion, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence— a second cousin of President John Adams. land distant from their original home, and which is ruled by the home government. 8. So these thirteen colonies were governed by the Brit- ish monarchy. The most of the people in them were of British blood — English, with sonic Scotch and Irish. The THE YOUNO AMERICAN 65 rest of the land now included in our republic either wae a wilderness inhabited only bj Indiana and wild beasts, or belonged t" -Hiiic other European monarchy. Copyright, 1887, by A » Kl-on 4 Co., Boston BENJ \MI\ I'i:a\kijn Franklin waa a i : boy « ho won his way to eminence by tireless industry and great lalentB. H< \\ n:- a trusted leader of the patriots in the revolutionary war ; was a Bigner of the Declarati t independence; was Benl as envoy to France, where he was received with great respect, and was able to induce thai nation to aid the Americans against t.icai Britain : ami was a nifiniicrof the convention which, in 1787, drew up the ( lonstitntion of the United States. Franklin died in lT'.m, in his eighty-fifth year. 9. But the American colonists, while quite willing to be a pari of the British monarchy ami to be jjoverned by British laws, yet, after all, preferred to manage their own affairs for themselves. And when the British government 66 THE YOUNG AMERICAN tried to make them pay taxes without their having a \dicc in the matter, there was trouble. The colonists refused to pay the taxes. The British sent over soldiers to compel obedience. But the colonists resisted the soldiers, and so there came to lie a war between the mother country in Europe and her colonies in America. Tins was dragged on for eight years. By that time it was clear that the British could not conquer the colonies, and peace was made. In the second year of the war, July 4, 1776, .is we have seen, the colonists declared that they would no longer be a part of the Brit- ish monarchy, but that they would thereafter be an inde- pendent nation. AVhen the peace was made, in 1783, the British government gave up the claim to govern the colo- nies, and consented to their independence. Thus the thirteen colonies became an independent republic — the United States of America. io. Adams and Jefferson. — John Adams was one of the foremost patriots of our revolutionary war. lie was a member of the Continental Congress (p. 57) which adopted the Declaration of Independence in 1770, and was a member of the committee appointed to draw up that immortal document. Thomas Jefferson, another member of the committee, was the one who actually JOHN ADAMS President of the United States, 1797-1K0J. THE TOUNQ A WERIt AN 67 wrote the Declaration. John Adams became presidenl of the CJnited States in 1797, succeeding the first presi- dent, George Washington : and in L801 A.dams in turn was succeeded by Jefferson. Adams and Jefferson both died on the fourth of July, . lio.tnii THOMAS .11 Ml RSOM Jefferson was the author of the Declaration of independence, was secretary of state onder Washington, vice-president under President John Adams, and was himself president from lstii ti> isn't, ito «a< mil 1 of mi!' mosl original and versatile statesmen. l 826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration. Daniel Webster was invited to deliver a commemorative address on tlif lives and services of the two patriots, which he did, in Faneuil Hall. Boston, August .. L826. 68 THE YOUNG AMERICAN In the course of this address Webster gave a vivid word- picture of the deliberations of the congress, and supposed Adams to have given the following speech, although it was, in fact, Webster's speech : In Favor of a Declaration of Independence Daniel Webster Speech supposed to have been delivered by John Adams in the Conh nental Congress, July 7, 1776 Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote ! It is true, indeed, that, in the be- ginning, we aimed not at independence. But there is a Divinity which shapes our ends. The injustice of England has driven us to arms ; and, blinded to her own interest for our good, she lias obstinately persisted, till independence is now within our grasp. We have but to reach forth to it, and it is ours. Why, then, should we defer the Declaration ? Is any man so weak as now to hope for a reconciliation with England, which shall leave either safety to the country and its liberties, or safety to his own life, and Ins own honor ? Are not you, Sir, who sit in that chair, — is not he, our venerable colleague near you, — are not both already the proscribed and predestined objects of pun- ishment and of vengeance ? Cut off from all hope of royal clemency, what are you, what can you be, while the power of England remains, but outlaws '. If wc postpone independence, do we mean to carry on, or give up, the war ? Do we mean to submit to the measures of Parlia- ment, Boston port-bill and all ? Do we mean to submit, and consent that wc ourselves shall be ground to powder, and our country and its rights trodden down in the dust? I know we do not mean to submit. We never shall submit. Do we intend THE YOXJNQ .\ui:i;h \\ 69 to violate thai most sol. •inn obligation ever entered into by men, — that plighting, before God, of oursacred bonorto Washing ton. when, putting liini forth to incur the dangers of war, as well as the political bazardsof the times, we promised to adhere to him, in everj extremity, with our Fortunes and our lives : I know there is not a man here who would not rather see a 9 \N I i II II \ II . B08T0K Tins famous old li.-ill was first iinilt in 1748 by Peter Faneuil, and given i" the town. It has been called the " Cradle of Liberty," because the Sons of Liberty, :> patriotii ganization, held many meetings there in the years jusl preceding the revolution. general conflagration sweep over the land, or an earthquake sink it, than one jot or tittle of that plighted faith fall to the ground. For myself, having twelve months ago, in this place, moved yon thai George Washington be appointed commander of the forces raised, or to be raised, for defence of American liberty, may my righl hand forgel its cunning, and m\ tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if 1 hesitate or waver in the supporl ;n THE YOUNG AMERICAS I give him ! The war, then, must go on. We must fight it through. And, if the war must go on, why put off longer the Declara- tion of Independence ? That measure will strengthen us. It will give us character abroad. The Nations will then treat with us, which they never can do while we acknowledge ourselves subjects in anus against our sovereign. Nay, I maintain that England herself will sooner treat for peace with us on the foot- ing of independence, than consent, by repealing her acts, to acknowledge that her whole conduct towards us has been a course of injustice and oppression. Her pride will be less wounded by submitting to that course of things which now predestinates our independence, than by yielding the points in controversy to her rebellious subjects. The former she would regard as the result of fortune ; the latter, she would feel as her own deep disgrace. Why, then, Sir, do we not, as soon as pos- sible, change this from a civil to a national war ? And, since we must fight it through, why not put ourselves in a state to enjoy all the benefits of victory, if we gain the victory ? If we fail, it can be no worse for us. But we shall not fail ! The cause will raise up armies ;— the cause will create navies. The people, — the people, — if we are true to them, will carry us, and will carry themselves, gloriously through this struggle. I care not how fickle other people have been found. I know the peo- ple of these colonies ; and I know that resistance to British aggression is deep and settled in their hearts, and cannot be eradicated. Every colony, indeed, has expressed its willingness to follow, if we but take the lead. Sir, the Declaration will in- spire the people with increased courage. Instead of a long and bloody war for restoration of privileges, for redress of griev- ances, for chartered immunities, held under a British king, set before them the glorious object of entire independence, and it will breathe into them anew the breath of life. Read this THE YOUNG AMERICAN 71 Declaration at the bead of the tinny ; every sword will be drawn from its scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered, to main- tain it, or to perish on the bed of honor. Publish it from the Pulpit [—religion will approve it, and the love of religious liberty will cling pound it, resolved to stand with it, or fall with it. Send it to the public halls ; proclaim it there ; let them hear it who beard the first roar of the enemy's cannon, Let them see it LEXINGTON Bere waa Bred the Bret Bhot of the revolutionary \v:ir in the earl; morning of April 19, 1775. who saw their brothers and their sons fall on the field of Hunker Bill, and in the streets of Lexington and Concord, and the very walls will cry out in its support ! Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs : hut I see clearly through this day's business. You and I. indeed, may rue it. We may not live to see the time when this Declaration shall he made good. We may die, die colonists ; die slave-, . 72 THE TOUNQ AMERICAN die, it may be, ignominiousl y, and on the scaffold ! Be it so ! be it so ! If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But, while I do live, let me have a country, — or, at least, the hope of a country, and that a free country. But, whatever may be our fate, be assured that this Declara- tion will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood ; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present, I see the brightness of the future, as the sun in Heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanks- giving, with festivity, with bonfires, and illuminations. On its annual return, they will shed tears, — -copious, gushing tears, — not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, — but of exultation, of gratitude, and of joy. Sir, before God, I be- lieve the hour has come ! My judgment approves this meas- ure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it ; and I leave off, as I began, that, live or die, sur- vive or perish, I am for the Declaration ! It is my living senti- ment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying senti- ment, — Independence now, and Independence forever ! ii. The Revolutionary War.— The Avar of indepen- dence — generally called the revolutionary war — was a hard struggle for the colonists. They were not very many or very rich, while Great Britain was one of the most power- ful nations in the world. The first battle was at Lexing- ton, Massachusetts, on the 10th of April, 1775. The Brit- ish soldiers marched from Boston in the night in order to destroy some eannoiis and other military supplies which 81 £? Uj ,•>. 0"l ORIGINAL TERRITORY of the UNITED STATION Treaty of 1783. : lXJ Si ?*j C , ranjuertfc \> N Qi'm ''■O: &F& * JJuy < ° « ~ © Jetroit - *> *. £* ■_• f. tt ■i.vr.-iK 1 ofet L A I Tt! Wayne ,/o jVl r N»" fc* N E *j \ie» c £ i/M-V fporwmoutft NN SYLV ANI A, Dll: . ft. LonXi a./ Pine l-*' 1 <* £.c£ -TfeRf roi^ ■aJWCkin V I R G I N ,1 7AJ * •-SO ^ \- — :""c, S O U T H\ 8% .- '•> ._.- "^N_0_R T H C A R \ / - \ Mtssiaejp^, t E r RITCRY \, AROLI N rlea U I — i— J -,--r— — G E j O R G I A Savannah ' \ civ % \. ^.-f. -Voiz-JjJJ. .Augustine % f * " « V L jp M /: o ^ BAHAMAS 89 J/ongltude West 81 i nwich :s » M THE YOUNG AMERh AN the colonists had al Concord. Coming to 1 1 * « - Little villi of Lexington early in the morning, they found a company of colonial soldiers standing in line on the village green. The British fired on them, killing some and driving the rest away. The supplies ;ii Concord were destroyed, luit CONCORD BATTLE-GROUND AND KON1 MINT On the 19th of April. 1775, the British troops from Boston reached Concord, v t loncord bridge the minutemen were draw n up under arms and exchanged a Bharp Brc with the enemy. Having destroyed Mich supplies as thej could find, the l!riti.-h marched hark to i;<>st pursued all the waj by the swarming minutemen, « hose bul- lets came from behind every tree and bush and Btone wall. Thus began the revolution- ary war. •■ Her ce the embattled farmers Bl I, Ami fired tlu' Bhol heard round the world." when the British started to march back to Boston they found thai the colonists had come from far and near to attack them. These colonists were mostly farmers who had imt had much military training, bu1 they knew how to sliiiut, and they lined the woods and liilltops along roads 74 THE YOUNG AMERICAN inarched over by the British, keeping up a steady and destructive fire. It was only by meeting a large body of soldiers sent from Boston to help them that the expedition succeeded in getting back to Boston at all. 12. The Americans were not always so successful as they were in this first battle. Their armies were small, badly armed, and poorly clothed. One winter their principal WASHINGTON VISITING SICK SOLDIERS AT VALLEY FOKGE army, commanded by General George Washington, was encamped at Valley Forge, in Pennsylvania. They lived in huts, had not enough to eat, or clothing enough to keep them wanii. The snow was more than once stained with blood from the soldiers' feet, which their ragged shoes did not protect. But General Washington never despaired. He had been appointed to command all the armies of the colonists soon after the battle of Lexington, and he con- THE YOUNQ AMERIi AN tinned to lead them to the end. lie was 30 greal and noble a man that bis soldiers always trusted and loved him. After many battles, some defeats and some victories, he made one of the principal British armies surrender al Jorktown, in Virginia. This was in L781. This con- vinced the government of Great Britain that they could not conquer the colonies, ami so at last peace was made. 13. In the lasl years of t he war t he Americans were aided by France, winch sent ships of war and sol- diers to help General Washington win his victories. 14. The British king, George the Third, was mainly to blame for t he ill treat- ment of the colonies which led to 1 he war. The people iif Great Britain, as a whole. • lid not like the war. and to-day few can he found in that country t<> justify Bang < reorge. So while we can he proud of the spirit and heroism of our fathers who won our inde- pendence, we have no reason for feeling ill-will towards the British nation to-day because of the folly of dead and gone Eling George. 15. Edward Everett.— Edward Everett was a brilliant i:i>u \i:i> i:vi:i:i:tt 7(1 77/ A' YOUXt: .IJ/A7,7r.l.V >. 7. - < - 1/ o — ~E- ?■ J™ &D ;_ i. i- '-♦J ■r, 1 o «- y = o (O ££ *" ^ - o H U a — /: o C3 z. c «0 o ? bi o □ s ■~ c X *x •«5 «4_ K X _ 1 £ < c OS 03 t= H -o P. -r fc ,3 ~ *: >H o _4 o cj a c >. o p M ^ — — &< QQ ta "q O ■r" V rf » (5 03 ~T o <*^ / = z >1 ~ ■A ~ « as ^ ~ D «i sj -> ' z; o T — 61 r§ &H >> oa fl £> THE TOXJNQ AMERICAN 77 scholar and orator. Born near Boston, Massachusetts, in L794, he was graduated ;ii Barvard College when only seventeen years old. He was a Unitarian preacher, pro- fessor in Harvard and president of that college, representa- tive in congress, governor of Massachusetts, minister of the United States to Greal Britain, secretary of Btate, United States senator from Massachusetts. He died in L865. The following extract from one of his speeches shows the view of our relations to the mother country held by a patriotic and thoughtful American statesman : Our Relations with England Knu \l;l« l'\ I RETT Wild does not feel, whal reflecting American dor- not ac- knowledge, the incalculable advantages derived to this land oiit of the deep fountains of civil, intellectual, and moral truth, from which we have drawn in England : What American does not feel proud thai his fathers were the countrymen of I'.aeon. of Newton, and of Locke ? Who does not know, that, while evei-\ pulse of civil Liberty in the heart of the British empire beat warm and full in the bosom of our ancestors, the sobriety, the firmness, and the dignity, with which the cause of free principles struggled into existence here, constantly found encouragement and countenance from the friends of liberty there } Who does not remember, that, when the Pilgrims went over the sea, the prayers of the faithful British confessors, in all the quarters of their dispersion, went over with them, while their aching eyes were strained till the star of hope should go up in the western skies \ And who will ever forget, that, in that eventful struggle which severed these youthful republics 78 THE )(>r\(r AMERICAN from the British crown, there was not heard, throughout our continent in arms, a voice which spoke louder for the rights of America than that of Burke, or of Chatham, within the walls of the British Parliament, and at the foot of the British throne ? Xo ; for myself. I can truly say, that, after my native land, I feel a tenderness and a reverence for that of my fathers. The pride I take in my own country makes me respect that from which we are sprung. In touching - the soil of England, I seem to return, like a descendant, to the old family seat, — to come I iaek to the abode of an aged and venerable parent. I acknowl- edge this great consanguinity of nations. The sound of my native language, beyond the sea, is a music, to my ear, beyond the richest strains of Tuscan softness or Castilian majesty. I am not yet in a land of strangers, while surrounded by the manners, the habits, and the institutions, under which I have been brought up. I wander delighted through a thousand scenes, which the historians and the poets have made familiar to ns, — of which the names are interwoven with our earliest associations. I tread with reverence the spots where I can retrace the footsteps of our suffering fathers. The pleasant land of their birth has a claim on my heart. It seems to me a classic, yea, a holy land ; rich in the memory of the great and good, the champions and the martyrs of liberty, the exiled her- alds of truth, and richer, as the parent of this land of promise in the West. I am not — I need not say I am not — the panegyrist of Eng- land. I am not dazzled by her riches, nor awed by her power. The sceptre, the mitre, and the coronet, — stars, garters, and blue ribbons, — seem to me poor things for great men to contend for. Nor is my admiration awakened by her armies, mustered for the battles of Europe ; her navies, overshadowing the ocean ; nor her empire, grasping the furthest East. It is these, and the price of guilt and blood by which they are too often maintained, THE YOUNQ AMERICAN 79 which are the cause why ao friend of liberty can salute her with undivided aliwtions. But it is tin- cradle and the refuge of free principles, though often persecuted ; the school of relig- ious liberty, the more precious for the struggles through which it has passed ; the tombs of those who have reflected honor on all who speak the English tongue; it is the birth-place of our fathers, the home of the Pilgrims ; -it is these which I love and venerate in England. I should feel ashamed of an enthusiasm for Italy and Greece, did 1 not also fee] it Corn land like this. In an American, it would seem to me degenerate and ungrate- ful to hang with passion upon the traces of Homer and Virgil, and follow, without emotion, the nearer and plainer footsteps of Shakspeare and Milton. I should think him cold in his love for his native land who felt no melting in his heart for thai other native country, which holds the ashes of his forefathers. 16. The Battle of Bunker Hill. — When the revolution- ary war broke out in L775. the city of Bo-ton. Massachu- setts, was held by the British army. The Americans, after the battle of Lexington (p. 73), gathered an army and laid siege. to Boston. One night in June several hundred American soldiers were sent to seize a hill near Boston, from the top of which it would he easy for cannon to throw shot into the city and to sink the British warships in the harbor. The hill was reached quietly in the darkness and a breastwork was thrown up. When daylight came the British generals saw the Americans on the hill, ami sent a large hod\ of troops to drive them away. 'The British sol- diers formed at the foot of the hill and marched up with color- flying and drum- heating. The Americans waited until the enenrj wwr very near, and then poured in so deadly a fire of bullets thai the British rank- were broken 80 THE WUNG AMERICAN and driven down the lull in confusion. Again the British closed np their ranks and charged up the hill, and the second time they were driven back. When they advanced a third time, however, the Americans had to retreat, as their powder was gone. So the British took the hill. 17. But the battle proved that the Americans could Copjright, Souie Photo €0. MOUNT VERNON This was the home of Washington, on a lofty Virginia bluff overlooking a wide sweep of the Potomac. The old house, which was built in 1743, is carefully preserved, and is rilled with relics of Washington and his family. In a tomb near by sleeps the hero — he who was "first in war, first in peace, and lirst in the hearts of his country- men." tight — a fact which had been scornfully denied by British officers. Few battles in which the British regiments had been engaged were so bloody as this. They lost- over a third of their number in killed and wounded. Bunker Hill battle \v;i< a British victory. Bui Americans will never Eorgel the heroism of the men who on thai day THE YOUNQ AMERICAN 81 taughl the soldiers of King George thai the colonists were in earnest. 18. Daniel Webster and the Bunker Hill Monument. — I>;iiiicl Webster was born in New Hampshire in L782. tie was graduated at Dartmouth College, became a lawyer, and rose tu high rank in political life. For many years he was senator from Massachusetts, and twice was secretary of Mate. He was one of the greatesi constitutional lawyers and orators in our history. 19. To commemorate the battle, a granite monument has been erected on the hill where the A.mericans had their main defensive work. This obelisk is known as Bunker Hill Monument. 20. On the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, dune IT'. L825, the cornerstone of the monument was laid with imposing ceremonies. The address was delivered by Daniel Webster, one of the most famous of our orators. To do honor to the occasion, a little hand of the survivors of the battle had been collected, all now aged men. To them Webster turned in the course of his speech, ami Spoke as follow-; : • Venerable men ! you have conic down to us £rom a former generation. Eeaven has bounteously Lengthened oul your lives, that yon mighl behold tins joyous day. You are now where you stood fifty years ago, this very hour, with your brothers and your neighbors, shoulder to shoulder, in the strife of your country. Behold how altered ! The sameheavens are. indeed. over your heads ; the same ocean rolls at your feet ; 1 * 1 1 1 all else how changed ! ^^ on hear now no roll of hostile cannon : you see no mixed volumes of smoke and flame risiiiu from burning 6 82 THE YOUXH AMERICAN Charlestown. The ground strewed with dead and dying ; the impetuous charge ; the steady and successful repulse ; the loud call to repeated assault ; the summoning of all that is manly to DANIEL WEBSTER AT THE AGE OP SIXTY-FOUR repeated resistance ; a thousand bosoms freely and fearlessly bared in an instant to whatever of terror there may be in war and death — all these you have witnessed, but you witness them THE YOUNO AMERICA ^ no more. All is peace. The heights of yonder metropolis, ite lowers ;iiid roofs, which you then saw tilled with wives ;iikI children, and countrymen in distress and terror, and looking witli unutterable emotions for the issue of the combat, have presented you to-day with the sight of its whole happy popula- tion, come out to welcome and greel you with an universal Jubilee. Yonder proud ships, by the felicity of position appro- priately lying at the foot of this mount, and seeming fondly to cling around it, are not means of annoyance to you, hut your country's own means of distinction and defence. All is peace ; and God has e ranted you this sight of your country's happiness ere you slumber in the grave forever. He has allowed you to behold and partake the rewards of your patriotic toils ; and he has allowed us. your sons and countrymen, to meet you here, and in the name of the present generation, in the name of your country, in the name of liberty, to thank you ! " But, alas: you are not all here! Time and the sword have thinned your ranks. Prescott, Putnam. Stark, Brooks, Read. Pomeroy, Bridge! our eyes seek for you in vain amidst this broken band. You are gathered to your fathers, and live only to your country in her grateful remembrance, and your own bright example. But let us not too much grieve that you have met the common fate of men. You lived, at least, long enough to know that your work had been nobly and successfully accomplished. You lived to see your country's independence established, and to sheathe your swords from war. On the light of Liberty you saw arise the light of Peace, like ■ Anol her mom, Risen on mid-noon ;' — and the sky, on which you (dosed your eyes, was cloudless." 21. Patrick Henry's Famous Speech. — In the excit- ing days of the beginning of the American revolution the 84 THE YOUNO AMERICAN people of Virginia elected a convention to consider what was best for thai old colony to do. In March, 1775, only a few weeks he fore the battle of Lexington brought on the war, a debate was going on in the convention which seemed likely to result in no definite action being taken. This fired the spirit of Pat- rick Henry, and he offered resolutions providing that the colony should at once prepare for war. 22. Patrick Henry was born in Virginia, the son of a Scotch- man, in 1736. His education was very scanty, and he began the practice of law Thisgranite obelisk, 221 feel high, is erected on after a preparation of the spot where the battle was fought, June 17, 1775. The cornerstone was laid June 17, 1825, and the Only six weeks. But monument was dedicated June 17, 1843. On each -\ -\ ~\ ->• occasion Daniel Webster was the orator. Ilr had extraordinary natural [towers of elo- quence, and in speaking to his resolutions in the conven- tion, he thrilled his audience with the speech which follows. One who was present says that when Henry took his seat BUNKEK HII, I, MUNI M K\T The yoxjnq America* "No murmur of applause was heard. The effect was too deep. After the trance of a moment, several members started from their seats. The cry, To arms! seemed to quiver on every lip, and gleam from every eye. They became impatienl of speech. Their souls were on fire for art ion/' 23. This is the famous speech, which over and again has been declaimed by every generation of Bchool-boys since : Mr. PRESIDENT : ft is natural to man to indulge in the illu- sions of Hope. We arc apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen t<> tin' song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is tin-, the pari of wise men. engaged in a greal and arduous struggle for liberty .' An- 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 our temporal sal- vation ' 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 hut one lam]) by which my feet are guided ; and that is the lamp of experience. 1 know of no way of judg- ing of the future hut by the past. And. judging l>y the past. 1 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 t«> solace themselves and the House '. Is it t li.it insidious smile with which our peti- tion lias been lately received : Trust it not. Sir ; it will prove a snare to your feet ! Suffer not yourselves to he betrayed with a kiss! Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our peti- tion comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Arc Meets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation '. Have we shown our- 86 THE rOUXt; AMERICAN selves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love ? Let us not deceive ourselves, Sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation,— the last arguments to which Kings PATRICK HENRY s SPEECH In the Virginia House of Burgesses, 1765, Mr. Henry introduced resolutions against the Stamp act. In the course of the debate he exclaimed, "Csesarhad his Brutus— Charles the First his Cromwell — and George the Third "—("Treason ! " cried the Bpeaker ; "Treason ! treason ! " echoed from every part of the house. Henry did not hesitate a moment, but finished his sentence with Arm emphasis) " may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it." ' This was the first step toward the revolution in Virginia. resort. I ask, Gentlemen, Sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can Gentlemen ;i>sign any other possible motive for it ? Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumu- lation of navies and armies ? No, Sir, she has none. They are 77//: roUNG AMERICAN 87 taeanl for us ; they can be meanl for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet up is those chains which the British ministry have l«-<-n so long forging. And what have we t<» oppose to them '. Shall we try argument : Sir, we have been trying that, forthe last ten years. Eave we anything new to offer upon 1 1 1 * - subject : Nothing. We have held the subject u]i in every light of which it is capable ; 1 >i ii it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication ? What terms shall we find which have not already been exhausted \ Lei us not, 1 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 bave petitioned, we have remon- strated, we have supplicated, we have prostrated ourselves before the Throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the Ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted, our remonstrances have pro- duced 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 reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to he free, — if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have hoen so long contending, — if we mean not basely to abandon the uoble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to ahandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, -we must tight ; 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 he the next week, or the ne\t year '. Will it he when we are THE WUNG AMERICAN totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house : 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 a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath 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 invinci- ble by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, 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 submission and slavery! Our chains are forged ! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Bos- ton ! 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 pe 3 e mercy still '. What "s the mercy despots feci \ 1 [ear it in that battle peal ! Read it on you brisl ling steel '. Ask it. ye who will. Fear ye foes who kill for hire .' Will ye to your homes retire .' I .niik behind you ; they're afire ! And before you, ■ Who bave done it '. From the vah' I >u tiny come ! And will ye quail ' — Leaden rain and iron hail Lei their welcome be ! * GeneralJoeeph Warren fought al the battle of Bunker Bill aa a volunteer, declin- ing to take command. Be was killed just m< the Americans were retreating. The Rev. John Pierpont was born In Connecticut in 1785, «a< graduated a( "i College; «;i* a lawyer, merchant, clergyman, and poet Be died in 18 92 THE YOUNG AMERICAN In the God of battles trust ! Die we may,— and die we must; But, 0, where can dust to dust Be consigned so well, As where Heaven its dews shall shed On the martyred patriot's bed, And the rocks shall raise their head, Of his deeds to tell ! Song of Marion's Men William Cullen Bryant * OUR band is few, but true and tried, Our leader frank and bold ; The British soldier trembles When Marion's name is told. Our fortress is the good greenwood, Our tent the cypress-tree ; We know the forest round us As seamen know the sea. We know its walls of thorny vines, Its glades of reedy grass, Its safe and silent islands Within the dark morass. Woe to the English soldiery That little dread us near ! On thciii shall light at midnight A strange and sudden fear : * William Cullen Bryant, born in Massachusetts in \7%. was an American poet and journalist. He wasa student at Williams College, but did not, remain to graduate. J I is most famous poem was " Thaiuitopsis." He died in 1878. TEE YOUNQ AMERICAN 93 When waking to their tents on fire They grasp their arms in vain, Ami thej \\ li" stand to face us Aiv beal to earth again ; And they who fly in terror deem A mighty host behind, And hear the tramp of thousands Upon the hollow wind. « II. 1. 1 \ M Ml IKS BB1 AN 1 Then sweet the liour that brings release From danger and from toil : We talk tin- battle over, Ami share the battle's spoil. 94 THE YOUNG AMERICAN The woodland rings with laugh and shout, As if a hunt were up, And woodland Bowers are gathered To crown the soldier's cup. With merry songs we mock the wind That in the pine-top grieves. And slumber long and sweetly On beds of oaken leaves. Well knows the fair and friendly moon The hand that Marion leads— The glitter of their rifles, The scampering of their steeds. 'Tis life to guide the fiery barb Across the moonlight plain ; 'Tis life to feel the night- wind That lifts the tossing mane. A moment in the British camp — A moment — and away Back to the pathless forest Before the peep of day. Grave men there are by broad Santee, Grave men with hoary hairs ; Their hearts are all with Marion, For Marion are their prayers. And lovely ladies greet our band With kindliest welcoming, With smiles like those of summer, And tears like those of spring. For them we wear these trusty arms, And lay them down no more Till we have driven the Briton Forever from our shore. ( BAPTEB VII A Federal Republic i. What a Constitution Is. — We remember that a governmenl is chosen by the | pie to do the public busi- ness. Bui when some men are chosen to make laws, for instance, ami others to carry those laws out, if they are left wholly at liberty they may make and execute very bad laws. We do m>t think that a very Bafe kind of govern- ment. Indeed, if we should permit it we mighl BOOH he m> better ofE than Russia, whose tsar make- whatever law- he pleases. So. in order to prevenl this sori of thing from happening, tin- people of the United States made tir-t of all one greal set "\ 4 laws which everybody must obey. This set of laws tells how the governmenl -hall he formed, what the legislature shall he. and the administration, and the courts. Then it goes on to say what things each branch of governmenl may do. and what -on of things they must not do. Thai make- u- safe. If the legislature tries to make a law which it is forbidden to make, the court savs that their act is no law at all. and then nobody is hound to obey it. 2. 'This set of laws which provides for the form of gov- ernment, and for what it may do and for what it must not do. i- called the i 'onstitution. 3. The 1 pie of no country can he really U-v<\ or safe from a seltish and cruel government, without a good con- 96 THE YOUXG AMERICAN stitution. We are very proud of the Constitution of the Tinted States.* It was made soon after the revolutionary war was ended, and has served to protect our liberty and to in- sure us a good gov- ernment now for more than a century. 4. Many in One. — Before the revolu- tionary war the thir- teen colonies each had a government of its own. To be sure, these governments were not indepen- dent, but had to obey the government of Great Britain, in Lon- don. But, of course, with the war this de- pendence ceased, and the colonies governed themselves. How- ever, they had to act together in the war, and in order to do that they each of them sent representatives to what they called a congress, at Philadelphia. Congress was a sort of common government for all the colonies, so far as the war was concerned. It * The Constitution will be found in the Appendix, p. 240. I 1 1 11F !U i 1 ! lit! c~= 3dtlS'i|-ii| p*-«„4%o S« j n J* ; ! * "■* ■ - ~ - : . -J2& I ill niii | ^l" l ^Lt£z 3j3 ■^a******* INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA In this building met the congress of the thirteen colonics which adopted the Declaration of Inde- pendence, July 4, 1776. THE YOUNQ AMEBIC I V '.'7 wa> this congress which made the Declaration of Inde- pendence, July 1. 1776' Aiter thai the colonies called themselves states; their union they called the United States of . l merica. 5. Aiter the war was over the states found it necessary t(» make a better government Fur the new republic. they made the Constitution* of which we have spoken. Hut meanwhile each of the stales kept its own separate constitution ami government. Thus we see at once that the United State- has one governmenl Fur the whole coun- try ami another foreach one <>j' the forty-five states. Thus our republic is •' many in one *' — many state- forming one republic. This sorl of government— "many in one'*— is called a federation. So the United States is a federation. \\ e also call it the Union. 6. The governmenl For the whole country — For the Union- -is called the federal government, or. which is the same thing, the nat io nal government. 7. The place where the laws are made is called the capital. 'I'he capital of the United States is the city of Washington — named for the hero of the revolutionary war. There the national legislature — also called "rnn- gress/' like that of the revolutionary colonies — meets ever] year and makes laws For the republic. Besides that, each state has its own capital, where the state legislature meets and makes laws For the state. * The convention which framed the Constitution met at Philadelphia in May, 1787 and finished its labors in the following September. Washington was president of the convention, and among its members were many of the wisest ana best men in the young republic. Mr. Gladstone, the greal English statesman, has said: "The Amer- ican Constitution is the most wonderful work ever Btruck <>it at a given time by t lie bruin ami purpose of num." 7 THE YOUNQ AMERICA* 90 8. The capital was in New YTork for a shor( time, bul longer in Philadelphia, before the city of Washington was built. The first time the governmenl met al the presenl capital was in L801, and there ii has been ever since. It is ;i beautiful city, with magnificenl public buildings, wide streets, parks, and numerous statue- and monuments of the greal men of the republic. Washington i- nol in a state, hut lies in a territory given to the United state- by the state of Maryland, and called the District of Colum- bia. So the national capital belongs to the nation. g. How Interference Is Avoided. --It mighl be though! that bo many legislatures might make laws which would interfere with one another. But the Constitution prevents that. In the tirst place, congress may make only such laws as the Constitution permits. Then the state legislatures are forbidden to make any laws which shall interfere either with the ( 'oust it ut ion or with the laws made by congress. In this way there is very little trouble about the interference of laws. 10. The Old Thirteen.— The thirteen colonies which resisted the tyranny of the British governmenl became the thirteen Onited States. They were New Hampshire, Mas- -achusetts, Khode Island. Connecticut, New York. New- Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland. Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Some people think thirteen an unlucky number. The success of the old thirteen state.-, a fad yet broughl to mind by the thirteen stripes of the American flag, shows how foolish is such a not ion. ii. The New Thirty-two. When the old thirteen 100 THE YOUNG AMERICAN colonies became an independent republic, the land between the Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River was a wilderness. Very few white men were living scattered among its forests and prairies, and these few were mostly hunters. Wild beasts and wild Indians were almost the only inhabitants of the wild land. 12. All this wilderness belonged to some of the states. What is now the state of Kentucky was a part of Vir- ginia, and what is now Tennessee belonged to North Caro- lina. The rest of the land of which we are speaking was claimed by several states — Georgia, South Carolina, Vir- ginia, New York, Connecticut. Massachusetts. 13. But when people crossed the mountains into the woods south of the Ohio Eiver and made their homes there, it was very inconvenient for them to be under the government of Virginia and North Carolina. There were no railroads in those days, and it took many days to go by the forest trails to and fro across the mountains. Then, too, the people east of the mountain range were busy and absorbed in their own affairs, and the settlers in the far west did not find it easy to get such laws as they wanted. So the latter asked to be allowed to form new states. Vir- ginia and North Carolina were willing, and so, in 1792, the congress of the United States admitted Kentucky, and in 1796 Tennessee, to the Union. The Constitution gives congress the power to admit new states to the Union. So every one of the thirty-two which have come in since the old thirteen, has been admitted by an act of congress. 14. Vermont was admitted the year before Kentucky. Both ^Sew Hampshire and New York claimed to own the THE VOUNQ AMERICAN 101 Green Mountains, and, as these states could nol agree, the quarrel was settled by allowing Vermonl (which means Qreen Mountains) to be a separate state. 15. The states which owned, or claimed to own, the land wesl of the Allegheny Mountains, and not included in the new states of Kentucky and Tennessee, gave all thai land to the United States. So congress made the law- for it. and when enough people had made settlements, one por- tion after another came into the Union as states. In this way were admitted Ohio, Indiana. Illinois Wisconsin, Michigan, Alabama, and .Mississippi. 16. When the revolutionary war «;i- ended, in L783, the United state- was hounded on the west by the Mississippi River. Spain owned everything wesl of that stream as far as the Pacific. Spain also owned Florida, and the land from Florida to the greal river, too. Bui nearly twenty years later France boughl from Spain all thai vasl area from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains and from Texas to British America. And then France sold this land to the Tinted State.-. This was in L803, jusl twenty years after the war of independence. We paid France fifteen millions of dollars, and cheap enough it was at thai price. There were not many people there then. The firsl settlers had been French people : for what Spain sold to France had before thai been sold by France to Spain. New Orleans was a French city of no greal size in L803, and a \'rw other French settlements were scattered along the river. Bui nearly all the land was a wilderness, a sea of treeless prai- ries, over which roamed herds of buffalo and tribes of wild Indians. 102 the vorxa amebic ax 17. Many people in 1803 thought it was foolish to give so much money for a great tract of uninhabited land. Very little was known about it, indeed. Few travelers had gone far wesi of the Mississippi. Strange tales were told "of a tribe of Indians of gigantic stature; of tall bluffs faced with stone and carved by the hand of nature into what seemed, a multitude of antique towers; of land so fertile as to yield the necessaries of life almost sponta- neously : of an immense prairie covered with buffalo, and producing nothing but grass because the soil was far too rich for the growth of trees ; and how, a thousand miles up the Missouri, was a vast mountain of salt ! The length was one hundred and eighty miles ; the breadth was forty- live : not a tree, not so much as a shrub was on it ; but, all glittering white, it rose from the earth a solid mountain of rock-salt, with streams of saline water flowing from the fissures and cavities at its base ! The story, the account admitted, might well seem incredible; but, unhappily for the doubters, bushels of the salt had been shown by traders to the people at St. Louis." (McMaster's "History of the People of the United States.") 18. In time, however, people went into the new land across the Mississippi in such numbers that many states have been admitted into the Union from the French pur- chase — Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, t he Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas. A great part of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado was also included in the purchase. 19. Florida was bought from Spain in 1819, and some years later became a state of the Union. 20. At ahout that time there was a revolution in the THE YOUNQ AMERICAN L03 remaining Spanish colonies, and t hey, follow ing i he example ill' the United States, declared their independence and up republican governments of their own. Spain tried to conquer her colonies, bul « 1 i < I noi succeed any better than had Greal Britain. One of the new Spanish American republics was Mexico, whose territory included a large pari of what is now the southwestern portion of the United States. Bui Americans went across the line and >«*t 1 1»-< I on .Mexican soil in large numbers, and finally they declared their independence of Mexico, forming the republic of Texas. 'The Mexicans were noi able to conquer the Tex- ans in war, and in lst.'> the congress of the United Sti admitted Texas to the Union. This unhappily led to a war between Mexico and the United States. The Mexicans were overcome, and at the end of the war they gave up to the United State- a large amounl of land— all wesl of the Rocky Mountains between the presenl northern boundary of Mexico and the state of Oregon. The United States paid .Mexico eighteen and a half million dollars for the land. Several -tales have come into the Union from this Mexican land. California was the firsl to be admitted. It was not generally known when peace was mad" with Mex- ico that there was gold in California. Bui tic discovery of the precious metal broughl greal numbers of people there from all parts of the world, so thai in a very few- years California became a state. Nevada. Utah, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming were also in the Mexican land. The country including the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho was discovered by Americans when it was a deso- late wilderness, and so the United States came to own it. KM THE YOUNG AMERICAN 21. The state of Maine was a part of Massachusetts until L820. Hut it was more convenient for the people of that district to be in a separate state, and in L820 con- gress accordingly admitted Maine to the Union. 22. So we see that since the republic was formed by the original thirteen states the congress has admitted thirty- two more states to the Union. Our flag, therefore, now lias forty-five stars. 23. But there are still large areas of land belonging to the United States which are not included within any state of the Union. When such land is settled by a considerable number of people, but not by enough for a state, congress makes a law providing for a local government. There is usually a governor appointed by the president of the United States, a legislature elected by the people, and courts whose judges are appointed by the president. A district so governed is called a territory. Oklahoma, Ari- zona, and New Mexico are territories provided with a gov- ernment of this sort. The Indian Territory belongs to certain Indian tribes, each of which has a government of its own. Alaska was bought from Russia in 1807. There are so few people living there that it has not yet a full territorial government. 24. The territories which have a government send each of them one delegate to the lower house of congress. "But the delegates cannot vote. The territories have no sen- ators, and have no electors for president of the United States (p. L29). It is expired that in time each territory will have more people, and will then become a state of the I ' nioll. 77//: YOUNQ AMERICAN 105 25. The Migration to Kentucky. — On page 59 is found a Bketch of the rush of people bo California at aboul the middle of this century. The migration to Ken- tucky, which is pictured in what follows, occurred in the Latter pari of t lie eighteen! h cenl ary. 26. John .lames A.udubon was a famous Ajnerican orni- thologist, who speni many year- traveling and studying birds. His great work, "The Birds of America." was embellished by hundreds of beautiful colored plates. His travels took him into the forests of the far west, and he described with vivid clearness what he saw. He died in lXol, at the as, r e of seventy-one years. Migration to Kentucky John James Audubon TllK Virginians tin »vd toward the Ohio. An ax, a couple of horses, and a heavy rifle, with store of ammunition, were all that were considered necessar\ for the equipment of the man. who. with his family, removed to the new state : assured that. in that land of exuberant fertility, he could not fail to provide amply for all his wants. To have witnessed the industry and perseverance of these emigrants must at once have proved the origin of their minds. Regardless of the fatigue attending every movement which they made, they pushed through an unexplored region Of dark and tangled forests, guiding themselves by the sun alone, and reposing at nighl on the bare ground. They had to cross num- berless streams on rafts with their wives and children, their cattle, and their Luggage; often drifting to considerable dis tances before they could effect a landing on tl pposite shores. 106 THE YOUNG AJIKh'H'AX Their cattle would often stray amid the rich pasturage of these shores, and occasion a delay of several days. To these troubles add the constantly impending danger of being murdered, while asleep in their encampments, by the prowling and ruthless Indians. To encounter difficulties like these must have required energies of no ordinary kind, and the reward which these vet- eran settlers enjoyed was doubtless well merited. Some removed from the Atlantic shores to those of the Ohio in more comfort and security. They had their wagons, their negroes, and their families; their way was cut through the woods by their ax-men the day before their advance; and, when night overtook them, the hunters attached to the party came to the place pitched upon for encamping, loaded with the dainties of which the forest yielded an abundant supply ; the blazing light of a huge fire guiding their steps as they ap- proached, and the sounds of merriment that saluted their ears assuring them that all was well. The flesh of the buffalo, the bear, and the deer soon hung in large and delicious steaks in front of the embers; the cakes, already prepared, were deposited in their proper places, and, under the rich drip of the juicy roasts, were quickly baked. The wagons contained the bed- ding; and. while the horses which had drawn them were turned loose to feed on the luxuriant undergrowth of the woods, some perhaps hoppled, but the greater number merely with a bell hung to their neck, to guide their owners in the morning to the spot where they may have rambled, the party were enjoying themselves after the fatigues of the day. In anticipation, all is pleasure; and these migrating bands feasted in joyous sociality, unapprehensive of any greater diffi- culties than those to be encountered in forcing their way through the pathless woods to the land of abundance; and although it took months to accomplish the journey, and a skir mish now and then took place between them and the Indians, THE YOUNO AMERICA* L07 who sometimes crept unperceived into their very camp, still did the Virginians cheerfully proceed toward the western horizon, until the various groups all reached the Ohio; when, struck with the beauty of thai magnificent stream, they at once coin menced the task of clearing land for the purpose of establishing a permanent residence. ( Mhers, perhaps encumbered with too much Luggage, preferr< d descending the stream. They prepared arks pierced with put holes, and glided on the gentle current: more annoyed, how- ever, than those w ho marched hy land, by the attack of Indians, who watched their motions. Many travelers have described these boats, formerly called arks, hut now named flat-boats; but have they told you that in those times a boat thirty or fort \ feet in Length, by ten ortwelve in breadth, was considered a stupendous fabric? that this boal contained men. women, and children, huddled together with horses, cattle, hogs, and poultry for their companions, while the remaining portion was crammed with vegetables and pack- ages of seeds.' The roof or deck of thehoat was not unlike a farm yard, being covered with hay. plows, carts, wagons, and various agricultural implements, together with numerous others. among which the spinning wheels of the matrons were conspicu- ous. Even the sides of the floating mass were loaded with the wheels of thedifferenl vehicles, which themselves lay on the roof. Have they told you that these boats contained the little all of each family of venturous emigrauts. who. fearful of being discovered by the Indians, moved about in darkness when nighl came on. groping their way from one part to another of these floating habitations, and denying themselves the comfort of fire or light, lest the foe that watched them from the shore would rush upon them and destroy them ] Have they told you that this boal was used, after the tedious voyage was ended, as the lirst dwelling of these new settlers; 108 THE VO(\X<; AMERICAN I shall not describe the many massacres which took place among- the different parties of white and red men, as the former moved down the ( )bi<>. because I have never been very fond of battles, and, indeed, have always wished that the world were more peaceably inclined than it is ; and I shall merely add that, in one way or another, Kentucky was wrested from the original owners of the soil. CHAPTEB VIII American Home Rule i. We have seen thai there is one governmenl for the republic, the principal officers of which are at the city of Washington, ami also that each of the forty-five states lias a government of its own. 2. lint this is not all. The people in the states are scattered over a wide area, living in cities and in villages and in solitary farm-houses. Now, the purpose of govern- menl is to make and enforce laws for all to obey, and to manage such business as is for the common interest. 3. What Local Self-Government Is. — An example of such business is the building of a bridge. If a stream is too deep to cross easily in the water, it is plain that a bridge ought to be bnilt. 1 > 1 1 1 as this would he for the benefit of anybody who might want to cross, it would seldom pay any one man to build it. It ought to be bnilt by the government, for the use of all the people. But, after all. such a bridge would not be \\ jail. But, unfor- tunately, there are always some people who will nol obey the laws, ami of course they have to be punished. Thieves ami counterfeiters ami incendiaries musl I"' sent to jail ami prison, or nobody's property would be safe. A good citizen is always vory careful nol to interfere with the rights of others, lie is honesl with his neighbors' property, and never does any harm either to person or property it' he can help it. If all the people were good citizens no jails would lie needed. 11. The Rothschilds. — Nearly everybody has heard of the family of Rothschilds, the rich hankers of Europe. Their wealth is enormous SO greal that they make loans only to governments and onlv in very large sums. 12. The early history of their vast fortune is quite curious. Ahoiit a hundred years ago there was in the city of Frankfort -on-t he-.Main. Germany, a dewi.-h money- lender named .Mayer Anselm Bauer. His sign was a red shield, which in German is Rothschild. He was not at that time a man id' large fortune. The French armies were then invading Germany, and a German prince, fearing that the enemy would seize his Large property in jewels and gold 112 77/ /•: YOUNG AMERICAN if he should leave it. and no! daring to take it with him in his flight, finally bethought him of this money-lender. The Jew was reluctant to undertake the trust, but finally consented, and the vast fortune was left in his hands, with- out a scrap of writing to show that he was responsible for it. He carefully buried the treasure in his garden, but left his own money in its usual place. When the French came they seized the money of the Jew, but did not discover that of the prince. After they left, Rothschild (so called from his well-known sign) used some of the prince's money so judiciously as to gain considerable profits from it. When the wars were ended the prince returned to Frankfort, and at once visited the banker. It was with fear and trembling that he asked for his treasure, not only because the enemy might have taken it. but also because he feared that even if it had escaped that danger the honesty of the Jew would not have been proof against the great temptation to appro- priate the millions so wholly confided to him. What was the prince's delight, however, to hear from the banker that all the fortune was safe. Moreover, Rothschild proposed to pay him five per cent, for its use, although his own property had been intentionally sacrificed so that the French would not suspect the greater hoard. The overjoyed prince fully recompensed the banker for his losses, and thereafter was never tired of sounding the praises of the honest Jew of Frankfort. The latter in time, amassed a huge fortune, largely from loans to governments which has been greatly increased since by his descendants. 13. Here is a case in which an honest man was a better safeguard for treasure than stone walls and steel locks. THE VilMi AMERICAN 113 14. Care of the Helpless Poor. There is a greal deal iif Qonsense in calling | pie "poor." Of course some have much more money, much finer houses, many more luxuries, than others. Bui whether one is considered | r hi- rich depends entirely on the point of view. Some years ago a group of mine-owners in Colorado were chatting in a Washington hotel. All of them were millionaires. Tin- talk fell on a certain renowned general of tin- civil war, whose property was estimated a1 five or six hundred thou- sand dollars. •• Ah ! "' said one .if 1 he party, ■• I suppose he really is quite as happy as it' he were rich." To the man with millions the other man with thousands seemed poor. Bui most people would think such a man rich. 15. The I'aet is that no one is really pool- if he is able and willing to earn an honest living, and has the chance to do it. lie is independent, and where there is indepen- dence t here is no act ual poverty. 16. Bui there are always some people who have no property, and who. for one reason or another, eannol irct a living. Perhaps they are broken down in health — perhaps they are too old and feeble to work. In that ease, if they have friends w ho can take care of I hem. t hey will not sutler. Bui if they have 110 one to care for them they will simply starve if left to themselves. This cannot be permitted. So the people of each county provide a home of some sorl for the destitute. It is usually plain. It should always be comfortable. 'The inmates, we must remember, are not criminal-. They are merely unfortunate. And it is the duty of tin- public to care for them. 17. Tramps. — There arc always some men who are able 114 THE YOUNG AMERICAN to work hut prefer to be idle. If they have no property to support them they can Live only by begging or stealing. Sometimes such men spend their time wandering about the country , sleeping in barns or under haystacks, and begging for money and food and clothes. These wretched beings are called " tramps." It is a great pity to see a man so low down as these. If they would work they could generally get an honest living. But they prefer their worthless, vagabond life to one of steady industry. They deserve little sympathy find less help, for they are un- worthy of either. The county homes for the poor are not intended for tramps. 18. Sometimes a man has been known to excuse an act of dishonesty by saying. " The world owes me a living. If I can't get it in one way I must in another." But that is pure nonsense. The world owes no man a living unless he earns it. If one is so unfortunate that he cannot provide for himself at all, the community will take care of him. But any man who can work and prefers to he idle and to depend on those who do work is, after all, only a sort of t ramp. He is of no manner of use to the world. 19. Towns. — In some states the counties are divided into still smaller neighborhoods, called towns. This neigh- borhood is so small that the people can come together without much difficulty to decide public matters. At these town meetings the people often vote to build a bridge, to repair a road, or something of that sort. They also choose the town officers, generally for the term of one year, and decide how much money shall be used for town purposes. THE YOUNG AMERICA* 115 20. Villages. — In the country the farm-houses are lt« • n - erally quite Ear apart. Bui when a uumber of houses are Imilt rather close together, ><» a> to form a community of perhaps a IVw hundred people, the place is called a village. The houses arc usually nol Earm-houses There are gen- erally <>iir or more stores, blacksmith shops, churches, school-houses, with perhaps doctors, dressmakers, mil- liners, a post-office. The Larger the vrillage the more of these will he found. 21. Of course villages are not all of tic same size. Some arc quite large, having even thousands of people. 22. A village has a government of its nun. chosen by the people. What that governineiil is. and what are its duties, we shall consider in another chapter. 23. Cities. — A large number of people living rather near together is called a city. In a city there are streets in place of country roads. These streets are often paved witli stone or brick or wooden blocks. There are many stores, churches, and school-houses, and usually a uum- ber of manufactures. 24. A city has a government of its own. which make- laws and sees that they arc obeyed, and attends to all manner of public business. 25. A- a city has a rather large number of people, it is usually divided for convenience into small neighborh 1-. called wards. Bach ward has snme public officers chosen by the people. The wards are numbered. 26. Local Self-Government. — We see that each part of our republic, whether state, county, city, or village, has a government of its own. chosen by the people. All tic - 116 THE YOUNG AMERICAN different kinds of governmeni gel along without interfering with one another because each merely minds its own busi- ness. The state government must not make any laws which interfere with the national laws. The governments of the counties, cities, and villages must not interfere with the state laws. But anything which concerns nobody but a particular city is left altogether to that city. For ex- ample, the people of Chicago may want to pave one of their streets with stone. Well, what docs it matter to anybody outside the city ? The city of Chicago pays for it, and nobody else cares. So the state or the county gives no attention to it, and the city does what it pleases. That is what we call "local self-government,'' or "home rule." Each particular neighborhood is left free to manage its own affairs as it pleases. 27. The Local Divisions Are Not Our Country. — Any man who has been born and brought up in a particular part of the republic — in Massachusetts or Pennsylvania or Virginia or California — naturally has an affection for his <>\vn state or his own city or his own county. That is his immediate home. The associations of his life gather around it. There are his friends and neighbors. There he does his work, lie is proud of his own state or city, and is anxious for its added prosperity. 28. But, after all, our country — the nation of which the flag is the symbol — is the whole republic. Our first duty as citizens is to the republic. To be sure, unless we do our duty also as citizens in our home neighborhood, we shall very surely be bad citizens of the republic. But local jeal- ousies and prejudice are entirely wrong for American Till: YOUNG AMERICAN 117 patriots. The fact lb that excellenl people are Found in every section of the land. Ami a real patriot i~ pleased when he hears of the prosperity of any portion of our count ry. 29. A distinguished citizen of Massachusetts, Mr. Etoberl ('. Winthrop, put this 30 eloquently in one of his speeches that it is worth every man's while to read it. Mr. Winthrop was educated a1 Harvard College, studied law with Daniel Webster, was a member of congress and United States senator from Massachusetts, and won wide reputation as a scholar and orator. He died in L894. The Patriot Traveller in a Foreign Land Robert I '. Winthrop It is, without all question, my friends, one of the best influ- ences of a sojourn in foreign lands, upon a heart which is qoI insensible to the influences of patriotism, that one forgets for a time, or remembers only with disgust and loathing, the conten- tions and controversies which so often alienate and embitter us at home. There is no room on that little map of his country winch every patriot hears abroad with him. photographed OD his heart, there is no room on that magical miniature map for territorial divisions or sectional boundaries. Lar»e enouuh to reflect and reproduce the image and outlines of the whole Union, it repels all impression of the petty topographical feat- ures which belong to science and the schools. Still more docs it repel the miserable seams and scratches by which sectional poli- ticians have sought to illustrate their odious distinctions and comparisons. And so. the patriot traveller in foreign lands, with that chart impressed in lines of light and love OD bis memory, looks hack on his omitis onlj as a whole. He learns 118 THE YOUNO AMERICAN to love it more than ever as a whole. He accustoms himself to think kindly of it, and to speak kindly of it, as a whole ; and he comes home ready to defend it as a whole, alike from the invasion of hostile armies or the assaults of slanderous pens and tongues. He grasps the hand of an American abroad as the hand of a brother, without stopping to inquire whether he hails from Massachusetts or from South Carolina, from Maine or Loui- siana, from Vermont or Virginia. It is enough that his pass- port bears the same broad seal, the same national emblem, with his own. And every time his own passport is inspected, every time he enters a new dominion or crosses a new frontier, every time he is delayed at the custom-house, or questioned by a policeman, or challenged by a sentinel, every time he is per- plexed by a new language, or puzzled by a new variety of coin- age or currency, — he thanks his God with fresh fervency that through all the length and breadth of that land, beyond the swelling floods, which he is privileged and proud to call his own land, there is a common language, a common currency, a com- mon Constitution, common laws and liberties, a common inher- itance of glory from the past, and, if it be only true to itself, a common destiny of glory for the future ! CHAPTEB IX The Law-Makers i. Congress. — The United States has one Legislature for the nat ion and one for each state. 2. The national Law-making body is called congress (p. 56), and meets every year in the city of Washington. The building in which the meetings are held is the capitol — a magnificent structure of freestone ami marble. 3. The congress consists of two separate bodies, one called the sciuita ami the other the house of representa- tives. Each has a Large and beautiful hall in the capitol for its meetings. 4. The senate has m>w ninety members, two from each state. The state Legislature chooses the senators. The term of office is six years. Bui the senators do not all finish their terms at the same time. If they did, once each six years there would he an entirely new senate elected. Things are arranged in such a way. however, that about one-third of the senators finish their terms and new one-: are chosen in their place every two years. 5. Some of the most famous statesmen have been sena- tors. John Quincy Adams. Daniel Webster, and Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts; Henry Clay, of Kentucky ; John ('. Calhoun, of South Carolina, and William II. Seward, of New York, are a few of the mosl eminent. i-jn THE YOUXG AMERICAN 6. The house of representatives has now 357 members. They are distributed among the states according to the number of people, the most populous slates having the largest number, but every state having at least one. The state of New York has thirty-four. Delaware, Idaho, Mon- tana, Nevada, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming have one each. The representatives are elected by the people. Each RjfihSKto^^Ste3i^^^^fcs=C H LI- • • Mi BT - pMyv jwffiJU^B i&fi& ] iD? ^ *• - .3PB* Br ■^Kylm^.. ""^^^^^Su 9^K-n^L*^^ * ,\ ..j^W^^«^ ^fe->SJp ~^^Hs^BBHH5 1^»^^' — * " ■* \ %Lti fc^Mi^r^^.Bu-. Ba^^s^^"" p CHAMBER OP THE DOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES IN THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON state which has more than one is divided into as many districts as it lias representatives, and the people of each district make their choice in November every other year. These districts are numbered. The term of office is two years. Thus each second year an entirely new house is chosen. The election comes in November. 7. A representative is often called a coiKjrcssman, or a THE Y(>i\ \n AMERICAN 121 member of congress. A member of the Benate is called a senator. 8. ( longress meets in December everj year, and remains ;it work. •• in session.*' until the members have finished all the law-making they wish. Then the congress " adjourns" — that is, ends the session, and the members go home. g. Kadi house has to have a chairman, whose duty it is to keep order. The presiding officer of the senate is the vice-president of the United States ((hap. X, £ 15). The representatives elect their own chairman, who is called the speaker. Did you ever attend a debating society, or a public meeting of any sort ? If so, you must have noticed that some one had to preside. He was called perhaps the ■■ chairman '* or the " president *" of the meeting. In con- gress it is just the same, only a new chairman is not chosen each day. The speaker presides in the lower house at every meeting of the two years, and the vice-president may preside in the senate for four years. io. We have seen (in Chap. IV) how congress makes laws. These laws, when made, must be obeyed by every- body in the republic, and the state legislatures must make no laws which interfere with the laws of congress. . ii. The Senate. — The senate has some other duties besides helping the house of representatives to make laws. 12. By the Constitution the president of the United States has the power to make treaties with foreign nation-. A treaty is merely an agreement — what business men call a •'contract." The United States has many treaties with the principal nation- of the world. For example, in 1783, at the end of the revolutionary war. Great Britain made a 1 22 THE YOUNG AMERICAN treaty with the United States in which agreements were made about the boundaries between Canada and the new republic, aboul the righl of Americans to catch fish near the British island of Newfoundland, and about other mat- ters. Now, under the Constitution no treaty which the president may make is binding unless the senate approves it. So every such treaty the president sends to the senate, THE SENATE CHAMBER IN THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON and they discuss it. and then take a vote on the question of approval. 13. The president also, by the Constitution, has the righl to appoint many officers of the United States. But he can make no such appointment, except a temporary one. unless the senate approves. 14. The State Legislatures. — Each of the forty-five THE TOUNO AMERICA* 123 states also has a Legislature, which, like congress, consists of two houses. The Btate Legislature is sometimes < n 1 1<-« I by some special iiaim — in Illinois it is the general assem- bly — but usually ii is simply the legislature The upper house is always called the senate, like the upper house of congress. The lower house has diH'erent names. In Maryland it is the house of delegates, in New York it is the assembly, in Virginia it is the house of burgesses. In most states, however, it is called by the same name as in congress — the house of representatives. 15. The members of each house of the state Legislature are elected by the people. The state is divided into as many senate districts as there are senators, and usually also into as many representative districts as there are representatives. The people of each senate district choose a senator, and the people of each representative district choose a representative. 16. In Illinois there are fifty-one senate districts and no representative districts. The people of each senate district choose one senator and three representatives. Thus the Illinois Legislature has fifty-one senators and one hun- dred fifty-three representatives. The number of senators and members of the lower house differs in the different states. The same is true about the term of office. But there are always fewer senators than members of the Lower house, and in most of the states the senators an- elected for a Longer term. 17. In some states the legislature meets every year, in others it meets only once in two years. 18. The presiding officer of the state senate is the lieu- 124 THE YOUNG AMERICAN tenant-governor,* if the slate has one (Chap. XII). If not, then the senators elect their chairman. The lower house always elects its own speaker. 19. Each state has a constitution, just as has the United States. And the state constitution tells what the legisla- ture may and may not do. 80 the law-makers are not free to do as they please. They must make no law which inter- feres with the Constitution of the United States, or with a law of congress, or with the state constitution. But yet the state legislatures make a very large number of laws every time they meet. Perhaps it would he quite as well if they made fewer. 20. The County Law-Makers — Believing, as we do. that home rule, or local self-government, is a good thing, our state legislatures leave purely local matters, as far as possihle, for the people of each smaller neighborhood to decide as they please. So each county has some sort of law-making body, usually called a board. If the county is divided into towns, the people of each town may choose a supervisor, and all the supervisors together form the county board. If the county is not divided into towns, and in some states even if it is, the county board consists of a few men, usually three, called commissioners, elected by the people of the whole county. In some states there is no county board at all. 21. The business done by a county board is different in different states. They may allow a toll road or a toll bridge to be built ; they provide for such county buildings as are needed — a jail, for instance, and offices for the various * In Massachusetts the president of the senate is elected. THE YOTJNQ AMERICAN 125 county officers — and they decide whai tax the people Bhall pay in order to provide for doing the county business. 22. Village and City Law-Makers. — A village is an- other ueighborl I which is allowed t<> make its own local laws. The people of the village usually eled a " board " sometimes called "trustees" — to manage village husiness. And these trustees make such rules — usually called "ordi- nances "—as they think proper. Bui ordinances are really laws. People must ohey them, just as they must obey the laws made by the state legislature. 23. A city. too. has a law-making body — the •■council" it is usually called — whose members are often known as " aldermen. " In some cities the city legislature i- a double body, like congress and the state legislatures. In others there is hut one house. Often the members are chosen from the wards. In the city of Chicago, for ex- ample, the "common council" consists of sixty-eight aldermen, two being chosen by the people of each ward. 24. 'The city council makes laws — ''ordinances" they are called — aboul all manner of things not covered by the laws of the state and the nat ion. CHAPTER X How Laws Are Enforced i. Policemen. — If you live in a city, or have visited a city, you have often seen a policeman. His blue uniform and his club are familiar sights in the streets. What is his business ? Why, merely to see that people do not break the laws. There are laws forbidding stealing, setting fire to houses, driving too rapidly in crowded streets, and many other things. The policeman looks out for offenders against the laws, and if he finds a man doing an unlawful act, arrests him and takes him to the station house. 2. In a village or a farming neighborhood a police force is not necessary. But the village "constable*' is an officer who arrests village law-breakers, and takes them to the "lockup" for safe-keeping. And the county "sheriff" and bis deputies in like manner may make arrests anywhere in a county. 3. So we see that the policeman, the constable, and the sheriff are all officers witli the same duties. They try to prevent law-breaking and they arrest law-breakers. Any one of these officials is often familiarly called an "officer." 4. Some Other Public Officers. — Hut there is another kind of public office] - . In a city the postman is a figure often seen as he hurries on his rounds, clad in blue-gray THE YOUNQ AMERICAN 127 uniform and carrying a leather Back of mail slung over hie shoulder. In villages the postman is 3eldom found, bul every one knows the f< postmaster," who takes care of the mail. The tillage post-office is of ten ina store, and people gather there to gel their letters and papers when the mail coined. And both in city and village, as well as in rural districts, the public-school teacher is busy everywhere in the republic. 5. The postman, the postmaster, and the public-school teacher are' all public officers. But, unlike the policeman and the sheriff, their duty is nol to prevenl wrong-doing and arresl wrong-doers. It is to do work for the public, bul of quite another kind — work very importanl fur the public convenience and the public intelligence. 6. We see. tlieii. that there a re twn kind- of laws which are made by our law-makers. One kind, like the law for- bidding stealing, is a set of rules for the conduct of people. telling what things must not lie done. And when the law- maker- have made such law.-, one pact of the administra- tion is busy see in-- to it that people obey, or are punished it' they disobey. The other kind of law- provides for doing the public business -such things as carrying the mail, teaching school, and gathering ami distributing the nioiie\ which it take- to carry on the government. 7. This last part of the public business is very important. Money has to he had to pay the many public servants. This money the people pay to the government. These payment- are called "taxes." haw- arc made telling who shall pa\ taxes and how much, and for what purposes the money shall he used. And many public officers are busy 128 Till-: YOUNG AMERICAN collecting the tuxes and paying out the money according to law. 8. All these officers of every kind who art' busy carrying out the laws belong to the government and to what is called its •"administrative" branch. 9. The President. — The head of the federal adminis- tration is the president of the United States. 10. The president of a republic like ours tills very nearly the place of a king or emperor in a monarchy. The presi- dent is the republican king. But, on the other hand, the people choose their president for themselves, and he holds his office only four years. To be sure, if the people like him he may be chosen THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT This stately memorial of the first president is an imposing obelisk of white marble and granite, five hundred feet high and fifty-five feet square at the base, standing near the Potomac, not far from the White House, in the city of Washington. The walls are fifteen feet thick, thus leaving a great hollow within, througli which an elevator takes passengers to the top. The corner-stone was laid in 1848, but the great work was not completed until 1885. The venerable Robert C. W T inthrop. of Massachusetts, who delivered the oration at the laying of the corner-stone, performed the same part at the dedication of the monument in 1885. We quote a few sentences from Winthrop's oration in 1848 : " Lay the corner-stone of a monument which shall adequately bespeak the gratitude of the whole American people to the illustrious Father of his Country. Build it to the skies ; you cannot outreach the loftiness of his principles ! Found it upon the massive and eternal rock 1 you cannot make it more enduring than his fame ! Construct it of the peerless Parian marble; you cannot make it purer than Ids life! Exhaust upon it the rules ami principles of ancient and modern art : you cannot make it more proportionate than his character ! " THE YOUNQ AMERICAN 129 again for another four years, as indeed several of our presidents have been. n. The first president was (ieorge Washington, the famous and beloved general of the revolutionary armies. He was chosen Eor a second term, and would have been chosen a third time bul that he refused. He was one of the wisest ami besl presidents we have had. Since his time no president has been elected more than twice. 12. In electing a president the people do not vote for him by name. In each state the people vote for a number of men as " electors. " And the electors chosen in this way in the various states select the president. But. in fact, the electors of eaeh state always know whom the people of that state want for president, and are very careful to vote for him and for no one else. Each state has as many electors as it lias members of both houses of congress. Thus no state has less than three electors. New York has thirty-six. At present all the states together have four hundred forty-seven electors, so that two hundred twenty- four of them must vote for the same candidate in order to elect him. 13. The president has great power. lie appoints many of the public officers, all of the most important ones. He commands the national soldier- and the sailors of the national warships. His salary is sC.u.iniu a year, and the nation furnishes him a residence at the city of Washington —the •• White House." 14. The president's four-year term of office begins on the fourth of March. On that day there are very elaborate ceremonies at Washington. The new president, accom- 9 130 THE YOUXG AMKIITCAX panied by the president whose term is ending, goes in pro- cession, escorted by military and with martial music, to the magnificent marble capitol, in winch the congress meets. Standing in the open air on the great eastern portico, in presence of the principal officers of the government, the ministers representing foreign nations, a brilliant group of THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE AT WASHINGTON This simple and beautiful building, commonly called the "White House," is con- structed of Virginia freestone. President Washington himself selected the site, laid the corner-stone (October 13, 1792), and lived to see the completed edifice. It is said that with his wife he walked through the rooms but a few days before his death, in 1799. President John Adams was its flrstoccupant, in 1800. In 1814 the house was burned by the British, and only the walls were left standing. When rebuilt, the stone was painted white, to conceal the marks of fire. The White House is the residence of the president and his family, and also contains his office. invited guests, and an immense multitude which throngs every foot of ground in sight, the new president takes the oath of office. He solemnly swears to defend the Con- stitution of the United States and faithfully to perform his duties. Then the new president delivers to the great audience an address, explaining how lie thinks the gov- ernment ought, to he managed. The procession then THE YOUNG .1 MERICAN 131 escorts the new president to his home in the \\ hite 1 1 * ► 1 1 - ■ - . These ceremonies are called the inauguration of the president . 15. The Vice-President. — If the presidenl should die before the four years of his term should be ended, it would leave t lie federal administration without a head. To have another election so soon would be troublesome and expen- sive. So the ( 'oust it nt ion provides thai the electors, al the same time they elect a president, shall also choose another man as vice-president of the CTnited States. The vice- president must not live in the same state as the president. His duly is merely to be chairman of the senate. But in case the presidenl dies, or in any other way there should be no president, the vice-president at once ceases to preside ill the senate and performs the duties of president. 16. Four times in our history a presidenl has died in office, and the vice-president has succeeded to the chief place. In 1 s4 1 William Henry Barrison became president. General Harrison was an old man who had made a brilliant record as a leader of the American armies in war againsl the [ndians, and in the second war with Greal Britain, in 1812. Only one month after the inauguration Presidenl Harrison died. The vice-president was John Tyler, of Vir- ginia, who t bus became president. 17. The second president to die was Zacharj Taylor, who also had been a gallanl soldier. General Taylor was inau- gurated in 1st'.', and died in L850. lb- was succeeded by Vice-Presidenl Millard Fillmore, of New York. 18. Aliraham Lincoln, of Illinois, became presidenl in March, L861. Almost immediately after bis inaugura- 132 THE YOUNG AM ERIC AX GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT U. S. Grant was born in Ohio in 1832. He was educated at West Point, and served several years in the army as lieutenant and captain. In 1854 he resigned his commission to engage in business. When the civil war broke out, in 1861, he was made colonel of an Illinois regiment. He soon proved an able commander, winning many victories, and was promoter] repeatedly, until in 1864 he was made commander of all the armies of the United States. It was to him that General Lee surrendered in isr,.",. [n 1868 General Grant was elected presi- dent of the United States, and lie was reelected in 1873. He died in 1885. A fine monument has been erected to his memory in the City of New York. tion the republic be- came involved in a great civil war. Ten states, dissatisfied with the Union, withdrew and formed a new re- public of their own. But President Lin- coln, supported by the rest of the states, de- nied the right of any state to leave the Union. Armies were formed on both sides, and, as was said, a ter- rible war resulted — a war which lasted for four years. Before it was ended Mr. Lincoln was elected for a second term, and was inaugurated in March, 1SG5. Within a few weeks the war came to an end by the victory of the national armies. And amid the excite- ment a fanatical sym- pathizer with the los- ing side, assassinated THE VOUNQ AMERICAN 138 the president. The vice-presideni was Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, who then became president. 19. A second presidenf to be murdered, and the fourth to die while in office, was James A. Garfield. Mr. Garfield Prom '• Leslie's Weekly " THE (JUANT MONUMENT AS IT NOW APPEARS was inaugurated as president in March, 1881. A few months afterwards he was shot by a half-crazy office- seeker. The president lingered for some weeks. As soon as he died, the vice-president, Chester A. Arthur, of New York, took the oath of otliee as president. 134 THE YOUNG AMERICAN 20. Thus four limes in our history a president has died, twice, sad to say. by the hand of an assassin. So four times a vice-president has become president. 21. If the president and vice-president should both die, the laws provide that the secretary of state (p. 137) should fl succeed to the office. If he also should die, the secretary of the treasury acts as president, and thus the office would pass n th r o u gh th e president's cabinet in case of succes- sive deaths (p. 139). 22. The Battle of Gettysburg. — One of the greatest 1 tattles of the civil war was that at Get- tysburg, in the state of Pennsylvania, in July, 1863. The Confederate army, commanded by Gen- eral Robert E. Lee, had crossed the Potomac River and was invading the northern states. The Union army, under General George G. Meade, followed close after, and at Gettysburg Lee turned on his enemy and attempted to destroy him. The battle raged fiercely for three days, ROBERT E. LEE General Lee was born in Virginia in 1807. He was an officer in the Unite:! Slates army, but when Vir- ginia seceded he resigned his commission and cast in his fortunes with his native state and the South. Through most of the civil war he commanded the Confederate armies, winning high fame as an able general and as a man of pure and earnest character. After the war he became president of Washington College, at Lexington, Virginia. Here he died in 1870. THE YOUNO AMERICAN 135 being fought on hoih sides with determined coura The Confederates railed in their attack, and were com- pelled to retreal to Virginia. The many thousands of Union soldiers who were killed were buried in a national cemeterj on the field of battle, and in November, L863, this cemetery was formally dedicated to its sacred pur- pose. A pari of the ceremonies was an address by the president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. This brief but most eloquenl speech of the greal war president follows in full : Lincoln's Gettysburg- Address, November 19, 1863 Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedi- cated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a greal civil war. testing whether that nation. or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met <>n a great battle-field of thai war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation mighl live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. Bui in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men. living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or del fact. The world will little note, nor Ion-' remember, what we say here, hut it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the un- timshed work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us. that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave 136 THE YOUNG AMERICAN the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain ; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that govern- ment of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. UNITED STATES SAILORS CHAPTER XI The President's Cabinet i. Cabinet Officers. — The officers \\li<>. under the presi- dent, carry on the work of the national administration are grouped in departments, a1 the head of each <>f which is a greal officer, usually called a .wnrfary. There are eighl of these departments, and tin* ei^ht head- form the presi- dent's •• ( -a I iii id." Regular meetings of the cahinel are held with the president, a1 which the most importanl business is talked over. The presidenl is not obliged to act as the cahinel advises, bul it is very useful for him to have such a body of men with whom to consult. 'The members of the cahiuct are appointed by the president, and usually resign their offices when his term is ended. So each president has a cabinel of his own selection. To be sure, the senate has the righl to be consulted in the appointment of cabinet officers. Bui the president's nominations are rarely dis- approved. Each of the eighl departments has charge of important affairs. 2. The Department of State. The government of the United states often has to send messages to the govern- ment of France or Great Britain or Germany or some other country, and quite as often receives messages from some foreign government. In this way business is going on continually among the governments of all the nations. 138 THE YOUNG AMERICAN The department of our government which does this branch of the public business is the department of state, and its head is the secretary of state. This secretary has a number of assistants at Washington. But, besides these, there are agents in foreign countries. In each foreign capital is a gentleman who is known as minister, or ambassador, of the NATIONAL OFFICES BUIl/DING AT WASHINGTON— STATE, VVAU, AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS Tliis vast but not very beautiful building contains the offices of the secretaries above named anil of their numerous assistants. It is fire-proof, as its archives are of priceless value. Here may be seen the original Declaration of Independence, the origi- nal Constitution of the United States, the sword of Washington, a silver set presented to Captain Isaac Hull by citizens of Philadelphia in 1812 in honor of his capture of the Guerridre, and many other deeply interesting relics. United States. He discusses the business of the United States with the government of the country in which he lives, keeps up a regular correspondence with the secretary of state at Washington, giving information and receiving instructions. At public ceremonies the ministers of the various nations are always invited and treated with great THE YOUNQ AMERICAN 139 respect. The ministers of European nations on such occa- sions are accustomed to wear an elaborate uniform, brilliant in colors and glittering with gold. The American min- isters, however, usually dress in plain black, as becomes representatives of a republic. 3. [n nearly every important foreign city lives another agent of the state department, called a consul. He looks out for the business interests of American merchants and sailors. It' von should he traveling in Europe or South America and should he in difficulty, the American consul would be the one to whom to apply for assist- ance. He would not let one of his countrymen he treated badly. 4. Foreign nations, in like manner, have at Washington ambassadors or ministers, who carry on their business with our government through the secretary of state. Foreign consuls, too. are found in all our principal cities. 5. The War Department. — Every nation in the world has an army. The number of soldiers in different coun- tries varies, to he sure. France and Germany have each a halt' million men always under arms, while the United States has only about 25,000. 6. Wny is it necessary to keep soldiers ? Merely because nations cannot always settle their disputes peaceably. If two men cannot agree on a question <>t" business, they can have the matter decided by a court of law. And what- ever the court may decide must he obeyed. It' tin' two disputants should try to settle their quarrel by a fight, they would lie very apt to find I hem-elves in jail. But nations unfortunately have no such means of keeping order and of mi THE YOUNG AMERICAN determining justice. So each nation has to protect itself. Ami the army is the means of national defense. 7. Besides this, there are sometimes riots and insurrec- tions which the police are not able to put down. Then the soldiers must give their help. 8. So an army is necessary for the protection of a nation against attack from abroad, and also to keep order — in other words, to see to it that the laws are obeyed at home. 9. The army of the United States is small, partly because we have little fear of being attacked and partly because each state also keeps soldiers. The state soldiers are usu- ally called the "national guard." We shall speak about them later. 10. Our republic has had several wars, in which the army was very necessary. As you will remember, it was by the war of the revolution that we won our independence from England, and so became a free republic. In that war — a war which lasted eight years — British armies invaded our country, but after many bloody battles they were finally driven away. General George Washington com- manded the American soldiers throughout this war, and he was aided by French soldiers who came across the ocean to help us. 11. In 1813 we had a second war with England, which lasted two years. 12. In 1846 we most unfortunately were drawn into a war with our sister republic, Mexico. This also lasted two years. The American armies invaded Mexico, won many battles, ami thus compelled the Mexicans, in making peace, to give up a large territory to the United States. THE TOUNO AMERICAN Ml 13. In L861, saddesl of all, we bad a war among our- selves — a civil war. Several of the southern Btates, as we have Been (p. L31), being dissatisfied with the Union, at- tempted to withdraw from it ami to form a new republic, which the} called the Confederate State- of America. Bui the resl of the people refused to permit the old Onion to be destroyed. Large armies were formed on both sides, and many desperate battles wen- fought. At length, after four years of war. the CTnion armies wm' notorious. 14. The management of an army, even in time of peace, takes much time and work. The president of the United States is by the ('(institution the chief commander of the army. But the details of its management are left to one of the cabinet, the secretary of war. Ee is the head of the war department, which includes a number of assistants and clerks. 15. The war department conducts a military school at West Point, on the Eudson River. Each member of the national house of representatives has the privilege of nam- ing one hoy as a candidate for admission to the military academy, and a few are named by the president.* The-. candidates, however, have to pass an examination, both as to their knowledge and as to their bodily health and strength, he fore they can become ••cadets." as the students at West Point are called. Those who succeed in passing through the four years of severe study required in tin- academy, are appointed to the rank of second lieutenant in the army. The military academy is an excellent school, * Tin- law requires thai appointments be made by the president <>f the United St But tin- president permits representatives i" Dame candidal -. anil in many districts .1 competitive examination i- held, tin- boy who does the '■• si being nominated. 142 THE YOUNG AMERICAN and keeps our army supplied with very well trained officers. 16. Since the close of the civil war the active duty of the army has consisted mostly in keeping the Indians in order. We shall have more to say of this when we come to speak of the American Indians. 17. Three War Poems. — Mrs. Julia Ward Howe once visited the camps of the Union army in Virginia during the civil war. and on her return wrote the poem known as the ''Battle Hymn of the Republic/' Mrs. Howe has been active through many years as an author and lecturer. Perhaps this is her best known poem. 18. Lord Byron, a famous English poet, who translated the " Greek War Song," sympathized so warmly with the Greeks in their war of independence against the tyrannical Turks that he not only gave them money, but went in per- son to share in the war. He died in Greece in 1824, before the war was ended. 19. Theodore Tiara, an American soldier in the Mexi- can war, wrote "The Bivouac of the Dead" in 1847, for the dedication of a cemetery devoted to the Kentuckians who fell at the battle of Buena Vista. 20. These three poems are grouped here as expressing different phases of emotion aroused by the stern realities of war. Till-: ) i)l' NO AMERICAN 143 Battle Hymn of the Republic .In, i \ W led Howe Mink eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord : llr is trampling out tin- vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored ; 1 Le hath loosed the fateful lightning of 1 lis terrible swift sword : His truth is marching on. I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps ; They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps ; I can read His rightei »us sentence hy the dim and flaring lamps : 1 lis day is marching on. I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel : "As ye deal with My contemners, so My grace with you shall deal :" Let the Hero, horn of woman, crush the serpenl with his heel. Since ( iod is marching on." '6 He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat He is sifting out the hearts of men he fore His judgment-seal : Oh ! be swift, my soul, to answer Him ! be jubilant, my feel ! < hir ( lod is marching on. - In the beauty of the lilies ( !hrisl was horn across the sea, With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me : As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men five. While God is marching on. 144 THE YOUNQ AMERICAN A Greek War Song Translated from the Greehby Lord Byron Sons of the Greeks, arise ! The glorious hour 's gone forth, And, worthy of such ties, Display who gave us birth. Chorus Sous of Greeks ! let us go In arms against the foe Till their hated blood shall flow- In a river past our feet. Then manfully despising The Turkish tyrant's yoke, Let your country see you rising, And all her chains are broke, Brave shades of chiefs and sages, Behold the coming strife ! Hellenes of past ages, Oh, start again to life ! At the sound of my trumpet, breaking Your sleep, oh, join with me ! And the seven hilled city * seeking, Fight, conquer, till we're i'ree. Chokis Sparta, Sparta, why in slumbers Lethargic dost thou lie '. Awake, and join thy numbers Willi Athens, old ally ! * Constantinople. THE YOUNG AMERICAN 145 Leonidas recalling, Thai chief of ancienl song, Who saved thee once from falling, Tin- terrible '. the strong : Wliu made thai 1»< >1< 1 diversion 1 11 uliI Thermopylae, Ami warring with the Persian To keep his country free ; With his three hundred waffinff The battle, long he stood. Ami like a lion raging, Expired in seas of blood. Chorus The Bivouac of the Dead Theodore < >'II u; \ The muffled drum's sad roll has boat The soldier's hist tattoo : No more on life's parade shall meel That brave ami fallen few. ( )n Fame's eternal camping-ground Their silent tents are spread, An. I Grlory guards, with solemn round. The bivouac of the dead. No rumor of tin- foe's advance Now swells upon the wind ; No troubled though! ;it midnight haunts ( )f loved ones lift behind : in 146 THE YOUNO AMERICAN No vision of the morrow's strife The warrior's dream alarms ; No braying horn nor screaming life At dawn shall call to arms. Their shivered swords are red with rust. Their plumed heads are bowed ; Their haughty banner, trailed in dust. Is now their martial shroud. And plenteous funeral tears have washed The red stains from each brow, And the proud forms, by battle gashed, Are free from anguish now. The neighing troop, the flashing blade, The bugle's stirring blast. The charge, the dreadful cannonade, The din and shout, are past ; No w r ar's wild note nor glory's peal Shall thrill with fierce delight Those breasts that nevermore may feel The rapture of the fight. Like the fierce northern hurricane That sweeps his great plateau. Flushed with the triumph yet to gain. Came down the serried foe. Who heard the thunder of the fray Break o'er the field beneath, Knew well the watchword of thai day Was "Victory or death," THE WUNQ AMERICAN 147 Long had the doubtful conflicl raged I )'cr .-ill that stricken plain. For never fiercer fighl had waged The vengeful blood of Spain ; And still the storm of battle blew, Still sw elled the gory tide ; Not long, our stout old chieftain knew. Such odds his strength could bide. 'Twas in that hour his stern command Called to a martyr's grave The flower of his beloved land. The nation's flag t<> save. By rivers of their fathers' "/ore His first-born laurels grew, And well lie deemed the sous would pour Their lives for ".lory too. Full many a norther's breath has swepl ( )'er Angostura's plain — And long the pit\ Lng sky has wept Above its mouldered slain. The raven's scream, or eagle's flight, Or shepherd's pensive lay, Alone awakes each sullen height That frowned o'er that dread fray. Sons of the Park and Bloody ({round. Ye musl not slumber there. Where stranger steps and tongues resound Along the heedless air. 148 THE YOUNQ AMERICAN Youi' own proud land's heroic soil Shall be your fitter grave ; She claims from war his richest spoil— The ashes of her brave. Thus neath their parent turf they rest, Far from the gory field, Borne to a Spartan mother's breast On many a bloody shield ; The sunshine of their native sky Smiles sadly on them here, And kindred eyes and hearts watch by The heroes' sepulchre. Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead ! Dear as the blood ye gave, No impious footstep here shall tread The herbage of your grave ; Nor shall your glory be forgot While Fame her record keeps, Or Honor points the hallowed spot Where Valor proudly sleeps. Yon marble minstrel's voiceless stone In deathless song shall tell, When many a vanished age hath flown The story how ye fell ; Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's blight, Nor Time's remorseless doom, Shall dim one ray of glory's light That gilds your deathless tomb. THE YOUNO AMERICAN 149 21. The Navy Department. A second branch of the national defense i> the navy. A nation which, like the United States, has a long seacoasl and many seaports, would in time of war he in danger of attack by armed ships. To lie .-lire, forts arc huilt on the shore for the purpose of defense againsl such attacks, lint it ha- been found that forts alone arc not enough. Armed ships are r<>|ivn.'tit \ TIIK I 3. ' i:i 1SKR N Ett \ ORK The new navy is very different from the old wooden Bailing ships which fonght the war of 1812. Naval vessels now are propelled by strain, are built of steel, heavily armored so as not easily to be pierced by shot, and are provided with guns of tremen- dous power. besl met by other armed ships. Besides, if American citi- zens should he maltreated in some foreign country, or if American ships should he in danger in distant seas, it would he necessary to send ships of war to their defense. 22. It was just such troubles which led to the beginning of our navy. A hundred years ago the people who lived on the south shore of the Mediterranean Sea were pirates. They sailed from the harbors of Tripoli and Tutus and 150 THE YOUNG AMERICAN Algiers, and captured the merchant ships of any nation. These ships, with their cargoes, were kept by the pirates, and the unfortunate crews were made slaves. Many na- tions paid Large sums of money to the rulers of these savage countries in order to save their ships and sailors from such a fate. In 1794 our government thought that it would not he possible for the United States to make a suitable arrangement of this kind, and so it was decided to build ships of war so as to be able to compel the pirates to let our merchant ships alone. 23. Before the ships were ready, however, arrangements were made by which we paid a great amount of money to the pirates, and they agreed not to capture American ships. But in a few years the Tripolitans broke the agreement, and again attacked our peaceful vessels. Then our government sent the new ships of war to the Mediterranean with orders to compel the Tripolitans to keep the peace. The Ameri- can vessels were manned by as gallant a body of mariners as ever sailed the seas, and they soon made things very un- comfortable for the Tripolitans. Tripolitan warships were captured, the city of Tripoli was blockaded so that no ships could go out or in, and it was bombarded repeatedly. When the ruler of Tripoli found that his palace was likely to be battered down about his ears, and that on the water the navy of the new republic was more than a match for him, he gave up the fight and promised to respect Ameri- can vessels thereafter. This was in 1805. 24. In 1812 came the second war with England. That nation had a thousand vessels of war in her navy, while the United States had only sixteen. But the American ships THE Y0UN6 AMERICAN 151 were well Bailed and well fought, and in a number of battles with English ships our navy was victorious. 25. The mosl famous of the American vessels was the PubUl jl.Uii. 1696, bj A. W Bison & IV , Boston I. -. FRIGATE CON8TIT1 HON (OLD 1 1:< (NS1 1 1! - This famous old ship of the navy was launched in 1797, anil by its many brilliant exploits became the darling of the American people. The Constitution was engaged in the war with Tripoli ami in the war of 1812. [te venerable hulk is now used as a re ceiving ship at the Portsmouth I New Hampshire) navj yard. staunch frigate Constitution. Only a few days after the war began the Constitution sailed from porl on a cruise, and met the British frigate Gnerriere (Augusl L9, 1812). The two vessels foughl desperately for two hours. At the 152 77/ K YOUXG AJIEh'K'AX cud of thai time the British ship lay on the water a dis- masted and shattered wreck, and her flag was hauled down in token of surrender. This brilliant victory was followed in rapid succession by others. The British had seemed in- vincible on the ocean. But the American tars proved quite equal to their haughty foe, and the little navy of the young republic at once sprang into popular favor. As vessel after Ik i mm. "DON'T (ilVE UP THE SHIP" vessel returned to port with a captured ship or the flag of one which had been sent to the bottom, the enthusiasm of the people knew no bounds. 26. In only one battle with a ship of equal force was an American vessel captured. This was the frigate Chesapeake, which became a prize to the British frigate Shannon. Cap- tain Lawrence, of the Chesapeake, was so eager to meet his enemy that he hurried from Boston with a new crew unac- Til h' YOUNG .1 VERICAN 168 customed bo their duty and with hie equipments Ear from complete. In a desperate actios of only fifteen minutes both ships were filled with the -lain and maimed. Captain Lawrence was fatally wounded, and as he was carried below he exclaimed, "Don'1 give up the ship."' Bui the British hoarders -wept the blood-stained decks of the Chesapeake, and the lla# was hauled down by a British officer (June 1, L813). PEHItV AT TUE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE 27. Only a few weeks after the loss of the Chesapeake a whole British squadron on Lake Erie surrendered to an American squadron. Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the American commander, had named his flagship the Law- rence, from the heroic captain of the Chesapeake. In the course of the hat tie the Lawrence was so cu1 up as to be- come unmanageable. Commodore Perry then passed in an open boat, under a heavy tire of musketry, to another vessel of his squadron, the Niagara, which he at once 154 THE YOUNG AMERICAN directed into the center of the enemy's line, and soon compelled their surrender. He announced his victory in the laconic dispatch. "We have met the enemy and they are ours ; two ships, two hrigs, one schooner, and one sloop." 28. The ships which made so glorious a record for the American navy in those two wars were built of wood and equipped with sails. Steam was not yet used to propel vessels. In our navy now. however, all the fighting ships are made of steel and are driven by steam. Sailing ships are no longer of any use. And the powerful cannon on a modern warship throw huge shells to a distance of several miles. But, after all, the success of our new navy in defend- ing the republic will depend on just what it did in 1805 and 1812 — the skill and spirit of the officers and crews. 29. The management of the navy is in what is known as the navy department, at Washington, whose head, the secretary of the navy, is a member of the president's cabinet. 30. The navy department maintains a school, at Annapo- lis, Maryland, in which boys are trained to become naval officers. Appointments to this school are made in about the same way as those to the military school at West Point. 31. A Famous Poem About a Famous Ship — One of the most famous warships of the American navy was the frigate Constitution. She was one of the earliest vessels built, and was frequently engaged in the war with Tripoli and in the war of 1812. Although a wooden ship, she was affectionately called " Old Ironsides " by the sailors. 32. Oliver Wendell Holmes was born at Cambridge, TEE TOUNQ AMERICAN 155 Massachusetts, in L809 ; was graduated al Harvard Uni- versity when twenty years old; became a physician, and was Long a professor in the Earvard Medical School. His literary works were many and varied. He died in L894. The poem which follows was written when the Constitu- PubUshed and copjrightwl, 1894, bj A. W Elson & Co., Boston OI.IVKK WKNDK1.I. HOLMK- tion had become so old thai it was proposed to break her up as unlit for service. After the poem rang through the land the plan was reconsidered, and the old warship was carefully preserved as a memorial of the greal deed- of our gallanl navy. 150 Till-: YOUNO AMERICAN Old Ironsides Oliver Wendell Holmes A v. tear her tattered ensign down ! Long lias it waved on high, And many an eye has danced to see that banner in the sky ; — Beneath it rang the battle-shout, and burst the cannon's roar ; The meteor of the ocean air shall sweep the clouds no more ! Her deck, once red with heroes' blood, where knelt the van- quished foe, When winds were hurrying o'er the flood, and waves were white below. No more shall feel the victor's tread, or know the conquered knee ; The harpies of the shore shall pluck the eagle of the sea ! O, better that her shattered hulk should sink beneath the wave ! Her thunders shook the mighty deep, and there should be her grave ! Nail to the mast her holy flag, set every threadbare sail, And give her to the god of storms, — the lightning and the gale ! 33. The Post-Office Department — One of the most familiar sights in a city is the letter-carrier in his blue- gray uniform and with his leather bag slung at his side. Probably no one of our readers has not mailed a letter ; if in a city, at a post-box attached to a street lamp ; if in the country, at the post-office. The letter-carrier and the postmaster are officers of the United States, under the direction of one of the president's cabinet. The head of the department is called the postmaster-general. THE YOUNG I UERICAN 151 34. It i> yitv convenient to be able to send a letter to any part of the United States, and the price paid for carry- in"- it. only two cents for i rdinary letter, is 30 9mall thai almost any one can afford it. The stamp pul on the envelope, we should remember, is merely to show thai the money has been paid to the post-office for carrying the let- ter to its destination. By an arrangement with the post- TIIK GENERAL POST-OFMCE, \VA>IIIN(iTON office departments of other nations it is possible, on paying five cents instead of two. to have a letter taken promptly to almost any place in the world. 35. Besides letters, the post carries newspapers ami packages of many kinds. Then, if one wants to semi money in a letter, the post-office will sell ;t money order, which is much safer to inclose than cash. 36. 'The law forbids anyone excepl the United States post-office department from carrying on the business of L58 the yorxc American conveying letters. The price of a stamp, now two cents on an ordinary letter, until nearly the middle of this century was sometimes as high as twenty-five cents. At A POSTMAN that time envelopes were not commonly used, but the last page of the letter was left blank, and when the sheet was folded and fastened together with sealing wax the address was written on the back, THE YOUNQ AMERICAN 159 37. The Interior Department. — The secretary <>/' Ike interior, another of the president's cabinet, has a greal variety of business to manage. 38. Every ten years the people of the United States are very carefully counted. At the same time lists are made of tlif kinds of business in which men are employed, of the number and kind of educational institutions, of the nation- ality of the people, and of a number of other things which it is convenient to know. Tins is called the census. The last census was taken in 1890, and showed the number of people in the 1'nited States to be 62,622,250. The work of baking the census is done by the department of the interior. 39. Another duty of this department is the granting and recording <>f patents. People are continually inventing a new machine or an improvement of an old machine. Xot many years ago the fanners mowed their grass with a scythe, ami all sewing was done by hand with a needle. But one ingenious man contrived a mowing machine, which is drawn by horses and cuts the grass very rapidly. Ami another equally ingenious inventor contrived a sew- ing machine, by which one woman can do in the same time as much work as several sewing in the old way. Such con- trivances as these, and many others like them, are very use- ful. And to encourage men to plan them the government has made a law which allows an inventor the sole right to sell his inventions for a number of years. In this way sometimes great sums of money are made. The inventors of the telephone, i he pneumatic bicycle tire, and the (dec- trie light, for instance, have become very rich. Such right bo monopolize an invention is called & patent. Of course, 160 THE YOUNG AMERICAN as soon as the time of the patent has expired, any one can make or sell the article in question. The patent office grants patents to inventors, and keeps a careful record of such grants. 40. The United States owns many great areas of land. As we have seen (p. 102), there was a time when nearly all the land west of the Alleghany Mountains belonged to the nation. But it has mostly been sold to private persons at a low price, or, indeed, actually given away. A dollar and a quarter an acre was the usual price for a long time. The desire was for the land to be settled and used, so that as many people as possible might have homes of their own and farms on which they might be earning a living for their families. About the time of the great civil war a law was made by congress permitting any head of a family to take 160 acres of the public land for his own at a nom- inal cost, provided he would make it his home. A resi- dence of five years on the land is required before the title is given, and no title is given at all except to a citizen of the United States. 41. Under the policy of sale at a low price, or, as at pres- ent, of actual gift, many thousands of families have found homes on the public land. The vast area west of the Alle- ghany Mountains was nearly all a wilderness a hundred years ago. Now it consists of many populous states, with great cities, churches, schools, libraries, and, what is more important than all and indeed is the foundation of all, with multitudes of happy homes. 42. The public land is managed by the department of the interior. THE VOUNQ AMERICAN 161 43. The care of the Indian reservations is also intrusted to this department. This ie a wrork requiring great intel- ligence ami integrity. Bad managemenl may result in linlian war-, and what people are doing to have the young [ndians grow up good citizens (p. '.'11) will oome to little if the governmenl is not jusl and wise in its dealings. 44. The Department of Justice. — Thegreal amounl of business done by the different departments makes it often necessary Eor the government to be concerned in a lawsuit. And it is also convenient that officers of the government should always be able to have the opinion of a good lawyer as to the exact meaning of some law in a particular case. So the president has as one of his cabinet an officer called the attorney-general. He is the government lawyer, and his department is the department of justice. 45. The Treasury Department. — The department which takes care of the money of the government ranks next in importance after the department of state. But as it provides the means by which all the others do their work, it is put last here. 'The business of government is expensive. Officers and employees have to be paid salaries, material has to he bought and used, soldiers and sailors have to be \'r<\ and clothed. The entire eost of carrying on the federal government of the I'nited States for one year is about $350,000,000. 46. This srasl sum is paid to the government by the people. ;i!nl is called the national taxes. A lux is money which the government takes from individuals for public purposes. 11 102 THE YOUNG AMERICAN Congress makes laws which prescribe how the taxes shall be paid, and how great they shall be, and for what pur- poses they shall be spent. Neither the president nor any of his cabinet can spend a dollar of the public money un- less permitted to do so by such a law. 47. By far the largest part of the national taxes is paid by people who bring goods from foreign countries. At THE TREASURY BUILDING, WASHINGTON This is an imposing structure of sandstone and granite, occupying an entire square not far from the president's house. Unlike the latter, however, the treasury building is not set in the midst of beautiful and spacious grounds, but is surrounded by busy thoroughfares. It is said that President Andrew Jackson became impatient at the delay in choosing a site, so one day he walked out from the White House, and, planting his cane in the ground, exclaimed, " Build it here." And there it was built. The treasury building is full of interest. There one may see the great vaults where the many millions of silver dollars are stored, the rooms where mutilated currency is exchanged for new, the many deft fingers and sharp eyes busy in counting the paper bills, both new and old, and the curious collection of counterfeit notes. It is not at all to counterfeit the United States notes. The paper on which they are made has a peculiar silk fiber, and the law forbids any one, unless duly authorized persons, to have a bit of it. Then, the process of engraving the notes is very exact and delicate. • very seaport or other place on the border is an office of the government called a custom-house. The custom-house officers inspect all goods brought from abroad and collect from the owner the tax fixed by law. Goods brought into THE YOUNQ AMERICAN L63 the country from abroad are called imports, and the tax ie called a ditty. 48. The laws of congress also provide for a tax to be paid by the manufacturers of liquors, cigars, ami a few other articles. This tax is called the internal revenue. Officers of the government inspect the articles as they are rnaut that would not be handy at all. as everybody would have to weigh the metal, ami at the same time to test it in order to see if it were pure. So the government takes gold and silver, and makes it into small round pieces called cot 11 s . These coins, we know, always have a certain amount of metal and a certain weight. So when we see the mark of the government on the coin we are saved the trouble of THE MINT. PHILADELPHIA weighing and test- Here United States coins s.'"' 1 '^ silver, and nickel— are made from the bullion. ing. In order to make sure that all coins can be depended on. no one is allowed to manufacture coins but the national government. The place at which they are made is called the mint. The United States has several mints, the one at Philadelphia being t he oldest. 54. Notes. — Paper notes are- often called money, but they are not really money at all. They are only promises to pay money — as yon will sec at once by reading what is printed on one. Some of these paper notes are issued by the national government and some by the national hanks. Till: WUNO AMERH. -!A 166 55. The notes of the national governmenl are commonly called greenbacks. Thej arepromises to pay by the gov- ernment, hut by law are to be received in paymenl of all debts -with one exception, which you will find printed on such Dotes. 56. The notes of the national banks arc printed by the governmenl at Washington, jus! as are the greenbacks, and are senl to the banks as may be requested bj them. 57. The banks, however, are no! allowed to issue paper notes until they have pul in the vaults of the treasury at Washington valuable bonds, so thai if the bank should fail the notes would still be paid. And government in- spectors keep sharp watch of the banks to sec that they arc honestly managed. Then the governmenl sends the banks the note- which they wish to issue. 58. The Treasury. — All this enormous business of the governmenl in dealing with money — collecting taxes, pay- ing out what the governmenl owes, stamping coins al the mint, printing currency notes, printing and issuing national bank-notes, and keeping watch over the national hanks — is attended to by the treasury department. Its head, the secretary of the treasury , is one of the most important of the president's cabinet. He has under him a little army of officials — tie' clerk- at Washington in the greal treas- ury building, the officers in the many custom-houses, the internal-revenue collectors, the hank inspectors. 59. The Department of Agriculture. — The secretary of agriculture keeps watch of agricultural methods in all part- of the world, and publishes the information which he gathers, so that our farmers may know what to do. 166 THE YOUNG AMERICAN 60. We see what a great machine the government of the United States is. The eight heads of departments who form the president's cabinet hold very important places. And over all is the president of the United States, with the power to direct everything. 61. We have seen (p. loo) that if the president and vice- president both should die, the duties of president would he performed by the secretary of state. In case of his death, the secretary of the treasury would take up the work, and so on in the order of the cabinet. This is the order of succession : secretary of state, secretary of the treasury, secretary of war, attorney-general, postmaster-general, secretary of the navy, secretary of the interior. When the law which made this arrangement was passed there was no secretary of agriculture. So that officer is not in the Line of succession to the presidency. CHAPTER XII How Laws Are Enforced in the States i. The Governor. — lu-t as there is a presidenl of the United Slates, whose duty it is to see that the Constitution ami the laws made by congress are obeyed, so each one of our forty-five states has a governor. His duty is to 3ee that the law- of the state are obeyed. He lives in the city which is called the capital of tin- state, and is usually a very busy man. Eowever, the governor of a state does not have so many powers as the presidenl of the United States. The governor is elected by the people for a term of office winch varies from one year to four in different states. 2. Departments. — The departments of the state admin- istration are very nearly the same as those of the national administration. Bui there is this difference: the presi- dent appoints the heads of departments, and they are accustomed to hold regular meetings with him — -"' cabinet meetings" — at which they give advice about important matters. In the states the heads of departments are usually elected by the people, and they do not form the governor's " cabinet " — that is, they do not habitually bold meetings for the purpose of talking over public business, and are not supposed to be the governor's advisers. 168 THE YOUNG A 31 ERIC A X 3. The departments arc not the same in all the states. There is usually a secretary of state, who keeps an exact record of all the laws made by the legislature, and who keeps other state documents, and does some other state & ^mK^^ 1*1.1.1 THE CONNECTICUT STATE HOUSE AT HAKTFOKD The state capitol at Hartford, finished in 1880, is of white marble, and cost about $2,500,000. It is one of the most tasteful buildings of the kind in the Union. business. But this officer of course has nothing to do with foreign nations, as has the federal secretary of state. 4. There is always a state treasurer, who keeps the money of the state and pays it out as the legislature may direct. Then, there is another officer called the "auditor," whose duty is to examine bills against the state, and make sure that they are correct before they are paid. Till: FOUNO AMERK AN 169 5. The attorney-general is the state lawyer. He tells the governor and other state officers hisopinionof the meaning of the laws which they are enforcing, so thai thej may avoid mistakes by having wrong notions. Then, if the state has a Lawsuit, the attorney-general takes care of it for the state. 6. The states have no war or navy departments. Still, each state has an army of soldiers, usually called the national guard. The national guard consists of men who are busy aboul their own affairs mosl of the time, ami drill only occasionally — once a week, asageneral thing. In the summer they sometimes spend a few days in camp. It' there should he a riot which the police could not j n 1 1 down. or if an enemy should invade the state, the governor has the righl to call out the national guard. They then give their whole time to military duty until the danger has passed away. 7. Some states have still other business, much of which is managed by groups of men. each group being known as a board. Thus there is often a state hoard id' education, which lias the oversighl of the public schools, or of some of them. Sometimes, instead of a board of education, these duties are put in charge of one man. the superin- tendent of public instruction, and sometimes the hoard chooses a superintendent. Then, most of the states have normal school-, insane asylums, schools for the deaf and dumb, and prisons to which are sent persons who have broken the laws. These institutions are also usually managed by hoards. The nminhers of the hoards are often appointed by the go^ ernor. 170 THE YOUNG AMERICAN 8. The Lieutenant-Governor. — It will be remembered that one of the officers of the United States is a vice- president, who presides at the meetings of the senate, and who becomes president if that officer should die. Most of the states have also sneb an officer, the "lieutenant- governor." lie presides over the state senate, and becomes governor in case of the death, or, sometimes, in case of the absence from the state, of the governor. The lieutenant-governor is elected by the people, for the same term as the governor. The state of Maine, however, and several others, have no lieutenant-governor. In these states the senate elects its own chairman. 9. County Officers. — In each county there are also of- ficers Avhose duty it is to see that the laws are carried out. The county has no president or governor. The county legislature, whether county board or board of supervisors, besides making laws, also sees to more or less administra- tive business. Then, there is a treasurer, who takes care of the county money, just as the state treasurer does of the state money; and a sheriff, who is really the chief policeman of the county. It is the sheriff's deputies who usually arrest criminals in the county, and the county jail is in the sheriff's care. So we see that the sheriff is quite important to the good order of the community. There is a county attorney, too, who is the lawyer for the county, as the attorney-general is for the state. All these officers are in most states elected by the people of the county, although in some states, as in Maryland, the county board chooses the treasurer. 10. The County Seat. — We remember that the eity THE rOUNO AMERICAN 171 in which the state legislature meets and the governor lives is called the capital. The county, too, has a capital, bul it is usually called the county seat. Quite often the county scat is rather a small town. Bu1 it generally has one or more county buildings— the court-house, jail, and perhaps others. The county board generally meet- in the court-house, and there also are the offices of most of the other county officers. 11. The Mayor.— If your home i< in a city you have heard many times of the ••mayor.*' He is the city's governor, whose duty it is to see that the law- are oheyed. The mayor is chosen by the people, just as is the governor of the state. 12. The name "mayor" was applied to the chief officer of the first cities which were organized in our country, for the reason that that was the name \\>v^\ in the English cities. In England the mayor, on official occasions, wears an elaborate costume. The lord mayor of the city of London is elected annually. His inaugura- tion, on the ninth of November, "lord mayor's day." is made tl icasion of a gorgeous parade through the streets. The lord mayor'- robe is on some occasions of black silk, on others of \ iolel -ilk. or of scarlet cloth, or of crimson velvet. 13. The London Lord Mayor's Banquet. — On the evening of lord mayor's day a banquet is given by the mayor at the London guildhall (the city ball, we should call it) — a banquet which is famous for its luxury. A few years ago one of the guests at this banquet made a curious list of the articles of food provided. Provision 1W THE YOUNQ AMERICAN was made for a thousand guests, and this is what was set hi 'fore them : Two hundred fifty tureens of turtle soup, 6 great dishes of fish, 80 roast turkeys. 60 roast pullets, 60 dishes of fowl, 40 dishes of capons, 80 pheasants, 24 geese, 40 dishes of partridges, 15 dishes of wild fowl, 2 barons* of beef, 3 rounds of beef. 2 Mi^vv(\ rumps of beef, 12 sirloins and ribs of beef. 2 quarters of lamb, 50 French pies, 60 pigeon pies, 53 ornamental hams, 4.3 tongues, 60 dishes of potatoes, 6 dishes of asparagus, 50 dishes of shell-fish, 60 mince pies, 50 dishes of blanc-mange, 40 dishes of cream tarts, 400 jellies and ice-creams, 100 pine- apples, 120 dishes of cake, 2oo dishes of hothouse grapes, 350 dishes of other fruits. With each course there was a different kind of wine also. One would think that even a thousand guests might find enough to eat in this profusion. Our American mayors are not in the habit of hospitality on so large a scale. Perhaps they might do as well if they had the salary of the London lord mayor — $50,000 a year ! 14. American Mayors.— The mayors of American cities differ somewhat as to the powers they possess, de- pending on the state in which the city is situated. In some cities the mayors are allowed to appoint or to remove nearly all the public officers, and in this way the mayor can really control the way in which the city business is done. But in other cities many officers are quite inde- pendent of the mayor, so that things go on without his having much to say about them. * A baron of beef is two sirloins noi cnl apart. THE Vol' Mi AMERICAN I?:; 15. City Departments — The administrative depart- ments in a city arc in Borne respects Like those in the counties, the states, and the nation. 16. There is a treasurer, who keeps the money of the city ami pays it oul as directed by Law. There is an auditor, who examines all hills against the city ami ap- proves those which he finds correct. The treasurer pays no lulls unless the auditor has approved them. Then, there is a department of police, which keeps order in the city. The policemen arresl people who break the law-. like thieves and robbers, and also keep watch to prevent the law- from being broken, as far as possible. Policemen wear a uniform, customarily of blue with brass buttons, and carrv a club. The department of police i- in some cities managed by a single person, the chief. Bui in other cities there is a group of persons, called a hoard, which appoints the chief of police and manages all the affairs of the department. 17. The Fire Department. — Another very important department in a city is that which is intended to prevent or to put out fires. City houses are so many and -<> crowded together that a lire catching in one is very apt to spread to many others. 18. In London, in the year L666, a lire broke out which spread on all sides. The buildings were mostly of wood and were dry as tinder. And people then knew little about the quick and effective ways <>\' putting out fires which we have. For three days the conflagration raged, destroying thirteen liundred houses and ninety churches, besides other property of enormous value. A similar tire 174 TEE YOUNO AMERICAN occurred in Chicago in L87L and other cities have had disasters of the same kind, like Boston, Massachusetts, and Troy, New York. So much fear is there of fire that the law in all large cities now forbids wooden buildings to lie puf up except in the snhnrhs. 19. The tire department is carefully organized. It is managed in some cities by a board, consisting of several men appointed for that purpose ; in others, by one man, tine fire-marshal. Engine-houses are distributed over the city, and men and horses are always ready at a moment's warning to race to a fire with the fire-engine. When a fire is discovered the alarm is given by an electric bell which sounds in the nearest engine-houses. It is only a few minutes after the alarm sounds before several streams of water are playing on the burning building. 20. The Care of Health. — The health department in a city is one of which in " the good old times" centuries ago people did not dream. But to-day no city of a civilized country neglects care for the public health. When people are crowded together in masses, as they are in our cities, many diseases are caused by the very fact of the crowded life. The garbage and refuse of families and hotels and stables col lee 1 very last, and unless carried away promptly, are sure to fester and reek with the germs of typhoid and other deadly pestilences. Then, if a contagious or infec- tious disease breaks out it spreads with frightful rapidity when so many people live near together. 21. The Plague in London. — Only a short time before the greal fire destroyed so much of London that city was the victim of a frightful plague. " In the filthy cities of THE YOUNQ AMERICAN 175 those days plagues were nol uncommon, and in the aarrow streets of London, where the upper stories of the houses almost touched, and the clay floors were covered with rotting straw, food, and dirt, a hoi summer always brought more or less pestilence. The summer of L665 was hoi be- yond all experience. In May the plague, which had been raging <»n the continent, broke out in London, and went on Increasing all the summer, till in September fifteen hundred persons died in one day and twenty-four thou- sand in three weeks. On door after door the red cross appeared to mark the plague within, while the dead cart, with its muffled bell, passed along at night, and theory, • Bring out your dead/ sounded through the .stillness of the almost deserted streets. King, courtiers, members of parliament, even doctors and clergy, lied from the plague- strieken city. With the winter the plague died away, after more than one hundred thousand persons had perished. " 22. This pestilence was so fearful in its effects because the city was so dirty, because the doctors were so ignorant, and because almost nothing was done to prevent the spread of sickness. 23. In a well-ordered modern city great pains are taken by the health department to prevent the beginning or spread of disease which may lead to such results. Inspectors cause the removal of dead animals or decaying rubbish. Other inspectors examine meats and fruits and vegetables brought into the city, and sometimes condemn and cause to lie thrown away entire carloads id' unwholesome stuff. If a case of con- tagious disease occurs, like diphtheria or scarlet fever, the house is at once " quarantined " — that is. a placard is posted 176 THE YOCXG AMERICAN up and people are warned to keep away. In a very bad case, like that of small-pox, the health officers remove the patient tn the public hospital — the " pest-house," it is often called. 24. All this work is generally managed by a board of health, consisting of several men, usually doctors, and in many cities appointed by the mayor. 25. In a large city there are other departments of the government. One sees to the supply of water, which is brought in great pipes from some lake or river. The water has to lie abundant, as so much is needed for drinking and cooking and washing, and for putting out fires. And it is very important for the water to he pure, as impure water is one of the commonest causes of dangerous fevers. Still another department manages the great drainage system of the city, building and keeping in order the sewers which carry off the liquid filth, which is so dangerous if allowed to remain. Still other city officers keep many wagons busy hauling away the garbage and ashes and other rubbish, which woidd choke the sewers. And others see to paving the streets and to keeping the pavements in good repair. 26. School Department. — One of the most important departments in a city is that which manages the public schools. Every American city has a number of school- houses in which the children are taught free of charge. These buildings and their fittings cost many thousands of dollars, and the teachers' salaries cost many thousands more. But here boys and girls may learn what Avill make them better citizens, better and happier men and women. The city manages all these schools through a body called the school board, or board of education. The members in THE YOUNO AMERICAN 17? Borne cities are appointed by the mayor ; in others they are elected by the people; in others they are appointed in some o1 her waj . 27. It is the business <>i" the school board to see thai proper buildings are provided and cared for, thai suitable teachers are appointed^ and thai good text-books arc selected. In many cities the school board elects teachers every year. It is plain enough thai for so importanl duties as those of a member of a school board the besl men in the city oughl to be selected —men intelligent, I est, public-spirited. If this republic is to be managed by its citizens, as. in fact, it is. every citizen oughl to be intelligent. To lie sure, there are many citizens, especially women, whodo uot vote. Bui those who do vote oughl to understand what they are voting for or a u a i nst. And women, even if they do not vote, oughl to understand the questions which the voters arc thinking about, because in very many cases the opinions of women will have greal weighl with Miters. So it is necessary that everybody in a republic should be well educated. That is why the public schools are provided and arc made free to all. 28. [f they are so necessary to the republic, these schools oughl to be as g I as possible. Besides, the, school build- ings are paid for and the teachers are paid with money which belongs to all the | pie. Therefore the school board, who are selected to spend this money, oughl to do it so that all the people gel the worth of it. And they do not gel the worth of il if the buildings are bad or if unfil teach- ers are appointed. But unless the members of the school board arc honesl and unless they know what good buildings arc and what good trading arc. the people arc quite sure 13 ITS THE YOUNG AM Eli WAX to be cheated. There is no more important branch of the government than that which manages the schools. 29. Village Officers — A village is composed of a small group of people living near together. The only difference between a city and a village is that the city is larger. A village, like a city, has to have a government. The village president holds a place like that of the mayor in a city. Then, there is a treasurer, to keep the money of the village ; a constable, or sometimes several constables, who are the village police, and some other officers. Sometimes a village has a tire department and a water department, and then, of course, it has to have officers to manage them. All these officers are the servants of the village, and each one has special duties. 30. School Districts. — A school district is a part of a county, sometimes a village, in which there is a public school for the people who live in the district. The district is not very large, so that all the children can easily walk to school. The school affairs are managed by a sort of board, called a school committee, or sometimes trustees. They arc elected by the people of the district, and have the same powers and duties as the board of education in a city. The district school in the country is often a small building, with only one teacher — one in the summer and a different one in winter. The larger boys seldom go to school in the sum- mer, being too busy on the farms. It is in just such mod- est schools that many of our best and greatest men have been taught all they ever had a chance to learn from teach- ers and books. The country school ought to have as good teachers as the money which the people pay will provide. THE TOUNQ AMERICAN 179 And il ought tn hr the l >ri< 1<- of every district bo make its school as good as possible. 31. Swiss Schools. — The common schools of Switzer- land are among the besl in the world. The people are eager thai they shall be SO, and take greai interest in them all the time. What is going on in the school is matter of common talk in a Swiss district, which the people find quite as interesting as the weather or politics. This con- stant intelligent interest, of course, is a great help to the teachers and a greai encouragement to the pupils. It would he a good thing if we took as much interest in our schools. CHAPTER XIII Judge and Jury 1. If a citizen is accused of breaking the law, he is liable to be put in prison, or otherwise punished, as the law may direct. But by the Constitution of the United States, and by those of the several states, no one can be punished as a criminal unless he lias been duly tried in a court of justice and found guilty. In order to see how such a trial is con- ducted, and what it means, Ave have supposed one John Doe to be accused of a crime and to be brought before the court. Let us imagine ourselves spectators at the trial. 2. The Trial of John Doe for Burglary. — John Doe lias been arrested by a deputy sheriff on the charge of burglary. One of his neighbors woke one morning to find that the dining-room window had been broken open in the night and that the silver spoons had been stolen. Getting into a house in this way at night in order to steal is what the law calls burglary. John Doe is a shiftless fellow, who was seen hanging around the day after trying to sell some silver spoons to a pawnbroker. The spoons he claimed to have found in a small parcel by the roadside, but as this story was doubted. Doe was arrested and put in jail. The county attorney made inquiries and became convinced that the burglar was. in fact, no other than John Doe. In a few days there was held at the county seat a meeting of what is A I'OI li I. ' OUBT In :i police conrl minor offenders an trinl and punished. There is no jury. 182 THE YOUNG AMERICAN known as the grand jury. This is a group of men, not more than twenty-four or less than twelve in number, selected from the citizens for the purpose of seeing whether the laws have been broken by anybody. The county attorney told the grand jury his reasons for believing that Doe was a burglar. These reasons seemed to the jury to be good ones, and so they voted that John Doe should be tried on the charge of stealing the spoons — that is, of committing burglary. The vote of the grand jury was written out on paper and duly signed. This paper is called an indictment, and Doe was now said to be indicted for burglary. 80 he was kept in jail until he should be tried. 3. But the fact that the grand jury had indicted him by no means made it sure that he really had stolen the spoons. It merely meant that the public accusers, the grand jury, thought it probable that he was guilty. But to decide whether he was or not, must be left to a very different body of men acting in a very different way. So we see that the grand jury does not decide the question of guilt or inno- cence ; it merely decides whether, on the whole, it is worth while to keep an accused man in jail until he can be tried and the real facts found out. In other words, the grand jury are, as we have said, the public accusers. In our coun- try no one can be kept long in jail or tried on a charge of breaking the laws unless a grand jury have voted to indict him. 4. We have said that Doe had to be tried in order to decide whether he was guilty or not. Let us look into the room in which the trial is going on, and we shall see at once what we mean by trying a man. THE YOUNO AMERICAN 183 5. In the county court-house are many offices and rooms. One of these is the court-room, and it is full of people. It is a rather large room, with a high ceiling. At one end is a desk (.11 a raised platform. Behind this desk sits a gentleman who is evidently presiding. No one speaks without addressing him, and everybody promptly obeys when lie gives any directions. IT there i- any difference of opinion about what the law mean- he decides it. Whoever speaks to him does not call him by name ; they say. " Your honor." This gentleman is the judge. He has been elected by the people, or else appointed by the governor of the state. Some states have one way and some another. The judge's term of office is several years, in some states for life. A person selected as judge is always a lawyer, and he OUghl to he a good one. Besides that, lie should he a very uprighl man. fair and just to everybody, incapa- ble of being frightened or flattered or bribed. There is no more honorable place in the whole irovernment than thai of a judge, and a person who holds that place is treated with great respect. 6. <>n another raised platform, ai the left of the judge, are twelve men sitting in chairs. They differ very much one from another. Evidently none of them are lawyers. Some are farmers, some are merchants, some are me- chanics. This is the jury. They are not appointed, as is the judge, for a long term. Their names have been drawn by lot from a list of citizens in the county, and they are to serve for a single term of the court (a U-w weeks), or perhaps merely for one trial. These twelve men have left their business and are obliged to give their whole time 184 THE YOUNG AMERICAN to the trial of John Doe until his case is decided. Then they are to be excused from further attendance at court, while the judge goes on with a new jury to try another case. The jury do not (at least that is the law in most states) decide disputes about the meaning of the law. It is the judge who does that. The jury decide disputes about facts. In this case the indictment says that Doe forced his way into a house at night and stole certain sil- ver spoons. Doe denies this, and says that at the time of the burglary he was many miles away from the place. Of course both these statements cannot be true. And it is the business of the jury to decide which is true ; in other words, to decide what are the facts in the case. 7. At the right of the judge is another little raised plat- form with a railing fronting the jury. This is called the dock, and here the accused person is placed during the trial. John Doe is sitting here, looking at the jury. 8. Just in front of the judge, at another desk, but lower, sits a clerk, who keeps a careful record of all that is done. 9. On the floor in front of the judge and the clerk is a space covered with chairs and a table or two. Here sit a number of busy men. most of them with green bags. from which they draw many papers. These men are lawyers. When a person is on trial before a court of justice he needs to have his case managed by one who knows the laws, and who understands how to make clear and convincing statements to the judge and jury. So he employs a lawyer. And the lawyers whom we now see gathered in court are here, some of them, ready for the next case, some interested in this, some merely watching THE YOUNG AMERICAN 185 whal is going on and hoping thai sometime they, too, will he employed; these lasl are mostl} very young men just beginning the profession. 10. The space reserved for the lawyers has a railing which divides it from the body of the room. Here, in benches which rise one above another, arc the audience. People arc usually quite frr thai state. 33. All the federal judges are appointed by the president of the I'nitei] States. Bui first he sends in their names to the United State- senate, ami unless that body approves, the appointment is not made. Federal judges hold office as long as the) do not misbehave. 1 ! 194 THE YOUNO AMERICAN 34. The supreme court of the United States is one of the most famous ami respected courts in the world. The judges have always been honest and able men and they arc very independent. If any legislative body, even the congress of the United States, makes a law which is contrary to the federal Constitution, the supreme court. in deciding a case under the law. will plainly declare it to be no law at all. because it is unconstitutional. Then mi one will be hound to obey that act any longer. This is a very great power, and one which is not possessed by the courts of European nations. 35. The supreme court is a very dignified body. The members wear silken gowns when the court is in session. Their meetings are held in the capitol at Washington. One of the nine members, the chief justice, presides. The most famous of the chief justices was John Marshall, of Virginia. He held the office for over thirty years, from 1801 to 1835. CHAPTER XIV How the Government Gets Money i. Cost of Government. — All this work which the governmenl does for the people takes money. Members of Legislatures and judges and mayors and policemen and Bre- men and all the resl of the servants of the people cannol afford to work for nothing. They have to be paid. The salary of the president of the United States is $50,000 a year. Members of congress, whether senators or repre- sentatives, receive */),<><><> a year. Members of the presi- dent's cabinet have $8,000, and justices of the supreme court $10,000 a year. The chief justice has $10,500. There are very \\-w public officers who are nut paid. Members of school boards and of some few other boards seldom have salaries. In cities there are streets to be paved and sewers to be made. Then, there are public buildings of all sorts — post-offices, court-houses, school- houses, rire-ciiirine houses, prisons, and many others. All these require money to build. So we see that it is im- possible to have any sort of government without money to keep it going. Where does the money come from? 2. Taxes. — It is the people who create the government and for whom the governmenl does the work. So, of course, the people must pay the cost. And the money 15)6 THE YOUNO AMERICAN which people pay to the government for its supporl is called taxes. 3. Taxes are paid to the federal government and to the state governments. 4. Federal Taxes. — The most of the taxes of the fed- eral government come from duties, or, as they are also called, ctistoms (page L62). Duties are sums of monej paid by merchants to the federal government for- the priv- ilege of bringing goods into our countrv from foreign countries. For instance, we gel sugar from Cuba, coffee from Brazil and from Java, tea from China, wines from France, and immense quantities of all sorts of goods from Great Britain. When a ship loaded with foreign goods reaches one of our seaports, it is not allowed to land its cargo until officers of the Tinted States treasury depart- ment have made an examination to see what is on hoard, and arrangements have been made to pay the duty. The duty is sometimes reckoned at a certain per cent, of the value of the goods, sometimes at a fixed sum on a certain quantity. The former are called ad valorem, the Latter specific, duties. In each of our border towns there is a United States custom-house, whose officers are busy ex- amining imported goods and receiving the duties, which they then pay over into the Tinted States treasury. From this source the treasury received in the year L896 no less than $160,000,000, and in 1890 the amount was $229,- 000,000. These are sums of money so vast that it is almost impossible to imagine them. But all this and much more were used by the treasury in paving the expenses of the federal government. In fact, about a hundred fifty THE YOUNG AMERIi Ah M millions more are paid into the treasury from whal is called the internal revenue. This consists of money paid b\ manufacturers of distilled spirits, like whisky, and of tobacco and cigars, and n few other things. Every time one buys a stamp to mail a letter a tax is paid to the governmenl of the United States. This tax is ool a large one, as all the governmenl want- is to gel enough from the sale of stamps to pay the actual cos! of carrying the mail-. In fact, this <-ust is seldom quite mel by the sale of stamps. 5. Indirect Taxes.— If a merchanl pays a duty on goods which he imports, he will try to gel it hack by charging a higher price when he sells them. Ami the same is true of the manufacturer of whisky or cigars. Of course, if it happens thai other people have similar articles to sell which are ooi imported and which can be sold at a profil for less money than the importer wants, the latter may nol be aide to gel hack the tax he has paid. Bui usually the higher price can be obtained; and when- ever that is the case, we see at mice that the tax is paid in the end by the person who drinks the coffee or who smokes the cigars. Such taxes, which in the end are paid by some uiie else than the person from whom the money comes t" the government, are called indirect taxes. Federal taxes have nearl\ all been of this kind, and all of them are pro- vided in laws made by the congress of the United States. 6. State Taxes. — The taxes which pay the expense of state, county, and city governmenl are provided in laws made by the state legislature or by local bodies. 7. People who own land ami buildings pay a certain sum every year. A public officer, the assessor, decides whal a v.* THE WUNO AMERICAN given piece of land is worth. This is usually a smaller sum than the property would actually bring in the market. Then the tax paid by the owner is great or small, according to the assessed value of his property, the rate of taxation being so many cents or mills on the dollar as may be deter- mined by the legislature. Usually a part of the tax is for the state government, a part for the county, and a part for the city or village. This sort of tax is called direct, because it cannot so easily he passed on to some one else. 8. People in some states also pay a tax on other valuables which they may own besides land and buildings. The assessor decides as well as he can what each person's things are worth, and the tax is paid accordingly. In some states, again, a poll lux is levied ; that is. a certain amount to he paid by each person, without regard to his property. 9. Public Debts. — Sometimes the expenses of the gov- ernment are so great that even very large taxes are not enough to pay them. Then the government borrows money, giving to the lender a bond, to show that the money is owed and will be paid. On this bond the govern- ment pays interest every year, and in the end expects to pay the principal. Of course the taxes have to be made greater so as to pay these charges. 10. The debts which governments have to carry in this way are very great. Cities borrow money, usually for erecting public buildings, paving streets, making sewers, and the like. Some city governments have been extrava- gant and dishonest, and in this way such cities have great debts with very little to show for them. 11. The debt of the federal government has been caused THE YOUNQ AMERICAN 199 principally by war. Bach time the nation has had a war the government has hail to borrow mone> to earn it on. The debl of the revolutionary war ami of the war of L812 was paid off in L835. Bui in L846 we fell into war with Mexico, and from L861 to L865 we had a greal civil war. The latter especially was enormously costly. WTien tin- war ended, in L865, the debt of the federal government was aearly three thousand millions of dollars (2,773 millions). Tin' treasury paid oul during one year ending with dune. L896, over thirty-five million dollars as interesl mi the existing debt, the principal id' which even now amounts to nearly a thousand millions. Besides the interest on the debt, we have in the pensions another expense caused by the war. Soldiers and sailors who were disabled in the war. or who have since become unable to work, and widows and orphan children of war veterans, receive a sum of money each year from the federal treasury. In all nearly a million people are now receiving war pensions, and they were paid in the year ending with June, L896, the sum of a hundred thirty-nine millions of dollars. So we are yet paying the cost of our great civil war from the national taxes, and it will he many years before the payment will he ended. 12. Wars and Taxes. — As we have seen, the great national debl has been created by wars. To pay this debl it is necessary for t lie people to suhmit to heavy taxes for many years. If we Eeel that the wars were necessary, we can endure these taxes patiently. But it' we should he so foolish as to iro to war from the mere desire to win victo- ries — to get military "glory," as it is called— then the 200 Till-: YOUNG AMERICAN taxes, as well as the cos! in blood and suffering, would be a price Ear too dear. No war is just unless it cannot be avoided without loss of liberty or honor. 13. What a shrewd English writer thought of the price of a war of glory it may be interesting to see. We should remember that a common nickname for England is " John Bull," as •' Brother Jonathan " is for the United States. Taxes the Price of Glory Sydney Smith* John Bull can inform Jonathan what are the inevitable consequences of being too fond of Glory : — Taxes ! Taxes up< in every article which enters into the mouth, or covers the back, or is placed under the foot: taxes upon everything which it is pleasant to see, bear, feel, smell, or taste; taxes upon warmth, light, and locomotion: taxes on everything on earth, and the waters under the earth: on everything that comes from abroad, or is grown at home; taxes on the raw material; taxes on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man; taxes on the sauce which pampers man's appetite, and the drug that restores him to health; on the ermine which decorates the Judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal ; on the poor man's salt, and the rich man's spice: on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribbons of the bride;— at bed or board, couchant or levant, we must pay. The schoobboy whips his taxed top : the beardless youth manages his taxed horse, with a taxed bridle, on a taxed road ; — and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has * The Rev. Sydnej Smith was a clergyman of the Church of England, who died in 1845. He was the founder of the Edinburgh Review, and was famous as a wit and caustic critic. UNITED STATES SOLDIERS. THE YOUNG AMERICAN 201 paid seven percent., into ;i spoon thai has paid fifteen | •< i- cent., Hings himself I »:«<•)< upon hi> chintz bed, which has paid twenty- two per cent., makes his will on an eight pound stamp, and expires in the arms of an apothecary, who lias paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately taxed from two to ten per cent. Besides the probate, large fees are demanded for burying him in the chancel; his virtues arc handed down to posterity on taxed marble ; and he is then gathered to his fathers, to be taxed no more. in addition to all this, the habil <»!' dealing with large sums will make the Government avaricious and profuse; and the system itself will infallibly generate the base vermin of spie^ and informers, and a still more pestilent race of political tools and retainers of the meanest and most odious description; while the prodigious patronage which the collecting of this splendid revenue will throw into the hands of ( i-overnmenl will invest it with so vast an influence, and hold out such means and temptations to corruption, as all the virtue and public spirit, even of Republicans, will he unable to resist. Every wise Jonathan should remember this ! CHAPTER XV Who We Are i. Americans Not of One Race. — Much is said by some people about " Americans/' and Americans are quite right in being proud of their country, lint, for all that, it is just as well for us not to look down on the peo- ple of other countries. The fact is that the white people of our republic all of them either were born in Europe or are the descendants of those who came from Europe not Sd very many years ago. 2. English. — The first European people who came to America, north of Florida, were English. They settled in Virginia in L607, less than three hundred years ago. 3. But, in truth, not very many of us are descended from these early settlers. Other English people came to America throughout the seventeenth century and the eigh- teenth, and they have kept coming in the nineteenth. So quite a number of us are English in blood, as the national language of all of us is English. But how long we and our fathers and grandfathers have been living in this country is another question. And some of us really do not know when our first ancestors came from the old country to America, nor do we know what kind of people they were, or whether we could he proud of them or not, even if we did know. In many cases all we can he Till: YOUNG AMERli AA 203 te i- -.< s a £ < — = " i - 2 £ ? » "* 3 r- = _ M DQ - - T. _ — Z - s r" 1 - - x > a - V 204 THE YOUNG AMERICAN quite sure of is thai some time in the last three centuries Our first American ancestor did come here from Europe, and here made his home and that of his children. Per- haps he was English; perhaps he was Scotch, or Welsh, or Irish. Many of those British peoples have emigrated to America all through our history, and many of them are coming over in our time. 4. Dutch — Then, it was not British people only who settled the first European colonies along the Atlantic. The first settlers of New York were Dutch, from Holland. After the English seized the colony the Dutch name •"New Amsterdam*' was changed to the English one which we know. But the Dutch colonists continued to live there. Tinder the English flag, and to-day their descen- dants are yet found in the city and state of New York and elsewhere in the republic. Dutch names, such as Stuyvesant, Van Cortlandt, Van Rensselaer, Bogart. Van Dusen, Snvdam. are yet common in some parts of New York. 5. Swedes. — In Delaware the earliest settlers were Swedes. But there wwc not many of them, and their colony was taken away by the Dutch, and was seized by the English when they took New Amsterdam. There are many Swedish people now living in the United States, hut they or their ancestors have mostly come here recently. 6. Germans. — In Pennsylvania many Germans settled at a very early period, ami their descendants live there to this day. " Pennsylvania Dutch " they were commonly called by their English neighbors in New York and New England, hut, in fact, they were not Dutch at all, hut THE YOUNG AMERICAN Germans. "Dutch' 1 people come from Holland, nol from Germany. Bui very many Germans have Bettled among us within the presenl century. 7. French. There were man} French emigrants who came to South Carolina, and sonic to Ww York, nearly two hundred years ago. The} were driven oui of their own country by the tyranny of a foolish king. But they NEW AMSTERDAM, 1665 The hutch village at the lower end of Manhattan Island, whicb lias grown into the •.'feat city of New York. were very excellent people, and they made good American citizens. Ami the first settlers in Louisiana and Michi- gan were French. 8. Americans. — In our times the descendants of all these European settlers, whether British, or Dutch, or Germans, <»r French, or Swede-, are simpl} Atiier leans. They are all prett} much alike using the same langua^ . 206 THE Y0UN6 AMERICAN having the same sorts of ideas. Loving the republic and its flag, and proud of being American citizens. 9. Some of our greatest men have been from one of these colonial races, some from another. General Washington was English. General Andrew Jackson, who won the great victory of New Orleans in the war of L812, and was twice president of the United States, was Scotch. Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, who was president of con- gress during the revolutionary war. was French. General Schuyler, of the revolutionary army. Martin Van Buren, president of the United States next after .Jackson, and Hamilton Fish, one of our ablest secretaries of state. wvvc of Dutch descent. Philip Sheridan, one of the most brilliant soldiers of the civil war. and later general in command of the armies of the Tinted States, was Irish. But every one of these men was a thorough American. 10. European Immigrants. -During the century since the Constitution of the United States has been in force there lias been a great increase in the coming of Europeans to America. Many millions of immigrants have settled in our cities and on the farms of the great West. Germans and Swedes. Norwegians and Danes. Bohemians, Irish. Italians, they have fairly swarmed across the Atlantic and have left their old homes in Europe to become citizens of "iir republic. So it is that we see these "foreigners," as we are apt to call them, everywhere. 11. But they are not really foreigners. Nearly all of them have come here to make their homes because, for one reason or other, they like this country better than the one which they have left. So they become Americans. Till: YOUNQ AMERICAN 207 12. Naturalization. Our laws provide liberally for such newcomers. When a foreigner has lived here five years he may become a citizen of the United States, with nil the rights and privileges of a citizen who has been born here. To be sure a foreign-born citizen cannot become president of the United States. But, then, noi many citi- zens arc likely to be candidates for the presidency. Almost any courl of law has the right to admit foreign- ers to citizenship. The law also provides that one who wishes to become a citizen must go before some court after he has lived here three years and declare his intention. This court gives the applicant a paper which states the facts — the "• first paper." as it is called. 'This certificate IS presented to the court two years later when the applicant wishes to become a citizen. A certificate — the "second paper" —is granted by the second court, showing that the applicant has now become a citizen of the United State-. 13. The admission of a foreigner to citizenship in the United States is known as naturalization, and such per- sons are called naturalized citizen-. 14. Good Citizens. — A native of Europe who makes his home with us conies here, as has been said, because, on the whole, he prefers t his count ry to t he one which he has left. Hut he still loves the country of his birth. He is fond of its language, of its hooks, of its stories and its peoph That is quite right. <>ne who does not love his native country can hardly he expected to love the country of his adoption. All that we have a right to ask is that our adopted fellow-citizens put the United States of America first. They should learn its language, know its method of 208 THE YOUNG AMERICAN government, more. If the young can Learn to Live Like white men, to earn their own Living by honesl work, they will become -nod citizens of our republic. Certainly that is what they ought to be. It' the Indians had always been treated honestly and kindly by the white-, it is more than likely that the most of them would now be civilized. Bui we must own that white men have often treated their red neighbors very badly. It has been necessary for the land to he used by civilized people; it would not be reasonable for it to lie idle for a mere hunting ground. Eowever, we cannot always be proud of the way in which our people have got the land or of the way in which they have treated the red men. The Indians are not very numerous. In L870 it was estimated that there were 357,981 wild Indians and 25,731 civilized. In L890, 58,806 civilized Indians were counted, and there were \'r\\i-r wild ones than in L870. 25. Two Stories of the Indian Wars. — The hloo.lv Indian war- have been full of cruel massacres, desper- ate fights, and hair-breadth escapes. The story of Mrs. Dustin, of Haverhill, in Massachusetts, is one of the mosl thrilling of these. And the poem, by an unknown author, 214 THE YOUNG AMERICAN commemorating a fighl with the Indians in Maine, gives a quaint account of another. Mrs. Dustin's Escape* In March. 1697, Thomas Dustin, of Haverhill, was at work in his field, when he heard the terrible whoop of Indians, and run towards his house. He had eight children — the youngest only a week old. The mother was in bed with her infant, tended by her nurse, Mary Neff . "Run for the garrison!" he shouted to his other children. They fled, the oldest carrying the youngest, while Mr. Dustin rushed into the stable for his horse. The Indians were close upon him. He could not save his wife; but would try and save some of the children. He came up with them. Which should he take ? All were equally dear to him, and he would try to save all. The Indians reach the house, and seize Mrs. Dustin and Mary Neff. They dash the infant against a rock, and the mother beholds its bleeding corpse. They rush after the fleeing family. "Run for your lives !" shouts Mr. Dustin to his children, then leaps from his horse, shelters himself behind the animal, rests his gun across the horse's back, taking deliberate aim at the foremost Indian. He fires, springs into the saddle, and is away, with the bullets flying around him. He loads his gun while on the gallop, reaches his children, dismounts, and is ready for the pursuers; so, keeping them at bay, he reaches tbe garrison, saving all his children. In a few moments, twenty-seven men, women and children in the settlement are massacred, their houses set on fire, and the Indians are fleeing toward Canada. It was the middle of March. In the woods there was still * From Coffin's "old 'rimes in the Colonies. " THE YOUNQ AMERICAN SIS iiuicli snow. The streams urn- swollen with its melting, and yet, with lint one shoe, Mrs. Dustin began lier march through the wilderness, driven by ber captors. Her feel were torn and chilled. Every step was marked by ber blood. Souk- of her fellow-captors grew fainl and fell, and then the tomahawk dispatched them. Ail except Mrs. Dustin and Marj Neff were killed. Three days broughl them to the Indian rendezvous, a Little island at the junction of the Merrimac and ( lontoocook Rivers, in Boscaweh, New Hampshire. It was a place where tin- Indians could catch fish, and where Mrs. Dustin found a little hoy. Samuel Leonardson, who had been a captive for more than a year, and who had learned the Indian Language. In a few (lays, all except twelve of the Indians started upon another marauding expedition. Upon their return, the captives would he taken to Canada. The woman who has seen her in- fant dashed against a stone has an heroic spirit. heath will he preferable to captivity. They who would he free must strike the blow that will give them freedom. She lays her plans. "Ask the Indians where they strike with the tomahawk when they want to kill a person quick," she says to Samuel. "Strike 'em here, "the Indian replies to Samuel's question, placing bis finger on Samuel's temples. Little does the savage think that his own hatchet will he buried in his brains by the keen-eyed woman who watches Ins every movement. The Indian shows Samuel how to take oil' a scalp, all of which Mrs. Dustin observes. Nlghl comes, and she informs Mar\ Neff and Samuel of her plan, and stimulates them by her heroic courage There are twelve Indians in all who lie down to sleep, feeling that their captives cannot escape. No one keeps watch. The wigwam fires burn low. No sound breaks the stillness of the uighl except the waters of the Contoocook sweeping over its 216 Till-: roUNG AMERICAN rocky bed. Mrs. Dustin rises, seizes a tomahawk, gives one to M;ir\ Nell', another to Samuel. Each selects a victim. A sig- nal, and the hatchets descend, crushing through the skulls of the Indians, blow after blow in quick succession. It is the work of a minute, but in that brief time ten of the twelve have been killed ; the two escape in the darkness! The prisoners, prisoners no longer, gather up the provisions, take the guns of the Indians, scuttle all the canoes but one, and take their departure down the Merrimac. A thought comes to the woman : will their friends believe the story they have to tell? A few strokes of the paddle bring them back to the island. Mrs. Dustin runs the scalping-knife around the brows of the dead Indians, takes their scalps, and starts once more, guid- ing the canoe with her paddle, landing, and carrying it past dangerous rapids, reaching Haverhill, sixty miles distant, with her bloody trophies, to the astonishment of her friends, who thought her dead. The Government of Massachusetts made her a present of fifty pounds; and in these later yeai-s the people of the Merrimac Valley, to commemorate her heroism, have reared a monument upon the spot where she achieved her liberty. Lovewell's Fight A nontMous A popular halli id. Written shortly after the battle of May 5, 1725, with the Indians ( )F worthy Captain LOVEWELL I purpose now to sing, How valiantly he served his country and his king ; Ih and his valiant soldiers did range the wood full wide, And hardships they endured to quell the Indian's pride. THE YOUNG .1 1/ /:/.'/< AN 317 'Twas nigh unto Pigwacket, <>n the eighth daj of May, Thej Bpied a rebel [ndian soon after break of day; He on a bank was walking, upon a neck of land. Which leads unto a pond as we're made to understand. ( >ni- men resolved to have him, and traveled two miles round, Until they met the Indian, who boldly stood his ground; Then up speaks Captain Love well, "Take you good heed," says he, "This rogue is to decoj us. I very plainly see. "The Indians lie in ambush, sonic place niyh at hand, In order to surround us upon this neck of land; Therefore we'll march iii order, and each man have his pack : That we may briskly fighl them when they make their attack." They came anto this Indian, who did them thus defy. AjS SOOn as l lie\ came nigh him. two guns he did let fly, Which wounded Captain Lovewell, and likewise our man more. Bui when this rogue was running, they laid him in his -ore. Then having scalped the Indian, they went back to the spot, Where they had laid their packs down, hut there they found them not. For the Indians having spied them, when thej them down did lay. Did seize them for their plunder, and carry them away. These rebels lay in ambush, this very place hard by, So thai an English soldier did one of them espy, And cried out, " Sere's an 1 ndian ; " with that they started out, As fiercely as old lions, and hideously did shout. 218 THE YOUNG A M KIIH'A X Willi thai our valiant English all gave a loud huzza, To show the rebel Indians they feared them not a straw : So now the light began, and as fiercely as could be, The Indians ran up to them, but soon were forced to flee. Then spake up Captain LOVEWELL, when iirst the fight began, " Fight on, my valiant heroes ! you see they fall like rain." For as we are informed, the Indians were so thick, A man could scarcely fire a gun and not some of them hit. Then did the rebels try their best our soldiers to surround, But they could not accomplish this because there was a pond, To which our men retreated and covered all the rear, The rogues were forced to flee them, although they skulked for fear. Two logs there were behind them that close together lay, Without being discovered, they could not get away; Therefore our valiant English they traveled in a row, And at a handsome distance as they were wont to go. 'Twas ten o'clock in the morning when iirst the fight begun. And fiercely did continue until the setting sun ; Excepting that the Indians some hours before Twas night. Drew off into the bushes and ceased a while to fight. to But soon again returned, in fierce and furious mood, Shouting as in the morning, but yet not half so loud ; For as we are informed, so thick and fast they fell, Scarce twenty of their number at night did get home well. And that our valiant English till midnight there did stay, To see whether the rebels would have another fray; But they no more returning, they made off towards their home. And brought away their wounded as far as they could come. THE YOUNG AMERIi l \ 219 ( >!' all our valiant English there were bul thirty-four, Ami <>!' the rebel Indians there were aboul Fourscore. And sixteen of our English did safely home return, The rest were killed and wounded, for which we all must mourn. < >ur worthy Captain Lovewell among them there did die. They killed Lieut. Robbins, and wounded good young Frye, Who was our English Chaplain ; he many Indians slew, And some of them lie scalped when bullets round him flew. Y"oung ETullam too I'll mention, because he foughl so well. Endeavoring to save a man. a sacrifice he fell: Bui yet our vaUanl English in fiehl were ne'er dismayed, Hut still they kepi their motion, and Wyman's ( !aptain made, Who shot the old chief Paugus, which did the foe defeat. Then set his men in order, and brought off the retreat ; And braving many dangers and hardships in the way. They safe arrived at Dunstable, the thirteenth day of May. 26. The Africans. — The blacks in our country — "col- ored people," or "negroes" are of African descent. They live mostly in the states south of Pennsylvania and of the Ohio River, in Texas, and in the state- on the wesl hank of the Mississippi, a- fat 1 north as Missouri. 27. dust as the white settlers in America came from Europe, so the black settlers came iii tlie hrst place from Africa. But there was this difference: the Europeans came of their own accord, because they thoughl they could do better here: hut the African- were broughi over by force, in whole shiploads, as slaves of the white-. 28. B\ a slave we mean one who is not free to work 220 Tin-: yorst; ami:i;ka.\ as he pleases, but whose work belongs by law to some one else. The owner gives the slave food and clothing and lodging, and takes cave of him when sick. But beyond this the slave gets no wages, and he must work jnst when and where his master pleases. Slaves arc bought and sold. too, about as horses arc. 2g. It was some dozen years after Englishmen made their first settlement at Jamestown, in Virginia (p. 202), when a Dutch ship came into that harbor with a cargo of negroes. Some of these were traded off to the settlers. These negroes were found Aery useful for working the tobacco fields, and it was not many years before more negroes were brought over from Africa, not only into Vir- ginia, but also into all the other colonies. 30. We must remember that at that time the laws of about every nation permitted slaves to be owned. And they were owned at one time in every one of the thirteen colonies which were the beginning of the United States. 31. But there never were many negroes north of Mary- land, and not long after the revolutionary war the laws of those northern states had been changed so that people were not permitted to have slaves. In the southern states, how- ever, there were many negroes, and they were kept as slaves until only a few years ago. 32. New states were admitted into the Union, and those north of the Ohio River had laws forbidding slavery, while the new southern states had laws permit- ting slavery. Then the free states and the slave states began to quarrel over slavery. The main dispute was about the territories. The free-state people believed that con- THE YOUNQ AMEBIC I V 22] gress had the righl bo make laws forbidding slavery in the territories. The slave-state people thoughl thai congress had do such right. Ami iii L860 and L861,when it seemed likdv thai such laws would be passed, many of the southern states derided to leave the Union and to form a new republic of their own. They called it "The Con- federate States of America " (p. L32). 33. Bu1 the rest of the states insisted thai no state had a righl to leave the Union without the consenl of the other-. Annies were formed on both side-, and there was a greal civil war. which lasted four years. The armies of the Con- federate State- were finally defeated and broken ll)t. and SO the attempt to leave the Union failed. Then the Consti- tution of the United States was changed so as to forbid slavery anywhere in the republic. In this way all the negro slaves became free, and now black men have the same rights at law as white men. 34. The civil war was a very terrible am! a very sad thing. Hundreds of thousands of men were killed and wounded in the battles, or died of diseases caused by the hardships of the campaigns. A vast amount of property was destroyed, and. as we saw (p. L99), the nation piled up a debt of thousands of millions of dollars, which is not yet all paid. The people 011 both sides were honest iii think- ing that they were right, and both northern and southern soldiers fough.1 very bravely in the battles. We shall hope that our land will never again see a civil war. 35. Now we see how it i- that there are SO many Mack people iii the southern states. The masses of them are ignorant, and many are idle and shiftless, still, theywork 222 THE YOUNG AMERICAN in the fields and in the homes, and so arc very useful. It is highly important that I hey should learn to be industrious and honest and capable of earning a good living by good work. Much is being done in the South to teach the blacks. There are common schools in which they learn to read and write and get sonic other knowledge. And there NEGROES WORKING IN A COTTON FIELD arc industrial schools which teach them how to work properly at various t rades. 36. As the negroes arc here, and are now free citizens of the republic, it certainly is important that they should heroine good cit izens. 37. The School at Tuskegee. — We have read about one school (p. 211) which is doing good work in educating negroes and Indians to be good citizens. Another of similar aim is at Tuskegee, Alabama, and is training many of the colored people. The most important purposes of the school arc thus staled in the catalogue: THE YOUNO AMERICAN ••In all the Industrial work these objects are kept in \ iew, viz. : •• l . To teach i he dignity of labor. "2. To teach the students how to work, giving them a t rade when i houghl best. ••:!. To enable students to pay a portion of their ex- penses in labor/' This is very sensible. The negroes in the southern states need, first of all, to learn steady industry, honesty, cleanliness of life and surroundings, and independenl self-support. No one who fails in these respects can be respected by his neighbors or can really respeel himself. 38. Yellow People Chinese. — West of the Rocky Mountains there are many yellow people — the Chinese. Some of them live in eastern cities, often carrying on laundries. Generally they keep more or less of the dress of Chinese, and with their yellow skins, oblique eyes, long black '" pig tails," and odd shoes and blouse, may be seen tripping along the crowded streets or busily ironing clothes in the laundry. Bui on the Pacific coasl there are many thousands n\' them— SO many that there is a part of San Francisco called the •■Chinese quarter," in which the yellow people live in a crowded mass by themseh Some are merchants and laundrynieii : some are house servants, doing the work for which women are employed in mosl families; many are laborers, working in all man- ner of rough occupations. 3g. One <><\<\ thing aboul them is thai there are very few women among them. The men come here to gel rich. They live on very little, lodging and eating as few white 224 THE WUNO AMERICAN people would be willing to <1<>. In this way they save up their money, expecting some day to go home to China to live. If one of them dies, the others try to send his body back to China for burial. 40. The European laborers do not like the Chinese. They say that the Asiatics are not good Americans; that they do not come here to live, and do not know or care anything about the republic ; that they live as no American can. and so are aide to work for wages which would not keep an American family : that in the end hack they go to China, carrying their savings with them. Congress lias made laws, therefore, forbidding any more Chinese laborers to come here. It cannot be many years, under these laws, before the Chinese laborers will disappear from our repub- lic. There are not many of them now. In 1860 there were :U.!):i: > » : in 1870, 63,199; in 1880, L05,465 ; in 1890, 107,475. So we see how rapidly their numbers increased until the laws forbade their coming. CHAPTER XV] Who Are Our Rulers i. The Law-Makers. — We have seen that our republic lias a greal number of public officers. To begin with, there are all the law-making bodies. At Washington is the federal congress, meeting every year Eor months at a time, ami making laws Eor the nation. At each of the forty-five state capitals is a legislature, meet- ing either every year or every other year, and making laws Eor tin' state. Several territories have legislatures. At each county seat is some sort of county board, many of them meeting more than once in a year, ami making law- ful- the county. Then, every city has it- council, and in many states t he village has a village board, meeting weekly, as a rule, and making laws for the city or the village. 2. Many sorts of laws are made. Some of them forbid certain things to he done — like the law againsl stealing. Other laws command something to be done like the law which Compels people to he vaccinated. SO a- to avoid small-pox. Many laws, in nation, state, county, ami city, are tax laws: that is. they li\ the amount ami the kind of taxes which the people shall pay into the public treas- ury. Many more laws decide how this money shall he spent. Part of it goes for the salaries of public officers; pari for public buildings, like court-houses, prisons, schools, 15 226 Till- YOUNG AMERICAN and post-offices : pari of it for public services, like paving streets, carrying the mails, providing fire-engines. And there are many other kinds of laws. 3. Now. how are all these law-makers appointed ? In almost every case they are elected by the. people. The United States senators, to be sure, are chosen by the state legislatures. But the people elect the members of the legislatures. And the people elect the members of the national house of representatives, of the state legislatures, of the various county boards, and of the city councils. So we may say that in the end the people elect all the law- makers. 4. The Administrative Officers. — Then, there are many officers busy in carrying out the laws. First of all, of course, is the president of the United States. Under Ins authority are his cabinet, the eight heads of depart- ments, with the great number of officials under each, some in Washington, and many soldiers, postmasters and clerks, customs officers, and the like, scattered over the Union. Altogether there are nearly two hundred thousand federal officers subject to the direction of the president — quite an army, we see. 5. In each of the forty-five states there is a similar army, though much smaller, with a governor at the head. Besides the state officials, there are included also those in the counties, cities, towns, and villages. These people are busy with all the different kinds of public work. Many of them are occupied with the public money, assessors deciding the value of property on which taxes must be paid, others receiving payment of the taxes and giving the THE YOUNQ AMERICAN 227 taxpayer receipts, others taking charge of the tnonej thus collected and paying it onl as directed by law. 6. Who appoints all these people to office? The presi- ded of the United States is chosen l>\ election, and the electors are chosen by the people. The president appoints the mosl importani of the federal officers, and they in turn, or some of them, appoinl the inferior officers. We miisi remember thai there are many appointments which the presidenl cannoi make without the approval of the senal e. 7. To illustrate, we may take a post-office in a large city, like Chicago. The postmaster has charge. lie is appointed by tin' president, with the approval of the senate. There is a number of clerks and letter-carriers. These are appointed by the postmaster-general, and the mosl of them can be removed only for had conduct. 8. The postmasters in small places are appointed by the postmaster-general. 9. If we conie to the states, we find that some of the officers arc appointed l>\ some one higher in authority, and many arc elected by the people. The governor is always chosen by the people, as arc the sheriffs, the mayor-, and many more. 10. So we sec that the officers who carry out the laws are cither elected by the people or arc appointed, directly or indirectly, by some one who is elected by the people. 11. The Courts of Law. — The federal judges are all appointed by the presidenl of the United States. Of course the senate has to be consulted. In some of the states, as in Massachusetts, the governor appoints the 228 the young American judges. Bui in most of the states the judges are elected by the people. Now. we remember that the people elect the governors, and that the electors who choose the presi- dent, and the state legislatures which choose the sena- tors, are also elected by the people. So Ave see that the judges are either elected by the people or are appointed, directly or indirectly, by some one who is elected by the people. 12. How the Officers Are Chosen. — Then, we are not far out of the way if we say that our whole government consists of officers who are chosen b// tin 1 people. To he sure, the postmaster-general may appoint a village post- master. But the postmaster-general is appointed by the president, with the approval of the senate. And the presi- dent is really elected by the people. The electors whom the people choose would never think of voting for any one but the man nominated by their political party. The senators, too, are chosen by legislatures elected by the people. So, after all, the village postmaster depends for his office on the election by the people. 13. Elections. -- We are all familiar with elections. They are held often in November; many of them, espe- cially for local officers, in the spring; in a few states, in August or September or October. Votes are cast by means of printed papers called ballots. Each voter has the right to cast one ballot. It is put into a locked box— the ballot-box. At night, when the voting is ended, the ballot-box is unlocked and the votes are counted. Then the officers who have charge of the ballot-box make a report to the proper election officers. In this way it is THE YOUNQ AMERICAN found out who has tin- mosl votes, and he is elected. Sometimes one person has more than half of all the votes cast. This is a majority. In other cases ii" "in- has a majority, l>ut one person lias more votes than anj one else. This is a plurality. The person who has a majority is always elected, and for must offices a plurality also elects. 14. Who Are " the People"? — Now, who are the peo- ple who fleet so many officers in our republic? Is it nil the people? Surely not. Many are children too young to \ote. And in most of the states the women do not vote. either. So it is plain that the men who have the righl to vote are less than half of nil the people. 15. But tin' laws are not the same in all the states. In some states a man has the righl to vote who. in some other states, would not have that right. In many state- no one can vote unless he is a citizen of the United States, which. indeed, ough.1 to he the law everywhere. In a few state-, however, one who has taken his " first papers,"' although he is not a citizen, has the righl to vote. In a few states, also. 110 one ma\ vote unless he can read and write, which surely seems a reasonable requirement. Bui in most of the states ignorance is no bar to voting. 16. The States Decide Who May Vote. — We see from what has been said that it is the states that make t In- laws which give or withhold the righl to vote. The United Mate- governmenl can make no such law-. The states ma\ do very nearly as they please. So it is that Borne states allow women to vote at all elections. Some allow women to vote at elections for school officers, and many do not 230 THE YOUNG AMERICAN allow women to vote ai all. If we wish to know who may vote, then, we must look in the constitution and laws of each of t lie states. 17. The People "Who Vote Are the Real Rulers.— And when we speak of the people as elect inn,' public officers, we mean the people who hare the right to vote. 18. Our whole republic depends in the end on the wis- dom of the people in voting. And so the safety and suc- cess of the republic will depend very largely on what sort of voters we have. 19. All voters ought to know for what they are voting. They ought to understand what the republic is. what are the duties of public officers, and why they prefer one man or one political party instead of another. Ignorant voters are easily led by dishonest and selfish politicians, and are likely to elect men who want office because they can make money out of it for themselves. Ignorant voters are a danger to the republic. 20. All voters should be honest in casting their votes. A vote is not a piece of personal property, like a calf or a hog. It is. in fact, a trust for the public use. One is not voting for himself alone, but for the welfare of all the peo- ple — for those who cannot vote as well as for those who can. And. then, when a voter sells his vote he is guilty of shameless treachery to the republic. He is a traitor quite as truly as was Benedict Arnold in the revolutionary war. Hut the one who buys the vote is no better, lie also is a criminal, and a very dangerous one. Anyone who sells or buys a vote should never he allowed again to vote or hold office in our republic. THE YOUNG AMERICAh 21. The Real State. The machiner} of governmenl is a mere means of the people to attain certain ends. No machinery will run of itself. NTo governmenl is worth much unless honest ami able men are selected to do ii- work. And such men uever will be selected unless the people, who are the real rulers, themselves have high ideals of honesty and i:<><>d government. What a famous English judge thought of this a century ami more ago, and what a -till more Famous English judge thoughl three hundred years ago, it may he worth while tr labored mound. Thick wall or moated gate; Nol cities proud, with spires ami turrets crowned; Nol bays and broad-arm ports, When-, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride; \<>t starred ami spangled courts, Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. No ! Men — high-minded men With powers ,-is far above dull brutes endued. In forest, brake, or den. A.s l>ea-is excel cold rocks and brambles rude: Men. wlio their duties know. Bui know their rights, and. knowing, dare maintain: 1 Ycvt'iit the long aimed blow, And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain. •Sir William Jones, bora 1746, died 1794, was a famous English scholar and juris 232 THE YOUNG AMERICAN These constitute :i state; And sovereign law, that state's collected will, O'er thrones and globes elate Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill. ***** The True Greatness of Nations Lord Bacon* The greatness of an estate, in hulk and territory, doth fall under measure ; and the greatness of finance and revenue doth fall under computation. The population may appear by mus- ters ; and the number and greatness of cities and towns by cards and maps. But yet there is not anything, amongst civil affairs, more subject to error, than the right valuation and true judgment concerning the power and forces of an estate. The kingdom of heaven is compared, not to any great kernel, or nut, but to a grain of mustard seed ; which is one of the least grains, but hath in it a property and spirit hastily to get up and spread. So are there states great in territory, and yet not apt to enlarge or command ; and some that have but a small dimen- sion of stem, and yet are apt to be the foundation of great monarchies. Walled towns, stored arsenals and armories, goodly races of horses, chariots of war, elephants, ordnance, artillery, and the like : all this is but a sheep in a lion's skin, except the breed and disposition of the people be stout and warlike. Nay, number itself in armies importeth not much, where the people are of weak courage ; for, as Virgil saith : It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be. The army of the Persians, ♦ Lord Bacon, born 1560, died 1626, was one of the greatest writers and thinkers in the history of England. lie was lord high chancellor of the kingdom, and the author of immortal works of a varied character. THE YOUNG AMERICA* in the plains of Arbela, was such a vast sea of people as it did somewhal :i --t < n i i^l i the commanders in Alexander's arm; ; who came to him, therefore, and wished him i" sel upon them by night : bul he answered, He would not pilfer the victory; and the defeal was easj . When Tigranes, the Armenian, being encamped u] a hill with four hundred thousand men, dis covered the army of the Romans, being not above fourteen thousand, marching towards him, he made himself merry with it, and said, Yonder men arc too many for an embassage and too few for a fight. But, before the sun set. he found them enough to give him the chase with infinite slaughter. 22. Some of Our Advantages. — Our republic has some great advantages over many other nations. One of these i> tli.-it we govern ourselves. There i- no king or nobleman who inherits from his father the right to govern as. We choose our own law-makers, and if we dislike the law- thej make, we choose others in their place. If we are governed badly, we know that it is our nun fault. 23. We have a good system of government. Our na- tional Constitution was made by some of the wisest men who ever lived, and we have become used to it. It tits us. like a well-made suit of dot hes. 24. We have free speech and a free press, the right to organize parties of churches as we like, the right to assem- ble when and where we please for a public meeting. Many of these things are not permitted under some governments in Europe. 25. Some of Our Defects.- While we have reason to love our country and to be proud of it. if we are honest we must admit that there are some serious faults in the gOV- 234 THE YOUNG AMERICAN eminent — faults which true patriots will do all in their power to remedj . 26. Many people who hold public office are not honest. They take advantage of every opportunity to get money for themselves ; they are in politics, not for the public good, but for their private gain. They are bad servants of the people. 27. Party spirit is a bad thing. People belong to a political party, and learn to hate those Avho belong to any other. We vote blindly for a candidate merely because he has our party name, without stopping to inquire whether he is honest and capable or not. We are too apt to think that members of the other party are all enemies of the state. In fact, there are honest men and patriots in all parties. We ought to learn to differ in opinion without hating one another. 28. Indifference to public duty is another bad thing. Every citizen should know about the government and what it is doing. Every voter should take pains to vote, and to make sure that he does not vote for bad men. If people do nothing to make politics good, they have no right to complain when they find corrupt politicians in office. In fact, everybody ought to be a politician. That name should not he a term of reproach, as it often is now. 29. People are too eager to get rich rapidly. Many have done that. Put many more have failed. And the eager strain after sudden wealth makes men envious of those who succeed, and too often teaches dishonesty as a less evil than poverty. In fact, every one ought to be able to earn an honest living, and, if possible, to lay up money for Till: YOUNO AMERK AN 285 the future. Bui absolute honesty ia better than all the riches of all the millionaires. 30. Another evil is thai we are apl to pa} Least attention t«> what is going on nearest home. We get excited aboul the tariff, or the kind of money the governmenl issues, or some foreign war, and forget all about our own local gov- ernment. One of the worst defects in our republic is the bad government of our cities. If people would try as hard to get honest aldermen as they do to get their candidate for presidenl elected, we should have a much better govern- ment at every point. If city and county politics are full of corruption and inefficiency, state and national polities will not be much better. Patriotism, like charity, should begin at home. 31. Some of Our Needs. — In a free republic all the citizens ought to be intelligent. E very one should know about the government, and should understand his rights and his duties as a citizen. 32. We need more independence, less following party leaders. Voters should make up their own minds as to what is for the public good, and then vote as dictated by conscience rather than by a party. 33. We need a higher sense of honor. We should feel that self-respect is better than riches, and that no one can do a mean or dishonorable thing without losing respect for himself. Hut dishonesty in politics and in public office is both mean and dishonorable. 34. We need a more exalted patriotism. We should love our country so well that we not merely are proud of its great deeds, but also are jealous of its fair fame. We 236 THE YOUNG AMERICAN should be ready, i!' need be, to die in its defense, as so many brave men have done on the field of battle. We should also Live in its service, doing all in our power to keep it free from reproach. 35. Our National Hymn. — Samuel F. Smith was horn in Boston in 18<)8. and graduated at Earvard College in 1829, in the same class with Oliver Wendell Holmes. It was at a reunion of that class that Dr. Holmes read ;i droll poem called " The Boys," in which he referred to Dr. Smith in the following lines : And there's a nice youngster of excellent pith — Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith; But he shouted a song for the brave and the free — Just read on his medal, "My country, — of thee! " 36. "America" was written in 1832 for a children's Sunday-school meeting in Boston. It is now the favorite national hymn. Dr. Smith died in 1895. America S. P. Smith My country ! 'tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing ; Land where my fathers died, Land of the pilgrims' pride ; From every mountain side, Let freedom ring. My native country ! thee, Land of the noble free, Thy name I love : Till: YOUNO AMERICAN I love thj rocks aud rills, Thy woods and templed hills; My heart with rapture thrills, Lake that above. Lei music swell the breeze, Ami ring from all the trees, Sweel freedom's song; | /( -t i lal tongues awake, Lei all thai breathe partake, Lei rock- their silence break. The sound prolong. ( >m- fathers' I rod ! to thee, Author of Liberty ! To thee we sing; Lone mav our land be brighl With freedom's holy lighl ; Protecl u- by thy might, Greal < rod, our King : APPENDIX A A Few Words to Teachers If a book of this kind accomplishes its purpose it must, firsi oi all, awaken intere.sl in the subject of which it treats. Such interest, how- ever, can never be sated by the information which the book supplies. At ever) point the intelligenl reader will have a multitude of queries — queries, many of which the teacher will wish to answer on the spot. Bui for many others il will be better to direct the inquirer to suitable I ks. Thus the discussions in theclass-r n maybe made tin- means of giving intelligenl direction to aroused curiosity and of providing an immediate motive for a wider range of reading. This will In- I rue i-sjici-iallv of the historical questions which will from time to time be raised. Of course "The Young American" is in no sense a history. So far as it treats our history il is merelj in order to illumine existing facts — to make plain how our government came to lie what it is. Obviously, such a treatmenl of history cannol be, even in an elementary sense, complete, nor can it always be in chronological order. Bui it will fully answer its purpose if it does make plain the reasons for things, and if also it inflames desire for wider knowledge of the sequence of our nal ional life. So far as the structure and working of our goveri ni are con- cerned, it has been necessary to speak in quite general terms. Bui to give the book living interest the teacher will find it necessary, as far as possible, to make everything individual and local. For instance, with regard to the national government, the reader should find out such facts as these : Who is now the president of the United States, and who the vice-president ; in what year they were elected, and as the candidates of whal political part] ; when inaugu- rated, and on what dale their term will expire ; who are the United States senators from his state, when each was eld-ted. and from what political party : who is the representative in congress from his dis- trict, when he was elected, and what i- his party : who is his postmas- ter : who is the United State- districl judge for his district ? With regard to the state government, there should be a similar inquiry as to the gover •. lieutenant-governor (if there is one), the local J in APPENDIX members of the state legislature, t he county judge, the justice of the peace, and any other courts. There should be the same facts ascertained with reference to the county, village, town, and city government in which one lives. As regards the local government, also, there should be an inquiry as to how far that corresponds with the general statements of the book, and how it differs. In other words, the reader should be made to apply everything he learns about government just as far as possible to his actual local con- ditions. Thus he will realize that government is something which is about him all the time, and not merely a thing told about in books. As far as possible, illustrative material should be brought, into the class. A coin, a piece of paper currency, "greenback," silver certifi- cate, and national bank note — a sample ballot, an election notice, a tax notice — anything and everything which can be had to show the actual working of any branch of government — all these will be of great value. The readers should be encouraged to ask questions, and to tell any- thing which they may know bearing on the subject. It will be seen that throughout the book there are not many notes and explanations. The author expects the teacher to be the living commentary. This is the only adequate method. Classes differ widely in their attainments and needs. The teacher is the only one who can adapt a given book to the special needs for which he has to provide. But the teacher can do more than direct the intelligence of his class to a comprehension of the structure of the republic. Patriotism in feeling can be taught as well. In many ways patriotic emotion can be developed and cherished, and, above all, if the teacher can implant a keen sense of the duty of a citizen, the work will become of deep sig- nificance to the future welfare of our beloved country. If the present I look can be used as an efficient aid to the teacher in such an under- taking, the author will be profoundly grateful. APPENDIX B A Brief Account of the Constitution of the United States* The Constitution of the United States, briefly mentioned on page 97 and page 98, was made by a convention of our wisest men, which met * The full text nf the Constitution may be found in almost any school lex t- book ou the history of the United States or on civil government. APPENDIX Jll at Philadelphia in 1787. The Constitution consists of a shorl prefa commonly called the preamble ; of seven parts, called articles; and of fifteen additions, called amend/merits. These amendments have been made a! differenl times, the lasl having been adopted in 1870. The Preambli ■• We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more per- fect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the < unon defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of libertj to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Articli I This article treats of federal laws. It is divided into ten parts. called sections. The first six of these sections provide for the federal law-making body, the congress (p. 121). The seventh section prescribes the methods which congress follow iii making laws. The eighl h seel ion contains t he powers of congn 1 hat is. t he kinds of laws which congress may make The ninth section contains prohibitions on congn thai is, the kinds of laws which congress may not make. The tenth section contains prohibitions on the states — that is, the things which neither the constitutions nor the law- of the states musl permit. Articlt II This article treats of the enforcement of federal laws. It is divided into four seel ions. The firsl section provides lor the federal executive — that is. the president of the United States (p. 128). It prescribes the mode of his election, what sorl of person may be elected, what shall be done in case of the president's death, and other matters. The second section contains the powers of the president — that i-. the things which he has a right to do. The third section contains the duties of the president — that is. the things which he must do.* * In this section there is one thing which i- rather npoicer than a duly, and which therefore might better have been put in the second section the power to summon congress in special session, ami to adjourn it under certain circumstai Hi 242 APPENDIX Tlic fourth section prescribes what shall be done in case the presi- dent, or any of the officers under him, shall misbehave in office. Article III This article treats of the way in which the federal laws and Con- stitution are explained, and of how justice is done in case of dispute about the meaning of these laws, or in case they are broken. It is divided into three sections. The first section provides for the federal courts (p. 102) — "one su- preme court, and . . . such inferior courts as the Congress may fnun time to time ordain and establish." The second section contains the powersof the federal courts — that is, what sorts of lawsuits they may decide. The third section defines the crime of treason, and prescribes how it may. and how it may not, be punished. Article IV This article treats of the states. It is divided into four sections. The first and second sections detail some duties of the states to one another. The third section prescribes how new states may be admitted into the Union (p. 101), and gives congress the control of the federal ter- ritory (p. 106). The fourth section details some duties of the Union to the separate -tales. Article V This article treats of the way in which the federal Constitution may be amended — that is. changed in any way by alteration or addition. It is in the way here prescribed that the fifteen amendments (p. 241, 24:!) have been adopted. Article VI This article (in three sections) contains some miscellaneous agree- ments. The most, important is the second section, which provides that the Constitution, laws, and treaties of the United States "shall be the supreme law of the land."' and that no stale may make any law which shall conflict with them, or with any part of them. Article VII This article provided that as soon as nine of the thirteen states should accept the Constitution, the government for which if provided should at once go into effect. API'EXhIX 343 It has been said thai the convention which framed the Constitution nut .it Philadelphia in 1787. General Washington presided. The work was finished in the early autumn, ami tin- congress at once senl the proposed plan of governmenl to tin- states. They approved it. ami so, as provided in the seventh article, the nev governmenl was Formed. Senators and representatives were elected from the several -tat'-, ami George Washington was unanimously elected president. The new congress met at New York on the Itb of March, 1789. Thus this is the date, every second year, of the beginning of t In- term of a new eon gress, ami every fourth year Hi' the inauguration of a new presidenl Tin. Amendments Prom time to time changes ami additions have been made in the way prescribed in Article A'. There are now fifteen of these amend- ments. The first ten amendments were all adopted in the firsl term of Washington a- president, and are further prohibitions on congress, or on the federal e -is— that is. they contain a list of things which neither congress nor the courts may n the question of accepting the con- stitution thus proposed. J 1 1 APPENDIX The stale constitutions are alike in providing for ;i government con- sisting- of a legislature in two houses, a governor, and law courts. Then, there are sections dealing with the powers and duties of these different branches of the government, and many sections containing prohibitions, especially on the legislature. There is always an article containing the way in which the constitution may be amended, and usually several others relating to different kinds of state business — education, counties, cities, finance, and the like. A slate constitution is often very long — much longer than the Con- stitution of the United Stales. Each reader should, by all means, get a copy of the constitution of liis slate and see what it contains. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 618 377 6