YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

">**? ;/i

S~i

o

'';..(

\ J

¦O

-¦'

- ,.D

<> *

0

*?

¦¦.*

/*•¦
;xr ^fx
1 -
»M»M«tfWr«Tfcltf»«^itrBrtW»»«*iui'irf»»,.i.»...M"l«.'»«ftHMfcij
.-«.  ami. <-r.,»»-ft^.i ¦ mnn ¦ i , ,„„.., ,r ,,. ,,r f.,.., ...... «— llr.
CO jz

' 4

Source-Book of
American History

<(

Source-Book of
American History

Edited for Schools and Readers

BY

ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, Ph.D.
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY

WITH PRACTICAL INTRODUCTIONS

Nrfn Horit
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO , Ltd.
I9CO
All rights reserved

Copyright, 1899,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped June, 1899. Reprinted October,
'899; August, 1900.

V>

Norwood Presi
J. S. Cushing (S Co. — Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mass. U.S. A.

*»>

Preface

THIS little book is an attempt to do for the study of American
history what the photographer does for the study of art, — to
collect a brief series of illustrations which, without including a hundredth
part of the whole field, may give examples of the things most important
to know. Yet, as no sensible person expects to get a knowledge of art
simply from seeing a series of lantern slides, so it is not expected that
the history of the United States can be learned from a Source Book,
without the intelligent use of a good text-book or narrative history to
bring out the connection and to suggest the many great men, large
events, and broad movements which in this small collection of reprints
have no mention. What I hope is that these brief records may awaken
interest in the books from which they came and in the men who wrote
them ; that a clearer idea of what our ancestors did and thought and
suffered may be had from their own writings; that the book may serve
as a part of the material necessary for topical study ; and, above all, that
it may throw a human interest about the necessarily compact and factful
statements of text-books.
In making up the texts I have taken some pains to give an object-
lesson in the methods of using and citing books, by adopting the severe
principles of scientific work in history ; in every case I have sought for
the earliest authentic edition of printed material ; every omission is indi
cated by periods (...); the text is reprinted precisely, necessary
corrections or glosses being indicated by brackets or in the margin ; and
to every extract is appended an exact reference to the source from which
it came. Acknowledgments of the use of materials are thus in every
case made by reference to the editions used ; I am under much obli
gation to the owners of copyright material, who have most fully and
generously given their permission to reprint extracts.
v

VI

Preface

The facsimile illustrations are intended to suggest to young people
the kind of manuscript and other material with which historians are
familiar. For the frontispiece nothing more characteristic of Puritan sen
timent, Puritan government, and Puritan, hand- writing could be found
than the Mayflower Compact of 1620. The two pieces of Continental
currency show the rude engraving and printing of the time, as well as
the financial devices of the Revolution. Charles Carroll of Carrolltor^'s
letter on his fugitive slaves is a rare example of the business-Uke fashion
in which the best planters looked upon their chattels. The extracts
from the final Proclamation of Emancipation show Lincoln's character
istic hand-writing, in one of the most famous of the sources of American
history. I make no excuse for reproducing the few documents as exactly
as possible ; and I make none for printing extracts from books exactly
as they appear in the original editions, with any peculiarities of gram
mar or spelling which now would be errors. In the seventeenth cen
tury, and even in the eighteenth, there were as yet no fixed rules on
sucli subjects ; and town clerks and other writers often had little book
education. Pupils of the age of those for whom this book is intended
will not find their own style affected by these obvious deviations from
modern usage ; and to reduce the quaint and wandering sentences of
our ancestors to order would be like putting Cotton Mather into the
silk hat and plain black coat of modem society.
The work of preparation has been interesting to me ; I hope the
result may be interesting to those who use it. Though I have chosen
extracts which would bring out the two sides of great controversies, I
take no other responsibility for the sentiments herein expressed than
that of one who introduces a set of living, individual people, who speak
for themselves of their lives/ their interests, their standards, and their
conception of their country's history. ALBERT BUSHNELL HART.
Cambridge, April 2, 1899.

Contents

PRACTICAL INTRODUCTIONS
PACE
I. The Use of Sources  Xvii
II. Materials for Source Study  , . xx
III. The Sources in Secondary Schools  xxiv
IV. The Sources in Normal Schools  xxix
V. Subjects for Topical Study from Sources  xxxiii
CHAPTER I— DISCOVERIES
1. Christopher Columbus :
Discovery of the New World, 1492  1
2. Peter Martyr d'Anghiera:
Ah English Voyage to North America, 1497  4
3. Francisco Vasquez Coronado :
A Spanish Exploration, 1 541  D
4. Anonymous: An English Plundering Voyage, 1578-1579  9
5. Anonymous: The First English Exploration, 1 607  n
6. Samuel Sieur de Champlain :
A French Exploration, 1615  |<
CHAPTER II — CONDITIONS OF SETTLEMENT
7. John Evelyn :
Life in England, 1652-1668  18
8. Reverend William Castell :
Reasons for Emigration, 1641  21
9. Henry Spelman:
Indian Life, 1 609-1 61 3  23
10. John Sadler:
Requirements of an Emigrant, 1634  26
1 1 . John Jossely n ;
Some Rarities ofNav England, 1663-1671  29
12. Thomas Ash :
Praise of Indian Corn, 1682  32
vii

Vlll

Contents

CHAPTER III — FIRST ERA OF COLONIZATION PAGB
13. Captain John Smith :
Settlement of Virginia, 1607  33
14. Doctor William Barlow :
7 he King and tlie Puritans, 1604  37
15. Governor WiUiam Bradford :
Settlement of Plymouth, 1 620  39
16. Father Isaac Jogues :
Settlement of New Amsterdam, 161 5-1644  42
17. Governor Thomas Dudley:
Planting of Massachusetts, 1 627-1 631  45
18. Jaspar Dankers and Peter Sluyter :
Conditions of Maryland, 1 632  48
19. Henry Wolcott, Jr. :
Foundation of Government in Connecticut, 1 638  51
20. Secretary Nathaniel Morton :
Foundation of Rhode Island, 1636  52
21. Governor John Winthrop :
Foundation of New Hampshire, 1637-1639  55
CHAPTER IV— SECOND ERA OF COLONIZATION
22. Governor Sir Edmund Andros :
An Account of New York, l6j8 — ~-  58
23. John Fenwick :
New Jersey " a Healthy Pleasant, and Plentiful Country,"
1675  62
24. Late Governor John Archdale :
Description of Carolina, 1 665- 1 695 ....... 65
25. Richard Townsend :
Settlement of Pennsylvania, 1682 ........ 67
26. Reverend William Edmundson:
A Journey through Delaware, 1 676 ....... 69
27. General James Edward Oglethorpe (?) :
Progress of Georgia, 1733  71
CHAPTER V— COLONIAL LIFE IN THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY
28. Governor John Winthrop :
New England Life, 1630-1635  74
29. Thomas Lechford :
Church Services, 1642 .,,,,,,,.. 77

1492— I766

IX

PAGB
30. William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson :
A Quaker Warning, 1659  go
31. Reverend Cotton Mather:
A Witch Trial, 1692  g2
32. Ordinances of New Amsterdam :
Life in New York, 1 647-1 658  gr
33. Robert Holden: 3
The Trade of the Colonies, 1 679  gg
34. Anonymous: —
Plantation Life in Virginia, 1648  qi
35. Virginia Assembly :
Slavery in Virginia, 1667-1680  g2
CHAPTER VI — RIVALS FOR EMPIRE
36. Henry Sieur de Tonty :
La Salle on the Mississippi, 1681-1682  06
37. Anonymous: Destruction of Deerfield, 1704 .  gg
38. Professor Peter Kalm :
The French Trade with the Indians, 1749  100
39. Colonel George Washington :
Braddock' 's Defeat, 1 7 55  ,<>,
40. Francois Bigot :
Capture of Quebec, 1759  lot
CHAPTER VII— COLONIAL LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY
41. Colonel John Seymour:
Discomforts of Colonial Life, 1708  log
42. Reverend George Whitefield :
The Great Awakening in New England, 1740  109
43. Ebenezer Cook :
A Satire on Tobacco Planters, 1 708  1 j j
44- William Black :
Social Life in Philadelphia, 1744  ,,.
45- Professor Peter Kalm :
The Town of New York, 1748  II?
46. Colonel William Byrd :
A Southern Criticism of Slavery, 1736  „„
47. Alexander Graydon :
A Colonial School-Boy, 1760-1766  i22

Contents

CHAPTER VIII— COLONIAL GOVERNMENT
PAGE
48. James Earl of Stanhope :
The English Council for Trade and Plantations, l"]\$ . . . .124
49. Samuel Purviance, Jr. :
How to Manage Elections, 1765  126
50. Professor Peter Kalm :
The Governor and Assembly in New York, 1748  128
51. Agent Benjamin Franklin :
Objections to Governing of Colonies by Instructions, 1772 . . . 131
52. Boston Town Records:
A Colonial Town-Meeting, 1729  132
CHAPTER IX— THE REVOLUTION
53. Deacon John Tudor :
The Boston Tea-Party, 1773  137
54. Reverend John Witherspoon :
" Conduct of the British Ministry j' 1775  138
55. Reverend Andrew Burnaby :
Undeniable Supremacy of Parliament, 11"]*,  141
56. Anonymous :
" The American Patriot1 s Prayer," I'j'jb  143
57. Reverend William Emerson :
Battle of Lexington and Concord, 1775  144
58. Delegate John Adams:
Drafting the Declaration of Independence, 1776  147
59. General George Washington :
Report of the Battle of Princeton, 1777  149
60. Eliza Wilkinson :
A Southern Lady's Experience of War, 1780  151
61. Captain Georg Pausch :
Hard Fighting at Saratoga, 1 777  154
62. Robert Morton :
'j 'he Baneful Influence of Paper Money, 1777  157
63. Anonymous: A Ballad on Cornwallis, 1781  159
CHAPTER X — THE CONFEDERATION AND THE
CONSTITUTION
64. J. Hector St. John de Crevecceur :
What is an American ? 1782  161
65. Judge Benjamin Huntington :
Life in Congress, 1 783  1 64

1715— 1 81 2 xi
PACE
66. Jean Pierre Brissot de Warville :
The West, 1788  166
67. Reverend Manasseh Cutler :
The Inner History of the Northwest Ordinance , 1787 .... 169
68. Delegate George Mason :
Objections to the Constitution, 1787 . . . . . . .172
69. Colonel Jonathan B. Smith :
The Political Harvest Time, 1788  175
70. Francis Hopkinson :
" The New Roof," 1788  178
CHAPTER XI — MAKING A GOVERNMENT, 1789-1801
71. Senator William Maclay :
A Democratic View of Washington, 1 789-1 790  181
72. Representative Fisher Ames :
Speech on the Tariff, 1 789  183
73. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson :
A Question of Compromise, 1 790  186
74. Chief Justice John Jay :
Maritime Grievances, 1794  188
75. C. C. IMnckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry :
" The X Y Z Despatches," 1 797 . . . . . . . .191
76. Richard Carter :
A Case of Impressment, 1799  194
CHAPTER XII — JEFFERSON'S POLICY, 1801-1808
77. Theodore Dwight :
Election (if Jefferson, 1801  197
78. President Thomas Jefferson :
Acquisition of Louisiana, 1803 ........ 200
79. Midshipman Basil Hall:
" Blockading a Neutral Port," 1 804  202
80. Patrick Gass :
Lewis and Clark's Oregon Expedition, 1804-1805 .... 206
81. Representative Josiah Quincy :
Effect of the Embargo, 1808  209
CHAPTER XIII — THE WAR OF 1812
82. Francis James Jackson :
Impressions of America, 1810  212
83. President James Madison :
Causes of the War, 1812 .  214

Xll

Contents

FACE
84. Captain Isaac Hull :
Capture of the Guerriire, 1812  216
85. Reverend George Robert Gleig :
Capture of Washington, 1814  218
86. Major Arsene Lacarriere Latour :
Battle of New Orleans, 1815  220
87. Commissioner Albert Gallatin :
Discussion of the Peace, 1 814  223

CHAPTER XIV — CONDITIONS OF NATIONAL GROWTH,
1815-1830
88. John Melish :
Boston and Neighboring Towns, 1806
89. Colonel Thomas Jefferson Randolph :
The Virginia Gentleman, 1801-1809
90. Reverend Timothy Flint :
Religious Life in the West, 1828 .
91. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams :
Missouri Compromise, 1820 .
92. Morris Birkbeck :
A Settler in Illinois, 1817
93. Surgeon Henry Bradshaw Fearon :
Amusements in New Orleans, 1818

226 228
23"234237
240

CHAPTER XV — ABOLITIONISTS, 1835-1841
94. Reverend John Rankin :
A Western Abolition Argument, 1824 ,  242
95. Governor George McDuffie :
A Southern Defence of Slavery, 1 835  244
96. William Lloyd Garrison :
An Anti-Abolitionist Mob, 1835 • •  248
97. George William Fcatherstonhaugh :
The Internal Slave-Trade, 1 834 . . . . . . . . 25 1
98. Charity Bowery:
A Slave's Narrative, 1844  255
99. John Greenleaf Whittier :
Farewell of a Slave Mother, 1 838  258
100. Henry Box Brown :
A Fugitive's Narrative, 1848  260
101 Salmon Portland Chase :
A Political Abolitionist, 1845  263

l8l2-l862

Xlll

CHAPTER XVI— TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT, 1841-1853
PACE
102. Charles Augustus Davis :
Jackson's Responsibility, 1 833  266
103. Francis Parkman, Jr. :
The Oregon Trail, 1846  268
104. James Russell Lowell :
A Satire on the Mexican War, 1846  271
105. Reverend Walter Colton :
At the Gold Fields, 1848  276
106. Senator Henry Clay :
Compromise of/8jo  279
CHAPTER XVII — SLAVERY CONTEST, 1851-1860
107. Richard Henry Dana, Jr. :
The Rescue of Shadrach, 1 85 1  282
108. Representative Thomas Hart Benton :
A Criticism of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1 854  284
109. Erastus D. Ladd :
Troubles in Kansas, 1855 ......... 287
no. Justice John McLean':
The Dred Scott Decision, 1 856  290
ill. Senator Stephen A. Douglas :
A Criticism of Lincoln, 1 858  .291
1 1 2. Captain John Brown :
John Brown's Last Speech, 1859  294
1 1 3. Alexander H. Stephens :
Slavery the Corner-Stone of the Confederacy, 1861 .... 296
114. Captain Abner Doubleday :
Attack on Fort Sumter, 1 861  299
CHAPTER XVIII — CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865
115. Reverend Morgan Dix :
The Rousing of the North, 1861  303
1 16. Edmund Clarence Stedman :
Battle of Bull Run, 1861  305
117. George Cary Eggleston :
The Southern Soldier, 1861-1865  308
118. Reverend Francis Nathan Peloubet and Reverend George Lansing Taylor :
Supplies for the Wounded, 1862  . . 311
119. Flag-Officer David Glasgow Farragut :
Farragut at New Orleans, 1862  . .313

XIV

Contents

120. Francis Bicknell Carpenter:
Proclamation of Emancipation, l86l
121. Doctor Albert Gaillard Hart:
In the Thick of the Fight, 1863 .
122. "A Lady":
Cave Life in a Besieged City, 1 863
123. New York Tribune :
Battle of Gettysburg, 1863 .
1 24. President Abraham Lincoln :
The War and Slavery, 1864
General Horace Porter :
Surrender of Lee, 1 865
James Russell Lowell :
Abraham Lincoln, 1865

125.

126.

127.

128.

129.

130.

131.

«32-

CHAPTER XIX — RECONSTRUCTION, 1865-1871
Sidney Andrews :
Condition of the South, 1865 
Elizabeth Hyde Botume :
A Negro School, 1862 
General Robert E. Lee :
A Southerner's Advice on Reconstruction, 1 865 .
Representative Thad deus Stevens :
Congressional Reconstruction, 1865 
General Oliver Otis Howard :
A Military Governor in Louisiana, 1865-1866 .
Attorney-General Daniel Henry Chamberlain :
Failure of Reconstruction, 1871 

CHAPTER XX — UNION RESTORED, 1871-1885
133. Samuel Jones Tilden:
Iniquities of the Tweed Ring, 1869-1871
134. Caleb Cushing :
Treaty of Washington, 1 87 1
135. John Greenleaf Whittier :
" Centennial Hymn," 1876 . . .
136. New York World :
Resumption of Specie Payments, 1 879 .
137, George William Curtis :
Workings of Civil Service Reform, 1881

PAGE 3'5318 320323
327 329
333

336339 342
344346349

352355358
360 363

1862-1899 xv
PACE
138. Thomas Jefferson Morgan :
Our Treatment of the Indians, 1891  3°°
139. James Bryce :
Character of the Americans, 1 888  3°9
CHAPTER XXI— THE SPANISH WAR, 1895-1899
140. William J. Starks :
Troubles in Cuba, 1867-1873  373
141. Don Enrique Jose Varona :
A Cuban Indictment of Spanish Rule, 1 895  376
142. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt :
The Rough Riders at the Front, 1 898  3&>
143. General Francis Vinton Greene :
Tlie Conditions of the Philippines, 1898  382
144. President William McKinley :
A Review of the Spanish War, 1898 . . . . • • • 385
145. John Davis Long:
Vie Future of the Republic, 1895  39°
INDEX  393

Illustrations
The Mayflower Compact, 1620  Frontispiece
Specimens of Continental Currency, 1 776  To face p. 156
Letter on Fugitive Slaves, by Charles Carroll, 1826 . . . . " " 244
Extracts from the final Proclamation of Emancipation, by Abraham
Lincoln, 1863  « «• 329

Source Book of American History

PRACTICAL INTRODUCTIONS
I. The Use of Sources
WITH the use which investigators make of sources, as a basis for
elaborate historical writing, this book has nothing to do, except
to suggest that upon such materials, vast in amount and bewildering in
variety, rest all that we really know about the history of times earlier
than the memory of living men. Even the investigator nowadays does
not necessarily examine for himself every record of the events with which
he deals : he may accept, and almost always does accept, some state
ments of facts gathered for him by other writers who have themselves
examined the ground. It is not the conception of the editor that young
and inexperienced boys and girls can find in this book material broad
enough to serve as the sole basis for generalizations ; or that they can
construct a complete narrative for themselves out of any amount of
material : the Source Book is meant to supplement, not to supplant the
text-book. In schools, and even in most college classes, the sources have a very
different office : they are to act as adjuncts to historical narrative, by
illustrating it, and making it vivid ; as by analyzing a few flowers the
young student of botany learns some plant structure, and accepts the
rest from the text-book, so the student of history by intimate acquaint
ance with a few writers of contemporary books finds his reading in
secondary works easier to understand.
Upon the subject of source-study in schools there is as yet little in
print. Charles W. Colby, in the Introduction to. his Selections from the
Sources of English History (1899), very suggestively discusses the uses
of sources. In the Report of the Madison Conference, included in the
Xvii

XV111

Introductions

Report of the Committee [of Ten] on Secondary School Studies (1893),
§§ 15, 33, sources are treated incidentally in connection with topical
study. In the American History Studies, issued by the University of
Nebraska, are hints and suggestions. The University of Pennsylvania
issues a little tract, The Use of Original Sources in the Teaching of
History, which has helpful suggestions and includes a brief list of col
lections available for schools in various fields of history. The editor of
this book has prefixed an essay on this subject to each of the volumes of
American History told by Contemporaries. Almost the only general
discussion of the subject is in one of the appendices to The Study of
History in Schools, Report of the Committee of Seven (1899), printed
also in Report of the American Historical Association for 1898. The
subject is taken up in connection with other topics in the printed pro
ceedings of the two Associations of Colleges and Preparatory Schools —
that of New England, and that of the Middle States ; and also in the
proceedings of the New England History Teachers' Association for 1898
and 1899, and of the American Historical Association for 1897.
The use of sources in secondary and normal schools is described
below by experts ; it is therefore necessary here only to allude to some
of the general advantages of sources, and to suggest some cautions in
their use. First of all, as reading matter, even brief sources have the
advantage of lively narratives on interesting subjects ; and one cannot
read extracts from men like John Evelyn, Captain John Smith, Cotton
Mather, Whittier, or Lincoln, without desiring to know more about them
and their times ; but so much depends upon a writer's character, his
truthfulness, his opportunities, his prejudices, that it is not safe, to take
sources at haphazard, without some one to vouch for them.
The use of sources enforces on the mind what ought to be familiar to
any pupil in history : that the text-book grows out of such material, directly
or at second hand; and that the knowledge of the writer of history goes
no farther than the sum of his sources. On the Revolution, for instance,
the pupil must realize that the books quote only a few out of hundreds
of sources, and that generalization from narrow bases is dangerous.
Sources may very well furnish sufficient types of oft-repeated experi
ence : for instance, from the text-book the pupil gets the impression of

Use of Sources

XIX

the number of voyages of discovery, and of the cross-relations of the
Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, Dutch, and Swedes in the new
world during two centuries. But the general aim and results of those
voyages are well enough set forth in the seventeen pages of Chapter I,
which includes one Spanish voyage and one Spanish land exploration,
two EngUsh sea-voyages and one land exploration, and one French
exploration. Since it is a common experience that the illustration fixes
the principle in mind, and not the principle the illustration, it is fair to
expect that these illustrative voyages will serve to make vivid the con
secutive narrative of explorations in general. In the same way, colonial
life has many phases, and it would take years of study in a large library
of sources to get an idea of how our forefathers lived and thought ; but
the illustrative extracts in Chapter V, below, show in detail something of
a few phases of social life, of church services, of witchcraft delusions,
of trade, and of slave life ; and they will serve to explain the general and
necessarily sweeping statements of text-books.
History has two functions : to tell us what has happened, and to tell
us why the men of old time let it so happen. Perhaps the most diffi
cult problem for the teacher is to bring home to the minds of pupils
how differently other people have looked at things. Our own slavery
contest is an example : freedom seems to us normal, and we can under
stand neither the South nor the North unless we let people who lived in
the midst of slavery speak for themselves. One has only to take a suc
cession of statements of facts about the slavery contest out of the best
text-books, and then state the same thing out of the narratives of fugi
tives and the apologies of slave-holders, to see whether secondary
narrative or source leaves the deeper impression on the mind. A
combination of the two makes it possible to see more clearly both the
significance and the relation of events.
This book is not prepared with reference to any particular text-book ;
wherever a good, straightforward, accurate, narrative history is used,
which deals with what is really important in the history of the nation,
the extracts in this volume may be brought in to supplement the
accounts of special episodes, and to furnish a background of reality
and personal character.

xx Introductions

II. Materials for Source Study
ANY well-chosen set of extracts, each long enough to be character
istic, and aU together broad enough to cover the main episodes of
American history, will serve to illuminate the study ; but schools should
have at least a smaU library of complete volumes, both to extend the
interest that may be raised by extracts, and to give material for topical
work. Many people are startled at the idea that pupils can safely be
trusted with "original sources," just as the same good people were
startled at the idea of laboratories in chemistry or physics, or of sight
reading in classics. There is nothing dangerous in sources if used for
purposes which are within the abilities of pupils. Topics can well be
prepared from secondary books which are fresh to the pupil ; but they
can also be prepared from sources if you have them, and the quaintness
and liveliness of much of this material make it more interesting to dig
down through the crust of secondary works. The point of view must
always be that the pupil's result is incomplete, because he has not time,
material, or judgment to come to any final conclusion ; but that he learns
what, but for use of sources, neither he nor his friends could know. A
pupil cannot be expected to weigh conflicting evidence or to reconcile
disagreements, but he can state things as he finds them. However simple
his work and small his result, however far it may be from " original re
search," it is nevertheless to him a voyage of discovery ; and the state
ment of his results, if he really puts his mind upon it, is a creative act.
To aid in such work a short list of desirable books may be suggested
containing only a few of the most important works in each field.
Bibliographies of Sources
Lists of select sources are to be found in various small books,  as
William E. Foster's little pamphlet, References to the History of Presi
dential Administrations, 1789-1885 (New York, 1885), containing excel
lent classified references to biographies. Channing and Hart's Guide to
the Study of American History (Boston, 1896) includes long classified

Available Reprints

xxi

lists of sources, with exact titles. The editor of this book has prefixed
lists of sources to each of the four volumes of American History told by
Contemporaries. Good characterizations of the writers of sources may
be found in H. T. Tuckerman's America and her Commentators (New
York, 1864); and Justin Winsor's Narrative and Critical History of
America (8 volumes, Boston, 1886-89) is the greatest work of American
historical bibliography. Sources may often be reached through the foot
notes and Usts of works cited in the standard secondary historians,
especially Doyle, English in America, Bancroft (early edition), Frothing-
ham, Rise of the Republic, Henry Adams, History, Von Hoist, Rhodes ;
and in the more detailed biographies.
Collections of Reprints available for Schools
There are now four collections of related reprints in American his
tory, besides five series of leaflets, obtainable in single numbers or in
quantities. Full sets of the nine works mentioned below, complete to
the end of 1899, should cost all together about $45.
American Colonial Tracts. Edited by George P. Humphrey (Roches
ter, 1 89 7-). — A monthly series of reprints, taken chiefly from the rare
and expensive Force Tracts, and not collated with the originals.
American History Leaflets. Edited by Albert Bushnell Hart and
Edward Channing (New York, 1892-96). — Thirty numbers, chiefly
documents ; some complete, others made up of short related pieces.
American History Studies : Selections made from the Sources. Edited
by H. W. Caldwell (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1897-). — Chiefly short related
extracts illustrating some general subject.
American History told by Contemporaries'. Edited by Albert Bushnell
Hart (4 volumes, New York, 1897-). — Made up substantially on the
same plan as the Source Book, except that the extracts are longer, and
include many more subjects and authors.
American Orations : Studies in American Political History. Edited
by Alexander Johnston, reedited by James Albert Woodburn (4 volumes,
2d ed., New York, 1898),
Select Documents illustrative of the History of the United States.

XX11

Introductions

Edited by William Macdonald (New York, 1898). — This volume
covers the period 1776-1861, and is made up chiefly of constitutional
and political documents. A second volume, from 1861 down, is in
preparation. Liberty Bell Leaflets. (Philadelphia, 1899-.) — Recently begun;
thus far the numbers include only the history of the middle colonies.
Library of American Literature from the Earliest Settlement to the
Present Time. Edited by Edmund Clarence Stedman and Ellen Mackay
Hutchinson (11 volumes, New York, 1888-90). — Extracts selected
rather for their literary value than for their historical contents, but con
taining some of the choicest work of American statesmen and worthies ;
an excellent set for a school library.
Old South Leaflets. Edited by Edwin D. Mead (Boston, 1883-).—
The earliest in the field ; now about ninety numbers ; texts not care
fully collated.

Additional Sources desirable for Schools
To go beyond the sets of reprints leads one into a great mass of
material, most of which is of so much interest and value that it is hard
to discriminate and select. What any particular school can buy and
profitably use depends on its means and its geographical situation. In
making up a school library it is very desirable to have good sets of
material on the local and State history, including the history of any
colony of which the territory or the State was at any time a part.
1. Local Records. — Printed town or city records, of the place in
which the school is situated, and of the most important places in the
State ; where there are no local records, among the best of their kind
are the Boston, Providence, New Amsterdam, Upland, Albany, Newark.
2. State Records. — If none for the State in which the school is situ
ated, the best for general use are those of Plymouth, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina ; most
useful of all are the Documents relative to the Colonial History of thi
State of New- York (15 vols.).

Materials

xxiu

3. National Records. — Journals of the Continental Congress (three
editions) ; Secret Journals. On the Constitutional Conventions, Elliot's
Debates (5 vols.) is indispensable and easy to get. Under the Consti
tutional government, at least one set of congressional documents for a
Congress (two years) ; any part of the printed debates is valuable, but
especially for the years 1789-93, 1797-99, i8n-i3,.i8io-2i, 1835-37,
1849-51, 1853-55, 1859-61, 1863-65, 1867-69. A set or a partial set
of the Statutes at Large is desirable. The foUo American State Papers
(38 vols.) is rather common, and would be a mine for topical work on
the period 1 789-1840.
4. Publications of Learned Societies. — Every school ought to have a
set of the publications of its local and state historical societies if pos
sible, or at least a partial set. The most valuable issues (nearly all
relating to the period before 1789) are those of the societies of Maine,
New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Haven, New York, New Jersey,
Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Louisiana, and especially of Massa
chusetts, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
5. Works of Public Men. — Out of hundreds of statesmen the most
important are Franklin, John Adams, John Jay, Hamilton, Jefferson,
Madison, Gallatin, Monroet Calhoun, Clay, Webster, Seward, Garfield,
Sumner ; especially Washington, and Correspondence of the American
Revolution (letters to Washington), and Lincoln ( Works).
6. Autobiographies and Reminiscences. — Any local author : John
Quincy Adams, Benton, Hutchinson, Kemble, McCullough ; especially
Samuel Sewall, Franklin, William Maclay, Josiah Quincy, U. S. Grant,
John and W. T. Sherman.
7. Travels. — Those who have visited the locality or neighborhood :
W. Bartram, Burnaby, Chambers, Chastellux, Crevecceur, James Hall ;
especially Bankers and Sluyter, Josselyn, Kalm, Olmstead, Bryce.
8. Newspapers. — Difficult to handle and early worn out; hence
hardly suitable for a school library. The most serviceable for historical
work are Niles's Weekly Register, the National Intelligencer, and the
Nation, covering in succession the period from 1815 to 1899; reprints
of extracts from colonial newspapers make up several volumes of the
New Jersey Archives.

xxiv Introductions

III. The Sources in Secondary Schools
By RAY GREENE HULING, ScD.
HEADMASTER OF THE CAMBRIDGE ENGLISH HIGH SCHOOL
THE last decade has witnessed a marked change in the teaching
of history in secondary schools. What before was characteristic
of a few favored localities has now become widespread both in theoretic
acceptance and in actual practice. In aims and in methods the advance,
though later in point of time, has been quite comparable as to quality
with the changes that have given our pupils " originals " in geometry,
and have introduced them to laboratory practice in the physical and
biological sciences. The rapid growth of the movement is largely due
to the open-mindednese. of the teachers ; for, seeing the superior value
to their pupils of the more strenuous work, they have eagerly welcomed
methods which materially add to their own labors. Therefore the newer
conceptions have caused the growth of associations of teachers ; and
by the initiative of college instructors in this field have taken form in
new requirements for admission to college. The interest aroused has
also produced a considerable body of literature, and especially has led
to a demand for more abundant and adequate material to be used in
daily work. To this demand the present volume is a direct and com
petent response.
The most important element in the change is doubtless the emphasis
now laid on the disciplinary aims of the study of history. It has always
been held, and is yet held, that a body of well selected historical facts
should be acquired. It is now believed, however, that these facts are
not really acquired by children and youth merely by reading and
memoriter work, and that a more effective way to train both memory
and reason is so to organize these facts in the process of acquisition
as to set up in the pupils' minds by repeated practice accurate and
persistent intellectual habits, — in the secondary school the processes
which are grouped under the terms, imagination, memory, judgment,
and reasoning. It is also held that in these schools history should yield

Secondary Schools

XXV

ethical ideals, stimulate right emotions, and thus train moral character ;
that by means of it the pupil should become more facile and precise
with tongue and pen ; and that when school ends for him, he should
step forth the possessor of sufficient knowledge, sufficient interest, and
sufficient power to warrant a continuance of historical study by private
effort. It is hoped that the final outcome of the pursuit of history, even
in the secondary schools, may be a constant application of the lessons
of the past to the problems of the present, — the tendency to see aU
things in historical perspective. Certainly there are few richer gifts
which these schools have to bestow.
A natural result of this enlargement of purpose is a change to methods '
more adequate and more varied. A text-book is used, as before, to
give a thread of continuity to the whole work, but it is no longer the
exclusive reliance. Collateral reading is added in some variety. Atlases
and maps are studied and reproduced. Objective illustrations, — pic
tures, weapons, specimens of dress, household utensils, and other realia, —
are utilized as in the natural sciences. Then, in the class-room, tests are
applied to determine the. reaction of the pupil's mind on this material :
intelligent application is stimulated in a variety of ways, by requiring
written summaries of assigned collateral reading, by calling for continu
ous oral statements of the course of events within a particular period,
by short, sharp questions about definite facts, by impromptu or pre
pared discussions upon debatable questions. Skill in selection is trained
by topical work, skill in judgment by instituting comparisons and search
ing for causes, skill in expression by the acceptance of none but well-
written papers or recitations made in correct form.
Inasmuch as there are differences of mental power among children
in the secondary school, ranging in age as they do from thirteen
to nineteen years, some care must be taken to adapt our aims and
methods to the order of mental growth established by nature ; otherwise
we shall be found demanding bricks without straw, or failing to utilize
the full capacity of the learner. Obviously with the younger classes
stress should be laid on the cultivation of. the memory and the imagina
tion, and with the older increasingly upon the logical processes ; but
during the whole period an appeal can be made by a discriminating

XXVI

Introductions

teacher with safety and with hope of profit to all the activities which
have been mentioned.
But the teacher who welcomes the enlarged hopes concerning the
study of history and values aright the more modern methods, finds cer
tain difficulties confronting him as soon as he essays the broader instruc
tion. Not to enumerate them all, let us mention one that is obvious.
A well selected working library should be provided, wherein quality is
of even more importance than quantity, desirable as is the latter ; and
even a well chosen library is seen to be a bewildering field into which
,to turn boys and girls, to say nothing of some bewildered teachers.
But so great is the advantage that may be derived from collateral read
ing, and from the ability to use books wisely as to contents and eco
nomically as to time, that no difficulties ought to be regarded as
insurmountable until enough books of a suitable kind are obtained and
efficient guides to their use have been found.
Such a book and such a guide, combining a double office of helpful
ness, teachers of the history of our own land will henceforth have in this
Source Book of American History. It is a compilation, to be sure, but
the judgment displayed in the character, the length, the order, and the
annotation of the selections reveals an unusual understanding of the
needs of teachers and pupils in the secondary schools. The extracts
are above all interesting in themselves, and for their liveliness will attract
the attention of many who care more for literature than for history as
such. They also throw a flood of light on the setting of historical
episodes, helping us to see with the eyes of our forbears, and making
the times of which they speak living scenes, almost visible before our
faces. They come to our consciousness with the force of fresh testimony
from eye-witnesses, and therefore imbed themselves within the memory
and move the emotions as no narrative at second hand can possibly do.
The stories they have to tell are often quaint in style, but they are easy
to comprehend, and never so long in any case as to be tedious. The
hard thing, indeed, will be not to read them all at a sitting, and so to
diminish the freshness of their force when we desire them, on closer
study, to yield their full aid in mental discipline. They whet our appe
tite and at the same time point to laden tables, whither we may turn at

Secondary Schools

xxvn

our leisure, or our need, for ampler feasts. The antique form of the
more ancient documents is retained for the sake of accuracy and of dis
tinctness of impression; yet nothing is left obscure for lack of due
explanation. Their range covers the whole period of our history ; their
variety is as broad as the capacity of youth for appreciation ; the mar
ginal comments are terse and sensible. One can scarcely conceive of
a more efficient or more timely gift to historical instruction in the '
secondary school.
Let us turn now to some consideration of the uses of which this little
volume is capable as a means of realizing the aims of modern history
work. We cannot, however, treat the matter exhaustively or otherwise
than by the merest suggestion, which every teacher must amplify accord
ing to his judgment.
Since school instruction is mainly through class work, and since ordi
narily all members of a class find it convenient to consult their most
used books at one and the same time, there should be supplied as many
copies of the Source Book as there are members of the class. A less
number will be helpful, but will not yield the full service desirable.
Among the younger pupils its first use is to minister to the stimulation
of interest and the development of historical imagination. As maturity
warrants, it may be employed in a search for motives, in comparisons,
and in the determination of logical relations. In classes of all ages, it
may be made the means of illuminating the narrative of the text-book,
of stimulating curiosity so as to lead students farther afield, and of culti
vating intelligent reading and competent expression. An appropriate
selection from this volume should be made a part of the assignment as
reading collateral to the text or to the topic under consideration, and
the definite time for its completion should be stated. When that time
arrives, in connection with the ordinary recitation, the pupils should be
led to reproduce the picture given in the selection read, to mention
what new facts have been gleaned from it, to indicate what they like or
especially dislike in the narrative, and otherwise to comment upon their
reading. At times they should be asked to present written summaries
of the incidents mentioned or the personal characteristics described.
Later on this written work may take the form of comparisons and of

xxvm

Introductions

inferences drawn from them. For instance, in the first selection,
Columbus shows us the simple, credulous spirit of the West Indian
natives, and their liberality toward the newcomers, whom they deemed
"beings of a celestial race." In the sixth selection, Champlain recounts
the cruelties practised on enemies by his savage aUies, the Hurons. In
the ninth, Spelman makes a third contribution to our knowledge of the
customs of the natives. Later we have other pictures of them by the
Sieur de Tonty, by an unknown Puritan, by Peter Kalm, by Patrick
Gass and by Commissioner Morgan. These varying accounts, as they
come m due course, will lead to natural comparisons and discussion, all
tending to make definite a composite portrait of the Aborigines, and to
increase intellectual power. With somewhat older students, it will not
be hard to stimulate a deeper search into the content of these pages.
Many will be interested to see if they can find from the documents
themselves, without accepting any hints from the notes, whether the
several authors of the nine selections numbered from 53 to 61 were in
heart "for us" or "against us" in the Revolutionary War ; and they
will be glad to give reasons for their opinions. The admirable topics
which appear in the first introduction will abundantly furnish suggestions
for severer requirements. .
Yet after ell the sight of this Source Book may elicit from some hard-
worked teacher the frank objection, " But it takes more time ! " No
better answer was ever made than by the late and lamented Mary
Sheldon Barnes : " Good friend, it does ; and it takes more time to
solve a problem in arithmetic than to read its answer ; and more time
to read a play of Shakespeare than to read that Shakespeare was the
greatest dramatist of all the ages ; and more time, finally, to read the
American Constitution and the American newspaper, and make up your
mind how to vote your own vote, than it does to be put into a 'block
of five.' But what is time fort"

Normal Schools

XXIX

IV. The Sources in Normal Schools
By PROFESSOR EMMA M. RIDLEY
IOWA STATE NORMAL SCHOOL
PERHAPS no subject has undergone a greater transformation in the
last few years than history. This is without doubt due to an appre
ciation of the personal element in history, — to a realization of the fact
that the makers of past history were human beings, men and women like
ourselves, with the same mixture of good and bad impulses and motives,
the same hopes and fears, the same ambitions and desires. We at last
can say with Emerson : " We sympathize in the great movements of
history, in the great discoveries, the great resistances, the great prosperi
ties of men, because their law was enacted, the sea was searched, the
land was found, or the blow was struck for us, as we ourselves in that
place would have done or applauded."
In the study of history, as in other subjects, two things are to be
considered, — a mastery of the subject-matter and the development of
the pupil's mind. The bare facts and dates may perhaps be obtained
and even the memory developed under the old text-book system, but it
is impossible to get into the spirit of the period studied, or to develop
the reason, judgment, imagination, by any such process. Some more
stimulating influence is needed.
Until very recently the stimulus of first-hand acquaintance with even
a few sources was not possible for schools, even for Normal Schools,
because it was a long and costly task to get together a sufficient library
of sources to be really representative. Such books as this solve the
problem : for they put into the hand of the individual pupil a body of
material brief enough to be used in the time usually allotted, and yet
full enough to preserve the continuity of American history from its
beginning to the present time.
The reader of the Source Book will at once be struck by the live
liness of American history. The accounts of the discoverers and
explorers are not less exciting than the tales of the Arabian Nights.
The effects of lives of struggle and adventure are seen in the reckless,

XXX

Introductions

adventurous class of immigrants who came to Virginia. The principle
of state sovereignty becomes more intelligible to the pupil who traces
it from the beginning in the foundation and rivalries of the separate
colonies. How the practical side of Puritan character comes out in the
plaint of Colonel Byrd : " tho' with Respect to Rum, the Saints of New
England I fear will find out some trick to evade your Act of Parliament."
Slavery becomes a vital thing when the Virginia Assembly legislates on
it, a governor of South Carolina defends it, William Lloyd Garrison is
mobbed for it, Charity Bowery gives her experience of it, and John
Brown goes to the scaffold defying it. And the real causes of the Civil
War are shadowed forth in the speeches of Abraham Lincoln and
Alexander H. Stephens.
Another advantage of the source method is the widening of one's
circle of friends. The pupil finds his heroes and heroines whose good
points he henceforth consciously or unconsciously imitates and into
whose place as makers of history he tries to put himself.
Let no one suppose, however, that the method for which this book is
planned is automatic. Good tools alone cannot insure a perfect piece
of workmanship : the teacher must be a zealous and hard-working general
manager, and the pupils must be earnest and faithful workmen. First
the teacher must see that the extracts are in the hands of each pupil,
with the understanding that they are to be studied, not merely read.
Text-books or good secondary histories, up-to-date narratives, should
always be used in connection with the Source Book ; for each supple
ments the other.
To insure a thorough study of the extract the teacher should suggest
some questions or ask for the development of some line of thought as
tlie lesson is assigned. For example, if the study is Columbus (pp. 1-3),
the pupil may be asked to form his opinion of the motives and character
of Columbus from his own letter; his notions of the Indians, and his
treatment of them; let him discover whether the descriptions are true to
facts, later established ; and determine in his own mind how far Colum
bus deserves praise or censure from our modern standards. Broad gen
eralization cannot be expected from brief extracts ; what is to be sought
is that the pupil may think about what he reads.

Normal Schools

XXXI

The lessons should be short at first and very specific, because the
method is new and the old English and spelling are hard to understand.
The method must vary with the age and previous preparation of the
pupil. Each extract should be regarded as a problem to be solved by
honest study and thought on the part of the pupil. The result will, be
his opinion of the causes and results of the circumstances under consid
eration. The opinion must always be proved from the extract.
This method takes more time for both pupil and teacher, but the gain
in interest, in mental discipline, in citizenship, in manhood and woman
hood is correspondingly great. The pupil may not ltnow as many facts
at the close of a term's study, but he will have gained such an insight
into human nature, such an appreciation of the relation of results to
causes that life and his relations- to it will have a better and deeper
meaning to him. History will then do its proper work of raising the
standard of patriotism and civic virtue.
This book will be especially appreciated by Normal Schools, for
to them the source method appeals, not only because of the advantage
to the student himself, hut also because the Normal trained teacher
should go out into the field well equipped with the newest and best
methods. Notwithstanding the fact that it is the province of the
Normal School to devote much of its time to the so-called common
branches, there is always a tendency among the students to feel that
since they have had these subjects in the grades, it is a waste of time
" to take them again " ; and hence they apply for test examinations.
That this is often the case in United States history, cannot be wondered
at, since these students usually feel that all of American history is com
prised within the covers of a brief and inaccurate text-book.
Normal teachers will find that source study will greatly alleviate this
difficulty, for source material never gets old and worn out. The teacher
who has used this method learns that history does not consist in com
mitting to memory statements found in some narrative text, but that it
means mental development through contact with realities, and power
to reach conclusions for oneself. Once accustomed to the method,
one need not stop studying American history because a few facts have
been acquired, any more than one drops mathematics when he has

XXX11

Introductions

learned the multiplication table. Other Normals will find, as the Iowa
State Normal has found, that under this method requests for anticipatory
tests will decrease at least three fourths, because students become con
vinced that history by this method is not merely a review, but a serious
subject demanding serious study; that it will develop all his mental
powers and enable him to see American history in a new light.
It must not be forgotten that the Normal students are to be teachers.
Can any one be too well equipped, too well balanced for such work?
The great need to-day is for men and women who can think; for
citizens capable of forming sound judgments in social and governmental
matters. The opportunity for meeting this demand rests very largely
with those teachers who have power in themselves to develop thought
and call out originality in the pupils. The Normal trained teacher, who
has himself had the advantage- of the source method in history as well as
the source or laboratory method in physics, chemistry, or botany will
most nearly meet the requirements. This volume, placed in the hands
of a Normal student and studied as it should be, will not only put him
more in sympathy with his own country than ever before, will not only
develop his own reason and judgment, but will enable him to make
history a power in the schoolroom.
The effect of the use of such a book as this in the future teacher's own
grasp of the subject must not be forgotten : the careful reading of
selected sources fills the mind with illustrations, and adds the lively
details which make recitations interesting to the pupils and easy for the
teacher. Of course for preparation for classroom work the teacher will
go farther into source material, through such collections as are de
scribed in Introduction IV, below, and in the side-notes throughout this
book ; and he will find useful the helps for teachers which appear in
these introductions.
The teacher who introduces the source method into a Normal School
will constantly have the pleasure of hearing students testify that for the first
time history has been interesting and profitable to them, because it has
made them thoughtful, critical, inquiring, and even original. History
can do nothing for us, be nothing to us, unless it be vitalized. This
book rightly used cannot fail to accomplish this, its purpose.

Subjects for Topics xxxiii
V. Subjects for Topical Study from Sources
THIS book is too brief to furnish much material for topical study,
and hence references are made throughout to other collections.
The advantages of written work are well known, in giving point and
definiteness to the pupil's knowledge, and in affording training in the use
of books, in the analysis of material, and in stating things to other
people ; and discussions of various kinds of written work wiU be found
in the various treatises on the teachings of history. One of the principal
difficulties in such work is to find topics which are simple and definite
enough for young pupils, upon which information may readily be ob
tained, and which are not complicated by contested questions. In many
of the recent text-books lists of such subjects will be found, as well as in
Channing and Hart's Guide (through the topical heads in Parts II, III).
There are also several outlines and outline histories of the United States
which are made up almost wholly of topics ; a list of such will be found
in the Guide, § 16 b. In the editor's Revised Suggestions in United States
History and Government (Cambridge, 1895) are about two thousand
subjects of a more advanced character, intended primarily for college
students. The following list is intended to include only subjects upon which
interesting material can be found in comparatively small libraries of
sources. A very large list might also be made of more special and minute
questions, and of historical incidents. It is impossible to make them all
equally difficult or equally interesting, but the asterisks mark especially
likely topics ; each of the subheads under the numbered headings is
supposed to be a sufficient subject for a piece of written work, so that
about a thousand topics are here suggested.
1. Discoveries
1. Physical conditions of America at the time of discovery: *wild
animals; * forests ; trees ; birds; * tobacco; fruits; • Indian corn ; fish ;
Indian sugar ; metals.
2. Indians : houses ; clothing ; families ; chiefs ; •councils ; weapons ;
journeys ; worship ; friendship for whites ; *war-path.

XXXIV

Introductions

3. What did one of the following Spanish discoverers find that was
not known to Europeans? Columbus, first voyage ; second voyage ; third
voyage ; "fourth voyage ; *Balboa ; Pineda ; Vespucci ; "Ponce de Leon ;
De Ayllon ; Cabeza de Vaca ; "Coronado.
4. What did each of the following French explorers discover? *Ver-
razano; "Cartier, first and second voyages; Cartier, third voyage;
•Father Jogues; •Champlain; Nicolet; "Marquette; Hennepin; *La
Salle; Bienville; "Iberville.
5. What was actually discovered by the following English explorers?
John Cabot ; Sebastian Cabot ; "Sir Francis Drake ; "Sir Walter Raleigh ;
John Rut; Sir Humphrey Gilbert; "Amadas and Barlow; Gosnold;
Pring ; Weymouth ; "Captain John Smith.
6. What was discovered by one of the following Dutch explorers?
"Henry Hudson; De Vries.
11. Conditions of Settlement
7. Previous life in England of some early settlers : Bradford ; "Win
throp ; Vane ; John Smith; Say and Sele.
8. Settlers: public buildings; * houses ; block-houses; "inland jour
neys ; canoe voyages ; "trading with Indians ; weapons ; food ; crops ,
cattle. m. First Era of Colonization
9. The great companies: *Plymouth Company; London Company;
Grand Council for New England; *Massachusetts Bay Company.
10. Virginia: "boundaries; *town of Jamestown ; town of Williams
burg ; John Smith as governor ; Edward Wingfield as governor; Dale as
governor ; "first Assembly ; Sir William Berkeley ; "incidents of Bacon's
Rebellion ; "first slaves.
11. Maryland: "boundaries; territorial map ; first settlement ; quar
rels with Pennsylvania ; troubles with Clayborne ; a Catholic family in
Maryland ; a Puritan family in Maryland ; "tobacco culture.
12. The Carolinas : "boundaries; territorial maps; Puritans; a re
bellion ; boundary quarrels with Virginia; Indians.

Subjects for Topics xxxv
13. Plymouth : biography of some worthy, as "Bradford, Carver,
Winslow, "Brewster, Robinson, Standish ; life of a Pilgrim in Holland ;
"account of an escape from England ; "Hampton Court Conference ;
"Archbishop Laud's opinion of Puritans ; James I's opinion of
Puritans ; "what do we know about the " Mayflower " voyage ? Plymouth
fish trade; dealings with Indians; "early town-meetings; Plymouth
patent; union with Massachusetts.
14. Massachusetts : "Merry Mount ; "why did Boston become the
chief town ? relations with Indians ; biography of some worthy, as "Win
throp, Endicott, Saltonstall, "Higginson, "Vane, Coddington, "Dudley ;
opinions expressed by Charles II; investigation by commissioners;
"Governor Andros ; ^revolution of 1689.
15. Rhode Island : "what did Anne Hutchinson teach? "Roger Wil-
Uams; first settlement at Providence; Gorton; first settlement at
Newport ; charter obtained ; religious liberty.
16. Connecticut : "boundaries ; Dutch on the Connecticut ; "emigra
tion from Cambridge ; relations with Indians ; Pequod War ; founding
of New Haven; annexation of New Haven; "Fundamental Orders";
Governor Andros ; "Charter Oak.
1 7. New Hampshire and Maine : boundaries ; Mason claim ;
"Gorges claim ; first settlements ; city of Agamenticus ; fishermen.
18. New England Confederation : "why formed? "account of a meet
ing ; quarrels with Massachusetts ; quarrels with the Dutch ; charitable
work ; "why did it break up?

iv. Second Era of Colonization
19. Dutch settlements : boundaries on the Delaware ; "New Amster
dam ; Fort Orange; Governor Stuyvesant; "Governor Kieft; relations
with Indians ; account of a patroonate ; Five Nations.
20. New York: why did the English wish New Amsterdam? "why
could not the Dutch defend New Amsterdam? ""Duke's Laws";
"Jacob Leisler ; prosecution of Zenger ; Governor Andros.
21. New Jersey: "boundaries; foundation of East Jersey; founda
tion of West Jersey; New Englanders; Quakers; union of the Jerseys*

XXXVI

Introductions

22. Pennsylvania: boundaries; early Swedish settlements; how did
Penn get his charter? "Penn's first coming; early Philadelphia;
?Germans; Finns; Moravians; "Penn's constitution; relations with
Indians. 23. Georgia: boundaries; "Oglethorpe in Georgia; Germans;
Jews; "why were slaves allowed? "quarrels with the Spaniards; "ques
tion of rum. v. Seventeenth Century Life
(Very often it will be found quite sufficient to work up one of the
following topics on some single colony, using all available journals,
diaries, travels, and descriptions, as well as wills, statutes, etc.)
24. Social life : "houses ; furniture ; "clothing ; "amusements ; food ;
"beverages ; table ware.
25. Travel: on horseback; by sea; dangers of the roads; ferries;
inns. 26. Employments: "ship-building; "iron-making; fishing; foreign
trade; "furs; mining; "timber.
27. Religion: church buildings ; "account of Sunday; sermons;
baptism; "Half-way Covenant"; Thursday lectures; might a roan
worship God according to his own conscience? "ministers; "church
music ; fast days ; thanksgivings.
28. Education: schools; "foundation of Harvard; "foundation of
Yale ; "foundation of William and Mary ; "learned women.
29. Literature: "poetry; humorous works ; "histories.
30. Quakers: what did they believe? were they dangerous to the
colonies ? defence of themselves ; "a trial.
31. Witchcraft: ""spectral evidence"; a trial; punishment of
witches ; "courts in Massachusetts ; witches in other colonies ; "Increase
Mather on witches ; Calef on witches.
32. Town life: "Boston; "New Haven; "New Amsterdam; "New
York; "Philadelphia; "Charleston; Savannah.
33. Slavery: "might slaves be baptized? Indian slaves ; plantations;
house servants ; "early anti-slavery ; insurrections ; fugitives.

Subjects for Topics xxxvii

vi. France and England
34. Canada: how governed; "coureurs de bois"; fur-trading; a
French attack on the English frontier ; a Canadian town.
35. Louisiana: La Salle's colony; "Bienville's colony; ""Missis
sippi bubble" ; foundation of New Orleans ; slaves ; "Crozat's grant.
36. Six Nations: relations with French; relations with English;
methods of fighting ; "Long House ; "an attack on the frontier.
37. Wars with France : "capture of Deerfield ; capture of Andover ;
"capture of Schenectady; "colonial privateering; "first capture of
Louisburg ; "removal of the Acadians.
38. French and Indian War: French in Ohio; "the Half-King;
"Colonel Washington at Fort Necessity; "Braddock's defeat; Aber-
crombie's defeat ; second capture of Louisburg ; "capture of Quebec ;
capture of Montreal. vn. Eighteenth Century Life
(Most of the subjects in section V above are also applicable to
the eighteenth century, and the following additional topics may be
suggested.) 39. Social life: early theatres; horse races; military uniforms;
"family life ; conflagrations ; country seats ; "purchases from England ;
"use of tea ; use of chocolate ; entertainment of guests ; inoculation ;
the ague ; "lotteries ; "weddings ; tippling ; instances of large families.
40. Servitude : "indentured servants ; sales of slaves ; "advertisements
of runaways ; slave galleries in church ; "African slave-trade.
41. Anti-slavery : "Quaker abolitionists; restrictions on slave-trade;
setting slaves free; "Somerset decision; anti-slavery Puritans ; Samuel
Sewall; Samuel Hopkins; Anthony Benezet; John Woolman; earii-
est abolition societies.
42. Religion : "clergy in the Southern colonies ; Dutch ministers ;
* Puritan ministers ; Episcopalian churches ; Baptists : "Methodists ;
Presbyterians; Dunkers; Shakers; United Brethren; "Whitefield;
*" Great Awakening " ; "John Wesley.

XXXV111

Introductions

43- Intellectual hfe: "earliest newspapers ; "pubUc libraries ; private
libraries; doctors; lawyers; New England Earthquake ; lightning-rods-
"printers; almanacs; "Poor Richard ; "Phillis Wheatley
44- Education: foundation of Dartmouth: Brown; King's College
(Columbia); Pr.nceton; Rutgers; University of Pennsylvania/ law
students; "school-teachers; examinations; primary schools; "good
letter-writers. ' 6
n45"*SiSt£_rieS: SmUh'S NeW JerSey; *Stith's Virginia; WilUams's"
Decrfield; prince's New England ; "Hutchinson's Massachusetts; Amos
Adamss Concise View; "Proud's Pennsylvania; Edwards's Baptists;
Backus's New England.
46. Industries: beaver pelts; raising fruit; hat-making; "iron-
making; potash; nee; sugar; wine; "indigo; exports of grain; min
ing; tobacco; home spinning; home weaving; cheese
47- Trade: with the West Indies ; with the enemy ; "English pirates ;
Spanish pirates; masts; timber; "Captain Kidd; "Black Beard-
"smuggling; rum. '
Fa!!' TraVd ' °arriageS ' b°atS ; SailinS crafts •> roads J canoes ; "Niagara
49- Paper money : issues; "arguments for; "objections; British
prohibition ; local coinage. vin. Colonial Government
(This is one of the most difficult subjects in colonial history hence
topics are not recommended which require the use of a large body of
matenal and elaborate generalization, but rather such as involve the
study of narratives, especially the records of colonies and municipali
ties Deta.led subjects might be suggested by going carefully over
Contemporaries, II, Part iii.)
50- Activity: "lords of trade ; restriction of the suffrage ; "disorderly
elections ; "a day in an assembly ; "a day in town-meeting; a day in a
colonial council ; city councils; a vestry-meeting; "imprisonment for
debt; the pillory; branding; "a veto; a governor's salary; a governor's
baU ; " mandamus councillors."

Subjects for Topics xxxix

ix. The Revolution
(On the history of the Revolution, the extracts in this volume look
rather to its causes and to the spirit of the people than to the actual
military operations; and the material is so abundant that stimulating
topics may be found which do not deal with military movements or
details. A very few out of a possible multitude are here stated.)
51. The Stamp Act controversy: protests; *a mob; *Franklin's
opinions; *why was the Stamp Act repealed? colonial loyalty to
King George ; what became of the stamps ?
52. Spirit of. the people: *revolutionary town-meetings; *Sons of
Liberty ; *Committees of Correspondence ; *a revolutionary conven
tion ; *the flight of a governor ; destruction of the " Gaspee " ; *a
revolutionary mob ; British soldiers in garrison ; North Carolina Regu
lators ; *a Tory's defence; imprisonment of Tories; *exile of Tories;
Tory ministers of the gospel; patriot ministers; Tory songs; patriot
songs ; *life of a refugee.
53. The Western country : *an emigrant journey ; *a settler's home ;
*a brush with the Indians ; frontier churches ; a log house ; floating
down the Ohio ; a powwow with the Indians ; clearing land.
54. Soldiers : *recruiting ; pay ; uniforms; *camp Ufe ; on the march ;
in battle ; *negro troops ; *French officers ; *Hessian officers ; Hessian
soldiers; naval officers; *life of a privateer; loyalist troops; spies;
hospitals ; *work of women ; Indian allies.
55. Experiences of individuals: *Washington; Gates; Greene;
Putnam; *Riedesel ; *Burgoyne ; Clinton; *Charles Lee; Lincoln;
"Whitehorse Harry Lee"; Knox; Ward; Hamilton; *Cornwallis;
Tarleton; * Lafayette ; Steuben; Conway; Andn§; *Arnold; *Nathan
Hale; Burnaby; Tilghman ; Thacher.
56. Revolutionary government : *a day in the first Continental Con
gress ; *a day in the second Continental Congress ; *a day in a State
convention ; debate on the Declaration of Independence ; *arguments
for confederation ; debate on the French treaty.
5 7. Battles : *Lexington and Concord ; * Bunker Hill ; siege of Boston ;
Long Island ; New York ; Trenton ; *Princeton ; Bennington ; Brandy-

xl

Introductions

wine; "Saratoga; Valley Forge; Newport; Charleston; Camden; Cow.
pens ; siege of Yorktown ; "surrender at Yorktown
w ?T7v *C°nAtinental PaPer money; paper money of some
State ; Bank of North America ; "maximum prices ; war taxi
59- Peace: Deane in France ; "Franklin in France ; treaty of 1778 •
trench loans; John Adams in Paris; "John Jay in Paris; "breaking
instructions; "George III yields; independence acknowledged ; boun
danes; fisheries; British debts; loyalists.

x. Confederation and Constitution
60. Articles of Confederation: "Franklin's draft ; "Dickinson's draft •
draft of Congress; New Jersey's opposition; "Maryland's opposition-
savery question; "defects; criticisms by Pelatiah Webster, Noah Web
ster, Hamilton, Washington.
61. Land claims and cessions : "Connecticut; Massachusetts; New
York; Pennsylvania; "Virginia; South Carolina; North CaroUna •
Georg.a; Grayson's ordinance; Western Reserve; Fire Lands-
bymmes purchase; Wyoming controversy. '
62. New State constitutions: any one of the thirteen States- suf
frage; singe house legislatures; councils as chief executive; "Tohn
Adams's opinions. ' J
63. Slavery: the Association; "Jefferson's ordinance; "Northwest
Ordmance; emancipation by "Vermont, "Massachusetts, "Pennsylvania,
New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey
64. Federal Convention: "describe the attitude of some member of
the convention by following out his motions and arguments through the
debates; follow through its various stages the question of Senate
Supreme Court, election of President, Vice-President, taxing power'
commerce power. 6 fu"cii
65. Compromises of the Constitution : "two houses; "federal ratio •
"slave-trade. '
66. Ratification: follow out some one line of argument for or against
the Constitution through all the conventions ; "find out what were the rea-

Subjects for Topics

xii

sons which determined some one of the State conventions for or against
ratification; how many amendments were suggested by conventions?
xi. Making the Government
67. Public services of Hamilton, "Jefferson, Madison, "Maclay, Bou-
dinot, Robert Morris, Gallatin, Gouvemeur Morris, John Jay, Edmund
Randolph, Harper, Henry Knox, Arthur St. Clair.
68. Debates, 1 789-93 : on instructions ; "State department ; Treasury
department; President's title ; "first tariff ; excise; judiciary; "submit
ting papers (1796) ; "removal of officers; "national capital; funding
the debt ; assumption ; "United States Bank ; slavery petitions.
69. Admission of new States: Vermont; Kentucky; Tennessee:
"Ohio. J
70. Foreign relations: "Genet's mission; neutrality proclamation;
"Jay treaty; Spanish treaty; "Despatch No. 10"; ""X.Y.Z."; French
treaty of 1800 ; *" Addresses " to Adams.
71. Internal dissensions : "Whiskey Rebellion ; election of Adams ;
"debates on Alien Act "or Sedition Act ; "first Kentucky Resolutions ;
Virginia Resolutions; "second Kentucky Resolution; Madison's Re
port; Fries insurrection ; election of 1800.

xn. Jefferson's Policy
72. Political: election of 1801 ; "midnight appointments" ; removal
of Bishop ; "Jefferson's simplicity ; his opinions on Marbury vs. Madi
son; on Chase impeachment; "on Burr trial; on the army; "some
incident in the Barbary wars ; Quid party.
73- Annexations : Treaty of St. Ildefonso ; withdrawal of right of
deposit; "why did Napoleon cede Louisiana? "constitutional objec
tions to the annexation ; "political objections ; West Florida question ;
Texas boundary ; Lewis and Clark's expedition ; account of Astoria ;
complaints of Louisiana territorial government.
74- Neutral trade : "instances of capture of American merchantmen ;
number of captures ; "instances of impressment ; Berlin Decree ; Milan

xiii

Introductions

Decree; Bayonne Decree; Decree of the Trianon; British Orders
in Council; ""Leopard-Chesapeake" affair; "debate on embargo; on
enforcement; on repeal ; Erskine's mission ; *Jackson's mission; Rose's
mission ; Foster's mission ; Pinckney's mission.
xiii. War of iSiz
75. Opinions of statesmen on the war: Madison; Monroe; "Clay;
"Calhoun; "Webster; Jackson; Lowndes; Cheves; J. Q.Adams.
76. Military operations : Detroit ; Niagara ; "battle of Lake Erie ;
"Plattsburg ; "Lundy's Lane ; capture of Washington ; "New Orleans!
77- Naval operations : capture of *" Guerriere " ; •" Macedonian " ;
"Java" ; " Peacock " ; "Argus" ; »" Boxer" ; "Chesapeake" ; ""Essex."
78. Opposition: feeling in "Massachusetts; in Connecticut; in
Rhode Island; in Vermont; "Hartford Convention.
79. Peace : services of Gallatin, Clay, Bayard, "John Quincy Adams ;
Mississippi question ; slaves ; impressment ; "fisheries ; boundaries.
xiv. Reorganization
80. "Cities and towns in 1820: Boston; Salem; Providence; Hart
ford; New Haven; New York; Albany; Newark; Philadelphia; Bal
timore; Richmond; Charleston; New Orleans; Pittsburg ; Cincinnati •
Detroit. '
81. Western life: "clearing land ; "schools; churches; camp-meet
ings; lawyers; land buyers; "Abraham Lincoln's family; flat-boats;
"steamboats. 82. Commercial : "debate on United States Bank ; on Bonus Bill ;
"on tariff of 1816 ; "a trip over the Cumberland Road ; Erie Canal.
83. Missouri Compromise : Arkansas Debate ; first Missouri Debate ;
"Northern opposition ; "Southern advocacy ; attitude on compromise of
Clay, Calhoun, "J. Q. Adams, Thomas, Taylor, Monroe, Webster, Benton.
84. Monroe Doctrine : "Holy Alliance; description of a Latin-Amer
ican republic; Bolivar; Russia on the northwest coast; Congress of
Verona; attitude of Jefferson, Madison, "J. Q, Adams, "Calhoun, Rush,

Subjects for Topics

xliii

Canning ; discussion in the cabinet ; arguments for the Panama Con
gress ; "arguments against it
xv. Abolitionists
85. "Slave life: names; dress; quarters; field work; house service ;
joUifications ; funerals; overseers; kind treatment; cruel treatment;
instances of insurrection; runaways; auction sales; setting free;
marriages. 86. Defence of slavery : "scriptural; good of negro; good of whites ;
"Christianizing ; " positive good."
87. Arguments against slavery: bad effect on whites; ignorance;
wastefulness ; cruelty ; "prosecutions for teaching slaves to read.
88. Interstate slavery : free negroes in the North ; free negroes in
the South ; transit ; "runaways ; extradition of slave-traders ; *" Under
ground Railroad."
89. International slavery: cases of "Comet," "Enterprise,"
""Creole," " L'Amistad " ; quintuple treaty.
90. Abolitionists: "Benjamin Lundy; "William Lloyd Garrison;
John Rankin ; "Salmon P. Chase ; "Wendell Phillips ; "Charles Sum
ner; William Ellery Channing ; Gerrit Smith; Arthur Tappan; Levi
Coffin ; Theodore Parker ; Samuel J. May ; "Whittier ; Lowell ; Abby
Kelly. 91. Slave episodes : an account of any one of the famous escapes or
fugitive-slave trials before 1850, especially those of "Crafts, Box-Brown,
Douglas, "Van Zandt, Kennedy, Latimer, Prigg, Ottoman.

xvi. Territorial Development
4 92. Jackson : military experience ; previous political experience ;
"opinions on the bank ; on the tariff; on internal improvements ; "on
deposits ; on Van Buren ; on slavery ; on Calhoun ; on Clay ; " Kitchen
Cabinet " ; specie circular.
93. Oregon : overland journeys ; early settlers ; "Marcus Whitman ;
*" fifty-four forty or fight " ; fur-traders ; treaty of 1846.

xliv

Introductions

Austin. ' °" >°"" """""Won ; Sam Houston ; Moses
¦™"£^l"L£™^7rM'XiC°'' ^" °f *- »«
ico ; -General si,', in mS "' & GraM ; •GcMral **« * Mex-'
constitutional cottn^f ^ sK"™'"1 "S^" — *-'
'^¦lll^^Zst pro™; 'Linrota * °-*-«
Calhoun; Jefferson Davis /r^gg*' Wi &"ardi *Cha*J
xvii. Slavery Contest
OO- Fugitive-slave cases- HamW. .ck.j t „.
Burns ; Passmore- Williamson fg^ . ^££ ^irns ; "Christiana ;
100. Cuba : Lopez exneditnn -r- Uberlm-Well'ngton ; Booth.
'Ostend AlanifestoTpie^T^ ^ gQ^ty ' B,ack W^r;
Toombs, "Pierce, Jeffe^on Da4 "^ ChMe' Seward' D™°.
102. Kansas: "border ruffians" • o.-j • •
™nces; -eLcions; fi ". 7egi lire "to"^ J " *"** ""*-
murderer ? P "* ' H"Per's Ferry raid ; .,rial ; -was he I
««:¦¦¦; EcSeTto:f^M;0ti"c*Do"grs deba,e! "F^°* *~
™». Secess.on: of Sou* Caroiina, Georgia, A,lma, Mississippi,

Subjects for Topics

xiv

Florida, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana ; saving of Maryland, West Virginia,
Kentucky, Missouri.
106. Southern Confederacy : Congress at Montgomery ; new Consti
tution"; President Davis; "Vice-President Stephens; paper money;
seizure of forts ; "Fort Pickens ; Fort Sumter.

xvin. Civil War
107. "Abraham Lincoln : early life ; education ; feeling toward sla
very; cabinet-making; attitude on compromise ; story-telling.
108. Advisers : "Seward ; "Chase ; Cameron ; "Stanton ; Bates ; Blair ;
Smith ; Welles.
109. "Soldiers: first regiments to appear; recruiting; camp life;
hospitals; drill; on the march; at the front; deserters; bounty-
jumpers ; spies ; acts of heroism.
no. Battles: "Bull Run; Fair Oaks; Malvern Hill; second Bull
Run; "Antietam; Fredericksburg; "Chancellorsville ; "Gettysburg;
"Pittsburg Landing; Stone River; "Chickamauga ; Chattanooga;
"Appomattox; sieges of Atlanta, Vicksburg, Charleston, Petersburg.
111. Navy: blockaders; "the "Alabama " ; "New Orleans; Mobile;
*" Monitor " and " Merrimac."
112. Slavery: ""contrabands"; Hilton Head; "first proclamation;
final proclamation; negro troops; emancipation in Maryland, West
Virginia, Missouri ; Thirteenth Amendment.
xix. Reconstruction
1 13. Southern whites : "a ruined plantation ; a town ; New Orleans ;
Charleston ; Richmond ; a " carpet-bagger."
1 14. Negroes : land-buyers ; schools ; churches ; in Congress.
115. System of reconstruction : Lincoln's amnesty; Johnson's am
nesty; Johnson's speeches, 1865-66; "attitude of Stevens, "Sumner,
Wade, Chase, Butler; "impeachment ; report of a military governor; a
constitutional convention ; a carpet-bag government ; the Ku Klux.

xlvi

Introductions

xx. Union Restored

116. Bad government : a Tweed contract ; a Tweed judge; S. J Til-
den's reforms; Boss Shepherd in Washington; Belknap impeachment;
"George William Curtis on reform.
117. Foreign relations: "Seward on the French in Mexico; Treaty
of Washington ; Geneva arbitration ; northeastern fisheries.
118. Finances: debates on greenbacks, resumption, tariff, •demone
tization of silver, 1873 ; 'coinage net of 1878 ; the Greenback party.
119. Civil Service Reform : instances of removal ; instances of doubt
ful appointments; "President Grant's attitude; the first commission;
President Hayes; President Arthur; the Pendleton Act; "second com
mission. 120. Indians : account of a campaign ; account of a reservation ; an
Indian speech ; civilized Indians.
xxi. The Spanish War
1 a 1. Cuba before 1895 = *a visit to Cuba; instances of Spanish mis-
government ; instances of seizure of property ; "the " Virginius" •
filibustering expeditions. '
122. Second Cuban War: "reconcentrados ; Americans in prison;
the " Maine " ; "debate on intervention ; debate on declaring war.
123. Battles: "Manila; Guasimas; San Juan; "Santiago.
124. Peace: reports on the Philippines ; debates on appropriation.
125. Administration: of Cuba; of Porto Rico; sanitary; police-
schools; justice,
126. The Philippines : Dewey's government ; Aguinaldo ; the war.

CHAPTER I — DISCOVERIES

1. Discovery of the New World (1492)
yf LETTER addressed to the noble Lord Raphael
/^i Sanchez, Treasurer to their most invincible Majes-
•^ ties, Ferdinand and Isabella, King and Queen of
Spain, by Christopher Columbus, to whom our age is greatly
indebted, treating of the islands of India recently discovered
beyond the Ganges, to explore which he had been sent eight
months before under the auspices and at the expense of their
said Majesties.
Knowing that it will afford you pleasure to learn that I
have brought my undertaking to a successful termination,
I have decided upon writing you this letter to acquaint you
with all the events which have occurred in my voyage, and
the discoveries which have resulted from it. Thirty-three
days after my departure from Cadiz I reached the Indian
sea, where I discovered many islands, thickly peopled, of
which I took possession without resistance in the name of
our most illustrious Monarch, by public proclamation and
with unfurled banners. To the first of these islands,, which
is called by the Indians Guanahani, I gave the name of the
blessed Saviour (San Salvador), relying upon whose protec
tion I had reached this as well as the other islands ... As
soon as we arrived at that, which as I have said was named
Juana, I proceeded along its coast a short distance westward,
and found it to be so large and apparently without termina
tion, that I could not suppose it to be an island, but the
continental province of Cathay. ... In the mean time I
had learned from some Indians whom I had seized, that
that country was certainly an island : and therefore I sailed
b 1

Written in
1493 by
Christopher Co
lumbus (about
1440- 1 506), a
Genoese in
the service oi
Spain. — For
other letters
by Colum
bus, see Old
South Leaf
lets, No. 71 ;
American History Leaf
lets, No. 1 ;'
Contempora
ries, I, Nos.
17, 19. — For
an account,
by his son, of
the discovery
of America,
see Old South
Leaflets, No.
»9- Columbussupposed
he had
neared Asia.
Guanahani =
probablyWatkins Island.

Juana, now
Cuba.

Discoveries

Now San
Domingo.

Noble =
6s. id. =
about 51.65.
Blanca, a
small silver
coin weigh
ing about
»7 grains.

[149a

towards the east, coasting to the distance of three hundred
and twenty-two miles, which brought us to the extremity of
it; from this point I saw lying eastwards another island,
fifty-four miles distant from Juana, to which I gave the
name of Espaiiola ... AU these islands are very beauti
ful, and distinguished by a diversity of scenery ; they are
filled with a great variety of trees of immense height, and
which I believe to retain their foliage in all seasons; for
when I saw them they were as verdant and luxuriant as
they usually are in Spain in the month of May,— some of
them were blossoming, some bearing fruit, and all flourish
ing in the greatest perfection; according to their respective
stages of growth, and the nature and quality of each : yet
the islands are not so thickly wooded as to be impassable.
The nightingale and various birds were singing in countless
numbers, and that in November, the month in which I
arrived there. . . . The inhabitants ... are very simple
and honest, and exceedingly liberal with all they have ; none
of them refusing any thing he may possess when he is asked
for it, but on the contrary inviting us to ask them. They
exhibit great love towards all others in preference to them
selves : they also give objects of great value for trifles, and
content themselves with very little or nothing in return. I
however forbad that these trifles and articles of no value
(such as pieces of dishes, plates, and glass, keys, and leather
straps) should be givert to them, although if they could
obtain them, they imagined themselves to be possessed of
the most beautiful trinkets in the world. It even happened
that a sailor received for a leather strap as much gold as
was worth three golden nobles, and for things of more tri
fling value offered by our men, especially-newly coined
blancas, or any gold coins, the Indians would give what
ever the seller required ... On my arrival ... I had
t.iken some Indians by force from the first island that I
came to, in order that they might learn our language . . .

No. x]

Columbus

These men are still travelling with me, and although they
have been with us now a long time, they continue to enter
tain the idea that I have descended from heaven ; and on
our arrival at any new place they published this, crying out
immediately with a loud voice to the other Indians, "Come,
come and look upon beings of a celestial race " : upon which
both women and men, children and adults, young men and
old, when they got rid of the fear they at first entertained,
would come out in throngs, crowding the roads to see us,
some bringing food, others drink, with astonishing affection
and kindness. . ¦¦ . Although all I have related may appear
to be wonderful anrfunheard of, yet the results of my voyage
would have been more astonishing if I had had at my dis
posal such ships as I required. But these great and mar
vellous results are not to be attributed to any merit of mine,
but to the holy Christian faith, and to the piety and religion
of our Sovereigns ; for that which the unaided intellect of
man could not compass, the spirit of God has granted to
human exertions, for God is wont to hear the prayers of his
servants who love his precepts even to the performance of
apparent impossibilities. Thus it has happened to me in
the present instance, who have accomplished a task to
which the powers of mortal men had never hitherto attained ;
for if there have been those who have anywhere written or
spoken of these islands, they have done so with doubts and
conjectures, and no one has ever asserted that he has seen
them, on which account their writings have been looked
upon as little else than fables. Therefore let the king and
queen, our princes and their most happy kingdoms, and all
the other provinces of Christendom, render thanks to our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who has granted us so great
a victory and such prosperity. . . .
Select Letters of Christopher Columbus (translated by R. H.
Major, in Hakluyt Society, Works issued, London, 1847),
1 -1 7 passim. _

Ferdinandand Isabella.

For Norse
discoveriesof America,
see Old South
Leajlets, Nos.
30, 31 ; Con
temporaries, I, No. 16;
other voy
ages, Old
South Leaf
lets, Nos. 17,
34-

Discoveries

[M97

Written in
1516 by
Peter
Martyrd'Anghiera
(i4S5-»sa6).
a Milanese,
resident at
the Spanish
court. The
account is
based on
information
given him by
SebastianCabot, at
that time a
pilot in the
service of
Spain, and is
the first com
plete narra
tive of an
English voy
age which we
have. — For
the Cabots,
s<-e Old South
Leaflets, No.
37 ; Ameri
can History •
Leaflets, No.
9 ; Contem
poraries, I,
No. 26.
36° north
latitude;
about the
latitude of
Cape Hat-
teras. Fretum Her-
culeum —
Straits of
Gibraltar.Baccallaos =
Newfoundland?

2. An English Voyage to North America
(H97)
. . . f^HESE northe seas haue byn [have been]
_L searched by one Sebastian Cabot a Venetian
borne [born], whom beinge yet but in maner an infante, his
parentes caryed [carried] with them into Englande hauyng
[having] occasion to resorte thether [thither] for trade of
marchandies [merchandise], as is the maner of the Vene
tians too leaue [leave] no parte of the worlde vnsearched to
obteyne [obtain] richesse [riches]. He therfore furnisshed
two shippes in England at his owne charges : And fyrst [first]
with three hun Ireth men, directed his course so farre toward
the northe pole, that euen [even] in the mooneth [month]
of Iuly he founde monstrous heapes of Ise [ice] swimming
on the sea, and in maner continuall day lyght. Yet sawe he
the lande in that tracte, free from Ise, whiche had byn [been]
molten by heate of the sunne. Thus seyng [seeing] suche
heapes of Ise before hym he was enforced to tourne [turn]
his sayles and folowe the weste, so coastynge styll by the
shore, that he was thereby broughte so farre into the southe
by reason of the lande bendynge so muche southward that
it was there almoste equall in latitude with the sea cauled
[called] Fretum Herculeum, hauynge the north pole eleuate
in maner in the same degree. He sayled lykewise in this
tracte so farre towarde the weste, that he had the Hande
of Cuba [on] his lefte hande in maner in the same degree
of langitude. As he traueyled [travelled] by the coastes
of this greate lande (whiche he named Baccallaos) he sayth
that lie found tlie like course of the waters toward the west,
but the same to runne more softely and gentelly [gently]
then [than] the swifte waters whiche the Spanyardes found
in their nauigations southeward.
Wherefore, it is not onely [only] more lyke to bee

No. a]

Sebastian Cabot

trewe [true], but ought also of necessitie to bee concluded,
that betwene both the landes hetherto vnknowen, there
shulde bee certeyne great open places wherby the waters
shulde thus continually passe from the East into the weste :
which waters I suppose to bee dryuen [driven] about the
globe of the earth by the vncessaunt niouynge [moving]
and impulsion of the heauens : and not to be swalowed vp
[up] and cast owt [out] ageyne [again] by the breathynge
of Demogorgon as sume [some] haue imagined bycause they
see the seas by increase and decrease, to flowe and reflowe.
Sebastian Cabot him selfe, named those landes Baccallaos,
bycause that in the seas therabout he founde so great multi
tudes of certeyne [certain] bigge fysshes [fishes] much lyke
vnto tunies [tunnies] (which th[e] inhabitantes caule [call]
Baccallaos) that they sumtymes stayed his shippes. He
founde also the people of those regions couered with beastes
skynnes : yet not without th[e]use of reason.
He saythe [saith] also that there is greate plentie of
beares in those regions, whiche vse to eate fysshe. For
plungeinge theym selues [themselves] into the water where
they perceue [perceive] a multitude of these fysshes to lye,
they fasten theyr [their] clawes in theyr scales, and so drawe
them to lande and eate them. So that (as he saith) the
beares beinge thus satisfied with fysshe, are not noysom to
men. He declareth further, that in many places of these
regions, he sawe great plentie of laton amonge th[e]inhabi-
tantes. Cabot is my very frende, whom I vse famylierly,
and delyte [delight] to haue hym sumtymes keepe mee com
pany in myne owne house. For beinge cauled owte [out]
of England by the commaundement of the catholyke kynge
of Castile after the deathe of Henry kynge of Englande the
senenth of that name, he was made one of owre [our] coun
sayle and assystance as touchynge the affayres [affairs] of
the newe Indies, lookynge dayely for shippes to bee fur
nysshed for hym to discouer this hyd secreate of nature.

As yet no
notion that
there was a
continent
between Europe and
Asia.

An infernal
deity.

These were
the cod-fish.

Copper ore.

About 151a,
by Ferdinand
V of Spain.

Discoveries

[1541

Frustrated by
the death of
Ferdinand in
the preceding
January. For English
claims based
on Cabot's
discoveries,see Contem
poraries, I,
No. 48.

This vyage is appoynted to bee begunne in March in the
yeare next folowynge, beinge the yeare of Chryst M.D.XVI.
What shall succeade, yowre [your] holynes shalbe aduer-
tised by my letters if god graunte me lyfe [life]. Sume of
the Spanyardes denye that Cabot was the fyrst fynder of the
lande of Baccallaos : And affirme that he went not so farre
westewarde. But it shall suffice to haue sayde thus much of
the goulfes [gulfs] & strayghtes [straits], and of Cebastian
Cabot. ...
Peter Martyr, The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West India
(translated by Richard Eden, London, 1555), Decade III,
Book vi, fol. 118-119.

By Fran
cisco Vas-
quez Coro-
NADO (I510-
1542?), at
this time
Spanish gov
ernor of New
Galicia. In
his letter to
the king of
Spain he tells
the story of
the first
explorationsinto the in
terior of what
is now the
United
States. — For
Coronado,see Old South
Leaflets, No.
20; American
Hilton' Leaf
lets, No. 13I
— For other
Spanishexplorations,
see Old South
Leaflets, Nos.
3J.36, 39'.
Contempora
ries, I, Nos.
17-2S-

3. A Spanish Exploration (1541)
HOLY Catholic Cesarian Majesty: On April 20 of
this year [1541] I wrote to Your Majesty from this
province of Tiguex, in reply to a letter from Your Majesty
dated in Madrid, June 11 a year ago  I started from
this province on the 23d of last April, for the place where
the Indians wanted to guide me. After nine days' march I
reached some plains, so vast that I did not find their limit
anywhere that I went, although I traveled over them for
more than 300 leagues. And I found such a quantity of
cows m these [plains] . . . which they have in this country,
that it is impossible to number them, for while I was journey
ing through these plains, until I returned to where I first
found them, there was not a day that I lost sight of them
And after seventeen days' march I came to a settlement of
Ind.ans who are called Querechos, who travel around with
these cows, who do not plant, and who eat the raw flesh and
drmk the blood of the cows they kill, and they tan the skins
of the cows, with which all the people of this country dress
themselves here. They have little field tents made of the

No. 3]

Coronado

hides of the cows, tanned and greased, very well made, in
which they live while they travel around near the cows,
moving with these. They have dogs which they load, which
carry their tents and poles and belongings. These people
have the best figures of any that I have seen in the Indies.
They could not give me any account of the country where
the guides were taking me. . . .
It was the Lord's pleasure that, after having journeyed
across these deserts seventy-seven days, I arrived at the
province they call Quivira, to which the guides were con
ducting me, and where they had described to me houses of
stone, with many stories ; and not only are they not of stone,
but of straw, but the people in them are as barbarous as all
those whom I have seen and passed before this ; they do
not have cloaks, nor cotton of which to make these, but use
the skins of the cattle they kill, which they tan, because they
are settled among these on a very large river. . . . The
country itself is the best I have ever seen for producing aU
the products of Spain, for besides the land itself being very
fat and black and being very well watered by the rivulets
and springs and rivers, I found prunes like those of Spain
. . . and nuts and very good sweet grapes and mulberries.
I have treated the natives of this province, and all the others
whom I found wherever I went, as well as was possible,
agreeably to what Your Majesty had commanded, and they
have received no harm in any way from me or from those
who went in my company. . . . And what I am sure of is
that there is not any gold nor any other metal in aU that
country, and the other things of which they had told me are
nothing but little villages, and in many of these they do not
plant anything and do not have any houses except of skins
and sticks, and they wander around with the cows ; so that
the account they gave me was false, because they wanted to
persuade me to go there with the whole force, believing that
as the way was through such uninhabited deserts, and from

Cowsb
buffalo.This is the
earliest ac
count of the
Indians of
the plains.

Now Kansas.

Coronadogot probably
as far as
eastern Kansas.

8

Discoveries

[154*

In New
Mexico.New Spain
= Mexico.

Rio Grande.

and Gulf of
California
respectively,

the lack of water, they would get us where we and our horses
would die of hunger. ... I have done all that I possibly
could to serve Your Majesty and to discover a country where
God Our Lord might be served and the royal patrimony of
Your Majesty increased, as your loyal servant and vassal.
For since I reached the province of Cibola, to which the
viceroy of New Spain sent me in the name of Your Majesty,
seeing that there were none of the things there of which
Friar Marcos had told, I have managed to explore this
country for 200 leagues and more around Cibola, and the
best place I have found is this river of Tiguex where I am
now, and the settlements here. It would not be possible to
establish a settlement here, for besides being 400 leagues
SdGuif ofan fr°m the North sea and more than 20° from the Sout^ sea>
with which it is impossible to have any sort of communica
tion, the country is so cold, as I have written to Your Majesty,
that apparently the winter could not possibly be spent here,
because there is no wood, nor cloth with which to protect
the men, except the skins which the natives wear and some
smalt amount of cotton cloaks. I send the viceroy of New
Spain an account of everything I have seen in the countries
where I have been, and as Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas
is going to kiss Your Majesty's hands, who has done much
and has served Your Majesty very well on this expedition,
and he will give Your Majesty an account of everything here,
as one who has seen it himself, I give way to him. And
may Our Lord protect the Holy Imperial Catholic person
of Your Majesty, with increase of greater kingdoms and
powers, as your loyal servants and- vassals desire. From
this province of Tiguex, October 20, in the year 1541.
Your Majesty's humble servant and vassal, who would kiss
the royal feet and hands : Francisco- Vazquez Coronado.
Coronado's letter to the king, October 20, 1541 ; translated by
George Parker Winship, The Coronado Expedition, /J40-/J42
(Washington, 1896), 580-583 passim.

no. 4] Drake 9
4. An English Plundering Voyage
( 1 578-1 579)
WHEN Frances Drake had passed y" stray tes [straits]
of Magellan, the first land hee fell w,h [with] was
an Hand named Mocha, wher . . . hee wth ten of his
company went on shore, thincking ther to have taken in fresh
water. Two of the company going far into the Hand were
intercepted and cut of[f] by the Indians that inhabite the
Hand . . . They stayed heere but one day, but set sayle
toward ye coast of Chile, wher ariying they met with an
Indian in a canoa nere the shore, who thincking them to have
bin [been] Spaniards, tould them that behind the [them],
at a place called St. Yago, there was a Spanish schip [ship],
j for woh [which] good nves [news] they gave him divers
j trifles. The Indian being ioyfull [joyful] therof went on
shore and brought them ij. [2] sheepe and a small quantyty
of fish, and so they returned back againe to St. Yago to
seeke the Spanish ship (for they had overshot yc place before
they were ware) ; and when they came thither, they found
the same ship and in her 3 Negros and viij. [8] Spaniards ;
they of the ship thincking Drakes [men] to have bin Span
iards, welcomed them with a drum, and made redy a great
buttiro [butt] of wyne of Chile to have made them drinck ;
but when Drakes men were entred, one of them, whose name
was Tom Moone, strake ye Spanish pilate w,h his fist of [on]
the face, saying, Abassho Pirra, wch is to say in English, Go
downe, dogg, and then the poore Spaniards being sore
afrayde went downe into the hould of the ship, all saving one
of them, who leping out at the stern of the ship swam on
shore, and gave warning to them of the towne of their coin
ing. When Drake had taken this ship and stowed the men
vnder hatches, hee tooke her bote and his owne boote [boat]
and manned them both w"' his men, and went to set vpon

Anony mous.
This brief
abstract of
Drake's voy
age, famous
from being
the first Eng
lish expedi
tion to sail
in the Pacific
Ocean, coin
cides on the
whole with
the longer
and better-
knownaccounts,
though it
adds some
things not
noticed by
them. There
was no war
between England and
Spain, and
Drake's voy
age was a
kind of pri
vate hostility,
almost pi
racy. — For
Drake, see
Contempo
raries, I,
Nos. 30, 31 ;
on other
English free
booters, Con
temporaries, I, Nos. 38,
29. 33-

IO

Discoveries

[1578-1579

Drake was a the towne of S. Yago . . . hee found there a chappell, wch he
rifled and tooke from thence a chaUce of silvr and twoo
cruets of silver ... and the altar cloth, all wch hee tooke
away with him and brought them on boord [board], and
gave all the spoyle of that chappell to Mr. Fletcher, his
precher, at his coming on boorde . . . Drake ... set
sayle and bent his course towards a place called Arica, where
he found in the haven iij small barcks, and rifling them, he
found in one of the [them] 57 slabs of fine silver weing
20 pounds, I weighing] about 20" weight eche [each] of them. These
or a value of s^bs were about the bignes of a brick batt eche one of them,
and one of y* two other barks was set on fire by one Fuller
and one Tom Marcks, and so burned to the very water.
There were not in those iij barcks one prson [person], for
they mistrusting no theves were aU gone on shore. In this
towne of Arica were about 20 howses, which Drake would
have set vppon if hee had had more company with him, but
wanting company of pirates he depted [departed] hence,
having still with him the Grand Capitaine of St. Yago ; but
within one day after he was gone from this haven of Arica,
he cast of [f] the Grand Capitaine, clapping her helme fast
on the lee and let her drive to seaward without any creature
in her. From hence hee sayled toward Lyma ... At his
departure from the haven of Lyma he cut all the cables of
the ships there and let them drive to seaward, and so made
speed toward Payta, thincking there to have founde the
Cacafoga, but she was gone before he arived there toward
Panama, whom he still followed amayne, but betwene Payta
and Cape St. Franc[i]s hee met with a barck laden with
ropes and tackell for shipps. This ship hee rifled, and found
80 pounds, a. in her about 80" weight of gould, and he tooke out of her
about °f greate quantyty of ropes to store his own ship, and so let her
$40,000. go. The owner of this ship was a frier. He found also in
her a greate crucifix of goulde, and certaine emeralds neere
as longe as a mans finger. From this robbery following still

No. 5]

Drake

1 1

after the Cacafoga, hee overtooke her at Cape St. Frances,
whom hee had long wisshed for. In his iorney [journey]
he pmised y' [promised that] whosoever should overtake
her should have his cheine [chain] of gould for his
labour. This did John Drake descry on St. Davids day,
being the first of March, about viij. of the clock in y* after-
none, and boorded her about v. of the clock ; and in the
boording of her hee shot downe her misen mast, and so
entred her, and found in her about 80" weight of gould, and
13. chests full of royalls of plate, and so mooch [much]
silver as did ballas[t] the Goulden Hinde. ... the Pylats Drake-sship.
[pilot's] name was Don Francisco, who had two cupps of
silver gilt elene over, to whom Drake said at his departure
as followeth : Seignior Pilate, you have ij. cupps and I must
needes have one of them, wch the Pilate yeelded vnto will
ingly, because he could not chuse. , . . Drake watered his
ship and departed, sayling northwards till he came to 48. gr. 48^ north
of the septentrionall latitud, still finding a very lardge sea coasToY-
trending toward the north, but being afraid to spend long Oregon.
time in seeking for the straite, hee turned back againe, still
keping along the cost [coast] as nere land as hee might,
vntill hee came to 44. gr., and the [there] hee found a
harborow [harbor] for his ship, where he grouded [grounded] Probably
his ship to trim her . . . cjs"0 2J"
Francis Fletcher, The World Encompassed by Sir Francis
Drake (Hakluyt Society, Works issued, London, 1854), Ap
pendix iii, 178-1&4 passim.

5. The First English Exploration (1607)
M

Anony mous. From

a journal
AY 21 [1607]. — Thursday, the 21st of May, Capt. companion
Newport (having fitted our shallop with provision p^f^

and aU necessaryes belonging to a discovery) tooke five Newport,

12

Discoveries

[1607

commander
of the vessels
that brought
over the
Jamestown
settlers. The
extract describes
an exploring
voyage which
they made,
with Captain
John Smith
and twenty-
three others,
up the James
River from
Jamestownto the Falls.
— For the
founding of Virginia,
see American
History Leaf
lets, No. 27 ;
Contempora
ries, I, Nos.
63-64.

NearHaxall?

Usually
spelled"weroance" = chief.

gentlemen, four maryners, and fourteen saylors ; with whome
he proceeded, with a perfect resolutyon not to returne, but
either to finde the head of this ryver, the laake mentyoned
by others heretofore, the sea againe, the mountaynes Apa-
latsi [Appalachian], or some issue. . . .
May 22, Fryday. — Omitting no tyme, we passed up some
sixteen rayle further, where we founde an ilet, on which
were many turkeys, and greate store of young byrdes like
black-birdes; whereof wee tooke dyvers, which wee brake
our fast withall. Now, spying eight salvages [savages] in a
canoa, we haled them by our worde of kyndnes [kindness],
" Wingapoh [good friends] " ; and they came to us. . In
conference by signes with them, one seemed to understand
our intentyon, and offred with his foote to describe the river
to us : so I gave him a pen and paper (showing first the
use), and he layd out the whole river from the Chesseian
[Chesapeake} Bay to the end of it, so farr as passadg was
for boats. . . .
¦May 23, Satturday. — We passed a few short reaches;
and, five mile of[f] Poore Cottage, we went ashore. Heer
we found our kinde comrads againe, who had gyven notice
all along as they came of us ; by which we were entertayned
with much courtesye in every place. We found here a
wiroans (for so they call their kyngs), who satt upon a matt
of reeds, with his people about him. He caused one to be
layd for Capt. Newport; gave us a deare [deer] roasted,
which, according to their custome, they seethed [boiled]
againe. His people gave us mullberyes, sodd [sodden]
wheate, and beanes ; and he caused his weomen to make
cakes for us. He gave our captain his crowne ; which was
of deare's hayre [hair], dyed redd. Certifying him of our
intentyon [to go] up the ryver, he was willing to send
guydes with us. . . . Now . . . newes came that the
greate Kyng Powatah [Powhatan] was come . . . Him
wee saluted with silence ; sitting still on our matts, our

No. 5]

Newport

!3

captain in the myddest [midst] ; but presented (as before
we dyd [did] to Kyng Arahatec) gyftes of dyvers sorts —
as penny-knyves, sheeres [shears], belles, beades, glasse
toyes, &c. — more amply then [than] before. Now, this
king appointed five men to guyde us up the river, and sent
posts before to provyde us victuaU. . . . Now, the day
drawing on, we made signe to be gone ; wherewith he was
contented, and sent six men with us : we also left a man
with him, and departed. But now, rowing some three myle
in shold [shallow] water, we came to an overfall, impassible
for boates any further. Here the water falles downe through
great mayne [vast] rocks from ledges of rocks above, two
fadome [fathom] highe ; in which fall it maketh divers little
iletts, on which might be placed a hundred water-milnes
[mills] for any uses. Our mayne ryver ebbs and flowes
four foote, even to the skert of this downfall : shippes of two
hundred or three hundred toone [ton] may come to within
five myle hereof, and the rest [is] deepe inoughe for barges
or small vessells that drawe not above six foote water.
Having viewed this place, betweene content and greefe
[grief], we left it for this night, determyning the next day
to fitt ourselfe for a march by land. . , .
May 24 . . . Now, sitting upon the banck by the overfall,
beholding the sonne [sun], he [Powhatan] began to tell us
of the tedyous travell we should have if wee proceeded any
further ; that it was a daye and a halfe jorney to Monanacah ;
and, if we went to Qnirauck, we should get no vittailes [vic
tuals], and be tyred [tired] ; and sought by all meanes to
disswade our captayne from going any further. Also he
tolde us that the Monanacah was his enemye ; and that he
came downe at the fall of the leafe, and invaded his countrye.
Now, what I conjecture of this I have left to a further ex
perience. But our captayne, out of his discretyon (though
we would faine have seene further ; yea, and himselfe as
desirous also), checkt his intentyon, and retorned to his

Waterfalls, or rather
rapids ;
present site
of the city of
Richmond.

An Indian
tribe at the
head of the
James River.
Quirauck =
the Blue
Ridge.

14

Discoveries

[1615

I.e. James,
King.

boate ; as holding it much better to please the kyng (with
whome, and all of his command, he had made so faire way)
then [than] to prosecute his owne fancye or satisfye our
requests. So, upon one of the little iletts at the mouth of
the falls, he sett up a crosse, with this inscriptyon, — " Iaco-
bus, Rex, 1607;" and his owne name belowe. At the
erecting hereof, we prayed for our kyng, and our owne pros
perous succes in this his actyon [action]. ... So farr as
we could discerne the river above the overfall, it was full of
huge rocks. About a myle of[f], it makes a pretty bigg
iland. It runnes up betweene highe hilles, which increase in
height, one above another, so farr as wee sawe. Now, our
kynde [kind] consort's relatyon sayth (which I dare well
beleeve, in that I found not any one report false of the river
so farr as we tryed, or that he told us untruth in any thing
els whatsoever), that, after a daye's jorney or more, this
river devyds [divides] itselfe into two branches, which both
wind from the mountaynes Quirauck. Here he whispered
with me, that their caquassun [copper] was gott in the bites
of rocks, and betweene cliffs in certayne vaynes [veins]. . . .
American Antiquarian Society, Transactions and Collections
([Boston,] i860), IV, 40-48 passim.

By Samuel
Sieur de.
Champlain
(t 1635). a
French naval
officer, founder of
Quebec, and
later gov
ernor of
Canada.
The French
had discov
ered the
river in 1534

6. A French Exploration (i 615)
ON the 9th of the month [July, 1615] I embarked with
two others, namely, one of our interpreters and my
man, accompanied by ten savages in . . . two canoes . . .
We continued our voyage up the River St. Lawrence some
six leagues . . .
Continuing our journey by land, after leaving the river of
the Algonquins, we passed several lakes where the savages
carry their canoes, and entered the lake of the Nipissings . . .

No. 6]

Champlain

15

Thence I had them guide me to Carhagouha, which was
fortified by a triple palisade of wood thirty-five feet high for
its defence and protection. In this village Father Joseph
was staying, whom we saw and were very glad to find well.
... On the twelfth day of August the Recollect Father
celebrated the holy mass, and a cross was planted near a
small house apart from the village, which the savages built
while I was staying there, awaiting the arrival of our men
and their preparation to go to the war, in which they had
been for a long time engaged. . . .
I was glad to find this opportunity for gratifying my desire
of obtaining a knowledge of their country. It is situated
only seven days from where the Dutch go to traffic . . .
The savages there, assisted by the Dutch, make war upon
them, take them prisoners, and cruelly put them to death ;
and indeed they told us that the preceding year, while mak
ing war, they captured three of the Dutch, who were assist
ing their enemies, as we do the Attigouautans [a principal
tribe of the Hurons], and while in action one of their own
men was killed. . . .
On the 9th of the month of October our savages going
out to reconnoitre met eleven savages, whom they took
prisoners. They consisted of four women, three boys, one
girl, and three men . . . one of the chiefs, on seeing the
prisoners, cut off the finger of one of these poor women as
a beginning of their usual punishment ; upon which I inter
posed and reprimanded the chief, Iroquet, representing to
him that it was not the act of a warrior, as he declared him
self to be, to conduct himself with cruelty towards women,
who have no defence but their tears, and that one should
treat them with humanity on account of their helplessness
and weakness ; and I told him that on the contrary this act
would be deemed to proceed from a base and brutal courage,
and that if he committed any more of these cruelties he
would not give me heart to assist them or favor them in the

(see Contem
poraries, I,
No. 35).
The French
enmity with
the Iroquois,
begun in the
manner de
scribed by
Champlain
below, be
came a mat
ter of great
importancein the subse
quent strug
gles. — For
Champlain'i
earlier ex
ploration, see
Contempora
ries, I, No.
?9 ;. for other
'rench ex
plorations, Old South
Leaflets, No.
46; Contem
poraries, I,
ch;v; II, ch.
.xvii. Carhagouha = Saint
Gabriel, in
the township
of Tiny, Sim-
coe County,
Canada.The Recol
lects were an
order of
monks.Dutch trad
ing place =
Albany.—See Contem
poraries, I,
Nos. 38, 40.
Cutting off
fingers was a
usual com
pliment of
the Iroquois.

i6

Discoveries

In the origi
nal there is
a capital pic
ture of Cham
plain firing
his arquebus,
or rude gun.

For the pur
pose of set
ting fire to
the fort.

[1615

war. To which the only answer he gave me was that their
enemies treated them in the same maimer, but that, since
this was displeasing to me, he would not do anything more
to the women, although he would to the men.
The next day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, we arrived
before the fort of their enemies, where the savages made
some skirmishes with each other, althongh our design was
not to disclose ourselves until the next day, which however
the impatience of our savages would not permit, both on
account of their desire to see fire opened rapon their enemies,
and also that they might rescue some of their own men who
had become too closely engaged, and were hotly pressed.
Then I approached the enemy, and although I had only a
few men, yet we showed them what they had never seen
nor heard before ; for, as soon as they saw us and heard the
arquebus shots and the balls whizzing in their ears, they
withdrew speedily to their fort, carrying the dead and
wounded in this charge. We also withdrew to our main
body, with five or six wounded, one of whom died.
This done, we withdrew to the distance of cannon range,
out of sight of the enemy, but contrary to imy advice and to
what they [the Indian allies] had promised me. . . .
... tlie greater part of the savages began to carry wood
against the palisades, but in so small quantity that the fire
could have no great effect. There also arose such disorder
among them that one could not understand another, which
greatly troubled me. In vain did I short in their ears and
remonstrate to my utmost with them as to the danger to
which they exposed themselves by their bad behavior, but
on account of the great noise they made they heard nothing.
Seeing that shouting would only burst nay head, and that my
remonstrances were useless for putting a stop to the dis
order, I did nothing more, but determnnmed together with
my men to do what we could, and fire upon such as we
could see.

-.0. 6]

Champlain

17

Meanwhile the enemy profited by our disorder to get
water and pour it so abundantly that you would have said
brooks were flowing through their spouts, the result of which
was that the fire was instantly extinguished, while they did
not cease shooting their arrows, which fell upon us like hail.
But the men on the cavalier [rampart] killed and maimed
many. We were engaged in this combat about three hours,
in which two of our chiefs and leading warriors were
wounded, namely, one called Ochateguain and another
Oram', together with some fifteen common warriors. The
others, seeing their men and some of the chiefs wounded,
now began to talk of a retreat without farther fighting, in
expectation of the five hundred men, whose arrival could
not be much delayed. Thus they retreated, a disorderly
rabble. Moreover the chiefs have in fact no absolute control over
their men, who are governed by their own will and follow
their own fancy, which is the cause of their disorder and the
ruin of all their undertakings ; for, having determined upon
anything with their leaders, it needs only the whim of a
villain, or nothing at all, to lead them to break it off and
form a new plan. Thus there is no concert of action among
them, as can be seen by this expedition.
Now we withdrew into our fort . . . and ... it was not
possible to return again against their enemies, as I told them
it was their duty to do. . . .
E. F. Slafter, editor. Voyages of Samuel de Champlain (trans
lated by Charles Pomeroy Otis, in Prince Society, Publications,
Boston, 1882), 111, 111-134 passim.

By John
Evelyn (1630-1706),
a man inti
mate with
many distin
guished con
temporaries,
a type of
an accom
plished and
public-spirited gentle
man of the
seventeenthcentury. His
diary is one
of the best
mirrors of ihe
period, and
illustrates the
life of gentle
men, like
Winthrop
and Penn,
who came to
America. —
Koran earlier
description of
Kngland, see
C 'ontempora-
ries, J, N0.44.
" Mock-
parliament- men " =
members of
the " Long
Parliament."
Punishment
bv fire disap
peared about
forty years
later.

CHAPTER II — CONDITIONS OF
SETTLEMENT
7. Life in England (165 2-1 668)
MARCH 6 [1652]. Saw the magnificent funeral of
that Arch-rebell Ireton, carried in pomp from Som
erset House to Westm' [Westminster], accompanied with
divers regiments of souldiers horse and foote ; then marched
r mourners, Gen1. Cromwell (his father-in-law), his mock-
parl.ament-men, officers, and 40 poore men in gownes, 3 led
horses in housings of black cloth, 2 led in black velvet
and his charging-horse all cover'd over with embrodery and
gold on crimson velvet; then the guydons [flags], ensignes,
4 heraulds carrying the armes of the State (as they cal'd
it), namely, y* red crosse and Ireland, with the casq[ue]
wreath, sword, spurrs, &c. ; next, a chariot canopied of
black velvet and 6 horses, in which was the corps[e] ; the
pall held up by the mourners on foote; the mace and sword
with other marks of his charge in Ireland (where he died
of y« plague), carried before in black scarfs. Thus in a
grave pace, drums cover'd with cloth, souldiers reversing
their armes, they proceeded through the streetes in a very
solemn manner. ...
10 May. Passing by Smithfield I saw a miserable creat
ure burning who had murder'd her husband. I went to see
some workmanship of that admirable artist Reeves, famous
for perspective and turning curiosities in ivorie. . . .
1 1 [June]. . . . The weather being hot, and having
sent my man on before, I rod[e] negligently under favour
of the shade, till within three miles of Bromley, at a place
18

No. 7]

In England

19

caU'd the Procession Oake, two cut-throates started out, and
striking with long staves at ye horse and taking hold of the
reines threw me downe, tooke my sword, and haled me into
a deepe thickett some quarter of a mile from the highway,
where they might securely rob me, as they soone did.
What they got of money was not considerable, but they
took two rings, the one an emerald with diamonds, the
other an onyx, and a pair of bouckles set with rubies and
diamonds, which were of value, and after all bound my
hands behind me, and my feete, having before pull'd off
my bootes ; they then set me up against an oake, wu' most
bloudy threats to cutt my throat if I offer'd to crie out or
make any noise, for they should be within hearing, I not
being the person they looked for. I told them if they had
not basely surpriz'd me they should not have had so easy a
prize, and that it would teach me never to ride neere an
hedge, since had I ben in ye mid-way they durst not have
adventur'd on me ; at which they cock'd their pistols, and
told me they had long gtms too, and were 14 companions.
I begg'd for my onyx, and told them it being engraven with
my armes would betray them, but nothing prevail'd. . . .
... I heard afterwards that had it not been for his com
panion, a younger man, he would probably have kill'd me.
He was afterwards charg'd with some other crime, but
refusing to plead, was press'd to death. . . .
25 [Dec.]. Christmas day, no sermon any where, no
Church being permitted to be open, so observ'd it at home.
The next day we went to Lewesham, where an honest
divine preach'd.
31 Dec I adjusted all accompts, and render'd thanks
to Almighty God for his mercys to me the yeare past. . . .
11 April [1653]. I went to take the aire in Hide Park,
where every coach was made to pay a shilling, and horse
6d. by the sordid fellow who had purchas'd it of the State
as they were cal'd. . . .

Such adven
tures with
highwaymenwere frequent
in those
times.

So in New
England at
this time.

U. of
Cromwell'sgovernment

20

Conditions

[1652-1668

At Oxford,
"schools"mean exam
inations ;
the ceremony.
correspondsto our
Commencement Inceptor =
candidate for
degree of
master of
arts.

Evelyn was
tond of beau-
tilul views
and land
scape gar
dening.Evelyn's
ideals of
conduct were
stricter than
th- >se gen
erally enter
tained by the
nobility of the
Restoration
period.

For New
England
Quakers, see
below, No.
3°-

11 [May, 1654]. I now observed how the women began
to paint themselves, formerly a most ignominious thing. . . .
ro [July]. On Monday I went againe to ye Scholes
[schools] to heare the severall Faculties, and in y' after-
noone tarried out the whole Act in St. Marie's, the long
speeches of the Proctors, the Vice-Chancellor, the severall
Professors, creation of Doctors by ye cap, ring, kisse, &c.
those antient ceremonies and institution being as yet not
wholy abolish'd. Dr. Kendal, now Inceptor amongst others,
performing his Act incomparably well, concluded it with an
excellent oration, abating his Presbyterian animosities, which
he witheld not even against that learned and pious divine
Dr. Hammond. . . .
Went back to Cadenham, and on ye 19th to Sir Ed.
Baynton's at Spie Park, a place capable of being made, a
noble seate ; but the humourous old Knight has built a long
single house of 2 low stories on ye precipice of an incom
parable prospect, and landing on a bowling greene in ye
park. The house is like a long barne, and has not a win
dow on y° prospect side. After dinner they went to bowles,
and in the meanetime our coach-men were made so exceed
ingly drunk, that in returning home we escap'd greate dan
gers. This it seems was by order of the Knight, that all
gentlemen's servants be so treated; but the custome is
barbarous, and much unbecoming a Knight, still lesse a
Christian. . . .
22 July. We departed and din'd at a ferme [farm] of
my uncle Hungerford's, caU'd Darneford Magna, situate in a
vally under yc plaine, most sweetly water'd, abounding in
trouts catch'd by speare in the night when they come
attracted by a light set in ye sterne of a boate. . . .
[8 July, 1656]. I had ye curiosity to visite some Quakers
here in prison ; a new phanatic [fanatic] sect, of dangerous
principles, who shew no respect to any man, magistrate or
other, and seeme a melancholy proud sort of people, and

No. 8]

In England

21

exceedingly ignorant. One of these was said to have fasted F<" *e K0/-
.... , . , . ••. • l.j eminent of
20 daies, but another endeavouring to do ye like, perish a England, see
on the 10th, when he would have eaten but could not. . . . £^*j$os.
1668. 8 Jan. I saw deepe and prodigious gaming at 5,6,19,83-28,
the Groome-Porters, vast heapes of gold squander'd away S7"64"
in a vaine and profuse manner. This I looked on as a
horrid vice and unsuitable in a Christian Court.
John Evelyn, Memoirs (edited by WiUiam Bray, London, 1819),
I, 261-412 passim.

8. Reasons for Emigration (1641)
WHEN a Kingdom beginneth to be over-burthened
with a multitude of people (as England and Scot
land now do) to have a convenient place where to send
forth Coloniesis no smal benefit : And such are the North
east and North-west parts of America, betweene the degrees
of 25. and 45. of the North latitude, which, at this time doe
even offer themselves unto us, to bee protected by us, against
the knowne cruelty of the over-neare approaching Spaniard.
A very large tract of ground containing spacious, health-
full, pleasant, and fruitfull countries, not only apt, but already
provided of all things necessary for mans sustentation, Come,
Grasse, and wholsome cattell [cattle] in good competencie ;
but Fish, Fowle, Fruits and Herbes in abundant variety.
If wee should looke no further, then [than] the South of
Virginia, (which is our owne) wee shall find there all man
ner of provision for life; besides Merchantable Commodi
ties, Silke, Vines, Cotton, Tobacco, Deer-skins, Goat-skins,
rich Furre, and Beavers good store, Timber, Brasse, Iron,
Pitch, Tarre, Rosin; and almost all things necessary for
shipping, which if they shall bee employed that way ; they
who are sent away may (with Gods blessing) within short

By Rev
erend WIL
LIAM CAS-
TELL(tl64S), a clergyman
of the Church
of England,
who was
much inter
ested in the
colonizationof America
and the con
version of
the Indians
there. The
extract is
from a peti
tion to
Parliament.
— For other
reasons for
colonization,see Contem
poraries, I,
ch. vi.
From 95° to
45° = from
southernFlorida to
Maine.

22

Conditions

[1641

Found in
California
two centuries
later.

For opinions
of Spain, see
Contempora
ries, 1, Nos,
25. 3°. 46.

Ultimatelythe ruin of
Spain.

Bull of 1404.
— See Con
temporaries, I. No. 18.

time in due recompence of their setting forth, returne this
Kingdome store of silver and gold, pearles and precious
stones ; for undoubtedly (if there be not a generall mistake
in all Authors, who have written of these places) such treas
ure is to bee had, if not there, yet in places not farre remote,
where (as yet) the Spaniard hath nothing to doe. And in
case the Spaniard will bee troublesome to our Plantations,
or shall' (as it is generally conceived) bee found an Enemy
to this Kingdome, there is no way more likely to secure
England; then [than] by having a strong Navie there ; here
by wee may come to share, if not utterly to defeat him of
that vaste Indian Treasure, wherewith hee setteth on fire
so great a part of the Christian World, corrupteth many
Counsellors of state, supporteth the Papacie, and generally
perplexeth all reformed Churches.
Nor need any scrupulous quere [query] bee made, whether
wee may not assault an enemy in any place, or not esteeme
them such as shall assault us in those places, where wee have
as much to doe as they. The Spaniard claimeth indeed an
Interest, little lesse then hereditarie in almost all America,
and the West Indies, but it is but by vertue of the Popes'
grant, which is nothing worth, as was long since determined
by Queene Elizabeth, and her Councell ; so as for the Span
iard to debarre us in the liberty of our Plantations, or free-
dome of commerce in those spacious countries, were over
proudly to take upon him ; and for us to permit it were
over-much to yeeld of our own right.
Especially, when we may, as now we may, so easily helpe
our selves : For your Petitioner conceiveth there is no great
difficulty in the preparation here, or tediousnesse in the
passage thither, or hazard when wee come there. The
preparation of men and shipping, in respect of the daily
happy expected accord betweene us and the Scots, is (Upon
the matter) already made ; and as for money it is in the
power of this Honourable House to give sufficient, without

¦0-9]

Virginia

23

any grievance, or dislike of the Commonwealth, who (un
doubtedly) in the generall will thinke nothing grievous,
which shall bee concluded by your wisedomes, expedient
to such a pious and charitable worke.
And as for the passage, how can it be thought either
tedious or dangerous, it being ordinarily but six weekes
sayle, in a sea much more secure from Pirats, and much
more free from shipwrack, and enemies coasts, then [than]
our ten or twelve moneths voyage into the East-Indies. And
as for our good successe there, wee need not feare it. The
natives being now every where more then [than] ever, out
of an inveterate hatred to the Spaniard, ready and glad to
enlertaine us. Our best friends the Netherlanders being
with eight and twenty ships gone before to assist and further See below,
us. And which is much more, our going with a generall con
sent in Gods cause, for the promoting of the Gospel, and in-
larging of his Church, may assure us of a more then [than]
ordinary protection and direction. That hitherto wee have
beene lesse successefull in our voyage that way, wee may
justly impute it to this, that as yet they have not beene
undertaken with such a generall consent, and with such a
full reference to Gods glory as was requisite.
A Petition of W. C. exhibited to the High Cm>rt of Parliament
. . , for the Propagating of the Gospel in America . . .
(1641), 11-15-

9. Indian Life (1609-16 1 3)
TO giue sum [some] satisfaction to my trends and con
tentment unto others, wch wish well to this viage [voy
age], and are desir[o]us to heare y* fashions of that cuntrye :
I haue set doune [down] as. well as I can, what I obserued in
y* time I was amonge them. And therfore first conceminge
ther [their] gods, yow [you] must understand that for y'

Bv Henry
Spelman (1600-1622),
who came to
Virginia as a
boy, was cap
tured by the
Indians' in
1614, and
lived among
them for sev
eral years.

24

Conditions

[1609-1613

He thus
acquired an
intimate per
sonal knowl
edge of their
ways. — For
Indians and
theirrelationswith the col
onists, see
Contempora
ries, I, Nos.
40, 60, 91, 92,
Ia3. 1=7, 133.
J34. M7. 162,
II, ch. x'viii.
This would
not hold true
ofthe.Indiansof Mexico
and Central
America.

most part they worship y diueU [devil], w* y couniurers
hemTS ? ^ thCT PfeeStS' Ca" ™ake "P«« -to
them at ther pleasuer, yet neuer y less [nevertheless] in
Z7gri™y. .^ haU6 S Seuera»W whom they3 call

No. 9]

Indian Life

The English
caused much
confusion of
thought by
calling sav
age chiefs
" kings."

PLACES of Habitation they haue but feaw [fowl for v*
\ £*"? tOUne [t0Wn^ haue not abou« ^o or 30 houses
? ! hi ,er ?Sdin8e [bui,dingsJ are made like a* oaT5
[withJahteUDittpholetocum^omeJinatButmorespatiu;
[spacious] w* in [within] hauinge a hole in the midest of y
nZ5 T, ' t0 g0Le °Ut at' The KinSes hous« are both
broader and longer then y rest hauinge many darke wind
ages and turnings before any cum wher the Kinge is, But in
that time when they goe a Huntinge y weomen goes to a
place apoynted before, to biuld houses for ther husbands to
he m att night carienge [carrying] matts w< them to couer
hunHn tt' a" Cwit,ha,]' 3nd M the men goes furthur a
huntinge the weomen follows to make houses, always carri
age ther mattes w' them ther maner of ther Huntinge is
thiss they meett sum 2 or 300 togither and hauinge ther
bowes and arrows and euery one w< a fier [fire] sticke in
ther hand they besett a great thikett round about, w^dunn
[done] euery one sett fier on the ranke grass w^ y Deare
semge [seeing] fleeth from y fier, and the menu cumminge
[coming] in by a litell and litle [little and little] inclosed
ther game in a narrow roome, so as w' ther Bowes and
a^wes they kill them at ther pleasuer takinge ther skinns
w is the greatest thinge they desier, and sume flesh for
ther prouision. . . .
THF. King is not know[n] by any difference] from
± other of y chefe sort in y cuntry but only when he
cum. to any of ther howses they present him w< copper
Beads or Vitall [victual], and shew much reuerence to him

25

The preest are shauen on ye right side of ther head close
to the scull only a litle locke leaft [left] at y eare and sum
of thes haue beards But y common people haue no beards &>tc-day
at all for they pull away ther hares [hairs] as fast as it growes amonR *e
And they also cutt y heares on y right side of ther heade lndUU'S'
that it might not hinder them by flappinge about ther bow
stringe, when they draw it to shoott, But on y other side
they lett it grow and haue a long locke hanginge doune
[down] ther shoulder,
AS for Armoure or dissipline in ware [war] the[y] haue
not any. The weopons they vse for offence are
Bowes and Arrowes w' a weapon like a hammer and ther
Tomahaucks for defence w* are shi[e]Ids made of the
barke of a tree and hanged on ther leaft shoulder to couer
that side as they stand forth to shoote
They neuer fight in open fields but always e[i]ther
amonge reede or behind trees takinge ther oportunitie to
shoot at ther enimies and till they can nocke [notch]
another arrow they make the trees ther defence •
In ye time that I was ther I sawe a Battell [battle] fought
betwene the Patomeck [Potomac] and the Masomeck, ther
place wher they fought was a marish [marsh] ground full
of Reede Beinge in the cuntry of the Patomecke the peopel
of Masomeck weare [were] brought thether in Canoes wch is
a kind of Boate they haue made in the forme of an Hoggs A dugout
trowgh [trough] But sumwhat more hollowed in, On Both
sid[e]s they scatter them selues sum litle distant one from
the other, then take they ther bOwes and arrows and hauinge
made ndie [ready] to shoot they softly steale toward ther
enimies, Sumtime squattinge doune and priinge [prying] if
they can spie any to shoot at whom if at any time he so
Hurteth that he can not flee they make hast[e] to him to
knock him on the heade ...

26

Conditions

[1634

WHEN they meet at feasts or otherwise they vse
sprorts [sports] much like to ours heare [here] in
England as ther daunsinge [dancing], w"h is like our darby-
sher [Derbyshire] Hornepipe a man first and thew a woman
and so through them all, hangiwg all in a round, ther is one
w°h stand in the midest V a pipe and a rattell [rattle] w' wch
when he beginns to make a noyes [noise] all the rest Gigetts
[whirl] about wriinge [wrying] ther neckes and stampinge
on y ground
They vse beside football play, w* wemen an*/ young boyes
doe much play at. The men neuer They make ther Gooles
[goals] as ouw only they neuer fight nor pull one another
doune The men play w' a litel balle lettinge it fall out of ther hand
and striketh it w* the tope of his foot, and he that can strike
the ball furthest winns that they play for.
Henry Spelman, delation of Virginia (edited by J. F. Hunne-
well, London, 1872), 11-19 passim.

By John
Sadler, an
emigrationbroker, or
agent,' at Red
Lion, in
Bucklers-
bury, Eng
land. Lady
Verney had
consultedhim about
the outfit
necessary for
her son, who
wasgoingoutto Virginia;
Sadler gave
the following
advice. Of

10. Requirements of an Emigrant (1634)
IF it will please sir Edmund and your ladyshipp to bee
ruled by my aduise, your sonne shoold [should] have
with him iij [3] seruants at least, which may bee had heare
[here] at a dayes warninge ; if I were to send 40 servants I
coold [could] have them heere at a dayes warninge ; but,
indede, 1 desierd [desired], if it were possible, to have him
bringe a cooper out of the country, which wee cannot get
soe redily heare. Euery servant hee sends over will stand
him in xij1' [for] his passage and apparel fit for him, with
other charges. After his cumming into Verginniae, I doubt
nott but by frends I have there hee shall bee well acomo-

no. xo] Emigrant Supplies 27
dated for his owne person, and at a resonable rate, and his
men maye likewise be taken of[f] his hande and dyated
[dieted] for theyre [their] worke for the first yeare, and
with some advantage to your sonne besides ; then the next
yeare, if hee shall Uke. the cuntry, and bee mynded to staye
and settell a plantation him selfe, those servants will bee
seasoned, and bee enabled to direct such others as shaU bee
sent vnto him from hence hearafter, or if hee shall nott like
the cuntry, then hee maye seU theyre tyme they haue to
serve him vnto other men that haue neede of servants, and
make a good bennifitt of them, as alsoe of all such things
as he shall carry with him, for ther is nothinge that wee
carry from hence but if it cost 20J. heare in England they
doe geeve [give] there for it 30J.
Now, for his owne proper acomodation, I must intreat
your ladiship that hee maye bring vp with him a fether bed,
bolster, pillow, blanketts, rugg, and 3 payre [pair] of
sheets, vnless you will please they shalbee bought heare;
it is but a spare horse the more to bring them vp. And Jett
nott his staye bee longer. If hee had cum vp nowe, I had
then beespoack [bespoke] for him that acomodation (in
regard of the intimasie I haue with the owners of the shipp)
which he cannott haue in every shipp that goeth thether ;
for hee shoold haue layne in the great cabbin, which is more
then [than] an ordenary curtesie ; but I am afeard if the
wynde cum fayre [fair] for them to bee gon, that theye will
not staye past iij. or iiij. dayes longer at most. But, howe
ever, ther shalbee nothinge wantinge in mee toe doe the
best I can to gett him the best acomodation I maye in
some other shipp, if hee doe cum toe [too] late.
Maddam, the reson why I intreat your ladyshipp that hee
may haue with him for his owne particular vse a fether bed,
bolster, blanquetts, rugg, curtaynes, and vallence is, that,
althogh many howshowlds [households] in Verginia ar[e]
soe well provided as to enterteyne a stranger with all thinges

course, many
other emi
grants came
over who had
little except
their two
hands as
capital. — See
Contempora
ries,!, No. 5a
"xij" "-/is,
perhaps the
equivalent of
$aco now.

I.e. a pack-
horse to cany
them.

28

Conditions

I

[1634

necessary for the belly, yeat [yet] few or non[e] ar[e] bet
ter provided for the back as yeat then [than] to serve theyre
own turnes ; therfore tis necessary tnat hee bee provided of
that for more asurance.
Now if it will please your ladishipp that he maye haue ij.
men with him, I haue hear inclosed sent a noate [account],
as neare calculated as I can, what the charges will bee of ij.
men, as alsoe a nother noate added ther vnto of such things
as tis necessary hee doe carry over for sale ; som part of
them to purchass corne against next year, as well for theys
[those] seruants hee now carryes as for those he shall haue
sent him next yeare, and for more asurance least [lest] there
shoold happen to bee a scarsety [scarcity] in the cuntry,
which some tymes dooth soe fall out through the covetious-
nes of the planters, that strive to plant much tobacco and
littell corne ; soe that want comes vpon som of them beefore
they are aware of it.
I haue alreddy bought the flower, the fowlinge peeces, the
stronge waters, and the grosery wares, and for the rest I
haue sought them out and know where to bee fitted with
them at halfe a dayes warninge, but I durst nott proseede
in buyinge them vntill I might heare farther your pleasure,
which I coold wish might bee by him selfe vpon Satterdaye
next by noone, and then I hoape [hope] in the after noone
I might dispa[t]ch all, and hee might cum time enough toe
goe awaye in this shipp, where I soe much desier hee shoold
goe for the good acomodation that I am suer [sure] hee
shoold haue there.
This charge for him selfe and ij. men, with the provisions
which is needfull for him to carry, will cum toe 56" [56^],
haps'equal to littell more or less ; and if you shall think fitt toe [to] lett
S3oonow. njm naue a thjrc} man it is but xij" [i2j£] more, and truly
it is the opinion of all that I haue or can conferr with all,
that it is a greate deale better for him to have som seasoned
men of his owne, when hee goes to settell a plantation him

Corn =
grain, not
Indian corn.

I.e. liquors.

About $95
each, per

no. 11] New England

29

selfe, then to haue all fresh men, because those men maye
bee inabled to direct others that hee shall haue hearafter.
John Bruce, editor, Letters and Papers of the Verney Family
(Camden Society, London, 1853), 160-162.

II.

Some Rarities of New England
(1663-1671)

THE Six and twentieth [of July, 1663] we had sight
of land.
The Seven and twentieth we Anchored at Nantascot, in
the afternoon I went aboard of a Ketch, with some other of
our passengers, in hope to get to Boston that night ; but the
Master of the Ketch would not consent.
The Eight and twentieth being Tuesday, in the morning
about 5 of the clock he lent us his Shallop and three of his
men, who brought us to the western end of the town where
we landed, and having gratified the men, we repaired to an
Ordinary (for so they call their Taverns there) where we
were provided with a liberal cup of burnt Madera-wine, and
store of plum-cake, about ten of the clock I went about my
Affairs. . . .
The shore is Rockie, with high cliffs, having a multitude
of considerable Harbours ; many of which are capacious
enough for a Navy of 500 sail, one of a thousand, the Coun
trie within Rockie and mountanious, full of tall wood, one
stately mountain there is surmounting the rest, about four
score mile from the Sea : The description of it you have
in my rarities of New-England, between the mountains are
many ample rich . . . valleys as ever eve beheld, beset on
each side with variety of goodly Trees, the grass man-high
unmowed, uneaten and uselesly withering; within these val-

No. 11 is
by John
Jossei.v.v, a
traveller who
paid two
visits tu New
England, in
1638-39 and
1663-71 re
spectively.
Shortly after
his return
from his
second trip
he published
the book
from which
extracts are
given below.
Though as a
historian he
is often inac
curate, his
observationsare valuable,
and he writes
in sprightly
style. — For
other pieces
by Josselyn.
see Contem
poraries, I,
Nos. 125, «45-
— On New
England, see
Contempora
ries, I,
Part V.
Nantasker, ar
the entrance
to Boston
Harbor.
A ketch was-.
a small twc—
masted
vessel.The south
ern White-
Mountains.
Theso-calledl " intervales."

Ije. original
source.

A. groat was
four pence.

30

Conditions

[1663-1671

leys are spacious lakes or ponds well stored with Fish and
Beavers ; the original of all the great Rivers in the Countrie,
of which there are many with lesser streams (wherein are an
infinite of fish) manifesting the goodness of the soil . . .
The whole Countrie produceth springs in abundance replen
ished with exceUent waters, having aU the properties ascribed
to the best in the world. . . .
Frogs too there are in ponds and upon dry land, they
chirp like Birds in the spring, and latter end of summer
croak like Toads. . . .
The Toad is of two sorts, one that is speckled with white,
and another of a dark earthy colour ; there is of them that
will climb up into Trees and sit croaking there ; but whether
it be of a third sort, or one of the other, or both, I am not
able to affirm ; but this I can testifie that there be Toads of
the dark coloured kind that are as big as a groat loaf. . . .
Now before I proceed any further, I must (to prevent
misconstructions) tell you that these following Creatures,
though they be net properly accounted Serpents, yet they
are venomous and pestilent Creatures. As, first the F.at,
but he hath been brought in since the English came thither,
but the Mouse is a Native, of which, there are several kinds
not material to be described; the Bat or flitter mouse is
bigger abundance than any in England and swarm, which
brings me to the insects or cut-wa[i]sted Creatures again,
as first the honey-Bee, which are carried over by the Eng
lish and thrive there exceedingly . . . But the wasp is
common, and they have a sort of wild humble-Bee that
breed in little holes in the earth. Near upon twenty years
since there lived an old planter at Black-point, who on a
Sunshine day about one of the clock lying upon a green
bank not far from his house, charged his Son, a lad of 12
years of age to awaken him when he had slept two hours,
the old man falls asleep and lying upon his back gaped with
his mouth wide [open] . . . after a little while the lad sit-

No. n]

New England

31

ting by spied a humble-Bee creeping out of his Fathers
mouth, which taking wing flew quite out of sight, the hour
as the lad ghest [guessed] being come to awaken his Father
he jogg'd him and called aloud Father, Father, it is two a
clock, but all would not rouse him, at last he sees the hum
ble-Bee returning, who lighted upon the sleepers lip and
walked down . . . and presently he awaked. . . .
The Diseases that the English are afflicted with, are the
same that they have in England, with some proper to New-
England . . .
. . . they are troubled with a disease in the mouth or
throat which hath proved mortal to some in a very short
time, Quinsies, and Impostumations of the Almonds [ton
sils], with great distempers of cold. Some of our New-
England writers affirm that the English are never or very
rarely heard to sneeze or cough, as ordinarily they do in
England, which is not true. For a cough or stitch upon
cold, Wormwood, Sage, Marygolds, and Crabs-claws boiled
in posset-drink and drunk off very warm, is a soveraign
medicine. . . .
Catts and Dogs are as common as in England, but our
Dogs in time degenerate ; yet they have gallant Dogs both
for fowl & wild Beasts all over the Countrey : the Indians
store themselves with them, being much better for their
turns, than their breed of wild dogs . . .
Of English Poultry too there is good store, they have
commonly three broods in a year ; the hens by that time
they are three years old have spurs like the Cock, but not
altogether so big, but as long, they use to crow often, which
is so rare a thing in other Countries, that they have a proverb
Galli na recinit a Hen crowes. . . .
John Josselyn, An Account of Two Voyages to New-England
(London, 1675), 41-193 passim.

Possibly
diphtheria.Tonsiiitis.

Posset = a
drink com
posed of hot
milk and
liquor.

.x88a

By Thomas
Ash, a clerk
on board his
majesty's
ship Rich
mond, sent
out to Caro
lina in 1680
with special
royal instruc
tions to
inquire into
the state of
thatprovince.
Ash gives
the earliest
account of
the English
settlers in
Carolina
before their
settlement of
Charleston. Une of the
chief reasons
of the suc
cess of the
English col
onies lay in
the fact that
they settled
inside the
corn belt,
which fur
nished un
failing food.
— For the
Carolinas,see Contem
poraries, 1.
ch. xii ; for
corn, Con
temporaries, I, No. 66.

Corn whis
key, made by
a still.

32 Conditions
12. Praise of Indian Corn (1682)
BUT now their Gardens begin to be supplied
with such European Plants and Herbs as are
necessary for the Kitchen, viz. Potatoes, lattice, Coleworts
[cabbage], Parsnip, Turnip, Carrot and Reddish : Their
Gardens also begin to be beautified and adorned with such
Herbs and Flowers which to the Smell or Eye are pleasing
and agreable, viz. The Rose, Tulip, Carnation and Lilly. &c.
Their Provision which grows in the Field is chiefly Indian
Corn, which produces a vast Increase, yearly, yielding Two
plentiful Harvests, of which they make wholesome Bread,
and good Bisket, which gives a strong, sound, and nourish
ing Diet; with Milk I have eaten it dress'd various ways:
Of the Juice of the Corn, when green, the Spaniards with
Chocolet, aromatiz'd with Spices, make a rare Drink, of an
excellent Delicacy. I have seen the English amongst the
Caribbes roast the green Ear on the Coals, and eat it with a
great deal of Pleasure : The Indians in Carolina parch
the ripe Corn, then pound it to a Powder, putting it in a
Leathern Bag : When they use it, they take a little quan
tity of the Powder in the Palms of their Hands, mixing it
with Water, and sup it off: with this they will travel
several days. In short, it's a Grain of General Use to Man
and Beast, many thousands of both kinds in the WestTndies
having from it the greater part of their Subsistence. The
American Physicians observe that it breeds good Blood,
removes and opens Oppellations and Obstructions. At
Carolina they have lately invented a way of makeing with
it good sound Beer ; but it's strong and heady : By Macer
ation, when duly fermented, a strong Spirit like Brandy
may be drawn off from it, by. the help of an Alcmbick,
T[homas] A[sh], Carolina; or a Description of the Present
State of that Country (London, 1682), 13-14.

CHAPTER III — FIRST ERA OF
COLONIZATION
13. Settlement of Virginia (1607)
HONOURABLE Gentlemen, for so many faire and
Nauigable Riuers so neere adioyning [adjoining],
and piercing thorow [through] so faire a naturaU Land, free
from any inundations, or large Fenny vnwholsome Marshes,
I haue not seene, read, nor heard of: And for the building
of Cities, Townes, and Wharfage, if they will vse the meanes,
where there is no more ebbe nor floud [flood], Nature in
few places affoords any so conuenient, for salt Marshes or
Quagmires. In this tract of lames Towne Riuer I know
very few ; some small Marshes and Swamps there are, but
more profitable then [than] hurtfull : and I thinke there is
more low Marsh ground betwixt Eriffe and Chelsey, then
[than] Kecoughton and the Falls, which is about one hun
dred and eighty miles by the course of the Riuer.
Being enioyned [enjoined] by our Commission not to
vnplant nor wrong the Saluages [savages], because the
channell was so neere the shore, where now is lames Towne,
then a thicke groue of trees ; wee cut them downe, where
the Saluages pretending as much kindnesse as could bee,
they hurt and slew one and twenty of vs in two houres : At
this time our diet was for most part water and bran, and
three ounces of little better stuffe in bread for fiue men a
meale, and thus we liued neere three moneths : our lodgings
vnder boughes of trees, the Saluages being our enemies,
whom we neither knew nor vnderstood ; occasions I thinke
sufficient to make men sicke and die.
n 33

Written in
1636 by
Caitain
John Smith
(1580-1631),
soldier, ex
plorer, colo
nist, and lati-r
president of
Virginia.
Though he
was some
what boastful
in relating
his pei son;i 1
exploits, it is
largely due lo
his efforts
that the
Jamestowncolony suc
ceeded. In
spite of
obvious ex
aggerations, Smith'sbooks are
valuable con
temporary records from
one who had'
the best of
opportunities
for observa
tion. — For
other pieces
by Smith, see
Humphrey, Colonial Tracts, Nos.
13, 14 ; Amer
ican History
Leaflets. No.
27; C intern-

34

First Colonization

[1607

poraries, I,
Nos. 62, 90. .
— For Vir
ginia, see
Contempora
ries, I, chs.
ix, x ; Am.
Hist. Studies,
No. 2.
Erith and
Chelsea, English
towns. Kecoughton,
now Hamp
ton, Va.
The Falls,
now Rich
mond, Va.
Unplant =
dispossess.The site of
Jamestown
was ill-
chosen, being
low, swampy,
and un
healthy; it
is now no
longer
inhabited. In later edi
tions of his
account,
Smith intro
duced the
doubtful.
story of
Pocahontas's
throwing her
self between
him anil the
hatchet. —
Sec also Con
temporaries, I.64.

Necessity thus did inforce me with eight or nine, to try
conclusions amongst the Saluages, that we got prouision
which recouered the rest being most sicke. Six weeks I
was led captiue by those Barbarians, though some of my
men were slaine, and the rest fled, yet it pleased God to
make their great Kings daughter the means to returne me
safe to lames towne, and releeue [relieve] our wants, and
then our Commonwealth was in all eight and thirty, the
remainder of one hundred and fiue.
Being supplied with one hundred and twenty, with twelue
men in a boat of three tuns, I spent foureteene weeks in
those large waters ; the contents of the way of my boat pro
tracted by the skale [scale] of proportion, was about three
thousand miles, besides the Riuer we dwell vpon, where no
Christian knowne euer was, and our diet for the most part
what we could finde, yet but one died.
The Saluages being acquainted, that by command from
England we durst not hurt them, were much imboldned ;
that famine and their insolencies did force me to breake
our Commission and instructions, cause Powhatan fly his
Countrey, and take the King of Pamavuke Prisoner ; and
also to keepe the King of Paspahegh in shackels, and put
his men to double taskes in chaines, till nine and thirty of
their Kings paied vs contribution, and the offending Saluages
[were] sent to lames towne to punish at our owne discre^
tions : in the two last yeares I staied there, I had not a man
slaine. All those conclusions being not able to preuent the bad
euents of pride and idlenesse, hauing receiued another
supply of seuentie, we were about two hundred in all, but
not twentie work-men : In following the strict directions
from England to doe that was impossible at that time ; So
it hapned, that neither wee nor they had any thing to eat,
but what the Countrey afforded naturally; yet of eightie
who liued vpon Oysters in lune and Iuly, with a pint of

No. 13]

Virginia

35

corne a week for a man lying vnder trees, and 1 20 for the
most part liuing vpon Sturgion, which was dried til we
pounded it to powder for meale, yet in ten weeks but
seuen died.
It is true, we had of Tooles, Arines, & Munition sufficient,
some Aguavita, Vineger, Meale, Pease, and Otemeale, but
in two yeares and a halfe not sufficient for six moneths,
though by fne bils of loading the proportions sent vs, would
well haue contented vs, notwithstanding we sent home ample
proofes of Pitch, Tar, Sope Ashes, Wainskot, Clapboord,
Silke grasse, Iron Ore, some Sturgion and Glasse, Saxefras,
Cedar, Cypris, and blacke Walnut, crowned Powhaton,
sought the Monacans Countrey, according to the instruc
tions sent vs, but they caused vs [to] neglect more neces
sary workes : they had better haue giuen for Pitch and Sope
ashes one hundred pound a tun in Denmarke : Wee also
maintained fiue or six seuerall Plantations.
lames towne being burnt, wee rebuilt it and three Forts
more, besides the Church and Store-house, we had about
fortie or fiftie seuerall houses to keepe vs warme and dry,
inuironed [environed] with a palizado of foureteene or fif-
teene foot, and each [stake] as much as three or foure men
could carrie. We digged a faire Well of fresh water in the
Fort, where wee had three Bulwarks, foure and twentie
peece of Ordnance, of Culuering [culverin], Demiculuering,
Sacar and Falcon, and most well mounted vpon conuenrent
plat-formes, [and we] planted one hundred acres of Corne.
We had but six ships to transport and supply vs, and but
two hundred seuenty seuen men, boies [boys], and women,
by whose labours Virginia being brought to this kinde of
perfection, tlie most difficulties past, and the foundation
thus laid by this small meanes ; yet because we had done no
more, they called in our Commission, tooke a new [one] in
their owne names, and appointed vs neere as many offices
and Officers as I had Souldiers, that neither knew vs nor

Aquavits ¦
liquor.

Wainscot =
ceiling. Sassafras.

At the head
of the James
River.

The timely
arrival of
Newport
greatly aided
in this work.

These are all
species of
cannon. Smith was
justified in
what he here
says. The
Company
was looking
out for the
interests of
its share
holdersrather than
for the good
of the com
munity.

36

First Colonization

[1607

1^. Vitginia.

Ii.irgc.ilile
¦ expensive.

Virginia
nn - 1 Nt-w
England.

wee them, without our consents or knowledge ; since there
haue gone more then [than] one hundred ships of other
proportions, and eight or ten thousand people. Now if you
please to compare what hath beene spent, sent, discouered
and done this fifteene yeares, by that we did in the three
first yeares, and euery Gouernor that hath beene there since,
giue you but such an account as this, you may easily finde
what hath beene the cause of those disasters in Virginia. . . .
In the yeare 1609. about Michaelmas, I left the Countrey,
as is formerly related, [it being provided] with three ships,
seuen Boats, Commodities to trade, haruest newly gathered,
eight weeks prouision of Come and. Meale, about fiue hun
dred persons, three hundred Muskets, shot, powder, and
match, with armes for more men then [than] we had. The
Saluages their language and habitation, well knowne to two
hundred expert Souldiers ; Nets for fishing, tooles of all
sorts, apparell to supply their wants : six Mares and a
Horse, fine or six hundred Swine, many more Powltry,
which was brought or bred, but victual! there remained.
. . . Thus these nineteene yeares I haue here and there
not spared any thing according to my abilitie, nor the best
aduice I could, to perswade how those strange miracles of
misery might haue beene preuented, which lamentable ex
perience plainly taught me of necessity must insue, but few
would beleeue [believe] me till now too deerely [dearly]
they haue paid for it. Wherefore hitherto I haue rather left
all then [than] vndertake impossibilities, or any more such
costly taskes at such chargeable rates : for in neither of
those two Countries haue I one foot of Land, nor the very
house I builded, nor the ground I digged with my owne
hands, nor euer any content or satisfaction at all, and though
I see ordinarily those two Countries shared before me by
them that neither haue them nor knowes them, but by my
descriptions : Yet that doth not so much trouble me, as to
heare and see those contentions and diuisions which will

no. 14] English Puritans

37

hazard if not ruine the prosperitie of Virginia, if present
remedy bee not found, as they haue hindred many hun
dreds, who would haue beene there ere now, and makes
them yet that are willing [to go] to stand in a demurre.
Captain John Smith, The Generall Historic of Virginia, New-
England, and the Summer Isles (London, 1626), 162-164
passim.

14. The King and the Puritans (1604)
THEN hee [Doctor Reynolds] desireth, that
according to certaine Prouincial Constitu
tions, they of the Clergy might haue meetinges once euery
three weekes ; first in Rurall Deanries, and therein to haue
Vrophecying, according as the Reuerend Father, Archbishoppe
Grindal, and other Bishops desired of her late Maiestie.
2. that such things, as could not be resolued vpon, there,
might bee referred to the Archdeacons Visitation: and so
3. from thence to the Episcopall Synode, where the Bishoppe
with his Presbytcri [presbytery], should determine all such
pointes, as before could not be decided.
At which speech, his Maiestie was somewhat stirred;
yet, which is admirable in him, without passion or shewe
thereof.- thinking, that they aymed at a Scottish Prcsbytay,
which saith hee, as well agreeth with a Monarch)', as God,
and the Diuell [devil]. " Then lack and Tom, and Will,
and Dick, shall meete, and at their pleasures censure me,
and my Councell, and all our proceedings/ Then J Fill shall
stand vp, and say, it must bee thus ; then Dick shall reply,
ami say, nay, mar[r]y, but wee will haue it thus. And
therefore, here I must once reiterate my former speech,
Le Roy s'auiscra : Stay, I pray you, for one seauen [seven]
yeares, before you demaunde that of mee : and if then, you

No. 14 is
by Doct 01;
WilliamBarlow (ti6i3).
bishop of
Rochesterand Lincoln
successively. He was a
leading Church of
England par
tisan in the
conference ol
prelates arid
Puritan
divines called
by King
James i, at
HamptonCourt, Jan
uary, 1604.
His report,
from which
this extract
is taken, is
the chief
authority on
the subject.
— For Puri
tan doctrine,
see L outem-
porarics, I,
ch. xiv.
Reynolds was
one of the
four Puritan
leaders who
took part
in the con
ference. " Tlie king
will think
about it " ;
this w as the

3»

First Colonization

[1604

regular form
of veto.
Prophecy-
ings were
exercises for
interpretingand discuss
ing passages
of Scripture.
Visitationswere annual
tours of
inspection.The presby
tery would be
a council of
the clergy,
but really .
controlled by
the bishop:
this was the
issue which
the Puritans
had raised, in
order to get
rid of the
power of
the bishops.
King James
was quick
to see the
point.The king,
ever since
the time of
Henry the
Eighth, had
been titular
head of the
English
Church.
The con
cluding
words made
it evident
that no
tolt-rationmight be
expected
from James,
but that after
this it was
only a ques-

finde mee purseye [pursy] and fat, and my winde pipes
stuffed, I will perhaps hearken to you : for let that gouern-
ment bee once vp, I am sure, I shall bee kept in breath ;
then shaU wee aU of vs, haue worke enough, both our hands
full. But Doctor Reyn. til you finde that I grow lazy, let
that alone."
And here, because D. R<?yn. had twise before obtruded
the Kings Supremacie, 1. In the Article, concerning the
Pope ; 2. in the point of Subscription, his Maiestie at those
times saide nothing .- but now growing to an end, he saide,
" I shall speake of one matter more ; yet, somewhat out of
order, but it skilleth not. Doctor R«'«." quoth the K.
" you haue often spoken for my Supremacie, and it is well :
but knowe you any here, or any else where, who like of the
present Gouernement Ecclesiasticall, that finde fault, or dis
like my Supremacie t" D. Rein, saide no . . . And then
putting his hand to his hat, his J/aiestie saide ; " my Lordes
the Bishops, I may thanke you, that these men doe thus
pleade for my Supremacie ; They thinke they cannot make
their party good against you, but by appealing vnto it, as if
you, or some that adhere vnto you, were not well affected
towardes it. But if once you were out, and they in place, I
knowe what would become of my Supremacie. No Bishop,
no King, as before I sayd. Neither doe I thus speake, at
random, without ground, for I haue obserued since my com-
ming into England, that some Preachers before me, can
be content to pray for lames, King of England, Scotland,
Fraunce and Ireland, defendor of the faith, but as for
Supreme Gouernour in all causes, and ouer all persons, (as
well Ecclesiasticall as Ciuil) they passe that ouer with
silence ; & what cut they haue beene of, I after learned."
After this asking them, if they had any more to obiect
[object], and D. Reyn aunswering, Noe, his Maiestie ap
pointed the next Wednesday for both parties to rheete
before him, and rising from his Chaire, as hee was going to

No. 15]

Plymouth

39

his inner Chamber, "If this bee all," quoth he, "that they
haue to say, I shall make the [them] conforme themselues,
or I wiU hanie them out of the land, or else do worse."
William Barlow, The Svmme and Svbstance of the Conference
. . . at Hampton Court. lanuary 14- *bo3 (London, 1604),
78-83 passim.

15. Settlement of Plymouth (1620)

tion of time
when the
more irrecon
cilable Puri
tans would
be compelled
to leave
England.

AFTER some houres sailling, it begane to snow,
& raine, & about y° midle of jr* afternoone
[Dec. 8, 1620], y" wind Increased, & ye sea became very
rough ; and they broake their rudder, & it was as much as
.2. men could doe to steere her with a cupple of oares.
But their pillott bad[e] them be of good cheere for he saw y*
harbor, but ye storme Increasing, & night drawing on, they
bore what saile they could to gett in, while they could see ;
but herwith they broake their mast in .3. peeces & their
saill fell ouer bo[a]rd, in a very grown sea, so as they had
like to haue been cast away; yet by gods mercie they
recouered them selues, & hauing ye floud [flood-tide] with
them struck into ye harbore. But when it came too [to],
ye pillott was decerned in ye place, and said y* Lord be
mercifull vnto them, for his eys neuer saw yl [that] place
before ; & he, & the m' [master] mate would haue rune her
a shore, in a coue full of breakers before y° winde but a
lusty seaman which steered, bad[e] those which rowed if
they were men, about with her, or ells [else] they were all
cast away ; the which they did with speed, so he bid them
be of good cheere, & row lustly for ther was a faire sound
before them, & he doubted not, but they should find one
place or other, wher they might ride in saftie. And though
it was very darke, and rained sore ; yet in y* end they gott
vnder ye lee of a smalle Iland and remained ther all / night

GovernorWilliam Bradford
(1500-1657).
member ol
the Scrooby
congregation, silk-
manufacturer during
the sojourn
at Leyden,
and later
governor of
Plymouth.His "His
tory " not
only is the
chief source
on the early
history of
Plymouth,but deserv
edly ranks
as a classic
in historical
literature. —
For other
extracts from
Bradford, see
Old South
Leaflets, Nos.
48,49; Amer
ican History
Leaflets, No.
29 ; Contem
poraries, 1,
Nos. 49,
97-100, 117.

40

First Colonization

[1620

After the
Mayflower
had dropped
anchor in
Province-
town harbor,
this exploring
party was
sent out ; it
coasted along the
shore, and
finallyselected Plymouth as
a site (or a
settlement.The island
of refuge was
Clark'sIsland.

Observethat Mary
Chilton was
born on the
Mayflower at
Province-
town, bt-fore
the first land
ing at Ply
mouth.

I.e. Plym
outh.

in saftie. But they knew not this to be an Hand till morn
ing, but were deuided [divided] in their minds, some would
keepe y* boate for fear they might be amongst ye Indians ;
others were so weake and could [cold], they could not en
dure, but got a shore, & with much adoe got fire (all things
being so wett) and ye rest were glad to come to them, for
after midnight ye wind shifted to the north-west, & it frose
hard. But though this had been a day, & night of much
trouble, & danger vnto them ; yet god gaue them a morning
of comforte •& refreshinge (as ysually he doth to his chil
dren) for y* next day was a faire sunshihige day, and they
found them sellues [selves] to be on an Hand secure from
ye Indeans; wher they might drie their stufe [stuff], fixe
their peeces, & rest them selues, and gaue god thanks for
his mercies, in their manifould deliuerances. And this being
the last day of y* weeke, they prepared ther to keepe yc
Sabath ; on munday they sounded yc harbor, and founde it
fitt for shipping ; and marched into yc land, & found diuerse
cqrnfeilds, & litle runing brooks, a place [(]as they sup
posed) fitt for situation, at least it was yc best they could
find, and ye season, & their presente necessitie made them
glad to accepte of it. So they returned to their shipp againe
with this news to yc rest of their people, which did much
comforte their h[e]arts.
On ye .15. of Desem' they wayed [weighed] anchor to
goe to yc place they had discoueied, & came within .2.
leagues of it, but were faine to bear vp againe, but yc .16.
day ye winde came faire, and they arriued safe in this har^
bor. And after wards tooke better veiw of ye place, and
resolued wher to pitch their dwelling ; and ye .2j. day be-
gane to erecte y' first house, for comone vse to receiue them,
and their goods. . . .
In these hard & difficulte beginings they found some dis
contents & murmurings arise amongst some, and mutinous
speeches & carriag[e]s in other; but they were soone

No. 15]

Plymouth

41

quelled, & ouercome, by ye wisdome, patience, and lust &
equall carr[i]age of things, by y* Gotf [Governor] and
better part wch claue [clave] faithfully togeather in ye maine.
But that which was most sadd, & lamentable, was, that in
.2. or .3. moneths time halfe of their company dyed, espe-
tialy in Ian: & February, being yc depth of winter, and want
ing houses & other comforts ; being Infected with y* Scuruie
[scurvy] & and other diseases, which this long vioage [voyage]
& their Inacomodate condition had brought vpon them ; so
as ther dyed some times .2. or .3. of a day, in ye foresaid
time; that of .100. & odd persons scarce .50. remained:
and of these in ye time of most distres ther was but .6. or
.7. sound persons ; who to their great comendations, be it
spoken, spared no pains, night nor day, but with abundance
of toyle and hazard of their owne health, fetched them wood
made them fires, d rest them meat, made their beads, washed
ther lothsome cloaths, cloathed & vncloathed them In a
word did all ye homly, & necessarie offices for them, wch
dainty & quesie stomacks cannot endure to hear named
and all this willingly & cherfully, without any grudging In
yc least, shewing herein their true loue vnto their freinds
&; bretheren ; A rare example & worthy to be remembred.
tow [two] of these .7. were Mr William Brewster ther reuer-
end Elder, & Myles Standish their Captein & military com-
ander, (vnto whom my selfe, & many others were much
beholden in our low, & sicke condition) . . . And what I
haue said of these, I may say of many others who dyed in
this generall vissitation & others yet lining ; that whilst they
had health, yea or any strength continuing they were not
wanting to any that had need of them ; And I doute [doubt]
not but their recompence is with yc Lord.
William Bradford, History of the Plimoth Plantation (facsimile
from the original manuscript, with an introduction by John A.
Doyle, London and Boston, 1896), 52-55 passim.

John Carver,
who died in
the following
April; hi
was suc
ceeded by
Bradford.

Written In
1646 by
FatherIsaac
Jogues (1607-1646),
a French
Jesuit, and
one of that
band of
earnest mis
sionaryexplorers to
whose work
the highest
praise is due.
He was the
first Roman
Catholicpriest in what
is now the
State of
New York. —
For Jogues,
see Contem
poraries. 1,
No. 40. — On
Dutch New
York, see be
low, No. 32;
Old South
Leaflets, No.
69 ; L 'on tem
poral us I,
ch. xxiii. —
On Dutch re
lations with
New Eng
land, see
Contempora
ries, I Nos
95,117, 170.
Noith River
= the Hud
son. Fort Amster
dam, later
New York.
The East
River.

42 First Colonization [1615-1644
16. Settlement of New Amsterdam
(1615-1644)
NEW HOLLAND, which the Dutch call in Latin Novum
Belgium — in their own language, Nieuw Netherland,
that is to say, New Low Countries — is situated between
Virginia and New England. The mouth of the river, which
some people call Nassau, or the Great North River, to dis
tinguish it from another which they call the South River, and
from some maps that I have recently seen I think Maurice
River, is at 40 deg. 30 min. The channel is deep, fit for
the largest ships, which ascend to Manhatte's Island, which
is seven leagues in circuit, and on which there is a fort to
serve as the commencement of a town to be built here, and
to be called New Amsterdam.
The fort, which is at the point of the island, about five or
six leagues from the mouth, is called Fort Amsterdam ; it
has four regular bastions mounted, with several pieces of
artillery. . . . Within the fort fhere was a pretty large stone
church, the house of the Governor, whom they call Director
General, quite neatly built of brick, the storehouses and
barracks. On the Island of Manhatte, and in its environs, there may
well be four or five hundred men of different sects and
nations : the Director General told me that there were men
of eighteen different languages ; they are scattered here and
there on the river, above and below, as the beauty and con
venience of the spot invited each to settle . . .
The river, which is very straight, and runs due north and
south, is at least a league broad before the fort. Ships lie
at anchor in a bay which forms the other side of the island,
and can be defended from the fort. . . .
No religion is publicly exercised but the Calvinist, and
orders are to admit none but Calvinists, but this is not

No. 16]

New Amsterdam

43

observed ; for there are in the Colony besides the Calvin
ists, Catholics, English Puritans, Lutherans, Anabaptists, here
called Mnistes, &c, &c. When any one comes to settle in
the country, they lend him horses, cows, &c. ; they give him
provisions, all which he returns as soon as he is at ease ;
and as to the land, after ten years he pays to the West India
Company the tenth of the produce which he reaps.
This country is bounded on the New England side by
a river which they call the Fresche river, which serves as a
boundary between them and the English. The English,
however, come very near to them, choosing to hold lands
under the Hollanders, who ask nothing, rather than depend
on English Lords, who exact rents, and would fain be abso
lute. On the other side, southward, towards Virginia, its
limits are the river which they caU the South river, on
which there is also a Dutch settlement, but the Swedes
have one at its mouth extremely well supplied with cannons
and men. . . .
It is about forty years since the Hollanders came to these
parts. The fort was begun in the year 161 5 ; they began
to settle about twenty years ago, and there is already some
little commerce with Virginia and New England.
The first comers found lands fit for use, formerly cleared
by the savages, who had fields here. Those who came later
have cleared the woods, which are mostly oak. The soil is
good. Deer hunting is abundant in the fall. There are
some houses built of stone : — lime they make of oyster
shells, great heaps of which are found here, made formerly
by the savages, who subsist in part by that fishery.
The climate is very mild. Lying at 4o|° there are many
European fruits, as apples, pears, cherries. I reached there
in October, and found even then a considerable quantity of
peaches. Ascending the river to the 43d degree, you meet the
second Dutch settlement, which the tide reaches but does

I.e. Mennon-
ites, from
their chief
expounder, Simonis Menno (1492-1559).

The Con
necticut.

The Dela
ware. Fort Chris
tiana (Wil
mington).

40J4» 43
actually.

Present site
of Albany.

The govern
ment of this
colony was
a relic of the
rhediaeval
manorial
system.

44

First Colonization [1615-1644

not pass. Ships of a hundred and a hundred and twenty
tons can come up to it.
There are two things in this settlement (which is called
Renselaerswick, as if to say, settlement of Renselaers, who
is a rich Amsterdam merchant) — ist, a miserable little fort
called Fort Orange, built of logs, with four or five pieces
of Breteuil cannon, and as many swivels. This has been
reserved, and is maintained by the West India Company.
This fort was formerly on an island in the river ; it is now
on the mainland, towards the Hiroquois [Iroquois], a little
above the said island. 2d, a colony sent here by this Ren
selaers, who is the patron. — This colony is composed of
about a hundred persons, who reside in some twenty-five or
thirty houses built along the river, as each found most con
venient. In the principal house lives the patron's agent ;
the Minister has his apart, in which service is performed.
There is also a kind of Bailiff here, whom they call the
Seneschal, who administers justice. Their houses are
merely of boards and thatched, with no mason work ex
cept the chimneys. The forest furnishing many large
pines, they make boards by means of their mills, which
they have here for the purpose.
They found some pieces of ground all ready, which the
savages had formerly cleared, and in which they sow wheat
and oats for beer, and for their horses, of which they have
great numbers. There is little land fit for tillage, being
hemmed in by hills, which are poor soil. This obliges them
to separate, and they already occupy two or three leagues
of country.
Trade is free to all ; this gives the Indians all things
cheap, each of the Hollanders outbidding his neighbor, and
being satisfied provided he can gain some little profit.
The fognes Papers; translated by John Gilmary Shea, in New
York Historical Society, Collections, Second Series (New
York, 1857), III, Part 1, 215-218 passim.

No. 17]

Massachusetts

45

1 7. Planting of Massachusetts ( 1 6 27- 1 6 3 1 )
TOUCHING the plantacon which wee here haue begun,
it fell out thus about the yeare 1627 some freinds
beeing togeather in Lincolnesheire, fell into some discourse
about New England and the plantinge of the gospeU there;
and after some deliberation, we imparted our reasons by
1'res [letters] & messages to some in Ixmdon & the west
country where it was likewise deliberately thought vppon
[upon], and at length with often negociation soe ripened
that in the year 1628. wee procured a patent from his Ma'u*
for our planting between the Matachusetts Bay, and Charles
river on the South ; and the River of Merimack on the
North and 3 miles on ether side of those Rivers & Bay, as
allso for the government of those who did or should inhabit
within that compass and the same year we sent Mr. John
Endecott & some with him to beginne a plantacon & to
strengthen such as he should find there which wee sent
thether from Dorchester & some places adioyning [adjoin
ing] ; ffrom whom the same year receivinge hopefull news.
The next year 1629 wee sent diverse shipps over w',h about
300 people, and some Cowes, Goates & horses many of
which arrived safely. Theis [these] by their too large
comendacons [commendations] of the country, and the
comodities thereof, invited us soe strongly to goe on that
Mr. Wenthropp of Soffolke (who was well knowne in his
owne country & well approved heere for his pyety, liberality,
wisedome & gravity) comeinge in to us, wee came to such
resolution that in April 1630, wee sett saile from Old Eng
land with 4 good shipps. And in May following 8 more
followed, 2 haveing gone before in Ffebruary and March, and
2 more following in June and August, besides another set
out by a private merchant. Theis 1 7 Shipps arrived all safe
in New England, for the increase of the plantacon here theis

By Governor
Thomas Dudley (1576-1652),
soldier, stew
ard of the
Earl of Lei
cester, and
governor of
Massachu
setts: a good
type of the
extreme Puritan. He
came over in
Winthrop'scompany.The settle
ment of
Massachu
setts is the
best example
in the period
of intelligent
colonization
by a wealthy
company. —
See Contem
poraries, I',
ch. xvi.
Practically
the present
boundaries of Massa
chusetts.Endicottsettled at
Salem. John Win-:
throp. — See
below, Nos.
21,38.

46

First Colonization [1627-1631

I.e. to release
them from re
paying their
passage money by
service.

f.e. to Bos
ton Harbor.

Medford, on
the Mystic
River.

Named after
the reigning
king.

yeare 1630 . . . Our 4 shipps which sett out in Aprill
arrived here in June and July, where wee found the colony in
a sadd and unexpected condicon aboue 80 of them beeing
dead the winter before and many of those aliue weake and
sicke : all the corne & bread amongst them all hardly suffi
cient to feed them a fortnight, insoemuch that the remainder
of 180 servents wee had the 2 years before sent over, come-
inge to vs for victualls to sustaine them wee found ourselves
wholly unable to feed them by reason that the p'visions
[provisions] shipped for them were taken out of the shipp
they were put in, and they who were trusted to shipp them
in another failed us, and left them behind; whereupon
necessity enforced us to our extreme loss to giue them all
libertie ; who had cost us about : 16 or 20 ^ [sterling] a
person furnishing and sending over.. But bearing theis
things as wee might, wee beganne to consult of the place of
our sitting downe : ffor Salem where wee landed, pleased us
not. And to that purpose some, were sent to the Bay to
search vpp the rivers for a convenient place ; who vppon
their returne reported to haue found a good place vppon
Mistick ; but some other of us seconding theis to approoue
[approve] or dislike of their judgement ; we found a place
[that] liked vs better 3 leagues vp Charles river — And
there vppon vnshipped our goods into other vessels and
with much cost and labour brought them in July to Charles
Towne ; but there receiveing advertisements by some of the
late arived shipps from London and Amsterdam of some
Ffrench preparations against vs (many of our people brought
with vs beeing sick of ffeavers [fevers] & the scurvy and
wee thereby vnable to car[r]y vp our ordinance and baggage
soe farr) wee were forced to change counsaile and for our
present shelter to plant dispersedly, some at Charles Towne
which standeth on the North Side of the mouth of Charles
River ; some on the South Side thereof,, which place we
named Boston (as wee intended to haue done the place wee

No. 173

Massachusetts

47

first resolved on) some of vs vppon Mistick, which wee
named Meadford ; some of vs westwards on Charles river, 4
miles from Charles Towne, which place wee named Water-
toune ; others of vs 2 miles from Boston in a place wee
named Rocksbury, others vppon the river of Sawgus be
tweene Salem and Charles Toune. And the westerne men
4 miles South from Boston at a place wee named Dor
chester. This dispersion troubled some of vs, but helpe it
wee could not, wanting abillity to remove to any place fit to
build a Toune vppon, and the time too short to deliberate
any longer least [lest] the winter should surprize vs before
wee had builded our houses. ... of the people who came
over with vs from the time of their setting saile from Eng
land in Aprill 1630. vntill December folio winge there dyed
by estimacon about 200 at the least — Soe lowe hath the
Lord brought vs ! Well, yet they who survived were not
discouraged but bearing God's corrections with humilitye
and trusting in his mercies, and considering how after a
greater ebb hee had raised vpp our neighbours at Plymouth
we beganne againe in December to consult about a fitt place
to build a Toune [town] vppon, leaveinge all thoughts of a
fort, because vppon any invasion wee were necessarily
to loose our howses when we should retire thereinto ; soe
after diverse meetings at Boston, Rocksbury and Waterton
on the 28th of December wee grew to this resolucon to
bind all the Assistants (Mr. Endicott & Mr. Sharpe ex
cepted, which last purposeth to returne by the next shipps
into England) to build howses at a place, a mile east from
Waterton neere Charles river, the next Springe, and to
winter there the next yeare, that soe by our examples and by
removeinge the ordinance and munition thether, all who
were able, might be drawne thether, and such as shall come
to vs hereafter to their advantage bee compelled soe to doe ;
and soe if God would, a fortifyed Toune might there grow
vpp, the place fitting reasonably well thereto. . . .

After a town
in England,
from which
many of
them had
come. Roxbury.

Most of them
had come
from Dor
chester, England.

This place
was New-
tow ne, later
called
Cambridge,

According fo
Winthropand Brad
ford, the
Puritans and
Pilgrims
came over
to better their
condition ;
they might
have had
toleration in
Holland.

Other ac
counts of
New Eng
land in Old
South leaf
lets, Nos. 7,
8, 21, 22, 50-
54. 67, 68 ;
Am. Hist.
Studies, No. 2.

Written in
1679 by
JASI'AK
Dankf.RS
and 1'KI KR
Si rs I KH,
wlin crime
over !o find

48

First Colonization

[163a

. . . But now haueing some leasure to discourse of the
motiues for other mens comeinge to this place or their
abstaining from it, after my breif manner I say this — That
if any come hether [hither] to plant for worldly ends that
canne live well at home hee co[m]mits an errour of which
hee will soon repent him. But if for spirittuall [ends] and
that noe particular obstacle hinder his removeall, he may
finde here what may well content him : vizt : materialls to
build, fewell [fuel] to bum, ground to plant, seas and rivers
to ffish in, a pure ayer [air] to breath[e] in, good water to
drinke till wine or beare canne be made, which togeather
with the cowes, hoggs and goates brought hether allready
may suffice for food, for as for foule [fowl] and venison,
they are dainties here as well as in; England. Ffor cloaths
and bedtlinge they must bring them w'"1 them till time and
industry produce them here. In a word, wee yett enioy
[enjoy] little to bee en'vyed but endure much to be pittyed
in the sicknes & mortal itye of our people. . . .
The shipp now waites but for wind, which when it blowes
there are ready to goe aboard therein for England . . . Mr.
Coddington and many others, the most whereof purpose to
returne to vs againe, if God will. In the meane time wee
are left a people poore and contemptible yet such as trust
in God, and are contented with our condition, beeinge well
assured that hee will not faile vs nor forsake vs.
Thomas Dudley, Letter to the Countess of Lincoln. March, 1631 ;
edited by J. Farmer, in Force, Tracts, etc. (Washington, 1838),
II, No. iv, 7-18 passim.

18. Conditions of Maryland (1632)
AS regards its [Maryland's] first discoverer and pos
sessor, that was one Lord Baltimore, an English
nobleman, in the time of Queen Maria. Having come from

No. 18]

Maryland

49

Newfoundland along the coast of North America, he arrived
in the great bay of Virginia, up which he sailed to its upper
most parts, and found this fine country which he named
Maryland after his queen. Returning to England he ob
tained a charter of the northerly parts of America, inexclu-
sively, although the Hollanders had discovered and began
to settle New Netherland. With this he came back to
America and took possession of his Maryland, where at
present his son, as governor, resides.
Since the time of Queen Elizabeth, settlers have preferred
the lowest parts of the great bay and the large rivers which
empty into it, either on account of proximity to the sea, and
the convenience of the streams, or because the uppermost
country smacked somewhat of the one from whom it derived
its name and of its government. . . .
As to the present government of Maryland, it remains
firm upon the old footing, and is confined within the limits
before mentioned. AU of Maryland that we have seen, is
high land, with few or no meadows, but possessing such a
rich and fertile soil, as persons living there assured me, that
they had raised tobacco off the same piece of land for
thirty consecutive years. The inhabitants who are generally
English, are mostly engaged in this production. It is their
chief staple, and the means with which they must purchase
every thing they require, which is brought to them from
other English possessions in Europe, Africa and America.
There is, nevertheless, sometimes a great want of these
necessaries, owing to the tobacco market being low, or the
shipments being prevented by some change of affairs in some
quarter, particularly in Europe, or to both causes, as was the
case at this time, when a great scarcity of such articles ex
isted there, as we saw. So large a quantity of tobacco is
raised in Maryland and Virginia, that it is one of the greatest
sources of revenue to the crown by reason of the taxes which
it yields. Servants and negroes are employed in the culture

a site for a
colony of the
Labadist
sect. Dan-
kers was a
Dutchman,
wine-rackerby trade;
Sluyter later
becamebishop and
director of
a Labadist
settlement in
New York.—
Forthe
authors, see
Contempora
ries, I, Nos.
58. 146,172.—
Maryland
was the first
of the pro
prietary colo
nies, given to
an individual
as a kind of
great estate.
— See Con
temporaries, I, ch. xi.
Baltimore was not the
first dis
coverer. Maria Anna
was consort
of Charles I.
The " great
bay " =
Chesapeake.
This practice
was what
ultimatelyexhausted
the soil of
Marylandand Virginia.
See below.
No. 43, and
Contempora
ries, I, Nos.
83, 88.

5°

First Colonization

[163a

Indented
servants :
the name
comes from
the practice
of tearing the
contract into two
halves, with
jagged edges; the
master kept
one and the
servant the
other.

For slavery,
see below,
Nos. 35, 124,
and chs. xv,

Indian corn.
See above.
No. 12.

Later the
Church of
England was
established,the province
divided into
parishes, and
each voter
assessed for
the support of
a minister.

An act
tolerating all
Christians
was passed

of tobacco, who are brought from other places to be sold to
the highest bidders, the servants for a term of years only, but
the negroes forever, and may be sold by their masters to
other planters as many times as their masters choose, that
is, the servants until their term is fulfilled, and the negroes
for life. These men, one with another, each make, when
they are able to work, from 2,500 pounds to 3,000 pounds,
and even 3,500 pounds of tobacco a year, and some of the
masters and their wives who pass their lives here in wretched
ness, do the same. The servants and negroes after they
have worn themselves down the whole day, and gone home
to rest, have yet to grind and pound the grain, which is
generally maize, for their masters and all their families as
well as themselves, and aU the negroes, to eat. Tobacco is
the only production in which the planters employ themselves,
as if there were nothing else in the world to plant but that,
and while the land is capable of yielding all the productions
that can be raised anywhere, so far as the climate of the
place allows. As to articles of food, the only bread they
have is that made of Turkish wheat or maize, and that is
miserable. . . .
The lives of the planters in Maryland and Virginia are
very godless and profane. They Usten neither to God nor
his commandments, and have neither church nor cloister.
Sometimes there is some one who is called a minister, who
does not as elsewhere, sene in one place, for in all Virginia
and Maryland there is not a city or a village — but travels
for profit, and for that purpose visits the plantations through
the country, and there addresses the people ; but I know
of no public assemblages being held in these places ; you
hear often that these ministers are worse than anybody else,
yea, are an abomination. . . .
It remains to be mentioned that those persons who pro
fess the Roman Catholic religion, have great, indeed, aU
freedom in Maryland, because the governor makes profession

No. 19]

Connecticut

51

of that faith, and consequently there are priests and other in 1649, The
ecclesiastics who travel and disperse themselves everywhere, j^s^ge i's
and neglect nothing which serves for their profit and pur- M''1 a mo°t
r™ T 1 , , ,t po|nt- For
pose. . . . The Lord grant a happy issue there and here, the text, see
as weU as in other parts of the world, for the help of his &£efP°r<>-
own elect, and the glory of his name. No. 84.
Jaspar Dankers and Peter Sluyter, Journal -of a Voyage to New
York . . . in 1679-80 ; translated by Henry C. Murphy, in
Long Island Historical Society, Memoirs (Brooklyn, 1867), I,
214-221 passim.

19.

Foundation of Government in Con
necticut (1638)

rEXT: Deut. i. : 13. "Take you wise men, and
understanding, and known among your tribes, and
I will make them rulers over you." Captains over
thousands, and captains over hundreds — over fifties — over
tens, &c.
Doctrine. I. That the choice of public magistrates be
longs unto the people, by God's own allowance.
II. The privilege of election, which belongs to the peo
ple, therefore must not be exercised according to their
humours, but according to the blessed will and law of God.
III. They who have power to appoint officers and mag
istrates, it is in their power, also, to set the bounds and
limitations of the power and place unto which they call
them. Reasons. 1. Because the foundation of authority is laid,
firstly, in the free consent of the people.
2. Because, by a free choice, the hearts of the people
will be more inclined to the love of the persons [chosen]
and more ready to yield [obedience].

This is an
abstract of a
sermon by
Reverend
Thomas Hookkr
(1586-1647),
made by
HENRV
WOLCOTT,Jr., one of
the original
settlers of
Windsor.Hooker was
leader of the
party which
came from
Cambridge, Massach u-
setts, in 1636,
to found
Connecticut.
The sermon
probably in
spired the
adoption of
the Funda
mental Con
stitutions,described in
Contempora
ries, 1,415.
It is an
excellentexample of

52

First Colonization

[1636

the Puritan
sermon. —
See also
Old South
Leaflets, No.
55. — For
Connecticut,see Contem-
poiaries, I,
ch. xviii.
Hooker's
doctrine
probably came from
John Calvin.
— See Con
temporaries, I, Nos. 93, 94.
J III is a
statementof the power
to make a
constitution.

By
Secretary Nathaniel
Morton
(1613-1685),
who was
brought up
in the family
of Bradford,
becoming later secre
tary of the
court of
Hlvmouth.His AV-?..
I'.H^Llinl'S
.Memorial,
published at
the request of
the commis
sioners of the
lour united
colonies
of New
England,
is an impor
tant author
ity for the
early history

3. Because, of that duty and engagement of the people.
Uses. The lesson taught is threefold : —
1 st. There is matter of thankful acknowledgment, in the
[appreciation] of God's faithfulness toward us, and the per
mission of these measures that God doth command and
vouchsafe. 2dly. Of reproof — to dash the conceits of all those that
shall oppose it.
3dly. Of exhortation — to persuade us, as God hath given
us liberty, to take it.
And lastly — as God hath spared our lives, and given us
them in liberty, so to seek the guidance of God, and to
choose in God and for God.
Connecticut Historical Society, Collections (Hartford, i860), I,
20-21.

20. Foundation of Rhode Island (1636)
IN the year 1634. Mr. Roger Williams removed from
Plimouth to Salem : he had lived about three years at
Plimouth, where he was well accepted as an assistant in the
Ministry to Mr. Ralph Smith, then Pastor of the Church
there, but by degrees venting of divers of his own singular
opinions, and seeking to impose them upon others, he not
finding such a concurrence as he expected, he desired his dis
mission to the Church of Salem, which though some were un
willing to, yet through the prudent counsel of Mr. Brewster
(the ruling Elder there) fearing that his continuance amongst
them might cause divisions, and [thinking that] there being
then many able men in the Bay, they Would better deal
with him then [than] themselves could . . . the Church
of Plimouth consented to his dismission, and such as did
adhere to him were also dismissed, and removed with him,
or not long after him to Salem. . . . but he having in one

No. 20]

Rhode Island

53

years time, filled that place with principles of rigid separa
tion, and tending to Anabaptistry, the prudent Magistrates
of the Massachusets Jurisdiction, sent to the Church of
Salem, desiring them to forbear calling him to office, which
they not hearkening to, was a cause of much disturbance ;
for Mr. Williams had begun, and then being in office, he
proceeded more vigorously to vent many dangerous opin
ions, as amongst many others these were some ; That it is
not lawful for an unregenerate man to pray, nor to take an
Oath, and in special, not the Oath of Fidelity to the Civil
Government ; nor was it lawful for a godly man to have
communion either in Family Prayer, or in an Oath with
such as they Judged unregenerate : and therefore he himself
refused the Oath of Fidelity, and taught others so to do :
also, That it was not lawful so much as to hear the godly
Ministers of England, when any occasionally went thither;
& therefore he admonished any Church-members that had
done so, as for hainous sin : also he spake dangerous words
against the Patent, which was the foundation of the Govern
ment of the Massachusets Colony : also he affirmed, That
the Magistrates had nothing to do in matters oj the first
Table [of the commandments], but only the second; and
that there should be a general and unlimited Toleration of
all Religions, and for any man to be punished for any
matters of his Conscience, was persecution. ... he not
only persisted, but grew more violent in his way, insomuch
as he staying at home in his" own house, sent a Letter, which
was delivered and read in the publick Church assembly,
the scope of which was to give them notice, That if the
Church of Salem would not separate not only from the
Churches of Old-England, but the Churches of New-Eng
land too, he would separate from them : the more prudent
and sober part of the Church being amazed at his way,
could not yield unto him : whereupon he never came to the
Church Assembly more, professing separation from them as

of Plymouth
— Forthe
settlement of Rhode
Island, see
Old South
Leaflets, No.
54 ; Contem
poraries, I,
ch. xvii. —
For Wil
liams, see
Contempora
ries, I,
No. 115.

Williams
was not
banishedso much for
his religious
opinion^ as
for the fact
that he was
a disturber
of the peace.

See note,
p. 53 above.

This princi
ple of com
plete tolera
tion was not
adhered to
by the colony
in the later
years of its
history.

54

First Colonization

[1636

Antichristian, and not only so, but he withdrew aU private
religious Communion from any that would hold Communion
with the Church there, insomuch as he would not pray nor
give thanks at meals with his own wife nor any of his family,
because they went to the Church Assemblies . . . which
the prudent Magistrates understanding, and seeing things
grow more and more towards a general division and dis
turbance, after all other means used in vain, they passed
a sentence of Banishment against him out of the Massachur
sets Colony, as against a disturber of the peace, both of the
Church and Common-wealth.
After which Mr. Williams sat down in a place called
Providence, out of the Massachusets Jurisdiction, and was
followed by many of the members of the Church of Salem,
who did zealously adhere to him, and who cried out of the
Persecution that was against him : some others also resorted
to him from other parts. They had not been long there
together, but from rigid separation they fell to Anabaptistry,
renouncing the Baptism which they had received in their
Infancy, and taking up another Baptism, and so began a
Church in that way; but Mr. Williams stopped not there
long, for after some time he told the people that had fol
lowed him, and joyned with him in a new Baptism, that he
was out of the way himself, and had mis-led them, for he did
not finde that there was any upon earth that could administer
Baptism, and therefore their last Baptism was a nullity, as
well as their first ; and therefore they must lay down all, and
wait for the coming of nnu Apostles : and so they dissolved
themselves, and turned Seekers, keeping that one Principle,
That every one should have liberty to Worship God accord
ing to the Light of their own Consciences ; but otherwise not
owning any Churches or Ordinances of God any where
upon Earth.
Nathaniel Morton, New-Englands Memoriall (Cambridge, 1669),
78-81 passim.

uo-ai] New Hampshire 55

21.

Foundation of New Hampshire
(1637-1639)

A /TR- WHEELWRIGHT, one of
[March 9, 1637.] ]y]_ the members of Boston, preach
ing at the last fast, inveighed against all that walked in a
covenant of works, as he described it to be, viz., such as
maintain sanctification as an evidence of justification, etc.
and called them antichrists, and stirred up the people
against them with much bitterness and vehemency. For
this he was called into the court, and his sermon being
produced, he justified it, and confessed he did mean all that
walk in such a way. Whereupon the elders of the rest of
the churches were called, and asked whether they, in their
ministry, did walk in such a way. They all acknowledged
they did. So, after much debate, the court adjudged him
guilty of sedition, and also of contempt, for that the court
had appointed the fast as a means of reconciliation of the
differences, etc., and he purposely set himself to kindle and
increase them. The governour and some few more (who
dissented) tendered a protestation, which, because it wholly
justified Mr. Wheelwright, and condemned the proceedings
of the court, was rejected. The church of Boston also ten
dered a petition in his behalf, justifying Mr. Wheelwright's
sermon. The court deferred sentence till the next court,
and advised with the ministers, etc., whether they might
enjoin his silence, etc. They answered, that they were not
clear in that point, but desired rather, that he might be
commended to the church of Boston to take care, of him,
etc., which accordingly was done, and he enjoined to appear
at the next court. Much heat of contention was [in] this
court between the opposite parties . . .
[Nov. 1, 1637.] There was great hope that the late gen
eral assembly would have had some good effect in pacifying

By Gov
ernor John
Winthrop
(1588-1649).
lawyer, mag
istrate, landed pro
prietor, and
first governor
to exercise
his functions
in Massa
chusetts Bay.
His journal
is a most
authentic record of the
early history
of trie prov-
vince. — For
other extracts
.from Win
throp, see
Old South
Leaflets, Nos. 50, 66 ;
Contempora
ries, I, Nos.
107, 118. —
For New
Hampshire,
see Contem
poraries, I,
ch. xix.
John Wheel
wright (159a-
1679), pastor
of the church
at Mount
Wollaston (now brain-
tree (.adopted
the antino-
mian heresy
of his sister-
in-law, Anne
Hutchinson,and was ban
ished. -- See
Contempora
ries, 1, No.
108.The sermon
was pub
lished in Jan
uary, 1637.

5°

First Colonization

[ i 637-1639

" 9th month,"
Old Style,
was Novem
ber.

!.e. a formal
record.

An island in
NarragansettBay.

Piscataqua,
now Exeter.

the troubles and dissensions about matters of religion ; but
it fell out otherwise. For though Mr. Wheelwright and those
of his party had been clearly confuted and confounded in
the assembly, yet they persisted in their opinions, and were
as busy in nourishing contentions (the principal of them) as
before. Whereupon the general court, being' assembled in
the 2 [second] of the 9th month, and finding, upon consulta
tion, that two so opposite parties could not contain [con
tinue] in the same body, without apparent hazard of ruin to
the whole, agreed to send away some of the principal . . .
Then the court sent for Mr. Wheelwright, and, he per
sisting to justify his sermon, and his whole practice and
opinions, and refusing to leave either the place or his pub
lic exercisings, he was disfranchised and banished. Upon
which he appealed to the king, but neither called witnesses,
nor desired any act to be made of it. The court told him,
that an appeal did not lie; for by the king's grant we had
power to hear and determine without any reservation, etc.
So he relinquished his appeal, and the court gave him leave
to go to his house, upon his promise, that, if he were not
gone out of our jurisdiction within fourteen days, he would
render himself to one of the magistrates. ...
[Dec. 13, 1638.] Those who were gone with Mrs. Hutch
inson to Aquiday fell into new errors daily. One Nicholas
Easton, a tanner, taught, that gifts and graces were that
antichrist mentioned [in] Thess[alonians], and that which
withheld, etc., was the preaching of the law ; and that every
[one] of the elect had the Holy Ghost and also the devil
indwelling. Another, one Heme, taught, that women had
no souls, and that Adam was not created in true holiness,
etc., for then he could not have lost it.
Those who went to the falls at Pascataquack, gathered a
church, and wrote to our church to desire us to dismiss Mr.
Wheelwright to them for an officer ; but, because he desired
it not himself, the cl lers did not propound it. Soon after

wo. ai] New Hampshire

57

came his own letter, with theirs, for his dismission, which
thereupon was granted. Others likewise (upon their re
quest) were also dismissed thither. . . .
[March, 1639.] Another plantation was begun upon the
north side of Merrimack, called Salisbury, now Colchester ;
another at Winicowett, called Hampton, which gave occa
sion of some difference between us and some of Pascata
quack, which grew thus : Mr. Wheelwright, being banished
from us, gathered a company and sat down by the falls of
Pascataquack, and called their town Exeter ; and for their
enlargement they dealt with an Indian there, and bought
of him Winicowett, etc., and then wrote to us what they
had done, and that they intended to lot out all these lands
in farms, except we could show a better title. They wrote
also to those whom we had sent to plant Winicowett to have
them desist, etc. These letters coming to the general court,
they returned answer, that they looked at this their' deal
ing as against good neighborhood, religion, and common
honesty; that, knowing we claimed Winicowett as within
our patent, or as vacuum domicilium, and had taken posses
sion thereof by building an house there above two years
since, they should now go and purchase an unknown title,
and then come to inquire of our right. It was in the same
letter also manifestly proved, that the Indians having only Having, ix.
a natural right to so much land as they had or could a •
improve, so as the rest of the country lay open to any that
could and would improve it, as by the said letter more at
large doth appear.
John Winthrop. The History of New England from 1630 to 1649
(edited by James Savage, Boston, 1853), I, 556-349 passim.

" No man's
land."

By Gov- •
ernor Sir
Edmund Andros
(1637-1714),
soldier, and
governor of
New York,
New Eng
land, and
Virginia
successively ;
arbitrary in
method, but
an able ad
ministrator.
This account
is from an
official report
in answer to
inquires
from iiic
English gov
ernment. —
For Andros
in New Eng
land, see
Contempo
raries, I,
No. 136. —
New York is
an example
of the prov
ince, or un
chartered
colony. The
first House
of Represent
atives was
held under
Governor
Dongan in
1683. — For
New York,
see Content-

CHAPTER IV— SECOND ERA OF
COLONIZATION
22. An Account of New York (1678)
ANSWERS to the Inquiries of Plantac6ns for New
Yorke.
1. The. Governo* is to have a Councell not exceeding
tenn, wth whose advice to act for the saf[e]ty & good of the
country, & in every towne, Village or parish a Petty Court,
& Courts of Sessions in the severall precincts being three^
on Long Island, & Townes of New Yorke, Albany & Esopus'
& some smale or poore Islands & out places; And the Gen
erall Court of Assizes composed of the Governor & Councell
& all the Justices & Magistrates att New Yorke once a yeare
the Petty Courts Judge of fiue pounds, & then may appeale
to Sessions, they to twenty pounds & then may appeale to
Assizes to y« King, all sd [said] courts as by Law.
2. The Court of Admiralty hath been by speciall Comis-
sion or by the Court of Mayor & Aldermen att New Yorke.
3- The cheife Legislatiue power there is in the Governo'
with advice of the Councell the executive power of Judgem"
giuen by ye Courts is in the sheriffs & other civill officers.
4- The law booke in force was made by the Governo' &
Assembly att Hempsted in 1665 and since confirmed by his
Royall Highnesse,
5. The Militia is about 2000 of wch about 140 horse in
three troopes the foote formed into companyes most under
100 men each all indifferently armed with fire armes of all
sizes, ordered & exercised according to Law, and are good
fire men ; one standing company of Souldiers with gunners
.8

No. aa]

New York

59

& other officers for the fforts of New Yorke & Albany alwayes
victualled in October & November for a yeare.
6. Forteresses are James fforte seated upon a point of
New Yorke towne between Hudson's River & ye Sound, its
a square with stone walls, foure bastions almost regular, and
in it 46 gunns mounted & stores for seruice accordingly.
Albany is a smale long stockadoed forte with foure bastions
in it, 12 gunns sufficient ag1 [against] Indians, & lately a
wooden redou[b]t & out worke att Pemaquid wth seven
gunns, sd Garrisons victualled for a yeare, wth suff' [suffi
cient] stores.
7. There are noe privateers about oT [our] Coasts.
8. Our Neighbours westward are Maryland populous &
strong but doe not live in townes, their produce tobacco,
Northwest the Maques [Mohawks] &* Indians y* most wan-
like in all the Northern Parts of America, their trade beavers
& furrs. Northward the ffrench of Canada trade as wee with
our Indians ; Eastward Connecticutt in a good condic&n &
populous, their produce provisioun of wheate, beefe & porke,
some pease, or South bounds the Sea.
9. Wee keepe good Correspondence with all or neigh
bours as to Civill, legall or Judiciall proceedings, but differ
with Connecticutt for our bounds and mutuall assistance wch
they nor Massachusetts will not admitt
10. Our boundarys are South, the Sea, west[,] Delaware ;
North to ye Lakes or ffrench ; East[,] Connecticutt River, but
most usurped & yett possed [possessed] by sd Connecticutt,
some Islands Eastward & a tract beyond Kennebeck River
called Pemaquid &c New Yorke is in 40d 35™ Albany ab'
[about] 43d the Collony is in severall long narrow stripes of
wch a greate parte of the Settlem1 [was] made by adventurers
before any Regulacon[,] by [reason of] wch[,] Incroachm"
[have been made] without pattents w°h {_i.e. the patents]
townes haue lately taken[;] but by reason of Continual!
warrs noe Survey [has been] made & [it is still] wilder-

poraries, I,
ch. zxiii ;
II, ch. iv.
"Law-
booke " =
so-called " Duke's
Laws." Fort James=
the Battery.
Pemaquid <=
Maine.

I.e. there
were boun
dary con
troversies.

New York,
40° 42' 43",
Albany,42' 39' 3"-

l.e. South
ampton, L. I.

•Duffells" =
coarsewoolencloths.£50,000. —
See above,
p. 27, note.

60 Second Colonization [i67s
nesse,[;] noe certaine Computacon can be made of the
planted & unplanted, these last 2 yeares about 20000 acres
[have been] taken up & patterned for particular persons
besides Delaware, most of the land taken up except upon
Long Island is improued & unlesse the bounds of the Duke's
pattent be asserted noe great quantityes att hand undisposed.
11. Our principaU places of Trade are New Yorke &
Southton except Albany for the Indyans, our buildings most
wood, some lately stone & brick, good country houses &
strong of their severaU kindes.
12. Wee haue about 24 townes, villiages or parishes in
Six Precincts, Divisions, Rydeings [districts], or Courts of
Sessions. 13. Wee haue severall Riuers, Harbours & Roades.
Hudson's River the cheifest & is ab' 4 fathoms water att
comeing in[,] butt six, tenn or more within[,] & very good
soundings and anchorage either in Hudson's River or in the
Sound, the usuall roade before the towne & moulde [mole].
14. Our produce is land provisions of all sorts as of
wheate [of which is] exported yearly about 60000 bushells,
pease, beefe, porke, & some Refuse fish, Tobacco, beavers,
peltry or furrs from the Indians, Deale & oake timber,
plankes, pipestaues [pipe-staves], lumber horses, & pitch &
tarr lately begunn to be made ; comodityes imported are all
Sorts of English mannufacture for Christians & blancketts
Duffells &c for Indians about 50,000" yearly[.] Pemaquid
affords merchantable ffish & masts.
15. Wee haue noe Experience or skill of Salt Peter to be
had in Quantityes.
16. Our Merch" [merchants] are not many but with
inhabitants & planters about 2000 able to beare armes old
inhabitants of the place or of England, Except in & neere
New Yorke of Dutch extraction & some few of all nations,
but few serv" [who are] much wanted & but very few slaves.
1 7. Noe persons whateuer are to come from any place

No. 32]

New York

61

but according to Act off Pari' [Parliament] -Wh the Magis
trates & Officers of ye severall townes or places are to take
care of, accordingly the Plantacon is these late yeares in
creased, butt noe Generall ace' hath been taken soe [it] is
not knowne how much nor what persons. Some few slaues
are sometimes brought from Barbados, most for provisions
& Sould [sold] att ab' 30" or 35" Country pay. j^rodwe5
18. Ministers haue been so scarce & Religions many that lnPro uce
noe ace' cann be giuen of Childrens births or Christenings.
19. Scarcity of Ministers & Law admitting marriages by
Justices no ace' cann be giuen of the number marryed.
20. Noe ace' cann be giuen of burialls formes of burialls
not being generally obserued & few ministers 'till very lately.
21. A merch' worth iooo" or 500" is accompted a good
substantiaU merchant & a planter worthe halfe that in move
ables accompted with [rich?] AU the Estates may bee
valued att about ;£i 50000.
22. There may lately haue traded to y* Collony in a yeare
from tenn to fifteen shipps or vessells of about togeather 100
tunns each, English, new England & our owne built of w*
[which] 5 smale shipps and a Ketch now belonging to New
Yorke foure of them built there.
23. Obstruccons to Improuem' [improvement] of plant
ers, trade, Navigacon, & mutual assistance are ye distinction
of Collonies for our owne produce, as if [they were] differ
ent nations & people, though next neighbours on the same
tract of land, & His Ma"" subjects, wee obseruing [observ
ing] acts of trade & navigacon &°
24. Advantages, Incouragem' & Improuem' of Planters
trade & Navigacon would be more if next neighbours of
or owne nation the King's subjects upon the same tract
of land might without distinction, supply each other with
our owne produce, punctually obserueing all acts of Parliam'
for Exportacon & would dispose all persons the better for
mutuall assistance.

A small two-
masted vessel.

*
(1

62 Second Colonization

In 1693 the
Church of
England was
establishedin three
counties.

By John
F'enwick (1618-1683),
a Quaker
proprietor of
West Jersey,
named from
the island of
Jersey. He founded
a Quaker
coiunx in
^alem in

[1675

25. Rates or Dutyes upon Goods exported are 2' for
each hhd of Tobacco & i* 3d on a beauer skin & other pel
try proportionably, Provisions & all else paye nothing, Goods
imported payes 2 per cent except Liquors particularly rated
something more, & Indian trade goeing up the river payes
3 per cent, there are some few quitt rents, as also Excise
or license mon[e]ys for retaileing strong drinke & a way
[weigh] house or publique scale ; all applyed to ye Garrison
& publique charge, to which it hath not heitherto sufficed
by a greate deale.
26. There are Religions of all sorts, one Church of Eng
land, severall Presbiterians & Independants, Quakers & Ana
baptists, of severall sects, some Jews, but presbiterians &
Indipend" most numerous & substantiaU.
27. The Duke inaintaines a chapline [chaplain] wch is all
the certaine allowance or [of the] Chirch of England, but
peoples free gifts to yc ministry, And all places oblidged to
build churches & provide for a minister, in wch most very
wanting, but presbiterians & Independents desierous to
haue & maintaine them if to be had, There are ab' 20
churches or Meeting places of wch aboue [above] halfe [are]
vacant ...
E. B. O'Callaghan, Documents relative to the. Colonial History
of the State of New-York (Albany, 1853), III, 260-262.

23. New Jersey "a Healthy Pleasant, and
Plentiful Country " (1675)
FRIENDS,
rHESE are to Satisfieyou, or any other who are Sober,
and are any wise minded io go along with me, and
Plant within my COLONY; That we shall no doubt
find, but that New CESEREA or New JERSEY, which is

No. 33]

New Jersey

63

the Place which I did Purchase : Together with the Govern
ment thereof, is a Healthy Pleasant, and Plentiful Country :
According to tlie Report of many Honest Men, Friends, and
others who has been there, and the Character given thereof,
by John Ogilby in his AMERICA, which I herewith send.
Tlie Method I intend for the Planting of all, or so much
thereof, as 1 shall reserve to myself, my Heirs and Assigns
for ever. Is thus :

w

rHoever is minded to Purchase to them and
their Heirs for ever, may for Five Pound
have a Thousand Acres, and so Ten Thousand Acres ; and
thereby be made Propriators or Free-Holders.
2. Who is minded to Carry themselves, (and not Pur
chase) with their Families at their own Charges, are to have
the Freedom of the Country when they Arrive, and one
hundred Acres for every Head they carry above the Age of
Fourteen, to them and their Heirs for ever. At the yearly
Rent of a Pen[n]y for every Acre, to Me, my Heirs and
Assigns for ever.
3. [Those] Who are minded to go as Servants, who must
be Carried at my Charges, or [at the charges of] any other
Propriator, or Purchasors, or [of other persons who] Carries
themselves with Servants at their own Charges as aforesaid ;
they [the servants] are to Serve 4 years, and then to be
made Free of the Country : Their Masters are to give them
a Suit of Cloaths, and other things su[i]table ; a Cow, a
Hog, and so much Wheat as the I^aw there in that Case
allows ; with Working Tools to begin with : And then he is
to have of me, or [of] his Master out of his Propriety
[property], a hundred Acres, Paying the yearly Rent of a
Peny for every Acre : To me and my Heirs for ever, or to
his Master and his Heirs.
And as for the Planting of the Whole, with Ease, Satis
faction and Profit, as well to the Poor as the Rich : this

1675. Gov
ernor Andros
disputed his
litle and im
prisonedhim fpr two
years; Fen-
wlck then
made over
his claim to
WilliamPenn. The
followingextract is
from the first
printed paper
relative to
West Jersey,
after the.
country came
into the pos
session of
Fenwickand his part
ner Biiiynge.
East and
West Jersey,
were united
in 1703. —
See Contem
poraries, X,
ch. xxv ; II,
ch. iv.
Ogilby'sAmerica, a
huge folio,
published in
1671.Freedom =
citizenship.

holding.

64 Second Colonization [i675
Method is intended, and approved of by many that are
preparing to go with me, which I intend will be about the
middle of the next Month caU'd April, or the end thereof
without fail, if the Lord please.
First, 1 0000. Acres being pitch'd Upon, and divided
^•jjjdjvidual according to every mans Propriety; then Lots shall be
cast, and when every one knows where his Lot lies, there
being also a place Chosen and set out for a Town or City
to be Built, in which every Purchaser must have a Part, by
reason of Delaware River for Trade. Then every one must
joyn their Hands, first in Building the Houses, and next in
Improving the Land, Casting Lots whose Houses shall be
first built, and whose Land first Improved: And as the
Land is Improved so it shall be for the Use of all the
Hands and their Families which are joyned in this Com
munity, until the whole 10000. Acres be Improved; Then
every one to have his own Lot to his own Use : And so this
Method to be used till the Country be Planted.
If any like not this Method, they may be left to Improve
their Propriety alone. If any happen to go who is not Able
to get a Live [li] hood here, nor to Pay their Debts out of
their Stocks, the Governor and his Council shall take care,
upon notice given thereof by the Creditors, that such shall
make Satisfaction out of their Estates, as the Lord shall
give a Blessing to their Labours, and an Increase of their
Substance. Provided the Creditors hinder not their Pas
sage, but give the Governor and his Council a Particular of
their Debts.
The Government is to be, by a Governor and 12 Council
i.e. a term of to be Chosen every year, 6 of the Council to so out, and 6
to come in ; whereby every Proprietor may be made capa
ble of Government, and know the Affairs of the Country,
and Privileges of the People.
The Government to stand upon these two Basis, or
Leges [laws], viz. 1. The Defence of the Royal Law of

two years.

No. 04]

Carolina

65

God, his Name and true Worship, which is in Spirit and
in Truth.
2. The Good, Peace and Welfare, of every Individual
Person. This 8th. of the 1st. Month. I am a Real Friend
1675. and Well-wisher
to aU Men.
J. Fenwick.
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Philadel
phia, 1882), VI, 86-88.

March 8,
1675, OS.

24. Description of Carolina (i 665-1 695)
I SHALL next proceed to treat of the Government, as
granted by King Charles II. to the Eight Lords Pro
prietors aforesaid, who again, by common consent, center'd
that Power in Four of them, -viz. in a Palatine of their own
election, and Three more who were impower'd to execute
the whole Powers of the Charter, and is caU'd a Palatines
Court; their Deputies in Carolina executing the same, as
from their Principals they are directed : For each Proprietor
hath his Deputy there.- The Charter generally, as in other
Charters, agrees in Royal Privileges and Powers ; but espec
ially at that time it had an Over-plus Power to grant Liberty
of Conscience, altho' at Home was a hot Persecuting Time ;
as also, a Power to Create a Nobility, yet not to have the
same Titles as here in England, and therefore they are there
by Patent, under the Great Seal of the Provinces, caU'd
Landgraves and Cassocks, in lieu of Earls and Lords ; and
are by their Titles to sit with the Lords Proprietors, Depu
ties, and together make the Upper-House, the Lower- House
being elected by the People ; and these Landgraves are to
have four Baronies annex'd to their Dignities, of 6000 Acres
each Barony ; and the Cassocks two Baronies, of 3000 each ;

By John
Arch dale,
a Quaker,
governor of
the Carolinas
from 1695 to
1697 ; a care
ful adminis
trator, who
did much for
the internal
improvementof the colonv.
The North
ern and
Southern colonies were
at one time
governed togetherunder royal
charters of
1663 and
1665; they
are an exam
ple of an
unsuccessfulattempt to
found an
artificialcommonwealth, with
feudal privi
leges. — See
Contempora
ries, 1, ch.
xii; II, ch. v.

Liberty of
consciencewas remarka
ble, consider
ing that all
the proprie
tors were
Church of
Englandmen.

The war
against the
Kussoes, in
1671.

66 Second Colonization [1665-1695
and not to be separated away by Sale of any part ; only they
have power to let out a third Part for three Lives, for to
raise Portions for younger Children. And many Dissenters
went over, Men of Estates, as also many whom the variety
of Fortune had engaged to seek their Fortunes, in hopes
of "better Success in this New World : And truly such as
better improved their new Stock of Wit, generally had no
cause to repent of their Transplantation into this Fertile and
Pleasant Land : Yet had they at the first many Difficulties
and Dangers to cope withal, and therefore the most desper
ate Fortunes [fortune-hunters] first ventured over to break
the Ice, which being [were] generally the Ill-livers of the
pretended Church-men, altho' the Proprietors commission-
ated one Collonel West their Governour, a moderate, just,
pious and valiant Person ; yet having a Council of the loose
Principled Men, they grew very unruly, that they had like
to have Ruin'd the Colony, by Abusing the Indians, whom
in Prudence they ought to have obliged in the highest de
gree, and so brought an Indian War on the Country, like
that in the first Planting of Virginia, in which several were
cut off; but the Governour by his Manly Prudence, at last,
extinguish'd the same in a great measure, and so left Matters
a little better settled to Governour./w. Morton, in whose
time General Blake's Brother, with many Dissenters came
to Carolina ; which Blake being a wise and prudent Per
son, of an heroick temper of Spirit, strengthen'd the Hands
of sober inclined People, and kept under the the First Loose
and Extravagant Spirit ; but not being able to extinguish it,
it broke out and got head in the Government of James
Coletin of Barbadoes, and Sir Peter Colleton's Brother : And
this Party grew so strong among the Common People, that
they chose Members to oppose whatsoever the Governour
requested ; insomuch that they would not Settle the Militia
Act, tho' their own Security (in a Natural way) depended on
it. And the grounds of their farther Strength, was by reason

No. as]

Pennsylvania

67

of the Discontent the People lay under about the Tenure
of their Lands, and payment of their Quiterance [quit-rents]
which was afterwards rectified by me. After Colleton suc
ceeded one  [Thomas] Smyth, a wise and sober, moder
ate and well-living Man, who grew so uneasy in the Govern
ment, by reason that he could not satisfy the People in their
Demands, that he writ over An. 1694, "That it was impos
sible to Settle the Country, except a Psoprietor himself, was
sent over with full power to Heal their Grievances, 6fc ". . .
the Proprietors took Governour Smyth's Letter under Con
sideration ; and the Lord Ashly was pitch'd upon by aU the
Lords, who was then in the Country . . . who desired to be
excused . . . upon which Account I was then pitch'd upon,
and intrusted with Large and Ample Powers ; and when I
arriv'd, I found all Matters in great Confusion, and every
Faction apply 'd themselves to me in hopes of ReUef; I ap
peased them with kind and gentle Words, and so soon as
possible caU'd an Assembly . . .
John Archdale, A New Description of thai Fertile and Pleasant
Province of Carolina (London, 1 707), 12-15 passim.

Ix. perpetual
rents re
served in
grants of
land ; a sys
tem much
disliked by
the colonists.
"Am." •=
Ammo, year.

25. Settlement of Pennsylvania (1682)
AT our arrival [in Pennsylvania], we found it a wilder
ness ; the chief inhabitants were Indians, and some
Swedes; who received us in a friendly manner : and though
there was a great number of us, the good hand of Provi
dence was seen in a particular manner ; in that provisions
were found for us, by the Sivedes, and Indians, at very rea
sonable rates, as well as brought from divers other parts,
that were inhabited before.
Our first concern was to keep up and maintain our reli
gious worship; and, in order thereunto, we had several meet-

So. as is
by Richard
Townsend
(born about
1644), a
Quaker, who
came from
England in
the ship
"Welcome"with William
Penn. — For
Townsend, see H. G.
Ashmead, Historical Si etch of
Chester, 23c—
231. — For
Quakers, see
below. No.
30; Contem
poraries, I,
Nos. 141,14a.
— The early
settlers, when
they had
reached old

68

Second Colonization [u»a

age, are said
to have fre
quently re
called the
goodness of
Providence in preserving
them through
the difficul
ties and hard
ships which
they al first
encountered.
Townsend's " testimony,"
written about
1727, is an
example of a
favorite kind
of Quaker
reminis cence. —
Pennsylvania
is a type of
a colony
founded on
a large scale
by a man of
great wealth
and vigorous
character. —
See Contem
poraries, I,
ch. xxiv ; II,
ch. iv.
The Swedes
were the
original set
tlers of Dela
ware, which
for a long
time formed
a part of
Pennsyl
vania. For William
Penn see
Conteinpor a-
ries, I, No.
162,
l.e. the
Welsh.

ings, in the houses of the inhabitants; and one boarded
meeting-house was set up, where the city was to be, near
Delaware; and, as we had nothing but love and good-wiU,
in our hearts, one to another, we had very comfortable
meetings, from time to time ; and after our meeting was
over, we assisted each other, in building little houses, for
our shelter.
After some time I set up a mill, on Chester creek ; which
I brought ready framed from London; which served for
grinding of corn, and sawing of boards ; and was of great
use to us. Besides, I, with Joshua Title ry, made a net, and
caught great quantities of fish; which supplied ourselves
and many others ; sO that, notwithstanding it was thought
near three thousand persons came irt the first year, we were
so providentially provided for, that we could buy a deer for
about two shillings, and a large turkey, for about one shil
ling, and Indian corn for about two shillings and six pence
per bushel.
And, as our worthy Proprietor treated the Indians with ex
traordinary humanity, they became very civil and loving to
us, and brought in abundance of venison. As, in other coun
tries, the Indians were exasperated by hard treatment, which
hath been the foundation of much bloodshed, so the con
trary treatment here hath produced their love and affection.
About a year after our arrival, there came in about twenty
families from high and low Germany, of religious, good
people ; who settled about six miles from Philadelphia, and
called the place Germantown. — The country continually
increasing, people began to spread themselves further
back. —
Also a place called North Wales, was settled by many of
the ancient Britons, an honest inclined people, although
they had not then made a profession of the truth, as held
by us, yet, in a little time, a large convincement was among
them ; and divers meeting-houses were built.

No. 26]

Delaware

69

About the time, in which Germantown was laid out, I
settled upon my tract of land, which I had purchased of the
Proprietor, in England, about a mile from thence ; where I
set up a house and a corn mill ; — which was very useful to
the country, for several miles round : — -But there not being
plenty of horses, people generally brought their corn on
their backs many miles . . .
As people began to spread, and improve their lands, the
country became more fruitful; so that those, who came
after us, were plentifully supplied; and with what we
abounded we began a small trade abroad. And as Phila
delphia increased, vessels were built, and many employed.
Both country and trade have been wonderfully increasing to
this day ; so that, from a wilderness, the Lord, by his good
hand of providence, hath made it a fruitful field: — On
which to look back, and observe all the steps, would exceed
my present purpose; yet, being now in the eighty-fourth
year of my age, and having been in this country near forty-
six years, and my memory pretty clear, concerning the rise
and progress of the province, I can do no less than return
praises to the Almighty, when I look back and consider his
bountiful hand . . •
Robert Proud, The History of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia,
1797), I, 229-231 passim.

On Phila
delphia, see
Contempora-.
ries, I. Nos.
161, 163; II,
No. 28.

26. A Journey through Delaware (1676)
WE travelled that Day, and saw ho tame Creature, at
Night we kindled a Fire in the Wilderness, and lay
by it, as we used to do in such Journies ; next Day about
nine in the Morning, by the good Hand of God, we came
well to the Falls, and by his Providence found there an
Indian Man, a Woman and Boy with a Canoe : So we hired

No. 26 is by
Reverend
William Edmundson
(1627-1710),
English yeo
man, soldier
in the parlia
mentary army, and
afterwardQuakerpreacher. He made.
two journeys
to America,
the first in
company with George
Fox. Inter
spersed in
the faithful
journal which he
kept of his

7 6 Second Colonization

[1676

travels and
work are to
be found
many valu
able observa
tions upon
the colonies.
— Delaware
was a very
small and
weak colony.
but.it had the
same gov
ernor as
Pennsylva
nia, and at
times the
same legis
lature. — See
Contempora
ries, I, ch.
xxiv; II, No.
The falls of
the Delaware
are near
Trenton.
Wampum =
strings of
small white
shells used as
ornaments
and as
money.
There were
many Finns
among the
Swedishsettlements. He passes
the site of the
later Phila
delphia with
out notice.
Uplands,now Chester.
For John
Fenwick, see
above. No. 23.
The deputy-
governor was

him for some Wampampeg, to help us over in the Canoe ;
We swam our Horses, and though the River was broad, yet
got well over; and, by the Directions we received from
Friends, travelled towards Delaware Town along the West
Side of the River : When we had rode some Miles, we baited
our Horses, and refreshed ourselves with such Provisions as
we had, for as yet we were not come to any Inhabitants.
Here came up to us a Finland Man well horsed, who could
speak English, he soon perceived what we were, and gave
us an Account of several Friends, his House was as far as
we could ride that Day; he took us there, and lodged us
kindly. Next Morning, being first Day of the Week, we went to
Uplands, where were a few Friends met at Robert Wade's
House, and we were glad one of another, and comforted in
the Lord. After Meeting we took Boat and went to Salem
about thirty Miles, there lived John Fennick, and several
Families of Friends from England, we ordered our Horses
to meet us at Delaware Town by Land ; so we got Friends
together at Salem, and had a Meeting : After which we had
the Hearing of several Differences, and endeavoured to make
Peace among them.
Next Day we went by Boat, accompanied by several
Friends, to Delaware Town, and there met with our Horses
according to Appointment, but for a long Time could get
no Lodging for ourselves, or them ; the Inhabitants being
most of them Dutch and Finns, and addicted to Drunken
ness. That Place was then under the Government of New-
York, and is now called Pennsylvania, there was a Deputy-
Governor in it ; so when we could not get a Lodging, I went
to the Governor, and told him, We were Travellers, and had
Money to pay for what we called for, but could not get Lodg
ing for our Money. He was very courteous, and went with
us to an Ordinary, and commanded the Man to provide us
Lodging (which was both mean and dear) but the Governor

No. 37]

Georgia

71

sent his Man to tell me, That what I wanted, send to him Captamjohn
for and 1 should have it. Ordinary =
The next Morning we took our Journey towards Mary- ^
land, accompanied with Robert Wade and another Friend :
We travelled hard and late at Night, so came to William
Southe rby's at Saxifrax River. From thence we went among Sassafras
Friends on the Eastern Shore in Maryland . . . ££"• Mary*
William Edmundson, Journal (London, 1774), 107-109.

27. Progress of Georgia (1733)
WE set sail from Gravesend, on the 17 th of Novr.
1732, in the ship Anne, of 200 tons, John Thomas,
Master, being about 130 persons, and arrived off the
bar of Charlestown on the 13th day of January following.
Mr. Oglethorpe went on shore to wait on the Governour ;
was received with great marks of civility and satisfaction ;
obtained an order for Mr. Middleton, the King's pilot, to
carry the ship into Port Royal ; and for small craft to carry
the Colony from thence to the river Savannah, with a prom
ise of further assistance from the Province. He returned
on board the 14th day; and came to an anchor within the
bar of Port Royal, at about 16 miles' distance from Beau
fort. On the 1 8th, he went on shore upon Trench's island,
and left a guard of 8 men upon John's; being a point of
that island which commands the channel, and is about half
way between Beaufort and the river Savannah : — they had
orders to prepare Huts, for the reception of the Colony,
against they should lie there in their passage. From thence,
he went to Beaufort town, where he arrived about one
o'clock in the morning ; and was saluted with a discharge
of all the Artillery, and had the new Barracks fitted up ;
where, the Colony landed on the 20th day ; and were, in

This account
was written
either by or
with the
sanction of
General JamesEdward Ogle
thorpe
(1696-1785),
founder of
Georgia. —
See Contem
poraries, II,
No. 39.-7^
Georgiawas founded
as a philan
thropic enter
prise, to give
homes to
poor people;
slavery was
for nearly
twenty years
forbidden. Till after the
Revolution
Georgia had
very few in
habitants. —
See Contem
poraries, 11,
ch. vi.

On the con
vivial habits
of the time,
see Contem
poraries, II,
No. 84. •

I.e. John's
Island.

Tithing = a
company of
ten house
holders.

72 Second Colonization [i733
every respect, cheerfully assisted by Lieut. Watts, Ensign
Farnngton, and the other officers of his Majesty's independ
ent company, as also by Mr. Delabarr, and other gentlemen
of the neighborhood.
While the Colony refreshed themselves there, Mr Ogle
thorpe went up the River, and chose a situation for a Town •
and entered into a treaty with Tomochichi, the Micco, or
Chief of the only nation of Indians living near it He
returned on the 24th day; and they celebrated the Sunday
following, as a day of Thanksgiving for their safe arrival ¦
and a sermon was preached by the Revd. Mr. Jones, (the
Reyd Dr. Herbert, who came with the Colony, preaching
that day at Beaufort town.) There was a great resort of
the Gentlemen of that neighborhood, and their families •
and a plentiful Dinner provided for the Colony, and all thai
came, by Mr Oglethorpe ; being 4 fat hogs, 8 turkies,
besides fowls, English Beef, and other provisions, a hogs
head of punch, a hogshead of beer, and a large quantity
of wine; and, all was disposed in so regular a manner, that
no person was drunk, nor any disorder happened
On the 30th, the Colony embarked on board a sloop of
70 tons, and S Periaugers [dugouts], and made sail; but
were forced by a storm, to put in at a place called the Look
out and to he there all night : - the next day, they arrived
a Johns; where they found huts capable to contain them
all, and a plentiful supper of venison. They re-embarked
the next day; and in the afternoon arrived at the place
intended for the Town.
Being arrived, on the 1st of February, at the intended
Town before night they erected 4 large tents, sufficient
to hold all the people, being one for each tything; they
landed their bedding, and other little necessaries; and all
the people lay on shore. The ground they encamped upon
is the edge of the river where the key [wharf] is intended
to be. J

No. 27]

Georgia

73

Until the 7th was spent in making a Crane, and unlad
ing the goods: — which done, Mr. Oglethorpe divided the
people ; employing part, in clearing the land for seed ; part,
in beginning the palisade ; and the remainder, in felling of
trees where the Town is to stand.
Col. Bull arrived here, with a message from the General
Assembly to Mr. Oglethorpe, and a letter from his Excel
lency Governor Johnson and the Council; acquainting
him, that the two Houses, upon a conference, had agreed
to give 20 barrels of Rice and 100 head of Cattle, besides
Hogs, to the Trustees ; and, that they had commanded a
detachment of the Rangers, (which are Horse, kept in the
pay of the Province, for the scouring of the frontiers) and
the Scout-boat (which is an armed Bark, employed for the
same purpose by water) to attend him, and take his orders.
Col. Bull brought with him 4 of his Negroes, who were
Sawyers, to assist the Colony ; and also, brought provision
for them, being resolved to put the Trust to no expense ;
and by this means, to bestow his benefaction in the most
noble and useful manner.
On the 9th day, Mr. Oglethorpe and Col. Bull marked
out the Square, the Streets, and 40 Lots for houses for the
town ; and the first House (which was ordered to be mads
of clapboards) was begun that day.
The Town lies on the south side of the river Savannah,
upon a Flat on the top of a hill ; and 60 yards of it is
reserved between it and the Key. The river washes the
foot of the hill; which stretches along the side of it about
a mile, and forms a terrace 40 feet perpendicular above
high-water.
A Brief Account of the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia,
under Gen. fames Oglethorpe, February 1, j^jj, in Force,
Tracts, etc. (Washington, 1836), I, No. ii, 8-io.

Savannah.

ByGovernorJohn Win
throp, for
whom see
above. No.
21. His
journal throws light
upon almost
every phase
of New Eng
land life in
the first half
of the seven
teenth cen
tury. — See
Contempora
ries, I, No.
107. — On
early colo
nial life, see
Contempora
ries, I, chs.
xiii, xxi, xxvi.
Morton's set
tlement at
Merrymount
had been
broken up
by John
Endicott in
the summer
ofi628.— See
Contempora
ries, I, No.
103.
Oct. 25. —
A very early
example of
temperance
sentiment. " This ship,"
ix. the
" Lion."

CHAPTER V — COLONIAL LIFE IN
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY*
28. New England Life (1 630-1 635)
THURSDAY, 17 [June, 1630.] We went to Mattachu-
setts, to find out a place for our sitting down. We
went up Mistick River about six miles. . . .
Thursday, 8 [July.] We kept a day of thanksgiving in
all the plantations. . . .
[Sept. 30.] The wolves killed six calves at Salem, and
they killed one wolf.
Thomas Morton [was] adjudged to be imprisoned, till he
were sent into England, and his house burnt down, for his
many injuries offered to the Indians, and other misdemean
ours. Capt. Brook, master of the [ship] Gift, refused to
carry him. . . .
[Oct. 25.] The governour, upon consideration of the
inconveniences which had grown in England by drinking
one to another, restrained it at his own table, and wished
others to do the like, so as it grew, by little and little, to
disuse. . . .
[Feb. 10, 1 63 1.] The poorer sort of people (who lay
long in tents, etc.) were much afflicted with the scurvy, and
many died, especially at Boston and Charlestown ; but when
this ship came and brought store of juice of lemons, many
recovered speedily. It hath been always observed here,
that such as fell into discontent, and lingered [longed] after
their former conditions in England, fell into the scurvy and
died. . . .
[Nov. 4.] The governour, his wife and children, went
74

No. a8]

New England

75

on shore, with Mr. Peirce, in his ship's boat. The ship
gave them six or seven pieces. At their landing, the cap
tains, with their companies in arms, entertained them with
a guard, and divers vollies of shot, and three drakes; and
divers of the assistants and most of the people, of the near
plantations, came to welcome them, and brought and sent,
for divers days, great store of provisions, as fat hogs, kids,
venison, poultry, geese, partridges, etc., so as the like joy
and manifestation of love had never been seen in New Erg-
land. It was a great marvel, that so much people and such
store of provisions could be gathered together at so few
hours' warning. . . .
[April 16, 1632.] A wear [dam] was erected by AVater-
town men upon Charles River, three miles above the town,
where they took great store of shads.
A Dutch ship brought from Virginia two thousand bushels
of corn,, which was sold at four shillings sixpence the
bushel. . . .
[Juty 5-] At Watertown there was (in the view of divers
witnesses) a great combat between a mouse and a snake ;
and, after a long fight, the mouse prevailed and killed the
snake. The pastor of Boston, Mr. Wilson, a very sincere,
holy man, hearing of it, gave this interpretation : That the
snake was the devil; the mouse was a poor contemptible
people, which God had brought hither, which should over
come Satan here, and dispossess him of his kingdom. Upon
the same occasion, he told the governour, that, before he
was resolved to come into this country, he dreamed he
was here, and that he saw a church arise out of the earth,
which grew up and became a marvellous goodly church. . . ,
December 5 [1633.] John Sagamore died of the small
pox, and almost all his people; (above thirty buried by
Mr. Maverick of Winesemett in one day). The towns in
the bay took away many of the children ; but most of them
died soon after. . . .

Ix. fired a
salute.Small pieces
of artillery.

This is a
curious ex
ample of the
tendency of
the Puritans
to see spirit
ual warnings
in the com
monest hap
penings.

Samuel Maverick
was the origi
nal settler of
what is now
East Boston
and Chelsea.

A common
colonial punishment.

In the early
days of the
colony, coin
was very lit
tle used as a
medium of
exchange.

76 Early Colonial Life [i63o-i63S
[March 4, 1634.] At this court all swamps, above one
hundred acres, were made common, etc. Also Robert Cole
having been oft punished for drunkenness, was now ordered
to wear a red D about his neck for a year.
[Oct. 14.] It was informed the governour, that some
of our people, being aboard the bark of Maryland, the
sailors did revile them, calling them holy brethren,' the
members, etc., and withal did curse and swear most horri
bly, and use threatening speeches against us. The gov
ernour wrote to some of the assistants about it, and, upon
advice with the ministers, it was agreed to call them in
question ; and to this end (because we knew not how to
get them out of their bark) we apprehended the merchant
of the ship, being on shore, and committed him to the mar
shal, till Mr. Maverick came and undertook that the offenders
should be forthcoming. The next day (the governour not
being well) we examined the witnesses, and found them fall
short of the matter of threatening, and not to agree about
the reviling speeches, and, beside, not able to design cer
tainly the men that had so offended. Whereupon (the bark
staying only upon [for] this) the bail was discharged, and
a letter written to the master, that, in regard such disorders
were committed aboard his ship, it was his duty to inquire
out the offenders and punish them ; and withal to desire
him to bring no more such disordered persons among
[March 4, 1635.] At this court brass farthings were for
bidden, and musket bullets made to pass for farthings.
[April.] Some of our people went to Cape Cod, and
made some oil of a whale, which was cast on shore. There
were three or four cast up, as it seems there is almost every
year. '
John Winthrop, The History of New England from r63o to
't>49 (edited by James Savage, Boston, 1853), I, 32-188 passim.

No. 39]

Church Services

77

29. Church Services (1642)
A CHURCH is gathered there after this maner: A con
venient, or competent number of Christians, allowed
by the generall Court to plant together, at a day prefixed,
come together, in publique manner, in some fit place, and
there confesse their sins and professe their faith, one unto
another, and being satisfied of one anothers faith & repent
ance, they solemlny [solemnly] enter into a Covenant with
God, and one an other (which is called their Church
Covenant, and held by them to constitute a Church) to
this effect : viz.
To forsake the Devill, andall his workes, and the vanities
of the sinfull world, and all their former lusts, and corrup
tions, they have lived and walked in, and to cleave unto,
and obey the Lord Jesus Christ, as their onely King and
Law-giver, their onely Priest and Prophet, and to walke
together with that Church, in the unity of the faith, and
brotherly love, and to submit themselves one unto an other,
in all the ordinances of Christ, to mutuall edification, and
comfort, to watch over, and support one another.
Whereby they are called the Church of such a place,
which before they say were no Church, nor of any Church
except the invisible : After this, they doe at the same time,
or some other, all being together, elect their own Officers]
as Pastor, Teacher, Elders, Deacons, if they have fit men
enough to supply, those places ; else, as many of them as
they can be provided of. . . .
When a man or woman commeth to joyne unto the
Church so gathered, he or shee commeth to the Elders
in private, at one of their houses, or some other place
appointed, upon the weeke. dayes, and make knowne their
desire, to enter into Church-fellowship with that Church,
and then the ruling Elders, or one of them, require, or aske

By Thomas
Lechford(1590-1644?).
who was in
Massachu
setts from
1638 till 1641,
when he re
turned to
England in
disgust He
was the first
to practise
law in the
province.His com
ments,though hos
tile, are valu
able. — For
Lechford,
see Contem
poraries, I,
Nos. 91, 110.
— For church
services, see
Contempora
ries, 1, Nos,
143.169; II.
ch. xv. An
excellent sec
ondary study
of Puritan
religious feel
ing is Barrett
Wendell's Cotton
Mather. This was the
fundamental
principle of
the Puritan
church
polity.
The Puritans
were much
averse to
havingwomen take
part in public
religious
worship; not
so the

Quakers and
Methodists.

I.e. have
been aroused
by preaching,
private read
ing, or con
versation.

78 Early Colonial Life [164a
him pr her, if he bee willing to make known unto them the
worke of grace upon their soules, or how God hath beene
dealing with them about their conversion : which (at Boston)
the man declareth usually standing, the woman sitting. And
if they satisfie the Elders, and the private assembly, (for
divers of the Church, both men and women, meet there
usually) that they are true beleevers, that they have beene
wounded in their hearts for their originaU sinne, and actuall
transgressions, and can pitch upon some promise of free
grace in the Scripture, for the ground of their faith, and
that they finde their hearts drawne to beleeve in Christ
Jesus, for their justification and salvation, and these in the
ministerie of the Word, [in] reading or [in] conference :
and that they know competently the summe of Christian
faith . . . Then afterwards . . . they shall be called forth
before the whole Church. . . .
Which done, the Elder turneth his speech to the party to
be admitted, and requireth him, or sometimes asketh him,
if he be willing to make knowne to the congregation the
work of grace upon his soule ; and biddeth him, as briefly,
and audibly, to as good hearing as he can, to doe the same.
Thereupon the party, if it be a man, speaketh himselfe ;
but if it be a woman, her confession made before the Elders,
in private, is most usually (in Boston Church) read by the
Pastor, who registred the same. . . .
The party having finished his Discourses of his confession,
and profession of his faith, the Elder againe speaketh to the
congregation : Brethren of the congregation, if what you
have heard of, from this party, doe not satisfie you, as to
move you to give him the right hand of felloivship, use your
liberty, and declare your mindes therein . . .
This done, sometimes they proceede to admit more mem
bers, all after the same manner, for the most part, two, three,
foure, or five, or more together, as they have time, spending
sometimes almost a whole afternoone therein. And then

No. 29]

Church Services

79

the Elder calleth all them, that are to be admitted, by
name, and rehearseth the covenant, on their parts, to them,
which they publiquely say, they doe promise, by the helpe
of God, to performe : And then the Elder, in the name of
the Church, promiseth the Churches part of the covenant,
to the new admitted members. So they are received, or
admitted. Theii they may receive the Sacrament of the Lords supper
with them, and their children bee baptized, but not before :
also till then they may not be free men of the Common
wealth, but being received in the Church they may. . . .

T

HE publique worship is in as faire a meeting house Commonly
as they can provide, wherein, in most places, they e"DenasVof
have beene at great charges. Every Sabbath or Lords day, the town.
they come together at Boston, by wringing of a bell, about
nine of the clock or before. The Pastor begins with solemn
prayer continuiug[-ing] about a quarter of an houre. The
Teacher then readeth and expoundeth a Chapter ; Then a
Psalme is sung, which ever one of the ruling Elders dictates.
After that the Pastor preacheth a Sermon, and sometimes
ex tempore exhorts. Then the Teacher concludes with
prayer, and a blessing.
Once a moneth is a Sacrament of the Lords Supper,
whereof notice is given usually a fortnight before, and then
all others departing save the Church, which is a great deale
lesse in number then [than] those that goe away, they re
ceive the Sacrament, the Ministers and ruling Elders sitting
at the Table, the rest in their seats, or upon forms : All
cannot see the Minister consecrating, unlesse they stand up,
and make a narrow shift. . . . Then a Psalme is sung, and
with a short hlessing the congregation is dismissed. . . .

Thomas Lechford, Plain Dealing: or, Newes from New-
England (London, 1642), 2-17 passim.

By William
ROH1NSON
and Mar
maduke
Stevenson
(1-1059). Rob
inson was a
merchant of
London,
Stevenson a
farmer from
Yorkshire. Both emi
grated to
Rhode Island
and came
therice to
Massachu
setts H iv,
where, upon
refusal to
submit to a
sentence of
banishment on pain of
death, they
were thrown
into prison
and nanged,
October 27,
1659. The
following let
ter, written in
prison just
before their
execution, is
typical of
those pro
ducer! by
New Eng
land Quakers
in that
pr-riod. — See
( oiitcmpora-
ries, 1, Nos.
140-142.
The Quakers
licliL-ve that
Christ con
tinues 10 re-
vt-.il Himself
lo individuals
and 10 ex
press Him-
H'if through
them.

80 Early Colonial Life [1659
30. A Quaker Warning (1659)
HEARKEN and give Ear, thou Town of Boston, lend
an Ear, O ye Rulers, Chief-Priests, and Inhabitants
thereof ! Listen all you that dwell therein, Rich and Poor,
Small and Great, High and Low, Bond and Free, of what
Sort soever, give Ear; be attentive to the Words of my
Mouth, which proceed from the Spirit of the Lord, and from
the Power of the Almighty within me.
I have often considered your Conditions, and your Actings
have often come into my Remembrance, which hath caused
me often to lament, because of the Hardness of your Hearts,
who do thus slight the Almighty, and requite the Most High :
Oh foolish and unwise ! Ye who do not regard the Lord that
made you, who hath often sent to you his Servants to give
you Warning of the mighty Day of the Lord of Hosts, of the
terrible Day of the Lord God Almighty, which draweth near,
it hastens apace . . . O ye Rulers and Chief- Priests, are ye
combining together? Are ye joined together? Are ye in
League together as the Rulers and Chief-Priests were in
former Ages? Consider their Ends, and consider what you
are doing : Are you so blind that you cannot see you are
persecuting the Saints of the Most High? You who are
seeking the Life of the . Righteous, and that nothing but
Blood will satisfy, Tlie Lord will give you Blood to drink, you
that thirst for it, you shall have enough of it ; you who spill
and drink the Blood of the Saints and Martyrs of Jesus, are
not your Brethren gone before you, in whose Steps you are
treading? And the Fruits of the Devil you are bringing
forth . . . And do you thus requite the Lord for his Loving-
kindness, to whip, to imprison, and cut off the Ears of his
Servants, that are sent unto you? Is this your preaching
forth of Christ? Are these your good Examples to others?
Come, let us reason together : Have you not lost natural

no. 30] A Quaker Warning 81
Affection? Have you not lost Tenderness and Compassion?.
Woe is me for thee ! Oh ! thou New-England, who hast
made such a Noise among the Nations: Is thy Religion
come to no more than whipping, imprisoning, burning in
the Hand, and cutting off Ears, and banishing upon Death ?
What will be the next Law that thou wilt make, O New-
England, against those whom thou scornfully callest Quakers?
Terming them, The cursed Sect of the Quakers. If they
were a cursed Sect, as thou hast termed them, it seems they
should be so for thee, and so die for thee : For thou hast
made a Law to put them to Death, if they come a second
Time within thy Borders. But I say, the Lord hath blessed
the People called Quakers, and they are blessed, and shall
be blessed for evermore. . . .
Oh ye Hypocrites ! How can you sing, and keep such a
Noise concerning Religion, when your Hands are full of
Blood, and your Hearts full of Iniquity? Wash you, make
you clean, put away the Evil of your Doings : Cease to do
Evil: Learn to do Good: Cleanse your Hands, you Sinners,
and your Hearts, you Hypocrites ; for your- Prayers are
Abomination to me, saith the Lord of Hosts : Your Singing
is as the Howling of a Dog in the Streets, such are the Songs
you sing in your Temple unto me, saith the Lord; my Spirit
is weary with hearing, and my Soul is vexed Day after Day
with your Abominations. Wo ! Wo ! to thee, thou Bloody
Town of Boston, and the rest that are confederate with
thee, and it thou canst not escape. Thou who hast shed
the Blood of the innocent People called Quakers, and
imprisoned and fined them, and taken away their Goods,
and they have become a Prey unto thee, for thee to exercise
thy Cruelty upon them, and thou boastest in thy Wickedness,
and thinkest, thou dost God good Service to hang and put to
Death the People called Quakers . . .
. . . But take heed, we warn you in the Name of the Lord
God, consider what you are going to do. In the Name of

A splendid
plea for
religious toleration.

82 Early Colonial Life [169a
the Lord God we demand that we may have Liberty for the
Exercise of our pure Consciences, within your Jurisdiction,
as well as other English-men, seeing that you cannot lay to
our Charge the Transgression of any Law of God, we being
Men that fear the Lord God of Heaven and Earth ; and we
come not for any Thing of yours, God is our Witness ; it is
not for any Thing that you have that we come for, for we
do not lack any outward Thing ; for many of us have both
Houses and Land of our own, and Silver also in Old-Eng
land, so that we seek not any Thing that you have . . .
In the Common Goal in the Bloody Town ^Boston.
William Robinson,

August, 1659, O.S.

From us who are in Scorn
called Quakers, who are
Sufferers under Zion\t
Oppressors, the Sixth
Month 1659.

Marmaduke Stevenson.

Joseph Besse, A Collection of the Sufferings of the People called
Quakers (London, 1753), II, 238-247 passim.

By Rev
erend
Cotton Mather
(1663-1728).
a prominent
Boston min
ister, perhaps
the most
learned colo-
nisl of his
time, and the
author of 382
volumes. In
spite of his
learning, he
was vain and
ill-balanced
and shared.
in ihe super
stitions of his
day. He was

31. A Witch Trial (1692)
Q VSANNA MARTIN, pleading Not Guilty to the
* vj Indictment of Witchcraft, brought in against her,
there were produced the Evidences of many Persons very
sensibly and grievously Bewitched ; who all complained of
the Prisoner at the Bar, as the Person whom they believed
the cause "of their Miseries. And now, as well as in the
other Trials, there was an extraordinary Endeavour by
1 Fife he rafts, with Cruel and frequent Fits, to hinder the
poor Sufferers from giving in their Complaints, which the
Court was forced with much Patience to obtain, by much
waiting and watching for it.

No. 31]

A Witch Trial

83

II. There was now also an account given of what passed
at her first Examination before the Magistrates. The Cast
of her Eye, then striking the afflicted People to the Ground,
whether they saw that Cast or no ; there were these among
other Passages between the Magistrates and the Examinate.
Magistrate. Pray, what ails these People?
Martin. I don't know.
Magistrate. But what do you think ails them ?
Martin. I don't desire to spend my Judgment upon it
Magistrate. Don't you think they are bewitch'd?
Martin. No, I do not think they are.
Magistrate. Tell us your Thoughts about them then.
Martin. No, my thoughts are my own, when they are in,
but when they are out they are anothers. Their Master. —
Magistrate. Their Master? who do you think is their
Master? Martin. If they be dealing in the Black Art, you may
know as well as I.
Magistrate. Well, what have you done towards this?
Martin. Nothing at all.
Magistrate. Why, 'tis you or your Appearance.
Martin. I cannot help it.
Magist. Is it not your Master ? How comes your Appear
ance to hurt these ?
Martin. How do I know? He that appeared in the
Shape of Samuel, a glorified Saint, may appear in any ones
Shape. It was then also noted in her, as in others like her, that
if the Afflicted went to approach her, they were flung down
to the Ground. And, when she was asked the Reason of
it, she said, 1 cannot tell; it may be, the Devil bears me
more Malice than another. . . .
VIIL William Brown testifi'd, That Heaven having
blessed him with a most Pious and Prudent Wife, this Wife
of his, one day met with Susanna Martin; but when she

one of the
most active
leaders in the
witchcraftpersecutions.— For Ma
ther, see Old
South Leaf
lets, No. 67;
Contempora
ries, I,
No. 148 ;
II, No. 92.—
The witch
craft delusion
swept over
all the civil
ized world.
and caused
unmeasured cruelty and
woe ; it ap
peared in
some of the
other colo
nies, and in
New Eng
land ran a
brief course,
and was far
less barbar
ous than in
England at
the same
period. Su
sanna Martin
was finally
executed.
— For witch
craft, see
Contempora
ries, II,
Nos. 16-18.
The convul
sions of
people who
were frantic
with fear are
here ac
cepted as
legal evi
dence. Examinate =
the person
examined.

It seems in
credible that
such gossip
should be
admitted as
testimony.

84 Early Colonial Life [169a
approach'd just unto her, Martin vanished out of sight,
and left her extreamly affrighted. After which time, the
said Martin, often appear'd unto her, giving her no little
trouble ; and when she did come, she was visited with
Birds, that sorely peck'd and prick'd her ; and sometimes,
a Bunch, like a Pullet's Egg, would rise in her Throat, ready
to choak her, till she cry'd out, Witch, you shan't choak me !
While this good Woman was in this extremity, the Church
appointed a Day of Prayer, on her behalf; whereupon her
Trouble ceas'd ; she saw not Martin as formerly ; and the
Church, instead of their Fast, gave Thanks for her Deliver
ance. But a considerable while after, she being Summoned
to give in some Evidence at the Court, against this Martin,
quickly thereupon, this Martin came behind her, while she
was milking her Cow, and said unto her, For thy defaming
fur [me] at Court, I'll make thee the miserablest Creature
in the World. Soon after which, she fell into a strange kind
of distemper, and became horribly frantick, and uncapable
of any reasonable Action; the Physicians declaring, that
her Distemper was preternatural, and that some Devil had
certainly bewitched her; and in that condition she now
remained. ...
XII. But besides all of these Evidences, there was a
most wonderful Account of one Joseph Ring, produced on
this occasion.
This Man has been strangely carried about by Damons,
from one Witch-meeting to another, for near two years
together ; and for one quarter of this time, they have made
him, and keep him Dumb, tho* he is now again able to
speak. . . .
. . . When he was brought unto these hellish Meetings,
one of the first Things they still did unto him, was to give
him a knock on the Back, whereupon he was ever as if
bound with Chains, uncapable of stirring out of the place,
till they should release him. He related, that there often

No. 32]

A Dutch Town

»S

would have him set his Hand ; promising to him, that he
should then have even what he would ; and presenting him

came to him a Man, who presented him a Book, whereto he One of the
most fre
quent of the
fancied cere-
with all the delectable Things, Persons and Places, that he
could imagin [e]. But he refusing to subscribe, the busi
ness would end with dreadful Shapes, Noises and Screeches,
which almost scared him out of his Wits. Once with the
Book, there was a Pen offered him, and an Ink-horn with
Liquor in it, that seemed like Blood : But he never
toucht it.
This Man did now affirm, That he saw the Prisoner at
several of those hellish Randezvouzes.

Cotton Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World: being an
Account of the Tryals of Several Witches, lately Ex[e]cnted
in New-England (first London edition, 1693), 70-76 passim.

32. Life in New York (i 647-1 658)
WHEREAS we have experienced the insolence of
some of our inhabitants, when drunk, their quar
relling, fighting and hitting each other even on the Lords
day of rest, of which we have ourselves witnessed the pain
ful example last Sunday in contravention of law, to the
contempt and disgrace of our person and office, to the
annoyance of our neighbors and to the disregard, nay con
tempt of Gods holy laws and ordinances, which command
us, to keep holy in His honor His day of rest, the Sabbath,
and forbid all bodily injury and murder, as well as the means
and inducements, leading thereto, —
Therefore, by the advice of the late Director General and
of our Council and to the end, that instead of Gods curse
falling upon us we may receive hii blessing, we charge,

From the
Ordi nances of
New Am
sterdam.
These enact
ments, ex
tending over
the fourteen
years 1647-
1661, present
a most.
graphic pic
ture of im
portant as
pects of early
New York
life. — See
above, No.
16; Old South
Leaflets. No. 69; Con
temporaries, I, chs. xxii,
xxiii.

The govern
ing body of
the colony till
the English
occupation in
1664.Fort Amster
dam was
situated at
the foot of
BowlingGreen.

About a
pound ster
ling — a
heavy fine.

86 Early Colonial Life [1647-1658
enjoin and order herewith principally all brewers, tapsters
and innkeepers, that none of them shall upon the Lords
day of rest, by us called Sunday, entertain people, tap or
draw any wine, beer or strong waters of any kind and under
any pretext before 2 of the clock, in case there is no preach
ing or else before 4, except only to a traveller and those
who are daily customers, fetching the drinks to their own
homes, — this under the penalty of being deprived of their
occupation . . .
Whereas the Honbl* [Honorable] Director General and
Council of New Netherland daily see, that the goats and
hogs here are doing great damage in orchards, gardens
and other places around Fort Amsterdam, which not only
prevents the cultivation of fine orchards and the improve
ment of lots, but is also an injury to many private parties, —
Therefore wishing to remedy it, the Director General and
Council order, that henceforth no hogs or goats shall be
pastured or kept between Fort New Amsterdam and its
vicinity and the Fresh Water, unless within the fences of the
owners, so made, that the goats cannot jump over and dam
age any one. . . .
We have learned by experience, that on New Years, Day
and Mayday the firing of guns, the planting of Maypoles
and the intemperate drinking cause, besides the useless
waste of powder, much drunkenness and other insolent
practices with sad accidents of bodily injury[ ;] and to
prevent this in the future the Director General and Council
strictly forbid within the Province of New Netherland, the
firing of guns on New Years and Mayday, the planting of
Maypoles, the noisy beating of drums and the treating with
wine, brandy or beer[ ;] and they do so, to prevent further
mishaps, under a fine of 12 fl. [florins] for the first time.
double the amount for the second time and arbitrary cor
rection for the third offense, to be divided \ to the officer,
\ to the poor and £ f_>r the informer. . . .

No. 3a]

A Dutch Town

87

The Director General and Council hereby not only warn
their good subjects, but also order, that they shall move
closer together in villages, neighborhoods and hamlet[s]
during the coming spring, that they may be better protected
against attacks and surprises by the savages through their
own efforts and through the faithful soldiery of the Director
General and Council. All those, who contrary to this order
shall remain living on their isolated plantations, do so at
their own peril without assistance in the time of need from
the Director General and Council; they shall also yearly
pay a fine of 25 fl. for the public benefit. It is also ordered,
in order to prevent sudden conflagrations, that henceforth
no house shall be roofed with straw or reeds and no chim
ney be made of shingles or wood. ...
The Director General and Council, have credibly been
informed, that not only conventicles and meetings are held
here and there in this Province, but that also unqualified
persons presume in such meetings to act as teachers in
interpreting and expounding God's holy Word without ec
clesiastical or temporal authority. This is contrary to the
general political and ecclesiastical rules of our Fatherland
and besides such gatherings lead to troubles, heresies and
schisms. Therefore to prevent this the Director General
and Council strictly forbid all such public or private con
venticles and meetings, except the usual and authorized
ones, where Gods reformed and ordained Word is preached
and taught in a meeting for the reformed divine service
conformable] to the Synod of Dort and followed here as
well as in the Fatherland and other reformed churches of
Europe, under a fine of 100 pounds Flemish to be paid by
all, who in such public or private meetings, except the usual
authorized gatherings . . . presume to exercise without due
qualification the duties of a preacher, reader or precentor and
each man or woman, married or unmarried, who are found
at such a meeting, shaU pay a fine of 25 pounds. . . .

This edict
had little or
no effect.

Like the
" prophecy-
ings " de
scribedabove, No. 14.

A synod con
vened at Dort
in the Nether
lands, in
1618A19, to
settle points
of faith in the
ReformedChurch of the
Netherlands.
One pound
Flemish =
6 fl. or $2-40.

Mayor and
assistants, or
councilmen.

These places
were all near
the water
front. The
City Hall
siood in what
is now Pearl
Street ;
Litsco, or
Litschoe,
kept the old
tavern at the
east end of
Wall Street

Bv Robert
Holden.
This is an
official report
to the com
missioners of
customs from
one of the
royal col
lectors in the
colonies.The trarte of
the colonies
was by law
confinedpretty closely
to direct com
merce with
England, in
English Or
colonial ves
sels, but there
was much

88 Early Colonial Life [i679
It has been found, that within this City of Amsterdam in
N. N. [New Netherland] many burghers and inhabitants
throw their rubbish,, filth, ashes, dead animals and such like
things into the public streets to the great inconvenience of
the community and dangers arising from it. Therefore the
Burgomasters and Schepens ordain and direct, that hence
forth no one shall be allowed to throw into the streets or
into the graft [canal] any rubbish, filth, ashes, oyster-shells,
dead animal or anything like it, but they shall bring all such
things to the to them most convenient of the following places,
to wit the Strand, near the City hall, near the gallows, near
Hendrick the baker, near Daniel Litsco, where tokens to
that effect shall be displayed, but not on the public streets
under a penalty of 3 fl. for the first offence, 6 fl. for the
second and arbitrary punishment for the third. . . .
Berthold Fernow, editor and translator, The Records of New
Amsterdam (New York, 1897), I, 1-31 passim.

33. The Trade of the Colonies (1679)

H

AVEING met with divers informations tend
ing to my place there [Albemarle County,
Carolina] & the frauds used by the traders here [Boston]
about Tobacco transported thence to this place and else
where, It is my duty (& ^ [by] the greatest injunctive tie
devised) to give information of all affaires thereunto relating
as also ^ [by] severall articles in my Instructions [I am]
required in such negociations to serve the King faithfully in
ye misdemeanours of his subjects about the defrauding of
customes &c. The subwritten accompt of such affaires in
[is] here inserted.
About I dozen traders of this place with their [accom
plices receive the greatest part of the production of tobacco

No. 33]

Trad<

89

in the County of Albemarle in the Province of Carolina an
nually & $ [by means of] a person whom through their
interest wth the people [they] have factiously made [ — ] one
Mr Culpeper (a Gentleman I Know not) [ — ] the Collector
of his Ma*'' Customes, by which meanes they & he have
played such notorious pranks with the specious pretences
of doing justice and preserving the King's rights that a
people and Customes . . . were never more infatuated,
cheated and exhausted ... in these parts of New Eng
land ...
And as the Tobacco trade [current i.e. now going on]
causeth their concourse thither[;] & their wayes to leniate
[lessen] ye impost (which the other subjects of the King
pay), resteth [stoppeth] not there, for from thence [such
ways are] brought hither, they have liberty without farther
examination here to carry the same to Ireland, Holland,
France, Spain or any other place[,] under the notion [name]
of fish and such Uke goods[,] by which the trade is so
diverted from the true rules of Commerce that trafique in
this Western world must be monopolized in this Commodity
only to New England [,]& the rest of His Majesty's people
so trading must become Bostoniz'd or relinquish dealing if
speciall care is not had thereto & a settlement of Customes
[made] here with the King's Officers.
That the Canary trade in like nature is carried on : Ships
from hence go thither & load wines, touch at Maderas or
some other of the Western Islands & there take about a tun
of their wines which they put in the hatchway coming home ;
From whence your ship? From Maderas, with their lading
Wines, & so draw off the upper Caskes for a taste & so the
whole ship under this notion is unladed without further
enquiry. I was told this by one who sa[i]led in a ship that
practised it.
That the Scotish Trade by the like Legerdemain jugles
[tricks] is driven. A ship at Newcastle Berwick Poole &c.

open smug
gling.— See
Contempora
ries, I, ch.
vii, and Nos.
83. 88. 150,
151 ; II, ch.
xiii. During the
early period
there was a
very active
tradebetween Massachu
setts and the
Carolinas.Sons of the
planters were
educated in
the Northern
provinces,
and there
was much
intermarry
ing.

Trade to
the Canary
Islands (Spanish).
It was a re
fusal of the
revenue offi
cers to sanc
tion such a
proceedingwhich led to
the seizure of
John Han
cock's sloop
" Liberty," in
June, 1768.

At this time
Scotland was
still a sepa
rate kingdom
from Eng
land.

A very early
example of
direct trade
with the
IndianOcean.

See above,
No. 34.

90 Early Colonial Life [1679
toucheth taketh in coals or some slight goods, goes for Scot
land and there receives great quantities of linen & other
Scotish goods what they think best to bring & coming here
by her English clearings at the Ports ike. abovesaid passeth
for current without farther inquisition.
The French, Spanish & what Country else European trade
in Uke nature passeth home under the pretence of French
or Spanish salt &c. by which from France they import all
that Country wares[,] as Linen, Wines, Rubans [ribbons],
Silks &c. from Spaine wiries, fruits, oyle [oil ;] Portugall the
Uke goods &c. from hence transport as aforesd [aforesaid]
under the notion of fish to all these places what will turn to
account. Here is just now a ship returned from Madagascar[ ;] by
the way put severall Negroes on shore at Jamaica, she
touched I hear at severall parts of East India & besides
hath brought Elephant teeth where she got them knows not
[is not known], she hath been a year & ^ out. . . .
For my part I have thought this my duty both to my King
& yourselves[,] in that place [which] (under your favor) I
enjoy, to advise that these irregular courses may be pre
vented & care taken as your wisdomes herein may appoint,
without which not only many of His Ma*7'' Liege People will
be oppressed ; But my Masters the Lords Proprietors of the
County of Albemarle in the County of Carolina will through
their interest of trade there be kept in faction & Rebellion
as now it is and for severall yeare hath been & they [are]
the cause wholy that their Lordships government cannot
take place.
I shall omitt no time nor paines in the execution of my
office according to my capacity & wholy follow your Instruc
tions and Orders & indeavour to regulate [matters] within my
power & by all opportunities give advice of all occurrences.
William L. Saunders, editor, The Colonial Records of North
Carolina (Raleigh, 1886), I, 244-246 passim.

no. 34] Southern Plantations 91

34. Plantation Life in Virginia (1648)
THE Governor Sir William, caused half a bushel of
Rice (which he had procured) to be sowen [sown],
and it prospered gaUantly, and he had fifteen bushhels of it,
excellent good Rice, so that all these fifteen bushels will be
sowen again this yeer ; and we doubt not in a short time to
have Rice so plentiful as to afford it at 2d a pound if not
cheaper, for we perceive the ground and Climate is very
proper for it as our Negroes affirme, which in their Country
is most of their food, and very healthful for our bodies.
We have many thousand of Acres of cleer Land, I mean
where the wood is all off it (for you must know all Virginia
is full of trees) and we have now going neer upon a hun
dred and fifty Plowes, with many brave yoak of Oxen, and
we sowe excellent Wheat, Barley, Rye, Beans, Pease, Oates ;
and pur increase is wonderful, and better Grain not in the
world. One Captain Brocas, a Gentleman of the Counsel, a great
Traveller, caused a Vineyard to be planted, and hath most
excellent Wine made, and the Country, he saith, [is] as
proper for Vines as any in Christendome, Vines indeed
naturally growing over all the Country in abundance : only
skilful men [are] wanting here. . . .
Worthy Captaine Matthews, an old Planter of above
thirty yeers standing, one of the CounseU, and a most de
serving Common-wealths-man, I may not omit to let you
know this Gentlemans industry.
He hath a fine house, and all things answerable to it ; he
sowes yeerly store of Hempe and Flax, and causes it to be
spun ; he keeps Weavers, and hath a 7'an-house, causes
Leather to be dressed, hath eight Shoemakers employed in
their trade, hath forty Negroe servants, brings them up to
7rades in his house : He yeerly sowes abundance of Wheat,

Anony mous. From
a letter writ
ten in 1648,
and ap
pended fo a
descriptionof Virginia
sent to Eng
land "at the
request of a
gentleman of
worthy note,
who desired
to know the
true state of
Virginia as it
now stands."
— For the life
of a Southern
planter, see
Contempora
ries, I, Nos.
61,87,88; II,
Nos. 82, 83,
108.
"Sir Wil
liam "=Sir
William Berkeley.
The Caro
linas later.
came to su
persede Vir
ginia as a
rice-produc ing district
The woods
were cut by
the settlers.
A striking
example of
the Southern
planter, who
produced the
necessaries for his own
plantation.

See Gov
ernor Berke
ley's report
of 1671, in
which he
states that
there are no
free schools
in Virginia,
but that the
system is that
followed in
England,
where every
man in
structs his
children ac
cording to his
ability (Con
temporaries, I, No. 70).

92 Early Colonial Life [1667-1680
Barley, &c, 7Tie Wheat he seUeth at four shillings the
bushell; kills store of Beeves, and seUs them to victuaU
the ships when they come thither : hath abundance of Kine,
a brave Dairy, Swine great store, and Poltery [poultry] ;
he married the Daughter of Sir Tho. Hinton, and in a word,
keeps a good house, lives bravely, and [is] a true lover of
Virginia ; he is worthy of much hononr[-our].
Our Spring begins the tenth of February, the trees bud,
the grasse springs, and our Autume and fall of Leafe is in
November, our Winter short, and most yeers very gentle,
Snow lies but little, yet Yce [ice] some yeers.
I may not forget to tell you we have a Free-Schoole,
with two hundred Acres of Land, a fine house upon it, forty
milch Kine, and other accommodations to it: the Bene
factor deserves perpetuall memory ; his name Mr. Benjamin
Symes, worthy to be Chronicled ; other petty Schools also
we have.
We have most rare coloured Parraketoes [parroquets],
and one Bird we call the ^/bck-bird ; for he will imitate all
other Birds notes, and cries [like] both day and night-
birds, yea, the Owles and Nightingalls.
A Perfect Description of Virginia : being a full and true Rela
tion of the present State of the Plantation '. . . (London,
1649), 14-16 passim.

By the Vir
ginia As
sembly. In the other
Southerncoloniesthere was
very little
legislation on
the subject
of slavery
until the next
century. The

35. Slavery in Virginia (1 667-1 680)

A

N act declaring that baptisme of slaves doth not ex
empt themfrom bondage.
WHEREAS some doubts have risen whether children
that are slaves by birth, and by the charity and piety of their
owners made pertakers of the blessed sacrament of bap
tisme, should by vertue of their baptisme be made ffree ;

no. 35] Slavery in Virginia 93
// is enacted and declared by this grand assembly, and the
authority thereof, that the conferring of baptisme doth not
alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or ffree-
dome ; that diverse masters, ffreed from this doubt, may
more carefully endeavour the propagation of Christianity
by permitting children, though slaves, or those of greater
growth if capable to be admitted to that sacrament. . . .
About Runawayes.
WHEREAS it hath been questioned whether servants
running away may be punished with corporall punishment by
their master or magistrate since the act already made gives
the master satisfaction by prolonging their time by [of]
service, // is declared and enacted by this assembly that mod
erate corporall punishment inflicted by master or magistrate
upon a runaway servant, shall not deprive the master of the
satisfaction allowed by the law, the one being as necessary
to reclayme them from persisting in that idle course, as the
other is just to repaire the damages susteyned by the mas
ter. . . . Negro women not exempted from tax.
WHEREAS some doubts, have arisen whether negro
women set free were still to be accompted tithable according
to a former act, // is declared by this grand assembly that
negro women, though permitted to enjoy their ffreedome yet
ought not in all respects to be admitted to a full fruition of
the exemptions and impunities [immunities] of the English,
and are still lyable to payment of taxes. . . .
An act about the casuall killing of slaves.
WHEREAS the only law in force for the punishment of
refractory servants resisting their master, mistris or overseer
cannot be inflicted upon negroes, nor the obstinacy of many

extracts here
g'ven are
irly typical
for all the
Southerncolonies dur
ing the colo
nial period ;
except that
in South
Carolina,where the
blacks out
numbered
the whites
and insur
rections were
proportion ally more to
be feared,
the slave
code was in
some re
spects more
stringent.These stat
utes are also
typical of the
usual form
of colonial
laws. — For
colonial slav
ery, see Con
temporaries, I, Nos. 86,
87; II. ch.
xvi ; for the
later phases
of slavery,
Contempora
ries, III.
The act
about runa
ways applies
to white in
dentured servants; the
runaway might be
both flogged
and de
tained. — See
Contempora
ries, 11, No.
105.

1

The act
concerning negro women
is an early
statement of
the inferior
legal position
of free
negroes. Experiencebelted this
belief that
angry mas
ters would
not destroy
their own
property.

94 Early Colonial Life [1667-1680
of them by other then [than] violent meanes supprest, Be it
enacted and declared by this grand assembly, if any slave re
sist his master (or other by his masters order correcting him)
and by the extremity of the correction should chance to die,
that his death shall not be accompted ffelony, but the mas
ter (or that other person appointed by the master to punish
him) be acquit from molestation, since it cannot be pre
sumed that prepensed malice (which alone makes murther
ffelony) should induce any man to destroy his owne es
tate. . . .
Noe Negroes nor Indians to buy christian servants.
in the nine- WHEREAS it hath beene questioned whither [whether]
'""'there" Indians or negroes manumited, or otherwise free, could be
were cases of capable of purchasing christian servants, It is enacted that
hofd°rs!aVe" noe negroe or Indian though baptised and enjoyned their
owne ffreedome shall be capable of any such purchase of
christians, but yet not debarred from buying any of their
owne nation. . . .

An act assertaining the time when Negroe Children shall
be iythable.
WHEREAS it is deemed too hard and severe that chil
dren (as well christians as slaves) imported into this colony
should be lyable to taxes before they are capable of working,
Bee it enacted by the kings most excellent majestie . . . that
all negroe children imported or to be imported into this colony
shall within three months after the publication of this law or
after their arrivall be brought to the county court, where there
age shalbe adjudged of by the justices holding court, and put
upon record, which said negroe, or other slave soe brought
to court, adjudged and recorded shall not be accompted
tythable untill he attaines the age of twelve yeares, any former
law, usuage, or custome to the contrary notwithstanding. . . .

.Tythable =
taxable. The
hardshiphere sug
gested is that
plantersshould have
to pay taxes.

no. 35] Slavery in Virginia 95

An act for preventing Negroes Insurrections.
WHEREAS the frequent meeting of considerable num
bers of negroe slaves under pretence of feasts and burialls is
judged of dangerous consequence ; for prevention whereof
for the future, Bee it enacted by the kings most excellent
majestie by and with the consent of the generall assembly, and
it is hereby enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from and
after the publication of this law, it shall not be lawfull for
any negroe or other slave to carry or arme himselfe with
any club, staffe, gunn, sword or any other weapon of defence
or offence, nor to goe or depart from of[f] his masters
ground without a certificate from his master, mistris or over
seer, and such permission not to be granted but upon pertic
uler and necessary occasions ; and every negroe or slave soe
offending not haveing a certificate as aforesaid shalbe sent
to the next constable, who is hereby enjoyned and required
to give the said negroe twenty lashes on his bare back weU
layd on, and soe sent home to his said master, mistris or
overseer. And it is further, enacted by the authority afore
said that if any negroe or other slave shall presume to lift
up his hand in opposition against any christian, [he] shall
for every such offence, upon due proofs made thereof by the
oath of the party before a magistrate, have and receive
thirty lashes on his bare back well laid on. And it is hereby
further enacted by the authority aforesaid that if any negroe
or other slave shall absent himself from his masters service
and lye hid and lurking in obscure places, comitting in
juries to the inhabitants, and shall resist any person or
persons that shalby any lawfull authority be imployed to ap
prehend and take the said negroe, that then in case of such
resistance, it shalbe lawfull for such person or persons to loll
the said negroe or slave soe lying out and resisting . . .
William Waller Henirig, The Statutes at Large . . of Virginia
(New York, 1823), II, 260-482 passim.

This statute
marks one of
the great
dangers of
slavery ;
there were
many insur
rections in
colonial
times, espe
cially the so-
called " New
York slave
plot "of 1741.

Bv Henrv
Sieur de
Ton ty,
(1650-1704),
an. Italian,
who accom
panied La
Salle on
many of his
journeys. His Memoir,
published in
1693, is re
gal ded by
Parkman as
excellent
authority,though a spu
rious edition
was pub
lished in his
name in 1697.
— For Mis
sissippi dis
coveries and
explorations,see Contem
poraries, I,
ch. v.; II,
ch. xvii.
Grenade =
a bomb
thrown by the
hand. Michili-makinac =
Machinaw,
or Machinac,
near the
strait con-
nectingLakesMichigan
and Huron.
MiainisRiver, near

CHAPTER VI — RIVALS FOR EMPIRE
36. La Salle on the Mississippi ( 1 6 8 1 - 1 6 8 2 )
AFTER having been eight years in the French service,
by land and by sea, and having had a hand shot off
in Sicily by a grenade, I resolved to return to France to
solicit employment. At that time [1678] the late M.
Cavelier de la Salle came to Court, a man of great in
telligence and merit, who sought to obtain leave to discover
the Gulf of Mexico by crossing the southern countries of
North America. ... the late Monseigneur the Prince
Conty . . . directed me to him to be allowed to accom
pany him in his long journeys, which he very willingly
assented to. ... .
. . . We arrived at Michilimakinac about the fSte Dieu
in October [1681]. ... At the Miamis River I assembled
some Frenchmen and savages for the voyage of discovery,
and M. de la Salle joined us in October. We went in
canoes to the River Chicagou, where there is a portage
which joins that of the Illinois. The rivers being frozen,
we made sledges and dragged our baggage thirty leagues
below the village of Illinois, where, finding the navigation
open, we arrived at the end of January at the great River
Mississippi. The distance from Chicagou was estimated at
140 leagues. We descended the river, and found, six
leagues below, on the right, a great river, which comes
from the west, on which there are numerous nations. We
slept at its mouth. The next day we went on to the village
of Tamarous, six leagues off on the left. There was no one
there, all the people being at their winter quarters in the
96

No. 36]

La Salle

97

woods. We made marks to inform the savages that we had
passed, and continued our route as far as the River Oua-
bache, which is eighty leagues from that of Illinois. It
comes from the east, and is more than 500 leagues in
length. It is by this river that the Iroquois advance to
make war against the nations of the south. . . .
. . . The savages having been informed that we were
coming down the river, came in their canoes to look for
us. We made them land, and sent two Frenchmen as host
ages to their village ; the chief visited us with the calumet,
and we went to the savages. They regaled us with the best
they had, and after having danced the calumet to M. de la
Salle, they conducted us to their village ... M. de la
Salle erected the arms of the King there ; they have cabins
made with the bark of cedar ; they have no other worship
than the adoration of all sorts of animals. Their country is
very beautiful, having abundance of peach, plum and apple
trees, and vines flourish there ; buffaloes, deer, stags, bears,
turkeys, are very numerous. They have even domestic
fowls. They have very little snow during the winter, and
the ice is not thicker than a dollar. They gave us guides
to conduct us to their allies, the Taencas, six leagues distant.
The first day we began to see and to kill alligators, which
are numerous and from 15 to 20 feet long. . . .
... We departed thence on Good Friday, and after a
voyage of 20 leagues, encamped at the mouth of a large
river, which runs from the west: We continued our jour
ney, and crossed a great canal, which went towards the sea
on the right. Thirty leagues further on we saw some fisher
men on the bank of the river, and sent to reconnoitre them.
It was the village of the Quinipissas, who let fly their arrows
upon our men, who retired in consequence. As M. de la
Salle would not fight against any nation, he made us em
bark. . . . We proceeded on our course, and after sailing
40 leagues, arrived at the sea 0:1 the 7th of April, 1682.

Toledo.Ohio.
Chicagou =
Chicago. -
This portage
forms the
route of the
Hennepin
Canal. "Great river"
from the west
= the
Missouri.
Tamarous,one ot the
tribes form
ing the con
federation of
the Illinois.
Ouabache =
the Ohio.
Calumet «=
peace-pipe.

On the west
bank, near
St. Joseph.
March, 1683.
Red River.
A bayou.

In what is
now St.
Charles
Conntv, on
the left bank,
not far above
New Orleans.

98 French and English [1704
M. de la Salle sent canoes to inspect the channels ; some
of them went to the channel on the right hand, some to the
left, and M. de la Salle chose the centre. In the evening
each made his report, that is to say, that the channels were
very fine, wide, and deep. We encamped on the right
bank, we erected the arms of the King, and returned sev
eral times to inspect the channels* The same report was
made. This river is 800 leagues long, without rapids, 400
Minnesota, from the country of the Scioux, and 400 from the mouth of
the Illinois river to the sea. The banks are almost unin
habitable, on account of the spring floods. The woods are
all those of a boggy district, the country one of canes' and
briars and of trees torn up by the roots ; but a league or
two from the river, the most beautiful country in the world,
prairies, woods of mulberry trees, vines, and fruits that we
were not acquainted with. . . .
[Henry] Sieur de Tonty, Memoir, in B. F. French, Historical
Collections of Louisiana (New York, 1846), Part I, 52-63
passim.

Anonymous. From
a contempo
rary manu
script
accountfound among
the papers
of Kitz-John
Winthrop,
governor of
Connecticut
from 1698
to 1707. It
is evidently
an official
report writ
ten on the
spot, and is
an excellent

37. Destruction of Deerfield (1704)
UPON y° day of ye date above sd [said] about 2 hours
before day y" French & -Indian Enemy made an
attaque upon Derefield, entering ye Fort with Little discov
ery (though it is sd ye watch shot of[f] a gun & cryed Arm,
wcl> verry few heard) imeadiately set upon breaking open
doors & windows, took yc watch & others Captive & had ylr
[their], men appointed to Lead ym [them] away, others im
proved [the time] in Rifleing houses of provissions, money,
cloathing, drink, & packing up & sending [them] away; the
greatest part standing to their Arms, fireing houses, & killing
all they could y' [that] made any resistance ; alsoe killing

no. 37] Destruction of Deerfield 99
cattle, hogs, sheep & sakeing [sacking] & wasting all that
came before ym, Except some persons that Escaped in y*
Crowds, some by Leaping out at windows & over ye fortifi
cations. Some ran to Capt. Well[s] his Garrison, & some
to Hatfield with Litle or no cloathing on, & barefooted, w*
with ye bitterness of ye season caused yro to come of[f ] wa
frozen feete, & Lye Lame [because] of ym. One house, viz,
Benoni Stebbins, they attaqued Later than some others,
y' [so that] those in it were well awakened, being 7 men,
besides woemen and children, who stood stoutly to yb [their]
Armes, firing upon ye Enemy & ye Enemy upon ym, causing
sev" [several] of the Enemy to fall, of w** was one french
man, a Gentile man to appearance. Y* Enemy gave back,
they strove to fire ye house, our men killed 3 or 4 Indians
in their attempt, ye Enemy being numerous about ye house,
powered [poured] much shot upon the house ; ye walls being
filled up with brick, ye force of ye shot was repelled, yet they
killed sayd [said] Stebbins, & wounded one man & one
woeman, of wch ye survive' [survivors] made no discovery to
yc Assailants, but with more than ordinary Couridge [cour
age] kept fireing, haveing powder & Ball sufficient in sd
house; y* Enemy betook ymselves to the next house &
ye Meeting house, both of wch [were] but about 8 rod dis
tant, or [our] men yet plyed their business & accepting of
no qr [quarter], though offered by ye Enemy, nor [willing
to] Capitulate,[;] but by [their] guns, giveing little or no
Respite from y' tyme they began ([they] say some of y'
men in ye house shot 40 tymes, & had fair shots at y* Enemy
all the while) about an hour before day till y« Sun [was]
about one hour & half high, at wch tyme they were almost
spent; yet at the verry pintch [pinch], ready to yield[,] .
or men from Hadley & Hatfield about Jb men, rushed in
upon ye Enemy & made a shot upon them, at wch they
Quitted their Assaileing ye house & y" Fort alsoe ; the house
at Libertie, woemen & children ran to Cap" Wells his fort,

example of
the homely
style of the
Puritan
yeoman.At that time
there was no
settled usage
as to spelling.
The Deer
field massa
cre, Feb. 39,
1704, was the
most noted
of several
similarforays, for
another of
which see
Contempora
ries, 11,
No. 117. —
For inter
colonial
wars, see
Contempora
ries. II,
ch. xix.
War had.
broken out
between France and
England in
170a.

Quarter =
surrender on
promise of
safety.

Hatfield was
12 miles
away.

Conduct =
leadership.

Those of the
captives who
survived were
taken to Can
ada. — For
a narrative of
another cap
tivity, see
Contempora
ries, I,
No. 147.

100 French and English [1749
the men wth ours still p'rsued the Enemy, all of them vigor
ously, causing many of y* Enemy to fall, yet being but about
40 men p'rsued to[o] farr, imprudently, not altogether for
want of conduct, for Capt. Wells, who had led them, called
for a retreate, which they Litle mynded, ye Enemy discov-
iring their numbe' [numbers] haveing ambushm" of men,
caused or men to give back, though to[o] Late, being a Mile
from ye Fort ; in yb [their] drawing of [f ] & at y« Fort [we]
Lost 11 of or men, viz, Sergt Benj Waite, Sergt Sam" Bolt-
wood, & his son Rob' Boltwood, Sam11 Foot, Samu AUiss,
Nath1 Warner, jonth Ingram, Thomas Selding, David Hoite,
Jos Ingersoll, & Jos Catlin, & after or men recovered the
Fort againe, the Enemy drew of [f], haveing at sd house &
in ye ingagm" (as is Judge[d] by ye best calculation we can
come at) Lost about 50 men, & 12 or 15 wounded (as o'ur
captive says) wch they carried of[f ], & is thought they will
not see Canada againe (& sd Captive escaped says) they,
viz, the Enemy, went 6 mile that night . . .
George Sheldon, Pocumtuck — A History of Deerfield, Massa
chusetts (Deerfield, 1895), I, 302-303.

No. 38]

The Fur Trade

101

By Profes
sor Peter
Kalm (17 15-1779).
a Swedish
botanist, who
travelled in
Pennsylva
nia, New
York, and
C in^da from
1748 to 1751.
The piece is
a good ex
ample of the
shrewd and
careful ob
servations of
an educated

38. The French Trade with the Indians
(i749)

ryEPTEMBER the 22d [1749]- The French in
/ \ Canada carry on a great trade with the Indians . . .
The Indians in this neighbourhood, who go hunting
in winter like the other Indian nations, commonly bring
their furs and skins to sale in the neighbouring French
towns; however this is not sufficient. The Indians who
live at a greater distance, never come to Canada at all ;
and, lest they should bring their goods to the English, as

the English go to them, the French are obliged to under
take journies, and purchase the Indian goods in the coun
try of the Indians. This trade is chiefly carried on at
Montreal, and a great number of young and old men every
year, undertake long and troublesome voyages for that
purpose, carrying with them such goods as they know the
Indians Uke, and are in want of. . . .
I will now enumerate the chief goods which the French
carry with them for this trade, and which have a good run
among the Indians.
Muskets, Powder, Shot, and Balls. The Europeans have
taught the Indians in their neighbourhood the use of fire
arms, and they have laid aside their bows and arrows, which
were formerly their only arms, and make use of muskets.
If the Europeans should now refuse to supply the Indians
with muskets, they would be starved to death ; as almost aU
their food consists of the flesh of the animals, which they
hunt; or they would be irritated to such a degree as to
attack the Europeans. ...
Pieces of white cloth, or of a coarse uncut cloth. . The
Indians constantly wear such pieces of cloth, wrapping them
round their bodies. Sometimes they hang them over their
shoulders ; in warm weather, they fasten them round the
middle ; and in cold weather, they put them over the head.
Both their men and women wear these pieces of cloth,
which have commonly several blue or red stripes on the
edge. Blue or red cloth. Of this the Indian women make their
petticoats, which reach only to their knees. They generally
chuse the blue colour.
Shirts and shifts of linen. As soon as an Indian fellow,
or one of their women, have put on a shirt, they never wash
it, or strip it off, till it is entirely torn in pieces.
Pieces of cloth, which they wrap round their legs instead
of stockings, like the Russians.

traveller.— For Kalm.
see below,
Nos. 45,50;
Contempora
ries, II, Nos.
113, 114,133.
— The fur
trade was the
cause of the
settlement of
Canada. —
For Indian
trade, see
Contempora
ries, I, Nos.
60, 01,152;
II, Nos. m,
113.

Red sulphide
of mercury,
or vermilion.

102 French and English [1749
Hatchets, knives, scissars, needles, and a steel to strike
fire with. These instruments are now common among the
Indians. They all take these instruments from the Euro
peans, and reckon the hatchets and knives much better,
than those which they formerly made of stones and bones.
The stone hatchets of the ancient Indians are very rare in
Canada.
Kettles of copper or brass, sometimes tinned in the inside.
In these the Indians now boil aU their meat, and they have
a very great run with them. . . .
Ear-rings of different sizes, commonly of brass, and some
times of tin. They are worn by both men and women,
though the use of them is not general.
Vermillion. With this they paint their face, shirt, and
several parts of the body- They formerly made use of a
reddish earth, which is to be found in the country; but, as
the Europeans brought them vermillion, they thought noth
ing was comparable to it in colour. Many persons have
told me, that they had heard their fathers mention, that the
first Frenchmen who came over here, got a great heap of
furs from the Indians, for three times as much cinnabar as
would ly [lie] on the tip of a knife.
Verdigrease, to paint their faces green. For the black
colour, they make use of the soot at the bottom of their
kettles, and daub their whole face with it
Looking glasses. The Indians are very much pleased
with them, and make use of them chiefly when they want
to paint themselves. The men constantly carry their look
ing glasses with them on all their journies ; but the women
do not. The men, upon the whole, are more fond of dress
ing than the women.
Burning glasses. These are excellent pieces of furniture
in the opinion of the Indians ; because they serve to light
the pipe without any trouble, wliich an indolent Indian is
very fond of.

No. 39]

Braddock's Defeat 103

Tobacco is bought by the northern Indians, in whose
country it will not grow. The southern Indians always
plant as much of it as they want for their own consumption.
Tobacco has a great run amongst the northern Indians, and
it has been observed, that the further they live to the north
ward, the more they smoke of tobacco.
Wampum, or, as they are here called, porcelanes. They w^rnoum
are made of a particular kind of shells, and turned into currency.
little short cylindrical beads, and serve the Indians for
money and ornament.
Glass beads, of a small size, and white or other colours.
The Indian women know how to fasten them in their rib
bands, pouches, and clothes.
Brass and steel wire, for several kinds of work.
Brandy, which the Indians value above aU other goods
that can be brought them ; nor have they any thing, though
ever so dear to them, which they would not give away for
this liquor. But, on account of the many irregularities which
are caused by the use of brandy, the sale of it has been pro
hibited under severe penalties ; however, they do not always
pay an implicit obedience to this order.
These are the chief goods which the French carry to the
Indians, and they have a good run among them.
Peter Kalm, Travels into North America (translated by John
Reinhold Forster, London, 1771), III, 268-274 passim.

39. Braddock's Defeat (1755)
Fort Cumberland, 18 July, 1755.
HONORED Madam,
As I doubt not but you have heard of our defeat,
and, perhaps, had it represented in a worse light, if possible,
than it deserves, I have taken this earliest opportunity to

By COLONEl
GeorgeWashington (1732-
1799), in a
letter to his
mother, Mrs.
Mary Wash
ington.Washington accompanied

Braddock's
expedition as
volunteeraid-de-camp. The best
evidence of
what passes
b'fore an
eye-witness is a letter
written while
the matter is
Iresh. — For
othT pieces
by Washing
ton, see Old
South leaf
lets, Nos. io,
15, 16, 41, 47,
65 ; ( on tem
poraries, 1 1,
Nos. 108, 174,
195, 206.—
For a French
account of
Braddock's
defeat, see
Contempora
ries, 1 1,
No. 127.
The French
fort was Fort
Duquesne.
The eng.Ke-
ment took
place on the
banks of the
Mononga-
hela. The
French had
at least 800

Braddock
insisted that
his men
should fight
in open line.

104 French and English [1755
give you some account of the engagement as it happened,
within ten miles of the French fort, on Wednesday the 9th
instant. We marched to that place, without any considerable loss,
having only now and then a straggler picked up by the
French and scouting Indians. When we came there, we
were attacked by a party of French and Indians, whose
number, I am persuaded, did not exceed three hundred
men; while ours consisted of about one thousand three
hundred well-armed troops, chiefly regular soldiers, who
were struck with such a panic, that they behaved with more
cowardice than it is possible to conceive. The officers be
haved gallantly, in order to encourage their men, for which
they suffered greatly, there being near sixty killed and
wounded ; a large proportion of the number we had.
The Virginia troops showed a good deal of bravery, and
were nearly all killed ; for I believe, out of three companies
that were there, scarcely thirty men are left alive. Captain
Peyrouny, and all his officers down to a corporal, were
killed. Captain Poison had nearly as hard a fate, for only
one of his was left. In short, the dastardly behaviour of
those they call regulars exposed all others, that were in
clined to do their duty, to almost certain death ; and, at
last, in despite of all the efforts of the officers to the con
trary, they ran, as sheep pursued by dogs, and it was im
possible to rally them.
The General was wounded, of which he died three days
after. Sir Peter Halket was killed in the field, where died
many other brave officers. I luckily escaped without a
wound, though I had four bullets through my coat, and
two horses shot under me. Captains Orme and Morris,
two of the aids-de-camp, were wounded early in the en
gagement, which rendered the duty harder upon me, as 1
was the only person then left to distribute the General's
orders, which I was scarcely able to do, as I was not half

no. 40] Capture of Quebec 105
recovered from a violent illness, that had confined me to
my bed and a wagon for above ten days. I am still in a
weak and feeble condition, which induces me to halt here
two or three days in the hope of recovering a little strength, Braddock'i
to enable me to proceed homewards ; from whence, I fear, op^ed up
I shall not be able to stir till towards September; so that I the frontier
to Indian
shall not have the pleasure of seeing you till then, unless it inroads.
be in Fairfax. ... I am, honored Madam, your most
dutiful son.
George Washington, Writings (edited by Jared Sparks, Boston,
1834), II, 86-88.

40. Capture of Quebec (1759)
IN the beginning of September [1759], the enemy again
sent above Quebec, 12 vessels to join those already
there ; this made 20, and defiled along the South shore
3 thousand men who embarked above. M. de Bougain
ville's detachment was then reinforced, and he was ordered
to follow the movements of those ships. They were usually
anchored at Cap Rouge, 3 leagues above Quebec. M. de
Bourgainville was encamped there, with a very strong portion
of his men. That officer followed the ships, according as
they moved up or down.
At length, during the night of the 12th and 13th, the enemy
embarked in barges alongside their ships and passed in front
of the posts we had between M. de Bougainville and the
town ; four different sentinels contented themselves with
calling out, Qui %<ive ? They answered, France ! They
were allowed to pass unrecognized.
The officers who were in command of those posts, did so
under the persuasion that they were flat bateaux [boats] loaded
with our provisions [-ns], which the Commandant of the

By Fran
cois Bigot,
tntendant of
Canada from
1748 to the
capture of
¦Quebec This
is part of an
official letter
to the war
department in Paris.
The impor
tance of the
capture lay
in the fact
that there
was no other
strong point
of defence :
when Quebec
fell, Canada
virtually
changedhands. The
piece illus
trates the
importanceof hearing
both sides ol
a story. —
For an ac
count from

the other
side, see Old
South Leaf
lets, No. 73 ;
Contempora
ries, II, No.
129. Qui vive t =
" who goes
there ? "
This point is
now called
" Wolfe's
Cove."

Plains of
Abraham.

Provinces of
France.

106 French and English [1753
place had ordered that very night to be allowed to pass, and
which did not come ; they were to leave Cap Rouge. The
English being arrived in front of a steep hiU, three quarters
of a league from the town, and which they, no doubt, dis
covered, was unguarded, ascended it, and attacked one of
our rear posts that guarded a slope leading to the water's
edge. The officer of that post received several wounds, but
was taken prisoner with his detachment. The enemy, there
upon, cleared the slope and landed their army which was
waiting in the barges the succes of their van-guard. The
ships were dropping down, meanwhile, to support their
barges. M. de Bougainville did not follow them, expecting
they would return on the flow of the tide, as they usually
did. At day-break, we were informed at the camp that some of
our posts, above Quebec, had been attacked. The Marquis
de Montcalm, who did not look on the matter as so serious,
sent at first only a few pickets to their assistance, ordering a
large portion of our army to follow him ; this had diminished,
in efficiency and numbers, [to] three thousand men or there^
abouts, who were under the command of M. de Bougainville.
They were all picked men, being composed of the grenadiers
and volunteers of the army, both troops and Canadians.
The Marquis de Montcalm was much surprised, when he
had ascended the height in the rear of the city, to see the
English army, which was forming on the plain. He gave
orders to hasten the march of the body which was coming to
join him, and scarcely had it reached the ground on which
he stood, when he marched against the enemy and com
menced the attack. These different corps, among which
were the battalions of La Sarre, Royal Rousillon, Languedoc
Guienne and Beam, amounted only to 3,500 men, or there
abouts. Some of them came a league and a half; they had
not time to recover their breath. This little army fired
two volleys at that of the English, which amounted, in Uke

no. 40] Capture of Quebec 107
manner, to only 3 @: [or] 4 thousand men, but ours, un- The English
fortunately, took to flight at the first fire from the enemy, ^ut^ca
and would have been utterly destroyed, had not 8 @. 900
Canadians thrown themselves into a little wood near St.
John's gate, whence they kept up so constant a fire op the
enemy, that the latter were obliged to halt in order to return
it. This firing lasted a full half hour, which gave the flying
troops and Canadians time to reach the bridge we had on
the River St. Charles, to communicate with our troops.
'Twas in that retreat that the Marquis de Montcalm re
ceived a ball in the loins, as he was on the point of entering
the town by the St. Louis gate. I know all the particulars
of that landing from English officers of my acquaintance who
have communicated them to me ; adding, that Mr. Wolf did
not expect to succeed; that he had not attempted to land Wolfe meant
above Quebec, and that he was to sacrifice only his van-guard t0 succeed-
which consisted of 200 men ; that were these fired on, they
were all to reembark ; that the large guns and mortars posted
opposite the town had been put again on board, and the
troops were to return and leave on the 20"1 September.
We experienced on the same morning, two misfortunes
which we should never have foreseen : irt The surprisal of
one of our posts that considered itself in security, being
guarded by several that were nearer the enemy. 2nd The
loss of a battle.
E. B. O'Callaghan, editor and translator. Documents relative to
the Colonial History of the State of New-York (Albany, 1858),
X, 1051-1052.

By Colonel
John Sey
mour (ti7").
governor of
Maryland
from 1703 to
his death.
The extract
is from a let
ter to the
Lords of
Trade, rela
tive to Queen
Anne's war
(1702-1713). In all his
communica tions to the
English gov
ernment, Sey
mour seems
to have taken
a somewhat
pessimisticview of exist
ing colonial
conditions,especially of
those in
Maryland. —
For the con
ditions of
colonial life,
see Contem
poraries, I,
chs. ix, xiii,
xiv, xxi, xxii,
xxiii, xxvi ;
II. Part IV.
"3 s. 6d. per
cent " = about
a halfpenny
a pound for
tobacco.

CHAPTER VII — COLONIAL LIFE IN
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
41. Discomforts of Colonial Life (1708)
WEE are dayly made sencible of the loss and remoyall
of divers Inhabitants and residents in this Province
to our neighboring Collonys of Pensilvania & Carolina ; The
chief notices [indications] whereto are the present Poverty
of this Country, the Planters having suffered extreamly this
present Warr in the Marketts being shut up so that after the
numerous hazards of unseasonable weather, lack of Plants,
the Fly, the ground wonne the house wormes, it's [i.e. the
crop's] being house-burnt, frostbitten, [after] the danger of
sea and our enemys, [have been] all encountered and over
come the freightes have not had near the vallue of then-
labour or expence of servants cloathing &c : and those who
have layd out their Cropps with the Merchants in the Coun
try, have not been able to get above three shillings and
sixpence $ [Pe0 cent so ^at f°r many years last past
sen-ants and slaves have proved burthensome to many Mas
ters and helpt by hard labour to impoverish them.
The Inhabitants of North Carolina finding in what ill
Circumstances wee are, here many being indebted for more
than their Stocks, made an Act of Assembly there, inviting
all persons to settle with them under the Protection of five
yeares exemption from paying their debts, which has drawn
many familys thither, again Pensilvania on the other hand
by raising the vallue of their coynes [coins] to so extraordi
nary a height beyond her Maj"" Royall Proclamation, and
the great encouragment they give to saylors has induced
108

No. 4a]

Discomforts

109

many young freemen artifisers and saylors to quit this Prov
ince and settle there, so that unles her Maj* be graciously
pleased to lay her com[m]ands on those Governments to
repeale the aforesaid Carrolina Act of Assembly and conforme
themselves in lowering their coyns according to the Procla- ;'Lowering
mation there is no likelyhood of preventing her subjects meSint a de_
continuall desertion hence to those less profitable Collonys. £S5£
As for those miserable people that are so much indebted,
I know not why their deplorable circumstances should not
be taken into consideration by her Majesty being pleased
to recommend to the Generall Assembly an Act of Bank
ruptcy in their favour to acquitt them upon delivering up
their all to their Credito" which is as much as can be re
quired and that it shall be Fellony to concede or imbeaziU
[embezzle] so that they may be once more enabled to begin
the world againe, and her Majesty not lose the use of so
many subjects.
William L. Saunders, editor, The Colonial Records of North
Carolina (Raleigh, 1886), I, 682-683.

42. The Great Awakening in New Eng
land (1740)
J~^RIDAY, September 19 [1740]. Slept pretty well,
ri and in the Morning perceived fresh Emanations of
divine Light break in upon and refresh my Soul.
Was visited by several Gentlemen and Ministers, and went
to the Governor's with Esquire Willard, Secretary of the
Province, a Man fearing God, and with whom (tho* before
unknown in Person) I have corresponded some Time. The
Governor received me with the utmost Respect : He seemed
to favour the Things which were of God, and desired me to

By Reverend George
White- field (1714-
1770), a
celebrated EnglishMethodist preacher and
revivalist. In the inter
val between
1738 and
1769 he
made seven
voyages to
America, and finally
died here.
The religious
movementknown as

no Later Colonial Life

[1740

the " Great
Awakening," and the rise
ot the " New
Lights,"
about 1740,
were stirred
by him. —
Kor White-
field, see Con
temporaries, If, No. 43.—
Kor religious
life in the
colonies, see
Contempora
ries, I, Nos.
49. 85, 93, 94,
96, 108, uo,
112, 129,169;
II, ch. xv.
The governor
of the prov
ince of Mas
sachusetts was ) onathan
Belcher.—
See Contem
poraries, II,
No. 100.
The commis
sary at Bos
ton, Roger
Price, was
the repre
sentative of
the Bishop
of London,
who had
ecclesiastical
jurisdiction of members
of the Church
Of England in
the colonies.
The " col
lege " was
Harvard,
'hen under
President HulyoUi*. in
the parish of
R*v. Nathan-
id Appleton.

see him as often as I could. At eleven I went to publick
Worship at the Church of England, and afterwards went
home with the Commissary, who read Prayers. He received
me very courteously, and it being a Day whereon the Clergy
of the established Church met, I had an Opportunity of
conversing with five of them together. . . .
Wednesday, September 24. Went this Morning to see and
preach at Cambridge, the chief College for training up the
Sons of the Prophets in all Neiv-England. It has one
President, I think four Tutors, and about a hundred Stu
dents. It is scarce as big as one of our least Colleges in
Oxford, and as far as I could gather from some who well
knew the State of it, not far superior to our Universities in
Piety and true Godliness. Tutors neglect to pray with and
examine the Hearts of their Pupils. Discipline is at too low
an Ebb. Bad Books are become fashionable amongst them.
Tillotson and Clarke are read instead of Sheppard, Stoddard,
and such like evangelical Writers ; and therefore, I chose to
preach on these Words, We are not as many who corrupt
the Word of God. And in the Conclusion of my Sermon, I
made a close Application to Tutors and Students. A great
Number of neighbouring Ministers attended, as indeed they
do at all other Times; and God gave me great Boldness
and Freedom of Speech. The President of the College and
Minister of the Parish treated me very civilly. In the After
noon I preached again in the Court, without any particular
Application to the Students. I believe there were about
7000 Hearers. The Holy Spirit melted many Hearts. The
Word was attended with manifest Power . . .
Sunday, October 19. Felt wonderful Satisfaction in being
at the House of Mr. Edwards. He is a Son himself, and
hath also a Daughter of Abraham for his Wife. A sweeter
Couple I have not yet seen. Their Children were dressed
not in Silks and Satins, but plain, as becomes the Children
of those who, in all Things, ought to be Examples of Chris-

No. 43] Great Awakening in
tian Simplicity. "She is a Woman adorn'd with a meek
and quiet Spirit, talked feelingly and solidly of the Things
of God, and seemed to be such a Help meet for her Hus
band, that she caused me to renew those Prayers, which, for
some Months, I have put up to God, that he would be
pleased to send me a Daughter of Abraham to be my Wife."
— "I find, upon many Accounts, it is my Duty to marry. —
Lord I desire to have no Choice of my own. Thou knowest
my Circumstances ; thou knowest I only desire to marry in
and for thee. Thou didst chuse a Rebecca for Isaac, chuse
one for me to be a Help meet for me, in carrying on that
great Work committed to my Charge." Lord, hear me,
Lord, let my Cry come unto thee. Preached this Morning,
collected 59 /. and perceived the Meeting begin sooner, and
rise higher than before. Dear Mr. Edivards wept during
the whole Time of Exercise. — The People were equally, if
not more affected, and my own Soul was much lifted up
towards God. In the Afternoon the Power encreased yet
more and more. ...
George Whitefield, Continuation of . . . [his] Journal, from a
few Days after his Return to Georgia to his Arrival at Fal
mouth, on the nth of March, 1741 (London, 1741), 23-47
passim.

43. A Satire on Tobacco Planters (1708)
THE SOT-WEED FACTOR; OR, A VOYAGE TO MARYLAND, &C.
¦
FOR full three Months, our waveriu[n]g Boat,
Did thro' the surley Ocean float,
And furious Storms and threat'ning Blasts,
Both tore our Sails and sprung our Masts :
Wearied, yet pleas'd, we did escape
Such Ills, we anchor'd at the Cape ;

John Tillot
son and Sam
uel Clarke
were philo
sophical critics.Reverend
Jonathan Edwards of
North
ampton was
the' greatest
of the New
Englandministers of.
this period.

By EBEN-
ezer Cook.
Nothing defi
nite is known
concerningthe author of
this piece.
Although the
verses are
plainly in
many re
spects a
caricature,.
they throw
valuable light
on the ruder
side of the

ii2 Later Colonial Life [1708

period.—
For the life of
the people of
the colonies,
see Contem
poraries, II, ch. xii. —
" Sot-weed "
is of course a
satire for
tobacco. —
For tobacco
planting, see
Contempora
ries, I, Nos.
50, 83, 87, 88.
— For Mary
land, see
above, No. 18.— The
following. side-notesare from the
original. " By the
Cape, is
meant the
( apes of Vir
ginia, the
first Land on
the Coast of
/ 'irginia and
Mary-Land."
" To Cove is
to lie at An
chor safe in
Harbour."
" The Bay of
Piscato-way,the usual
place where
our Ships
come to an
Anchor in
Mary-Land." " The Plant
ers generally
wear Blue
Linnen." " A Canoo is
an Indian
Boat, cut out

}

But weighing soon, we plough'd the Bay,
To Cove it in Piscato-way,
Intending there to open Store,
I put myself and Goods a-shore :
Where soon repair'd a numerous Crew,
In Shirts and Drawers of Scotch-cloth Blue.
With neither Stockings, Hat, nor Shooe.
These Sot-weed Planters Crowd the Shoar,
In Hue as tawny as a Moor :
Figures so strange, no God design'd,
To be a part of Humane Kind :
But wanton Nature, void of Rest,
Moulded the brittle Clay in Jest.
But e're their Manners I display, ~\
I think it fit I open lay >
My Entertainment by the way ; )
That Strangers well may be aware on,
What homely Diet they must fare on.
To touch that Shoar, where no good Sense is found,
But Conversation's lost, and Manners drown'd.
I crost unto the other side, ~\
A River whose impetuous Tide, >
The Savage Borders does divide ; )
In such a shining odd invention,
I scarce can give its due Dimention.
The Indians call this watry Waggon
Canoo, a Vessel none can brag on ;
Cut from a Popular- Tree, or Pine,
And fashion'd like a Trough for Swine :
In this most noble Fishing- Boat,
I boldly put myself a-float;
Standing Erect, with Legs stretch'd wide,
We paddled to the other side :
Where being Landed safe by hap,

No. 43]

Sot-Weed Factor

"3

!

As Sol fell into Thetis Lap.
A ravenous Gang bent on the stroul,
Of Wolves for Prey, began to howl ;
This put me in a pannick Fright,
Least I should be devoured quite :
But as I there a musing stood,
And quite benighted in a Wood,
A Female Voice pierc'd thro' my Ears,
Crying, You Rogue drive home the Steers.
I listen'd to th' attractive sound,
And straight a Herd of Cartel found
Drove by a Youth, and homewards bound
Cheer'd with the sight, I straight, thought fit,
To ask where I a Bed might get.
The surley Peasant bid me stay,
And ask'd from whom I'de run away.
Surpriz'd at such a saucy Word,
I instantly lugg'd out my Sword ;
Swearing I was no Fugitive,
But from Great- Britain did arrive
In hopes I better there might Thrive.
To which he mildly made reply,
I beg your Pardon, Sir, that I
Should talk to you Unmannerly ;
But if you please to go with me
To yonder House, you'll welcome
Encountring soon the smoaky Seat,
The Planter old did thus me greet :
"Whether you come from Goal or CoUedge,
You're welcome to my certain Knowledge ;
And if you please all Night to stay,
My Son shall put you in the way."
Which offer I most kindly took,
And for a Seat did round me look :
When presently amongst the rest,

ive. )
}
be.)

of the body
of a Popler-
Tree." [" Popular-
tree ".=
poplar.] [Stroul =
stroll.] "Wolves are
rery numer
ous in Mary-
Land."

*"Tis sup
posed by the
Planters, that
all unknown
Persons are
run away
from some
Master."

[Goal b jail.]

.H4

[fx. in pro
cess of fer
mentation.]

" Pon is
Bread made
of Indian-
Corn"
" Mush is a
sort of Hasty-
puddiu[n]g made with
Water and
IndianFlower."" H online is
a Dish that is
made of
boiled Indian
Wheat, eaten
with Molos-
sus, or
Bacon-Fat" " Syder-pap
is a sort of
Food made
of Syder and
small Homine, like
our Oat
meal."[/^•keg.]

Later Colonial Life [1708
He plac'd his unknown English Guest,
Who found them drinking for a whet,
A Cask of Syder on the Fret,
Till Supper came upon the Table,
On which I fed whilst I was able.
So after hearty Entertainment,
Of Drink and Victuals without Payment ;
For Planters Tables, you must know,
Are free for aU that come and go.
While Pon and Milk, with Mush well stoar'd,
In wooden Dishes grac'd the Board ;
With Homine and Syder-pap,
(Which scarce a hungry Dog wou'd lap)
Well stuff 'd with Fat, from Bacon fry'd,
Or with Molossus dulcify'd.
Then out our Landlord pulls a Pouch,
As greasy as the Leather Couch
On which he sat, and straight begun,
To load with Weed his Indian Gun ;
In length, scarce longer than ones Finger,
His Pipe smoak'd out with aweful Grace,
With aspect grave and solemn pace ;
The reverend Sire walks to a Chest,
Of all his Furniture the best,
Closely confin'd within a Room,
Which seldom felt the weight of Broom ;
From thence he lugs a Cag of Rum,
And nodding to me, thus begun :
I find, says he, you don't much care,
For this our Indian Country Fare ;
But let me tell you, Friend of mine,"
You may be glad of it in time,
Tho' now your Stomach is so fine
And if within this Land you stay,

- >
ne.y

No. 44]

Philadelphia

"5

You'll find it true what I do say.
This said, the Rundlet up he threw,
And bending backwards strongly drew :
I pluck'd as stoutly for my part,
Altho' it made me sick at Heart,
And got so soon into my Head
I scarce cou'd find my way to Bed ;
Eben[ezer] Cook, The Sot-Weed Factor: or, a Voyage to Maty-
land (London, 1708), 1-5 passim.

44. Social Life in Philadelphia (1744)
Philadelphia, Friday, June 1st [1744].
THE Sun had run his course in our Hemisphere for the
space of two hours, before the Leaden Scepter was
removed from my Eye Lids, at last about a half an hour
past 6, I had those Instruments of Sight and Doors of the
Mind laid open, and Jump'd from my Bed in some haste,
designing before that time to have been at the Market
Place ; the days of Market are Tuesday and Friday, when
you may be Supply'd with every Necessary for the Support
of Life thro'ut [throughout] the whole year, both Extraordi
nary Good and reasonably Cheap, it is allow'd by Foreigners
to be the best of its bigness in the known World, and undoubt
edly the largest in America ; I got to this place by 7 ; and
had no small Satisfaction in seeing the pretty Creatures, the
young Ladies, traversing the place from Stall to Stall where
they cou'd make the best Market, some with their Maid
behind them with a Basket to carry home the Purchase,
Others that were designed to buy but trifles, as a little fresh
Butter, a Dish of Green Peas, or the like, had Good Nature

By William
Black, sec
retary of the
commissioners appointed
by Governor
Gooch of
Virginia to
unite with
those of
Maryland
and Pennsyl
vania, to treat
with the Iro
quois con
cerning Westernlands. This
expeditionset out in
May, 1744.
Black gives
a pleasant
picture of the
social life of
a well-to-do
town, and
illustrates the
value of a
contempo rary diary. —
For social
life, see
above, No.

1 1 6 Later Colonial Life

[»744

32; Contem
poraries, II,

Bouquet.
A wealthy
Irish Quaker.
RichardPeters, secre
tary of the
province. Cinchona
bark; the
predecessor of quinine.

The oldest
Episcopalchurch in
Philadelphia,
foundedabout 1695.
The present
church build
ing was be
gun in 1729.

Thomas Lee
and William
Beverleywere the
other mem
bers of the
Virginia commission,
and the other
gentlemen mentionedmide up
their " levee,"
or following.
Hamilton
was son of the
famous law
yer, Andrew
Hamilton.

anil Humility enough to be their own Porters . . . after
I hal made my Market, which was One penny worth of
Whey and a Nose Gay, I Disengag'd myself from the Multi
tude, and made the best of my way to Mr. StretteU's where
I Breakfasted . . .
[June 3.] Rose at 7, took several turns in the Garden
with Mr. Peters & Bob Brooks, afterwards I went to Mr.
Strettells ; found Colonel Lee not well, having Intermitting
Fevers, for which he Resol'd [resolved] to take the Bark ;
after Breakfast I return'd to my Room and Dress'd, and in
Company with -Mr. Secretary, Col. Beverley, and some more
of our Gang, I went to Christ's Church, where I heard a
very Good Discourse on the Words in the 19 Ch. of Mat
thew and 46 Verse. This Church is a very Stately Building,
but is not yet Finished. The . Paintings of the Altar Piece
will, when done, be very Grand ; two Rows of Corinthian
Pillars, and Arches turn'd from the one to the other Sup
ports the Roof and the Cilleries, the Peughs [peWs] and
Boxes were not all done so that everything seem'd half
finished. I was not a little Surpris'd to see such a Number
of Fine Women in one Church, as I never had heard Phila
delphia noted Extraordinary that way; but I must say,
since I have been in America, I have not seen so fine a
Collection at one time and Place. After this Congregation
was Dismiss'd, Colonel Taylor, Mr. Lewis, &c, of the Levee
went to the Commissioners' Lodgings, where we found.
Colonel Lee ready to go to Mr. Andrew Hamilton's where
we were Invited to Dine this Day; about a Quarter after
1 O'Clock we had Dinner, and I do assure you a very fine
one, but as I am not able to draw up a Bill of Fare, I shall
only say, that we had very near 18 Dish of Meat, besides
a very nice Collation ; after this was over, it was time for to
think of going to Church for Afternoon, accordingly, most
of our young Company with my Self, went in order to Visit
the Reverend Mr. Gilbert Tennant, a Disciple of the Great

No. 45]

New York

117

.30.

Whitefield, whose followers are CaU'd the New Lights; we For White-
found him Delivering his Doctrine with a very Good Grace, fi?Id' see
Split his Text as Judiciously, turn'd up the Whites of his No. 43.
Eyes as Theologically, Cuff 'd his Cushion as Orthodoxly,
and twist'd his Band as Primitively as his Master Whitefield
cou[l]d have done, had he been there himself; We were
not Converts enough to hear him to an end, but withdrew
very Circumspectly, and bent our Course to the Quaker
Meeting, where we found one of the Travelling Friends, For Quakers,
Labouring Under the Spirit very Powerfully, had he been No.ab°Ve'
a little more Calm, and not hurried himself so on, as if he
had not half time to say what he had in his Mind, We as
well as the Rest of his Brethern, wou[l]d have received
more Instruction, but one Sentence came so fast treading
on the heels of Another, that I was in great pain of his
Choaking : however, we had Patience to hear him out, and
after a little Pause he gave us a Short Prayer, and then
Struck hands with two Elderly Friends on his Right and
Left, and we broke up . . .
Journal of William Black, 1 744 ; edited by R. Alonzo Brock,
in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Phila
delphia, 1877), I, 405-412 passim.

No. 45 is by
Professor
Peter
Kalm.—For Kalm,
see above,
No. 38.— For
New York in
the eigh
teenth cen
tury, see Con
temporaries, II, No. 32.
"Forty
seven," mis
print tor
" seventy-
four."

45. The Town of New York (1748)
NEW YORK, the capital of a province of the same
name is situated under forty deg. and forty min.
north lat. and forty seven deg. and four min. of western long.
from London ; and is about ninety seven English miles dis
tant from Philadelphia. The situation of it is extremely ad
vantageous for trade : for the town stands upon a point which
is formed by two bays ; into one of which the river Hudson

Populations
were about
as follows :
Boston, 18,000;
Philadelphia, 13.°°°; New York,
12,000.

"Hangings" = wall-paper,

118 Later Colonial Life [1748
discharges itself, not far from the town ; New York is there
fore on three sides surrounded with water : the ground rt
is built on, is level in some parts, and hilly in others : the
place is generally reckoned very wholesome. . . .
... in size it comes nearest to Boston and Philadelphia.
But with regard to its fine buildings, its opulence, and exten
sive commerce, it disputes the preference with them : at pres
ent it is about half as big again as Gothenburgh in Sweden.
The streets do not run so straight as those of Philadel
phia, and have sometimes considerable bendings : however
they are very spacious and well built, and most of them are
paved, except in high places, where it has been found use
less, In the chief streets there are trees planted, which in
summer give them a fine appearance, and during the exces
sive heat at that time, afford a cooling shade : I found it
extremely pleasant to walk in the town, for it seemed quite
like a garden . . .
Most of the houses are built of bricks ; and are generally
strong and neat, and several stories high. Some had, ac
cording to old architecture, turned the gable-end towards
the streets ; but the new houses were altered in this respect.
Many of the houses had a balcony on the roof, on which
the people used to sit in the evenings in the summer sea
son ; and from thence they had a pleasant view of a great
part of the town, and likewise of part of the adjacent water
and of the opposite shore. The roofs are commonly cov
ered with tiles or shingles . . . The walls were white
washed within, and I did not any where see hangings, with
which the people in this country seem in general to be but
little acquainted. The walls were quite covered with all
sorts of drawings and pictures in small frames. On each
side of the chimnies they had usually a sort of alcove : and
the wall under the windows was wainscoted, and had benches
placed near it. The alcoves, and all the wood work were
painted with a bluish grey colour.

No. 46]

New York

119

There are several churches in the town, which deserve
some attention, i. The English Church, built in the year
1695, at the west end of [the] town, consisting of stone, and
has a steeple with a bell. 2. The new Dutch Church, which
is likewise built of stone, is pretty large and is provided
with a steeple, it also has a clock, which is the only one in
the town. . . .
Towards the sea, on the extremity of the promontory is
a pretty good fortress, called Fort George, which entirely
commands the port, and can defend the town, at least from
a sudden attack on the sea side. Besides that, it is likewise
secured on the north or towards the shore, by a pallisade,
which however (as for a considerable time the people have
had nothing to fear from an enemy) is in many places in a
very bad state of defence.
There is no good water to be met with in the town itself,
but at a little distance there is a large spring of good water,
which the inhabitants take for their tea, and for the uses of
the kitchen. Those however, who are less delicate in this
point, make use of the water from the wells in town, though
it be very bad. This want of good water lies heavy upon
the horses of the strangers that come to this place ; for. they
do not like to drink the water from the wells in the town.
Peter Kalm, Travels into North America (translated by John
Reinhold Forster, Warrington, 1770), I, 247-252 passim.

TrinityChurch.

Fort Am
sterdamunder the
Dutch; in
1664 called
Fort James;
in 1674.
Fort George ;
demolishedat the close
of the Revo
lution.

46. A Southern Criticism of Slavery (1736)
YOUR Lord"' [Lordship's] opinion concerning
Rum and Negros is certainly very just, and
your excludeing both of them from your Colony of Georgia
will be very happy ; tho' with Respect to Rum, the Saints
of New England I fear will find out some trick to evade

By Colonel
WILLIAM BVRD (1674-
1744)- Byrd,
receiver- general of
Virginia, member of
the council,
agent for the
colony in
England,
and founder

of Rich
mond, was
one of the
most culti
vated and
influential men of his
time. The
extract given
is from a let
ter written in
1736 to the
Earl of Eg-
mont, first
president of
the trustees
for Georgia.
It presents a
most sane
and just esti
mate of
the conse
quences of
slavery, by a
slave-holderand keen
buyer of
slaves. It is
an excellent
example of
the value of
unrestrainedprivate let
ters as his
toricalevidence. —
For Byrd, see
Contempora
ries, 11, No.
82. — For
slavery, see
above, No,
35 ; Contem
poraries, I,
Nos. 70, 86,
B7; ll.ch.xvi.
Bvrd was an
Episcopalian
and a Cava
lier. Importation
of slaves
began in
1019.

120 Later Colonial Life [1736
your Act of Parliament. They have a great dexterity at
palliating a perjury so well as to leave no taste of it in the
mouth, nor can any people like them slip through a penal
statute. They will give some other Name to their Rum,
which they may safely do, because it go[e]s by that of Kill-
Devil in this country from its banefuU qualitys. A watchfuU
Eye must be kept on these foul Traders or all the precau
tions of the Trustees will be in vain.
I wish my Lord we cou[l]d be blesst with the same Pro
hibition. They import so many Negros hither, that I fear
this Colony will some time or other be confirmd by the
Name of New Guinea. I am sensible of many bad conse
quences of multiplying these Ethiopians amongst us. They
blow up the pride, and ruin the Industry of our White Peo
ple, who se[e]ing a Rank of poor Creatures below them,
detest work for fear it shou[l]d make them look like Slaves.
Then that poverty which will ever attend upon Idleness,
disposes them as much to pilfer as it do[e]s the Portuguese,
who account it much more like a Gentleman to steal, than
to dirty their hands with Labour of any kind:
Another unhappy Effect of Many Negros is the necessity
of being severe. Numbers make them insolent, and then
foul Means must do what fair will not. We have however
nothing like the Inhumanity here that is practiced in the
Islands, and God forbid we ever shou[l]d. But these base
Tempers require to be rid[den] with a tort [taut] Rein, or
they will be apt to throw their Rider. Yet even this is ter
rible to a good natur[e]d Man, who must submit to be
either a Fool or a Fury. And this will be more our unhappy
case, the more Negros are increast amongst us.
But these private mischeifs are nothing if compar[e]d to
the publick danger. We have already at least 10,000 Men
of these descendants of Ham fit to bear Arms, and their
Numbers increase every day as well by birth as Importation.
And in case there shoud arise a Man of desperate courage

No. 46]

Slavery

121

amongst us, exasperated by a desperate fortune, he might
with more advantage than Cataline kindle a Servile War.
Such a man might be dreadfully mischeivous before any
opposition could be formd against him, and tinge our Rivers
as wide as they are with blood, besides the Calamitys which
wou[l]d be brought upon us by such an Attempt, it woud
cost our Mother Country many a fair Million to make us as
profitable as we are at present.
It were therefore worth the consideration of a British
Parliament, My Lord, to put an end to this unchristian
Traffick of makeing Merchandize of Our FeUow Creatures.
At least the farthar Importation of them into our Our
Colonys shoud be prohibited lest they prove as trouble
some and dangerous everywhere, as they have been lately
in Jamaica, where besides a vast expence of Mony, they
have cost the lives of many of his Majesty's Subjects. We
have mountains in Virginia too, to which they may retire as
safely, and do as much mischeif as they do in Jamaica. All
these matters duly consider[e]d, I wonder the Legislature
will Indulge a few ravenous Traders to the danger of the
Publick safety, and such Traders as woud freely sell their
Fathers, their Elder Brothers, and even the Wives of their
bosomes, if they coud black their faces and get anything
by them.
I entirely agree with your Lord" in the Detestation you
seem to have for that Diabolical Liquor Rum, which dos
more mischeif to Peoples Industry and morals than any thing
except Gin and the Pope. And if it were not a little too
Poetical, I shoud fancy, as the Gods of Old were said to
quaff Nectar, so the Devils are fobbd off with Rumm.
Tho' my Dear Country Men woud think this unsavory Spirit
much too Good for Devils, because they are fonder of it than
they are of their Wives and Children . . .
American Historical Review (New York, etc., 1896), 1, 88-90.

For laws
against ne
groes, see
above. No.
35-

On the con
trary, the
English gov
ernment can
celled all
colonial stat
utes limiting
or taxing the
trade.

See below,
No. 112,
for John
Brown's raid.

Fobb'd =
tricked.

By Alex
anderGraydon
(1752-1818),
author, law
yer, and for
a time cap
tain in the
continentalarmy. His
memoirs are
a most inter
esting com
mentary on
the times in
which he
lived. The
piece is a
good exam
ple of remi
niscenceswritten late
in life, in
which details
are of little
weight but
the general
impression
is accurate.
— For intel
lectual life in
the colonies,
see Contem
poraries, I,
S'os. 89, 137,
146, 171; II,
ch. xiv.

122 Later Colonial Life [1760-1786

47. A Colonial School-Boy (1 760-1 766)
BEING now, probably, about eight years of age, it was
deemed expedient to enter me at the academy, then,
as it now continues to be, under the name of a university,
the principal seminary in Pennsylvania ; and I was accord
ingly introduced by my father, to Mr. Kinnesley, the teacher
of English and professor of oratory. . . . The task, of the
younger boys, at least, consisted .in learning to read and to
write their mother tongue grammatically ; and one day in
the week (I think Friday) was set apart for the recitation
of select passages in poetry and prose. For this purpose,
each scholar, in his turn, ascended the stage, and said his
speech, as the phrase was. This speech was carefully taught
him by his master, both with respect to its pronunciation,
and the action deemed suitable to its several parts. . . .
More profit attended my reading. After ^Esop's fables, and
an abridgment of the Roman history, Telemachus was put
into our hands ; and if it be admitted that the human heart
may be bettered by instruction, mine, I may aver, was bene
fited by this work of the virtuous Fenelon. . . .
... A few days after I had been put under the care of
Mr. Kinnersley, I was told by my class mates, that it was neces
sary for me to fight a battle with some one, in order to estab
lish my claim to the honor of being an academy boy. . . .
I found that the lists were appointed, and that a certain John
Appowen, a lad who, though not quite so tall, [was] yet
better set and older than myself, was pitted against me. . . .
A combat immediately ensued between Appowen and my
self, which for some time, was maintained on each side, with
equal vigor and determination, when unluckily, I received
his fist directly in my gullet. The blow for a time depriving
me of breath and the power of resistance, victory declared
for my adversary, though not without the acknowledgment

No. 47]

School- Life

123

of the party, that I had at last behaved well, and shewn
myself not unworthy of the name of an academy boy. . . .
I have said that I was about to enter the Latin school.
The person whose pupil I was consequently to become, was
Mr. John Beveridge, a native of Scotland, who retained the
smack of his vernacular tongue in its primitive purity. His
acquaintance with the language he taught, was I believe,
justly deemed to be very accurate and profound. But as to
his other acquirements, after excepting the game of back
gammon, in which he was said to excel, truth will not war
rant me in. saying a great deal. He was, however, diligent
and laborious in his attention to his school ; and had he
possessed the faculty of making himself beloved by the
scholars, and of exciting their emulation and exertion, noth
ing would have been wanting in him to an entire qualifica
tion for his office. But unfortunately, he had no dignity
of character, and was no less destitute of the art of making
himself respected than beloved. Though not perhaps to be
complained of as intolerably severe, he yet made a pretty
free use of the ratan and the ferule, but to very little pur
pose. . . .
... as my evil star would have it, I was thoroughly tired
of books and confinement, and her [his mother's] advice and
even entreaties were overruled by my extreme repugnance
to a longer continuance in the college, which, to my lasting
regret, I bid adieu to when a little turned of fourteen, at the
very season when the minds of the studious begin to profit
by instruction. We were at this time reading Horace and
Cicero, having passed through Ovid, Virgil, Caesar and Sal-
lust. . . .

Flogging was
the common
discipline in
schools.

[Alexander Graydon] Memoirs of a Life, chiefly passed in Penn
sylvania (Harrisburg, 1811), 16-31 passim.

By James
Earl of
Stanhope (1673-1721).
Stanhopewas English
secretary of
state for the
Southern Department
most of the
time from
1714 till his
death, and
head of the
colonies from
1718. The
year after he
became sec
retary he re
ferred to the
Lords of
Trade a
scheme or
treatise relat
ing to the
plantations,
i.e. colonies,
of which the
extract here
gi fn forms a
part. The
piece is a
good ex
ample of
official rec
ords as a
source of
historical
knowledge.
— For prin
ciples of
English con
trol, see Con
temporaries, I, ch. vii;
II, ch. vii.

CHAPTER VIII— COLONIAL GOVERN
MENT
48. The English Council for Trade and
Plantations (171 5)
THE Board was erected about fifteen Years since, as has
bin before observed. By their Commission they are
directed to enquire into the severall obstructions of Trade,
and the means of removing the same And particularly to
inform themselves of the condition of the respective Planta
tions, as well with regard to the Government and administra
tion of Justice in those places, as the Commerce thereof.
And to consider how the Collonys there may be eased, and
secured, and rendered more beneficial to England. To look
into Governors Instructions, and see what is fit to be added
omitted or changed in them. To take an account yearly by
way of Journal of the administrations of such Governments.
To hear Complaints of oppressions and Male-Adminis
trations from the Plantations. To examine into and weigh
such Acts as shall be passed in the Plantation Assemblys,
and to consider whether they are fit for his Majesty to
consent to, and establish for Laws. And upon these and
severall other heads to make representations to his Majesty
of such regulations as are fit to be made in the- Plantations.
As by a Copy of the said Commission will more fully appear.
If this power had bin always vested in persons of knowl
edge and Integrity, to whom the plantation Affairs were well
known and [who were] unanimous in the design of pro
moting the publick service only, it might have produced
much good. But there having bin many persons at severall
124

No. 48]

Lords of Trade

125

times put into that Commission for different reasons then
[than] their ability to discharge, such a trust (as is well
known) it has not hitherto produced such effects as might
be expected from it. And it was impossible that Board
should make a right Judgment of wrongs, oppressions, and
Male administrations, and of Acts, sent from the Plantations
to be passed into Laws, or be able to represent what regula
tions were fit to be made in the Governments, and adminis
tration of Justice, unless some at that Board had a perfect
and personal knowledge of the nature of the Plantations,
and of the people, as likewise of their different Laws and
Constitutions. Many instances might be here given of many incredible
things done, and omitted by that Board, but since the design
of this is not to reflect on past miscarriages but to prevent
the like for the future, and since there is now reason to
expect from his Majesty's Wisdom, and the Justice and
prudence of his ministers that the said Cotincill will be in a
short time better filled, two instances need only be now
mentioned. They are by the said Commission directed to examine and
look into the usual Instructions given to Governors, and to
see if anything may be added, omitted or changed therein
to advantage. As likewise to consider what trades are taken
up and exercised in the Plantations which are or may be
prejudicial to England. They have accordingly had the
consideration and setling of all such Instructions, in which
nevertheless a clause has bin constantly incerted command
ing Governors to endeavomr, and encourage the setting of
Workhouses to set the poor at work, and many Manufactures
are made in the Collonys on the Continent of America, which
encrease daily, so that in tome they may supply our Sugar
Collonys, as well as themselves with things that make a great
part of our British Trade, to our great prejudice, and con
trary to the Pollicy of all other Nations.

"Board of
Commissioners for Tradi
and Planta
tions," usu
ally called
"Lords of
Trade."

In the in
structions the
home gov
ernment laid
down its
colonial
policy. 1
The English
government applied a
policy pro
tective to
English
manufactur
ers.

On instruc
tions, see
below, No. 51.

126 Colonial Government [1765
They likewise continue the. aforesaid Instructions against
Appeals, and have bin so far from advising a change thereof,
that about thirteen Years since, when on the Petition of many
Merchants, and Planters about it, a Committee of the Privy
Council made a report that it should be altered ; the then
Board of Trade made an Interest to have it referred back to
them, and on their report it has bin continued.
William A. Whitehead, editor, Documents relating to the Colonial
History of the State of New Jersey (Newark, 1882), ^,358-360.

By Samuel
Purviance,
JR., of Phila
delphia, in a
confidentialletter to
Colonel Burd, who
was in the
provincial
service. The
letter gives a
graphic pic
ture of the
methods of a
colonial poli
tician, adroit
in elec
tioneering
tactics. Franklin (see
below, No.
Si) was
regarded as
an enemy by
the faction to
which Purvi
ance and
Burd be
longed, be
cause, by his
resistance to
the policy of
exempting
the proprie
tary estates

49. How to Manage Elections (1765)
. . . T WENT lately up to Bucks Court, in order to
X concert measures for their [f.e. some friends']
election, in pursuance of which we have appointed a consider
able meeting of the Germans, Baptists and Presbyterians, to
be held next Monday at Neshaminy, where some of us, some
Germans and Baptists of this place, have appointed to attend,
in order to attempt a general confederacy of the three socie
ties in opposition to the ruling party. We have sent up emis
saries among the Germans, which I hope will bring them into
this measure, and if it can be affected, will give us a great
chance for carrying matters in that county. Could that be
carried, it would infallibly secure our friends a majority in the
House, and consequently enable them to recal our dangerous
enemy, Franklin, with his petitions, which is the great object
we have now in view, and which should engage the endeavors
of all our friends at the approaching election to make a spirited
push for a majority in the Assembly, without which aU our
struggles here will prove of little service to the public interest.
. . . If you knew thoroughly the methods Mr. Franklin is
taking at home to blacken and stigmatise our society, you

N0.4S]

Elections

1 27

would perhaps judge with me that you never had more reason
to exert yourselves in order to overset him, which we can only
do by commanding a majority in the Assembly. I have seen
a letter lately from a person of character, that advises [us of]
his wicked designs against us. The little hopes of success,
as well as the difficulty of engaging proper persons for the
purpose, has discouraged me from attempting a project rec
ommended by some friends, of sending up some Germans
to work upon their countrymen. But that no probable
means may fail, [I] have sent up some copies of a piece
lately printed by Sowers, of Germantown, to be dispersed,
and which may possibly have some effect. . . .
As I understand the Mennonists have certainly resolved
to turn out Isaac Saunders this year, though the only good
member your county has, I would beg leave to offer to you
and other friends the following scheme, as the only probable
chance, I think, you have to carry the election and keep Mr.
Saunders. If the scheme is properly executed, and can
be conducted without danger of a riot, I think you could
infallibly carry your ticket by it.
Don't attempt to change any of your members save Webb.
If* you can run Dr. Kuhn, or any other popular German, and
can keep Mr. Saunders, you will do great things. As soon
as your ticket is agreed on, let it be spread through the
country, that your party intend to come weU armed to the
election, and that you intend, if there's the least partiality in
either sheriff, inspectors, or managers of the election, that
you will thrash the sheriff, every inspector, Quaker and
Mennonist to a jelly; and further, I would report it, that
not a Mennonist nor German should be admitted to give
in a ticket without being sworn that he is naturalized and
worth ^50, and that he has not voted already ; and further,
that if you discovered any person attempting to give in a
vote without being naturalized, or voting twice, you would
that moment deliver him up to the mob to chastise him.

from taxa
tion, he had
incurred the
hostility of
the proprie
tor. — For
politics in
Pennsylva nia, see Corn-
temporaries, II, Nos. 31,
61. — For
colonial
government, see Contem
poraries, II,
Part III.
"BucksCourt," county seat -
of Bucks
County. Franklin was
agent in
England for
Pennsylvania
and other
colonies.Fpr Menno
nists, see
above, No. 16.

Riots were
very frequent
in colonial
times. — See
Contempora
ries, II,
No. 30.

128 Colonial Government [1748
Let this report be industriously spread before the election,
which will certainly keep great numbers of the Mennonists
at home. I would at the same time have all our friends
warned to put on a bold face, to be every man provided with
a good shillelah [cudgel], as if determined to put their
threats in execution, though at the same time let them be
solemnly charged to keep the greatest order and peace.
Let our friends choose about two dozen of the most repu
table men, magistrates, &c, who shall attend the inspectors,
sheriff and clerks during the whole election, to mount guard
half at a time, and relieve one another in spells, to prevent
all cheating and administer the oath to every suspicious
person, and to commit to immediate punishment every one
who offers to vote twice. I'll engage, if you conduct the
election in that manner, and our people turn out with spirit,
you can't fail of carrying every man on your ticket, as I am
well assured not a third of the Mennonists are naturaUzed.
I would submit this to your consideration. If it's well
thought of, take your measures immediately. I beg no
mention may be made of the author of this. I see no danger
in the scheme but that of a riot, which would require great
prudence to avoid.
[Thomas Balch, editor,] Letters and Papers relating chiefly to the
Provincial History of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1855), 209-
212 passim.

Bv PROFES
SOR PliTER
Kalm. —
Kor Kalm,
see above,
No. 38.—
Disputes be
tween the
governorsand assem
blies, alluded
to in the

50. The Governor and Assembly in New
York (1748)
AN assembly of deputies from all the particular districts
of the province of New York, is held at New York
once or twice every year. It may be looked upon as a par
liament or dyet [diet] in miniature. Every thing relating

No. 50]

Assemblies

1 29

to the good of the province is here debated. The governor
calls the assembly, and dissolves it at pleasure : this is a
power which he ought only to make use of, either when no
farther debates are necessary, or when the members are not
so unanimous in the service of their king and country as is
their duty : it frequently however happens, that, led aside
by caprice or by interested views, he exerts it to the preju
dice of the province. The colony has sometimes had a
governor, whose quarrels with the inhabitants, have induced
their representatives, or the members of the assembly,
through a spirit of revenge, to oppose indifferently every
thing he proposed, whether it was beneficial to the country
or not. In such cases the governor has made use of his
power; dissolving the assembly, and calling another soon
after, which however he again dissolved upon the least mark
of their ill humour. By this means he so much tired them,
by the many expences which they were forced to bear in so
short a time, that they were at last glad to unite with him,
in his endeavours for the good of the province. But there
have likewise been governors who have called assemblies
and dissolved them soon after, merely because the represen
tatives did not act according to their whims, or would not
give their assent to proposals which were perhaps dangerous
or hurtful to the common welfare.
The king appoints the governor according to his royal
pleasure ; but the inhabitants of the province make up his.
excellency's salary. Therefore a man entrusted with this
place has greater or lesser revenues, according as he knows
how to gain the confidence of the inhabitants. There are
examples of governors in this, and other provinces of North
America, who by their dissensions with the inhabitants of
their respective governments, have lost their whole salary,
his Majesty having no power to make them [the inhabitants]
pay it. If a governor had no other resource in these cir
cumstances, he would be obliged either to resign his office,

piece, were
common in
almost every
colony; and
the control
of the gov
ernor's salary
was an im
portantweapon in
the hands of
the repre
sentatives of
the people. —
For colonial
governorsand assem
blies, see
Contempora
ries, I, Nos.
68, 71. 80, 98,
102, 104, 106,
107, m, 120,
122, 131, 136,
144; II, CllK
viii, ix.

Examples of
colonial laws
are in No. 35,
above, and
American History
Studies, No. 1.

130 Colonial Government [1748
or to be content with an income too smaU for his dignity ;
or else to conform himself in every thing to the inclinations
of the inhabitants: but there are several stated profits,
which in some measure make up for this. i. No one is
allowed to keep a public house without the governor's leave ;
which is only to be obtained by the payment of a certain
fee, according to the circumstances of the person. Some
governors therefore, when the inhabitants refused to pay
them a salary, have hit upon the expedient of doubling the
number of inns in their province. 2. Few people who
intend to be married, unless they be very poor, will have
their banns published from the pulpit ; but instead of this
they get licences from the governor, which, impower any
minister to marry them. Now for such a Ucence the gov
ernor receives about half a guinea, and this collected
throughout the whole province, amounts to a considerable
sum. 3. The governor signs all passports, and especially
of such as go to sea ; and this gives him another means of
supplying his expences. There are several other advan
tages allowed to him, but as they are very trifling, I shall
omit them.
At the above assembly the old laws are reviewed and
amended, and new ones are made : and the regulation and
circulation of coin, together with all other affairs of that
kind are there determined. For it is to be observed that
each English colony in North America is independent of
the other, and that each has its proper laws and coin, and
may be looked upon in several lights, as a state by itself.
From hence it happens, that in time of war, things go on
very slowly and irregularly here : for . . . the sense of
one province is sometimes directly opposite to that of
another . . .
Peter Kalm. Travels into North America (translated by John
Reinhold Forster, Warrington, 1770), I, 259-262 passim .

No. 51]

Instructions

131

51. Objections to Governing of Colonies
by Instructions {1772)
THE governing of colonies by instruction has long been
a favorite point with ministers here. About thirty
years since, in a bill brought into Parliament relating to
America, they inserted a clause to make the King's instruc
tions laws in the colonies, which, being opposed by the then
agents, was thrown out. And I well remember a conversa
tion with Lord Granville, soon after my arrival here, in which
he expressed himself on that subject in the following terms.
" Your American Assemblies slight the King's instructions,
pretending that they are not laws. The instructions sent
over to your governors are not like the pocket instructions
given to ambassadors, to be observed at their discretion, as
circumstances may require. They are drawn up by grave
men, learned in the laws and constitutions of the realm ;
they are brought into Council, thoroughly weighed, well con
sidered, and amended if necessary, by the wisdom of that
body ; and, when received by the governors, they are the
laws of the land; for the King is the legislator of the
colonies." I remember this the better, because, being a new doc
trine to me, I put it down as soon as I returned to my lodg
ings. To be sure, if a governor thinks himself obliged to
obey all instructions, whether consistent or inconsistent with
the constitution, laws, and rights of the country he goyerns,
and can proceed to govern in that train, there is an end of
the constitution, and those rights are abolished. But I won
der, that any honest gentleman can think there is honor in
being a governor on such terms. And I think the practice
cannot possibly continue, especially if opposed with spirit
by our Assemblies. At present no attention is paid by the
American ministers to any agent here, whose appointment

By AGENT
Benjamin
Franklin (1706-1790),
philosopherand states
man, noted
for his earnest
and fruitful
endeavors in
the cause of.
American indepen
dence. In
1772 he was
agent in Eng
land for
several of the
colonies.The extract
is from a pri
vate letter to
James Bow-
doin, of Mas
sachusetts.The " in
structions," issued pri
vately to
each ne*
governor for
his personal
guidance,sometimes conflicted
-with the
charters or
customs of
the colonies;
and the
attempt to
make them a
basis of gov
ernment was .
one of the
hotly con
tested points
of the pre-
Kevolution-ary period. —
For Franklin,
see Old South
Leaflets, No. 9 ; Amer
ican History

Leaflets, No.
14 ; Contem
poraries, 11,
Nos. 68, 81,
94. 133. M3.
199,217,—For instruc
tions, see
above. No.
48; Contem
poraries, II,
Nos. 53, 55.

132 Colonial Government [17*9
is not ratified by the governor's assent; and, if this is
persisted in, you can have none to serve you in a public
character, that do not render themselves agreeable to these
ministers, and those otherwise appointed can only promote
your interests by conversation, as private gentlemen or by
writing. Benjamin Franklin, Works (edited by Jared Sparks, Boston,
1838), VII, 549-55°-

From the
BostonTown Rec
ords. This
extract will
serve to indi
cate the
manifold
functions of
that impor
tant unit of
New Eng
land life, the
town-meet ing, and also
to show the
interest and
value of local
records as
historical material. —
For colonial
local gov
ernment, see
Contempora
ries, II, ch .
xi ; for re
ports of town-
meetings, Contempora
ries, I, Nos.
98, 165; 11,
Nos. 78, 140.
Town-ineet- ings had tobe
summoned by warrant,

52. A Colonial Town-Meeting (1729)
AT a Meeting of the Freeholders & Other Inhabitants of
the Town of Boston Duly Qualified being Regulerly
Assembled in a Publick Town meeting at the Town House
Tuesday May the 6th 1729 —
After Prayer by the Revd mr Thomas Prince Elisha
Cooke Esq' Chose Moderator for this Meeting
Sundry Petitions Read Viz1
About a place for the Grainery
About nv" Peleg Wiswalls Sallary
About mr Edward Mills Sallary
nv* Sam" Oakes Petition
nv* Jera [Jeremiah] Condys Petition
The Selectmens Report of Sundry things left to them
Voted to Chuse 4 Representatives
The Number of Voters were - - 192

Elisha Cooke Esq'
mr Thomas Cushing
mr Ezek" Lewis -
mr Sam" Welles -

votes. 188 190 190 184

Chose Representatives

No. sa]

Town-Meeting

133

Voted To Chuse a Comittee to Prepare Instructions for
the Representatives for their Acting at the General Court
at their Approching Session, And to Lay them befor the
Meeting in the Afternoon —
Voted : That John Alford Esq* mes™ Henry Dering &
Nath" Cunnigham be the Said Committee —
On the Petition of Sundry Inhabitants about the Situatian
of the Grainery
Voted That mr Moderator & the Selectmen be Joyned with
the Comittee appointed for Building the Grainery, Be desired
to View the Place, And make Return of their Opinion thereof
to the Meeting after Dinner this Day —
m* John Jeffers Excused j ^^
mr Thomas Moffat Excus'd )
Edward Maycomb - Sworn \
John Spooner - - Sworn V Clerks of the Market.
Nathan" Cobbit - Sworn )

slating the
subjects to
be discussed.

Holding of
public offices
was regarded
as a duty
rather than a
privilege, and
set vice was
obligatoryunless a
good excuse
could be
offered.

Post Meridiem.
Voted That the Grainery be Erected and Set up Rainging
with the Line of the Burying place on the Comon fronting
Eastward, The Said Building to be not Less then [than]
forty feet distant from the Sout[h] Corner of the Brick wall
of the Burying place —
nv* James Pemberton - Pay \ Assessors
mr James Watson - Sworn )'

Pay = paid
his fine for
refusing to

In as much as the Gramer School at the North End of a " gramer
the Town of which m* Peleg Wiswall is the Master is much |c^n" was
Increaced in the Number of the Schollers, and that no Usher school.
is alowed to assist him in his School :
Voted That there be an Additian of Forty Pounds to the
Said mr Wiswalls Salary — >
Sam" Oakes Petition Read & Dismist, —

Crooked.

Writingschools were
lowerschools.
The New
England
school com
mittees
sprang out of
these special
visiting com
mittees.

134 Colonial Government [17*9
In Answar to m* Edward Mills His Petitian.
Voted That there be an Addition of Twenty Pounds to
the Said mr Edward Mills Sallary —
Upon A Motion made by Elisha Cook Esq* That the Divid
ing Line between the Towns Land in the Occupation of
mT Nathan" Williams and His Land on the East Side in
School Street is for want of due Care become Cracked,
intrenching both upon the One and the Others Land, That
therfore they would Direct and. Imp[o]wer the Selectmen
to Rectifie that line as to them Seems Just and Equitable —
And Further That they would be pleased to Accomodate
him with about two feet of the Front of his Land next
nv* Williams on Such Terms as the Selectmen Shall Agree for
with the Said mT Cooke —
Read and Voted That it be left with the Selectmen to Act
therein as they Judge Meet —
On the Petition of m" Jerarn Condy for Addition to his
Salary Voted that the Consideration of Said Petition be Referred
for further Consideration to the Next Town Meeting, and
That in the mean time Nathan" Green John Afford Esq™ &
m* Thomas Cushing Jun* are desired to Inspect the Several
Wrighting Schools within this Town at Such time as they
Shall think Advisable for the year Currant, And that they do
in an Espesial Maner Vizit m* Condys School and Report to
the Town at their Meeting the Ability and Industry of the
Said m* Condy and the Proficiency of the Schollers under
His Tuition —
The Comittee this day chosen & Appointed to Prepare
Instructions for the Representatives, for their Acting at the
General Court at their Approching Session And to Lay
[them] before the Meeting in the afternoon — Return as
Follows : Viz'
To Elisha Cooke Esq* Mess™ Thomas Cushing, Ezekiel
Lewis & Samuel Welles : —

No. 5a]

Town-Meeting 135

Gentlemen —
Your known Loyalty to His Present Majesty King George,
and Sincear Atachment to the Successian in the Illustrious
House of Hannover, Your Hearty Love to this Your native
Country, Your Singuler Value for the Liberty & Propperty
of this People, your Chearfull and Una[ni]mous Concurrance
to promote our Best Intrist, And your Approved Integrity
in those Publick Stations wherein you haue bin Employed^
Haue fixed the Eyes of this Town on and Determined their
Choice of you as Propper Persons to Represent them in the
Next General Assembly Wherin they Expect That you
behaue your Selves with your Wonted Zeal and Courage in
Prossecuting those good Designes which may tend to the-
Peace & wellfair of these His Majestys Good Subjects, and
Secure those Rights and Priviledges which by the Royal
Charter we haue a Just claim to, and as Englishmen do of
Right appertain to us, And agreable there unto we Recomend
unto you in an Especial Manner —
That you Endeavor to Maintain all our Civil Rights &
Propertys against any Incrochments upon them
That you Continue to Pay a due Regard to His ExceUency
Our Governor, and that you Endeavor that He may have an
Honourable Support, But we desire at the Same time That
you use your utmost Endeavor That the Honourable House
of Representatives may not be by any means Prevailed upon
or brought into the Fixing a Certain Sallary for any Certain
time, But that they may Improve their usual freedom in
granting their Money from time to time, as they Shall Judg
the Province to be able, and in Such a manner as they Shall
think most for the Benefit and advantage thereof, And if
your Pay Should be diverted you may Depend on all the
Justice Imaginable from this Town whom you ' Represent : —
John Alford )
Henry Dering [- Comittee
Nath" Cuningham )

Such instruc
tions were a
usual func
tion of town-
meetings.

Interest

Comparethis with No.
50, above.

136 Colonial Government [1729
The Foregoing Return of the Comitte was Presended[-ted]
Read Sundry times and
Voted Approved.
The Report of the Selectmen upon Several Votes of the
Town at their Meeting the 10th of March 1728 : were Read
& Considred Viz'
The Selectmen haue Viewed the Marsh at the Bottom of
the Comon, and not finding any Material use that can be
made of it at the present, and Considering the. Present Cir-
comstances of the Town Are of Opinion it is best to ly in
the Condition it now is.
Read and the Report Accepted — ...
As to the Proposals About Bennet Street — It is thought
Convenient to be Paved if the Town thinke it Convenient
to Raise Money for the Doing it at this Meeting.
Read, and Refer'd for further Consideration to the Next
March Meeting . . .
As to the Repair of the Wharf at the North Battery —
It is thought Convenient — That mr Sam" Clark be Ordered
to Clear the Wharf And that the Town let it to Some Person
that may Offer to Repair it And keep it in Repair for A term
of years as the Selectmen Shall think Advisable
Read and Voted to be left with the Selectmen — ...
Voted That a Survey'd Plan be taken by Some Skillfull
Surveyor or Survey[o]rs of the Lands of this Town belonging
to the Town. In Order for the Same to be putt upon the
Towns Records, to Prevent Incroachments on the Towns
Int[e]rest. The Selectmen to take Care that this work be effected —
Voted That the Sum of Three Hundred Pounds be Raised
on the Inhabitants and Estates within this Town for Defray
ing the Towns Charge and more Espetialy Paving —
Boston Record Commissioners, Report, 1729-1742 (Boston, 1885),
6-9 passim.

CHAPTER IX — THE REVOLUTION
53. The Boston Tea-Party (1773)
FINE moderat Weather continued, till this morning
[Dec. 19, 1773] som snow & cold & raw with frost.
Note. The body of the people of Boston and numbers
from the neighbouring Towns have lately mett at the Old
South Meeting house (Faneuil Hall, not being so large as
to contain the people) Supos'd to be from 5 to 6,000, and
having Several meetings, conserning a Large quantity of Tea
shipt'd from London by the East India Company Subject to
a Duty payable in America. This meeting was adjourned
to the P. m. and after finding all methods failed, with those
men to whom the Tea was consigned, to send it back from
whence it came, dissolved their meeting. But Behold what
followed. A number of Resolute men in less than 3, some
say 2 hours time, Em[p]tied Every Chest of Tea, on Board
the 3 Ships Commanded by Captains Hall, Brace & Coffin,
into the Sea, amounting to 342 Chests without the least
damage to the Ships, or other property. This Tea was
worth 'tis said at least 25,000. jQ sterling, as a great deal of
it was green Tea. It was all distroyed, with as little noise
as perhaps anything of the like nature was ever don in the
Evening and all over & quiet by 8 O'Clock
William Tudor, editor, Deacon Tudor 's Diary (Boston, 1896),
44-45-

i38

Revolution

[1775

Reverend
John Wither-SPOON,
(1722-1794).
? resident of
'rinceton
College, member of
the Conti
nental Con
gress, of the
Board of
War, and
signer of the
Declaration
of Inde
pendence. From his
arrival in the
country in
1768 he was
one of the
most tireless
workers in
the Ameri
can cause,
and he was
very useful
in bringing
over many
Scotch Irish
and Scotch
to his side.
The piece is
a good ex
ample of the
more moder
ate patriotic
arguments. —
For causes
of the Revo
lution, see
Contempora
ries, 11, Fart
VI.

By the
Boston Port
Bill of 1774.

54-

" Conduct of the British Ministry "
(*77S)

EVERY one knows that when the claims of the
British Parliament were openly made, and
violently enforced, the most precise and determined resolu
tions were entered into, and published by every colony,
every county, and almost every township or smaller district,
that they would not submit to them. This was clearly ex
pressed in the greatest part of them, and ought to be under
stood as the implied sense of them all, not only that they
would not soon or easily, but that they would never on any
event, submit to them. For my own part, I confess, I would
never have signed these resolves at first, nor taken up arms
in consequence of them afterwards, if I had not been fully
convinced, as I am still, that acquiescence in this usurped
power, would be followed by the total and absolute rain of
the colonies. They would have been no better than tribu
tary states to a kingdom at a great distance from them.
They would have been therefore, as has been the case with
all states in a similar situation from the beginning of the
world, the servants of servants from generation to genera
tion. For this reason I declare it to have been my mean
ing, and I know it was the meaning of thousands more, that
though we earnestly wished for reconciliation with safety to
our liberties, yet we did deliberately prefer, not only the
horrors of a civil war, not only the danger of anarchy, and
the uncertainty of a new settlement, but even extermination
itself to slavery, rivetted on us and our posterity.
The most peaceable means were first used ; but no relax
ation could be obtained : one arbitrary and oppressive act
followed after another ; they destroyed the property of a
whole capital — subverted to its very foundation, the consti
tution and government of a whole colony, and granted the

no. 54] Charges against England 139

soldiers a liberty of murdering in all the colonies. I express
it thus, because they were not to be called to account for
it where it was committed, which every body must allow was
a temporary, and undoubtedly in ninety-nine cases of an
hundred must have issued in a total impunity. There is one
circumstance however in my opinion, much more curious
than all the rest. The reader will say, What can this be?
It is the following, which I beg may be particularly attended
to : — While all this was a doing, the King in his speeches,
the Parliament in their acts, and the people of Great Britain
in their addresses, never failed te [to] extol their own lenity.
I do not infer from this, that the King, Parliament and
people of Great Britain are all barbarians and savages —
the inference is unnecessary and. unjust : But I infer the
misery of the people of America, if they must submit in all
cases whatsoever, to the decisions of a body of the sons of
Adam, so distant from them, and who have an interest in
oppressing them. It has been my opinion from the begin
ning, that we did not carry our reasoning fully home, when
we complained of an arbitrary prince, or of the insolence,
cruelty and obstinacy of Lord North, Lord Bute, or Lord
Mansfield. What we have to fear, and what we have now
to grapple with, is the ignorance, prejudice, partiality and
injustice of human nature. Neither king nor ministry, could
have done, nor durst have attempted what we have seen,
if they had not had the nation on their side. The friends
of America in England are few in number, and contemptible
in influence ; nor must I omit, that even of these few, not
one, till very lately, ever reasoned the American cause upon
its proper principles, or viewed it in its proper light.
Petitions on petitions have been presented to king and
Parliament, and an address sent to the people of Great
Britain, which have been not merely fruitless, but treated
with the highest degree of disdain. The conduct of the
British ministry during the whole of this contest, as has been

This was a
common but
most unfair
criticism of
an act trans
ferring trials
of certain
cases to Eng
land.

Parliament
ministers ;
North be
came prime
minister.

By the First
Continental Congress,1774, and the
Second Conr
tinental Con
gress, 1775.

This policy
was recom
mended by
Governor
Tryon, Octo
ber 27, 1775.

I4O

Revolution

[1775

often observed, has been such, as to irritate the whole people
of this continent to the highest degree, and unite them to
gether by the firm bond of necessity and common interest.
In this respect they have served us in the most essential
manner. I am firmly persuaded, that had the wisest heads
in America met together to contrive what measures the min
istry should follow to strengthen the American opposition
and defeat their own designs, they could not have fallen
upon a plan so effectual, as that which has been steadily
pursued. One instance I cannot help mentioning, because
it was both of more importance, and less to be expected than
any other. When a majority of the New- York Assembly, to
their eternal infamy, attempted to break the union of the
colonies, by refusing to approve the proceedings of the
Congress, and applying to Parliament by separate petition
— because they presumed to make mention of the principal
grievance of taxation, it was treated with ineffable contempt.
I desire it may be observed, that all those who are called
the friends of America in Parliament, pleaded strongly for
receiving the New- York petition ; which plainly shewed,
that neither the one nor the other understood the state of
affairs in America. Had the ministry been prudent, or the
opposition successful, we had been ruined ; but with what
transport did every friend .to American liberty hear, that
these traitors to the common cause, had met with the recep
tion which they deserved.
Nothing is more manifest, than that the people of Great-
Britain, and even the king and ministry, have been hitherto
exceedingly ignorant of the state of things in America. For
this reason, their measures have been ridiculous in the high
est degree, and the issue disgraceful. . . .
John Witherspoon, On the Controversy about Independence, in
his Miscellaneous Works (Philadelphia, 1803), 205-208.

no. 55] Charges against America 141
$$. Undeniable Supremacy of Parliament
..¦¦¦'¦¦ (-775)
THE present unhappy differences subsisting among us,
with regard to America, will, I am sensible, expose
the publication of this account to much censure and criti
cism ; but I can truly aver, that I have been led to it, by no
party motive whatsoever. My first attachment, as it is
natural, is to my native country ; my next is to America ;
and such is my affection for both, that I hope nothing will
ever happen to dissolve that union, which is so necessary to
their common happiness. Let every Englishman and Ameri
can, but for a moment or two, substitude[-te] themselves in
each other's place, and, I think, a mode of reconciliation will
soon take effect. — Every American will then perceive the
reasonableness, of acknowledging the supremacy of the Brit
ish legislature ; and every Englishman perhaps, the hardship
of being taxed where there is no representation, or assent.
There is scarcely any such thing, I believe, as a perfect
government, and solecisms are to be found in all. The
present disputes are seemingly the result of one. — Nothing
can be more undeniable than the supremacy of parliament
Over the most distant branches of the British empire : for
although the king being esteemed, in the eye of the law, the
original proprietor of all the lands in the kingdom ; all lands,
upon defect of heirs to succeed to an inheritance, escheat to
the king ; and all new discovered lands vest in him : yet in
neither case can he exempt them from the jurisdiction of
the legislature of the kingdom.
He may grant them, under leases or charters, to indi
viduals or companies ; with liberty of making rules and
regulations for the internal government and improvement of
them ; but such regulations must ever be consistent with the
laws of the kingdom, and subject to their controul.

By reverent)
Andrew BURNABY
(1732-1812),
a clergy
man ol the
Church of
England who
travelled in
the colonies
in 1759-00.
He carefully
observed
and noted
not only the
character and customs
of the people
and the as
pect of the
country, but
also political
and social
movementsand tenden
cies. The
extract is
selected as a
temperate
statement of
the English
side of the
controversy,
— For Bur-
naby, see
Contempora
ries, II, No.
32. — For
Tory views,
see Contem
poraries, II,
Nos. 138, 156.
This was
really a new
doctrine :
the colonial
charters had
all been
granted by
the crown,
and acts of
Parliament
applied only
to general
trade.

142

Revolution

[1775

The colonists
held not only
that they
were not rep
resented in
Parliament.
but that they
could not be
represented, owing to the
distance.

By long-
established customthese powers
cf Parlia
ment had
not been ex
ercised.

On the other hand, 1 am extremely dubious, whether it be
consistent with the general principles of liberty (with those
of the British constitution, I think, it is not), to tax where
there is no representation : the arguments hitherto adduced
from Manchester and Birmingham, and other great towns,
not having representatives, are foreign to the subject; at
least they are by no means equal to it ; — for every inhabitant,
possessed of forty shillings freehold, has a vote in the elec
tion of members for the county : but it is not the persons,
but the property of men that is taxed, and there is not a foot
of property in this kingdom, that is not represented.
It appears then, that certain principles exist in the British
constitution, which militate with each other ; the reason of
their doing so is evident ; it was never supposed that they
would extend beyond the limits of Great Britain, or affect so
distant a country as America. It is much to be wished,
therefore, that some expedient could be thought of, to
reconcile them.
The conduct of the several administrations, that have had
the direction of the affairs of this kingdom, has been recipro
cally arraigned ; but, I think, without reason ; for, all things
considered, an impartial and dispassionate mind, will find
many excuses to allege in justification of each. — The fewest,
I am afraid, are to be pleaded in favour of the Americans,
for they settled in America under charters, which expressly
reserved to the British Parliament the authority, whether
consistent or not consistent, now asserted. Although, there
fore, they had a right to make humble representations to his
majesty in parliament, and to shew the impropriety and
inconvenience of inforcing such principles, yet they had
certainly no right to oppose them.
Expedients may still be found, it is to be hoped however,
to conciliate the present unhappy differences, and restore
harmony again between Great Britain and her colonies ; but
whatever measures may be adopted by parliament, I am sure.

no. 56] Patriot's Prayer 143
it is the duty and interest of America to submit. — But it is
impertinent to enter any further into the discussion of a
subject, which is at this time under the deliberation of the
most august assembly in the world. I wiU, therefore, con
clude with a sincere prayer, that whatever measures may be
adopted, they may be different in their issue, from what the
fears of men generally lead them to preconceive ; and that,
if they be coercive ones, they may be inforced, which, I am
persuaded, is practicable, without the effusion of a single
drop of blood : if lenient ones, which are preferable, and
which I think equally practicable, without any loss or
diminution of the dignity or interest of this kingdom.
Andrew Burnaby, Travels through the Middle Settlements in
North-America, in the Years i? jg and 7760 (London, 1775),
Introduction, v-viii.

56. "The American Patriot's Prayer"
(1776)
PARENT of all, omnipotent
In heav'n, and earth below,
Thro' all creation's bounds unspent,
Whose streams of goodness flow.
Teach me .to know from whence I rose,-
And unto what design'd ;
No private aims let me propose,
Since link'd with human kind.
But chief to hear my country's voice,
May all my thoughts incline,
T is reason's law, 't is virtue's choice,
'T is nature's call and thine.

Anony mous. For
merly as
cribed to
ThomasPaine,
though the
best recent
authority has
rejected that
view on the
basis of inter
nal evidence.
The poem is
one of the
best bits of
American
patriotic verse of the times,
and is his
torical ma
terial in its
evidence of a
profoundpatriotism. —
For other
specimens of

144

patriotic verse, see
Contempora
ries, II, Nos.
159, 164. 171,
196. — For
the condi
tions of the
Revolution,see Contem
poraries, II,
Part VII.
" LaadV
misprint for
" land's."

Revolution [1775
Me from fair freedom's sacred cause,
Let nothing e'er divide ;
Grandeur, nor gold, nor vain applause,
Nor friendship false misguide.
Let me not faction's partial hate
Pursue to this laad's woe ;
Nor grasp the thunder of the state,
To wound a private foe.
If, for the right, to wish the wrong
My country shall combine,
Single to serve th' erron'ous throng,
Spight of themselves, be mine.
Thomas Paine, Large Additions to Common Sense, appended to
his Common Sense (Philadelphia, 1776), 80.

By Rever
end Will
iam Emer
son (1743-
1776) , a Con
cord clergy
man, grand
father of
Ralph Waldo
Emerson. At
the outbreak
of the Revo
lution he
joined the
continentalarmy as
chaplain, and
lost his life
in the Ticon-
derojja expe
dition. His
slorv is one
of the best
illustrations

57-

Battle of Lexington and Concord
(i77S)

r .n T^HIS Morn*betw i&2o'Clockwe
L-775> Ap J I9' 1 w? [were] alarm'd by y* ring of
y' Bell — & upon Examination] fou[nd] y'- ye Troops, to
ye N? of 800, had stole y" March from Boston in Boats &
Barg1 [barges] from yc Bottom of ye Common over to a
Point in Cambridge, near to Inman's Farm, & were at Lex
ington Meeting House, half an Hour before Sunrise, where
they had fired upon a Body of our Men, & (as we afterv?
heard) had killed several. This Intelligence was bro't us at
P.< [first] by Dr Sum'f Prescotl, who narrowly escap'd y?

no. 57] Lexington and Concord 145
Guard y*. were sent before on Horses, purposely to prevent
all Posts & Messengers from giving us timely Information.
He, by y* Help of a very fleet Horse crossing several Walls
and Fences, arriv'd at Concord at y* Time abovemend
[abovementioned]. When several Posts w* immediately]
dispatch'd, that return8 confirm'd y? Account of y' Regulars
Arrival at Lexington, & that they were on their Way to
Concord. Upon this a N? of our Minitute [Minute] Men
belong* to y* [this] Town, & Acton & Lyncoln, with several
others j* were in Readiness, march'd [o]ut to meet them :
While y*. alarm Company w* preparing to receive them
in y" Town. — Cap' Minot who command[ed] y™ tho't it
proper to take Possession] of y* Hill above y* Meeting
house as y* most advantageous] Situation]. No sooner
had y? gain'd [it] than we were met by y* Companies y'. were
sent out to meet ye Troops, who inform'd us, y' [they] were
just upon us, & that we must retreat, as their N? was more
than threbble to ours. — We then retreat'd fr[oin] y? Hill
near [the] Liberty Pole & took a new Post back of ye Town,
upon a rising Eminince, w[h]ere we form'd into two Bat
talions, & waited y? Arrival of y* Enemy. Scarcely had
we form'd, before we saw y? brittish Troops, at y* Dista[nce]
of a £ of a Mile, glittering in Arms, advancing towards [us]
with ye greatest Celerity. Some were for making a Stand,
notwithstanding] ye Superiority] of y* N?' but others more
prudent tho't best to retreat till our Stren[g]th sW be equal
to ye Enemy's by Recruits from neigh" [neighboring] Town's
y' were contin[ually] com* in to our Assistance Accordingly
we retreat"? over y? Bridge, when y? Troops came into y*
Town, — set fire to several Carriages for ye Artillery, de-
stroy'd 60 Barrels of Flour, rifleled sev[eral] Houses — took
Possession of ye Townhouse, destroy'd 500 lb of Ball[s] set
a Guard of 100 Men at ye N Bridge, & S* sent up a Party
to y°. Hou[se] of Col? Barrett, w[h]ere they were in Expec
tation] of finding a Quantity] of warlike Stores; but these

in this vol
ume ot the
effectiveness
of a narrative
written in the
heat of con
flict—For
another ac
count of Lex
ington and
Concord, see
Contempora
ries, II, No.
191.— For
the first stage
of the war.
see Contem
poraries, II,
ch. xxxi.
V Inman's
Farm,"
present site
of In man
Square, Cambridge-
port.

* Thus in
original.

146

Revolution

O775

•These
words are
repeated in
the original.

" And fired
the shot
heard round
the world."

were happily secur'd just before their Arrival, by Transpor
tation] into y" Wood' & other by- Places. — In y? mean
Time, the Guard set by [y]e Enemy to secure y'- Pass at y*
N. Bridge, were alarm[ed] by y' Approa[ch] of our People,
who had retreated as men* [mentioned] before, & w* now
advancing, with spec[ial] Ord' [orders] not to not to* fire
upon y? Troops, unless fir'd upon. — These Orders were so
punctually observ'd y^ we rec'd ye Fire of ye Enemy in 3
several & seperate Discharges of their Peices, before it was
return'd, by our commanding] Officer; the firing then
soon beca [became] general for sev[eral] min* [minutes],
in wc!> Skirmish two w* kill? on each Side, & sev[eral] of
y° Enemy wounded :t— It may here be obs? [observed] by
ye Way, y( we were y". more cau[tious] to prevent begin
[beginning] a Rupture w'.h y* K' [King's] Troops, as we
w" then uncertain] what had happ[ened] at Lexington, &
knew [not?] y' they had begun ye Quarrell there by f *
firing upon our pp [people] & killing 8 Men upon y" Spot.
— The 3 Compa' [companies of] Troops soon quitted their
Post at yc Bridge, & retreat? in g!est [greatest] Disord" &
Confu[sion] to ye main Body, who were soon upon y' March
to meet them. — For half an hour y ¦ Enemy by y* Marches
& counter Marches discov? g' Feekelness [great fickleness]
& Inconstancy of Mind, sometimes advancing sometimes
returning to y* former Posts, till at Len[g]th they quitted
y« Town, & retreated by y". Wa[y] yy [they] came. In y*
Mean Time, a Party of our Men, (150) took ye back Wa[y]
thro' ye g Fields into ye E. q* [east quarter] & had plac'd
'ems' [themselves] to advantage, laying in Ambush, behind
Walls Fences & Buildings, r[eady] to fire upon y* Enemy,
on their Retreat
From a facsimile copy of the original manuscript, appended to
James Lyman Whitney, The Literature of the Nineteenth of
April (Concord, 1876).

No. 58]

Independence

J47

58. Drafting the Declaration of Indepen
dence (1776)
YOU inquire why so young a man as Mr. Jefferson was
placed at the head of the Committee for preparing
a Declaration of Independence ? I answer ; It was the
Frankfort advice, to place Virginia at the head of every
thing. Mr. Richard Henry Lee might be gone to Virginia,
to his sick family, for aught I know, but that was not the
reason of Mr. Jefferson's appointment. There were three
committees appointed at the same time. One for the
Declaration of Independence, another for preparing articles
of Confederation, and another for preparing a treaty to be
proposed to France. Mr. Lee was chosen for the Commit
tee of Confederation, and it was not thought convenient that
the same person should be upon both. Mr. Jefferson came
into Congress, in June, 1775, and brought with him a repu
tation for literature, science, and a happy talent of compo
sition. Writings of his were handed about, remarkable for
tlie peculiar felicity of expression. Though a silent member
in Congress, he was so prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive
upon committees and in conversation, not even Samuel
Adams was more so, that he soon seized upon my heart ;
and upon this occasion I gave him. my vote, and did aU in
my power to procure the votes of others. I think he had
one more vote than any other, and that placed him at the
head of the committee. I had the next highest number,
and that placed me the second. The committee met, dis
cussed the subject, and then appointed Mr. Jefferson and
me to make the draught, I suppose because we were the
two first on the list.
The sub-committee met. Jefferson proposed to me to
make the draught. I said, " I will not." " You should do
it." "Oh ! no." "Why will you not? You ought to do

By Dele
gate John
Adams
(1735-1826),
successively
school master, law
yer, public
man, mem
ber of the
Continental
Congress, ambassador,Vice-President, and
President.
He made the
best possible
use of the
excellentopportunitiesfor observa-
tion which he
had during
his long.
period of
public life.
This piece
was written
in 182a. —
For other ex
tracts from
Adams; see
Contempora
ries, 11, Nos.
24. 79. 'S3.
189, 317.—
For the Dec
laration of
Indepen
dence, see
Contempora
ries, II,
ch. xxx.
The "Frank
fort advice "
refers to
an interview
between the
Massachu
setts delega
tion to the
Continental Congress of
1774 and a

148

Revolution

[1776

delegation
from the
Philadelphia
Sons, of Lib
erty. The'
meeting was
held August
29. 1774, at
Frankfort,a town situ
ated five
miles from
Philadelphia.
Ofjefferson'swritings, his
Summary 1'ierw of the
Rights of
British America,
originallyplanned to
serve merely
as a set of
instructionsto the Vir
ginia dele
gates to the
Continental Congress,
was chiefly
instrumental in giving him
a reputation
among the
members of
ilit- conven
tion.

Rnjjer Sher
man of Con
necticut.

it." "I will not." "Why?" " Reasons enough." "What
can be your reasons ? " " Reason first — You are a Virginian,
and a Virginian ought to appear at the head of this business.
Reason second — I am obnoxious, suspected, and unpopular.
You are very much otherwise. Reason third — You can
write ten times better than I can." " Well," said Jefferson,
" if you are decided, I will do as well as I can." "Very
well. When you have drawn it up, we will have a meeting."
A meeting we accordingly had, and conned the paper
over. I was. delighted with its high tone and the flights of
oratory with which it abounded, especially that concerning
negro slavery, which, though I knew his Southern brethren
would never suffer to pass in Congress, I certainly never
would oppose. There were other expressions which I would
not have inserted, if I had drawn it up, particularly that
which called the King tyrant. I thought this too personal ;
for I never believed George to be a tyrant in disposition and
in nature ; I always believed him to be deceived by his
courtiers on both sides of the Atlantic, and in his official
capacity only, cruel. I thought the expression too passion
ate, and too much like scolding, for so grave and solemn a
document; but as Franklin and Sherman were to inspect it
afterwards, I thought it would not become me to strike it
out. I consented to report it, and do not now remember
that I made or suggested a single alteration.
We reported it to the committee of five. It was read, and
I do not remember that Franklin or Sherman criticized any
thing. We were all in haste. Congress was impatient, and
the instrument was reported, as I believe, in Jefferson's hand
writing, as he first drew it. Congress cut off about a quarter
of it, as I expected they would ; but they obliterated some
of the best of it, and left all that was exceptionable, if any
thing in it was. I have long wondered that the original
draught has not been published. I suppose the reason is,
the vehement philippic against negro slavery.

no. 59] Fight at Princeton 149
As you justly observe, there is not an idea in it but what
had been hackneyed in Congress, for two years before. The
substance of it is contained in the declaration of rights and
the violation of those rights, in the Journals of Congress, in
1774. Indeed, the essence of it is contained in a pamphlet, The Rights
voted and printed by the town of Boston, before the first coioZte "
Congress met, composed by James Otis, as I suppose, in one ^JJJJ* mi
of his lucid intervals, and pruned and polished by Samuel (1764).
Adams.John Adams, Works (edited by Charles Francis Adams, Boston,
1850), II, 513-514-

59. Report of the Battle of Princeton
(*777)
I HAVE the honor to inform you, that, since the date
of my last from Trenton, I have removed with the army
under my command to this place. The difficulty of crossing
the Delaware, on account of the ice, made our passage over
it tedious, and gave the enemy an opportunity of drawing in
their several cantonments, and assembling their whole force
at Princeton. Their large pickets advanced towards Trenton,
their great preparations, and some intelligence I had received,
added to their knowledge, that the 1st of January brought
on a dissolution of the best part of our army, gave me the
strongest reasons to conclude, that an attack upon us was
meditating. Our situation was most critical, and our force small. . . .
On the 2d [of January, 1777], according to my expectation,
the enemy began to advance upon us ; and, after some
skirmishing, the head of their column reached Trenton
about four o'clock, whilst their rear was as far back as
Maidenhead. They attempted to pass Sanpink Creek, which

By General
George
Washington. This
is from an
official report
sent by the
commander- in-chief to the
president of
Congressshortly after
the battle ;
it is a type
of military
reports,which are
more com
prehensive than per
sonal narra
tives. — For
Washington,see above,
No. 39. — For
the period,
see Contem
poraries, II,
ch. xxxi.
The terms of
service of the
militia would

ISO

Revolution

[•777

expire Janu
ary *. *777.
Sanpink =
Assunpink.

The British
commander.

runs through Trenton, at different places ; but, finding the
forts guarded, they halted, and kindled their fires. We were
drawn up on the other side of the creek. In this situation
we remained till dark, cannonading the enemy, and receiv
ing the fire of their field-pieces, which did us but little
damage. Having by this time discovered, that the enemy were
greatly superior in number, and that their design was to
surround us, I ordered all our baggage to be removed
silently to Burlington soon after dark ; and at twelve
o'clock after renewing our fires, and leaving guards at the
bridge in Trenton, and other passes on the same stream
above, marched by a roundabout road to Princeton, where
I knew they could not have much force left, and might have
stores. One thing I was certain of, that it would avoid the
appearance of a retreat (which was of consequence, or to
run the hazard of the whole army being cut off), whilst we
might by a fortunate stroke withdraw General Howe from
Trenton, and give some reputation to our arms. Happily
we succeeded. We found Princeton about sunrise, with
only three regiments and three troops of light-horse in it,
two of which were on their march to Trenton. These three
regiments, especially the two first, made a gallant resistance,
and, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, must have lost five
hundred men ; upwards of one hundred of them were left
dead on the field ; and, with what I have with me and what
were taken in the pursuit and carried across the Delaware,
there are near three hundred prisoners, fourteen of whom are
officers, all British. . . .
. . . We took two brass field-pieces; but, for want of
horses, could not bring them away. We also took some
blankets, shoes, and a few other trifling articles, burned
the hay, and destroyed such other things, as the shortness
of the time would admit of. . . .
. . . The militia aie taking spirits, and, I am told, are

| no. 60] A Lady's Experience 151
coming in fast from this State [New Jersey] ; but I fear
those from Philadelphia will scarcely submit to the hardships
of a winter campaign much longer, especially as they very
unluckily sent their blankets with their baggage to BurUngton.
I must do them the justice however to add, that they have
undergone more fatigue and hardship, than I expected
militia, especially citizens, would have done at this inclem
ent season. I am just moving to Morristown, where I shall
endeavor to put them under the best cover I can. Hitherto
we have been without any ; and many of our poor soldiers
quite barefoot, and ill clad in other respects. . . .
George Washington, Writings (edited by Worthington Chaun-
cey Ford, New York, etc, 1890), V, 146-151 passim. .

60.

A Southern Lady's Experience of
War (1780)

WHILE the officers were there discoursing, word was
brought that a party of the enemy were at a neigh
boring plantation, not above two miles off, carrying pro
visions away. In an instant the men were under arms,
formed and marched away to the place. We were dread
fully alarmed at the first information, but, upon seeing with
what eagerness our friends marched off, and what high spirits
they were in, we were more composed, but again relapsed
into our fears when we heard the discharge of fire-arms ;
they did not stay out long ; but returned with seven pris
oners, four whites and three blacks. When they came to
the door, we looked out, and saw two of M'Girth's men
with them, who had used us so ill ; my heart relented at
sight of them, and I could not forbear looking at them with
an eye of pity. Ah ! thought I, how fickle is fortune ! but

By Eliza
Wilkinson,a young and
beautiful widow, at the
time of the
Revolution
living on her
fat Iter's estate
in South
Carolina. Hernarrative
has the
charm of the
personal ele
ment and of
local color. —
For another
picture of
Revolution
ary events
and condi
tions by a
femininehand, see
Contempora
ries, 11, No.
192. — On the
campaign in
the South,

J52

Revolution

[1780

see Contem
poraries, II,
ch. xxxiv.
DanielMcGirth, a
South Caro
lina hunter
and trapper,
who had
acted as
scout to the
Americanarmy, till a
flogging
given him for
some offence
caused him
to go over to
the Tories.
A short time
before the
events here
recorded his
men had
ridden up to
the home of
the Wilkin
sons, but had
refrained from frighten
ing or plun
dering the
inmates, as a
band of Brit
ish troops
had done
shortlybefore.

two days ago these poor wretches were riding about as if
they had nothing to fear, and terrifying the weak and help
less by their appearance ; now, what a humbled appearance
do they make ! But, basely as they have acted in taking up
arms against their country, they have stiU some small sense
left that they were once Americans, but now no longer so,
for aU who act as they do, forfeit that name ; and by adopt
ing the vices of those they join, become one with them ; but
these poor creatures seem to have yet remaining some token
of what they once were — else why did they, last Thursday,
behave so much better to us than the Britons did, when
we were equally as much in their power as we were in the
others' ? I will let them see I have not forgot it. I arose,
and went out to them. " I am sorry, my friends, (I could
not help calling them friends when they were in our power,)
to see you in this situation, you treated us with respect ; and
I cannot but be sorry to see you in distress." " It is the
fortune of war, Madam, and soldiers must expect it." " Well,
you need not make yourselves uneasy; I hope Americans
won't treat their prisoners ill. Do, my friends, (to the sol
diers) use these men well — they were friendly to us."
" Yes, Madam," said they ; " they shall be used well if it
was only for that." I asked if they would have any thing
to drink. Yes, they would be glad of some water. I had
some got, and as their hands were tied, I held the glass to
their mouths; they bowed, and were very thankful for it.
I was so busy, I did not observe the officers in the house ;
several of them were at the door and window, smiling at
me, which, when I perceived, I went in and told them how
it was. They promised that the men should be favored for
their behavior to us. " Madam," said one, " you would make
a bad soldier ; however, if I was of the other party, and taken
prisoner, I should like to fall into your, hands." I smiled a
reply, and the conversation took another turn. . . .
A detachment of two or three hundred men, commanded

no. eo] A Lady's Experience 153
by Col. Malmady, were ordered on Father's Island; they
had a field-piece with them, and there they staid some time
to command the river, which prevented the poor red coats
from taking their accustomed airings. When they had been
there a day or two, a company of horsemen rode up to the
house we were in, and told us the General was coming along,
and would be there presently ; they had scarcely spoken,
when three or four officers appeared in view. They rode
up ; (Colonel Roberts was with them, he and Father were
old acquaintances.) He introduced one of the officers to
Father. " General Lincoln, Sir ! " Mother was at the door.
She turned to us, "O girls, Gen. Lincoln !" — We flew to
the door, joy in our countenances ! for we had heard such
a character of the General, that we wanted to see him much.
When he quitted his horse, and I saw him limp along, I can't
describe my feelings. The thought that his limping was
occasioned by defending his country from the invasion, of a
cruel and unjust enemy, created in me the utmost veneration
and tender concern for him. You never saw Gen. Lincoln,
Mary? — I think he has something exceeding grave, and
even solemn, in his aspect ; not forbiddingly so neither, but
a something in his countenance that commands respect, and
strikes assurance dumb. He did not stay above an hour or
two with us, and then proceeded on to camp.
That night, two or three hundred men quartered at the
plantation we were at. As many of the officers as could,
slept in the hall, (the house being very small, and only in
tended for an overseer's house). We wanted to have beds
made for them. No, they would not have them on any
account, — "beds were not for soldiers, the floor or the
earth served them as well as anywhere else." " And now,"
said Major Moore, " I'll show you how soon a soldier's bed
is made," and, taking his surtout, spread it on the floor —
" There," saitl he, " I assure you I sleep as well on that hard
lodging as ever I slept on a feather-bed." — " You may say

GeneralBenjaminLincoln.

On account
of the depie-
dations of
the British,
the family
had been
compelled to
leave their
home and
take refuge
on another
plantation.

*54

Revolution

['777

what you please, Major," (said Miss Samuells,) "but I'm
sure a soldier's life is a life of hardships and sorrows." " In
deed, Madam, I think it the best life in the world ; it's what
I delight in." "I wish all soldiers delighted in it at this
juncture," (said I,) " because every thing they hold dear is
at stake, and demands their presence and support in the
field." Eliza Wilkinson, Letters . . . during the Invasion and Posses
sion of Charleslown, S.C. by the British in the Revolutionary
War (edited by Caroline Gilman, New York, 1839), 62-78
passim.

By Captain
GeorgPausch (1740-1796),
Hessian
officer, chief
of 1 he Hesse-
Hanau artil
lery in the
Burgoyne
campaign. His journal
H one of the
most valu
able accounts
that we have
of the Ger
mans in the
Revolution. Naturally he
was some
what preju
diced against
the rival Brit
ish troops.
The follow
ing is an ex
tract from his
descriptionof the battle
of Freeman's
Farm,
October 7,
»777- —

6 1 . Hard Fighting at Saratoga ( 1 777)
MEANWHILE, work was still progressing on the en
trenchments of our two wings ; and it took, by the
way, | of an hour to march from one wing of our army to
the other ; during which march, not the least sign of the
enemy was seen, nor were we molested by him in the least.
Presently, by order of Major Williams of the English Artillery,
the two 12 pound cannon were brought up and placed in
front of the above named house, and after being made ready,
they were loaded. No one knew what all these arrange
ments meant ; but I shortly afterward learned from Capt.
Gen. Quarter-Master Gerlach, that it was intended to make
a diversion at this point ; and that the corps was for the
protection of the general staff. At the same time, word was
sent into the entrenchments of Breymann arid Fraser, and
the foragers ordered to cut down the corn-stalks yet stand
ing in our rear. (This is called "foraging.") An Eng
lish officer now arrived in haste, saying that there were
no cannon on the flank of the left wing, and that I must
immediately send one of mine. Against this I protested,

no. eo Fight at Saratoga 155

on the ground that I had but two cannon, and in case of
complying with his wish I should only be able to serve one
gun ; that I desired, if it was a general order to march there
either with both of the cannon or to give up neither — one
cannon being no command for a subaltern, to say nothing of
a captain ; and finaUy, that they had four 6 pound cannon
of their own, of which one had but just gone, past the left
wing. The officer at this made himself scarce and brought
no other order; and I remained at the post which I had
myself chosen and occupied.
After the lapse of half an hour we noticed a few patrols in
the woods, and on the height to the left of the wood ; and,
at the same moment, the above mentioned two 12 pounders
opened fire.
Shortly after this, a large number of the enemy's advance-
guard, who were in the bushes, engaged our Yagers, Chas
seurs, and Volunteers. The action extended all along the
front, the enemy appearing in force. During this time, and
while both sides were thus contending, and I was serving my
cannon, there marched out of the enemy's entrenchment on
their left wing, at a " double quick " and in squares, two
strong columns, one towards our right, and the other towards
our left wing ; while, at the same moment, additional forces
of the enemy poured down in troops to reinforce those who
were already engaged with us, and advanced madly and
blindly in the face of a furious fire. The attack began on
the left wing with a terrific musketry fire, but, in a few
minutes, the enemy repulsed it ; while the cannon, sent
there by the English Artillery, was captured by the enemy
before a single shot had been fired from them. And now,
the firing from cannon and small arms began to get very
brisk on our right wing.
At this junction, our left wing retreated in the greatest
possible disorder, thereby causing a similar rout among our
German command, which was stationed behind the fence in

For the Hes
sians, see
Contempora
ries, II, ch.
xxix. — For
the cam
paign, see
Contempora
ries, II, No.
»97-

Yagers =
light infantry
chosenchiefly from
foresters.

William P.
Smith, a
lieutenant,later colonel
in the Royal
Artiilerv.

'5°

Revolution

[*777

line of battle. They retreated — or to speak more plainly
— they left their position without informing me, although I
was but fifty paces in advance of them. Each man for him
self, they made for the bushes. ... In the mean time, on
our right wing, there was stubborn fighting on both sides,
our rear, meanwhile, being covered by a dense forest, which,
just before had protected our right flank. The road by
which we were to retreat lay through the woods and was
already in the hands of the enemy, who accordingly inter
cepted us. Finding myself, therefore, finaUy in my first
mentioned position— alone, isolated, and almost surrounded
by the enemy, and with no way open but the one leading to
the house where the two 1 2 pound cannon stood, dismounted
and deserted — I had no alternative but to make my way
along it with great difficulty . . .
... I presently came across a little earth- work, 18 feet
long by 5 foet high. This I at once made use of by posting
my two cannon, one on the right, and the other on the left,
and began a fire alternately with balls and with shells, with
out, however, being able to discriminate in favor of our men
who were in the bushes ; for the enemy, without troubling
them, charged savagely upon my cannon, hoping to dis
mount and silence them. . . .
A brave Eng»'sh Lieutenant of Artillery, by the name of
Schmidt and a sergeant were the only two who were willing
to serve the cannon longer. He came to me and asked me
to let him have ten artillery-men and one subaltern from my
detachment to serve these cannon. But it was impossible
for me to grant his request, no matter how well disposed I
might have been towards it. Two of my men had been shot
dead ; three or four were wounded ; a number had straggled
off, and all the Infantry detailed for that purpose, either
gone to the devil or run away. Moreover, all I had left, for
the serving of each cannon, were four or five men and one
subaltern. . . .

If Eighteen. TeNCE.' a*a &.#**£ XX &
y^$'-T'HIS Bin. 'by Z/tW (hall pals curcen.« in. NEW". JERSEY, *%
W0.}] 1 for- /«"• Penny-weight, [fl] and /tine Grains of Ptatb. <ftx
| fe/M December -31, 1703. ' ' ' - ' ' r:" 

"JERSEY, 1 %t
/ PTATB. ,$",
§ Eighteen Pence. § » t

Specimen of Colonial paper currency, 1763
silver bullion.

Ptate is for Plate, i.e.

Specimen of Continental paper currency, 1776. Tribulatio ditat
means Trouble enriches.

No. 6a]

Paper Money

*S7

. . . Seeing that all was irretrievably lost, and that it was
impossible to save anything, I called to my few remaining men
to save themselves. I myself, took refuge through [behind]
a fence, in a piece of dense underbrush on the right of the
road, with the last [remaining] ammunition wagon, which,
with the help of a gunner, I saved with the horses. Here I
met all the different nationalities of our division running pell-
mell— among them Capt. Schoel, with whom there was not Commander
»>• Tt- rj°' 'he t»err
a single man left of the Hanau Regiment. In this confused man Light
retreat, all made for our. camp and our lines. The entrench- Brigade.
ment of Breymann was furiously assailed ; the camp in it set By Arnold,
on fire and burned, and all the baggage-horses and baggage
captured by the enemy. The three 6 pound cannon of my
brigade of Artillery were also taken, the artillery-men, Wach-
ler and Fintzell, killed, and artillery-man Wall (under whose
command were the cannon) severely, and others slightly,
wounded. The enemy occupied this entrenchment, and re
mained in it during the night. . . .
Captain [Georg] Pausch, Journal (translated by William L.
Stone, Albany, 1886), 165-172 passim.

62. The Baneful Influence of Paper
Money (1777)
71 TTOV. 2/th, 28th, 20th, 2>oth [1777]. — These 4
/ V/ days the fleet [has been] coming up in great
numbers. Some part of the army have marched
over Schuylkill, and reports are prevalent that the main
part of the army will soon move off. The Americans are
moving off their heavy cannon. Gen'l Washington, it is
said, is going to Virginia in a few weeks, and the command
[is] to devolve upon Gen'l Gates. Great exertions are

By Robert
Morton (1760-1786),
son of a
Philadelphia
merchant. During the
British occu
pation of
Philadelphia,Morton, a
boy of about
seventeen,
Tcept a diary,
showingpowers of
observationand facility

-58

Revolution

[1777

of expression
remarkable
for so young
a man. His
account is
very trust
worthy and
throws much
light on the
relations be
tween the
British and
the inhabit
ants during
the occupa
tion. — For
finances in
the Revolu
tion, see Con
temporaries, II, ch. xxxiii.
" Legal paper
currency" =
not conti
nental but
State notes.
I.e. to sup
port paper
monev.

making, both by the men and women of this city, to sup
port the credit of the paper money legally issued. The
women are determined to purchase no goods with hard
money. Some of those who agreed to receive paper money
have refused it for their goods, and among the rest some
of our Society [of Friends] »
Dec. 1st, 2nd, ird. — Numbers of the Fleet [are] daily
arriving. None of the large ships have yet come up. A
contest has subsisted in this City since the arrival of the
fleet, concerning the legal Paper Currency. The English
merchants that came in the fleet will not dispose of their
goods without hard money, alleging that no bills are to be
bought, no produce to be obtained, and no method can be
adopted by which they can send remittances. Numbers
of the most respectable inhabitants are using all their in
fluence to support it, and numbers of others who have no
regard for the public good, are giving out the hard money
for what they want for immediate use, thus purchasing
momentary gratifications at the expense of the Public, for
if the circulation of this money should be stopt, many who
have no legal money but paper, and have no means of
obtaining gold and silver, will be reduced to beggary and
want, and those who are so lost to every sense of honor, to
the happiness of their fellow citizens, and eventually their
own good, as to give out their hard money, either for the
goods of those who are newcomers, or in the public market
where it is now exacted for provisions, will, by their evil
example, oblige those who possess hard money, to advance
it and ruin the credit of the other money for the present.
The consequence of which must be that we shall be shortly
drained of our hard cash, the other money rendered useless,
no trade by which we can get a fresh supply, our ruin must
therefore be certain and inevitable. This depreciation of
the Paper Currency will not only extend its baneful influence
over this City, but over all the continent, as the friends of

no. 63] Cornwallis's Surrender 159
government and others have been collecting this legal tender Le. friends ol
for several nio's [months] past, expecting that in those ™%*l *"ovs,n'
places in the possession of the British Army it will be of
equal value with gold and silver. But from the enemies
of the British constitution among ourselves, who give out
their hard money for goods, from the almost universal pref
erence of private interest to the public good, and from a
deficiency of public virtue, it is highly probable the paper
money will fall, and those newcomers having extracted all
our hard money, will leave us in a situation not long to sur
vive our Ruin. ...
Diary of Robert Morton, in Pennsylvania Magazine of History
and Biography (Philadelphia, 1877), h 3"-33-

63. A Ballad on Cornwallis (1781)
WHEN British troops first landed here,
With Howe commander o'er them,
They thought they'd make us quake for fear,
And carry all before them ;
With thirty thousand men or more,
And she without assistance,
America must needs give o'er,
And make no more resistance.
But Washington, her glorious son,
Of British hosts the terror,
Soon, by repeated overthrows,
Convinc'd them of their error ;
Let Princeton, and let Trenton tell,
What gallant deeds he's done, sir,
And Monmouth's plains where hundreds fell,
And thousands more have run, sir.

Anony mous. This
is one among
a number of
songs com
posed to
commemorate Corn-
wallis's sur
render at
Yorktown. It was pub
lished soon
after that
event and
sung to the
air of " Mag
gie Lauder,"
at that time
very popular
in both
armies. —
For York-
town, see
Contempora
ries, II,
ch. xxxiv.

The mastery
of the seas,
held for a
short time by
France, pre
vented the
British from
entering the
Chesapeaketo relieve
Cornwallis.— See Con
temporaries, II, Nos. 199,
213.

On the
peace, see
Contempora
ries, II, ch.
xxxv.

160 Revolution [i7bi
Cornwallis, too, when he approach'd
Virginia's old dominion,
Thought he would soon her conqu'ror be ;
And so was North's opinion.
From State to State with rapid stride,
His troops had march'd before, sir,
Till quite elate with martial pride,
He thought all dangers o'er, sir.
But our allies, to his surprise,
The Chesapeake had enter*d ;
And now too late, he curs'd his fate,
And wjsh'd he ne'er had ventur'd,
For Washington no sooner knew
The visit he had paid her,.
Than to his parent State he flew,
To crush the bold invader.
When he sat down before the town,
His Lordship soon surrender"d ;
His martial pride he laid aside,
And cas'd the British standard ;
Gods ! how this stroke wiU North provoke,
And all his thoughts confuse, sir !
And how the Peers will hang their ears,
When first they hear the news, sir.
Be peace, the glorious end of war,
By this event effected ;
And be the name of Washington,
To latest times respected ;
Then let us toast America,
And France in union with her;
And may Great Britain rue the day
Her hostile bands came hither.
Frank Moore, Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution
(New York, 1856), 367-369.

CHAPTER X — THE CONFEDERA
TION AND THE CONSTITUTION
64. What is an American? (1782)
I WISH I could be acquainted with the feeUngs and thoughts
which must agitate the heart and present themselves to
the mind of an enlightened Englishman, when he first lands
on this continent [America]. . . . Here he sees the industry
of his native country displayed in a new manner . . . Here
he beholds fair cities, . substantial villages, extensive fields,
an immense country filled with decent houses, good roads,
orchards, meadows, and bridges, where an hundred years
ago all was wild, woody and uncultivated ! . . . He is
arrived on a new continent ; a modern society offers itself
to his contemplation, different from what he had hitherto
seen. It is not composed, as in Europe, of great lords who
possess every thing, and of a herd of people who have noth
ing. Here are no aristocratical families, no courts, no kings,
no bishops, no ecclesiastical dominion, no invisible power
giving to a few a very visible one ; no great manufacturers
employing thousands, no great refinements of luxury. The
rich and the poor are not so far removed from each other as
they are in Europe. Some few towns excepted, we are all
tillers of the earth, from Nova Scotia to West Florida. We
are a people of cultivators, scattered over an immense terri
tory, communicating with each other by means of good roads
and navigable rivers, united by the silken bands of mild gov
ernment, all respecting the laws, without dreading their power,
because they are equitable. We are all animated with the
m .161

Bjr J. Hec
tor St.
lOHN DE
Creve- CCEUR (173I-IBOQ
or 1813), a
native of
Normandy,
land culti
vator in New
York, later
French con
sul in New
York City.
His Ixtters
from an
American
Farmer oc
casioned a
large French
immigrationto Ohio. His
laudations of
America were perhaps
a little over
drawn. — On-
Americanculture in
178a, see
Contempora
ries, III. ch. i.
Crevecceuroveresti mates the
goodness of
the roads.

l62

Confederation

[178a

Forty years
later these
shores had

spirit of an industry which is unfettered and unrestrained,
because each person works for himself. ... A pleasing
uniformity of decent competence appears throughout our
habitations. The meanest of our log-houses is a dry and
comfortable habitation. Lawyer or merchant are the fairest
titles our towns afford ; that of a farmer is the only appella
tion of the rural inhabitants of our country. . . . Here man
is free as he ought to be ; nor is this pleasing equality so
transitory as many others are. Many ages will not see the
shores of our great lakes replenished with inland nations, nor
large popuia- the unknown bounds of North America entirely peopled.
Who can tell how far it extends ? Who can tell the millions
of men whom it will feed and contain ? for no European foot
has as yet travelled half the extent of this mighty continent !
The next wish of this traveller will be to know whence
came all these people ? they are a mixture of English, Scotch,
Irish, French, Dutch, Germans, and Swedes. From this
promiscuous breed, that race now called Americans have
arisen. . . .
... By what invisible power has this surprising metamor
phosis been performed ? By that of the laws and that of their
industry. The laws, the indulgent laws, protect them as
they arrive, stamping on them the symbol of adoption ; they
receive ample rewards for their labours ; these accumulated
rewards procure them lands; those lands confer on them
the title of freemen, and to that title every benefit is affixed
which men can possibly require. This is the great operation
daily performed by our laws. From whence proceed these
laws? From our government. Whence that government?
It is derived from the original genius and strong desire of
the people ratified and confirmed by the crown. This is the
great chain which links us all, this is the picture which every
province exhibits. . . .
. . . He is an American, who leaving behind him all his
ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the

No. 64]

The American

163

new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he
obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American
by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater.
Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of
men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great
changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims,
who are carrying along with them that great mass of arts,
sciences, vigour, and industry which began long since in the
east ; they will finish the great circle. The Americans were
once scattered all over Europe ; here they are incorporated
into one of the finest systems of population which has ever
appeared, and which will hereafter become distinct by the
power of the different climates they inhabit. The American
ought therefore to love this country much better than that
wherein either he or his forefathers were born. Here the
rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress
of his labour ; his labour is founded on the basis of nature,
self-interest ; can it want a stronger allurement? Wives and
children, who before in vain demanded of him a morsel of
bread, now, fat and frolicksome, gladly help their father to
clear those fields whence exuberant crops are to arise to feed
and to clothe them all; without any part being claimed,
either by a despotic prince, a rich abbot, or a mighty lord.
Here religion demands but little of him ; a small voluntary
salary to the minister, and gratitude to God ; can he refuse
these? The American is a new man, who acts upon new
principles ; he must therefore entertain new ideas, and form
new opinions. From involuntary idleness, servile depend
ence, penury, and useless labour, he has passed to toils of a
very different nature, rewarded by ample subsistence. — This
is an American.
J. Hector St. John [de Crevecoeur], Letters from an American
Parmer (London, 1782), 45-53 passim.

By Judge
Benjamin Huntington (1736-
1800), a Con
necticut pub
lic man and
jurist, mem
ber of the
ContinentalCongressand later of
the first Con
gress under
the Constitu
tion. His
letters to his
wife, from
New York,
Princeton,
and Phila
delphia,throw much
light on the
life of the
members
and their
surround ings. — For
Huntington,
see Contem
poraries, II,
No. 163.—
For the Con
tinental Con
gress, see
Confeniporii-
ries, 1 1, Nos.
141, 153, 155.
185, 189, 19O,
209, 219;
III.
"-TJntcli Min
ister," i.e. an
envov from
Holland.
The " .Ww
Jersey mus-
quitoes" were
famous from
the earliest
history of the
province.

1 64 Confederation
65. Life in Congress (1783)

[1783

Princeton Sept* 8th 1783
DEAR Mrs Huntington
Since my Last Nothing Material has hapned a Dutch
Minister is Dayly Expected to arrive in Philadelphia and it
was Rumoured that Some of his furniture was arrived last
Week This must be a Wonderful great Affair and what
Congress can Do with this Great Personage in Princeton is
more than Humane Wisdom can Divise [devise] for there
are not Buildings Sufficient to House more Dons [gentle
men] nor . . . Indeed as many as are Already here Some
are under Necessity to Go to Philadelphia once or Twice
a fortnight to Breath in Polite Air. The Country so badly
agrees with those Sublime & Delicate Constitutions that it
is to be feared that many of them will Contract a Rusticity
that Can never be wholly Purged off We have nothing
here but the Necessaries and Comforts of Life and who can
live so? The Agreeables of the City cannot be had in the
Country I Expect no Business of Importance will be Done
untill Congress Returns to that Sweet Paridice [paradise]
from which they hastily took Flight in June last Since
which Time an Awkward Rustication has been their Painful
Situation on an Eminence in the Country where they have
no Musquitoes to Serenade them in bed and in the Day
they have a Prospect of no more than 30 or 40 Miles to the
High Lands on [or] the Sea Coast nor can they hear the
musick of Carts and Waggons on the Pavements in the City
nor See the motty Crowd of Beings in those Streets. This
must be Truely Distressing to Gentlemen of Taste — The
Ladies make less Complaint than the Gentlemen and the
Gentlemen who have their Ladies here seem in some Degree
Contented. The President of Congress who Belongs in the
Jersy is obliged to leave his Lady in Philadelphia to Keep
Possession but lias the Promise of a Very Genteel HoUse

No. 65]

Congress

165

here if he will take it but not Knowing whether Congress
will abide in Princetown or not, he is at the utmost Ix>ss
what to Do, Whether it is best for him and his wife to live
together as Peasants do in the Country or for her to be at
Philad" as the Ladies do, and for him to Live as a Gentle
man Doing Business in the Country in hopes of Retiring to
the Pleasures and amusements of the City when Business
is over this Matter Requiring Great Deliberation Cannot
(like the Emigration of Congress in June last) be hastily
Determined Thus you See we Great Folks are not without
Trouble. I hope to become a small man in a few Weeks
and Retire from the Embarrassments of Dignity to the Plain
& Peaceful Possessions of a Private Life not Desiring to
Live without Business but to do useful Business without ye
Pangs & Vanity of this Wicked World
All I have Wrote is not what I Designed when I began &
Consequently have not yet advanced one Step toward any
Design and having nothing to Write About am at a Great
Loss what to Write because it Requires more Strength of
Genius to Build on Hansom [an handsome] Fabrick with
out Materials than with — I am Spending Money very fast
but not so fast as I Could with the Same Degree of
Industery in Philadelphia & it is a Mortifying Consideration
that my Cash is Spent for no better Purposes, but the Great
& General Concerns of a Nation must [be] attended to and
the Fashions & Customs of the World are Such as Require
it to be Done with Expence — A new Fashion is among the
Ladies here which is the Same as at Philad" The Roll is
much less than formerly and is Raised to a Peak on their
Forehead Frowzled and Powdered and they wear Men's
Beaver Hats with a Large Tye of Gauze like a Sash or
Mourning Wead [weed] about the Crown & Decorated with
Feathers & Plumes on the Top which makes a very Daring
Appearance The Brim of the Hat is Loped before about
as low ns their Eyes and is a Kind of Riding Hat They
Walk Abroad and Sit in Church in the Same. Some have

The presi
dent of Con
gress was
Elias Boudi-
not; he was
a man of
large means.

Congress sat
at Princeton
because it
bad been
assaulted by
mutineers at
Philadelphia
in June, 1783.

On the fash
ions of the
time, see Con
temporaries, II, ch. xii;
HI. ch. i.

i66

Confederation

[x788

For docu
ments on the
Confederation, see
American History Leaf
lets, No. a8.

them in the Same Figure made of Paper and Covered with
Silk with Deep Crowns as a Beaver Hat but as this is much
out of the Line of Business I was sent here to do I have not
been very Particular on the Subject I might also mention
the Waistcoat and Long Sleaves much like the Riding habits
our Ladies wore Twenty five years ago but as they Differ
some from them & having no Right to be very Much in
Observation upon the Ladies I am not able to say Much on
the Subject
Give my love in Particular to Every Child in our Family &
Regards to Friends & Neighbors I am Dear Spouse
your Most Affectionate
Benj Huntington
Mas Anne Huntington
W. D. McCrackan, editor, The Huntington Letters (New York,
1897), 56-61.

No. 66 is
by Jean
Pikrre
Brissot de
War ville
(1754-1793).
a famous
French Re
publican. In 1788 he
founded a
society of
" Friends of
lhe Blacks,"
and in the
commission
of this body
came to
America to
inquire into
the condition
of the negro.
He partici
pated in the
French

66. The West (1788)
I HAVE not the time, my friend, to describe to you the
new country of the West; which, though at present
unknown to the Europeans, must, from the nature of things,
very soon merit the attention' of every commercial and
manufacturing nation. I shall lay before you at present
only a general view of these astonishing settlements, and
refer to another time the details which a speculative phi
losopher may be able to draw from them. At the foot of
the Alleganies, whose summits, however, do not threaten
the heavens, like those of the Andes and the Alps, begins
an immense plain, intersected with hills of a gentle ascent,
and watered every where with streams of all sizes ; the soil

No. 66]

The West

167

is from three to seven feet deep, and of an astonishing
fertility : it is proper for every kind of culture, and it multi
plies cattle almost without the care of man.
It is there that those estabUshments are formed, whose
prosperity attracts so many emigrants; such as Kentucky,
Frankland, Cumberland, Holston, Muskingum, and Scioto.
The oldest and most flourishing of these is Kentucky,
which began in 1775, had eight thousand inhabitants in
1782, fifty thousand in 1787, and seventy thousand in 1790.
It wUl soon be a State.
Cumberland, situated in the neighbourhood of Kentucky,
contains 8000 inhabitants, Holston 5000, and Frankland
25,000. ...
There is nothing to fear, that the danger from the savages
will ever arrest the ardour of the Americans for extending
their settlements. They all expect that the navigation of
the Missisippi becoming free, will soon open to them the
markets of the islands, and the Spanish colonies, for the pro
ductions with which their country overflows. But the ques
tion to be solved is, whether the Spaniards will open this
navigation willingly, or whether the Americans will force it.
A kind of negociation has been carried on, without effect
for four years ; and it is supposed, that certain States, fear
ing to lose their inhabitants by emigration to the West,
have, in concert with the Spanish minister, opposed it . . .
... a number of reasons determine me to believe, that
the present union will for ever subsist. A great part of the
property of the Western land belongs to people of the East ;
the unceasing emigrations serve perpetually to strengthen
their connexions ; and as it is for the interest both of the
East and West, to open an extensive commerce with South-
America, and to overleap the Missisippi; they must, and
will, remain united for the accomplishment of this object.
The Western inhabitants are convinced that this naviga
tion cannot remain a long time closed. They are deter-

R evolution
and became
leader of the
Girondists.Brissot was a
sympathetic .
observer of
Americanconditions and institu
tions. —
For early
Westernsettlements,see Contem
poraries, II,
chs. xx, xxii ;
III.
Frankland, or Franklin.
now eastern
Tennessee.

Spain, by
holding New
Orleans, con-
trolled the
mouth of the
Mississippi.

Through bounty lands
and land
companies.

i68

Confederation

[i78b

This predic
tion was justi
fied in 1803.

Ecuador.

Not fulfilled
entirely till
the emanci
pation in
Brazil, in
1888.

mined to open it by good will or by force ; and it would
not be in the power of Congress to moderate their ardour.
Men who have shook off the yoke of Great-Britain, and
who are masters of the Ohio and the Missisippi, cannot
conceive that the insolence of a handful of Spaniards can
think of shutting rivers and seas against a hundred thousand
free Americans. The slightest quarrel wiU be sufficient to
throw them into a flame ; and if ever the Americans shall
march towards New Orleans, it will infallibly fall into their
hands. . . .
I transport myself sometimes in imagination to the suc
ceeding century. I see this whole extent of continent, from
Canada to Quito, covered with cultivated fields, little vil
lages, and country houses. I see Happiness and Industry,
smiling side by side, Beauty adorning the daughter of
Nature, Liberty and Morals rendering almost useless the
coercion of Government and Laws, and gentle Tolerance
taking place of the ferocious Inquisition. I see Mexicans,
Peruvians, men of the United States, Frenchmen, and
Canadians, embracing each other, cursing tyrants, and bless
ing the reign of Liberty, which leads to universal harmony.
But the mines, the slaves, what is to become of them ? The
mines will be closed, and the slaves will become the brothers
of their masters. . . .
Our speculators in Europe are far from imagining that
two revolutions are preparing on this continent, which will
totally overturn the ideas and the commerce of the old : the
opening a canal of communication between the two oceans,
and abandoning the mines of Peru. Let the imagination of
the philosopher contemplate the consequences. They can
not but be happy for the human race.
J. P. Brissot de Warville, New Travels in the United States of
America. Performed in 178S (translated, London, 1792),
474-483 passim.

no. 67] Northwest Ordinance 169

67. The Inner History of the Northwest
Ordinance (1787)
~T^RIDAY, July 20 [1787]. This morning the Secre-
gl tary of Congress furnished me with the Ordinance of
yesterday, which states the conditions of a contract,
but on terms to which I shall by no means accede. Informed
the Committee of Congress that I could not contract on the
terms proposed ; should prefer purchasing lands of some of
the States, who would give incomparably better terms, and
therefore proposed to leave the City immediately. They
appeared to be very sorry no better terms were offered, and
insisted on my not thinking of leaving Congress until another
attempt was made. I told them I saw no prospect of a con
tract, and wished to spend no more time and money on a
business so unpromising. They assured me I had many
friends in Congress who would make every exertion in my
favor; that it was an object of great magnitude, and [I]
must not expect to accomplish it in less than two or three
months. If I desired it, they would take the matter up that
day on different ground, and did not doubt they should still
obtain terms agreeably to my wishes. . . .
Monday, July 23. My friends had made every exertion
in private conversation to bring over my opposers in Con
gress. In order to get at some of them, so as to work
powerfully on their minds, [we] were obliged to engage three
or four persons before we could get at them. In some
instances we engaged one person, who engaged a second,
and he a third, and so on to a fourth, before we could effect
our purpose. In these maneuvers I am much beholden to
the assistance of Colonel Duer and Major Sargent.
The matter was taken up this morning in Congress, and
warmly debated until 3 o'clock, when another ordinance

reverend
manasseh
Cutler (1742-1823).
a New Eng
land clergy
man who
served as a
chaplain in
the conti
nental army.'
He later be
came inter
ested in the
formation of
the Ohio
Company, of
which he was
made agent.
He dratted
for Nathan
Dane the
famous ordi
nance ex
cluding slav
ery from the
Northwest
Territory,
and furnish
ing a model
for the
colonial gov
ernments of
the United'
States. The
piece is also
an illustration
of the diffi
culties of
business in
the Congress
of the Con
federation. —
On the Ordi
nance, see
Contempora
ries, 111.

170

Confederation

[1787

Temple was
Britishconsul.

was obtained. This was not to the minds of my friends,
who were now considerably increased in Congress . . .
Thursday, July 26. . . . Dined with Sir John Temple.
Several gentlemen in company. Immediately after dining
took my leave and called on Dr. Holton. He told me that
Congress had been warmly engaged on our business the whole
day ; that the opposition was lessened, but our friends did not
think it prudent to come to a vote, lest there should not be
a majority in favor. I felt much discouraged, and told the
Doctor I thought it in vain to wait longer, and should certainly
leave the city the next day. He cried out on my impatience,
said if I obtained my purpose in a month from that time I
should be far more expeditious than was common in getting
much smaller matters through Congress ; that it was of great
magnitude, for it far exceeded any private contract ever
made before in the United States ; that if I should fail now,
I ought still to pursue the matter, for I should most certainly
finally obtain the object I wished. To comfort me he assured
me that it was impossible for him to conceive by what kind
of address I had so soon and so warmly engaged the atten
tion of Congress, for since he had been a member of that
body he assured me on his honor he never knew so much
attention paid to any one person who made application to
them on any kind of business, nor did he ever know them
more pressing to bring it to a close. He could not have
supposed that any three men from New England, even of
the first character, could have accomplished so much in so
short a time. This, I believe, was mere flattery, though it
was delivered with a very serious air, but it gave me some
consolation. I now learned very nearly who were for and
who were against the terms. Bingham is come over, but
Few and Kearney are stubborn. Unfortunately there are
only eight states represented, and unless seven of them are
in favor no ordinance can pass. Every moment of this even
ing until two o'clock was busily employed. A warm seige

no. 67] Northwest Ordinance 171
was laid on Few and Kearney from different quarters, and if
the point is not effectually carried the attack is to be renewed
in the morning. Duer, Sargent, and myself have also agreed,
if we fail, that Sargent shall go on to Maryland, which is not
at present represented, and prevail on the members to come
on, and to interest them, if possible, in our plan. I am to
go on to Connecticut and Rhode Island, to solicit the mem
bers from these states to go on to New York, and to lay an
anchor to the windward with them. As soon as those states
are represented Sargent is to renew the application, and I
have promised Duer, if it be found necessary, I wfll then
come on to New York again.
Friday, July 27. I rose very early this morning, and,
after adjusting my baggage for my return, for I was deter-
m[in]ed to leave New York this day, I set out on a general
morning visit, and paid my respects to all the members of
Congress in the city, and informed them of my intention to
leave the city that day. My expectations of obtaining a
contract, I told them, were nearly at an end, I should, how
ever, wait the decision of Congress, and if the terms we had
stated, and which I conceived to be exceedingly advantageous
to Congress, considering the circumstances of that country,
were not acceded to, we must turn our attention to some
other part of the country. New York, Connecticut, and
Massachusetts would sell us lands at half a dollar, and give
us exclusive privileges beyond what we had asked of Con
gress. . . . These and such like were the arguments I
urged. They seemed to be fully acceded to, but whether
they will avail is very uncertain. Mr. R. H. Lee assured me
he was prepared for one hour's speech, and he hoped for
success. All urged me not to leave the city so soon ; but I
assumed the air of perfect indifference, and persisted in my
determination, wliich had apparently the effect I wished.
Passing the City Hall as the members were going in to
Congress, Colonel Carrington told me he believed Few was

By Dele
gateGeorge Mason (1725-1792),
fourth of the
name in a
celebratedVirginia fam
ily. Among
other things
he drew up
the Virginia
Resolutions
of 1769, and
in 1776
drafted the
Virginia Declaration
of Rights.
He was a
member of
the Constitu
tional Con
vention, but
being very
democratic
and opposed
to extending
the powers of

172

Confederation

[1787

secured, that little Kearney was left alone, and that he
determined to make one trial of what he could do in Con
gress. Called at Sir John Temple's for letters to Boston ;
bid my friends good-by ; and, as it was my last day, Mr.
Henderson insisted on my dining with him and a number of
his friends whom he had invited.
At half-past three, I was informed that an Ordinance had
passed Congress on the terms stated in our letter, without
the least variation, and that the Board of Treasury was
directed to take Order and close the contract. . . .
Manasseh Cutler, Life, Journals, and Correspondence (edited by
W. P. Cutler and Julia P. Cutier, Cincinnati, 1888), I, 294-
305 passim.

68. Objections to the Constitution (1787)
THERE is no Declaration of Rights, and the laws of
the general government being paramount to the
laws and constitution of the several States, the Declarations
of Rights in the separate States, are no security. Nor are
the people secured even in the enjoyment of the benefit of
the common law.
In the House of Representatives there is not the substance
but the shadow only of representation ; which can never
produce proper information in the legislature, or inspire
confidence in the people ; the laws will therefore be gen
erally made by men little concerned in, and unacquainted
with their effects and consequences.
The Senate have the power of altering all money bills,
and of originating appropriations of money, and the salaries
of the officers of their own appointment, in conjunction
with the president of the United States, although they are
not the representatives of the people or amenable to them.

no. es] Constitution Criticized 173

These with their other great powers, viz. : their power in
the appointment of ambassadors and all public officers, in
making treaties, and in trying all impeachments, their in
fluence upon and connection with the supreme Executive
from these causes, their duration of office and their being a
constantly existing body, almost continually sitting, joined
with their being one complete branch of the legislature, will
destroy any balance in the government, and enable them to
accomplish what usurpations they please upon the rights and
liberties of the people.
The Judiciary of the United States is so constructed and
extended, as to absorb and destroy the judiciaries of the
several States; thereby rendering law as tedious, intricate
and expensive, and justice as unattainable, by a great part
of the community, as in England, and enabling the rich to
oppress and ruin the poor.
The President of the United States has no Constitutional
Council, a thing unknown in any safe and regular govern
ment. He will therefore be unsupported by proper infor
mation and advice, and will generally be directed by minions
and favorites ; or he will become a tool to the Senate — or
a Council of State will grow out of the principal officers of
the great departments ; the worst and most dangerous of all
ingredients for such a Council in a free country. From
this fatal defect has arisen the improper power of the Senate
in the appointment of public officers, and the alarming de
pendence and connection between that branch of the legis
lature and the supreme Executive.
Hence also sprung that unnecessary officer the Vice-
President, who for want of other employment is made
president of the Senate, thereby dangerously blending the
executive and legislative powers, besides always giving to
some one of the States an unnecessary and unjust pre
eminence over the others.
The President of the United States has the unrestrained

the executive
and legisla
tive, he de
clined to sign
the instru
ment framed.
The extract
is an example
of numerous
similar argu
ments. — For
text of the
Constitution.see American
History Leaf
lets, No. 8.—
For the Fed
eral Conven
tion, see Am.
Hist. Studies,
Nos. 5,6;
Contempora
ries, III.
This objec
tion has been
disproved by
experience. Not well
founded.This has not
come to pass.
The cabinet
has not as
sumed this
power.

The word
dangerous,as applied to
anything re
lating to the
vice-presi dential office,

J74

Confederation

[1787

causes a
smile at the
present day.

The tariff
laws were
later a cause
of complaint
by the South.

The " neces
sary and
proper "
clause, ever
since much
disputed.
The Ik k of a
Hill of Rights
was .1 fre
quent criti
cism, and led
to the first
ten amend
ments to the
L'onstiiution.

power of granting pardons for treason, which may be some
times exercised to screen from punishment those whom he
had secretly instigated to commit the crime, and thereby
prevent a discovery of his own guilt.
By declaring all treaties supreme laws of the land, the
Executive and the Senate have, in many cases, an exclusive
power of legislation; which might have been avoided by
proper distinctions with respect to treaties, and requiring the
assent of the House of Representatives, where it could be
done with safety.
By requiring only a majority to make all commercial and
navigation laws, the five Southern States, whose produce
and circumstances are totally different from that of the eight
Northern and Eastern States, may be ruined, for such rigid
and premature regulations may be made as will enable the
merchants of the Northern and Eastern States not only to
demand an exhorbitant freight, but to monopolize the pur
chase of the commodities at their own price, for many years,
to the great injury of the landed interest, and impoverish
ment of the people ; and the danger is the greater as the
gain on one side will be in proportion to the loss on the
other. Whereas requiring two-thirds of the members pres
ent in both Houses would have produced mutual moderation,
promoted the general interest, and removed an insuperable
objection to the adoption of this government.
Under their own construction of the general clause, at
the end of the enumerated powers, the Congress may grant
monopolies in trade and commerce, constitute new crimes,
inflict unusual and severe punishments, and extend their
powers as far as they shall think proper ; so that the State
legislatures have no security for the powers now presumed
to remain to them, or the people for their rights.
There is no declaration of any kind, for preserving the
liberty of the press, or the trial by jury in civil causes; nor
against the danger of standing armies in time of peace.

no. 69] Constitution Criticized 175
The State legislatures are restrained from laying export
duties on their own produce.
Both the general legislature and the State legislature are Laws made
expressly prohibited making ex post facto laws : though a5.er ,he.
.1 .... ° offence is .
there never was nor can be a legislature but must and will committed.
make such laws, when necessity and the public safety require
them ; which wiU hereafter be a breach of all the constitu
tions in the Union, and afford precedents for other innova
tions. This government will set out a moderate aristocracy : it is
at present impossible to foresee whether it will, in its opera
tion, produce a monarchy, or a corrupt, tyrannical aristoc
racy ; it will most probably vibrate some years between the
two, and then terminate in the one or the other.
The general legislature is restrained from prohibiting the Slave-trade
further importation of slaves for twenty odd years ; though P££ibi,ed in
such importations render the United States weaker, more
vulnerable, and less capable of defence.
Draft of the original manuscript, in Kate Mason Rowland,
The Life of George Mason (New York, etc., 1892), II,
.387-390.

69. The Political Harvest Time (1788)
HON. Mr. Smith. Mr. President, I am a plain man
and get my living by the plough. I am not used to
speak in publick, but I beg your leave to say a few words to
my brother plough-joggers in this house. I have lived in a
part of the country where I have known the worth of good
government by the want of it. There was a black cloud
that rose in the east last winter, and spread over the west.
{Here Mr. Widgery interrupted. Mr. President, I wish to
hww 7ohat the gentleman means by the east.) I mean, sir

By Colonel
JonathanB. Smith, a
member of
the Massa
chusetts con
vention of
178S, which
ratified the
Constitutionof the United
States. His
speech is a
good ex
ample of the
common-sense argu-

ment of the
plain practi
cal man in
favor of a
national con
stitution, be
sides being a
remarkable piece of good
English. —
Kor the State
ratifying con
ventions, see
Contempora
ries, 111.

The Shays's
Rebellion of
1786-87.

Adopted in
1780.

I76

Confederation

[1788

the county of Bristol ; the cloud rose there and burst upon
us, and produced a dreadful effect. It brought on a state
of anarchy, and that leads to tyranny. I say it brought
anarchy. People that used to live peaceably, and were
before good neighbours, got distracted and took up arms
against government. ' {Here Mr. Kingsley called to order,
and asked what had the history of last winter to do with the
Constitution t Several gentlemen, and among the rest the
Hon. Mr. Adams, said the gentleman was in order— let him
go on in his own way.) I am a going, Mr. President, to
shew, you, my brother farmers, what were the effects of
anarchy, that you may see the reasons why I wish for good
government. People, I say took up arms, and then if you
went to speak to them, you had the musket of death pre
sented to your breast. They would rob you of your property,
threaten to burn your houses; oblige you to be on your
guard night and day ; alarms spread from town to town ;
families were broke up ; the tender mother would cry, O my
son is among them ! What shall I do for my child ! Some
were taken captive, children taken out of their schools and
carried away. Then we should hear of an action, and the
poor prisoners were set in the front, to be killed by their own
friends. How dreadful, how distressing was this ! Our dis
tress was so great that we should have been glad to catch at
any thing that looked like a government for protection.
Had any person, that was able to protect us, come and set
up his standard we should all have flocked to it, even if it
had been a monarch, and that monarch might have proved
a tyrant, so that you see that anarchy leads to tyranny, and
better have one tyrant than so many at once.
Now, Mr. President, when I saw this Constitution, I found
that it was a cure for these disorders. It was just such a
thing as we wanted. I got a copy of it and read it over and
over. I had been a member of the Convention to form our
own state Constitution, and had learnt something of the

No. 69]

Constitution Advocated 177

checks and balances of power, and I found them all here.
I did not go to any lawyer, to ask his opinion, we have no
lawyer in our town, and we do well enough without. I
formed my own opinion, and was pleased with this Consti
tution. My honourable old daddy there {pointing to Mr.
Singletary) won't think that I expect to be a Congress-man,
and swallow up the liberties of the people. I never had any
post, nor do I want one, and before I am done you will think
that I don't deserve one. But I don't think the worse of
the Constitution because lawyers, and men of learning and
monied men, are fond of it. I don't suspect that they want
to get into Congress and abuse their power. I am not of
such a jealous make ; they that are honest men themselves
are not apt to suspect other people. I don't know why our
constituents have not as good a right to be as jealous of us,
as we seem to be of the Congress, and I think those gentle
men who are so very suspicious, that as soon as a man gets
into power he turns rogue, had better look at home.
We are by this Constitution allowed to send ten members
to Congress. Have we not more than that number fit to
go ? I dare say if we pick out ten, we shall have another
ten left, and I hope ten times ten, and will not these be a
check upon those that go ; Will they go to Congress and
abuse their power and do mischief, when they know that
they must return and look the other ten in the face, and be
called to account for their conduct? Some gentlemen think
that our liberty and property is not safe in the hands of
monied men, and men of learning, I am not of that mind.
Brother farmers, let us suppose a case now — suppose you
had a farm of 50 acres, and your title was disputed, and there
was a farm of 5000 acres joined to you that belonged to a
man of learning, and his title was involved in the same diffi
culty ; would not you be glad to have him for your friend,
rather than to stand alone in the dispute? Well, the case is
the same, these lawyers, these monied men, these men of

178

Confederation

C1788

learning, are all embarked in the same cause with us, and we
must all swim or sink together ; and shall we throw the Con
stitution over-board, because it does not please us aUke?
Suppose two or three of you had been at the pains to break
up a piece of rough land, and sow it with wheat — would you
let it lay waste, because you could not agree what sort of a
fence to make ? would it not be better to put ap[up] a fence
that did not please every one's fancy rather than not fence it
at all, or keep disputing about it, until the wild beast came
in and devoured it. Some gentlemen say, don't be in a
hurry — take time to consider, and don't take a leap in the
dark. — I say take things in time — gather fruit when it is
ripe. There is a time to sow and a time to reap ; we sowed
our seed when we sent men to the federal convention, now
is the harvest, now is the time to reap the fruit of our labour,
and if we don't do it now I am afraid we never shall have
another opportunity.
Debates, Resolutions and other Proceedings, of the Convention of
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1788 (reported by Ben
jamin Russell, Boston, 1788), 1 32-134.

Bv Francis
HOI'KINSON (1737-1791),
signer of the
Declaration
of Indepen
dence, one of
the commit
tee to draft
the Articles
of Confed
eration,member of
the Conti
nental Con
gress, and
later judge in
Pennsylva
nia. He was

70. "The New Roof" (1788)

'a song for federal mechanics.

COME muster, my lads, your mechanical tools,
Your saws and your axes, your hammers and rules ;
Bring your mallets and planes, your level and line,
And plenty of pins of American pine :
For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be,
Our government firm, and our citizens free.

No. 70]

The New Roof

179

11.
Come, up with the plates, lay them firm on the wall,
Like the people at large, they're the ground work of all ;
Examine them well, and see that they're sound,
Let no rotten part in our building be found :
For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be
A government firm, and our citizens Jree.

" III.
Now hand up the girders, lay each in his place,
Between them the joists, must divide all the space ;
Like assemblymen these should lie level along,
Like girders, our senate prove loyal and strong :
For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be
A government firm over citizens free.

one of the
earliestAmericanhumorisis,
and besides
wrote much
in prose and
verse to favor
the cause of
indepen
dence. The
phrase " New
Roof" was
popularly applied to
the Constitu
tion. — For
Hopkinson,
see Contem
poraries, II.
Nos. 96, 106.
— For the
going into
effect of the
Constitution,see Contem
poraries, III.

rv.
The rafters now frame; your king-posts and braces,
And drive your pins home, to keep all in their places;
Let wisdom and strength in the fabric combine,
And your pins be all made of American pine :
For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be,
A government firm over citizens free.

Our king-posts are judges; how upright they stand,
Supporting the braces ; the laws of the land :
The laws of the land, which divide right from wrong,
And strengthen the weak, by weak'ning the strong :
For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be,
Laws equal and just, for a people that s free.

i8o

The exact
date of the
piece is in
doubt, but
the allusion
to "States"
marks it as
written about
the time of
' the Federal
Convention.

Confederation

[i788

VI.

Up ! up ! with the rafters ; each frame is a state :
How nobly they rise ! their span, too, how great !
From the north to the south, o'er the whole they extend,
And rest on the walls, whilst the walls they defend :
For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be
Combined in strength, yet as citizens free.
VII.
Now enter the purlins, and drive your pins through ;
And see that your joints are drawn home and all true.
The purlins will bind all the rafters together :
The strength of the whole shall defy wind and weather :
For our roof we will raise, and our song still shall be,
United as states, but as citizens free.
VIII.
Come, raise up the turret; our glory and pride ;
In the centre it stands, o'er the whole to preside :
The sons of Columbia shall view with delight
Its pillar's, and arches, and towering height :
Our roof is now rats' d, and our song still shall be,
A federal head o'er a people that s free.
IX.
Huzza ! my brave boys, our work is complete ;
The world shall admire Columbia's fair seat ;
Its strength against tempest and time shall be proof,
And thousands shall come to dwell under our roof:
Whilst we drain the deep bowl, our toast still shall be
Our government firm, and our citizens free.
Francis Hopkinson, Miscellaneous Essays and Occasional Writ
ings (Philadelphia, 1792), II, 320-322.

CHAPTER XI — MAKING A GOVERN
MENT, 1789-1801

71-

A Democratic View of Washington
(1789-1790)
THE President advanced between the Senate
and Representatives, bowing to each. He
was placed in the chair by the Vice-President ; the Senate
with their president on the right, the Speaker and the
Representatives on his left. The Vice-President rose and
addressed a short sentence to him. The import of it was
that he should now take the oath of office as President.
He seemed to have forgot half what he was to say, for he
made a dead pause and stood for some time, to appearance,
in a vacant mood. He finished with a formal bow, and the
President was conducted out of the middle window into the
gallery, and the oath was administered by the Chancellor.
Notice that the business done was communicated to the
crowd by proclamation, etc., who gave three cheers, and
repeated it on the President's bowing to them.
As the company returned into the Senate chamber, the
President took the chair and the Senators and Representa
tives their seats. He rose, and all arose also, and addressed
them. This great man was agitated and embarrassed more
than ever he was by the leveled cannon or pointed musket.
He trembled, and several times could scarce make out to
read, though it must be supposed he had often read it before.
He put part of the fingers of his left hand into the side of
what I think the tailors call the fall of the breeches, chang
ing the paper into his left hand. After some time he then
181

By Senator
William
Maclay (1737-1804),
senator from
Pennsylvaniain 1789-91.
He had
served both
in the French
and Indian
and in the
Revolution
ary war. In
Congress he
was noted for
extreme democratic views, and
he soon
became a
leader of the
opposition to
Washington. His journal
presents a
graphic picture of the
social and.
political life
of the period,
enlivenedthough some
what dis
torted by the
violent preju
dices of the
author. It is
the only ac
count that we
have of the
debates ot the
Senate dur
ing the First
Congress,

1 8 2 The New Government [x789-

1790

for it sat in
secret ses
sion. This
piece first
describes Washing
ton's inaugu
ration, April
30, 1789.— On
Washington,see above,
Nos. 39, 59.
— On the or
ganization of
the federal
government,see American
Orations,
1.75-143: Contempora
ries, III, ch.

A usual cere
mony at that
time.

did the same with some of the fingers of his right hand.
When he came to the words all the world,'he made a flourish
with his right hand, which left rather an ungainly impression.
I sincerely, for my part, wished all set ceremony in the hands
of the dancing-masters, and that this first of men had read
off his address in the plainest manner, without ever taking
his eyes from the paper, for I felt hurt that he was not first
in everything. He was dressed in deep brown, with metal
buttons, with an eagle on them, white stockings, a bag, and
sword. ...
[Aug. 27.] Senate adjourned early. At a little after four
I called on Mr. Bassett, of the Delaware State. We went to
the President's to dinner. ... The President and Mrs.
Washington sat opposite each other in the middle of the
table ; the two secretaries, one at each end. It was a great
dinner, and the best of the kind I ever was at. The room,
however, was disagreeably warm.
First was the soup ; fish roasted and boiled ; meats, gam
mon, fowls, etc. This was the dinner. The middle of the
table was garnished in the usual tasty way, with small images,
flowers (artificial), etc. The dessert was, first apple-pies,
pudding, etc. ; then iced creams, jellies, etc. ; then water
melons, musk-melons, apples, peaches, nuts.
It was the most solemn dinner ever I sat at. Not a health
drank ; scarce a word said until the cloth was taken away.
Then the President, filling a glass of wine, with great formal
ity drank to the health of every individual by name round the
table. Everybody imitated him, charged glasses, and such
a buzz of " health, sir," and " health, madam," and " thank
you, sir," and "thank you, .madam," never had I heard be
fore. Indeed, I had liked to have been thrown out in the
hurry ; but I got a little wine in my glass, and passed the
ceremony. The ladies sat a good while, and the bottles
passed about ; but there was a dead silence almost. Mrs.
Washington at last withdrew with the ladies.

no. 7»] President Washington 183
I expected the men would now begin, but the same still
ness remained. The President told of a New England
clergyman who had lost a hat and wig in passing a river
called the Brunks. He smiled, and everybody else laughed.
He now and then said a sentence or two on some common
subject, and what he said was not amiss. . . . The Presi
dent kept a fork in his hand, when the cloth was taken away,
I thought for the purpose of picking nuts. He ate no nuts,
however, but played with the fork, striking on the edge of
the table with it. We did not sit long after ihe ladies re
tired. The President rose, went up-stairs to drink coffee ;
the company followed. I took my hat and came home. .. . .
This was levee day, and I accordingly dressed and did
the needful. It is an idle thing, but what is the life of men
but foUy? — and this is perhaps as innocent as any of them,
so far as respects the persons acting. The practice, how
ever, considered as a feature of royalty, is certainly anti-
republican. This certainly escapes nobody. The royalists
glory in it as a point gained. Republicans are borne down
by fashion and a fear of being charged with a want of respect
to General Washington. If there is treason in the wish I
retract it, but would to God this same General Washington
were in heaven ! We would not then have him brought for
ward as the constant cover to every- unconstitutional and
irrepublican act.
William Maclay, fournal (edited by Edgar S. Maclay, New
York, 1890), 8-351 passim.

Dec. 14, 1790;
the Levee
was the
President's
public recep
tion.

Even Wash
ington did
not escape
calumny.

72. Speech on the Tariff (1789)

By Fisher
Ames (1758-
1808), a
WHEN it was asked, What is the occasion of a high eralist, for
duty ? it was answered, that it is necessary in order ^fmbeTof *
to come at the proper tax on rum ; but I insist that there is Congress

from Massa
chusetts.
This speech
was made in
a debate on
what after
ward be
came the first
tariff act,
Massachu
setts opposed
the taxing of
hemp, flax,
and molas
ses, the two
former being
used for ship
cordage, the
latter as a
" raw mate
rial " in the
manufacture
of New Eng
land rum. —
For Ames,
see American
Orations, I,
na (another
speech). 359.
— On the
tariff dis
cussion, see
American Orations,
III, IV;
Contempora
ries, 111,1V;
AmericanHistory
Studies, No. IX.

184 The New Government [1789
no such necessity, while an excise is within our reach ; and
it is in this mode only that you can obtain any considerable
revenue. The gentleman from Virginia has said that the
manufacture of country rum is in no kind of danger from
the duty on molasses. He has stated to the House the
quantity made before the Revolution, and goes on to argue
that as West India rum paid no duty, and molasses paid
some, if the manufacture thrived under these disadvantages,
why should it not continue to support itself in future ? . . .
Mr. Speaker, we are not to consider molasses in the same
light as if it were in the form of rum. We are not to tax a
necessary of life in the same manner as we do a pernicious
luxury. I am sensible an attempt to draw a critical line of
distinction in this case, between what is necessary and what
is a luxury, will be attended with some difficulty ; but I con
ceive the distinction sufficient for our present purpose, if it
prove molasses to be necessary for the subsistence of the
people. No decent family can do without something by
way of sweetening ; whether this arises from custom or
necessity of nature, is not worth the inquiry ; if it is admitted
to be a requisite for the support of life, a tax on it will be
the same as a tax on bread; it is repugnant to the first
principles of policy to lay taxes of this nature in America.
What is it that entitles the United States to take rank of all
the nations in Europe, but because it is the best country for
the poor to live in ? If we go on taxing such articles as salt
and molasses, these advantages will not long continue to be
ours. It may be said that sugar is also a necessary of life :
true, but molasses, inasmuch as it is cheaper, can be more
easily obtained, and enters more into consumption, at least
of the poor. They apply it to various uses; it is a substi
tute for malt, in making beer; and shall it be said that the
General Government descends to small beer for its revenue,
while strong beer remains duty free? Why shall this dif
ference be made between the common drink of one part of

No.7«] The First Tariff

185

the continent and the other, unless it be with a view to
drive the people to drinking simple water? The gentleman
from Virginia contends that the consumers of eight pounds
of sugar pay more than those who use eight pounds of
molasses ; this may be true, but from the variety of ways in
which molasses is used, eight pounds is sooner consumed
than six or four pounds of sugar, which makes up the dif
ference. But do gentlemen mean that the poorest and
weakest part of the community shall pay as much for what
they use as the richer classes? Is this the reward of their
toil and industry? . . .
The question is plainly reducible to this : Shall we tax a
necessary of life in the same proportion as a luxury? Gen
tlemen will not contend for either the justice or policy of
such a measure; but they say the necessity of the case
obliges them ; they cannot come at the luxury but through
the raw material. They say they cannot lay an excise.
I ask, Why not? People may justly think it burden
some to raise all our supplies from impost. Much can be
obtained from this source, to be sure, by touching every
thing ; but I would recommend touching such things as are
essential to subsistence lightly, and bring in the excise as a
means of obtaining the deficiency ; it will be the more cer
tain way of making country rum contribute its proportion.
I am not against a duty in this shape ; but if the hand of
government is stretched out to oppress the various interests
I have enumerated by an unequal and oppressive tax on the
necessaries of life, I fear we shall destroy the fond hopes
entertained by our constituents that this government would
insure their rights, extend their commerce, and protect
their manufactures. Mothers will tell their children, when
they solicit their daily and accustomed nutriment, that the
new laws forbid them the use of it ; and they will grow up
in a detestation of the hand which proscribes their innocent
food, and the occupation of their fathers ; the language of

I.e. duty on
the manu
facture of
spirits.

A curious bit
of uncon
scious hu
mor.I.e. the occu
pation of dis
tilling rum.

1 86 The New Government [1790
complaint will circulate universally, and change the favorable
opinion now entertained to dislike and clamor.
The House will not suppose we are actuated by local in
terests in opposing a measure big with such dangerous con
sequences to the existence of the Union. They wiU admit
we have reason for persisting in our opposition to a high
duty, and may be inclined to join us in reducing it either to
five per cent or at most to one cent per gallon. If the ap
prehensions we have expressed shall be reaUzed, let it rest
upon the advocates of the present measure ; we have done
our duty, and it only remains for us to submit to that ruin in
which the whole may be involved.
Fisher Ames, Speeches (edited by Pelham W. Ames, Boston,
*87")t 13-18 passim.

By Secre
tary of
State Thomas
Jefferson (1743- 1826),
later the third
President ol
the United
States. Alex
ander Hamil
ton was at
this time Sec
retary of the
Treasury.
The enmity
between the
two men had
not reached
that acute
stage which
later would
have made
any compro
mise between
them impos
sible. The
issue was the
assumption

73. A Question of Compromise (1790)
THIS measure [the assumption of State debts] produced
the most bitter & angry contests ever known in Con
gress, before or since the union of the states. I arrived in
the midst of it. But a stranger to the ground, a stranger to
the actors on it, sd long absent as to have lost all familiarity
with the subject, and as yet unaware of it's object, I took no
concern in it. The great and trying question however was
lost in the H. of Representatives. So high were the feuds
excited by this subject, that on it's rejection, business was
suspended. Congress met and adjourned from day to day
without doing any thing, the parties being too much out of
temper to dp business together. The Eastern members par
ticularly, who, with Smith from South Carolina, were the
principal gamblers in these scenes, threatened a secession
and dissolution. Hamilton was in despair. As I was going
to the President's one day, I met him in the street. He

no. 73] Assumption and Capital 187
walked me backwards & forwards before the President's.
door for half an hour. He painted pathetically the temper
into which the legislature had been wrought, the disgust of
those who were called the Creditor states, the danger of the
secession of their members, and the separation of the states.
He observed that the members of the administration ought
to act in concert, that tho' this question was not of my de
partment, yet a common duty should make it a common
concern ; that the President was the center on which all ad
ministrative questions ultimately rested, and that all of us
should rally around him, and support with joint efforts
measures approved by him ; and that the question having
been lost by a small majority only, it was probable that an
appeal from me td the judgment and discretion of some of
my friends might effect a change in the vote, and the machine
of government, now suspended, might be again set into
motion. I told him that I was really a stranger to the
whole subject ; not having yet informed myself of the system
of finances adopted, I knew not how far this was a- necessary
sequence ; that undoubtedly if it's rejection endangered a
dissolution of our union at this incipient stage, I should
deem that the most unfortunate of all consequences, to avert
which all partial and temporary evils should be yielded. I
proposed to him however to dine with me the next day, and
I would invite another friend or two, bring them into'con-
ference together, and I thought it impossible that reasonable
men, consulting together coolly, could fail, by some mutual
sacrifices of opinion, to form a compromise which was to
save the union. The discussion took place. I could take
no part in it, but an exhortatory one, because I was a
stranger to the circumstances which should govern it. But
it was finally agreed that, whatever importance had been
attached to the rejection of this proposition, the preservation
of the union, & and of concord among the states was more
important, and that therefore it would be better that the

, of twenty
millions of
State debts,
desired by
Northern
capitalists,
and the fixing
of the Capital
on the Poto
mac, desired
by the South.
The extract
was written
by Jefferson
some time
after the
event, and
may be a
little colored
by prejudice.
He had just
returned from
abroad. — On Jeffer
son, see
American Orations, I,
366 ^ Contem
poraries, HI,
ch. . — On
the Capital
and assump
tion of State
debts, see
Contempora
ries, III,
Nos.

So in the
original.

Alexander White and
Richard
Bland Lee,
of Virginia;
Daniel Car
roll, of Mary
land, also
changed his
vote.

1 88 The New Government [1794
vote of rejection should be rescinded, to effect which some
members should change their votes. But it was observed
that this pill would be peculiarly bitter to the Southern
States, and that some concomitant measure should be
adopted to sweeten it a little to them. There had before
been propositions to fix the seat of government either at
Philadelphia, or at Georgetown on the Potomac ; and it was
thought that by giving it to Philadelphia for ten years, and
to Georgetown permanently afterwards, this might, as an
anodyne, calm in some degree the ferment which might be
excited by the other measure alone. So two of the Potomac
members (White & Lee, but White with a revulsion of
stomach almost convulsive) agreed to change their votes, &
Hamilton undertook to carry the other point. In doing this
the influence he had established over the Eastern members
. . . effected his side of the engagement. And so the as
sumption was passed, and twenty millions of stock divided
among favored states . . .
Thomas Jefferson, The Anas, in his Writings (edited by P. L.
Ford, New York, etc., 1892), I, 162-164.

By Chief
JusticeJohn Jay
(1745-1829). lay had had
considerable diplomatic
training, hav
ing been, in
1778, minis
ter to Spain,
in 1783 one
of the com
missioners to
negotiate the
Peace of Ver
sailles, and,

74. Maritime Grievances (1794)
THE undersigned, envoy of the United States of Amer
ica, has the honour of representing to the Right Hon
orable Lord Grenville, his Britannic Majesty's Secretary of
State for the Department of Foreign Affairs :
That a very considerable number of American vessels
have been irregularly captured, and as improperly con
demned by certain of his Majesty's officers and judges.
That, in various instances, these captures and condem
nations were so conducted, and the captured placed under

no. 74] Maritime Grievances 189

such unfavourable circumstances, as that, for want of the
securities required, and other obstacles, no appeals were
made in certain cases, nor any claims in others.
The undersigned presumes that these facts will appear
from the documents which he has had the honour of sub
mitting to his Lordship's consideration ; and that it will not
be deemed necessary, at present, to particularize these cases
and their merits, or detail the circumstances which discrim
inate some from others.
That great and extensive injuries having thus, under colour
of his Majesty's authority and commissions, been done to a
numerous class of American merchants, the United States
can, for reparation, have recourse only to the justice, author
ity, and- interposition of his Majesty.
That the vessels and property taken and condemned
have been chiefly sold, and the proceeds divided among
a great number of persons, of whom some are dead, some
unable to make retribution, and others, from frequent remov
als and their particular circumstances, not easily reached
by civil process.
That as, for these losses and injuries, adequate compen
sation, by means of judicial proceedings, has become im
practicable, and, considering the causes which combined to
produce them, the United States confide in his Majesty's
justice and magnanimity to cause such compensation to be
made to these innocent sufferers as may be consistent with
equity ; and the undersigned flatters himself that such prin
ciples may, without difficulty, be adopted, as will serve as
rules whereby to ascertain the cases and the amount of
compensation. So grievous are the expenses and delays attending litigated
suits, to persons whose fortunes have been so materially
affected, and so great is the distance of Great Britain from
America, that the undersigned thinks he ought to express
his anxiety that a mode of proceeding as summary and

under the
Confederation, Secre
tary of
Foreign Af
fairs, an office
which he re
signed to be
come Chief
Justice in
1789. In
1794 the
country was
on the brink
of war with
England, but
the treaty
which Jay
negotiated
with Lord
Grenville, •
November *9. 1794.
averted war
for some
years. The
piece is the
full text of a
memoran
dum laid by
Jay before
the British
government ;
it does not
include the
grievances of
the retention
of the frontier
posts by Eng
land, the
carrying
away of
slaves, and
the withhold
ing of trade
with the
West Indies.
— For Jay,
see Contem
poraries, III,
No. .—
For maritime
grievances,see American
Orations, I,
84-130; Con-

temporaries, III, ch.

The most
seriousgrievance down to 1812.
— See below,
No. 76.

190 The New Government [1794*
little expensive may be devised as circumstances and the
peculiar hardship of these cases may appear to permit and
require. And as (at least in some of these cases) it may be expe
dient and necessary, as well as just, that the sentences of the
courts of vice-admiralty should be revised and corrected by
the Court of Appeals here, the undersigned hopes it will
appear reasonable to his Majesty to order that the captured
in question (who have not already so done) be there ad
mitted to enter both their appeals and their claims.
The undersigned also finds it to be his duty to represent
that the irregularities before mentioned extended not only
to the capture and condemnation of American vessels and
property, and to unusual personal severities, but even to the
impressment of American citizens to serve on board of armed
vessels. He forbears to dwell on the injuries done to the
unfortunate individuals, or on the emotions which they must
naturally excite, either in the breast of the nation to whom
they belong, or of the just and humane of every country.
His reliance on the justice and benevolence of his Majesty
leads him to indulge a pleasing expectation that orders will
be given that Americans so circumstanced be immediately
Uberated, and that persons honoured with his Majesty's
commissions do, in future, abstain from similar violences.
It is with cordial satisfaction that the undersigned reflects
on the impressions which such equitable and conciliatory
measures would make on the minds of the United States,
and how naturally they would inspire and cherish those sen
timents and dispositions which never fail to preserve, as well
as to produce, respect, esteem, and friendship. John Jay.
London, July 30, 1794.
John Jay, Correspondence and Public Papers (edited by Henry
P. Johnston, New York, etc., [1893]), IV, 38-41.

wo. 75] X Y Z Correspondence 191

75. "The X Y Z Despatches" (1797)

A'

Paris, October 22, 1797.
LL of us having arrived at Paris on the even-
l ing of the 4th instant, on the next day we
verbally, and unofficially, informed the Minister of Foreign
Affairs therewith, and desired to know when he would be at
leisure to receive one of our secretaries with the official
notification. He appointed the next day at two o'clock,
when Major Rutledge waited on him ...
In the evening ... Mr. X. called on General Pinckney,
and after having sat some time, * * * whispered him that
he had a message from M. Talleyrand to communicate when
he was at leisure. . . . General Pinckney said he should be
glad to hear it. M. X. replied that the Directory, and
particularly two of the members of it, were exceedingly
irritated at some passages of the President's speech, and
desired that they should be softened ; and that this step
would be necessary previous to our reception. That, be
sides this, a sum of money was required for the pocket of
the Directory and ministers, which would be at the disposal
of M. Talleyrand ; and that a loan would also be insisted on.
M. X. said if we acceded to these measures, M. Talleyrand
had no doubt that all our differences with France might be
accommodated. ...
October the 21st, M. X. came before nine o'clock; M.
Y. did not come until ten : he had passed the morning with
M. Talleyrand. After breakfast the subject was immediately
resumed. ... He [M. Y.] said . . . that if we desired
him to point out the sum which he believed would be satis
factory [to the Directory], he would do so. We requested
him to proceed; and he said that there were thirty-two
millions of florins, of Dutch inscriptions, worth ten shillings
in the pound, which might be assigned to us at twenty shil-

ByC.C. Pinckney(1746-1825),
John Marshall
(1755-1835),
and Elbridoe
Gerry
(1744-1814),
sent to
France in
1797 as joint
envoys to
settle various
disputedquestions
between the
two govern
ments.Talleyrand, FrenchForeignMinister, re
fused to re
ceive them,
but through
secret agents
("X," " Y,"
and"Z") made an
unofficial
demand for
bribes as a
necessarypreliminary
to any settle
ment. The
extracts are
from the en
voys' de
spatcheshome, which
were made
public and
caused war
with France
in 1798.
They are an
example of
diplomaticcorrespondence. — For
relations with

France, see
Contempora
ries, II, Nos.
1^,213,216; III. ch.

I.e. a bribe.

The Ameri
can grievance
was the ille
gal capture of
American merchant men ; the
French
grievance was that
commercialprivilege had
been allowed
to England.
— See No.
74, above. .

192 The New Government [179?
lings in the pound ; and he proceeded to state to us the
certainty that, after a peace, the Dutch Government would
repay us the money; so that we should ultimately lose
nothing, and the only operation of the measure would be,
an advance from us to France of thirty-two millions, on the
credit of the Government of Holland. We asked him
whether the fifty thousand pounds sterling, as a douceur to
the Directory, must be in addition to this sum. He an
swered in the affirmative. . . .
We committed immediately to writing the answer we
proposed, in the following words : " Our powers respecting
a treaty are ample ; but the proposition of a loan, in the
form of Dutch inscriptions, or in any other form, is not
within the limits of our instructions ; upon this point, there
fore, the Government must be consulted ; one of the Ameri
can ministers will, for the purpose, forthwith embark for
America; provided the Directory will suspend all further
captures on American vessels, and will suspend proceedings
on those already captured, as well where they have been
already condemned, as where the decisions have not yet
been rendered ; and that where sales have been made, but
the money not yet received by the captors, it shall not be
paid until the preliminary questions, proposed to the minis
ters of the United States, be discussed and decided : "
which was read as a verbal answer ; and we told them they
might copy it if they pleased. M. Y. refused to do so ; his
disappointment was apparent ; he said we treated the money
part of the proposition as if it had proceeded from the
Directory ; whereas, in fact, it did not proceed even from
the minister, but was only a suggestion from himself, as a
substitute to be proposed by us, in order to avoid the pain
ful acknowledgment that the Directory had determined to
demand of us. It was told him that we understood that
matter perfectly ; that we knew the proposition was in form
to be ours ; but that it came substantially from the minister.

wo. 75] X Y Z Correspondence 193
We asked what had led to our present conversation ? And
General Pinckney then repeated the first communication
from M. X. . . . October, 27, 1797.
About twelve we received another visit from M. X. . . ..
He mentioned the change in the state of things which had
been produced by the peace with the emperor, as warrant
ing an expectation of a change in our system ; to which we
only replied, that this event had been expected by us, and
would not, in any degree, affect our conduct. M. X. urged,
that the Directory had, since this peace, taken a higher and
more decided tone with respect to us, and all other neutral
nations, than had been before taken; that it had been
determined, that all nations should aid them, or be con
sidered and treated as their enemies. We answered, that
such an effect had already been contemplated by us, as
probable, and had not been overlooked when we gave to
this proposition our decided answer; and further, that we
had no powers to negotiate for a loan of money ; that our
Government had not contemplated such a circumstance in
any degree whatever ; that if we should stipulate a loan, it
would be a perfectly void thing, and would only deceive
France, and expose ourselves. M. X. again expatiated on
the power and violence of France : he urged the danger of
our situation, and pressed the policy of softening them, and
of thereby obtaining time. The present men, he said,
would very probably not continue long in power, and it
would be very unfortunate if those who might succeed, with
better dispositions towards us, should find the two nations
in actual war. We answered, that if war should be made ort
us by France, it would be so obviously forced on us, that, on
a change of men, peace might be made with as much
facility as the present differences could be accommodated.
We added, that all America deprecated a war with France ;
but that our present situation was more ruinous to us than

The French
were furious
because the
lay treaty
had averted
war. — See
above, No. 74.

Pinckney
and Mar
shall soon
withdrew ;
Gerry re
mained, but
was speedily
orderedhome.

194 The New Government [1799
a declared war could be ; that at present our commerce was
plundered unprotected; but that if war was declared, we
should seek the means of protection. M. X. said, he hoped
we should not form a connexion with Britain ; and we
answered, that we hoped so too; that we had all been
engaged in our Revolutionary war, and felt its injuries;
that it had made the deepest impression on us ; but that if
France should attack us, we must seek the best means of
self-defence. M. X. again returned to the subject of
money : Said he, gentlemen, you do not speak to the
point ; it is money : it is expected that ypu wiU offer money.
We said that we had spoken to that point very explicitly :
we had given an answer. No, said he, you have not : what
is your answer? We replied, it is no; no; not a six
pence. . . .
American State Papers, Foreign Relations (edited by Walter
Lowrie and Matthew St. Clair Clarke, Washington, 1832),
II, 157-161 passim.

By Richard
Carier (born 1774).
By ancient
custom the
Koglish n.nvy
h.id the right
10 compel
1-lnjjlis.h sail
ors lo serve;
niter the
Revolution
it insisted
lhat men
born in Eng
land but
naturalized in
the United
States were
also liable,
and took

76. A Case of Impressment (1799)
Jamaica, ss.
RICHARD CARTER, mariner, one of the seamen of
and belonging to the ship called the Pomona, of the
port of Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, one of the United
States of North America, being duly sworn, maketh oath and
saith, that he, this deponent, was born in Kittery in the State
of Massachusetts, in North America, on or about the twelfth
day of June, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-four,
and is a citizen of the United States of North America, and
had a regular certificate thereof, signed by the proper officer,
a true copy whereof is hereunto annexed ; and this deponent

No. 76]

Impressment

*95

saith, on or about the twenty-third day of April last, he
shipped as a seaman on board the said ship Pomona, at
Portsmouth aforesaid, for a voyage from thence to Jamaica,
and back, and accordingly departed io the said ship on the
said voyage, and arrived in Kingston, Jamaica, on or about
the seventh day of June instant, where the cargo was to be
discharged ; and this deponent saith, that while he was em
ployed in his duty as a seaman, assisting in discharging the
cargo of the said ship Pomona, on the eleventh day of this
instant, June, he was taken and seized by a press-gang,
belonging to His Britannic Majesty's ship of war the Bruns
wick, and forcibly carried away, notwithstanding this depo
nent represented to the officer who commanded the said
press gang, that he was an American citizen, and had u reg
ular certificate thereof on board the said ship Pomona ; and
this deponent saith he was violently forced into a boat and
struck twice with a drawn cutlass, by one of the officers with
the said press gang, and two men with pistols and hangers
placed over this deponent, who loaded their pistols in the
presence of deponent, and threatened to blow out his brains
if he attempted to move or to speak ; and then they carried
this deponent, and also John Edes, one of the seamen of
the ship Thomas and Sarah, an American citizen whom they
had also seized, on board the said ship of war the Bruns
wick : and this deponent saith, on getting on board the
Brunswick, this deponent, and the said John Edes, were
ordered to go on the quarter deck, where Mr. Harris, the
first lieutenant of the said ship, abused this deponent and
the said John Edes, and gave them in charge to the master
of the said ship, while he went to look for the boatswain's
mate, and soon after returned with the boatswain's mate,
whom he ordered to take this deponent and the said John
Edes, and to beat them ; in obedience to which orders, the
said John Edes and this deponent were severely beaten,
particularly this deponent, the said boatswain's mate doub-

them off mer
chant ships
on the open
seas. When
war broke
out between
France and
England, in
1793, the
practicebegan on a
large scale.
This account
describes one.
case out of
hundreds of
violence and
hardship. Impressment
was the main
cause of the
war of 18 13,
but was not
mentioned in
the Treaty of
Ghent— On
this and
other aggres
sions on neu
tral trade, see
above, No.
74; below,
Nos. 79, 81,
83. Carter could
not properly
be taken even
on the ex--
treme British
ground. Certificateswere issued
to undoubted
citizens, as a
means of
protection.

This is a
good exam
ple of sworn
affidavits as
historical
material.

196 The New Government [1799
ling a rope of about three inches and a half thick, and beat
ing this deponent with great violence over the head, face,
neck, shoulders, back, and stomach, until he had tired him
self, and then he gave the same rope to one of the mariners
of the said ship Brunswick, and he also severely beat this
deponent in the same manner ; and this deponent saith, he
received upwards of a hundred blows, and was thereby
greatly bruised, and his face cut, and his stomach as well
externally as internally much injured, so that this deponent
brought up a quantity of blood for several days after ; and
this deponent saith, that notwithstanding he had been so
cruelly treated, he was compelled to assist in hoisting in the
boats belonging to the said ship ; and this deponent saith,
that Nathaniel Kennerd, the master of the said ship Pomona,
immediately after this deponent was seized by the press
gang, went to the said ship Brunswick, and arrived on board
just before this deponent ; and the said Nathaniel Kennerd
took with him the certificate of this deponent being an
American citizen, and submitted the same to the said Lieu
tenant Harris ; and this deponent saith, he did not give any
provocation or commit any offence whatever to authorize or
induce the treatment which he received as above stated ;
and this deponent saith, he was forcibly detained on board
the said ship Brunswick for the space of ten days, when he
was brought back to the Pomona, in consequence of a writ
of habeas corpus having been sued forth on behalf of this
deponent. RICHARD CARTER.
Sworn before me (being first duly stamped) this 25th day
of June, 1799. WM SAvAGE.
American State Papers, Foreign Relations (edited by Walter
Lowrie and .Matthew St. Clair Clarke, Washington, 1832),
II, 273-

CHAPTER XII— JEFFERSON'S
POLICY, 1 801-1808
77. Election of Jefferson (1801)
IT is probable, that the persons who compose this audience,
have never met to celebrate the anniversary of American
Independence, with sensations, similar to those which they
experience this day. Since the last year, the administration
of our national government has gone into the hands of men,
whom the generality of the people of New-England have
long viewed as its enemies — men, whose principles, and
practices, we have both feared, and reprobated. A change
of this sort, in a country like this, could not have been
wrought without a violent struggle. One side grasping at
power, and emolument; the other eagerly endeavouring to
save their constitution, and country, exhibit to our view a
state of things which presupposes passion, strife and tumult.
Success having crowned the exertions of the party, which
with no small share of parade assumes the title of Rupubli-
can*; but which, in more correct, and definite phraseology,
is called Jacobinical ; the Federalists, a class of men, to
which I trust the most of us are still proud to belong,
prudently, and justly yielded to a Constitutional Election of
Chief Magistrates, and resolved to wait for events, which to
the eye of reason, and common foresight, could not be far
distant. The inaugural speech of the new President, was, I
believe, very consonant to the feelings, and wishes, of his
political opponents. For thov it contained lio specific
engagements, relative to the course which the administration
intended to pursue ; yet it approached so near to this point,
* So in the original.
«97

By Theo
dore Dwight (1764-1846),
brother of
Timothy Dwight," who
was president
of Yale Col
lege. Dwight
was at one
time editor of
the Connecti
cut Mirror,
the leading
Federalist
organ of
Connecticut.This ex
tract, from
his Fourth of
July oration
before the
Connecticut
Society of the
Cincinnati,is an ex
treme ex
pression of
the leelings
with which
the New
England Federalists
regarded the
advent to
office of Jef
ferson and
his party.
It is also
an example
of a political
speech,which must

be accepted
as evidence
not of facts,
but of the
temper and
opinions of
the times. —
For Jeffer
son, see
above, No.
73- — For his
policy, see
American Orations, I,
»47-i63; Contempora
ries, III,
ch. The Federal
ists looked
on the elec
tion of
Jefferson as
another .
revolution,and all but
elected Burr
over him.

Jefferson was
disinclined to
make politi
cal removals,
but, under
party press-
ure.dis-
placed about
half his
officials.

The Federal
ists used the
term "Jaco
bin " con-

198 Jefferson's Policy osoi
as that most people would consider a violent departure from
the Federal principles, as a breach of faith. In this situa
tion, it was easy to foresee, that if Mr. Jefferson fulfilled the
seeming promises in his speech, he would be deserted by the
furious of his own party ; if he failed to fulfil them, the more
moderate of both parties would charge him with hypocrisy :
A dilemma, not the most enviable for a man, burthened with
duties of a new and difficult nature ; duties, from which
many minds of more skill and firmness than his, would have
shrunk with dismay. The Federalists are, therefore, quietly
waiting for the disclosure of the principles, which are to
govern the new administration. This disclosure, must, in
the nature of things, be near at hand. Those, who have
heretofore, with all their skill, and labours, opposed, and
embarrassed, the operations of the government, will now
have its duties to perform, its measures to originate, and its
influence and dignity to uphold. Although we are now in
the midst of that period, which, after such turbulence, and
convulsion, is usually settled, and serene ; yet we have re
ceived some samples of what we may hereafter expect from
the hands of our rulers, when thoroughly fixed in their
stations. On this subject, I forbear to comment. It is not
expedient, at present, to examine, how far the powers of the
President to remove from Office, and to supply the vacan
cies made by himself, " during the recess of the Senate,"
extend ; and it will be difficult to deprive him of the power
of construing his own declarations in his own manner. It
is with the result of the administration ; that we are more
immediately concerned. For that, we must patiently wait.
I trust, however, that, if driven into an opposition, the Fed
eralists will not degrade themselves, nor. their cause, by a
sullen, indecorous, unprincipled, and indiscriminate oppo
sition ; but will shew, that they are actuated by higher
motives than those, by which a Jacobinical opposition has
heretofore been influenced. They will doubtless remember,

No. 77]

Criticism

199

that they have a cause to support, a government at stake;
and will conduct [themselves] like men, in so interesting
and responsible a situation.
In the mean time, let us profit by the lessons which the
Jacobins have taught us. We have learned from experience,
what great things may be accomplished by a spirit of union,
vigilance, and activity. We have seen a vicious combina
tion, composed of the most discordant materials, agreeing
to bury their individual, and separate interests, and passions,
and uniting, with one heart, and hand, to forward by every
mean, and at all hazards, the general plans of the party.
We have also seen them succeeed. That government,
which the collected wisdom, virtue and patriotism of the
United States originally planned, and, which we flattered
ourselves, was established in its operation, under the auspices,
the skill the pre-eminent virtues, and singular talents, of
the fathf.r of his countrv is now the sport of popular
commotion — is adrift, without helm or compass, in a turbid
and boisterous ocean. To be prepared against the hour of
its shipwreck, or to bring it back in safety to its wonted
haven, the Federal party must also unite, be watchful, and
active. Confident as we are, that the present administration
is not competent to the management of the government,
upon Jacobinical principles, it is the indispensible duty of
the Federalists to be prepared for any event that may
happen. For this purpose, they must move in a firm, com
pact, & formidable phalanx, which no common force can
resist, & no ordinary danger intimidate. . . . -
Let the people of New-England, and especially the people
of Connecticut, enslaved and deluded as they are, contrast
this Tartarean state, with their own real, and substantial
blessings. However flattered they may be with the arts,
arid fawnings of Jacobinism ; however secure they may feel,
in the hour of revolution, from the tender care, and affection
of those who profess so much anxiety for their good ; let

tinuaily, in
order to con
nect their ad
versaries
with the ultra-
doctrines of
the French
Revolution.

Ix. the Jef-
fersonia n Re
publicans.

So in the
original.

So in the
original.

Isaiah xxviii,
18-20.

Bv Presi
dent
Thomas If.fferson.
It is one of
the curious
anomalies in
our history,

78. Acquisition of Louisiana (1803)
THE acquisition of New Orleans would of itself
have been a great thing, as it would have en
sured to our western brethren the means of exporting their

200 Jefferson's Policy [1803 i
them remember, that the people of many countries have
made the same experiment which is now offered to them,
and trusting to the same security, have been irretrievably
enslaved, and ruined. When the reigns [reins] of power
are in their hands, then these friends of the people, convince
those whom they have seduced, that all dependence on their
engagements, and promises, is vain. Then " your covenant
with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with
heU shall not stand : when the overflowing scourge shall pass
through then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the
time that it goeth forth, it shall take you : for morning by
morning it shall pass over, by day and by night : and it shall
be a vexation only to understand the report. For the bed
is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it ; and the
covering is narrower than that he can wrap himself in it."
On the contrary, how glorious will it be for Connecticut to
stand firmly amidst the convulsions, and downfal of the
nations of the world. Trusting in God, and adhering more
closely than ever to her government, her morals, and her
religion, —
"High o'er the wrecks of man she'll stand sublime,
A column in the melancholy waste,
(Its cities humbled, and its glories past)
Majestic 'mid the solitude of time."
Theodore Dwight, An Oration, delivered at New-Haven on the
7th of July, A.D. 1801, before the Society of the Cincinnati,
for . . . Connecticut (Suffield, 1801), 3-29 passim..

No. 78]

Louisiana

201

produce : but that of Louisiana is inappreciable, because,
giving us the sole dominion of the Mississippi, it excludes
those bickerings with foreign powers, which we know of a
certainty would have put us at war with France immediately :
and it secures to us the course of a peaceable nation.
The unquestioned bounds of Louisiana are the Iberville &
Mississippi on the east, the Mexicana, or the Highlands east
of it, on the west ; then from the head of the Mexicana gain
ing the highlands which include the waters of the Mississippi,
and following those highlands round the head springs of the
western waters of the Mississippi to its source where we
join the English or perhaps to the Lake of the Woods.
This may be considered as a triangle, one leg of which is
the length of the Missouri, the other of the Mississippi, and
the hypothenuse running from the source of the Missouri to
the mouth of the Mississippi. I should be averse to ex
changing any part of this for the Floridas, because it would
let Spain into the Mississippi on the principle of natural
right, [which] we have always urged & are now urging to
her, [namely] that a nation inhabiting the upper part of a
stream has a right of innocent passage down that stream to
the ocean : and because the Floridas will fall to us peace
ably the first war Spain is engaged in. We have some pre
tensions to extend the western territory of Louisiana to the
Rio Norte, or Bravo ; and still stronger [pretensions to ex
tend] the eastern boundary to the Rio Perdido between the
rivers Mobile & Pensacola. These last are so strong that
France had not relinquished them & our negotiator expressly
declared we should claim them [ : ], by properly availing
ourselves of these with offers of a price, and our peace, we
shall get the Floridas in good time. But in the meantime
we shall enter on the exercise of the right of passing down
all the rivers which rising in our territory, run thro1 the
Floridas. Spain will not oppose it by force. But there is a
difficulty in this acquisition which presents a handle to the

that our first
acquisitionof territory
should have
been secured
by our first
strict con
structionist President.
The greatest
event in Jef
ferson's ad
ministration
was the an
nexation of
Louisiana,
which was
unexpect
edly trans
ferred by Na
poleon, and
eagerly ac
cepted by
Jefferson notwith standing his
scruplesagainst national acts
not distinctly
authorized in
the text of
the Constitu
tion. — On
Jefferson, see
above. No.
73. — On
Louisiana,
see American
Orations, 1,
205-218 ;
Contempora
ries, 111, ch.
Ix. we will
offer to Spain
money and
friendship, if that
power will
admit our
pretensionsto West
Florida.

posed the
UnitedStates Bank,
on the
ground that
Congress had no ex
press power
to charter it

20 2 Jefferson's Policy [-804
malcontents among us, though they have not yet discovered
In 1791. it. Our confederation is certainly confined to the limits es-
jefferson op- taDlished by the revolution. The general government has
no powers but such as the constitution has given it ; ana it
has not given it a power of holding foreign territory, & still
less of incorporating it into the Union. An amendment of
the Constitution seems necessary for this. In the mean
time we must ratify & pay our money, as we have treated,
for a thing beyond the constitution, and rely on the nation
to sanction an act done for its great good, without its pre
vious authority. With respect to the disposal of the country,
we must take the island of New Orleans and west side of the
river as high up as Point Coupee, containing nearly the
whole inhabitants, say about 50,000, and erect it into a
state, or annex it to the Mississippi territory : and shut up
all the rest from settlement for a long time to come, endeav
oring to exchange some of the country there unoccupied
by Indians for the lands held by the Indians on this side
the Mississippi, who will be glad to cede us their country
here for an equivalent there : and we may sell out our lands
here & pay the whole debt contracted before it comes
due. The impost which will be paid by the inhabitants
ceded will pay half the interest of the price we give : so that
Title "o^Vest. we really add only half the price to our debt. . . .
Florida. Thomas Jefferson, Writings (edited by Paul Leicester Ford, New
York, etc., 1897), VIII, 261-263.

Made a state
in 1812.
This policy
was carried
out about
183aWe had
good title to
Texas, though Jefferson did
not know it,
and weak

Written in
1831 by
Midshipman Bash.
Hall (1788-
1844). Hall
entered the
British
service in

79. "Blockading a Neutral Port" (1804)
IN the summer of 1804, His Majesty's ships Leander
and Cambrian were ordered to proceed off New York,
to watch the motions of two French frigates lying in that
harbour. . . .

no. 79] Maritime Aggressions 203
The blockading service at any time is a tedious one ;. but
upon this occasion we contrived to enliven it in a manner,
which, whether legitimate or not, was certainly highly ex
citing, and sometimes rather profitable to us.
New York, every one knows, is the great sea-port of
America, into which, and out of which, many dozens of ships
sail daily. With the outward-bound vessels we had little or
nothing to do ; but with those which came from foreign parts,
especially from France, then our bitter enemy, we took the lib
erty—the Americans said the improper liberty — to interfere.
I speak not of French ships, or those which avowed them
selves to be such, and hoisted enemy's colours ; for of these
we, of course, made prize, without scruple, whenever we
could catch them beyond the limits of the American neu
trality. But this very rarely happened ; and the ships we
meddled with, so much to the displeasure of the Americans,
were those which, to outward appearance, belonged to citi
zens of the United States, but on board which, we had reason,
good or bad, to suspect there was cargo owned by the
enemy. Nothing seems to be so easy as to forge a shipps
papers, or to swear false oaths; and accordingly, a great
deal of French property was imported into America, in vessels
certainly belonging to the United States, but covered, as it
was called, by documents implying an American or neutral
right in it. . . . During the period of Buonaparte's conti
nental system, especially, about the year i"8io, many persons
in England engaged largely in what was called the licensed
trade, the very essence of which was false" swearing, false
papers, and the most unprincipled collusion of every kind.
A horrible way of making money, of which the base contam
ination, in the opinion of some of our best merchants, is not
yet quite washed away. So that poor Bony, directly and
indirectly, has enough to answer for ! . . .
Every morning, at daybreak, during our stay off New York,
we set about arresting the progress of all the vessels we saw,

1802 as a
midshipmanon board the
"Leander";
in 1806 he
was trans
ferred to the
" Leopard."
His work,
largely auto
biographical, contains much inter
esting matter
on the inter
nal state of
the navy in
the early part
of the cen
tury. The
English
practice of
lying off a
neutral port
gave just
offence to the
United States, and
was one of
the causes of
the war of
181 2.' — For
maritime
grievances, see above,
No. 74.— For
the principles
of neutral
trade, see
Contempora
ries, III, ch.
Tlie use of
talse papers
by many
Americanvessels was a
standing English
grievance.

204 Jefferson's Policy [ijjo*
firing off guns to the right and left, to make every ship that
was running in, heave to, or wait, until we had leisure to
send a boat on board, " to see," in our lingo, " what she was
made of." I have frequently known a dozen, and some
times a couple of dozen ships, lying a league or two off the
port, losing their fair wind, their tide, and worse than all,
their market, for many hours, sometimes the whole day,
before our search was completed. I am not now inquiring
whether all this was right, or whether it was even necessary,
but simply describing the fact
When any circumstance in the ship's papers looked sus
picious, the boarding officer brought the master and his
documents to the Leander, where they were further ex
amined by the captain ; and if any thing more important was
then elicited, by an examination of the parties or their
papers, to justify the idea that the cargo was French, and
not American, as was pretended, the ship was forthwith de
tained. She was then manned with an English crew from
the ships of war, and ordered off to Halifax, to be there tried
in the Admiralty Court, or adjudicated, as the term is ; and
Demurrage either released with or without demurrage, if proved to be
forPdetTntion. tru,y neutral property, or condemned, if it were shewn to
belong to the enemy.
One can easily conceive that this sort of proceeding, in
every possible case, must be vexatious to the neutral. If,
in point of fact, the whole, or a portion of the ship's cargo,
really belong to that ship's belligerent party, whose enemy
is investigating the case, and this be clearly made out, it is
still mortifying to the neutral to see the property taken away
which he has undertaken to cover so effectually as to guard
it from capture. If, on the other hand, the cargo be all the
while, bona fide, the property of the neutral under whose
flag it is sailing, the vexation caused by this interruption to
the voyage is excessive. In the event of restoration or ac
quittal, the owner's loss, it is said, is seldom, if ever, ad-

N0.79] Maritime Aggressions 205
equately compensated for by the awarded damages. In
most cases there are found a number of suspicious circum
stances, sufficient to justify the detention, but not enough
to lead to a condemnation ; and in these instances the re
muneration is not great.
If the case, then, be annoying in any view of it, supposing
the neutral ship to have been met with on the wide ocean,
what must be the aggravation when the vessel is laid hold of
at the instant she has aU but reached her own home? when
half an hour's further sailing would have ended the voyage
successfully, and put it beyond the power of either of the
belligerents to have asked any questions about the nature of
her objects, or the ownership of her cargo?
We detained, at that period, a good many American
vessels, on the ground of having French or Spanish property
on board. One of these, a very large ship from Lima, filled
with cocoa, was clearly made out to be a good prize, and
was condemned accordingly. Three or four others, I re
member, were restored to their owners by the decision of
the Admiralty Court; and two of them were forcibly recap
tured by the Americans, on their way to Halifax. On board
one of these ships, the master, and the few hands left in her
to give evidence at the trial, rose in the night, overpowered
the prize-master and his crew, nailed down the hatches,
and having put the helm up, with the wind on land, gained
the coast before the scale of authority could be turned. In
the other ship, the English officer in charge imprudently
allowed himself to be drifted so near the land, that the
people on the beach, suspecting what had happened, sent
off armed boats in sufficient number to repossess themselves
of the property. Possession in such cases being not nine,
but ten points of the law, we were left to whistle for our
prizes !
Captain Basil Hall, Fragments of Voyages and Travels (Edin
burgh, etc., 1831), I, 284-292 passim.

By Patrick
GASS, one of
the persons
employed in
the expedi
tion sent out
by President
Jefferson in
1804, under
Captain MeriwetherLewis and
Captain William Clark, to
explore the
new Louisi
ana Pur
chase. Sev
eral persons
of the explor
ing corps
were en-
i'oined to
:eep jour
nals, which
were from
time to time
correctedand com
pared; the
journal after
ward pub
lished by
Gass was one
of these. The
extract is a
good exam
ple of an
explorer'srecords, and
throws light
on the
Indians of
the North
west. — On
Oregon, see
Contempora
ries, III, ch.

206 Jefferson's Policy [1804-1805
80. Lewis and Clark's Oregon Expedition
(1804-1805)
THE corps consisted of forty- three men (including Cap
tain Lewis and Captain Clarke, who were to command
the expedition) part of the regular troops of the United
States, and part engaged for this particular enterprize. The
expedition was embarked on board a batteau and two peri-
ogues. The day was showery and in the evening we en
camped on the north bank six miles up the river. Here we
had leisure to reflect on our situation, and the nature of our
engagements : and, as we had all entered this service as
volunteers, to consider how far we stood pledged for the
success of an expedition, which the government had pro
jected ; and which, had been undertaken for the benefit and
at the expence of the Union : of course of much interest
and high expectation.
The best authenticated accounts informed us, that we
were to pass through a country possessed by numerous,
powerful and warlike nations of savages, of gigantic stature,
fierce, treacherous and cruel ; and particularly hostile to
white men. And fame had united with tradition in opposing
mountains to our course, which human enterprize and exer
tion would attempt in vain to pass. . . .
Friday is t June, 1804. Before daylight we embarked
and proceeded on our voyage ; passed Big Muddy creek on
the north side ; and on the opposite side saw high banks.
Two and an half miles higher up, we passed Bear creek; and
at 4 o'clock P. M. arrived at the Osage river ; where we
remained during the evening and the next day. The Osage
river is 197 yards wide at its confluence with the Missouri,
which, at this place, is 875 yards broad. The country on
the south side is broken, but rich: and the land on the
other of a most excellent quality. The two men who went

no. so] Oregon Expedition 207
by land with the horses came to us here : they represented
the land they had passed through as the best they had ever
seen, and the timber good, consisting chiefly of oak, ash,
hickory and black walnut. They had killed in their way five
deer. The periogue left at the mouth of Gaskenade river
came up with the man, who had been lost. . . .
Monday 24th. . . . This evening we finished our forti
fication. Flour, dried apples, pepper and other articles
were distributed in the different messes to enable them to
celebrate Christmas in a proper and social manner.
Tuesday 2 5 th. The morning was ushered in by two dis
charges of a swivel, and a round of small arms by the whole
corps. Captain Clarke then presented to each man a glass
of brandy, and we hoisted the American flag in the garrison,
and its first waving in fort Mandan was celebrated with
another glass. — The men then cleared out one of the rooms
and commenced dancing. At 10 o'clock we had another
glass of brandy, and at 1 a gun was fired as a signal for din
ner. At half past 2 another gun was fired, as a notice to
assemble at the dance, which was continued in a jovial
manner till 8 at night; and without the presence of any
females, except three squaws, wives to our interpreter, who
took no other part than the amusement of looking on. None
of the natives came to the garrison this day ; the command
ing officers having requested they should not, which was
strictly attended to. . . .
Thursday 12 th. We started early on our journey and had
' a fine morning. Having travelled 2 miles we reached the
mountains which are very steep ; but the road over them
pretty good, as it is much travelled by the natives, who come
across to the Flathead river to gather cherries and berries.
Our hunters in a short time killed 4 deer. At noon we
halted at a branch of the creek, on the banks of which are a
number of strawberry vines, haws, and service berry bushes.
At 2 we proceeded on over a large mountain, where there is

Gasconade River, in
Missouri.December,1804.

Tlie winter
quarters of
the expedi
tion ; it was
on the nortb
side of the
Missouri, in
what is now
McLeancounty. North
Dakota.

September, 1805.

Service-berry =
June-berry.

The conti
nental divide.

This was the
first public
expedition in
Oregon, and
it m.ide the
most impor
tant link in
the chain of
claims of the
United States
to the North
west coast.
'• Bore-
tree " =
bourtree, or
elder.

November,
180;.

208 Jefferson's Policy [1804-1805
no water, and we could find no place to encamp until late at
night, when we arrived at a small branch, and encamped by
it, in a very inconvenient place, having come 23 miles.
Friday \7,th. A cloudy morning. Capt. Lewis's horse
could not be found ; but some of the men were left to hunt
for him and we proceeded on. . . . We passed over a
dividing ridge to the waters of another creek, and after
travelling 12 miles we encamped on the creek, up which
there are some prairies or plains.
Saturday 14th. We set out early in a cloudy morning;
passed over a large mountain, crossed Stony creek, about 30
yards wide, and then went over another large mountain, on
which I saw service-berry bushes hanging full of fruit ; but
not yet ripe, owing to the coldness of the climate on these
mountains : I also saw a number of other shrubs, which bear
fruit, but for which I know no names. There are black
elder and bore-tree, pitch and spnice pine all growing
together on these mountains. Being here unable to find a
place to halt at, where our horses could feed, we went on to
the junction of Stony creek, with another large creek, which
a short distance down becomes a considerable river, and
encamped for the night, as it rained and was disagreeable
travelling. The two hunters, that had gone back here
joined us with Capt. Lewis's horse, but none of the hunters
killed any thing except 2 or 3 pheasants ; on which, without
a miracle it was impossible to feed 30 hungry men and up
wards, besides some Indians. So Capt. Lewis gave out some
portable soup, which he had along, to be used in cases of
necessity. Some of the men did not relish this soup, and
agreed to kill a colt ; which they immediately did, and set
about roasting it ; and which appeared to me to be good
eating. This day we travelled 1 7 miles. . . .
Friday 15 th. This morning the weather appeared to
settle and clear off, but the river remained still rough. So
we were obliged to continue here until about 1 o'clock,

no. 81] Oregon Expedition 209
when the weather became more calm, and we loaded and
set out from our disagreeable camp ; went about 3 miles,
when we came to the mouth of the river, where it empties
into a handsome bay. Here we halted on a sand beach,
formed a comfortable camp, and remained in full view of the
ocean, at this time more raging than pacific. One of the
two men who first went out came to us here, the other had
joined Capt. Lewis's party. Last night the Indians had stolen
their arms and accoutrements, but restored them on the
arrival of Captain Lewis and his men in the morning.
Saturday 16th. This was a clear morning and the wind
pretty high. We could see the waves, like small mountains,
rolling out in the ocean, and pretty bad in the bay.
WE are now at the end of our voyage, which has been
completely accomplished according to the intention of the
expedition, the object of which was to discover a passage by
the way of the Missouri and Columbia rivers to the Pacific
ocean ; notwithstanding the difficulties, privations and dan
gers, which we had to encounter, endure and surmount
Patrick Gass, A fournal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps
of Discovery, under the command of Capt. Lewis and Capt.
Clarke . . . (Pittsburgh, 1807), 12-165 passim.

At the mouth
of the Colum
bia, discov
ered in 179a
by the Ameri
can ship
" Columbia."
Here in x8io
John Jacob
Astorfounded Astoria. About 1830
settlers began
to come in.

81. Effect of the Embargo (1808)
I

By Josiah
Quincv
(1722-1864),
member of
Congtess from Massa
chusetts, and
one of the
sion. All the business of the nation is deranged. All its party of ex
treme Feder
alists known
as the " Essex
Junto"; he
was a great

'T is certain some provision must be made touch
ing the embargo previous to our adjournment.
A whole people is laboring under a most grievous oppres-

active hopes are frustrated. All its industry stagnant. Its
numerous products hastening to their market, are stopped in
their course. A dam is thrown across the current, and every

i

opponent of
Jefferson'sadministration. In a
speech Janu
ary 4, 1811,
he was one of
the first to an
nounce on
the floor of
Congress the
doctrine of
secession ;
and he
strenuously
opposed the
war. The
Embargo Act
of 1807 was a
prohibition on the de
parture of
any vessels
with cargoes
for foreign
ports, and
was meant to
bring Eng
land and
France to
terms.Quincy's
speech, in
spite of the
fact that he
was a parti
san, repre
sents the
actual condi
tion of
things. — On
Quincy, see
Contempora
ries, 111, No.
. — On the
Embargo,
see Contem
poraries, III,
ch.
The Em
bargo was
repealed in
1809, on ac
count of the
clamor of

210 Jefferson's Policy [180*
hour the strength and the tendency towards resistance is
accumulating. The scene we are now witnessing is alto
gether unparalleled in history. The tales of fiction have no
parallel for it. A new writ is executed upon a whole people.
Not, indeed, the old monarchial writ, ne exeat regno, but a
new republican writ, ne exeat republicd. Freemen, in the
pride of their liberty, have restraints imposed on them which
despotism never exercised. They are fastened down to the
soil by the enchantment of law ; and their property vanishes
in the very process of preservation. It is impossible for us
to separate and leave such a people at such a moment as
this, without administering some opiate to their distress.
Some hope, however distant, of alleviation must be prof
fered ; some prospect of relief opened. Otherwise, justly
might we fear for the result of such an unexampled pressure.
Who can say what counsels despair might suggest, or what
weapons it might furnish? . . .
. . . The embargo power, which now holds in its palsy
ing gripe all the hopes of this nation, is distinguished by
two characteristics of material import, in deciding what con
trol shall be left over it during our recess. I allude to its
greatness and its novelty.
As to its greatness, nothing is like it. Every class of men
feels it. Every interest in the nation is affected by it. The
merchant, the farmer, the planter, the mechanic, the labor
ing poor, — all are sinking under its weight. But there is
this that is peculiar to it, that there is no equality in its
nature. It is not like taxation, which raises revenue accord
ing to the average of wealth ; burdening the rich and letting
the poor go free. But it presses upon the particular classes
of society, in an inverse ratio to the capacity of each to bear
it. From those who have much, it takes indeed something.
But from those who have little, it takes all. For what hope
is left to the industrious poor when enterprise, activity, and
capital are proscribed their legitimate exercise? . . . The

No. 81]

The Embargo

211

regulations of society forbid what was once property to be
so any longer. For property depends on circulation, on
exchange ; on ideal value. The power of property is all
relative. It depends not merely upon opinion here, but upon
opinion in other countries. If it be cut off from its destined
market, much of it is worth nothing, and all of it is worth
infinitely less than when circulation is unobstructed.
This embargo power is, therefore, of all powers the most
enormous, in the manner in which it affects the hopes and
interests of a nation. But its magnitude is not more remark
able than its novelty. An experiment, such as is now mak
ing, was never before — I will not say tried — it never before
entered into the human imagination. There is nothing like
it in. the narrations of history or in the tales of fiction. All
the habits of a mighty nation are at once counteracted. All
their property depreciated. All their external connections
violated. Five millions of people are encaged. They can
not go beyond the limits of that once free country; now
they are not even permitted to thrust their own property
through the grates. I am not now questioning its policy, its
wisdom, or its practicability : I am merely stating the fact.
And I ask if such a power as this, thus great, thus novel,
thus interfering with all the great passions and interests of
a whole people, ought to be left for six months in operation,
without any power of control, except upon the occurrence
of certain specified and arbitrary contingencies? Who can
foretell when the spirit of endurance will cease? Who,
when the strength of nature shall outgrow the strength of
your bonds ? Or if they do, who can give a pledge that the
patience of the people will not first be exhausted. . . .
Josiah Quincy, Speeches delivered in the Congress of the United
States (edited by Edmund Quincy, Boston, 1874), 37-45
passim.

Southern
planters, whose ex
ports were
cut off, and of
the threats of
New Eng
land ship
owners.

It is still
doubtful
whether the
Embargo
was a consti
tutional statute.

The Em
bargo caused
great loss to
America, and
had little
effect on
England and
France,

By Francis
1 am es Jack
son (1770-
1814), a dip
lomat of wide
and extended
experience. He was sent,
in 1809, by
the British
government as minister
plenipotentiary to Wash
ington. He
began by as
suming that
his predeces
sor, Erskine,
had been
tricked, and
soon came to
a flat as
sertionthat the Sec
retary of
State was de
nying the
truth, and
that the
President
was involved.
His relations
were closed
by a note
from the
American
government,to the effect
that, owing to
It is insulting
language, it
could have
nothing fur
ther to do
with him.
After that he
made a tour
ol the Eastern

CHAPTER XIII — THE WAR OF 181a
82. Impressions of America (1810)

T°a

New York, May ist, 1810.
serve an immediate electioneering purpose
a story was circulated, on the arrival of the
packet, of Lord Wellesley having declared to Mr. Pinckney
his disapprobation of my conduct. . . .
In fact if Lord W. had even made such a declaration, he
would have hurt his own and his country's interests much
more than mine ; for the minds of men in this country are
now so completely made up for me and against the Gov
ernment that, in the end, I shall have little reason to care
what his Lordship says or thinks on the subject ; though I
look forward with full confidence to the next arrivals for a
full approbation of what I have done. Ministers cannot
disapprove of, though they may be sorry for it ; and if they
are sorry it must be for the trouble it occasions them, for as
I have told them, there is no loss of any adjustment of
differences — .that being impracticable with this country upon
the principles of my instractions. I hope they [the Eng
lish ministry] are adopting the line that I recommended to
them — that of procrastinating any negotiation whatever —
but they might as well have told me so for my own guidance
and information, instead of leaving me a prey to all the lies
and misrepresentations which the Democrats have found it
necessary to propagate on the subject for election purposes.
It would be an absolute disgrace to the country, and would
produce an impression never to be got over here — the ill
effects of which in all future transactions we should not fail

212

no. sa] Previous Diplomacy 213
to be made sensible of — if another minister were to be sent
out without some sort of satisfaction being taken or received
for the treatment I have experienced. They ought to in
sist on my being reinstated ; though God knows 10,000/. a
year and all the ribands, blue, green, or red that ever were
manufactured should not induce me to continue here.
However, if ministers have acted at all upon my predications,
as the Yankees say, they are now at liberty, from the course
things have progressively taken, to do exactly what they
please, even to turning out the democratic party altogether,
if it were otherwise desirable. But this may be doubted ;
for a more despicable set I never before met with, and they
can do neither England nor any other country any harm.
They are as deficient in talent as in principle, which sur
prised me on comparing them with our European Democrats,
amongst whom talent is not wanting ; and the mob is by
many degrees more blackguard and ferocious than the mob
in other countries.
To show what they are capable of and the little safety or
satisfaction there is in living amongst them, I send you a
cutting from a New York paper, giving an account of a dis
graceful outrage that took place in that dirty nest of philos
ophy, Philadelphia, on the occasion of an entertainment
given by the Russian Charge d'Affaires, on the anniversary
of the Emperor's coronation. . . .
Of the political system pursued by the present Govern
ment, I, of course, can have nothing good to say, but for
the rest, enough has been done by the most respectable
part of the American people to prove to me that they in no
way participate in the sentiments of the Washington party,
or approve of the treatment I have received from them. . . .
The Hath Archives. A Further Selection from the Diaries and
Letters of Sir George Jackson, K.C.H. (edited by Lady
Jackson, London, 1873), I, 108-121 passim.

States. His
private letters
and those of
his wife,
written dur
ing this time,
contain many
comments on
existing con
ditions. — On
diplomacywith Eng
land, see
Contempora
ries, III, ch.
. — On the
war of 18 ia,
see Contem
poraries, III,
ch. .
This was not
the estimate
of Americans
then current
among edu
cated Eng
lishmen.

Ix. the
Federalists.Jackson re
mained in
the country
about a year,
and was not
disavowed by the British
government.

By Presi
dent James
Madison (1751-1836),
in succession
member of
Congress, Secretary of
State, and
President.
Essentially a
man of
peace, he was
not success
ful in his
managementof the war ;
and his argu
ment that
France had
respectedour rights
and that Eng
land should
therefore
withdraw her
orders in
council, was
untenable. Moreover, he
did not have
a united
country be
hind him, for
most of the
New-Eng-
landers pre
ferred the
British side
to the
French. The
extract is
from a pri
vate letter to
Jefferson, May 25, 1812.
— For Madi
son, see Con
temporaries, Ill.ch.
— For causes
of the war,
see American
Orations, I,

214 War of 18 1 2 [xsia
83. Causes of the War (181 2)
FRANCE has done nothing towards adjusting
our differences with her. It is understood
that the Berlin and Milan Decrees are not in force against
the United States, and no contravention of them can be
established against her. On the contrary, positive cases
rebut the allegation. Still, the manner of the French Gov
ernment betrays the design of leaving G. Britain a pretext
for enforcing her Orders in Council. And in aU other re
spects, the grounds for our complaints remain the same. . . .
In the mean time, the business is become more than ever
puzzling. To go to war with England and not with France
arms the Federalists with new matter, and divides the Re
publicans, some of whom, with the Quids, make a display
of impartiality. To go to war against both presents a thou
sand difficulties ; above all, that of shutting all the ports of
the Continent of Europe against our cruisers, who can do
little without the use of them. It is pretty certain, also,
that it would not gain over the Federalists, who would turn
all those difficulties against the administration. The only
consideration of weight in favor of this triangular war, as
it is called, is, that it might hasten through a peace with
G. Britain or France ; a termination, for a while, at least,
of the obstinate questions now depending with both.
But even this advantage is not certain. For a prolonga
tion of such a war might be viewed by both belligerents as
desirable, with as little reason for the opinion as has pre
vailed in the past conduct of both.
[June 22.] I inclose a paper containing the Declaration
of war . . . It is understood that the Federalists in Con
gress are to put all the strength of their talents into a
protest against the war, and that the party at large are to
be brought out in all their force. ...
[July 25.] The conduct of the nation against whom this

No. 83]

Causes

215

resort has been proclaimed left no choice but between that
and the greater evil of a surrender of our Sovereignty on the
Element on which all nations have equal rights, and in the
free use of which the United States, as a nation whose agri
culture and commerce are so closely allied, have an essential
interest. The appeal to force in opposition to the force so long
continued against us had become the more urgent, as every
endeavor short of it had not only been fruitless, but had
been foUowed by fresh usurpations and oppressions. The
intolerable outrages committed against the crews of our ves
sels, which, at one time, were the result of aUeged searches
for deserters from British ships of war, had grown into a
like pretension, first, as to aU British seamen, and next, as to
all British subjects ; with the invariable practice of seizing
on aU neutral seamen. of every Nation, and on all such of
our own seamen as British officers interested in the abuse
might please to demand.
The Blockading orders in Council, commencing on the
plea of retaliating injuries indirectly done to G. Britain,
through the direct operation of French Decrees against the
trade of the United States with her, and on a professed dis
position to proceed step by step with France in revoking
them, have been since bottomed on pretensions more and
more extended and arbitrary, till at length it is openly
avowed as indispensable to a repeal of the Orders as they
affect the U. States, that the French Decrees be repealed as
they affect G. Britain directly, and all other neutrals, as weU
as the United States. To this extraordinary avowal is super
added abundant evidence that the real object of the Orders
is, not to restore freedom to the American Commerce with
G. Britain, which could, indeed, be little interrupted by the.
Decrees of France, but to destroy our lawful commerce, as
interfering with her own unlawful commerce with her
enemies. The only foundation of this attempt to banish

205; Contem
poraries, III,
ch.The "Quids"
were extreme
Democrats.
The absurd
idea of fight
ing both .
powers was
much dis
cussed at the
time.

Began in
1806.

By Captain
Isaac Hull
(1773-1843).
Hull began
his naval
career in 1798
as a fourth
lieutenant ou

2l6

War of 1 8 1 2

[18x2

the American flag from the highway of Nations, or to render
it wholly subservient to the commercial views of the British
Government, is the absurd and exploded doctrine that the
ocean, not less than the land, is susceptible of occupancy and
dominion ; that this dominion is in the hands of G. Britain ;
and that her laws, not the law of Nations, which is ours as
weU as hers, are to regulate our maritime intercourse with
the rest of the world.
When the United States assumed and established their
rank among the nations of the Earth, they assumed and es
tablished a common Sovereignty on the high seas, as well as
an exclusive sovereignty within their territorial limits. The
one is as essential as the other to their character as an Inde
pendent Nation. However conceding they may have been
on controvertible points, or forbearing under casual and
Umited injuries, they can never submit to wrongs irreparable
in their kind, enormous in their amount, and indefinite in their
duration ; and which are avowed and justified on principles
degrading the United States from the rank of a sovereign and
independent power. In attaining this high rank, and the
inestimable blessings attached to it, no part of the American
people had a more meritorious share than the people of New
Jersey. From none, therefore, may more reasonably be ex
pected a patriotic zeal in maintaining, by the sword the un
questionable and unalienable rights acquired by it . . .
James Madison, Letters and OtJter Writings (PhUadelphia,
1865), II, 535-538 passim.

84. Capture of the Guerriere (1812)
U. S. frigate, Constitution, off Boston Light,
SIR, August 30, 181 2.
I have the honour to inform you, that on the 19th
inst. at 2 p.m. being in lat. 410 42' and long. 55° 48', with

no. 84] A Naval Capture 217
the Constitution under my command, a sail was discovered
from the mast-head bearing E. by S. or E. S. E. but at such
a distance we could not tell what she was. All sail was
instantly made in chase, and soon found we came up with
her. At 3 p.m. could plainly see, that she was a ship on the
starboard tack under easy sail, close on a wind ; at half past
3 p.m. made her out to be a frigate; continued the chase
until we were within about three miles, when I ordered the
light sails to be taken in, the courses hauled up, and the
ship cleared for action. At this time the chase had backed
his maintop-sail, waiting for us to come down. As soon as
the Constitution was ready for action, I bore down with in
tention to bring him to close action immediately ; but on
our coming within gun-shot she gave us a broadside and
fil[l]ed away, and wore, giving us a broadside on the other
tack, but without effect ; her shot faUing short. She con
tinued wearing and manceuvering for about three quarters
of an hour, to get a raking position, but finding she could
riot, she bore up, and run under her top-sails and gib, with
the wind on her quarter. I immediately made sail to bring
the ship up with her, and five minutes before 6 p.m. being
along side within half pistol-shot, we commenced a heavy
fire from all our guns, double shotted with round and grape,
and so well directed were they, and so warmly kept up, that
in 15 minutes his mizen-mast went by the board and his
main yard in the slings, and the hull, rigging, and sails very
much torn to pieces. The fire was kept up with equal
warmth for 15 minutes longer, when his mainmast and fore
mast went, taking with them every spar, excepting the bow
sprit. On seeing this we ceased firing, so that in thirty min
utes after, we got fairly along side the enemy ; she surren
dered, and had not a spar standing, and her hull below and
above water so shattered, that a few more broadsides must
have carried her down.
After informing you, that so fine a ship as the Guerriere,

the " Consti
tution,"and at the
outbreak of
the war of
1812 he had
risen to be
commander
of the vessel.
Soon after
the famous
action with
the *' Guerri
ere," he gen
erously re
signed his
command in
order to give
the other
naval officers
a chance, for
at this time
there were
more men
than ships.
This piece is
part of his
official re
port to the
Secretary of
the Navy. —
On naval
battles in
the war, see
Contempora
ries, III, ch.

The gunnery.
of the Ameri
cans was far
superior to
that of the
British in
most of the
naval battles.
This was the
first time for
many years
that a British
man-of-warhad surren
dered to
about equal
force.

Those miss
ing were sup
posed to
have gone
overboard
with the
masts.

218

War of 1 8 1 2

[i8i4

commanded by an able and experienced officer, had been
totally dismasted, and otherwise cut to pieces so as to make
her not worth towing into port, in the short space of thirty
minutes, you can have no doubt of the gallantry and good
conduct of the officers and ship's company I have the honour
to command ; it only remains therefore for me to assure
you, that they aU fought with great bravery ; and it gives me
great pleasure to say, that from the smallest boy in the ship
to the oldest seaman, not a look of fear was seen. They all
went into action, giving three cheers, and requested to be
laid close along side the enemy.
Enclosed I have the honour to send you a list of killed
and wounded on board the Constitution [total, 14], and a
report of the damages she has sustained ; also a list of killed
and wounded on board the enemy [total 77, and 24 miss
ing], with his quarter bill, &c 
[Abel BowenJ The Naval Monument (Boston, 1816), 7-9.

By Rever
end
Gkorgk Robert
Gleig (1706-1888),
who served
in the British
army during
the war of
1812, and was
present at
Bladensburg,
the capture
of Washing
ton, Balti
more, and
New Orleans.
In 1820 he
published a
book on his
American ex
periences ;
it is based on

85. Capture of Washington (18 14)

T

OWARDS morning, a violent storm of rain,
accompanied with thunder and lightning,
came on, which disturbed the rest of all those who were ex
posed to it. Yet, in spite of the disagreeableness of getting
wet, I cannot say that I felt disposed to grumble at the in
terruption, for it appeared that what I had before considered
as superlatively sublime, still wanted this to render it com
plete. The flashes of lightning seemed to vie in brilliancy,
with the flames which burst from the roofs of burning
houses, while the thunder drowned the noise of crumbling
walls, and was only interrupted by the occasional roar of
cannon, and of large depots of gunpowder, as they one by
one exploded.

no. 85] Taking of Washington 219

... the consternation of the inhabitants was complete,
and ... to them this was a night of terror. So confident
had they been of the success of their troops, that few of
them had dreamt of quitting their houses, or abandoning
the city ; nor was it till the fugitives from the battle began
to rush in, filling every place as they came with dismay, that
the President himself thought of providing for his safety.
That gentleman, as I was credibly informed, had gone forth
in the morning with the army, and had continued among
his troops tiU the British .forces began to make their
appearance. Whether the sight of his enemies cooled his
courage or not, I cannot say, but, according to my informer,
no sooner was the glittering of our arms discernible, than he
began to discover that his presence was more wanted in the
senate than with the army ; and having ridden through the
ranks, and exhorted every man to do his duty, he hurried
back to his own house, that he might prepare a feast for the
entertainment of his officers, when they should return vic
torious. For the truth of these details, I will not be answer
able; but this much I know, that the feast was actually
prepared, though, instead of being devoured by American
officers, it went to satisfy the less delicate appetites of a
party of English soldiers. When the detachment, sent out
to destroy Mr. Maddison's house, entered his dining parlour,
they found a dinner-table spread, and covers laid for forty
guests. . . .
. . . They sat down to it, therefore, not indeed in the
most orderly manner, but with countenances which would
not have disgraced a party of aldermen at a civic feast ; and
having satisfied their appetites with fewer complaints than
would have probably escaped their rival gourmands, and
partaken pretty freely of the wines, they finished by setting
fire to the house which had so liberally entertained them.
But, as I have just observed, this was a night of dismay
to the inhabitants of Washington. They were taken com-

his journal,
and is the
best among
the English
accounts,being impar-
tial and in
the main ac
curate; the
style is lively
and interest
ing. The
British force
numberedonly 5,000
men, and
marched fifty miles
up into a
country where there
were at least
50,000 able-
bodied men
available. An unsuc
cessful at
tempt was
made to stop
the British at
Bladensburg.
— For the
land cam
paigns of the
war, see Con
temporaries, III, ch.
Madison had
been gone
some hours
before the
British came.

This is
apocryphal.

The pretext
for this de
struction was
the burning
of some pub
lic buildings
by American
troops at
York (now
Toronto).

220

War of 1 8 1 2

[x8i5

pletely by surprise ; nor could the arrivai of the flood be
more unexpected to the natives of the antediluvian world,
than the arrival of the British army to them. The first im
pulse of course tempted them to fly, and the streets were in
consequence crowded with soldiers and senators, men, women
and children, horses, carriages, and carts loaded with house
hold furniture, all hastening towards a wooden bridge which
crosses the Potomac. The confusion thus occasioned was
terrible, and the crowd upon the bridge was such as to
endanger its giving away. But Mr. Maddison, having es
caped among the first, was no sooner safe on the opposite
bank of the river, than he gave orders that the bridge should
be broken down ; which being obeyed, the rest were obliged
to return, and to trust to the clemency of the victors.
In this manner was the night passed by both parties;
and at day-break next morning; the light brigade moved
into the city, while the reserve fell back to a height, about
half a mile in the rear. Little, however, now remained to
be done, because every thing marked out for destruction,
was already consumed. Of the senate-house, the Presi
dent's palace, the barracks, the dock-yard, &c. nothing
could be seen, except heaps of smoking ruins ; and even
the bridge, a noble structure upwards of a mile in length,
was almost wholly demolished. There was, therefore, no
farther occasion to scatter the troops, and they were accord
ingly kept together as much as possible on the Capitol hill.
[George Robert Gleig,] A Narrative of the Campaigns of the
British Army at 1 1 'ashington and New Orleans (London, 1 82 1 ),
1 28-132 passim.

By Major
Arsene La-
carriere La tour,
Jackson's
chief engi
neer. A

A

86. Battle of New Orleans (1815)

LITTLE before daybreak, our outpost came in
without noise, having perceived the enemy moving
forward in great force,

No. se] Battle of New Orleans 221

At last the dawn of day discovered to us the enemy
occupying two-thirds of the space between the wood and
the Mississippi. Immediately a Congreve rocket went off
from the skirt of the wood, in the direction of the river.
This was the signal for the attack. At the same instant, the
twelve-pounder of battery No. 6, whose gunners had per
ceived the enemy's movement, discharged a shot. On this
all his troops gave three cheers, formed in close column of
about sixty men in front, in very good order, and advanced
nearly in the direction of battery No. 7, the men shoulder
ing their muskets, and all carrying fascines, and some with
ladders. A cloud of rockets preceded them, and continued
to fall in showers during the whole attack. Batteries Nos.
6, 7 and 8, now opened an incessant fire on the column,
which continued to advance in pretty good order, until, in a
few minutes, the musketry of the troops of Tennessee and
Kentucky, joining their fire with that of the artillery, began
to make an impression on it, which soon threw it into con
fusion. It was at that moment that was heard that constant
rolling fire, whose tremendous noise resembled rattling peals
of thunder. For some time the British officers succeeded
in animating the courage of their troops, and making them
advance, obliqueing to the left, to avoid the fire of battery
No. 7, from which every discharge opened the column, and
mowed down whole files, which were almost instantaneously
replaced by new troops coming up close after the first : but
these also shared the same fate, until at last, after twenty-
five minutes continual firing, through which a few platoons
advanced to the edge of the ditch, the column entirely
broke, and part of the troops dispersed, and ran to take
shelter among the bushes on the right. The rest retired to
the ditch where they had been when first perceived, four
hundred yards from our lines.
There the officers with some difficulty rallied their troops,
and again drew them up for a second attack, the soldiers

good author
ity regards
Latour as
" the only
trustworthy
contemporary historian
of the Louisi
ana cam
paign." By
his position
he was well
qualified for
his task, and
he treated the
subject in an
unbiassed
temper.The battle
took place
January 8,
1815. — On
the Southern
campaign,see Contem
poraries, III,
ch. Jackson had
showed great
energy in or
ganizing his
defence,and had for
tified the nar
row space
between the
river and a
swamp over
which the
British must
pass. — On
Jackson, see
No. 10a,
below.

Pakenham
was one of
Wellington's
command ers, and the
troops were
veterans, re
cently victo
rious over
Napoleon.

222

War of 1 8 i 2

[18x5

having laid down their knapsacks at the edge of the ditch,
that they might be less incumbered. And now, for the
second time, the column, recruited with the troops that
formed the rear, advanced. Again it was received with the
same rolling fire of musketry and artillery, till, having ad
vanced without much order very near our lines, it at last
broke again, and retired in the utmost confusion. . . .
The attack. on our lines had hardly begun, when the
British commander-in-chief, the honourable sir Edward
Packenham, fell a victim to his own intrepidity, whUe en
deavouring to animate his troops with ardour for the assault.
Soon after his fall, two other generals, Keane and Gibbs,
were carried off the field of battle, dangerously wounded.
A great number of officers of rank had fallen : the ground
over which the column had marched, was strewed with the
dead and the wounded. Such slaughter on their side, with
no loss on ours, spread consternation through their ranks, as
they were now convinced of the impossibility of carrying our
lines, and saw that even to advance was certain death. In a
word, notwithstanding the repeated efforts of some officers to
make the troops form a third time, they would not advance,
and all that could be obtained from them, was to draw them
up in the ditch, where they passed the rest of the day. . . .
I deem it my indispensable duty to do justice to the
intrepid bravery displayed in that attack by the British
troops, especially by the officers. . . . The British soldiers
showed, on this occasion, that it is not without reason they
are said to be deficient in agility. The enormous load they
had to carry contributed indeed not a little to the difficulty
of their movement. Besides their knapsacks, usually weigh
ing nearly thirty pounds, and their musket, too heavy by at
least one third, almost all of them had to carry a fascine
from nine to ten inches in diameter, and four feet long,
made of sugar-canes perfectly ripe, and consequently very
heavy, or a ladder from ten to twelve feet long.

No. 87]

Peace

223

The duty of impartiality, incumbent on him who relates
military events, obliges me to observe that the attack made
on Jackson's lines, by the British, on the 8th of January,
must have been determined on by their generals, without
any consideration of the ground, the weather, or the diffi
culties to be surmounted, before they could storm lines,
defended by militia indeed, but by militia whose valour they
had already witnessed, with soldiers bending under the
weight of their load, when a man, unincumbered and un
opposed, would that day have found it difficult to mount
our breastwork at leisure and with circumspection, so ex
tremely slippery was the soil. . . .
Major A. Lacarriere Latour, Historical Memoir of the War in
West Florida and Louisiana in 18 14-15 (translated by H. P.
Nugent, Philadelphia, 1816), 154-161 passim.

87. Discussion of the Peace (1814)

T

Ghent, December 25, 1814.
"¦HE treaty of peace we signed yesterday with
the British ministers is, in my opinion, as
favorable as could be expected under existing circumstances,
so far as they were known to us. The attitude taken by
the State of Massachusets, and the appearances in some of
the neighboring States, had a most unfavorable effect. Of the
probable result of the congress at Vienna we had no correct
information. The views of all the European powers were
precisely known from day to day to the British Ministry.
From neither of them did we in any shape receive" any inti
mation of their intentions, of the general prospect of Europe,
or of the interest they took in our contest with Great Britain.
I have some reason to believe that all of them were desirous
that it might continue. They did not intend to assist us ;

By Albert
Gallatin (1761-1849),
one of the
five commis
sioners chosen to
represent the
United States
in the peace
negotiations
at Ghent.
His biogra
pher, Henry
Adams, says,
"The Treaty
of Ghent was
the special
work and
peculiar tri
umph of Mr.
Gallatin." Madison was
forced to con
sent to the
omission from the

224

War of 1 8 i 2

L1814

treaty of the
point of im
pressments.The follow
ing official
letter, dis
cussing the
results ob
tained, was
written, on
the day after
the signing,
to James
Monroe, then
Secretary of
State. — On
Gallatin, see
American Orations,
\> 84. 353- —
On the peace
of 1814, see
Contempora
ries, III, ch.
Massachu
setts opposed
the war and
joined in the
HartfordConvention.Wellington
gave it as his
opinion that
the Ameri
cans were
very strong
behind breastworks.The " Indian
article " was
an agreement
to make
peace with
the Western
and South
ern Indians.
Moose
Island is in
Passama-
quoddy Bay.
A separate

they appeared indifferent about our difficulties; but they
rejoiced at anything which might occupy and eventually
weaken our enemy. The manner in which the campaign
has terminated, the evidence afforded by its events of our
ability to resist alone the now very formidable military
power of England, and our having been able, without any
foreign assistance, and after she had made such an effort,
to obtain peace on equal terms, will raise our character and
consequence in Europe. This, joined with the naval vic
tories and the belief that we alone can fight the English on
their element, will make us to be courted as much as we
have been neglected by foreign governments. As to the
people of Europe, public opinion was most decidedly in our
favor. ... I have little to add to our public despatch
on the subject of the terms of the treaty. I really think
that there is nothing but nominal in the Indian article as
adopted. . . . You know that there was no alternative
between breaking off the negotiations and accepting the
article, and that we accepted it only as provisional and sub
ject to your approbation or rejection. The exception of
Moose Island from the general restoration of territory is
the only point on which it is possible that we might have
obtained an alteration if we had adhered to our opposition
to it. The British government had long fluctuated on the
question of peace : . . . We thought it too hazardous to risk
the peace on the question of the temporary possession of that
small island, since the question of title was fully reserved, and
it was therefore no cession of territory. On the subject of the
fisheries within the jurisdiction of Great Britain, we have
certainly done all that could be done. If, according to the
construction of the treaty of 1 783, which we assumed, the
right was. not abrogated by the war, it remains entire, since
we most explicitly refused to renounce it directly or indi
rectly. In that case it is only an unsettled subject of differ
ence between the two countries. If the right must be con-

No. 87]

Peace

225

sidered as abrogated by the war, we cannot regain it without
an equivalent. We had none to give but the recognition of
their right to navigate the Mississippi, and we offered it on
this last supposition. This right is also lost to them, and in
a general point of view we have certainly lost nothing. But
we have done aU that was practicable in support of the right
to those fisheries, 1, by the ground we assumed respecting
the construction of the treaty of 1783; 2, by the offer to
recognize the British right to the navigation of the Missis
sippi ; 3, by refusing to accept from Great Britain both her
implied renunciation to the right of that navigation and the
convenient boundary of 49 degrees for the whole extent of
our and her territories west of the Lake of the Woods, rather
than to make an implied renunciation on our own part to
the right of America to those particular fisheries. I believe
that Great Britain is very desirous of obtaining the northern
part of Maine, say from about 47 north latitude to the
northern extremity of that district as claimed by us. . . .
[On the question of] the foundation of their disputing our
claim to the northern part of that territory . . . feeling
that it is not very solid, I am apt to think that they will be
disposed to offer the whole of Passamaquoddy Bay and the
disputed fisheries as an equivalent for this portion of north
ern territory, which they want in order to connect New
Brunswick and Quebec. This may account for their tenacity
with respect to the temporary possession of Moose Island,
and for their refusing to accept the recognition of their right
to the navigation of the Mississippi, provided they recog
nized ours to the fisheries. That northern territory is of no
importance to us, and belongs to the United States, and not
to Massachusetts . . .
Albert Gallatin, Writings (edited by Henry Adams, Philadelphia,
,879)> I> 645-647 passim.

convention
on this sub
ject was
made in 1818

The United
States ad
hered to its
claims until
1843, when
they were
settled by a
compromise

By John
Melish (1771-1829).
a Scotchman,
who travelled
extensively in
the United
States and
published ac
counts of his
journeys. His state
ments are
based on
careful ob-
servation.and his attitude
is unpreju
diced, though
he was very
favorablydisposedtoward the
United States
and its insti
tutions. He
regarded this
country as
the most
favorableplace for de
veloping British ideas
of govern
ment un
trammelledby traces of
feudalism ;
and, by
reason of its
resourcesand the
character of
its inhab
itants, as as-

CHAPTER XIV — CONDITIONS OF
NATIONAL GROWTH, 18 15-1830
88. Boston and Neighboring Towns (1806)
BOSTON is built on a peninsula, at the head of Massa
chusetts Bay. ... A great part of the town lies low
along the bay ; but the ground rises to a considerable eleva
tion in the middle, where the State-House is built, which
gives it a very handsome appearance at a distance. The
town partakes of the nature of the old towns in England,
and is irregularly built, many of the streets being crooked
and narrow ; but the more modern part is regular, and the
streets broad and well paved. . . . there are five public
squares ; but none of them are of great extent, except the
Mall, which is a very elegant piece of public ground, in
front of the State-House.
The number of dwelling-houses is above 3500, and, by
the census of 1800, the inhabitants were 24,937 ; from the
increase that has since taken place, it is presumed that the
number is now upwards of 30,000. The greater part of
the houses are built of brick, and many of them are spacious
and elegant.
The public buildings are the State-House, Court-House,
Jail, Concert-Hall, Faneuil-Hall, Aims-House, Work-House,
and Bridewell ; the Museum, Library, Theatre, and nine
congregational, three episcopal, and two baptist churches,
with one each for Roman catholics, methodists, and univer-
salists. The public buildings are in general very handsome,
and the greater part of the churches are ornamented with
spires. 226

No. 88]

New England

227

The markets of Boston are well supplied with every kind
of country provisions, fruit, and fish. The prices are not
materially different from those of New York. Flour is gen
erally a little higher; but cod- fish, which is the universal
Saturday dinner, is lower. . . .
. . . Public education is on an excellent footing. There
are eight or nine public schools, supported at the expence
of the town, which are accessible to all the members of the
community, free of expence. They are managed by a com
mittee of twenty-one gentlemen, chosen annually, and are
under good regulations. Besides these, there are a number
of private seminaries, at which all the various branches of
education are taught ; and, upon the whole, I beUeve Bos
ton may challenge a competition on this branch with any
city in Europe, Edinburgh, in Scotland, perhaps, excepted.
The fruits of this attention to the improvement of the
mind, and the cultivation of the benevolent affections, are
very apparent in the deportment of the citizens of Boston,
who are intelligent, sober, and industrious ; and, though
much attached to the subject of religion, they are more
liberal, generally speaking, than any people I have yet been
amongst. The ladies of Boston are generally handsome,
with fine complexions ; and, judging from the sample which
I saw, they have a richness of intellect, and a cheerfulness
of deportment, that makes them truly interesting. Alto
gether, Boston is really a fine place. . . .
... I went to a number of the public places; among
others, the State-House, from whence there is a most elegant
view of the town, bay, shipping, neck, bridges, and the whole
country round, to the distance of from twelve to fifteen miles,
in each direction, presenting most picturesque scenery . . .
The bridges of Boston merit particular attention, being
works of great extent and utility, and constructed at a vast
expence ; a proof of the sagacity and persevering industry
of this people. . . .

sored of a
great social,
economic,
and political
future. — On ¦
colonialBoston, see
above, Nos.
i7.Sa.S3 —
On the con
ditions of
New Eng
land in 18x5,
soe Contem
poraries, III,
ch. .

228

National Growth [1801-1809

. . . Lynn is a pretty little town, remarkable for its exten
sive manufacture of shoes. From thence we travelled to
Salem, about seven miles, through a very rugged, stony
country, but by an excellent turnpike road, made, I was in
formed, mostly by Irishmen. I may here take occasion to
remark, that the Irish emigrants are exceedingly useful in
this country, and a great portion of the most rugged labour
in it is performed by them. The lower orders of the Irish
are generally strong, robust men, without money, and with a
very slender education. Hence they are generally unfit for
any kind of mercantile employment, and those who have not
learned some mechanical profession get employment in va
rious branches of labour, for which they are well adapted ;
and, getting good wages, they soon become independent
and happy. Hence the Irish are remarkable for their
attachment to the American government, while many other
foreigners, particularly those engaged in commerce, are dis
contented and fretfuL
John Melish, Travels in the United States of America, 1806-181 1
(Philadelphia, 1812), I, 89-94 passim.

Ry Colonel
Thomas
Ikj-'h.kson
RASInil I'll
(1792-1875),
the eldest
grandson of
Jefferson.
He was born
at Monti-
cello, and
brought up
in the house,
and there
fore speal^
from intimate
personal

89. The Virginia Gentleman (i 801-1809)
HIS [Jefferson's] manners were of that polished school
of the Colonial Government, so remarkable in its
day — under no circumstances violating any of those minor
conventional observances which constitute the well-bred
gentleman, courteous and considerate to all persons. On
riding out with him when a lad, we met a negro who bowed
to us ; he returned his bow ; I did not. Turning to me, he
asked, " Do you permit a negro to be more of a gentleman than
yourself? "

No. 89]

The South

229

Mr. Jefferson's hair, when young, was of a reddish cast ;
sandy as he advanced in years ; his eye, hazel. Dying in his
84th year, he had not lost a tooth, nor had one defective ;
his skin thin, peeling from his face on exposure to the sun,
and giving it a tettered appearance; the superficial veins so
weak, as upon the slightest blow to cause extensive suffu
sions of blood — in early life, upon standing to write for any
length of time, bursting beneath the skin ; it, however, gave
him no inconvenience. His countenance was mild and be
nignant, and attractive to strangers.
While President, returning on horseback from Charlottes
ville with company whom he had invited to dinner, and who
were, all but one or two, riding ahead of him, on reaching a
stream over which there was no bridge, a man asked him to
take him up behind him and carry him over. The gentle
men in the rear coming up just as Mr. Jefferson had put him
down and ridden on, asked the man how it happened that he
had permitted the others to pass without asking them? He
replied, " From their looks, I did not like to ask them ; the old
gentleman looked as if he would do it, and I asked him."'
He was very much surprised to hear that he had ridden
behind the President of the United States.
Mr. Jefferson's stature was commanding — six feet two-
and-a-half inches in height, well formed, indicating strength,
activity, and robust health ; his carriage erect ; step firm and
elastic, which he preserved to his death ; his temper, natu
rally strong, under perfect control ; his courage cool and
impassive. No one ever knew him exhibit trepidation. His
moral courage of the highest order — his will firm and in
flexible — it was remarked of him that he never abandoned a
plan, a principle, or a friend.
A bold and fearless rider, you saw at a glance, from his
easy and confident seat, that he was master of his horse,
which was usually the fine blood-horse of Virginia. The

knowledge.Owing, how
ever, to the
very natural
venerationwhich he had
for his great
relative, his
characteriza
tion may
hardly be
held to cover
the whole
ground. —
Kor other
opinions of
Jefferson, see
above. No.
58 and ch. xi.
— On the
South, see
Contempora
ries, 111,-ch.

230 National Growth [1801-1809
only impatience of temper he ever exhibited was with his
horse, which he subdued to his will by a fearless application
of the whip on the slightest manifestation of restiveness.
He retained to the last his fondness for riding on horseback ;
he rode within three weeks of his death, when, from disease^
debility, and age, he mounted with difficulty. He rode with
confidence, and never permitted a servant to accompany him ;
he was fond of solitary rides and musing, and said that the
presence of a servant annoyed him.
He held in little esteem the education which made men
ignorant and helpless as to the common necessities of Ufe ;
and he exemplified it by an incident which occurred to a
young gentleman returned from Europe, where he had been
educated. On riding out with his companions, the strap of
his girth broke at the hole for the buckle; and they, perceiv
ing it an accident easily remedied, rode on and left him. A
plain man coming up, and seeing that his horse had made a
circular path in the road in his impatience to get on, asked
if he could aid him.
"Oh, sir," replied the young man, "if you could only as
sist me to get it up to the next hole." h
" Suppose you let it out a hole or two on the other side,"
said the man.
His habits were regular and systematic. He was a miser
of his time, rose always at dawn, wrote and read until break
fast, breakfasted early, and. dined from three to four .
retired at nine, and to bed from ten to eleven. He said, in
his last illness, that the sun had not caught him in bed for
fifty years.
He always made his own fire. He drank water but once a
day, a single glass, when he returned from his ride. He ate
heartily, and much vegetable food, preferring French cook
ery, because it made the meats more tender. He never
drank ardent spirits or strong wines. Such was his aversion
to ardent spirits, that when, in his last illness, his physician

No. 90]

The West

231

desired him to use brandy as an astringent, he could not
induce him to take it strong enough.
Sarah N. Randolph, The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson,
(New York, Harper & Brothers, 1872), 337~339-

90. Religious Life in the West (1828)
EXCEPT among the Catholics, there are very
few settled pastors, in the sense in which that
phrase is understood in New England and the Atlantic
cities. Most of the ministers, that are in some sense per
manent, discharge pastoral duties not only in their individ
ual societies, but in a wide district about them. The range
of duties, the emolument, the estimation, and in fact the
whole condition of a western pastor, are widely different
from an Atlantic minister. ... A circulating phalanx of
Methodists, Baptists and Cumberland Presbyterians, of At
lantic missionaries, and of young eleves of the Catholic
theological seminaries, from the redundant mass of unoccu
pied ministers, both in the Protestant and Catholic countries,
pervades this great valley with its numerous detachments,
from Pittsburg, the mountains, the lakes, and the Missouri,
to the gulf of Mexico. They all pursue the interests of
their several denominations in their own way, and generally
in profound peace. . . .
... If we except Arkansas and Louisiana, there is every
where else an abundance of some kind of preaching. The
village papers on all sides contain printed notices, and writ
ten ones are affixed to the public places, notifying what are
called 'meetings.' A traveller in a clerical dress does not
fail to be asked, at the public houses, where he stops, if he
is a preacher, and if he wishes to notify a meeting.

By Rever
end Timo
thy Flint
(1780-1840),
a Massachu
setts clergy
man, who
spent some
years as a
missionary in
the Missis
sippi and
Ohio valleys.
The account
from which
this piece is
taken, written
about two
years after
his return, is
an example
of a contem
porary narra
tive, com
posed while
the events de
scribed were
fresh in mem
ory, but from
a perspective
sufficientlyremoved.As in colo
nial times, re
ligious con
cerns were
one of the
chief inter
ests of the
frontiersmen.
— For other
accounts of
the West, see

232

National Growth

[1828

Contempora- There are stationary preachers in the towns, particularly
in Ohio. But in the rural congregations through the western
" Eieves," ix. country beyond Ohio, it is seldom that a minister is station-
pupils, ary for more than a few months. A ministry of a year in
one place may be considered beyond the common duration.
Nine tenths of the religious instruction of the country is
given by people, who itinerate, and who are, with very few
exceptions, notwithstanding all that has been said to the
contrary, men of great zeal and sanctity. . . . Travelling
from month to month through dark forests, with such ample
time and range for deep thought, as they amble slowly on
horseback along their peregrinations, the men naturally ac
quire a pensive and romantic turn of thought and expression,
as we think, favorable to eloquence. Hence the preaching
is of a highly popular cast, and its first aim is to excite the
feelings. — Hence, too, excitements, or in religious parlance
' awakenings,' are common in all this region. . . .
None, but one who has seen, can imagine the interest,
excited in a district of country, perhaps, fifty miles in ex
tent, by the awaited approach of the time for a camp meet
ing; and none, but one who has seen, can imagine how
profoundly the preachers have understood what produces
effect, and how well they have practised upon it. . . . The
notice has been circulated two or three months. On the
appointed day, coaches, chaises, wagons, carts, people on
horseback, and multitudes travelling from a distance on
foot, wagons with provisions, mattresses, tents, and arrange
ments for the stay of a week, are seen hurrying from every
point towards the central spot. . . .
The ambitious and wealthy are there, because in this
region opinion is all-powerful ; and they are there, either to
extend their influence, or that their absence may not be
noted, to diminish it. Aspirants for office are there, to
electioneer, and gain popularity. Vast numbers are there
from simple curiosity, and merely to enjoy a spectacle. The

no. 90] Frontier Religion 233
young and the beautiful are there, with mixed motives, which
it were best not severely to scrutinize. Children are there,
their young eyes glistening with the intense interest of eager
curiosity. The middle aged fathers and mothers of families
are there, with the sober views of people, whose plans in
life are fixed, and waiting calmly to hear. Men and women
of hoary hairs are there, with such thoughts, it may be
hoped, as their years invite. — Such is the congregation con
sisting of thousands. . . .
The line of tents is pitched ; and the religious city grows
up in a few hours under the trees, beside the stream.
Lamps are hung in lines among the branches; and the
effect of their glare upon the surrounding forest is, as of
magic. . . . Meantime the multitudes, with the highest
excitement of social feeling added to the general enthusiasm
of expectation, pass from tent to tent, and interchange apos
tolic greetings and embraces, and talk of the coming so
lemnities. . . . An old man, in a dress of the quaintest
simplicity, ascends a platform, wipes the dust from his
spectacles, and in a voice of suppressed emotion, gives out
the hymn, of which the whole assembled multitude can re
cite the words, — and an air, in which every voice can join.
. . . The hoary orator talks of God, of eternity, a judgment
to come, and all that is impressive beyond. He speaks of
his 'experiences,' his toils and travels, his persecutions and
welcomes, and how many he has seen in hope, in peace and
triumph, gathered to their fathers ; and when he speaks of
the short space that remains to him, his only regret is, that
he can no more proclaim, in the silence of death, the
mercies of his crucified Redeemer.
There is no need of the studied trick of oratory, to pro
duce in such a place the deepest movements of the
heart. . . .
Whatever be the cause, the effect is certain, that through
the state of Tennessee, parts of Mississippi, Missouri, Ken-

By Secre
tary of
State John
Quincy
Adams
(1767-1848),
under dates
of February
24 and
March 3,
1820.
He went
f.inher than
his col
leagues in

234

National Growth

[1820

tucky, Ohio, Indiana and IUinois, these excitements have
produced a palpable change in the habits and manners of
the people. The gambling and drinking shops are deserted ;
and the people, that used to congregate there, now go to
the religious meetings. The Methodists, too, have done
great and incalculable good. They are generally of a char
acter, education and training, that prepare them for the
elements, upon which they are destined to operate. They
speak the dialect, understand the interests, and enter into
the feelings of their audience. They exert a prodigious
and incalculable bearing upon the rough backwoods men ;
and do good, where more polished, and trained ministers
would preach without effect. . . .
That part of Pennsylvania and Virginia west of the moun
tains has a predominance of Presbyterians. The great state
of Ohio is made up. of such mixed elements, that it would
be difficult to say, which of all the sects prevails. As a
general characteristic, the people are strongly inclined to at
tend on some kind of religious worship. . . . Methodists,
Presbyterians and Catholics are the prevailing denomina
tions of the West.
Timothy Flint, A Condensed Geography and History of the
Western States, or the Mississippi Valley (Cincinnati, 1828),
I, 217-224 passim.

91. Missouri Compromise (1820)
I HAD some conversation with Calhoun on the slave
question pending in Congress. He said he did not
think it would produce a dissolution of the Union, but, if
it should, the South would be from necessity compelled to
form an alliance, offensive and defensive, with Great Britain.
I said that would be returning to the colonial state.
He said, yes, pretty much, but it would be forced upon

No. 91]

Slavery

235

them. I asked him whether he thought, if by the effect of
this alliance, offensive and defensive, the population of the
North should be cut off from its natural outlet upon the
ocean, it would fall back upon its rocks bound hand and
foot, to starve, or whether it would not retain its powers of
locomotion to move southward by land. Then, he said,
they would find it necessary to make their communities all
military. I pressed the conversation no further ; but if the
dissolution of the Union should result from the slave ques
tion, it is as obvious as anything that can be foreseen of
futurity, that it must shortly afterwards be followed by the
universal emancipation of the slaves. . . .
After this meeting, I walked home with Calhoun, who
said that the principles which I had avowed were just and
noble ; but that in the Southern country, whenever they
were mentioned, they were always understood as applying
only to white men. Domestic labor was confined to the
blacks, and such was the prejudice, that if he, who was the
most popular man in his district, were to keep a white ser
vant in his house, his character and reputation would be
irretrievably ruined.
I said that this confounding of the ideas of servitude and
labor was one of the bad effects of slavery ; but he thought
it attended with many excellent consequences. . It did not
apply to all kinds of labor — not, for example, to farming.
He himself had often held the plough ; so had his father.
Manufacturing and mechanical labor was not degrading. It
was only manual labor — the proper work of slaves. No
white person could descend to that. And it was the best
guarantee to equality among the whites. It produced an
unvarying level among them. It not only did not excite,
but did not even admit of inequalities, by which one white
man could domineer over another.
I told Calhoun I could not see things in the same light.
It is, in truth, all perverted sentiment — mistaking labor for

the cabinet
(who all
agreed that
Congresshad the con
stitutionalright to pre
hibit slavery
in the Terri
tories), in
assertingthat that pro
hibitionapplied not
only to the
Territory as
such, but to
all future
States which
might be
carved out
of it The
following is a
striking illus
tration of a
practice .
which the
Southernleaders had
begun, of
threateningsecession
whenever their wishes
regarding the
extension of
slavery were
opposed.The extract
is from one
of the most
valuable of
all the
sources on
American history, the
journal of
Adams. —
On Adams,
see American
Orations, II,
»5. 372:
Contempora
ries, 111, No.
. — On the
Compro-

nuse, see
American Orations, II,
33-101 ; Con
temporaries, in. ch.
Adams's
prophecy of
civil war in
the third
paragraph
was fulfilled
in 1861.
The " meet
ing " men
tioned in the
fourth para
graph was. a
cabinet meet
ing held
March 3,
1820, to con
sider the
Compromise bill.

" Double
representation" by the
Federal or
three-fifthsratio.

236

National Growth

[1820

slavery, and dominion for freedom. The discussion of this
Missouri question has betrayed the secret of their souls. In
the abstract they admit that slavery is an evil, they disclaim
all participation in the introduction of it, and cast it all upon
the shoulders of our old Grandam Britain. But when probed
to the quick upon it, they show at the bottom of their souls
pride and vainglory in their condition of masterdom. They
fancy themselves more generous and noble-hearted than the
plain freemen who labor for subsistence. They look down
upon the simplicity of a Yankee's manners, because he has
no habits of overbearing like theirs and cannot treat negroes
like dogs. . . . The impression produced upon my mind by
the progress of this discussion is, that the bargain between
freedom and slavery contained in the Constitution of the
United States is morally and politically vicious, inconsistent
with the principles upon which alone our Revolution can be
justified ; cruel and oppressive, by riveting the chains of
slavery, by pledging the faith of freedom to maintain and
perpetuate the tyranny of the master ; and grossly unequal
and impolitic, by admitting that slaves are at once enemies
to be kept in subjection, property to be secured or restored
to their owners, and persons not to be represented them
selves, but for whom their masters are privileged with nearly
a double share of representation. The consequence has been
that this slave representation has governed the Union.
Benjamin portioned above his brethren has ravined as a
wolf. In the morning he has devoured the prey, and at
night he has divided the spoil. It would be no difficult
matter to prove, by reviewing the history of the Union
under this Constitution, that almost everything which has
contributed to the honor and welfare of the nation has been
accomplished in despite of them or forced upon them, and
that everything unpropitious and dishonorable, including the
blunders and follies of their adversaries, may be traced to
them. I have favored this Missouri compromise, believing

no. 92] Missouri Compromise 237
it to be all that could be effected under the present Consti
tution, and. from extreme unwillingness to put the Union at
hazard. But perhaps it would have been a wiser as weU as
a bolder course to have persisted in the restriction upon
Missouri, till it should have terminated in a convention of
the States to revise and amend the Constitution. This would
have produced a new Union of thirteen or fourteen States
unpolluted with slavery, with a great and glorious object to
effect, namely, that of rallying to their standard the other
States by the universal emancipation of their slaves. If the
Union must be dissolved, slavery is precisely the question
upon which it ought to break. For the present, however,
this contest is laid asleep.
John Quincy Adams, Memoirs (edited by Charles Francis
Adams, Philadelphia, 1875), IV, 530-531 ; V, 10-12 passim. .

Not till 1836
did Adams
awaken on
this question.

92. A Settler in Illinois (1817)
I AM now going to take you to the prairies, to
shew you the very beginning of our settle
ment. Having fixed on the north-western portion of our
prairie for our future residence and farm, the first act was
building a cabin, about two hundred yards from the spot
where the house is to stand. This cabin is built of round
straight logs, about a foot in diameter, lying upon each
other, and notched in at the corners, forming a room
eighteen feet long by sixteen ; the intervals between the
logs " chunked," that is, filled in with slips of wood ; and
" mudded," that is, daubed with a plaister of mud : a
spacious chimney, built also of logs, stands like a bastion
at one end : the roof is well covered with four hundred
" clap boards " of cleft oak, very much like the pales used
in England for fencing parks. A hole is cut through the

By Morris
Bikkbeck (¦(¦1832), an
Englishman,
who settled
in Illinois
and founded
the town of
New Albion.
His account
of the coun
try is very
optimistic,and he ap
pears to have
been some
what preju
diced against
the land of
his birth,
whence he
had emi
grated to get
more elbow-
room. His
book is made

238

National Growth

[1817

up of letters
to friends and
others who
had applied
to him for
infoimation
and advice
relative to
emigration. He presents
his informa
tion in a
specific, sprightly, and
interestingform. — On
other English
travellers, see
above, Nos.
26, 55, 8a. —
On the West,
see above,
Nos. 66, 90;
Contempora
ries, III, ch.

side, called, very properly, the "door, (the through,)" for
which there is a " shutter," made also of cleft oak, and
hung on wooden hinges. All this has been executed by
contract, and well executed, for twenty dollars. I have
since added ten dollars to the cost, for the luxury of a floor
and ceiUng of sawn boards, and it is now a comfortable
habitation. . . . We arrived in the evening, our horses heavily laden
with our guns, and provisions, and cooking utensils, and
blankets, not forgetting the all-important axe. This was
immediately put in requisition, and we soon kindled a
famous fire, before which we spread our pallets, and, after a
hearty supper, soon forgot that besides ourselves, our horses
and our dogs, the wild animals of the forest were the only
inhabitants of our wide domain. Our cabin stands at the
edge of the prairie, just within the wood, so as to be con
cealed from the view until you are at the very door. Thirty
paces to the east the prospect opens from a commanding
eminence over the prairie, which extends four miles to the
south and south-east, and over the woods beyond to a great
distance ; whilst the high timber behind, and on each side,
to the west, north, and east, forms a sheltered cove about
five hundred yards in width. It is about the middle of this
cove, two hundred and fifty yards from the wood each way,
but open to the south, that we propose building our house.
Well, having thus established myself as a resident pro
prietor, in the morning my boy and I (our friend haying
left us) sallied forth in quest of neighbours, having heard of
two new settlements at no great distance. Our first visit
was to Mr. Emberspn, who had just established himself in a
cabin similar to our own, at the edge of a small prairie two
miles north-west of us. We found him a respectable young
man, more farmer than hunter, surrounded by a numerous
family, and making the most of a rainy day by mending the
shoes of his household. We then proceeded to Mr. Wood-

No. ga]

A Frontiersman

239

land's, about the same distance south-west : he is an inhab
itant of longer standing, for he arrived in April, Mr. E. in
August. He has since built for us a second cabin, connected
with the first by a covered roof or porch, which is very con
venient, forming together a commodious dwelling. . . .
. . . Our township is a square of six miles each side, or
thirty-six square miles; and what may properly be called
our neighbourhood, extends about six miles round this town
ship in every direction. Six miles to the north is the
boundary of surveyed lands. . . .
There are many other prairies, or natural meadows, of
various dimensions and qualities, scattered over this surface,
which consists of about two hundred square miles, contain
ing perhaps twelve human habitations, all erected, I believe,
within one year of our first visit — most of them within
three months. At or near the mouth of the Bonpas, where
it falls into the Big Wabash, we project a shipping port:
a ridge of high land, without any intervening creek,
will afford an easy communication with the river at that
place. . . .
There are no very good mill-seats on the streams in our
neighbourhood, but our prairie affords a most eligible site
for a windmill; we are therefore going to erect one imme
diately : the materials are in great forwardness, and we
hope to have it in order to grind the fruits of the ensuing
harvest. Two brothers, and the wife of one of them, started from
the village of Puttenham, close to our old Wanborough, and English
have made their way out to us : they are carpenters, and towns«
are now very usefully employed in preparing the scantlings
for the mill, and other purposes. You may suppose how
cordially we received these good people. They landed at
Philadelphia, not knowing where on this vast continent they
should find us : from thence they were directed to Pitts
burg, a wearisome journey over the mountains of more

240

National Growth

[1818

than 300 miles ; at Pittsburgh they bought a little boat for
six or seven dollars, and came gently down the Ohio, 1,200
miles, to Sliawnee-town ; from thence they proceeded on
foot till they found us. . . .
By the first of March I hope to have two ploughs at
work, and may possibly put in 100 acres of corn this spring.
Early in May, I think, we shaU be aU settled in a convenient
temporary dwelling, formed of a range of cabins of ten
rooms, until we can accomplish our purpose of building a
more substantial house. . . .
Morris Birkbeck, Letters from Illinois (London, 1818), 30-35
passim.

By Surgeon
HenryBkamshawKearon (born about
1770). a
London sur
geon, sent to
the United
States in 1817
by a number
of English
families, for
the purpose
of ascertain
ing what part
ol the coun
try, if any,
would Ik.-
suitable for
settlement. He writes
from a some
what un
friendly point
of view and
with a slight
tendencytoward iusti-
nibs ;ind ex
aggeration.

93. Amusements in New Orleans (1818)
THE French language is still predominant in New
Orleans. The population is said to be 30,000 ; two
thirds of which do not speak English. The appearance of
the people too was French, and even the negroes evinced,
by their antics, in rather a ludicrous manner, their previous
connection with that nation.
The general manners and habits are very relaxed. The
first day of my residence here was Sunday, and I was not a
little surprised to find in the United States the markets,
shops, theatre, circus, and public ball-rooms open. Gam
bling houses throng the city : all coffee-houses, together with
the exchange, are occupied from morning until night, by
gamesters. It is said, that when the Kentuckians arrive at
this place, they are in their glory, finding neither limit to,
nor punishment of their excesses. The general style of
living is luxurious. Houses are elegantly furnished. The
ball-room, at Davis's hotel, I have never seen exceeded in
splendour. Private dwellings partake of the same character ;

No. 93]

Louisiana

241

and the ladies dress with expensive elegance. The sources
of public amusement are numerous and varied ; among them
I remark the foUowing :
"INTERESTING EXHIBITION.
"On Sunday the 9th inst. wUl be represented in the place
where Fire-works are generally exhibited, near the Circus, an
extraordinary fight of Furious Animals. The place where the
animals will fight is a rotunda of 160 feet in circumference, with
a railing 17 feet in height, and a circular gallery well condi
tioned and strong, inspected by the Mayor and surveyors by him
appointed. " 1st Fight — A strong Attakapas Bull attacked and subdued
by six of the strongest dogs of the country.
" 2d Fight — Six Bull-dogs against a Canadian Bear.
"3d Fight — A beautiful Tiger against a black Bear.
"4th Fight — Twelve. dogs against a strong and furious Ope-
loussas Bull.
" If the Tiger is not vanquished in his fight with the Bear, he
will be sent alone against the last Bull, and if the latter conquers
all his enemies, several pieces of fire-works will be placed on his
back, which will produce a very entertaining amusement.
"In the Circus will be placed two Manakins, which, notwith
standing the efforts of the Bulls, to throw them down, wUl always
rise again, whereby the animals will get furious.
" The doors will be opened at three and the Exhibition begin
at four o'clock precisely.
" Admittance, one dollar for grown persons and 50 cents for
children. " A military band will perform during the Exhibition.
" If Mr. Renault is so happy as to amuse the spectators by that
new spectacle, he will use every exertion to diversify and augment
it, in order to prove to a generous public, whose patronage has
been hitherto so kindly bestowed upon him, how anxious he is to
please them."
Henry Bradshaw Fearon, Sketches of America. A Narrative of
a Journey of Five Thousand Miles through the Eastern and
Western States of America (London, 1818), 275-277.

In this piece
be gives
a vivid
picture of
certain as
pects of life
in a South
western pio
neer town of
the early
days.There is no
reason to
doubt that
the handbill
was actually
circulated. —
Forthe
Southwest, see Contem
poraries, III,
ch.

By Rever
end John
Rankin
(1793-1886).Presbyterianminister, and
founder of an
anti-slaverysociety in
Carlisle. Kentucky, in
1818; later he
removed to
Ripley, Ohio,
and became
an anti-slav
ery leader;
he was
mobbed
as many as
twenty times,
was a con
ductor on the
Under
ground Rail
road, and as
sisted Eliza
and her
child, the
originals of
Uncle Tom's
Cabin, 10
escape. About 1824
he addressed
a 'series of let
ters to his
brother in
Virginia, to
dissuade him
from becom
ing a slave
owner. Ran
kin is a type

chapter xv— Abolitionists,
1 835-1 841
94. A Western Abolition Argument
(1824)
THESE difficulties, however, should be considered as
so many arguments in favor of the work. If but a
little good can be done, it is the more necessary that that
little should be done. That involuntary slavery is a very
dangerous evil, and that our nation is involved in it, none
can, with truth, deny. And that the safety of our govern
ment, and the happiness of its subjects, depend upon the
extermination of this evil, must be obvious to every enlight
ened mind. Nor is it less evident, that it is the duty of
every citizen, according to his station, talents and oppor
tunity, to use suitable exertions for the abolition of an evil
which is pregnant with the growing principles of ruin.
Surely, no station should be unimproved, no talent, however
small, should be buried ; nor should any opportunity of
doing good be lost, when the safety of a vast nation, and
the happiness of millions of the human family, demand
prompt and powerful exertions. Every thing that can be
done, either by fair discussion, or by any other lawful means,
ought to be done, and done speedily, in order to avert the
hastening ruin that must otherwise soon overtake us !
Let all the friends of justice and suffering humanity, do
what little they can, in their several circles, and according
to their various stations, capacities and opportunities ; and
all their little streams of exertion wUl, in process of time,
242

no. 94] A Western Argument 243

flow together, and constitute a mighty river that shall sweep
away the yoke of oppression, and purge our nation from the
abominations of slavery. . . .
. . . And here I must remark upon one main objection to
the emancipation of slaves ; it is that they are, in conse
quence of the want of information, incapacitated for freedom,
and that it is necessary to detain them in bondage until
they may be better prepared for liberation ; but from the
preceding remarks it is abundantly evident that they are
now better prepared with respect to information, for eman
cipation than they will be at any future period, and that less
inconvenience and danger would attend their liberation at
the present, than at any future time. It must be obvious to
every one, capable of discernment, that the inconvenience
and danger of emancipation wiU increase in proportion as
slaves become more numerous. Indeed all the difficulties
that attend emancipation are rapidly increasing ; and they
must certainly be endured at some period, sooner or later ;
for it is most absurd to imagine that such an immense body
of people, most rapidly increasing, can always be retained
in bondage ; and therefore it is much better to endure those
difficulties now than it will be when they shall have grown
to the most enormous size. . . .
. . . Now take a view of the slave population in the
United States, and you wiU see that a vast quantity of the
very best talent is entirely suppressed by want of suitable
means of improvement — it lies buried deeply in the wreck
of liberty, and the cruel hand of oppression draws around
it the dark shades of endless night. Thus brilliant talents,
immortal powers, designed to enrich, illuminate and ag
grandize the world, lie dormant and useless beneath the
grossest covering of unavoidable ignorance 1 and all that is
noble and grand in our nature, wastes in the drudgery of a
servile life ! Were all the talent that is now suppressed by
slavery, in aU our slaveholding states, properly improved,

of the West
ern abolition.
ists who pre
ceded and
later joined
WilliamLloyd Garri
son; and this
piece is an
example of
the abolition
argument against slav
ery. — On
abolition, see
above, Nos.
35.46; bibliogra
phies in
McDougall,
FugitiveSlaves,and Siebert,
Under
ground Rail
road; and
extracts in
American Orations,
II (entirely
devoted to
slaveryspeeches),
American HistoryStudies, I,
Nos. 6, 7 ;
Contempora
ries, III, ch.
II, Nos. a, 5.

244 Slavery and Abolition [1835
liberated, and brought into action, how vastly would it add
to the strength, wealth, and intelligence of our nation ! . . .
We are commanded to ' do justly and love mercy,' and
this we ought to do without delay, and leave the conse
quences attending it to the control of Him who gave the
command. We ought also to remember that no excuse for
disobedience will avail us any thing when he shaU call us
to judgment. If we refuse to do the Africans justice, we
may expect the supreme Governor of the world to avenge
their wrongs, and cause their own arm to make them free 1
Hence, our own safety demands their liberation. Hold
them in bondage, and you will inure them to hardship, and
prepare them for the day of battle. You will also keep them
together, increase their numbers, and enable them to over
power the nation. Their enormous increase, beyond that of
the white population, is truly alarming. But Uberate them,
and their increase will become proportionate to the rest of
the nation. They will scatter over this Union — many of
them will emigrate to Hayti and Africa. Prepare them for
citizenship, and give them the privileges of free men, and
they will have no inducements to do us harm ; but persist
in oppressing them, and ruin will eventually burst upon our
nation. The storm is gathering fast — dismal clouds al
ready begin to darken our horizon ! A few more years, and
the work of death will commence !
John Rankin, Letters on American Slavery (second edition,
Newburyport, 1836), Preface, iii-iv, and 24-117 passim.

By gov- 95. A Southern Defence of Slavery (1835)

F.RNOR
George McDuffie

FOR the institution of domestic slavery we hold our
selves responsible only to God, and it is utterly
McDuffie incompatible with the dignity and the safety of the State,

rrz-*-tt er c

u-<a

is^e, c*^dT*-

a<cs-*5^£**

°P

,&&.
S^k^**><f*>?fiS3 4^4
*no
r-c-r?Z_<rr*-&^
e^y/^C^JJht.
rrtntj^'i
&<7^ 0#S*TJ8 2.0
This hitherto unpublished letter, by the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, throws an
Interesting light on the matter-of-fact treatment of slaves even by kind masters. The original Is the property
of Mr. Charles E. Grinnell of Roxbury, Mass.
No. 95] A Southern Defence 245
to permit any foreign authority to question our right to was a sup-
maintain it. It may nevertheless be appropriate, as a vol- J^drew
untary token of our respect for the opinions of our confed- Jackson,
erate brethren, to present some views to their consideration HSnsbelween
on this subject, calculated to disabuse their minds of false the e°ven>-
opinions and pernicious prejudices. sTuth'cL-
No human institution, in my opinion, is more manifestly ^^
.consistent with the will of God, than domestic slavery, and 1828, when
no one of his ordinances is written in more legible characters Me""1
than that which consigns the African race to this condition, Senat,e ""^
as more conducive to their own happiness, than any other g^ernoVof
of which they are susceptible. Whether we consult the fining in
sacred Scriptures, or the lights of nature and reason, we shall office from
find these truths as abundantly apparent, as if written with H^gard^i
a sunbeam in the heavens. Under both the Jewish and Chris- Sotli4cltion
tian dispensations of our religion, domestic slavery existed stitutionai°^
with the unequivocal sanction of its prophets, its apostles and revolutio^'
finally its great Author. The patriarchs themselves, those S!£ meas"re-
chosen instruments of God, were slave-holders. In fact the from which*6
divine sanction of this institution is so plainly written that l^en'waV*
" he who runs may read " it, and those over-righteous pre- sent »° the
tenders and Pharisees, who effect to be scandalized by its Hna'ie^r°"
existence among us, would do well to inquire how much la*urein
more nearly they walk in the ways of Godliness, than did slavery »d
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That the African negro is des- rennssu^of
tined by Providence to occupy this condition of servile which it
dependence, is not less manifest. It is marked on the face, Ss'the'
stamped on the skin, and evinced by the intellectual infe- views?fthe
riority and natural improvidence of this race. They have all among'tbe
the qualities that fit them for slaves, and not one of those neousloTth-
that would fit them to be freemen. They are utterly un- ern leaders.
qualified not only for rational freedom, but for self-govern- folIFmeshsaBe
ment of any kind. — They are, in all respects, physical, ^""r'<ra*
moral and political, inferior to millions of the human race' t£,j%x. No.
who have for consecutive ages, dragged out a wretched otheTsouth-

ern defences
of slavery,
see Nos. 91
above and
113 below;
Contempora
ries, I'll, ch.

All this argu
ment was
disproved by
the result of
the Civil
War.

Scripture
authority was
a favorite
argument down to
1 861.

246 Slavery and Abolition [x835
existence under a grinding political despotism, and who are
doomed to this hopeless condition by the very qualities
which unfit them for a better. It is utterly astonishing that
any enlightened American, after contemplating all the mani
fold forms in which even the white race of mankind are
doomed to slavery and oppression, should suppose it possi
ble to reclaim the African race from their destiny. The
capacity to enjoy freedom is an attribute not to be com
municated by human power. It is an endowment of God,
and one of the rarest which it has pleased his inscrutable
wisdom to bestow upon the nations of the earth. It is con
ferred as the reward of merit, and only upon those who are
qualified to enjoy it. Until the " Ethiopian can change
his skin," it will be vain to attempt, by any human power,
to make freemen of those whom God has doomed to be
slaves, by aU their attributes.
Let not, therefore, the misguided and designing inter-
meddlers who seek to destroy pur peace, imagine that they
are serving the cause of God by practically arraigning the
decrees of his Providence. Indeed it would scarcely excite
surprise, if with the impious audacity of those who projected
the tower of Babel, they should attempt to scale the battle
ments of Heaven, and remonstrate with the God of wisdom
for having put the mark of Cain and the curse of Ham upon
the African race, instead of the European. . . .
It is perfectly evident that the destiny of the Negro race
is, either the worst possible form of political slavery, or else
domestic servitude as it exists in the slaveholding States.
The advantage of domestic slavery over the most favorable
condition of political slavery, does not admit of a question.
It is the obvious interest of the master, not less than his
duty, to provide comfortable food and clothing for his slaves ;
and whatever false and exaggerated stories may be propa
gated by mercenary travellers, who make a trade of exchang
ing calumny for hospitality, the peasantry and operatives of

No. 95]

A Southern Defence 247

no country in the world are better provided for, in these
respects, than the slaves of our country. . . .
. . . They habitually labor from two to four hours a day less
than the operatives in other countries, and it has been truly
remarked, by some writer, that a negro cannot be made to
injure himself by excessive labor. It may be safely affirmed
that they usuaUy eat as much wholesome and substantial
food in one day, as English operatives or Irish peasants eat
in two. And as it regards concern for the future, their con
dition may well be envied even by their masters. There is
not upon the face of the earth, any class of people, high or
low, so perfectly free from care and anxiety. They know
that their masters wiU provide for them, under all circum
stances, and that in the extremity of old age, instead of
being driven to beggary or to seek public charity in a poor-
house, they wiU be comfortably accommodated and kindly
treated among their relatives and associates. . . .
In a word, our slaves are cheerful, contented and happy,
much beyond the general condition of the human race,
except where those foreign intruders and fatal ministers of
mischief, the emancipationists, like their arch-prototype in
the Garden of Eden, and actuated by no less envy, have
tempted them to aspire above the condition to which they
have been assigned in the order of Providence.
Nor can it be admitted, as some of our own statesmen
have affirmed, in a mischievous and misguided spirit of
sickly sentimentality, that our system of domestic slavery is
a curse to the white population — a moral and political evil,-
much to be deplored, but incapable of being eradicated.
Let the tree be judged by its fruit. . . .
. . . where the menial offices and dependent employ
ments of society are performed by domestic slaves, a class
well defined by their color and entirely separated from the
political body, the rights of property are perfectly secure,
without the establishment of artificial barriers. In a word,

The testi
mony of
travellers contradictsthis state
ment.

Calhoun elaborated the argument
that " slavery
was a posi
tive good."
See Ameri-

can Orations,
II, xa3.

See Ste-
fihens, be-
ow, No. 113.

248 Slavery and Abolition [1835
the institution of domestic slavery supercedes the necessity
of an order of nobility, and aU the other appendages of a
hereditary system of government. . . .
Domestic slavery, therefore, instead of being a political
evil, is the corner stone of our republican edifice. No
patriot who justly estimates our privileges will tolerate the
idea of emancipation, at any period, however remote, or on
any conditions of pecuniary advantage, however favorable[.]
I would as soon think of opening a negociation for selUng
the liberty of the State at once, as for making any stipula
tions for the ultimate emancipation of our slaves. So deep
is my conviction on this subject, that if I were doomed to
die immediately after recording these sentiments, I could
say in all sincerity and under all the sanctions of Christianity
and patriotism, "God forbid that my descendants, in the
remotest generations, should live in any other than a com
munity having the institution of domestic slavery, as it ex
isted among the patriarchs of the primitive Church and in
all the free states of antiquity."
Journal of the General Assembly of South Carolina, 1835 (ap
pended to Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly . . .
passed in December, 183b, Columbia, 1837), 5-8 passim.

By William
Lloyd Gar
rison (1805-1879),
a colleague
of Benjamin
Lundy in
publishing
the Genius
of Universal
Lmancipa-
tion in Boston
in 1828. On
Jan. 1, 1831,
Garrison
founded the

96. An Anti- Abolitionist Mob (1835)
THE sign being demolished, the cry for " Garrison ! "
was renewed, more loudly than ever. It was now
apparent that the multitude would not disperse until I had
left the building ; and as egress out of the front door was
impossible, the Mayor and his assistants, as well as some of
my friends, earnestly besought me to effect my escape in the
rear of the building. . . .
Preceded by my faithful and beloved friend Mr. J 

No. 96]

Garrison Riot

249

-, I dropped from a back window on to a shed,
and narrowly escaped falling headlong to the ground. We
entered into a carpenter's shop, through which we attempted
to get into Wilson's Lane, but found our retreat cut off by
the mob. They raised a shout as soon as we came in sight,
but the workmen promptly closed the door of the shop, kept
them at bay for a time, and thus kindly afforded me an
opportunity to find some other passage. I told Mr. C. it
would be fntfle to attempt to escape — I would go out to
the mob, and let them deal with me as they might elect ;
but he thought it was my duty to avoid them as long as pos
sible. We then went up stairs, and, finding a vacancy in one
corner of the room, I got into it, and he and a young lad
piled up some boards in front of me to shield me from
observation. In a few minutes several ruffians broke into
the chamber, who seized Mr. C. in a rough manner, and led
him out to the view of the mob, saying, " This is not Gar
rison, but Garrison's and Thompson's friend, and he says he
knows where Garrison is, but won't teU." Then a shout of
exultation was raised by the mob, and what became of him
I do not know ; though, as I was immediately discovered, I
presume he escaped without material injury.
On seeing me, three or four of the rioters, uttering a yell,
furiously dragged me to the window, with the intention of
hurling me from that height to the ground ; but one of them
relented and said — "Don't let us kill him outright." So
they drew me back, and coiled a rope about my body —
probably to drag me through the streets. I bowed to the
mob, and, requesting them to wait patiently until I could
descend, went down upon a ladder that was raised for that
purpose. I fortunately extricated myself from the rope, and
was seized by two or three powerful men, to whose firmness,
policy and muscular energy I am probably indebted for my
preservation. They led me along bareheaded, (for I had
lost my hat), through a mighty crowd, ever and anon shout-

Liberator in
Boston, and
continued to
publish it for
thirty-five
years, until
the abolition
of slavery
was finally
secured.The incident
describedbelow illus
trates the
kind of perse
cution to
which he and
men like him
were exposed
during this
period. The
Boston mob
was occa
sioned by a
meeting of
the Boston
Female Anti-
Slavery So
ciety, on Oct
ai, 1835,
at which it
was rumored
that the Eng
lish aboli
tionist, Thompson,
was to speak.
Garrison'saccount is a
good sample
of his vigor
ous style of
writing. —
For Garri
son, see Life
of Garrison
by his Chii-
dren(4vo\s.).
— For anti-
abolition
mobs, see
Contempora
ries, HI, ch.

The sign

" Anti-Slav
ery Rooms,"
exciting the
fury of the
mob, was at
their demand
promptly given them
by the mayor,
and was in
stantly broken into
fragments. "J_R_C— "
=John Reid
Campbell. Garrisonalways re
sented the
report that
the rope was
about his
neck.

250 Slavery and Abolition [1835
ing, " He shan't be hurt ! You shan't hurt him ! Don't
hurt him ! He is an American," &c, &c. This seemed to
excite sympathy among many in the crowd, and they re
iterated the cry, " He shan't be hurt ! " I was thus conducted
through Wilson's Lane into State Street, in the rear of the
City Hall, over the ground that was stained with the blood
of the first martyrs in the cause of Liberty and Indepen
dence, by the memorable massacre of 1770 — and upon
which was proudly unfurled, only a few years since, with
joyous acclamations, the beautiful banner presented to the
gallant Poles by the young men of Boston 1 * . .
Orders were now given to carry me to the Mayor's office
in the City Hall. As we approached the south door, the
Mayor attempted to protect me by his presence ; but as he
was unassisted by any show of authority or force, he was
quickly thrust aside — and now came a tremendous rush on
the part of the mob to prevent my entering the Hall. For
a moment, the conflict was dubious — but my sturdy sup
porters carried me safely up to the Mayor's room. . . .
Having had my clothes rent asunder, one individual kindly
lent me a pair of pantaloons — another, a coat — a third, a
stock — a fourth, a cap as a substitute for my lost hat. After
a consultation of fifteen or twenty minutes, the Mayor and
his advisers came to the singular conclusion, that the building
would be endangered by my continuing in it, and that the
preservation of my life depended upon committing me to
jail, ostensibly as a disturber of the peace ! 1 A hack was
got in readiness at the door to receive me — and, supported
by Sheriff Parkman and Ebenezer Bailey, Esq. (the Mayor
leading the way), I succeeded in getting into it without
much difficulty, as I was not readily identified in my new
garb. Now came a scene that baffles the power of descrip
tion. As the ocean, lashed into fury by the spirit of the
storm, seeks to whelm the adventurous bark beneath its
mountain waves — so did the mob, enraged by a series of

No. g7]

Garrison Riot

25

disappointments, rush like, a whirlwind upon the frail vehicle
in which I sat, and endeavor to drag me out of it. Escape
seemed a physical impossibility. They clung to the wheels —
dashed open the doors — seized hold of the horses — and
tried to upset the carriage. They were, however, vigorously
repulsed by the police — a constable sprang in by my side —
the doors were closed — and the driver, lustily using his
whip upon the bodies of his horses and the heads of the
rioters, happily made an opening through the crowd, and
drove at a tremendous speed for Leverett Street. But many
of the rioters followed even with superior swiftness, and
repeatedly attempted, to arrest the progress of the horses.
To reach the jail by a direct course was found impracticable ;
and after going in a circuitous direction, and encountering
many " hair-breadth 'scapes," we drove up to this new and
last refuge of liberty and life, when another bold attempt
was made to seize me by the mob — but in vain. In a few
moments I was locked up in a cell, safe from my persecutors,
accompanied by two delightful associates, a good conscience
and a cheerful mind." . . .
[Wendell Phillips Garrison and Francis Jackson Garrison, edi
tors,] William Lloyd Garrison. 1805-187Q. The Story of
his Life told by his Children (New York, 1885), II, 18-27
passim.

97. The Internal Slave-Trade (1834)
JUST as we reached New River, in the early grey of the
morning, we came up with a singular spectacle, the most
striking one of the kind I have ever witnessed. It was
a camp of negro slave-drivers, just packing up to start ; they
had about three hundred slaves with them, who had biv
ouacked the preceding night in chains in the woods ; these

By George
William Feather-
stonhaugh (1780-1866),
an English
man,
who spent
many years
of his early
life in North
America. Owing to his

extended knowledge ot
the country,
the British
government made him
one of the
commissioners to settle
the bounda
ries of the
United
States under
the Ashbur-
ton Treaty.
In 1844 he
published the
book from
which this
extract is
taken, in
which he
freely dis
cusses the in
stitution of
slavery. His
judgments, though se
vere, are fair-
minded and
discriminating. — For
English trav
ellers, see
Tuckerman,
America and
her Commen
tators.— On
the external
slave-trade,see DuBois,
Suppressionof the Slave-
Trade. — On
the internal
slave-trade,see Contem
poraries, III,
No.
" New
River," a
name given
to the Great
Kanawha iu
the upper

252 Slavery and Abolition [i834
they were conducting to Natchez, upon the Mississippi
River, to work upon the sugar plantations in Louisiana. . . .
they had a caravan of nine waggons and single-horse car
riages, for the purpose of conducting the white people, and
any of the blacks that should fall lame, to which they were
now putting the horses to pursue their march. The female
slaves were, some of them, sitting on logs of wood, whilst
others were standing, and a great many little black children
were warming themselves at the fires of the bivouac. In
front of them all, and prepared for the march, stood, in
double files, about two hundred male slaves, manacled and
chained to each other. I had never seen so revolting a sight
before ! Black men in fetters, torn from the lands where
they were born, from the ties they had formed, and from
the comparatively easy condition which agricultural labour
affords, and driven by white men, with liberty and equality
in their mouths, to a distant and unhealthy country, to perish
in the sugar-mills of Louisiana, where the duration of life for
a sugar-mill slave does not exceed seven years ! To make
this spectacle still more disgusting and hideous, some of
the principal white slave-drivers, who were tolerably well
dressed, and had broad-brimmed white hats on, with black
crape round them, were standing near, laughing and smoking
cigars. . . .
It was an interesting, but a melancholy spectacle, to see
them effect the passage of the river : first, a man on horse
back selected a shallow place in the ford for the male slaves ;
then followed a waggon and four horses, attended by another
man on horseback. The other waggons contained the chil
dren and some that were lame, whilst the scows, or flat-
boats, crossed the women and some of the people belonging
to the caravan. There was much method and vigilance
observed, for this was one of the situations where the gangs
— always watchful to obtain their liberty — often show a dis
position to mutiny, knowing that if one or two of them could

No. 97]

Internal Trade

253

wrench their manacles off, they could soon free the rest, and part of its
either disperse themselves or overpower and slay their sordid
keepers, and fly to the Free States. The slave-drivers,
aware of this disposition in the unfortunate negroes, en
deavour to mitigate their discontent by feeding them weU on
the march, and by encouraging them to sing "Old Virginia
never tire," to the banjo.
. . . these gangs are accompanied by other negroes
trained by the slave-dealers to drive the rest, whom they
amuse by lively stories, boasting of the fine warm climate
they are going to, and of the oranges and sugar which are
there to be had for nothing : in proportion as they recede
from the Free States, the danger of revolt diminishes, for in
the Southern Slave-States all men have an interest in pro
tecting this infernal trade of slave-driving, which, to the
negro, is a greater curse than slavery itself, since it too often
dissevers for ever those affecting natural ties which even a
slave can form, by tearing, without an instant's notice, the
husband from the wife, and the children from their parents ; •
sending the one to the sugar plantations of Louisiana, an
other to the cotton-lands of Arkansas, and the rest to
Texas. . . .
The uncompromising obloquy which has been cast at the The slave-
Southern planters, by their not too scrupulous adversaries, despised by
is . . . not deserved by them ; and it is but fair to consider the slave-
1 , • ,• , ., , r , • holder.
them as only indirectly responsible for such scenes as arise
out of the revolting traffic which is carried on by these sor
did, illiterate, and vulgar slave-drivers — men who can have
nothing whatever in common with the gentlemen of the
Southern states. This land traffic, in fact, has grown out of
the wide-spreading population of the United States, the an
nexation of Louisiana, and the increased cultivation of cotton
and sugar. The fertile lowlands of that territory can only
be worked by blacks, and are almost of illimitable extent.
Hence negroes have risen greatly in price, from 500 to 1000

254 Slavery and Abolition [i834
tohSMTOeand dollars» according to their capacity. Slaves being thus in
upwards demand, a detestable branch of business — where sometimes
anoU86o'850 a great deal of money is made— has very naturally arisen in
a country filled with speculators. The soil of Virginia has
gradually become exhausted with repeated crops of tobacco
and Indian corn ; and when to this is added the constant
subdivision of property which has overtaken every family
since the abolition of entails, it follows of course that many
of the small proprietors, in their efforts to keep up appear
ances, have become embarrassed in their circumstances,
and, when they are pinched, are compelled to sell a negro
or two. The wealthier proprietors also have frequently frac-
tious and bad slaves, which, when they cannot be reclaimed,
are either put into jail, or into those depots which exist
in all the large towns for the reception of slaves who are
sold, until they can be removed. All this is very well known
to the slave-driver, one of whose associates goes annually to
the Southwestern States, to make his contracts with those
• planters there who are in want of slaves for the next season.
These fellows then scour the country to make purchases.
Those who are bought out of jail are always put in fetters,
as well as any of those whom they may suspect of an inten
tion to escape. The women and grown-up girls are usually
sold into the cotton-growing States, the men and the boys to
the rice and sugar plantations. Persons with large capital
are actively concerned in this trade, some of whom have
amassed considerable fortunes. But occasionally these deal
ers in men are made to pay fearfully the penalty of their
nefarious occupation. I was told that only two or three
months before I passed this way a " gang " had surprised
their conductors when off their guard, and had killed some
of them with axes.
G. W. Featherstonhaugh, Excursion through the Slave States
(New York, 1844), 36-38 passim.

No. 98] A Slave's Narrative 255

98. A Slave's Narrative (1844)
I AM about sixty-five years old. I was born near Eden-
ton, North Carolina. My master was very kind to his
slaves. If an overseer whipped them, he turned him away.
He used to whip them himself sometimes, with hickory
switches as large as my little finger. My mother nursed all
his children. She was reckoned a very good servant ; and
our mistress made it a point to give one of my mother's
children to each of her own. I fell to the lot of EUzabeth,
her second daughter. It was my business to wait upon her.
Oh, my old mistress was a kind woman. She was all the
same as a mother to poor Charity. If Charity wanted to
learn to spin, she let her learn ; if Charity wanted to learn
to knit, she let her learn ; if Charity wanted to learn to
weave, she let her learn. I had a wedding when I was
married ; for mistress didn't like to have her people take
up with one another, without any minister to marry them.
When my dear good mistress died, she charged her children
never to separate me and my husband ; " For," said she,
" if ever there was a match made in heaven, it was Charity
and her husband." My husband was a nice good man ;
and mistress knew we set stores by one another. Her
children promised they never would separate me from my
husband and children. Indeed, they used to tell me they
would never sell me at all ; and I am sure they meant what
they said. But my young master got into trouble. He
used to come home and sit leaning his head on his hand by
the hour together, without speaking to any body. I see
something was the matter ; and I begged of him to teU me
what made him look so worried. He told me he owed
seventeen hundred dollars, that he could not pay ; and he
was afraid he should have to go to prison. I begged him to
sell me and my children, rather than to go to jail. I see

By Charity
Bowery {born 1779).
This narra
tive of a slave
woman, who
had been
freed by the
will of her
master and
had after
ward come
North, givesa
fairly typical,
and not over
drawn,picture of the
condition of
a slave in. the
second quar
ter of this
century. The
narrative is
simple and
bears inter
nal marks of
sincerity. —
See a bibli
ography of
slave narra
tives in Sie-
bert. Under
ground Hail-
road. —
Other narra
tives below,
No. 100;
Contempora
ries. Ill,
Nos.

In most
cases the
wives and
daughters of
large planters
took a kindly
interest in the
slaves.

256 Slavery and Abolition [1844
the tears come into his eyes. "I don't know, Charity,"
said he ; " I'll see what can be done. One thing you may
feel easy about ; I will never separate you from your hus
band and children, let what wiU come."
Two or three days after, he come to me, and says he ;
" Charity, how should you like to be sold to Mr. Kinmore?"
I told him I would rather be sold to him than to any body
else, because my husband belonged to him. My husband
was a nice good man, and we set stores by one another.
Mr. Kinmore agreed to buy us ; and so I and my children
went there to live. He was a kind master; but as for
mistress Kinmore,  she was a divil ! Mr. Kinmore died
a few years after he bought us ; and in his Will he give me
and my husband free ; but I never knowed anything about
it, for years afterward. I don't know how they managed it
My poor husband died, and never knowed that he was free.
But it's all the same now. He's among the ransomed. . . .
Sixteen children I've had, first and last ; and twelve I've
nursed for my mistress. From the time my first baby was
born, I always set my heart upon buying freedom for some
of my children. I thought it was of more consequence to
them, than to me ; for I was old, and used to being a slave.
But mistress Kinmore wouldn't let me have my children.
One after another — one after another — she sold 'em away
from me. Oh, how many times that woman's broke my
heart 1
... I tried every way I could, to lay up a copper to buy
my children ; but I found it pretty hard ; for mistress kept
me at work all the time. It was " Charity ! Charity 1
Charity ! " from morning till night.
I used to do the washings of the family ; and large wash
ings they were. The public road run right by my little hut ;
and I thought to myself, while I stood there at the wash-
tub, I might, just as well as not, be earning something to
buy my children. So I set up a little oyster-board; and

no. 98] A Slave's Narrative 257
when anybody come along, that wanted a few oysters and a
cracker, I left my wash-tub and waited upon him. When I
got a little money laid up, I went to my mistress and tried
to buy one of my children. She knew how long my heart
had been set upon it, and how hard I had worked for it
But she wouldn't let me have one 1 — She wouldn't let me
have one ! So, I went to work again ; and set up late o'
nights, in hopes I could earn enough to tempt her. When
I had two hundred doUars, I went to her again; but she
thought she could find a better market, and she wouldn't let
me have one. At last, what do you think that woman did?
She sold me and five of my children to the speculators 1
Oh, how I did feel, when I heard my children was sold to
the speculators 1 . . .
Surely, ma'am, there's always some good comes of being
kind to folks. While I kept my oyster-board, there was a
thin, peaked-looking man, used to come and buy of me.
Sometimes he would say, " Aunt Charity, (he always called
me Aunt Charity,) you must fix me up a nice little mess,
for I feel poorly to-day." I always made something good
for him ; and if he didn't happen to have any change, I
always trusted him. He liked my messes mighty weU. —
Now, who do you think that should turn out to be, but the
very speculator that bought me ! He come to me, and
says he, " Aunt Charity (he always called me Aunt Charity,)
you've been very good to me, and fixed me up many a
nice little mess, when I've been poorly ; and now you shall
have your freedom for it, and I'll give you your youngest
child." . . .
Well . . . after that I concluded I'd come to the Free
States. . . . Here I have taken in washing ; and my daughter
is smart at her needle ; and we get a very comfortable living.
L[ydia] Maria Child, Letters from New-York (Second Series,
New York, etc., 1845), 48-53 passim.

By John
Gkeenleaf Whittier (1807-1892).
Probably his
youthful friendshipwith Garri
son drew him
early into the
anti-slavery movement, in which,
through both
verse and
prose, his pen
did valiant
service for
the cause.
In 1836 he
became sec
retary of the
American Anti-Slavery
Society;from 1847 to
1859 he con
tributed edi
torials to the
anti-slaveryNational Era, in which
Uncle Tom's
Cabin was
first printed.
Whittier was
interested in
practicalpolitics, and
had much to
do with the
formation of
the new Re
publicanparty in 1854.
His burning
verses had a
wonderful effect on
Northern
public opinion. —
See other
anti-slavery

258 Slavery and Abolition [is38
99. Farewell of a Slave Mother (1838)
GONE, gone — sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings,
Where the noisome insect stings,
Where the fever demon strews
Poison with the falling dews,
Where- the sickly sunbeams glare
Through the hot and misty air, —
Gone, gone — sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters, —
Woe is me, my stolen daughters I
Gone, gone — sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
There no mother's eye is near them,
There no mother's ear can hear them ;
Never, when the torturing lash
Seams their back with many a gash,
Shall a mother's kindness bless them,
Or a mother's arms caress them.
Gone, gone — sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters, —
Woe is me, my stolen daughters !
Gone, gone — sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
Oh, when weary, sad, and slow,
From the fields at night they go,
Faint with toil, and racked with pain,
To their cheerless homes again —

no. 99] A Slave's Farewell 259

There no brother's voice shall greet them-
There no father's welcome meet them.
Gone, gone — sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters, —
"Woe is me, my stolen daughters 1

poems in
Contemporaries, 111.
Nos.

Gone, gone -<- sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone.
From the tree whose shadow lay
On their childhood's place of play —
From the cool spring where they drank —
Rock, and hill, and rivulet bank —
From the solemn house of prayer,
And the holy counsels there —
Gone, gone — sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters, —
Woe is me, my stolen daughters 1

The rice
plantationswere the most
unhealthfulof all the
places of
slave labor.

Gone, gone — sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone —
Toiling through the weary day,
And at night the spoiler's prey.
Oh, that they had earlier died,
Sleeping calmly, side by side,
Where the tyrant's power is o'er,
And the fetter galls no more !
Gone, gone — sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters, —
Woe is me, my stolen daughters 1

Gone, gone — sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone.

260 Slavery and Abolition [is48
By the holy love He beareth —
By the bruised reed He spareth —
Oh, may He, to whom alone
AU their Cruel wrongs are known,
Still their hope and refuge prove,
With a more than a mother's love.
Gone, gone — sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters, —
Woe is me, my stolen daughters !
John G. Whittier, Poems (Boston, 1849), 163-165.

By Henry
Box Brown
(born 1816),
the phra
seology of
whose narra
tive was
undoubtedlyrefined by the
person who
wrote down
his story for
him. This is
one of the
most thrilling
incidents in
the annals of
fugitive-slave history.
The expedi
ent was not
entirely new,
however, for
as early as
1620 the cele
brated Hugo
Grotius was
got out of
prison in a
similar way.
— Other

100. A Fugitive's Narrative (1848)
AFTER searching for assistance for some time, I
at length was so fortunate as to find a friend,
who promised to assist me, for one half the money I had
about me, which was one hundred and sixty-six dollars. I
gave him eighty-six, and he was to do his best in forwarding
my scheme. . . .
At length, after praying earnestly to Him, who seeth afar
off, for assistance, in my difficulty, suddenly, as if from above,
there darted into my mind these words, " Go and get a box,
and put yourself in it." I pondered the words over in my
mind. " Get a box?" thought I ; "what can this mean?"
But I was " not disobedient unto the heavenly vision," and I
determined to put into practice this direction, as I consid
ered it, from my heavenly Father. I went to the depot, and
there noticed the size of the largest boxes, which commonly
were sent by the cars, and returned with their dimensions.
I then repaired to a carpenter, and induced him to make
me a box of such a description as I wished, informing him

No. 100]

A Fugitive

261

of the use I intended to make of it. He assured me I could
not live in it ; but as it was dear liberty I wais in pursuit of,
I thought it best to make the trial.
When the box was finished, I carried it, and placed it
before my friend, who had promised to assist me, who asked
me if that was to " put my clothes in?" I replied that it
was not, but to "put Henry Brown in .' " He was aston
ished at my temerity ; but I insisted upon his placing me in
it, and nailing me up, and he finally consented.
After corresponding with a friend in Philadelphia, arrange
ments were made for my departure, and I took my place in
this narrow prison, with a mind full of uncertainty . . .
I laid me down in my darkened home of three feet by two,
and like one about to be guillotined, resigned myself to my
fate. My friend was to accompany me, but he failed to do
so ; and contented himself with sending a telegraph message
to his correspondent in Philadelphia, that such a box was on
its way to his care.
I took with me a bladder filled with water to bathe my
neck with, in case of too great heat ; and with no access to
the fresh air, excepting three small gimblet holes, I started
on my perilous cruise. I was first carried to the express
office, the box being placed on its end, so that I started with
my head downwards, although the box was directed, " this
side up with care." From the express office, I was carried
to the depot, and from thence tumbled roughly into the
baggage car, where I happened to fall " right side up," but
no thanks to my transporters. But after a while the cars
stopped, and I was put aboard a steamboat, and placed on
mv head. In this dreadful position, I remained the space of
an hour and a half, it seemed to me, when I began to feel of
my eyes and head, and found to my dismay, that my eyes
were almost swollen out of their sockets, and the veins on my
temple seemed ready to burst. I made no noise however,
determining to obtain " victory or death" but endured the

cited in
McDougall,
Fugitive Slants, and
Siebert, Under
ground Rail
road. —
Other narra
tives are in
Contempora
ries. Ill,
Nos.

262 Slavery and Abolition [1848
terrible pain, as weU as I could, sustained under the whole
by the thoughts of sweet liberty. About half an hour after
wards, I attempted again to lift my hands to my face, but I
found I was not able to move them. A cold sweat now
covered me from head to foot. Death seemed my inevit
able fate, and every moment I expected to feel the blood
flowing over me, which had burst from my veins. One half
hour longer and my sufferings would have ended in that fate,
which I preferred to slavery; but I lifted up my heart to
God in prayer, beUeving that he would yet deliver me, when
to my joy, I overheard two men say, " We have been here
two hours and have travelled twenty miles, now let us sit
down, and rest ourselves." They suited the action to the
word, and turned the box over, containing my soul and body,
thus delivering me from the power of the grim messenger of
death, who a few moments previously, had aimed his fatal
shaft at my head, and had placed his icy hands on my
throbbing heart ...
Soon after this fortunate event, we arrived at Washington,
where I was thrown from the wagon and again as my luck
would have it, fell on my head. I was then rolled down a
declivity, until I reached the platform from which the cars
were to start During this short but rapid journey, my neck
came very near being dislocated, as I felt it crack, as if it
had snapped asunder. Pretty soon, I heard some one say,
" there is no room for this box, it will have to remain be
hind." I then again applied to the Lord, my help in all
my difficulties, and in a few minutes I heard a gentleman
direct the hands to place it aboard, as " it came with the
mail and must go on with it." I was then tumbled into the
car, my head downwards again, as I seemed to be destined
to escape on my head ; a sign probably, of the opinion of
American people respecting such bold adventurers as my
self; that our heads should be held downwards, whenever
we attempt to benefit ourselves. Not the only instance of

No. xox]

A Fugitive

263

this propensity, on the part of the American people, towards
the colored race. We had not proceeded far, however, be
fore more baggage was placed in the car, at a stopping place,
and I was again turned to my proper position. No farther
difficulty occurred until my arrival at Philadelphia. I
reached this place at three o'clock in the morning, and re
mained in the depot until six o'clock, km., at which time,
a waggon drove up, and a person inquired for a box directed
to such a place, " right side up." I was soon placed on this
waggon, and carried to the house of my friend's correspon
dent, where quite a number of persons were waiting to
receive me. They appeared to be some afraid to open the
box at first, but at length one of them rapped upon it, and
with a trembling voice, asked, "Is aU right within?" to
which I replied, " All right" The joy of these friends was
excessive, and like the ancient Jews, who repaired to the re
building of Jerusalem, each one seized hold of some tool,
and commenced opening my grave. At length the cover
was removed, and I arose, and shook myself from the leth
argy into which I had fallen ; but exhausted nature proved
too much for my frame, and I swooned away.
Charles Stearns, Narrative of Henry Box Brown . . . written
from a statement of facts made by himself (Boston [1849]),
58-62 passim.

101. A Political Abolitionist (1845)
To all Friends of Liberty, and of our Country's
BEST INTERESTS.
FINALLY, we ask all true friends of liberty, of impartial,
universal liberty, to be firm and steadfast. The little
handful of voters, who, in 1840, wearied of compromising
expediency, and despairing of anti-slavery action by pro-

By Salmon
Portland
Chase (1808-1873),
one of the
founders of
the Liberty
party, author
of the plat
form of that
party in 1843,
and of many
other anti-

slavery ad
dresses ;
leading spirit
in the Free-
Soil conven
tion of 1848;
senator from
Ohio, 1849-
1855; gov
ernor of
Ohio, 1856-
1860; Secre
tary of the
Treasury, 1 861-1864;
Chief justice,
1865-1873.
Chase was
the most dis
tinguished of
the numer
ous Western
and Eastern
abolitionists
who declined
to follow
Garrison's lead, and
used their
votes to ac
complish
their ends.
The piece is
one of many
ringing polit
ical ad
dresses of
the period. —
On Chase,
see Ameri
can Orations,
HI. 3.3331
Contempora
ries, IV, No.
. — On the
political movement
against slav
ery, see
American Orations, II,
3-32, 115-
340; Con
temporaries, IV, ch.

264 Slavery and Abolition [1845
slavery parties, raised anew the standard of the Declaration,
and manfully resolved to vote right then and vote for free
dom, has already swelled to a Great Party, strong enough,
numerically, to decide the issue of any national contest, and
stronger far in the power of its pure and elevating principles.
And if these principles be sound, which we doubt not, and
if the question of slavery be, as we verily believe it is, the
great question of our day and nation, it is a libel upon the
intelligence, the patriotism, and the virtue of the American
people to say that there is no hope that a majority wiU not
array themselves under our banner. Let it not be said that
we are factious or impracticable. We adhere to our views
because we believe them to be sound, practicable and vitally
important We have already said that we are ready to prove
our devotion to our principles by co-operation with either of
the other two great American Parties, which will openly and
honestly, in State and National Conventions, avow our doc
trines and adopt our measures, until slavery shall be over
thrown. We do not, indeed, expect any such adoption and
avowal by either of those parties, because we are well aware
that they fear more, at present, from the loss of slaveholding
support than from the loss of anti-slavery co-operation. But
we can be satisfied with nothing less, for we will compromise
no longer ; and, therefore, must of necessity maintain our
separate organization as the true Democratic Party of the
country, and trust our cause to the patronage of the people
and the blessing of God !
Carry then, friends of freedom and free labour, your prin
ciples to the ballot-box. Let no difficulties discourage, no
dangers daunt, no delays dishearten you. Your solemn vow
that slavery must perish is registered in heaven. Renew
that vow ! Think of the martyrs of truth and freedom ;
think of the millions of the enslaved ; think of the other
millions of the oppressed and degraded free ; and renew
that vow ! Be not tempted from the path of political duty.

no. 101] Political Abolition 265
Vote for no man, act with no party politically connected
with the supporters of slavery. Vote for no man, act with
no party unwilling to adopt and carry out the principles
which we have set forth in this address. To compromise
for any partial or temporary advantage is ruin to our cause.
To act with any party, or to vote for the candidates of any
party, which recognises the friends and supporters of slavery
as members in full standing, because in particular places or
under particular circumstances, it may make large profes
sions of anti-slavery zeal, is to commit political suicide.
Unswerving fidelity to our principles; unalterable determi
nation to carry those principles to the ballot-box at every
election ; inflexible and unanimous support of those, and
only those, who are true to those principles, are the condi
tions of our ultimate triumph. Let these conditions be ful
filled, and our triumph is certain. The indications of its
coming multiply on every hand. The clarion trump of free
dom breaks already the gloomy silence of siavery in Ken
tucky, and its echoes are heard throughout the land. A
spirit of inquiry and of action is awakened everywhere.
The assemblage of the convention, whose voice we utter, is
itself an auspicious omen. Gathered from the North and
the South, and the East and West, we here unite our coun
sels, and consolidate our action. We are resolved to go for
ward, knowing that our cause is just, trusting in God. We
ask you to go forward with us, invoking His blessing who
sent his Son to redeem mankind. With Him are the issues
of all events. He can and He will disappoint all the devices
of oppression. He can, and we trust He will, make our
instrumentality efficient for the redemption of our land
from slavery, and for the fulfilment of our fathers' pledge in
behalf of freedom, before Him and before the world.
[Salmon P. Chase,] The Address of the Southern and Western
Liberty Convention held ai Cincinnati, June it cV* 12, 1845
[no title-page; Philadelphia, 1845], '$•

By Charles
Augustus Davis (1795-1867),
a New York
merchant,
who wrote
cleverly on
commercial
and financial
questions. His Major
Jack Down
ing Letters
first ap
peared in the
Commercial
Advertiser in
1834, and at
once became
very popular.
Its humor,
though keen,
is never
biting; Jack
son himself
liked to
read it. The
passage here
given well
takes off
Jackson'sautocratictemper in his
relations to
the Bank, of
which Nicho
las Biddle
was presi
dent, and is
at the same
time an illus
tration of the
newspaper

CHAPTER XVI — TERRITORIAL
DEVELOPMENT, 1 841-1853

02. Jackson's Responsibility (1833)

'E

UT there is one thing, Major,' says the Gineral,
'that I don't see how Biddle can git round; and
that is, how he dares to take upon himself to do what only
could be done by the Directors. Look at the Charter;
there it is as plain as A. B. C. He has no right to do a
single thing, unless the Directors are all present, and agree
to it.' ' Well,' says I, ' Gineral, that is a puzzler ; and yet
all the Bank folks say he does right; and its more their
business than ourn. And,' says I, ' Gineral, come to think
on't, and the notion never struck me before,, but I begin
now to believe that Squire Biddle is a rale Jackson man.'
' Why,* says he, ' Major, you are as crazy as a mad rooster —
how can you make that out?' 'Why,' says I, ' I do raly
believe when the Squire did any thing without the Directors,
he said, / take the responsibility.' The Gineral got up,
stamp'd round a spell ; and, says he, ' Major, you beat all
natur.' But this tickled the Gineral considerable. 'Well,'
says he, ' Major, if I only knew he said so, I'd put all the
deposits back again in the Bank to-morrow; for I do like
a man who aint afraid of responsibility.'
We come nigh havin a pretty considerable riot here last
night. I and the Gineral had been to bed about two hours,
and had jest got threw talkin over matters, and got into a
kinder doze, when we was startled by the tarnalest racket
you ever hear tell on. The Gineral jump'd right on eend,
266

no. 102] Jackson's Responsibility 267
and run and got his hickory, and I arter him, with the only
thing I could get hold on handily — 'Never mind your
Regimentals and Corderoys, Major,' says he, and down
stairs we went, side by side, and I a leetle ahead on him ;
— for I always like to lead into scrapes, and out of scrapes.
There is a long room where the most of our folks git
together, to talk over matters every night, and eat supper ;
and sometimes they git into a kinder squabble, but keep
quiet But this time some how they was in a terrible takin
and smashin things. They was all at it, Editors, and
Auditors, and Secretaries' Clerks, and under Post Masters,
and Contractors, jawin and poundin one another, and Amos
among the thickest on em. The Gineral look'd on for about.
a minit, and, says he, ' Major, shall I go in, or wUl you? I
don't like to do it,' says he, ' for they have all done us much
sarvice, but we cant let this riot go on.' ' Well,' says I,
* Gineral, do you give me your Hickory,' and, says I, ' I'll
go at 'em, and make short work.' ' Take care, Major,* says
he, ' how you hit, and who you hit.' ' Never mind,' says I,
' Gineral, I'll take the responsibility.' ' Will you,' says he ;
'well, here's my Hickory; — for,' says he, 'Major, tho* I
dare do eny most any thing, I must confess I dare not take
that responsibility.' And with that he went to bed, and I
went at 'em, and such a time I never had. The first clip I
made was at Amos, — but he dodged it, and I hit one of the
Editors of the Globe, and nocked him about into the middle
of next week. — One fellow got a fryin pan and made fight,
but it was no use, for in less than a minit I cleared 'em all.
As soon as they come to know who it was, they kinder tried
to curry favor ; and one said one thing, and one another ;
and every one tried to shuffle off upon the others ; it was a
considerable spell before I could get the cause on't ; and
then it turn'd out that the dispute began about the public
deposits,, and the next President, and a new Bank, and Mr.
Duane and Squire Biddle, and Mr. Van Buren, — and aU

squibs of the
day. "Major
Jack Down
ing" is sup
posed to
nave been
a good-
humored caricature of
Major Lewis,
Jackson's in
timate friend
and political
adviser.— On Jackson,
see Contem
poraries, III,
ch. . — On
the Bank, see
American History Leaf
lets, No. 34 ;
American .
History Studies, No.
11; Contem
poraries, III,
No. .

A phrase
used by Jack
son in a State
paper.

Amos Ken
dall, Post
master-General.
The Globe
was then a
Jackson organ.

Duane,
former Sec
retary of the
Treasury.

Vice-President

Bv Francis
Parkman,
Jr. (leas
es ). great
est of Ameri
can histori
ans. In
spite of the
constant suf
fering attend
ant upon a
long and
wearying ill
ness ended
onlv by
death, Park-

268

Territorial

[1846

mixed up so, I couldn't make head nor tail on't ' Now,'
says I, ' my boys, make an eend on't :' and with that I
slap'd the old Hickory down on the table, and I made their
teeth chatter. ' My dander is up,' says I ; ' and one word
more and I'm down upon you. What,' says I, ' a riot here
at midnight — aint it glory enuff for you,' says I, 'to sarve
under the Gineral? If it ain't,' says I, ' then I'm mistaken,
and Mr. Van Buren too, — for he thinks it is, — and I think
so too. And now,' says I, 'no more jawin' — and I left
them ; and when I got back to the Gineral, I found him in
a terrible takin; and it was nigh upon day light afore we
could git to sleep. He was all the while talkin about Amos
Kindle, and the rest on 'em; and I do raly believe the
Gineral would never have gone to sleep, unless I teU'd him
I would stick by him ; and whenever the folks about us got
into a snarl, if he would only lend me his Hickory, ' I'd
take the responsibUity.' Yours to Sarve,
J. Downing, Major,
Downingville Militia, 2d Brigade.
[Charles Augustus Davis,] Letters of J. Downing, Major (New
York, 1834), 103-107.

103. The Oregon Trail (1846)
WE were now arrived at the close of our solitary jour-
neyings along the St. Joseph's Trail. On the
evening of the twenty-third of May we encamped near its
junction with the old legitimate trail of the Oregon emi
grants. ... As we lay around the fire after supper, a low
and distant sound, strange enough amid the loneliness of
the prairie, reached our ears — peals of laughter, and the
faint voices of men and women. For eight days we had

no. 103] Oregon Trail

269

not encountered a human being, and this singular warning
of their vicinity had an effect extremely wild and impressive.
About dark a sallow-faced fellow descended the hill on
horseback, and splashing through the pool, rode up to the
tents. He was enveloped in a huge cloak, and his broad
felt-hat was weeping about his ears with the drizzling
moisture of the evening. Another followed, a stout, square-
built, intelligent-looking man, who announced himself as
leader of an emigrant party, encamped a mile in advance
of us. About twenty wagons, he said, were with him ; the
rest of his party were on the other side of the Big Blue. . . .
These were the first emigrants that we had overtaken,
although we had found abundant and melancholy traces of
their progress throughout the whole course of the journey.
Sometimes we passed the grave of one who had sickened
and died on the way. The earth was usually torn up, and
covered thickly with wolf-tracks. Some had escaped this
violation. One morning, a piece of plank, standing upright
on the summit of a grassy hill, attracted our notice, and
riding up to it, we found the following words very roughly
traced upon it, apparently by a red-hot piece of iron :
DIED MAY 7th, 1845.
AGED TWO MONTHS.

man com
pleted his
task of de
scribing the
French occu
pation of
America, and
the struggles
with the Eng
lish. His ex
ploring trip
to the Rocky
Mountains
gave him a
singular in
sight into
Indian char
acter. The
piece is a re
markable bit
of first-band
descriptionby a master.
—See Parkman'sautobiogra phy, in Con
temporaries, IV, No.
— On Ore
gon, see
above, No.
80; Content-
poraries.lll,ch. Big Blue, a
tributary of
the Kansas.

Such tokens were of common occurrence. . . .
We were late in breaking up our camp on the following
morning, and scarcely had we ridden a mile when we saw,
far in advance of us, drawn against the horizon, a line of
objects stretching at regular intervals along the level edge of
the prairie. An intervening swell soon hid them from sight,
until, ascending it a quarter of an hour after, we saw close
before us the emigrant caravan, with its heavy white wagons

Overlandemigration to
Oregon
began about
1843.

Three Eng
lish tourists
who had
joined Park-
man and his
friend.

270

Territorial

[1846

creeping on in their slow procession, and a large drove of
cattle foUowing behind. Half a dozen yellow-visaged Mis-
sourians, mounted on horseback, were cursing and shouting
among them ; their lank angular proportions, enveloped in
brown homespun, evidently cut and adjusted by the hands
of a domestic female tailor. As we approached, they
greeted us with the polished salutation: 'How are ye,
boys? Are ye for Oregon or California?'
As we pushed rapidly past the wagons, chUdren's faces
were thrust out from the white coverings to look at us;
while the care-worn, thin-featured matron, or the buxom
girl, seated in front, suspended the knitting on which most
of them were engaged to stare at us with wondering curi
osity. By the side of each wagon stalked the proprietor,
urging on his patient oxen, who shouldered heavily along,
inch by inch, on their interminable journey. It was easy to
see that fear and dissension prevailed among them ; some of
the men — but these, with one exception, were bachelors —
looked wistfully upon us as we rode lightly and swiftly past,
and then impatiently at their own lumbering wagons and
beavy-gaited oxen. Others were unwilling to advance at
all, until the party they had left behind should have re
joined them. Many were murmuring against the leader
they had chosen, and wished to depose him ; and this dis
content was fomented by some ambitious spirits, who had
hopes of succeeding in his place. The women were divided
between regrets for the homes they had left and apprehen
sion of the deserts and the savages before them.
We soon left them far behind, and fondly hoped that we
had taken a final leave ; but unluckily our companions'
wagon stuck so long in a deep muddy ditch, that before
it was extricated the van of the emigrant caravan appeared
again, descending a ridge close at hand. Wagon after
wagon plunged through the mud ; and as it was nearly
noon, and the place promised shade and water, we saw

No. 104]

Mexican War

271

with much gratification that they were resolved to encamp.
Soon the wagons were wheeled into a circle; the cattle
were grazing over the meadow, and the men, with sour, sul
len faces, were looking about for wood and water. They
seemed to meet with but indifferent success. As we left the
ground, I saw a taU slouching fellow, with the nasal accent of
•down east,' contemplating the contents of his tin cup,
which he had just fiUed with water.
' Look here, you,1 said he ; ' it's chock full of animals ! *
The cup, as he held it out, exhibited in fact an extraor
dinary variety and profusion of animal and vegetable life.
Francis Parkman, Jr., The California and Oregon Trail (New
York, etc., 1849), 70-73 passim.

104. A Satire on the Mexican War (1846)
THRASH away, you '11 hev to ratde
On them kittle drums o* yourn,-^
Taint a knowin' kind o' cattle
Thet is ketched with mouldy corn ;
Put in stiff, you fifer feller,
Let folks see how spry you be, —
Guess you '11 toot till you are yeller
'Fore you git ahold o' me !
Thet air flag 's a leetle rotten,
Hope it aint your Sunday's best ; —
Fact ! it takes a sight o' cotton
To stuff out a soger's chest :
Sence we farmers hev to pay fef *t,
Ef you must wear humps like these,
Sposin' you should try salt hay fer 't,
It would du ez slick ez grease.

By James
Russell
Lowell
(1819-1891).
Lowell'smarriage in
1844 to Maria
White, an
earnest abo
litionist,probably ac
centuatedwhatever leanings he
may previ
ously have
had toward
anti-slavery.
The Biglow
Papers originally ap
peared in
the Boston
Courier dur
ing the years
1 846-1848.
It is a
series of
poems writ
ten in the

Yankee dia
lect by " Mr.
Hosea Big-
low," edited
with an "in
troduction, notes, glos
sary, and
copiousindex, by
Homer Wil
bur. A.M."
It was
directedmainly
against sla
very and the
Mexican
war, though
it reflected
incidentally
on many
other exist
ing abuses.
Its influ
ence on the
anti-slavery
movementwas incalcu
lably great. —
For Lowell,
see below,
No. 126;
Contempora
ries, IV, No.
. — On the
Mexican
war, see
Contempora
ries, IV, ch.
Northern
anti-slavery men strongly
opposed the
annexation of Texas and
the Mexican
war.

272 Territorial
T would n't suit them Southern fellers,
They 're a dreffle graspin' set,
We must oilers blow the bellers
Wen they want their irons het ;
May be it 's all right ez preachin',
But my narves it kind o' grates,
Wen I see the overreachin'
O' them nigger-drivin' States.
Them thet rule us, them slave-traders,
Haint they cut a thunderin' swarth,
(Helped by Yankee renegaders,)
Thru the vartu o' the North !
We begin to think it 's nater
To take sarse an' not be riled; —
Who 'd expect to see a tater
All on eend at bein' biled?
Ez fer war, I call it murder, —
There you hev it plain an* flat;
I don't want to go no furder
Than my Testyment fer that ;
God hez sed so plump an' fairly,
It 's ez long ez it is broad,
An' you 've gut to git up airly
Ef you want to take in God.
'Taint your eppyletts an' feathers
Make the thing a grain more right ;
'Taint afollerin' your bell-wethers
Will excuse ye in His sight ;
Ef you take a sword an' dror it
An' go stick a feller thru,
Guv'ment aint to answer for it,
God '11 send the bill to you.

[1846

no. 104] Mexican War 273
Wut 's the use o' meetin-goin'
Every Sabbath, wet or dry,
Ef it 's right to go amowin*
Feller-men like oats an' rye ?
I dunno but wut it 's pooty
Trainin' round in bobtail coats, —
But it 's curus Christian dooty
This ere cuttin' folks's throats.
They may talk o' Freedom's airy
Tell they 're pupple in the face,—
It 's a grand gret cemetary
Fer the barthrights of our race ;
They jest want this Californy
So 's to lug new slave-states in
To abuse ye, an' to scorn ye,
An' to plunder ye like sin.
Aint it cute to see a Yankee
Take sech everlastin' pains,
All to git the Devil's thankee,
Helpin' on 'em weld their chains?
Wy, it 's jest ez clear ez figgers,
Clear ez one an* one make two,
Chaps thet make black slaves o* niggers
Want to make wite slaves o' you.
Tell ye jest the eend I 've come to
Arter cipherin' plaguy smart,
An' it makes a handy sum, tu,
Any gump could lam by heart ;
Laborin' man an' laborin' woman
Hev one glory an' one shame,
Ev'y thin' thet 's done inhuman
Injers all on 'em the same.

See below,
No. 106.

274 Territorial
'Taint by turnin' out to hack folks
You 're agoin* to git your right,
Nor by lookin' down on black folks
Coz you 're pat upon by wite ;
Slavery aint o" nary color,
'Taint the hide thet makes it wus,
All it keers fer in a feUer
'S jest to make him fill its pus.
Want to tackle me in, du ye?
I expect yoa 11 hev to wait ;
Wen cold lead puts daylight thru ye
You '11 begin to kaFlate ;
'Spose the crows wun't fall to pickhV
All the carkiss from your bones,
Coz you helped to give a lickin'
To them poor half-Spanish drones?
Jest go home an' ask our Nancy
Wether I 'd be sech a goose
Ez to jine ye, — guess you 'd fancy
The etarnal bung wuz loose !
She wants me fer home consumption,
Let alone the hay 's to mow, —
Ef you 're arter folks o' gumption,
You 've a darned long row to hoe.
Take them editors thet 's crowin'
Like a cockerel three months old, —
Don't ketch any on 'em goin',
Though they be so blasted bold ;
Aint they a prime set o' fellers ?
'Fore they think on 't they will sprout,
(Like a peach thet 's got the yellers,)
With the meanness bustin' out.

[1846

no. 104] Mexican War
Wal, go 'long to help 'em stealin*
Bigger pens to cram with slaves,
Help the men thet 's oUers dealin*
Insults on your fathers' graves ;
Help the strong to grind the feeble,
Help the many agin the few,
Help the men thet caU your people
Witewashed slaves an' peddlin' crew !
Massachusetts, God forgive her,
She 's akneelin* with the rest,
She, thet ough' to ha* clung fer ever
In her grand old eagle-nest ;'
She thet ough' to stand so fearless
Wile the wracks are round her hurled,
Holdin' up a beacon peerless
To the oppressed of all the world I
Haint they sold your colored seamen?
Haint they made your env'ys wiz ?
Wut '11 make ye act like freemen?
Wut '11 git your dander riz?
Come, I '11 teU ye wut I 'm thinkin'
Is our dooty in this fix,
They 'd ha' done 't ez quick ez winkin'
In the days o' seventy-six.
Clang the beUs in every steeple,
Call all true men to disown
The tradoocers of our people,
The enslavers o' their own ;
Let our dear old Bay State proudly
Put the trumpet to her mouth,
Let her ring this messidge loudly
In the ears of all the South : —

275

By "envoys"
Lowell refers
to Samuel
Hoar's mis
sion to
Charleston, 1844.

Many of the
New England
abolitionists thought a
division of
the Union
the only way
to free the
North from
responsibility for slavery.

276 Territorial [1141
" I 'U return ye good fer evil
Much ez we frail mortils can,
But I wun't go help the Devil
Makin* man the cus o' man ;
Call me coward, call me traiter,
Jest ez suitsr your mean idees, —
Here I stand a tyrant-hater,
An' the friend o' God an* Peace 1 "
Ef I 'd my way I hed rather
We should go to work an' part, —
They take one way, we take t'other, —
Guess it would n't break my heart ;
Man hed ough* to put asunder
Them thet God has noways jined ;
An' I should n't gretly wonder
Ef there 's thousands o' my mind.
[James Russell Lowell,] The Biglow Papers (Cambridge, 1848),
3-1 1.

By Rever
end Wal
ter Colton
(1797-1851).
a clergyman
who later
took up jour
nalistic work.
In 1830 he
was ap
pointed a
chaplain in
the navy.
In 1845 his
ship was or
dered to Cali
fornia, and
Colton be
came alcalde
of Monterey,

105. At the Gold Fields (1848)
. . . "\ T 7E met a company of Californians about mid-
V V day, on their return from the mines, and a
more forlorn looking group never knocked at the gate of a
pauper asylum. They were most of them dismounted, with
rags fastened round their blistered feet, and with clubs in their
hands, with which they were trying to force on their skeleton
animals. They inquired for bread and meat : we had but
little of either, but shared it with them. They took from
one of their packs a large bag of gold, and began to shell out
a pound or two in payment. We told them they were
welcome ; still they seemed anxious to pay, and we were

No. 105]

Gold Fields

277

obliged to be positive in our refusal. This company, as I
afterwards ascertained, had with them over a hundred thou
sand dollars in grain gold. . . .
Sunday, Oct. i. Another Sabbath, and our first in the
mines. But here and there a digger has resumed his work.
With most it is a day of rest, not so much perhaps from re
ligious scruples, as a conviction that the system requires and
must have repose. . . .
Monday, Oct. 2. I went among the gold-diggers ; found
half a dozen at the bottom of the ravine, tearing up the
bogs, and up to their knees in mud. Beneath these bogs
lay a bed of clay, sprinkled in spots with gold. These de
posits, and the earth mixed with them, were shovelled into
bowls, taken to a pool near by, and washed out. The bowl,
in working, is held in both hands, whirled violently back and
forth through half a circle, and pitched this way and that
sufficiently to throw off the earth and water, while the gold
settles to the bottom. The process is extremely laborious,
and taxes the entire muscles of the frame. In its effect
it is more like swinging a scythe than any work I ever
attempted. . . .
There are about seventy persons at work in this ravine,
and all within a few yards of each other. They average
about one ounce per diem each. They who get less are dis
contented, and they who get more are not satisfied. Every
day brings in some fresh report of richer discoveries in some
quarter not far remote, and the diggers are consequently
kept in a state of feverish excitement. One woman, a
Sonoranian, who was washing here, finding at the bottom of
her bowl only the amount of half a dollar or so, hurled it
back again into the water, and straightening herself up to
her full height, strode off with the indignant air of one who
feels himself insulted. . . .
Wednesday, Oct. 4. Our camping-ground is in a broad
ravine through which a rivulet wanders, and which is dotted

building the
first school-
house and
establishing
the first news
paper in Cali
fornia. In a
letter to the
North Amer
ican be made
the first pub
lic announce
ment of the
discovery of
gold in that
region. His is a most
realistic ac
count of the
conditions of
life at the
gold fields in
the early
days. — On
California,
see Contem
poraries, IV,
ch.

A native of
Sonora, a
town about
ninety miles
southeast of
Sacramento.

278

Territorial

[1848

with the frequent tents of gold-diggers. The sounds of the
crowbar and pick, as they shake or shiver the rock, are
echoed from a thousand cliffs ... If you want to find
men prepared to storm the burning threshold of the infernal
prison, go among gold-diggers.
The provisions with which we left San Jos£ are gone, and
we have been obliged to supply ourselves here. We pay at
the rate of four hundred doUars a barrel for flour; four
dollars a pound for poor brown sugar, and four dollars a
pound for indifferent coffee. And as for meat, there is none
to be got except jerked-beef, which is the flesh of the bullock
cut into strings and hung up in the sun to dry, and which
has about as much juice in it as a strip of bark dangUng in
the wind from a dead tree. Still, when moistened and
toasted, it will do something towards sustaining life ; so also
will the sole of your shoe. And yet I have seen men set
and grind it as if it were nutritious and sweetly flavored. . . .
Thursday, Oct. 5. The rivulet, which waters the ravine,
collects here and there into deep pools. Over one of these
a low limb had thrown itself, upon which I ventured out with
an apparatus for scooping up the sand at the bottom. But
just as I had lowered my dipper the limb broke, and down
I went to the chin in water. It was some minutes before I
could extricate myself, and when I did there was not a dry
thread on my body. The chill of the stream reduced the
gold fever in me very considerably. I had brought no out
ward garments but those in which I stood ; I wrung out the
water and hung them up in the sun to dry, and wound my
self, like an Indian, in my blanket. But I was not more
savage in my aspect than in my feelings. This, however,
soon passed off, and I could laugh with others at the gold
plunge. But nothing is a novelty here for more than a
minute ; were a man to cast his skin or lose his head, no
one would stop to inquire if he had recovered either, unless
they suspected foul play, and then they would arraign and

no. 106] Compromise of 1850 279
execute the culprit before one of our lawyers could pen an
indictment. Friday, Oct. 6. The most efficient gold-washer here is
the cradle, which resembles in shape that appendage of the
nursery, from which it takes its name. It is nine or ten feet
long, open at one end and closed at the other. At the end
which is closed, a sheet-iron pan, four inches deep, and six
teen over, and perforated in the bottom with holes, is let in
even with the sides of the cradle. The earth is thrown into
the pan, water turned on it, and the cradle, which is on an
inclined plane, set in motion. The earth and water pass
through the pan, and then down the cradle, while the gold,
owing to its specific gravity, is caught by cleets fastened
across the bottom. Very little escapes ; it generally lodges
before it reaches the last cleet It requires four or five men
to supply the earth and water to work such a machine to ad
vantage. The quantity of gold washed out must depend on
the relative proportion of gold in the earth. The one
worked in this ravine yields a hundred dollars a day ; but
this is considered a slender result. Most of the diggers use
the bowl or pan ; its lightness never embarrasses their rov
ing habits ; and it can be put in motion wherever they may
find a stream or spring. It can be purchased now in the
mines for five or six dollars ; a few months since it cost an
ounce — sixteen dollars for a wooden bowl ! But I have
seen twenty-four dollars paid for a box of seidlitz-powders,
and forty dollars for as many drops of laudanum.
Reverend Walter Colton, Three Years in California (New York,
etc., 1852), 271-281 passim.

106. Compromise of 1850
BELIEVE that the crisis of the crisis has ar
rived ; and the fate of the measures which
have been reported by the committee wUl, in ray humble

I

By Senator
HenryCLAY (1777-
1852). On
January 29,
1850, Clay
brought for
ward in the

28o

Territorial

[1850

Senate his
" compre
hensive scheme of
compromise," which
included seven pro
visions ;
April 18,
1850, it was
referred to a
special com
mittee, of
which Clay
was made .
chairman.This com
mittee re
ported three
bills, one of
them being
the cele
brated " Om
nibus Bill."
This latter
was de
feated ; but
after an ardu
ous struggle
the substance
of Clay's pro
posal was
embodied in
successive
single acts,
which taken
together are
known as the
" Compro
mise of 1850."
— On Clay,
see American
Orations, I,
376 ; Contem
poraries, IV,
No. . —
On the Com
promise, see
below, No.
108 ; Ameri
can Orations,
II, 123-218;
Contempora
ries, IV, ch.
; A'meri-

judgment, determine the fate of the harmony or continued
distraction of this country. . . .
... I think, if the President had at this time to make a
recommendation to Congress, with all the lights that have
been shed upon the subject since the commencement of the
present session of Congress, nearly five months ago, he
would not Umit himself to a recommendation merely for the
admission of California, leaving the territories to shift for
themselves as they could or might. He teUs us in one of
these messages . . . that he had reason to believe that one
of these territories, at least New Mexico, might possibly
form a State government for herself, and might come here
with an application for admission during the progress of this
session. But we have no evidence that such an event is
about to happen ; and if it did, could New Mexico be ad
mitted as a State ? . . .
. . . the committee recommend the union of these
three measures. ... a bill for the admission of California ;
a bill establishing a territorial governtaent in Utah ; a bill
establishing a territorial government for New Mexico ; and,
what is indispensable, if we give her a government, a bill
providing what shall be her boundary, provided Texas shall
accede to the liberal proposal made to her? Is there any
thing, I ask, incongruous in all this ? Where is it ? What
is the incongruity? ...
. . . Amongst other limitations, it declares " that the ter
ritorial legislature shall have no power to pass any lay [law]
in respect to African slavery." . . . My opinion is, that the
law of Mexico, in all the variety of forms in which legislation
can take place — that is to say, by the edict of a dictator, by
the constitution of the people of Mexico, by the act of the
legislative authority of Mexico — by all these modes of legis
lation, slavery has been abolished there. I am aware that
some other Senators entertain a different opinion ; but . . .
I feel authorized to say that the opinion of a vast majority

no. 106] Compromise of 1850 281

of the people of the United States, of a vast majority of the
jurists of the United States, is in coincidence with that
which I entertain ; that is to say, that at this moment, by
law and in fact, there is no slavery there. ...
The next subject upon which the committee acted was
that of fugitive slaves. The committee have proposed two
amendments to be offered to the biU introduced by the
Senator from Virginia, whenever that bill is taken up. The
first of these amendments provides that the owner of a fugi
tive slave, when leaving his own State, and whenever it is
practicable . . . shall carry with him a record from the
State from which the fugitive has fled ; which record shaU
contain an adjudication of two facts, first, the fact of slavery,
and secondly the fact of an elopement; and, in the third
place, such a general description of the slave as the court
shall be enabled to give upon such testimony as shaU be
brought before it . . .
. . . The other amendment provides, that when the owner
of a slave shall arrest his property in a non-slave-holding
State, and shall take him before the proper functionary to
obtain a certificate to authorize the return of that property
to the State from which he fled, if he [i,e. the fugitive] de
clares to that functionary at the time that he is a free man
and not a slave, what does the provision require the officer
to do? Why, to take a bond from the agent or owner,
without surety, that he will carry the black person back to
the county of the State from which he fled ; and that at the
first court which may sit after his return, he [the alleged
slave] shall be carried there, if he again assert the right to
his freedom ; the court shall afford, and the owner shall
afford to him all the facilities which are requisite to enable
him to establish his right to freedom. . . .
Appendix to the Congressional Globe, 31 Cong., 1 sess. (Wash
ington, 1850), XXII, Part I, 567-572 passim.

can History
Studies, II,
The Presi
dent was
ZacharyTaylor. Clay argues
that, since
New Mexico
is free, the
new terri
tories will be
free. Tames M.
Mason. I.e. a judicial
statement

This was
intended to
meet the ob
jection that
there was no
trial by jury
to ascertain
whether a
negroclaimed was
really a
fugitive.

By Richard
HenryDana, Jr.
(1315-1882),
one of the
early Free-
Soilers and
" Conscience
Whigs," and
an original
Republican.
He lent his
professional skill to the
anti-slaverycause, later
defending the fugitives
ThomasSims and
AnthonyBums, and
the rescuers
of Shadrach,
who escaped
to Canada.
The follow
ing extract
from his
diary tells the
story of the
rescue. Dana lost
social pres
tige by thus
taking up the
cause of the
slave. — For
fugitives, see
above, No.
100; Contem
poraries, IV,
ch.

CHAPTER XVII — SLAVERY CONTEST,
1851-1860
107. The Rescue ofShadrach (1851)
WHILE in my office at about 10.30 a.m.
[Feb. 15, 185 1], Charles Davis, Parker,
and others came in and told me that the marshal had a
fugitive slave in custody, in the United States court room
before Mr. George T. Curtis as commissioner. I went im
mediately over to the court-house. Mr. Curtis was on the
bench, actually occupying the judge's seat ; Pat. Riley, the
deputy marshal, with his two regular deputies and two con
stables, sworn in as special deputies, were in charge of the
room ; a good-looking black fellow, sitting between the two
subs, was the arrested fugitive. The arrest had been so
sudden and unexpected that few knew it, and it was half an
hour before the crowd assembled, but it was increasing
every minute, and there was great excitement. I went to
the marshal's office and prepared a writ of de homine reple-
giando and a petition for a habeas corpus addressed to Chief
Justice Shaw. . . . With this petition I called on the Chief
Justice, and stated to him that it was a case of an alleged
fugitive slave, and that our object was to test the consti
tutional power of the commissioner to issue a warrant. The
Chief Justice read the petition, and said in a most ungracious
manner, " This won't do. I can't do anything on this," and
laid it upon the table, and turned away to engage in some
thing else. (This interview was in the lobby of the supreme
court room.) I asked him to be so good as to tell me what
the defects were, saying that I had taken pains to conform
282

no. 107] Rescue of Shadrach 283

to the statute. He seemed unwilling to notice it, and de
sirous of getting rid of it ; in short, he attempted to bluff
me off. ... I felt that all these objections were frivolous
and invalid, but seeing the temper which the Chief Justice
was in, and his evident determination to get rid of the peti
tion, I left him for the purpose of either procuring the evi
dence he required, or of going before another judge. On
reaching the court-room, I found that the commissioner was
just adjourning the court to Tuesday, at ten a.m. As this
gave us an abundance of time, we determined to consult
upon the matter in the afternoon, and no further proceedings
were had on the subject of the habeas corpus.
The prisoner remained in his seat, between two constables,
and Pat Riley was making the most absurd exhibition of
pomposity in ordering people about, and clearing the court
room, and Mr. Curtis, dressed in a little brief authority, was
swelling into the dignity of an arbiter of life and death, with
a pomposity as ludicrous as that of Riley. At the order of
the marshal all left the court-room quietly, except the officers
and counsel, and when I left there were none else in the
room, and the crowd in the entries and stairways and outside,
though large and chiefly negroes, was perfectly peaceable.
I returned to my office and was planning with a friend the
probable next proceedings, when we heard a shout from the
court-house, continued into a yell of triumph, and in an
instant after down the steps came two huge negroes bearing
the prisoner between them with his clothes half torn off, and
so stupefied by the sudden rescue and the violence of his
dragging off that he sat almost dumb, and I thought had
fainted ; but the men seized him, and being powerful fellows
hurried him through the square into Court Street, where he
found the use of his feet, and they went off toward Cam
bridge, like a black squall, the crowd driving along with
them and cheering as they went. It was all done in an in
stant, too quick to be believed, and so successful was it that

Dana's office
was at 30
Court Street,
opposite the
Court House.
De homine
replegiando,a writ by
which a per
son may be
bailed out of
the custody
of another.
Habeascorpus, a writ
requiring the
body of the
person to be
brought into
court.

Shadrach,alias Frederick
Jenkins.

Ix. the Fugi
tive-SlaveAct of 1850.

On the trial
of Shad-
rach's rescu
ers, the jury
failed to
agree, one of
them being
the man who
had carried
Shadrachacross the
line into
Canada.

By Thomas
Hart
Benton
(1782-1858).
from a
speech in
the House of
Representa
tives, April
25. 1854.

284 Slavery Contest

[1854

not only was no negro arrested, but no attempt was made at
pursuit. The sympathy of the masses was with the successful rescue,
though here and there was an old hunker, or a young dandy,
or would-be-chivalry-man, who expressed anger at the faUure
of the " Peace Measures."
Il seems that none of the officers were injured, except by
being crowded into corners and held fast, and the sword of
justice which Mr. Riley had displayed on his desk was carried
off by an old negro.
How can any right-minded man do else than rejoice at
the rescue of a man from the hopeless, endless slavery to
which a recovered fugitive is always doomed. If the law
were constitutional, which I firmly believe it is not, it would
be the duty of a citizen not to resist it by force, unless he
was prepared for revolution and civil war ; but we rejoice in
the escape of a victim of an unjust law, as we would in the
escape of an ill-treated captive deer or bird.
The conduct of the Chief Justice, his evident disinclination
to act, the frivolous nature of his objections, and his insult
ing manner to me, have troubled me more than any other
manifestation. It shows how deeply seated, so as to affect,
unconsciously I doubt not, good men like him, is this selfish
hunkerism of the property interest on the slave question.
Charles Francis Adams, Richard Henry Dana (Boston, etc.,
1 890) , I, 1 79-1 83 passim.

108. A Criticism of the Kansas-Nebraska
Act (1854)
THE bill, or bills before us, undertake to ac
complish their object without professing it —
upon reasons which are contradictory and unfounded — in

No. 108]

Kansas-Nebraska 285

terms which are ambiguous and inconsistent — and by throw
ing on others the responsibility of its own act. It professes
not to interfere with the sovereign right of the people to
legislate for themselves ; and the very first line of this solemn
profession throws upon them a horse-load of law, which they
have no right to refuse, or time to read, or money to pur
chase, or ability to understand. It throws upon them all
the laws of the United States which are not locally inappU-
cable ; and that comprehends all that are not specially made
for other places : also, it gives them the Constitution of the
United States, but without the privilege of voting at presi
dential or congressional elections, or of making their own
judiciary. This is non-interference with a vengeance. . . .
Sir, it is the crooked, insidious, and pusillanimous way of
effecting the repeal of the Missouri compromise line. It in
cludes all law for the sake of leaving out one law; and effects
a repeal by an omission, and legislates by an exception. It
is a new way of repealing a law, and a bungling attempt to
smuggle slavery into the Territory, and all the country out
to the Canada line and up the Rocky Mountains. The
crooked line of this smuggling process is this : " abolish the
compromise line, and extend the Constitution over the
country: the Constitution recognizes slavery: therefore,
slavery is established as soon as the line is abolished, and
the Constitution extended : and being put there by the
Constitution, it cannot be legislated out." This is the Eng
lish of this smuggling process . . .
And what is all this hotch-potch for? It is to establish a
principle, they say — the principle of non-intervention — of
squatter sovereignty. Sir, there is no such principle. The
Territories are the children of the States. They are minors
under twenty-one years of age ; and it is the business of the
States, through their delegations in Congress, to take care of
these minors until they are of age — until they are ripe for State
government — then give them that government, and admit

Benton had
lost his seat
in the Senate
in 1850 be
cause not a
thick-and-thin slavery
man.
Although a
Southern
man and a
supporter of
the candi
dacy of
JamesBuchanan against his
own son-in-
law, John C.
Fremont, Benton was a
strong oppo
nent of the
Kansas- NebraskaBill. His
speech on
the measure
was a most
important one, by the
effect on pub
lic opinion
of the honest
protest of a
Southernman. Some
of the more
striking ex
pressions nave been
often quoted
by contem
poraryspeakers, and .
later by
standard his
torians. —
On Benton,
see Contem
poraries, III,
No. .—On
the Kansas-
Nebraska
Bill, see
American

286 Slavery Contest

[i«54

History Leaf
lets, No. 17 ;
Contempora
ries, IV, ch.
American
HistoryStudies, II,
No. 8.
The bill as
serted that
the Missouri
Compromise (see above,
No. 91) had
been re^
pealed by the
Compromise
of 1850 (see
above, No.
106).

Northwest
Ordinance
of 1 7^7.
1820.
1848.
1850.
1850.
1849.

hem to an equality with their fathers. That is the law, and
he sense of the case ; and has been so acknowledged since
the first ordinance in 1784, by aU authorities, Federal and
State, legislative, judicial, and executive.
stvLt/t ¦*? r1* ^T^ wiUy-won^ don'ty-can'ty
style of legislation. It is not legislative. It is not parlia-
mC^t utlSDOtmanly- Jt ^^ womanly. No woman
would talk that way. No shilly-shaUy in a woman. Nothing
of the female gender was ever born young enough, or Uved
long enough to get befogged in such a quandary as this It
is one thing or the other with them ; and what they say they
stick to. No breaking bargains with them. ...
And now what is the excuse for all this disturbance of the
country; this breaking up of ancient compromises; array
ing one half of the Union against the other, and destroying
the temper and business of Congress? What is the excuse
for all this turmoil and mischief? We are told it is to keep
the question of slavery out of Congress ! To keep slavery
out of Congress, . . . It was out of Congress ! completely,
entirely and forever out of Congress, unless Congress^
dragged it m by breaking down the sacred laws which settled
it. The question was settled, and done with. There was
not an inch square of territory in the Union on which it
could be raised without a breach of a compromise. The
ordinance of '80 settled it in all the remaining part of the
Northwest Territory beyond Wisconsin: the compromise
hue of 36 30' settled it in aU country north and west of
Missouri to the British line, and up to the Rocky Mountains •
the organic act of Oregon, made by the people, and sanc
tioned by Congress, settled it in all that region : the acts for
the government of Utah and New Mexico settled it in those
two Territories : the compact with Texas, determining the
number of slave States to be formed out of that State
settled it there : and California settled it for herself. Now'
where was there an inch square of territory within the United

wo. 109] Election in Kansas 287
States on which the question could be raised? Nowhere !
Not an inch ! The question was settled everywhere, not
merely by law, but by fact. The work was done, and there
was no way to get at the question but by undoing the work !
No way for Congress to get the question in, for the purpose
of keeping it out, but to break down compromises which
kept it out
Appendix to the Congressional Globe, 33 Cong., 1 sess (New
Series, Washington, 1854), XXXI, 559-560 />««»,.

109. Troubles in Kansas (1855)
I CAME into this Territory late in September, 1854, and
have ever since resided in this town and district I was
here on the 30th of March, at the legislative election.
On the day previous to the election a number of teams
and wagons loaded with armed men, and men on horse
back, came into town. They were strangers here ; they
came in from the south and south-west, and were preceded
by two or three men, one of whom was subsequently called
or passed as Colonel Samuel Young, of Missouri, who ap
peared to be the chief in command. I think " colonel " was
his designation. They proceeded through the town, down
on the bank of the river, and looked around for a time with
the intention, as they stated, of encamping there that night.
They had tents, and were armed; I saw private arms, and I
saw rifles and other arms of that kind, double-barrelled shot
guns, revolvers, arid knives. I saw them encamped, and
partaking of their provisions or refreshments ; but whether
they brought them with them or not I do not know. The
strangers continued to come in during the evening, and next
morning there had been a very large addition made to their
number.

By Erastus
D. Ladd. a
candidate on
the Free-
State ticket in
many of the
disputed
elections in
Kansas. He
later served
his State in
many public
offices of
trust This
piece is from
his evidence
before a con
gressionalcommittee of investiga
tion, April 23,
1856, and is.
valuable as a
temperateaccount from
an eye
witness of
what actually
took place on
March 30,
1855, memor
able as the
date of the
electionwhich began
the struggle
between the

288

SI

avery

Contest

O855

anti-slavery
and pro-
slavery par
ties for the
control of
Kansas. —
On Kansas,
see American
Orations,
III, 88; Con
temporaries, IV, ch.
The issue
was the
choice of a
territoriallegislature.

I went to the place of voting in the morning, and was
there at the opening of the polls, and remained all day, ex
cept time for dinner. A very large company came from the
camp in the ravine to the place of voting and surrounded it.
There was some difficulty in the organization of the board,
and delay in commencing the voting. Mr. Abbott, one of
the judges, resigned. A vote was offered, which I saw, and
a question of the legality of the vote was raised and was
discussed some time. During the discussion Colonel Young
said he would settle the matter. He crowded up to the
front, the place being thronged with people. The other
vote was then withdrawn and he offered his vote. The
question was raised as to the legality of his vote. He said
he was ready to swear that he was a resident of the Terri
tory. He took such an oath, but refused the oath prescribed
by the governor. But one of the judges appointed by the
governor was then acting. His oath was received. He
then mounted the window-sill and proclaimed to the crowd
around that the matter was all settled and they could vote.
I cannot repeat his exact words, but that was the senti
ment ; and they proceeded to vote. R. A. Cummins was
appointed in the place of Abbott. At noon I went to their
camp, and passed along the ravine from one extremity to
the other, and counted the number of wagons and convey
ances of different kinds then on the ground and in sight.
They had then commenced leaving. I counted very near
one hundred conveyances, such as wagons and carriages.
There were, besides, a large number of saddle horses. I es
timate that there were then on the ground about seven hun
dred of the party ; in the estimate I do not include those
who had left for other places or for home. . . .
... I heard a conversation a short distance from where
I stood, and approached pretty nearly. I stepped up on a
small rise of ground and saw quite a violent contest going
on, of which Mr. Stearns of this place was the object. It

no. 109] Election in Kansas 289
was a contest of words and threats but not of blows or force ;
while it was going on, I heard some one cry out " There is
the Lawrence bully." A rush was immediately made in an
other direction, towards Mr. Bond of this town, and a cry
was raised to shoot him . . . He ran for the bank of the
river, and the crowd followed him. During the running I
think one or two shots were fired. When he got to the
bank of the river, he sprang off out of sight. They rushed
to the bank, and guns were pointed at him while below.
But the cry was raised to let him go, and he was permitted
to go on without being fired at.
Another circumstance occurred in the latter part of the
day. Mr. Willis, who was then a resident of this town, was
on the ground, and a cry was raised that he was one of the
men concerned in abducting a black woman about which
there had been some difficulty in the town a short time
previous. Several men raised the cry to hang him. Some
were on horseback, and some were on foot. Movements
were made towards him by strangers armed with rifles and
smaller arms. The cry was repeated by a large number of
persons to " hang him," " get a rope," &c. At the sugges
tion of some friends he left the ground. . . .
In frequent conversations which I had with different per
sons of the party during the day, they claimed to have a
legal right to vote in the Territory, and that they were resi
dents by virtue of their being then in the Territory. They
said they were free to confess that they came from Missouri ;
that they lived in Missouri, and voted as Missourians. Some
claimed that they had been in the Territory and made claims,
and therefore had a right to vote. But they did not claim
to be residents in the Territory, except that they had a resi
dence here from being at that moment in the Territory.
House of Representatives, Report of the Special Committee ap
pointed to investigate the Troubles in Kansas (Report No.
200, Washington, 1856), 11 4-1 16 passim.

290 Slavery Contest

[1856

By Justice
JohnMcLean of Ohio
(1785-1861),
appointed associate jus
tice of the
Supreme Court by
Andrew Jackson. His most
celebratedopinion,from which
selections are
given below,
is that in
which he
dissents from
Chief Justice
Taney s de
cision on the
Dred Scott
case. The
issue was the
question of
the freedom
of a slave,
Dred Scott,
taken by his
master into
Illinois and
the Louisi
ana cession
above 360 30'
(after 1820),
and then
taken back to
Missouri.
The court
held that
Scott could
not sue be
fore it, be
cause a
negro could
not be a citi
zen ; and
also that the
Missouri
Compro mise was no

no. The Dred Scott Decision (1856)
IF the great and fundamental principles of our Government
are never to be settled, there can be no lasting pros
perity. The Constitution wiU become a floating waif on the
billows of popular excitement.
The prohibition of slavery north of thirty-six degrees thirty
minutes, and of the State of Missouri, contained in the act
admitting that State into the Union, was passed by a vote of
134, in the House of Representatives, to 42. Before Mr.
Monroe signed the act, it was submitted by him to his Cab
inet, and they held the restriction of slavery in a Territory
to be within the constitutional powers of Congress. It would
be singular, if in 1804 Congress had power to prohibit the
introduction of slaves in Orleans Territory from any other
part of the Union, under the penalty of freedom to the slave,
if the same power, embodied in the Missouri compromise,
could not be exercised in 1820.
But this law of Congress, which prohibits slavery north of
Missouri and of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, is declared
to have been null and void by my brethren. And this opinion
is founded mainly, as I understand, on the distinction drawn
between the ordinance of 1 787 and the Missouri compromise
line. In what does the distinction consist? The ordinance,
it is said, was a compact entered into by the confederated
States before the adoption of the Constitution ; and that in
the cession of territory authority was given to estabUsh a
Territorial Government. . . .
It is said the Territories are common property of the States,
and that every man has a right to go therewith his property.
This is not controverted. But the court say a slave is not
property beyond the operation of the local law which makes
him such. Never was a truth more authoritatively and justly
uttered by man. Suppose a master of a slave in a British

No. m]

Dred Scott

291

island owned a million of property in England ; would that
authorize him to take his slaves with him to England ? The
Constitution, in express terms, recognises the status of slavery
as founded on the municipal law : " No person held to
service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping
into another, shall," &c. Now, unless the fugitive escape
from a place where, by the municipal law, he is held to labor,
this provision affords no remedy to the master. What can
be more conclusive than this? Suppose a slave escape from
a Territory where slavery is not authorized by law, can he
be reclaimed?
In this case, a majority of the court have said that a slave
may be taken by his master into a Territory of the United
States, the same as a horse, or any other kind of property.
It is true, this was said by the court, as also many other
things, which are of no authority. Nothing that has been
said by them, which has not a direct bearing on the jurisdic-r
tion of the court, against which they decided, can be con
sidered as authority. I shall certainly not regard it as such.
The question of jurisdiction, being before the court, was
decided by them authoritatively, but nothing beyond that
question. A slave is not a mere chattel. He bears the im
press of his Maker, and is amenable to the laws of God and
man ; and he is destined to an endless existence.
Benjamin C. Howard, Report of the Decision of the Supreme Court
of the United States . . . (Washington, 1857), 1 52-1 56 passim.

bar, because
it had always
been uncon
stitutional. —
On the Dred
Scott case,
see American
History Leaf
lets, No. 23 ;
Contempora
ries, IV, No.

I I I.

A Criticism of Lincoln (1858)

L1

INCOLN now takes his stand and proclaims
his Abolition doctrines. Let me read a part
of them. In his speech at Springfield to the Convention,
which nominated him for the Senate, he said :

By Senator
Stephen
A. Douglas
(1813-1861).
Douglas is
one of the
most interest
ing men in

292 Slavery Contest

[1858

the history of
this period:
a notable de
bater, a
popular leader,
strong, bold,
and coarse,
he made him
self feared
and hated ;
and he had a
wonderful gift of ex
plaining away his own
record. The
author of the
Kansas- NebraskaBill (above,
No. 108), he
was greatly
incensed at
the coming-
in of a Free-
Soil majority
in Kansas
(above, No.
109) ; and
the Dred
Scott deci
sion (above,
No. no)
destroyedhis popular-
sovereignty doctrine by
denying the
power of any
body to pro-
hibii slavery
except in a
Slate. In
1858, Doug
las broke
with Bu
chanan on
the question.
of forcing the
slave Le-
comptonconstitution011 Kansas.
The Repub
licans tried

" In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have
been reached and passed. ' A house divided against itself
cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure
permanently half Slave and half Free. I do not expect the
Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to faU —
but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become
all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of
slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it
where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in
the course of ultimate extinction : or its advocates will push
it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States —
old as well as new, North as weU as South." [Cries of
" good," " good," and cheers.]
I am delighted to hear you Black Republicans say "good."
I have no doubt that doctrine expresses your sentiments, and
I will prove to you now, if you will listen to me, that it is
revolutionary and destructive of the existence of this Gov
ernment. Mr. Lincoln, in the extract from which I have
read, says that this Government cannot endure permanently
in the same condition in which it was made by its framers
— divided into free and slave States. He says that it has
existed for about seventy years thus divided, and yet he tells
you that it cannot endure permanently on the same princi
ples and in the same relative condition in which our fathers
made it. Why can it not exist divided into free and slave
States? Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Hamil
ton, Jay, and the great men of that day, made this Govern
ment divided into free States and slave States, and left each
State perfectly free to do as it pleased on the subject of
slavery. Why can it not exist on the same principles on
which our fathers made it? They knew when they framed
the Constitution that in a country as wide and broad as this,
with such a variety of climate, production and interest, the
people necessarily required different laws and institutions in
different localities. They knew that the laws and regulations

no. hi] Lincoln Criticized 293

which would suit the granite hills of New Hampshire would
be unsuited to the rice plantations of South Carolina, and
they, therefore, provided that each State should retain its
own Legislature and its own sovereignty, with the full and
complete power to do as it pleased within its own limits, in
all that was local and not national. One of the reserved
rights of the States, was the right to regulate the relations
between Master and Servant, on the slavery question. At
the time the Constitution was framed, there were thirteen
States in the Union, twelve of which were slaveholding States
and one a free State. Suppose this doctrine of uniformity
preached by Mr. Lincoln, that the States should all be free
or all be slave had prevailed, and what would have been the
result ? Of course, the twelve slaveholding States would have
overruled the one free State, and slavery would have been
fastened by a Constitutional provision on every inch of the
American Republic, instead of being left as our fathers wisely
left it, to each State to decide for itself. Here I assert that
uniformity in the local laws and institutions of the different
States is neither possible or desirable. If uniformity had
been adopted when the Government was established, it must
inevitably have been the uniformity of slavery everywhere,
or else the uniformity of negro citizenship and negro equaUty
everywhere. We are told by Lincoln that he is utterly opposed to the
Dred Scott decision, and will not submit to it, for the reason
that he says it deprives the negro of the rights and privileges
of citizenship. That is the first and main reason which he
assigns for his warfare on the Supreme Court of the United-
States and its decision. I ask you, are you in favor of con
ferring upon the negro the rights and privileges of citizen
ship? Do you desire to strike out of our State Constitution
that clause which keeps slaves and free negroes out of the
State, and allow the free negroes to flow in, and cover your
prairies with black settlements? Do you desire to turn this

to prevent his
reelection to
the Senate by
putting for
ward Abra
ham Lincoln
as their can
didate in
1858; and
this rivalry
led to the
famous joint
debate be
tween these
two men,
from which
this speech is
an extract. —
On Douglas,
see American
Orations,
III, 50, 345-
— On the
joint debate,
see Contem
poraries, IH
Nos.

294 Slavery Contest

[1859

beautiful State into a free negro colony, in order that when
Missouri abolishes slavery she can send one hundred thou
sand emancipated slaves into Illinois, to become citizens and
voters, on an equality with yourselves? If you desire negro
citizenship, if you desire to allow them to come into the
State and settle with the white man, if you desire them to
vote on an equality with yourselves, and to make them eligible
to office, to serve on juries, and to adjudge your rights, then
support Mr. Lincoln and the Black Republican party, who
are in favor of the citizenship of the negro. For one, I am
opposed to negro citizenship in any and every form. I be
lieve this Government was made on the white basis. I believe
it was made by white men, for the benefit of white men and
their posterity for ever, and I am in favor of confining citi
zenship to white men, men of European birth and descent,
instead of conferring it upon negroes, Indians, and other
inferior races.
Political Debates between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon.
Stephen A. Douglas, in . . . /8j8 (Columbus, i860), 70-71.

By Captain
JohnBrown
" of Osawato-
mie" (1800-
1859). He
was very
early identi
fied with anti-
slavery enter
prises, hav
ing formed
in 1850
I he " League
of Gilead-
ites," pledged
to the rescue
of fugitives.
He took a
leading part

112. John Brown's Last Speech (1859)
I HAVE, may it please the Court, a few words to say.
In the first place, I deny every thing but what I have
all along admitted — the design on my part to free the
slaves. I intended certainly to have made a clear thing of
that matter, as I did last winter, when I went into Missouri,
and there took slaves without the snapping of a gun on either
side, moved them through the country, and finally left them
in Canada. I designed to have done the same thing again,
on a larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did
intend murder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or
to excite or incite slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection.

No. na]

John Brown

295

I have another objection : and that is, it is unjust that I
should suffer such a penalty. Had I interfered in the man
ner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved
— (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater
portion of the witnesses who have testified in this case) —
had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the
intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their
friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or chil
dren, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what
I have in this interference, it would have been all right, and
every man in this Court would have deemed it an act worthy
of reward rather than punishment.
This Court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the
Law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to
be the Bible, or, at least, the New Testament. That teaches
me that all things " whatsoever I would that men should do
unto me I should do even so to them." It teaches me further,
to " remember them that are in bonds as bound with them."
I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am yet
too young to understand that God is any respecter of per
sons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done, as
I have always freely admitted I have done, in behalf of
His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is
deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the further
ance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with
the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in
this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked,
cruel, and unjust enactments — I submit : so let it be done.
Let me say one word further.
I feel entirely satisfied with the treatment I have received
on my trial. Considering all the circumstances, it has been
more generous than I expected. But I feel no conscious
ness of guilt. I have stated from the first what was my
intention and what was not I never had any design against
the life of any person, nor any disposition to commit treason,

in the strug
gles in Kan
sas (see
above. No.
109), and his
efforts culmi
nated in the
seizure of the
United States
arsenal at
Harper's
Ferry, Octo
ber 16. 1859.
He was cap
tured, tried,
and exe
cuted. This
speech was
made at the
close of the
trial, Novem
ber 1, 1859, in
answer to the
customary question of
the judge to
the prisoner
as to whether
he had any
thing to say
why sentence
of death
should not be
passed upon
him. It gives
the best in
sight that we
have into the
motives of
this strange,
noble- minded man,
half fanatic,
half martyred
hero. — On
John Brown,
see Contem
poraries, IV,
No.

296 Slavery Contest

[1861

or excite slaves to rebel, or make any general insurrection.
I never encouraged any man to do so, but always discour
aged any idea of that kind.
Let me say, also, a word in regard to the statements made
by some of those connected with me. I hear it has been
stated by some of them that I have induced them to join
me. But the contrary is true. I do not say this to injure
them, but as regretting their weakness. There is not one
of them but joined me of his own accord, and the greater
part at their own expense. A number of them I never saw,
and never had a word of conversation with, till the day they
came to me, and that was for the purpose I have stated.
Now I have done.
James Redpath, The Public Life of Capt. John Brown (Boston,
i860), 340-342.

By Alex
ander Hamilton
Stephens (1812-1883),
vice-presi dent of the
Confederacy.Stephens was
extremelyslow in
adopting the
doctrine of
States'rights; in
1850 he op
posed the
secession movement in
the South ;
and in i860
he supported
Stephen A.
Douglas (see
above. No.
1 1 1 ) as presi
dential can-

"3-

Slavery the Corner-Stone of the
Confederacy (1861)

T

HE new constitution has put at rest, fore?>er,
all the agitating questions relating to our
peculiar institution — African slavery as it exists amongst us
— the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization.
This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present
revolution. Jefferson in his forecast, had anticipated this, as
the " rock upon which the old Union would split." He was
right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized
fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great tmth
upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted.
The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the
leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old
constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was
in violation of the laws of nature ; that it was wrong in prin-

No. 113]

Corner-Stone

297

ciple, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they
knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of
the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the
order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent
and pass away. . . . Those ideas, however, were funda
mentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the
equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foun
dation, and the government built upon it feU when the
" storm came and the wind blew."
Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite
idea ; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests upon
the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man ;
that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his
natural and normal condition.
This, our new government, is the first, in the history of
the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and
moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its
development, like all other truths in the various departments
of science. It has been so even amongst *us. Many who
hear me, perhaps, can recollect well, that this truth was not
generally admitted, even within their day. The errors of
the past generation still clung to many as late as twenty
years ago. Those at the North, who still cling to these
errors, with a zeal above knowledge, we justly denominate
fanatics. All fanaticism springs from an aberration of the
mind — from a defect in reasoning. It is a species of in
sanity. One of the most striking characteristics of insanity,
in many instances, is forming correct conclusions from fan
cied or erroneous premises ; so with the anti-slavery fanatics ;
their conclusions are right if their premises were. They
assume that the negro is equal, and hence conclude that he
is entitled to equal privileges and rights with the white man.
If their premises were correct, their conclusions would be
logical and just — but their premise being wrong, their whole
argument fails. . . .

didate .
against John
C Breckin
ridge, the
professed ex
ponent of
States' rights.
In the speech
of March 21,
1861, quoted
below, he
lays down a
doctrine con
cerning sla
very fully as
advanced as
that of
McDuffie (see above,
No. 95).—
On Stephens,
see Ameri
can Orations,
IV, 39,428;
Contempora
ries, IV, No.
. — On se
cession, see
American Orations, .
Ill, Part VI;
IV. Part VII;
American History Leaf
lets. No. 12 ;
Contempora
ries, IV, ch.

Toward the
end of the
Civil War
the South
began to
raise negro
soldiers.

298 Slavery Contest

[1861

. , . May we not, therefore, look with confidence to
the ultimate universal ackowledgment of the truths upon
which our system rests? It is the first government ever
instituted upon the principles in strict conformity to nature,
and the ordination of Providence, in furnishing the materials
of human society. Many governments have been founded
upon the principle of the subordination and serfdom of cer
tain classes of the same race ; such were and are in violation
of the laws of nature. Our system commits no such viola
tion of nature's laws. With us, aU of the white race, how
ever high or low, rich or poor, are equal in the eye of the
law. Not so with the negro. Subordination is his place.
He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for
that condition which he occupies in our system. The archi
tect in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation
with the proper material — the granite ; then comes the brick
or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of
the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we
know that it is *best, not only for the superior, but for the.
inferior race, that it should be so. It is, indeed, in con
formity with the ordinance of the Creator. It is not for us
to inquire into the wisdom of his ordinances, or to question
them. For his own purposes, he has made one race to
differ from another, as he has made " one star to differ from
another star in glory."
The great objects of humanity are best attained when
there is conformity to his laws and decrees, in the formation
of governments as well as in all things else. Our confed
eracy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with
these laws. This stone which was rejected by the first build
ers " is become the chief of the corner" — the real "corner
stone" — in our new edifice. [Applause.]
I have been asked, what of the future? It has been
apprehended by some that we would have arrayed against
us the civilized world. I care not who or how many they

No. 114]

Fort Sumter

299

may be against us, when we stand upon the eternal principles
of truth, if we are true to ourselves and the principles for
which we contend, we are obliged to, and must triumph.
[Immense applause.]
Henry Cleveland, Alexander H. Stephens, in Public and Private
(PhUadelphia, [1867]), 721-723 passim.

114. Attack on Fort Sumter (1861)
AS soon as the outline of our fort could be distinguished,
the enemy carried out their programme. It had
been arranged, as a special compliment to the venerable
Edmund Ruffin, who might almost be called the father of
secession, that he should fire the first shot against us. . . .
Almost immediately afterward a ball from Cummings Point
lodged in the magazine wall, and by the sound seemed to
bury itself in the masonry about a foot from my head, in
very unpleasant proximity to my right ear. This is the one
that probably came with Mr. Ruffin's compliments. In a
moment the firing burst forth in one continuous roar, and
large patches of both the exterior and interior masonry be
gan to crumble and fall in all directions. The place where
I was had been used for the manufacture of cartridges, and
there was still a good deal of powder there, some packed
and some loose. A shell soon struck near the ventilator,
and a puff of dense smoke entered the room, giving me a
strong impression that there would be an immediate explosion.
Fortunately, no sparks had penetrated inside.
Nineteen batteries were now hammering at us, and the
balls and shells from the ten-inch columbiads, accompanied
• Copyright, 1875.

By ABNER
Double-day,* then a
captain, later
a general in
the service
of the United
States. Doubleday
was in Fort
Sumter from
the transfer
from Fort
Moultrie (December
26, i860) to
the surrender
(April 13,
1861). The
issue which
led to the at
tack was the
secession of
South Caro
lina, which
had ceded to
the United
States the
ground on '
which Sum
ter stood, but
now claimed
that the ces
sion had
ceased to
have force.
This was
almost the

300 Slavery Contest

[1861

only fort
within the
ConfederateStates still
held by gov
ernment
troops, and
Lincoln re
fused to give
it up, and at
tempted to
reinforce it.
Hence the
first shot
upon it was
accepted as
the begin
ning of civil
war. — For
the contro
versy over
Sumter, see
Nicolay and
Hay, Abra
ham Lincoln,
1 11, ch. xxiii—
IV, ch. iii;
Contempora
ries, IV, ch.

These bat
teries had •
been con
structedunder the
guns ol Sum
ter, as An
derson had
no orders
from either
Buchanan or
Lincoln to
preventthem.

by shells from the thirteen-inch mortars which constantly
bombarded us, made us feel as if the war had commenced
in earnest. . . .
... As I was the ranking officer, I took the first detach
ment, and marched them to the casemates, which looked out
upon the powerful iron-clad battery of Cummings Point.
In aiming the first gun fired against the rebellion I had no
feeling of self-reproach, for I fully believed that the contest
was inevitable and was not of our seeking. The United
States was called upon not only to defend its sovereignty,
but its right to exist as a nation. The only alternative was
to submit to a powerful oligarchy who were determined to
make freedom forever subordinate to slavery. To me it was
simply a contest, politically speaking, as to whether virtue or
vice should rule.
My first shot bounded off from the sloping roof of the
battery opposite without producing any apparent effect. It
seemed useless to attempt to silence the guns there '; for
our metal was not heavy enough to batter the work down
and every ball glanced harmlessly off, except one, which
appeared to enter an embrasure and twist the iron shutter,
so as to stop the firing of that particular gun. . . .
Our firing now became regular, and was answered from
the rebel guns which encircled us on the four sides of the
pentagon upon which the fort was built. The other side
faced the open sea. Showers of balls from ten-inch colum-
biads and forty-two-pounders, and shells from thirteen-inch
mortars poured into the fort in one incessant stream, caus
ing great flakes of masonry to fall in all directions. When
the immense mortar shells, after sailing high in the air, came
down in a vertical direction, and buried themselves in the
parade-ground, their explosion shook the fort like an earth
quake. . . .
After three hours' firing, my men became exhausted, and
Captain Seymour came, with a fresh detachment, to relieve

No. 114]

Fort Sumter

301

us. He has a great deal of humor in his composition, and
said, jocosely, " Doubleday, what in the world is the matter
here, and what is all this uproar about?"
I replied, "There is a trifling difference of opinion be
tween us and our neighbors opposite, and we are trying to
settle it."
"Very well," he said ; "do you wish me to take a hand?"
I said, " Yes, I would like to have you go in."
"AU right," he said. "What is your elevation, and
range ? "
I replied, " Five degrees, and twelve hundred yards."
" Well," he said, "here goes ! " And he went to work
with a will.
Part of the fleet was visible outside the bar about half-
past ten a.m. It exchanged salutes with us, but did not
attempt to enter the harbor, or take part in the battle. In
fact, it would have had considerable difficulty in finding the
channel, as the marks and buoys had all been taken up. .
On the morning of the 13th, we took our breakfast — or,
rather, our pork and water— at the usual hour, and marched
the men to the guns when the meal was over.
From 4 to 6£ a.m. the enemy's fire was very spirited.
From 7 to 8 a.m. a rain-storm came on, and there was a lull
in the cannonading. About 8 a.m. the officers' quarters
were ignited by one of Ripley's incendiary shells, or by shot
heated in the furnaces at Fort Moultrie. The fire was put
out; but at 10 a.m. a mortar shell passed through the roof,
and lodged in the flooring of the second story, where it
burst, and started the flames afresh. This, too, was ex
tinguished ; but the hot shot soon followed each other so
rapidly that it was impossible for us to contend with them
any longer. It became evident that the entire block, being
built with wooden partitions, floors, and roofing, must be
consumed, and that the magazine, containing three hundred
barrels of powder, would be endangered ; for, even after

This fleet
had been
dispatched
by Lincoln
with pro
visions for
the fort,
but was de
layed and
could render
no aid.

Roswell S.
Ripley, for
merly an offi-
cer in the
Northern
army, but
now serving
with the Con
federates.

The flag was
raised again,
but the fort
was shortly
obliged to
surrender.

302 Slavery Contest

[1861

closing the metaUic door, sparks might penetrate through
the ventilator. The floor was covered with loose powder,
where a detail of men had been at work manufacturing
cartridge-bags out of old shirts, woolen blankets, etc . . .
By 1 1 a.m. the conflagration was terrible and disastrous.
One-fifth of the fort was on fire, and the wind drove the
smoke in dense masses into the angle where we had aU taken
refuge. It seemed impossible to escape suffocation. Some
lay down close to the ground, with handkerchiefs over then-
mouths, and others posted themselves near the embrasures,
where the smoke was somewhat lessened by the draught of
air. . . .
The scene at this time was really terrific. The roaring
and crackling of the flames, the dense masses of whirling
smoke, the bursting of the enemy's sheUs, and our own
which were exploding in the burning rooms, the crashing of
the shot, and the sound of masonry falling in every direction,
made the fort a pandemonium. When at last nothing was
left of the building but the blackened walls and smoldering
embers, it became painfully evident that an immense amount
of damage had been done. There was a tower at each
angle of the fort. One of these, containing great quantities
of shells, upon which we had relied, was almost completely
shattered by successive explosions. The massive wooden
gates, studded with iron nails, were burned, and the waU
built behind them was now a mere heap of debris, so that
the main entrance was wide open for an assaulting party.
The sally-ports were in a similar condition, and the numerous
windows on the gorge side, which had been planked up, had
now become all open entrances.
About 12.48 p.m. the end of the flag-staff was shot down,
and the flag fell. . . .
From Doubleday's Reminiscences of Fort Sumter and Fort
Moultrie, Copyright, 1875, by Harper & Brothers.

CHAPTER XVIII — CIVIL WAR
1861-1865
115. The Rousing ' of the North (1861)
ON Sunday, April 14 [1 861], the fact became known
that Fort Sumter had surrendered. The excitement
created by the bombardment of that fortress and its mag
nificent defence by Anderson was prodigious. The outrage
on the Government of the United States thus perpetrated by
the authorities of South Carolina sealed the fate of the new
born Confederacy and the institution of slavery. Intelligent
Southerners at the North were weU aware of the conse
quences which must follow. In the city of New York a
number of prominent gentlemen devoted to the interests of
the South, and desirous to obtain a bloodless dissolution of
the Union, were seated together in anxious conference,
studying with intense solicitude the means of preserving the
peace. A messenger entered the room in breathless haste
with the news: "General Beauregard has opened fire on
Fort Sumter ! " The persons whom he thus addressed re
mained a while in dead silence, looking into each other's
pale faces ; then one of them, with uplifted hands, cried, in
a voice of anguish, " My God, we are ruined ! "
The North rose as one man. The question had been
asked by those who were watching events, " How will New
York go ? " There were sinister hopes in certain quarters of
a strong sympathy with the secession movements ; dreams
that New York might decide on cutting off from the rest of
the country and becoming a free-city. These hopes and
• Copyright, 1883.
303

By Rever
end Mor
gan DlX*
(1827- ).
rector of
Trinity Church, New
York City,
from his
memoirs of
his father,
John Adams
Dix, pub
lished in
1883. This
piece is a
most graphic
picture by an
eye-witnessof the state
of things in
our largest
city at the
moment of
the outbreak
of the Re
bellion, and
ii also a
remarkable
piece of up
lifting de
scription. —
On the out-
break of war,
see Ameri
can Orations,
IV. 3-81.—
On the Civil
War in gen
eral, Ameri
can Orations,
IV, Part VII;
AmericanHistory Leaf-

lets, Nos. i8,
a6; Ameri
can History
Studies, No.
9; Contem
poraries, IV,
Part .
For the at
tack on Sum
ter, see
above, No.
114.

3°4

Civil War

[1861

dreams vanished in a day. The reply to the question how
New York would go was given with an energy worthy of
herself. The 15 th of that month brought President Lincoln's proc
lamation and the call for 75,000 men — a bagatelle, as it
proved, compared with the number required ; but the figures
seemed enormous to the popular eye, and the demand set
the whole city in a blaze. Never to my dying day shaU I
forget a scene witnessed on Thursday of that week. A regi
ment had arrived from Massachusetts on the way to Wash
ington, via Baltimore. They came in at night ; and it was
understood that, after breakfasting at the Astor House, the
march would be resumed. By nine o'clock in the morning
an immense crowd had assembled about the hotel : Broad
way, from Barclay to Fulton Street, and the lower end of
Park Row, were occupied by a dense mass of human beings,
all watching the front entrance, at which the regiment was
to file out. From side to side, from wall to wall, extended
that innumerable host, silent as the grave, expectant, some
thing unspeakable in the faces. It was the dead, deep hush
before the thunder-storm. At last a low murmur was heard ;
it sounded somewhat like a gasp of men in suspense ; and
the cause was, that the soldiers had appeared, their leading
files descending the steps. By the twinkle of their bayonets
abovp the heads of the crowd their course could be traced
out into the open street in front. Formed, at last, in
column, they stood, the band at the head ; and the word
was given, " March ! " Still dead silence prevailed. Then
the drums rolled out the time — the regiment was in motion.
And then the band, bursting into full volume, struck up —
what other tune could the Massachusetts men have chosen ?
— " Yankee Doodle." I catight about two bars and a half s
of the old music, not more. For instantly there arose a
sound such as many a man never heard in all his life and
never will hear ; such as is never heard more than once in

No. 116]

North Aroused

305

a lifetime. Not more awful is the thunder of heaven as,
with sudden peal, it smites into silence all lesser sounds,
and, rolling through the vault above us, fills earth and sky
with the shock of its terrible voice. One terrific roar burst
from the multitude, leaving nothing audible save its own
reverberation. We saw the heads of armed men, the gleam
of their weapons, the regimental colors, all moving on,
pageant-like; but naught could we hear save that hoarse,
heavy surge — one general acclaim, one wild shout of joy
and hope, one endless cheer, rolling up and down, from side
to side, above, below, to right, to left: the voice of ap
proval, of consent, of unity in act and will. No one who
saw and heard could doubt how New York was going.
After that came events the account of which fills volumes
of records of our national history. The ebb of the tide was
over ; the waters were coming in with the steadiness and
momentum of a flood which bears everything before it.
Morgan Dix, Memoirs of John Adams Dix (New York, Harper
& Brothers, 1 883), II, 9-1 1 .

116. Battle of Bull Run (1861)
BY the time I reached the top of the hill, the retreat, the
panic, the hideous headlong confusion, were now be
yond a hope. I was near the rear of the movement, with
the brave Capt. Alexander, who endeavored by the most
gallant but unavailable exertions to check the onward tumult.
It was difficult to believe in the reality of our sudden reverse.
"What does it all mean?" I asked Alexander. "It means
defeat," was his reply. "We are beaten ; it is a shameful, a
cowardly retreat ! Hold up, men ! " he shouted, " don't be
such infernal cowards ! " and he rode backwards and for
wards, placing his horse across the road and vainly trying to

By Edmunh
Clarence
STEDMAN t
(1833- ).
then a corre
spondent of
a New York
daily (from
which he re
printed this
account),laterabanker
and poet
His report
tallies
with other
accounts of
correspondents and
civilians.

306

Civil War

fi86i

The cause of
the rout
(July ai,
1861) was
the inexperi
ence of the
troops and
the lack of
acquaintance
with their
field officers.
The actual
Federal loss
in the fight
was not in
proportion to
the terror, —
460 killed,
1 1 24
wounded, and 1312
missing, out
of. 18,572
troops en
gaged. The
effect was to
make clear
to the North
the real d:ffi-
culty of the .
suppressionof the Rebel
lion.— On
Bull Run, see
Contempora
ries, IV, Nos.
One of this
p^rtv was A.
G. Riddle,
who his a
spit lied ac
count in his
Recollections
of War
iimcs.

rally the running troops. The teams and wagons confused
and dismembered every corps. We were now cut off from
the advance body by the enemy's infantry, who had rushed
on the slope just left by us, surrounded the guns and sutlers'
wagons, and were apparently pressing up against us. " It's
no use, Alexander," I said, "you must leave with the rest."
" I'll be d — d if I will," was his sullen reply, and the splendid
fellow rode back to make his way as best he could. Mean
time I saw officers with leaves and eagles on their shoulder-
straps, majors and colonels, who had deserted their com
mands, pass me galloping as if for dear Ufe. No enemy
pursued just then; but I suppose all were afraid that his
guns would be trained down the long, narrow avenue, and
mow the retreating thousands, and batter to pieces army
wagons and everything else which crowded it. Only one
field officer, so far as my observation extended, seemed to
have remembered his duty. Lieut-Col. Speidel, a foreigner
attached to a Connecticut regiment, strove against the cur
rent for a league. I positively declare that, with the two
exceptions mentioned, all efforts made to check the panic
before Centreville was reached, were confined to civilians.
I saw a man in citizen's dress, who had thrown off his coat,
seized a musket, and was trying to rally the soldiers who
came by at the point of the bayonet. In a reply to a request
for his name, he said it was Washburne, and I learned he
was the member by that name from Illinois. The Hon. Mr.
Kellogg made a similar effort. Both these Congressmen
bravely stood their ground till the last moment, and were
serviceable at Centreville in assisting the halt there ultimately
made. And other civilians did what they could.
But what a scene ! and how terrific tlie onset of that
tumultuous retreat. For three miles, hosts of federal troops
— all detached from their regiments, all mingled in one
disorderly rout — were fleeing along the road, but mostly
through the lots on either side. Army wagons, sutlers'

No. 116]

Bull Run

307

teams, and private carriages, choked the passage, tumbling
against each other, amid clouds of dust, and sickening sights
and sounds. Hacks, containing unlucky spectators of the
late affray, were smashed like glass, and the occupants were
lost sight of in the debris. Horses, flying wildly from the
battle-field, many of them in death agony, galloped at ran
dom forward, joining in the stampede. Those on foot who
could catch them rode them bare-back, as much to save
themselves from being run over, as to make quicker time.
Wounded men, lying along the banks — the few neither left
on the field nor taken to the captured hospitals — appealed
with raised hands to those who rode horses, begging to be
lifted behind, but few regarded such petitions. Then the
artillery, such as was saved, came thundering along, smash
ing and overpowering everything. The regular cavalry, I
record it to their shame, joined in the melee, adding to its
terrors, for they rode down footmen without mercy. One
of the great guns was overturned and lay amid the ruins of
a caisson, as I passed it. I saw an artillery-man running
between the ponderous fore and after-wheels of his gun-car
riage, hanging on with both hands, and vainly striving to
jump upon the ordnance. The drivers were spurring the
horses ; he could not cling much longer, and a more agon
ized expression never fixed the features of a drowning man.
The carriage bounded from the roughness of a steep hill
leading to a creek, he lost his hold, fell, and in an instant
the great wheels had crushed the life out of him. Who ever
saw such a flight? Could the retreat at Borodino have ex
ceeded it in confusion and tumult? I think not. It did
not slack in the least until Centreville was reached. There
the sight of the reserve — Miles's Brigade — formed in order
on the hill, seemed somewhat to reassure the van. But still
the teams and foot soldiers pushed on, passing their own
camps and heading swiftly for the distant Potomac, until for
ten miles the road over which the grand army had so lately

Caisson =
the after-part
of an artillery
bunker, con
taining the
ammunition.

Borodino,
place of the
defeat of the
Russians by
Napoleon in
1812.

3o8

Civil War

W. H. Rus
sell, corre
spondent of
the London
Times, wrote
an account
of the battle
which was
then thought
to be over
stated, but
agrees sub
stantiallywith this.

By George
Carv Eg-
gl ESTON
(1839- ).
who served
as a private
in the Con
federate army and
saw active
service from
Bull Run to
Appomattox. Since

[1861-1865

passed southward, gay with unstained banners, and flushed
with surety of strength, was covered with the fragments of
its retreating forces, shattered and panic-stricken in a single
day. From the branch route the trains attached to Hunter's
Division had caught the contagion of the flight, and poured
into its already swollen current another turbid freshet of con
fusion and dismay. Who ever saw a more shameful aban
donment of munitions gathered at such vast expense ? The
teamsters, many of them, cut the traces of their horses, and
galloped from the wagons. Others threw out their loads to
accelerate their flight, and grain, picks, and shovels, and
provisions of every kind lay trampled in the dust for leagues.
Thousands of muskets strewed the route, and when some of
us succeeded in rallying a body of fugitives, and forming
them in a line across the road, hardly one but had thrown
away his arms. If the enemy had brought up his artillery
and served it upon the retreating train, or had intercepted
our progress with five hundred of his cavalry, he might have
captured enough supplies for a week's feast of thanksgiving.
As it was, enough was left behind to tell the story of the
panic. The rout of the federal army seemed complete.
Edmund C. Stedman, The Battle of Bull Run (New York, 1861),
33-37-

117. The Southern Soldier (i 861-1865)
OUR ideas of the life and business of a soldier were
drawn chiefly from the adventures of Ivanhoe and
Charles O'Malley, two worthies with whose personal history
almost every man in the army was familiarf.] The men who
volunteered went to war of their own accord, and were
wholly unaccustomed to acting on any other than their own
motion. They were hardy lovers of field sports, accustomed

No. 117]

Southern Soldier

309

to out-door life, and in aU physical respects excellent mate
rial of which to make an army. But they were not used to
control of any sort, and were not disposed to obey anybody
except for good and sufficient reason given. While actually
on drill they obeyed the word of command, not so much by
reason of its being proper to obey a command, as because
obedience was in that case necessary to the successful issue
of a pretty performance in which they were interested. Off
drill they did as they pleased, holding themselves gentlemen,
and as such bound to consult only their own wills. Their
officers were of themselves, chosen by election, and subject,
by custom, to enforced resignation upon petition of the
men. . . .
With troops of this kind, the reader vrill readily under
stand, a feeling of very democratic equality prevailed, so far
at least as military rank had anything to do with it. Officers
were no better than men, and so officers and men messed
and slept together on terms of entire equality, quarreling and
even fighting now and then, in a gentlemanly way, but with
out a thought of allowing differences of military rank to have
any influence in the matter. The theory was that the officers
were the creatures of the men, chosen by election to repre
sent their constituency in the performance of certain duties,
and that only during good behavior. And to this theory the
officers themselves gave in their adhesion in a hundred ways.
Indeed, they could do nothing else, inasmuch as they knew
no way of quelling a mutiny. ...
In the camp of instruction at Ashland, where the various
cavalry companies existing in Virginia were sent to be made
into soldiers, it was a very common thing indeed for men
who grew tired of camp fare to take their meals at the hotel,
and one or two of them rented cottages and brought their
families there, excusing themselves from attendance upon
unreasonably early roll-calls, by pleading the distance from
their cottages to the parade-ground. Whenever a detaU was

the war, Mr.
Eggleston
has been en
gaged in .
journalistic and literary
work. In
1874 he con
tributed to
the Atlantic
Monthly a
series of
paperscalled "A
Rebel's Rec
ollections,"
which later
appeared in
book form.
These papers
throw much
light on the
internal con
dition of the
Confederate
army. — See
Contempora
ries, IV, No.

3io

Civil War

[1861-1865

made for the purpose of cleaning the camp-ground, the men
detailed regarded themselves as responsible for the proper
performance of the task by their servants, and uncomplain
ingly took upon themselves the duty of sitting on the fence
and superintending the work. The two or three men of the
overseer class who were to be found in nearly every company
turned some nimble quarters by standing other men's turns
of guard-duty at twenty-five cents an hour ; and one young
gentleman of my own company, finding himself assigned to
a picket rope post, where his only duty was to guard the
horses and prevent them, in their untrained exuberance of
spirit, from becoming entangled in each other's heels and
halters, coolly called his servant and turned the matter over
to him, with a rather informal but decidedly pointed in
junction not to let those horses get themselves into trouble
if he valued his hide. ...
It was in this undisciplined state that the men who after
wards made up the army under Lee were sent to the field
to meet the enemy at Bull Run and elsewhere, and the only
wonder is that they were ever able to fight at all. They
were certainly not soldiers. They were as ignorant of the
alphabet of obedience as their officers were of the art of
commanding. And yet they acquitted themselves reason
ably well, a fact which can be explained only by reference to
the causes of their insubordination in camp. These men
were the people of the South, and the war was their own ;
wherefore they fought to win it of their own accord, and not
at all because their officers commanded them to do so.
Their personal spirit and their intelligence were their sole
elements of strength. Death has few terrors for such men,
as compared with dishonor, and so they needed no officers
at all, and no discipline, to insure their personal good con
duct on the field of battle. The same elements of character,
too, made them accept hardship with the utmost cheerful
ness, as soon as hardship became a necessary condition to

No. 118]

The Wounded

311

the successful prosecution of a war that every man of them
regarded as his own. In camp, at Richmond or Ashland,
they had shunned all unnecessary privation and aU distaste
ful duty, because they then saw no occasion to endure avoid
able discomfort. But in the field they showed themselves
great, stalwart men in spirit as well as in bodily frame, and
endured cheerfully the hardships of campaigning precisely as
they would have bortie the fatigues of a hunt, as incidents
encountered in the prosecution, of their purposes.
George Cary Eggleston, A Rebers Recollections (New York,
1875), 31-39 Passim..  ?
118. Supplies for the Wounded (1862)
THE first two days after Brother Cushing and. myself
reached here [Washington], we were busy with the
wounded on the steamboats coming from Acquia Creek,
giving them soft bread and apple:sauce, and helping them
to the ambulances.
Thursday morning, as we were by the boats, some one
came to us and said, that on one of the boats was a man
who had eaten nothing for three days. With bread in our
hands, and brandy and wine in our canteens, and hymn-
books in the pocket, we crossed over two steamboats to one
where nothing had been eaten for twenty-four hours. They
had been out in the cold all night, — had lain four hours at
Acquia Creek on the cars in the cold, and now, waiting
hours before they could be taken from the boat's deck (3000
wounded had come in that night), they were as patient as if
Job had been the father of every one. But they were glad
for something to eat, and of the hot coffee which came
along soon.
One man laughed as he took his bread. "What are you
laughing at? " asked another.

The first of
these extracts
is from a let
ter written to
the Christian
Commission by Rever
end Fran
cis Nathan
Peloubet (1831- ) ;
the second
from one by
ReverendGeorgeLansingTaylor (1835- >
chaplain of
the Eighth
MichiganregimentThey convey
a good idea
of the man
ner in which
the wounded
were cared
for during the
war, and of
the work of
the volunteer
Christian Commission.

312

Civil War

[1862

" Who wouldn't laugh to see a piece of bread ? "
"This looks like home," — "This reminds me of home,"
was the expression of some.
The regular Government boats are nicely fitted up, and
have all the needful arrangements for the comfortable trans
portation of the wounded. But the other boats used for
this purpose have neither food nor medicines, and a weary
time would they have had but for the Christian Commis
sion. . . . One remarked, as we were leaving, "I shall
never forget that fur cap (Cushing's) wherever I meet it."
" Nor I," " Nor I," was the echo ; my own less distingue
chapeau getting but a dimmer fame. . . .
We had a large number of men convalescent and suffer
ing of want of appetite, and were wasting away before
the " hardtack and bean soup of the army fare," but
receiving at your hands some soft bread, soft crackers,
and sweet butter, I mounted my horse, and galloped to
my camp. I succeeded in getting to the hospital tent,
At Falmouth, just as the nurse entered with the bean soup for dinner,
and before which many of the pale faces turned paler, but
no sooner did they behold the palatable food I had, than
every countenance lighted up with such an unutterable look
of gratitude, that it must really be seen by any one to be
realized. The next day I spread the crackers with butter,
and then added a third layer of apple-butter, from the can
you gave me, which was received with an equal amount of
gratitude by all. ... in the characteristic manner of the
soldier, and as no other man can utter the word, one of
them exclaimed, " Bully for such a chaplain as you." My
dear sir, could but the ladies and kind friends who sustain
you come and witness a few of these cases, they would really
believe that no one could bestow even a cup of cold water,
but would receive their reward. . . .
United States Christian Commission, First Annual Report
(Philadelphia, 1863), 35-39 passim.

No. 119]

New Orleans

3!3

119. Farragut at New Orleans (1862)
WE then proceeded up to New Orleans, leaving the
Wissahicon and Kineo to protect the landing of the
general's troops. Owing to the slowness of some of the ves
sels, and our want of knowledge of the river, we did not
reach the English Turn until about 10.30 a.m. on the 25 th ;
but all the morning I had seen abundant evidence of the
panic which had seized the people in New Orleans. Cotton-
loaded ships on fire came floating down, and working imple
ments of every kind, such as are used in ship-yards. The
destruction of property was awful. We soon descried the
new earthwork forts on the old Unes on both shores. We
now formed and advanced in the same order, two lines, each
Une taking its respective work. Captain Bailey was stUl far
in advance, not having noticed my signal for close order,
which was to enable the slow vessels to come up. They
opened on him a galling fire, which caused us to run up to
his rescue ; this gave them the advantage of a raking fire on
us for upwards of a mile with some twenty guns, while we
had but two 9-inch guns on our forecastle to reply to them.
It was not long, however, before we were enabled to bear
away and give the forts a broadside of shells, shrapnell, and
grape, the Pensacola at the same time passing up and giving
a tremendous broadside of the same kind to the starboard
fort ; and by the time we could reload, the Brooklyn, Cap
tain Craven, passed handsomely between us and the battery
and delivered her broadside, and shut us out. By this time
the other vessels had gotten up, and ranged in one after
another, delivering their broadsides in spiteful revenge for
their \i.e. the enemies'] ill-trea[t]ment of the little Cayuga.
The forts were silenced, and those who could run were
running in every direction. We now passed up to the city
and anchored immediately in front of it, and I sent Captain

By David
Glasgow Farragut (1801-1870).
February a,
1862, Far
ragut sailed
from Hamp
ton Roads
with orders
to take New
Orleans.
February 20,
a land force
was sent
from Fortress
Monroe,
under Gen
eral Butler, to
cooperate
with him and
to garrison
the city after
its capture.
April 25,
1862, the
mayor of
New Orleans
surrendered
the city, to
Farragut, as
flag-officer,
who handed
it over to
GeneralButler on
May 1. This
event gave
the Union
army the
control of the
mouth of the
Mississippi,
and also, it is
worthy of
note, caused
the Emperor
Napoleon III to recon
sider his
design of
recognizing the Confed
eracy and

3*4

Civil War

[1862

raising the
blockade.Shrapnel! =
shells fillfd
with bullets
and a small
bursiing charge.
Tlie " Ca
yuga " was
Captain Bailey's ves
sel. Levee =
embank ment along
the river.

Forts Jack
son arid St.
Philip.

Bailey on shore to demand the surrender of it from the
authorities, to which the mayor replied that the city was
under martial law, and that he had no authority. General
Lovell, who was present, stated that he should deliver up
nothing, but in order to free the city from embarrassment
he would restore the city authorities, and retire with his
troops, which he did. . . .
The levee of New Orleans was one scene of desolation.
Ships, steamers, cotton, coal, &c, were aU in one common
blaze, and our ingenuity was much taxed to avoid the float
ing conflagration. . . .
I next went above the city eight miles, to Carrolton, where
I learned there were two other forts, but the panic had gone
before me. I found the guns spiked, and the gun-carriages
in flames. The first work, on the right, reaches from the
Mississippi nearly over to Pontchartrain, and has 29 guns ;
the one on the left had six guns, from which Commander
Lee took some fifty barrels of powder, and completed the
destruction of the gun-carriages, &c. A mile higher up
there were two other earthworks, but not yet armed. . . .
On the evening of the 29th Captain BaUey arrived from
below, with the gratifying intelligence that the forts had sur
rendered to Commander Porter, and had delivered up all
public property, and were being paroled, and that the navy
had been made to surrender unconditionally, as they had
conducted themselves with bad faith, burning and sinking
their vessels while a flag of truce was flying, and the forts
negotiating for their surrender^ and the Louisiana, their great
iron-clad battery, blown up almost alongside of the vessel
where they were negotiating ; hence their officers were not
paroled, but sent home to be treated according to the judg
ment of the government.
General Butler came up the same day, and arrangements
were made for bringing up his troops.
I sent on shore and hoisted the American flag on the cus-

no. xaoj Emancipation 3 1 c
tom-house, and hauled down the Louisiana State flag from
the city hall, as the mayor had avowed that there was no
man in New Orleans who dared to haul it down ; and my
own convictions are that if such an individual could have
been found he would have been assassinated.
Secretary of the Navy, Report, 1862 (Washington, 1863), 279-
281 passim.

120. Proclamation of Emancipation (1862)
THE appointed hour found me at the well-remembered
door of the official chamber, — that door watched
daily, with so many conflicting emotions of hope and fear,
by the anxious throng regularly gathered there. The Presi
dent had preceded me, and was already deep in Acts of
Congress, with which the writing-desk was strewed, awaiting
his signature. He received me pleasantly, giving me a seat
near his own arm-chair ; and after having read Mr. Love-
joy's note, he took off his spectacles, and said, " Well, Mr.
C  » we wil1 turn you in loose here, and try to give you
a good chance to work out your idea." Then, without pay
ing much attention to the enthusiastic expression of my
ambitious desire and purpose, he proceeded to give me
a detailed account of the history and issue of the great
proclamation. " It had got to be," said he, " midsummer, 1862. Things
had gone on from bad to worse, until I felt that we had
reached the end of our rope on the plan of operations we
had been pursuing ; that we had about played our last card,
and must change our tactics, or lose the game ! I now de
termined upon the adoption of the emancipation policy ;
and, without consultation with, or the knowledge of the
Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the proclamation

By Francis
Bicknell
Carpenter (1830- ).
a portrait-
painter, who
has had
many distin
guished sit
ters. In 1864
he painted a
large histori
cal picture
representing
the signing
of the eman
cipation
proclama
tion on Janu
ary 1, 1863.
During the
execution of
this task, he
was thrown
into confi
dential per
sonal contact
with the
President,
and gained
therebymuch knowl
edge of his
character
and policy;
he afterward
threw his re
membrances
together into
the book

316

Civil War

from which
this extract is
taken. — On
Lincoln, see
above, No.
m, and be
low, No. 134.
— On eman
cipation, see
Contempora
ries, IV, ch.
The meeting
was held
July 22.

Chase has
left an ac
count in his
diary (printed in
R. B. War
den's biogra
phy).Seward was
Secretary of
State.

[1862

and, after much anxious thought, called a Cabinet meeting
upon the subject. This was the last of July, or the first part
of the month of August, 1862." (The exact date he did not
remember.) " This Cabinet meeting took place, I think, upon
a Saturday. AU were present, excepting Mr. Blair, the Post
master-General, who was absent at the opening of the dis
cussion, but came in subsequently. I said to the Cabinet
that I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them
together to ask their advice, but to lay the subject-matter of a
proclamation before them ; suggestions as to which would be
in order, after they had heard it read. Mr. Lovejoy," said
he, "was in error when he informed you that it excited
no comment, excepting on the part of Secretary Seward.
Various suggestions were offered. Secretary Chase wished
the language stronger in reference to the arming of the
blacks. Mr. Blair, after he came in, deprecated the policy,
on the ground that it would cost the Administration the fall
elections. Nothing, however, was offered that I had not al
ready fully anticipated and settled in my own mind, until
Secretary Seward spoke. He said in substance : ' Mr. Presi
dent, I approve of the proclamation, but I question the ex
pediency of its issue at this juncture. The depression
of the public mind, consequent upon our repeated reverses,
is so great that I fear the effect of so important a step. It
may be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted govern
ment, a cry for help ; the government stretching forth its
hands to Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her
hands to the government.' His idea," said the President,
" was that it would be considered our last shriek, on the re
treat." (This was his precise expression.) " ' Now,' con
tinued Mr. Seward, * while I approve the measure, I suggest,
sir, that you postpone its issue, until you can give it to the
country supported by military success, instead of issuing it,
as would be the case now, upon the greatest disasters of the
war ! ' " Mr. Lincoln continued : " The wisdom of the view

No. 120]

Emancipation

3*7

of the Secretary of State struck me with very great force.
It was an aspect of the case that, in all my thought upon
the subject, I had entirely overlooked. The result was that
I put the draft of the proclamation aside, as you do your
sketch for a picture, waiting for a victory. From time to
time I added or changed a line, touching it up here and
there, anxiously watching the progress of events. Well, the
next news we had was of Pope's disaster, at Bull Run. August 30.
Things looked darker than ever. FinaUy, came the week of
the battle of Antietam. I determined to wait no longer. September
The news came, I think, on Wednesday, that the advantage l6, v>'
was on our side. I was then staying at the Soldiers' Home,
(three miles out of Washington.) Here I finished writing
the second draft of the preliminary proclamation ; came up
on Saturday ; called the Cabinet together to hear it, and it
was published the following Monday."
At the final meeting of September 20th, another interest
ing incident occurred in connection with Secretary Seward.
The President had written the important part of the procla
mation in these words : —
"That, on the first day of January, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all per
sons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a
State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against
the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever
free ; and the Executive Government of the United States,
including the military and naval authority thereof, will recog
nize the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to
repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may
make for their actual freedom." " When I finished reading
this paragraph," resumed Mr. Lincoln, " Mr. Seward stopped
me, and said, ' I think, Mr. President, that you should insert
after the word " recognize" in that sentence, the words
" and maintain." ' I replied that I had already fully con
sidered the import of that expression in this connection,

Bv Dr. Al-
lll.KT Gaii^
i.akd Hart
(1821- ),
luriR a prac-
• isin^ pliysi-
ci.in in
western I 'cnnM'lvM-
nia, a vuinn-
Icer of 1801,
anil a suldiur
of thiee
years' service
in tlie Civil
War as sur
geon of the

318

Civil War

[1863

but I had not introduced it, because it was not my way to
promise what I was not entirely sure that I could perform,
and I was not prepared to say that I thought we were ex
actly able to ' maintain ' this."
" But," said he, " Seward insisted that we ought to take
this ground ; and the words finally went in ! "
" It is a somewhat remarkable fact," he subsequently re
marked, " that there were just one hundred days between
the dates of the two proclamations issued upon the 2 2d of
September and the 1st of January. I had not made the
calculation at the time."
Having concluded this interesting statement, the President
then proceeded to show me the various positions occupied
by himself and the different members of the Cabinet, on
the occasion of the first meeting. " As nearly as I remem
ber," said he, " I sat near the head of the table ; the Sec
retary of the Treasury and the Secretary of War were here,
at my right hand ; the others were grouped at the left."
F[rancis] B[icknell] Carpenter, Six Mouths at the White House
with Abraham Lincoln (New York, 1866), 20-24.

121. In the Thick of the Fight (1863)
Hospital 41ST Reoiment O. V. I. at Divisiun Hospital
Second Division, Criitenden's Corps, three miles
north ok mukl'hysboruugh, tennessee, January 7TH, 1863.
MY dearest wife;
You will have ere this some account of the battle
of Murphysborough, or Stone River. The great battle was
fought on the 31st of December. The rebel forces attacked
our right wing, (General Mack Cook's corps, and took us
entirely by surprise. Their left line extended much beyond

No. 121]

Murfreesboro

3!9

our right and as they came near us they wheeled their
extreme left, which brought them in a position to rake us or
fire along our line. No command can long stand up under
such a fire, and ours broke back in utter rout, and carried
with them as in a mighty reflex wave division after division,
Jeff C. Davis, Johnson, Sheridan, and Negley's divisions, and
the right of our own Palmer's. By noon our line had been
driven so far back as to be nearly at a right angle to the
position which we had occupied at 8 o'clock in the morning.
At my standpoint, this hospital nearly two miles in the rear,
a cloud of fugitives numbering thousands were seen flying
toward the rear, not an army, but a cloud of helpless, terror-
stricken, totally disorganized and disbanded men, foUowed
by a few hundred rebel cavalry, who shot down or captured
the men at pleasure. Our Division Hospital fell into their
hands and a mile or two of the transportation along the pike,
on which we were advancing. Our left at the same time
was turned by the rebel cavalry. Fortunately our cavalry
coming up re-took our hospital a half hour after the rebels
had taken possession of it, and I saw my first cavalry fight
between our own and rebel cavalry.
For a time it seemed as if the day was hopelessly lost.
Still many of the regiments kept their men in the rallying
distance, and fell back in partial order. They formed at
last, after Rousseau's reserves had come into line, and aided
to save the day. Still back and back came our right, and
all that could be done was to change our front so as to face
the rebels as they came surging up. Artillery discharges at
the rate of 60 per minute could not leave a field long
contested. Every brigade yielded in the fatal tide. Two
brigades of our division wheeled into the same line ; the
19th, our own, is next and the last. The right of our brigade
necessarily falls back to take line with that which adjoins it.
Will our left too give back? The 41st is on the extreme left
to the left of the pike. At the left of our regiment the

41st Ohio
Volunteer Infantry, lie
made the
selection for
this work out
of three
hundred of
his war let
ters now pre
served. Murpbys-
borough at
Murfrees
boro. "Mack
Cook" was Gen. A.
Mi D. Mc-
Cook, one of
"the fighting
McCooks."

Surgeonswere seldom
carried away
as prisoners.

A. B. Hazen,
then colonel
of the 41st,
later a major-
general.

This is a ter
rible percent
age of loss for
a single fight

By "A
Lady." The
account from
which this
extract is
taken is by
an anony-

3 20

Civil War

[1B63

retreat ceases, and on it, as on a pivot, the brigade swings
round and rests. Five times the rebels poured a sheet
of flame, and a cloud of musketry and artillery upon
us. Supported by Cockerel's battery we hold our ground
successfully. Too much credit cannot be given Colonel Hazen com
manding our brigade. Few men could have held troops
under so galling a fire. Our loss is double that of regiments
on the right wing, as thousands threw away their muskets,
and did not fire a round.
Our complete return of killed and wounded is, killed 16,
wounded 94, no out of 413 men engaged.
Two days after the battle the rebels under General Breck-
enridge came down on our left wing with 10,000 men mostly
Kentuckians. As they descended the slope toward Stone
River, Van Cleve's Division, which was lying opposite where
they emerged from the woods, were driven out like a flock
of sheep. Most fortunately and providentially for us Gen
eral Rosecrans had caused to be parked 52 pieces of artil
lery directly opposite their point of attack. Every piece
was opened upon them and according to the rebel account
when they went back in 40 minutes they left 2,000 men dead
and wounded upon the field.
You will know that the rebels have evacuated Murphys-
borough and are in full march for the South.
From MS. letters communicated for this volume by Dr. Hart.

122. Cave Life in a Besieged City (1863)
SO constantly dropped the shells around the city, that the
inhabitants all made preparations to live under the
ground during the siege. M  sent over and had a cave

no. 12a] Siege of Vicksburg 321

made in a hill near by. We seized the opportunity one
evening, when the gunners were probably at their supper,
for we had a few moments of quiet, to go over and take
possession. We were under the care of a friend of M  ,
who was paymaster on the staff of the same General with
whom M  was Adjutant We had neighbors on both
sides of us ; and it would have been an amusing sight to a
spectator to witness the domestic scenes presented without
by the number of servants preparing the meals under the
high bank containing the caves.
Our dining, breakfasting, and supper hours were quite
irregular. When the shells were falling fast, the servants
came in for safety, and our meals waited for completion
some little time ; again they would fall slowly, with the lapse
of many minutes between, and out would start the cooks to
their work.
Some families had light bread made in large quantities,
and subsisted on it with milk (provided their cows were not
killed from one milking time to another), without any more
cooking, until called on to replenish. Though most of us
lived on corn bread and bacon, served three times a day, the
only luxury of the meal consisting in its warmth, I had some
flour, and frequently had some hard, tough biscuit made
from it, there being no soda or yeast to be procured. At
this time we could, also, procure beef. . . . And so I
went regularly to work, keeping house under ground. Our
new habitation was an excavation made in the earth, and
branching six feet from the entrance, forming a cave in the
shape of a T. In one of the wings my bed fitted ; the other
I used as a kind of a dressing room ; in this the earth had
been cut down a foot or two below the floor of the main
cave ; I could stand erect here ; and when tired of sitting in
other portions of my residence, I bowed myself into it, and
stood impassively resting at full height — one of the varia
tions in the still shell-expectant life. M  *s servant

mous hand.
It appeared
in 1864, and
faithfully
pictures the
conditions in
Vicksburg
during thr
siege by
Grant's anny.
It is an ex
ample of the
picturesque-
ness of a
personal nar
rative. —
Compareabove, Nos.
60, 84, 86,
114, 116, 121.
— On the
Vicksburgcampaign, see Contem
poraries, IV,
ch. "M  "
was the hus*
band of the
narrator.

322

Civil War

[1863

cooked for us under protection of the hiU. Our quarters
were close, indeed ; yet I was more comfortable than I
expected I could have been made under the earth in that
fashion. We were safe at least from fragments of shell — and they
were flying in all directions ; though no one seemed to think
our cave any protection, should a mortar sheU happen to
fall directly on top of the ground above us. . . .
And so the weary days went on — the long, weary days —
when we could not tell in what terrible form death might
come to us before the sun went down. Another fear that
troubled M  was, that our provisions might not last us
during the siege. He would frequently urge me to husband
aU that I had, for troublesome times were probably in store
for us ; told me of the soldiers in the intrerichments, who
would have gladly eaten the bread that was left from our
meals, for they were suffering every privation, and that our
servants lived far better than these men who were defending
the city. Soon the pea meal became an article of food for
us also, and a very unpalatable article it proved. To make
it of proper consistency, we were obliged to mix some com
meal with it, which cooked so much faster than the pea
meal, that it burned before the bread was half done. The
taste was peculiar and disagreeable. . . .
Still, we had nothing to complain of in comparison with
the soldiers : many of them were sick and wounded in a
hospital in the most exposed parts of the city, with shells
falling and exploding all around them. . . .
Even the very animals seemed to share the general fear
of a sudden and frightful death. The dogs would be seen
in the midst of the noise to gallop up the street, and then to
return, as if fear had maddened them. On hearing the
descent of a shell, they would dart aside — then, as it ex
ploded, sit down and howl in the most pitiful manner.
There were many walking the street, apparently without
homes. . . .

No. 123]

Gettysburg

323

In the midst of other miserable thoughts, it came into my Vicksburg
mind one day, that these dogs through hunger might become ^rad^ed
as much to be dreaded as wolves. Groundless was this to Grant,
anxiety, for in the course of a week or two they had almost ^y4' l8^"
disappeared.
A Lady, My Cave Life in Vicksburg (New York, etc., 1864),
58-78 passim. (Entered, according to Act of Congress, in
the year 1864, by D. Appleton and Company.)

123. Battle of Gettysburg (1863)
THE GREAT VICTORY.

The Rebel Army Totally
Defeated.

ITS REMAINS DRIVEN INTO
THE MOUNTAINS.

It is There Surrounded
and Hemmed in.

Its Retreat Across the Potomac
River Cut Off.

TWENTY THOUSAND PRISONERS CAPTURED

By a corre
spondent of
the NEW
York Tribune.
This account
of one of the
greatest bat-
. ties of the
war, from the
pages of a
leadingNorthern
paper, will
serve to con
vey an idea
of how the
people were
kept in
formed of
what was
going on at
the front. —
On the cam
paign of Get
tysburg, see
Contempora
ries, IV, No.

One Hundred and Eighteen Guns Taken.
The Rebel General Longstreet Killed

324

Lee had
crossed the
Potomac and
penetratedinto Pennsyl
vania.

Civil War

DETAILS OF THE THREE DAYS' FIGHTING.

[1863

The Most Terrific Combat on Record

Desperate Charges by the Rebel
Troops Massed.

OUR TROOPS STAND FIRM AS A ROCK.

The Rebel Assaults Repeatedly Repulsed.
Their Solid Ranks Dashed into Fragments.

STILL THE UNION ARMY STAND FIRM.

The Rebels Pause — Waver — Break
and Scatter.

A great and Glorious Victory for the
Potomac Army.

YESTERDAY, the third day's struggle of the Army of
the Potomac, brought another triumph to our army,
and last night another sun set over a victorious but bloody-
fought battle-field. The flower of the Southern army threw
itself in one gigantic death-struggle upon our army, its
Generals swearing to pierce our center or go down before
the valor of our troops. The onset was fierce and bloody,
and cost us many brave men, but the repulse of the invaders
was complete, and thousands of slaughtered Rebels lay
strewn along the ground, while thousands fell into our hands
as prisoners. Many battle-flags have been taken. Four
thousand Rebels captured yesterday are on their way to
Baltimore, and several thousand are in camp guarded by
our men.

No. 123]

Gettysburg

325

Gen. Meade has now the admiration of the whole army.
His daring acts and military strategy in placing in position
his victorious army increase confidence in his generalship.
He has fought as no one ever fought the Potomac army
before. . . .
The following details of the battle were taken by your
correspondent from Gen. Hancock, who commanded the
Second Corps during the fight till evening, when a Rebel
bullet compelled him to fall to the rear.
As the firing ceased on Thursday night and our army,
flushed, with victory, covered the enemy's ground, it held
command of the bloody battle field of the day.
The Rebel flag of truce was denied, and Friday morning
found our army re-enforced by the reserves of the Sixth
Corps, Gen. Sedgwick, and Twelfth Corps, Gen. Slocum.
Holding the field, our army was in line of battle along the
Emmettsburg Turnpike and along the Taneytown Road.
Several rifle pits on the extreme right were left in possession
of the enemy on Thursday night.
On Friday morning the ball was opened by Gen. Geary,
who moved upon the enemy to retake these rifle pits.
Firing now became general, and continued without damage
to us until eleven o'clock, the rifle-pits falling into our
possession. From 1 1 till 1 o'clock the firing slackened, but
as 1 o'clock arrived, there were indications of another clash
of arms more bloody than the historian of the war has yet
recorded. The Rebels under Gen. Ewell now made a con
centration of all their artillery, and opened a terrible artillery
fire on our left center. Battery after battery roared, shaking
the surrounding hills, and shot and shell rained death, and
destruction upon our lines.
The Second Corps occupied the center, and the position
which withstood the last convulsive attack of the Rebels was
commanded by Gen. Hayes. The enemy followed their
artillery with a tremendous infantry assault under the Rebel

Thursday was the sec
ond day of
fighting.The third
day's fight

This was
one of the
most terrible
cannonadesof the war.

General Pickett
was really in
command.

326

Lee was still
able to hold
his army to
gether and
recross the
Potomac, but
it was the last
campaign in
the North.

Civil War

[1863

Gen. Anderson, coming up in masses, sometimes in close
column by division. Our men stood like serried hosts, and
on came the enemy, crowding, shouting, and. rushing toward
our guns Uke infuriated demons. There was no waver in
our lines. On came the Rebels, while the canister from
batteries told fearfully among their dying ranks. Now they
are within twenty yards of our guns, and voUey after voUey
of shot and shell and whizzing bullets go crashing down
among them, dealing death and scattering the motley ranks
to die or surrender.
The slaughter was fearful, and there were a few men of
the enemy who did not find even a grave near our guns.
The Third and Fifth Corps now joined in the fight. Gen.
Hill's division alone took ten battle flags as this last move
of the enemy burst upon our center. A panic seemed to
seize them. Men laid down on the ground to escape our
fire and lying there they supplicatingly held up white pieces
of paper in token of surrender. In this repulse we took
several thousand prisoners, and crowds of Rebel stragglers
came into our lines giving themselves up in despair.
Gen. Hancock's corps now flanked the field, when crowds
of disorganized Rebels threw up their arms and surrendered,
while the field strewn with Rebel wounded, battle flags and
arms fell into our possession.
The result amounted to a rout. Cavalry has been sent
out to harvest the straggle[r]s. Gen. Hayes is said to have
covered himself with glory. General Doubleday fell fight
ing gallantly, saying, as a ball pierced his head, "I'm killed !
I'm killed ! " Gen. Hancock thinks he is not killed, but
seriously wounded. And thus night has drawn her mantle
over another bloody day, but a day so bright with deeds of
heroism and grand results, with patriotic devotion and
sublime death, that the page of History shall glitter with
that light. . . .
This is universally allowed to have been the most des-

N0.124] Lincoln and Slavery 327
perate battle of the war. The 20th Massachusetts went
into action with two hundred and fifty and came out with
NINETY-FIVE. . . .
New-York Tribune, July 6, 1863, p. 1.

124. The War and Slavery (1864)
I AM naturally antislavery. If slavery is not wrong, noth
ing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so
think and feel, and yet I have never understood that the
presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act
officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the
oath I took that I would, to the best of my ability, preserve,
protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor
was it my view that I might take an oath .to get power and
break the oath in using the power. I understood, too, that
in ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to
practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the
moral question of slavery. I had publicly declared this many
times, and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I
have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract
judgment and feeling on slavery. I did understand, how
ever, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best
of my ability imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by
every indispensable means, that government — that nation,
of which that Constitution was the organic law. Was it
possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Constitution ?
By general law, life and limb must be protected, yet often a
limb must be amputated to save a life ; but a life is never
wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise
unconstitutional might become lawful by becoming indis-

By Abra
ham Lin
coln (1809-
1865). This
is a very clear
presentation '
of President
Lincoln's at
titude on the ¦
two problems
placed in his
hands for so
lution on his
assumption of the office
of chief mag
istrate ; it is
also a clear
enunciation
of the rea
sons induc
ing him to
proclaim military
emancipation and to
arm the
blacks, with
a fair-minded
estimate of
the results of
that step. —
For Lincoln's
views on
slavery, see
above, Nos.
m, 120. —
For slavery,
see ch. xv,
above. — For
slavery in the
Civil War,

328

Civil War

[1864

see Nicolay
and Hay,
AbrahamLincoln, a
History (10 vols.) ; R.
B. Warden,
Salmon P.
Chase; E. L.
Pierce, Charles Sum
ner (4 vols.) ;
Garrisons,
Life of
William
Lloyd Garri
son told by his
Children (4
vols.). Frtmont'sattempt,
August 30,
1861 ; Cam
eron's, De
cember 1,
1 861; Hunt
er's, May 9,
1862.

pensable to the preservation of the Constitution through the
preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this
ground, and now avow it. I could not feel that, to the best
of my abiUty, I had even tried to preserve the Constitution,
if, to save slavery or any minor matter, I should permit the
wreck of government, country, and Constitution all together.
When, early in the war, General Fremont attempted military
emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then think it
an indispensable necessity. When, a little later, General
Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of
the blacks, I objected because I did not yet think it an
indispensable necessity. When, still later, General Hunter
attempted military emancipation, I again forbade it, because
I did not yet think the indispensable necessity had come.
When in March and May and July, 1862, 1 made earnest and
successive appeals to the border States to favor compensated
emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity for
military emancipation and arming the blacks would come
unless averted by that measure. They declined the propo
sition, and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alter
native of either surrendering the Union, and with it the
Constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored ele
ment. I chose the latter. In choosing it, I hoped for
greater gain than loss ; but of this, I was not entirely con
fident. More than a year of trial now shows no loss by it
in our foreign relations, none in our home popular senti
ment, none in our white military force — no loss by it any
how or anywhere. On the contrary it shows a gain of quite
a hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen, and labor
ers. These are palpable facts, about which, as facts, there
can be no caviling. We have the men ; and we could not
have had them without the measure.
And now let any Union man who complains of the meas
ure test himself by writing down in one line that he is for
subduing the rebellion by force of arms ; and in the next,

~v%J* V**v '"v*vp wh? \r**np ynty^^y j ykr?
™<> /TS H^>>rvfjfi ?^Y/ 'L^eWf /T^^f **£
X7f^*P' ^*^°5r t~^nrr*& (^5/ rxr^t? /»— ^/~*v~-i{f fe J2r*^H^/
i**-^ ^ o~*-rray3r*& $rar>-v?~i?rf nr*0 fr^f r^H tmfy^>

"ZZ2?**7? <2fc/10rlf <&y**9?' tyir~UT> py^ *r+i ey*»*Try*T/
'frlram enxyo^ij^^-Tr'nf jiff*'
rhT»trf>-»i0 0* "ry^ny <*^/ +ioy~9 /*?jr£rj (syr^vu, p o*\ijy*

^fe^^^7

JsKteMje^JUiLsfy (n~t^t nnusf-e% */*<Cp6c/

y~ u^wArV^W<rt^
The above extract. Including the essential parts of the final Proclamation of Emancipation, is repro
duced, by permission of the Century Company, from Hay and Nicolay's Abraham Lincoln. The last two
paragraphs and the attestation are In the hand-writing of William H. Seward. All the rest was written
by President Lincoln.

o

COc"I•1
n> P-n>
n

r

to

3 2 o 3

33°

Civil War

[1865

ing East as an
aid-de-camp on Grant's
staff, he ac
companied him through
the Wilder
ness cam
paign, the
siege of
Richmondand Peters
burg, and
was present
at the siege
of Appomat
tox. He
came out
brevet briga
dier-general. His is an eye
witness's story of the
closing event
in the Civil
War. — On
the surren
der, see Con
temporaries, IV, No.

ascertain upon what terms you would receive the surrender
of my army." General Grant replied: "The terms I pro
pose are those stated substantially in my letter of yesterday,
— that is, the officers and men surrendered to be paroled
and disqualified from taking up arms again until properly
exchanged, and all arms, ammunition, and supplies to be
delivered up as captured property." Lee nodded an assent,
and said: "Those are about the conditions which I ex
pected would be proposed." General Grant then continued :
"Yes, I think our correspondence indicated pretty clearly
the action that would be token at our meeting ; and I hope
it may lead to a general suspension of hostilities and be the
means of preventing any further loss of Ufe."
Lee inclined his head as indicating his accord with this
wish, and General Grant then went on to talk at some length
in a very pleasant vein about the prospects of peace. Lee
was evidently anxious to proceed to the formal work of the
surrender, and he brought the subject up again by saying :
" I presume, General Grant, we have both carefully con
sidered the proper steps to be taken, and I would suggest
that you commit to writing the terms you have proposed, so
that they may be formally acted upon."
"Very well," replied General Grant, "I will write them
out." And calling for his manifold order-book, he opened
it on the table before him and proceeded to write the terms.
The leaves had been so prepared that three impressions of
the writing were made. He wrote very rapidly, and did not
pause until he had finished the sentence ending with " offi
cers appointed by me to receive them." Then he looked
toward Lee, and his eyes seemed to be resting on the
handsome sword that hung at that officer's side. He said
afterward that this set him to thinking that it would be an
unnecessary humiliation to require the officers to surrender
their swords, and a gTeat hardship to deprive them of their
personal baggage and horses, and after a short pause he wrote

no. 125] Surrender of Lee

331

the sentence : " This will not embrace the side-arms of the
officers, nor their private horses or baggage." . . . When
this had been done, he handed the book to General Lee
and asked him to read over the letter. . . .
. . . When Lee came to the sentence about the officers'
side-arms, private horses, and baggage, he showed for the
first time during the reading of the letter a sUght change of
countenance, and was evidently touched by this act of gen
erosity. It was doubtless the condition mentioned to which
he particularly alluded when he looked toward General
Grant as, he finished reading and said with some degree
of warmth in his manner: "This wiU have a very happy
effect upon my army."
General Grant then said: "Unless you have some sug
gestions to make in regard to the form in which I have
stated the terms, I will have a copy of the letter made in ink
and sign it."
" There is one thing I would like to mention," Lee replied '
after a short pause. " The cavalrymen and- artillerists own
their own horses in our army. Its organization in this re
spect differs from that of the United States." This expres
sion attracted the notice of our officers present, as showing
how firmly the conviction was grounded in his mind that we
were two distinct countries. He continued : " I would Uke
to understand whether these men wiU be permitted to retain
their horses ? "
"You will find that the terms as written do not allow
this," General Grant replied ; "only the officers are permitted
to take their private property."
Lee read over the second page of the letter again, and
then said :
" No, I see the terms do not allow it ; that is clear." His
face showed plainly that he was quite anxious to have this
concession made, and Grant said very promptly and without
giving Lee time to make a direct request :

332

Civil War

[1865

" Well, the subject is quite new to me. Of course I did
not know that any private soldiers owned their animals, but
I think this will be the last battle of the war— I sincerely
hope so — and that the surrender of this army will be fol
lowed soon by that of all the others, and I take it that most
of the men in the ranks are small farmers, and as the country
has been so raided by the two armies, it is doubtful whether
they will be able to put in a crop to carry themselves and
their families through the next winter without the aid of the
horses they are now riding, and I will arrange it in this way :
I will not change the terms as now written, but I will instruct
the officers I . shall appoint to receive the paroles to let all
the men who claim to own a horse or mule take the animals
home with them to work their little farms." (This expres
sion has been quoted in various forms and has been the sub
ject of some dispute. I give the exact words used.) . . .
. . . General Lee now took the initiative again in leading
the conversation back into business channels. He said :
" I have a thousand or more of your men as prisoners,
General Grant, a number of them officers whom we have
required to march along with us for several days. I shall
be glad to send them into your lines as soon as it can be
arranged, for I have no provisions for them. I have, indeed,
nothing for my own men. They have been living for the
last few days principally upon parched corn, and we are
badly in need of both rations and forage. . . .
. . . General Grant replied : " I should like to have our
men sent within our lines as soon as possible. I will take
steps at once to have your army supplied with rations, but I
am sorry we have no forage for the animals." . . .
... At a little before 4 o'clock General Lee shook hands
with General Grant, bowed to the other officers, and with
Colonel Marshall left the room. One after another we fol
lowed, and passed out to the porch. Lee signaled to his
orderly to bring up his horse, and while the animal was being

no. we] « The First American " 333
bridled the general stood on the lowest step and gazed sadly
in the direction of the valley beyond where his army lay —
now an army of prisoners. He smote his hands together a
number of times in an absent sOrt of a way ; seemed not to
see the group of Union officers in the yard who rose respect
fully at his approach, and appeared unconscious of everything
about him. AU appreciated the sadness that overwhelmed
him, and he had the personal sympathy of every one who
beheld him at this supreme moment of trial. The approach
of his horse seemed to recall him from his reverie, and he
at once mounted. General Grant now stepped down from
the porch, and, moving toward him, saluted him by raising
his hat. He was followed in this act of courtesy by all our
officers present ; Lee raised his hat respectfully, and rode
off to break the sad news to the brave fellows whom he had
so long commanded.
Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel, editors,
Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (Century Company,
New York, 1889), IV, 737~743 passim.

126. Abraham Lincoln (1865)

v.

LIFE may be given in many ways,
And loyalty to Truth be sealed
As bravely in the closet as the field,
So generous is Fate ;
But then to stand beside her
When craven churls deride her,
To front a lie in arms and not to yield, —
This shows, methinks, God's plan
And measure of a stalwart man,

By James
Russell Lowell, for
whom see
above, No.
104. — This
is a great
tribute to the
greatest man
in our coun
try's history.

334

Civil War

[1865

The lines en-

Limbed like the old heroic breeds,
Who stands self-poised on manhood's solid earth,
Not forced to frame excuses for his birth,
Fed from within with all the strength he needs.
VL
Such was he, our Martyr-chief,
Whom late the Nation he had led,
With ashes on her head,
Wept with the passion of an angry grief:
Forgive me if from present things I turn
To speak what in my heart wUl beat and burn,
And hang my wreath on his world-honored urn.
Nature, they say, doth dote,
And cannot make a man
Save on some worn-out plan,
Repeating us by rote ;
For him her Old- World mould aside she threw,
And, choosing sweet clay from the breast
Of the unexhausted West,
With stuff untainted shaped a hero new,
Wise, steadfast in the strength of God, and true.
How beautiful to see
Once more a shepherd of mankind indeed
Who loved his charge, but never loved to lead,
One whose meek flock the people joyed to be,
Not lured by any cheat of birth,
But by his clear-grained human worth,
And brave old wisdom of sincerity 1
They knew that outward grace is dust,
They could not choose but trust
In that sure-footed mind's unfaltering skill,
And supple-tempered will
That bent like perfect steel to spring again and thrust.
[His was no lonely mountain-peak of mind,

no. 126] "The First American" 335
Thrusting to thin air o'er our cloudy bars,
A sea-mark now, now lost in vapors blind ;
Broad prairie rather, genial, level-lined,
Fruitful and friendly for all human kind,
Yet also nigh to heaven and loved of loftiest stars.]
Nothing of Europe here,
Or, then, of Europe fronting mornward still,
Ere any names of Serf and Peer
Could Nature's equal scheme deface ;
[And thwart her genial wiU ;]
Here was a type of the true elder race,
And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face.
I praise him not ; it were too late ;
And some innative weakness there must be
In him who condescends to victory
Such as the Present gives, and cannot wait,
Safe in himself as in a fate.
So always firmly he ;
He knew to bide his time
And can his fame abide,
Still patient in his simple faith sublime,
Till the wise years decide ;
Great captains, with their guns and drums,
Disturb our judgment for the hour ;
But at last silence comes ;
These all are gone, and, standing like a tower,
Our children shall behold his fame,
The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man,
Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame,
New birth of our new soil, the first American.
James Russell Lowell, Ode recited at the Commemoration of the
Living and Dead Soldiers of Harvard University, July 21,
1865 (Cambridge, 1865), 15-18.

closed in
brackets, are
not in the
original 1865
edition.

By Sidney
Andrews,
who spent
the months
of Septem
ber, October,
and Novem
ber, 1865, in
the Slates of
North Caro
lina, South
Carolina, and
Georgia, as
correspondent of the
Boston Ad
vertiser and
the Chicago
Tribune.
His letters to
those papers
were pub
lished in
book form
during the
spring of the
next year.
He observed
closely and
commentedintelligentlyon what he-
saw. — On
the nci;ro,
see Contem
poraries, IV,
ch.— On re
construction,see American
Orations, IV,
3-!5. I2S-
188 ; Ameri
can History
Studies,

CHAPTER XIX — RECONSTRUCTION,
1865-1871
127. Condition of the South (1865)
A CITY of ruins, of desolation, of vacant houses, of
widowed women, of rotting wharves, of deserted
warehouses, of weed-wild gardens, of miles of grass-grown
streets, of acres of pitiful and voiceful barrenness, — that is
Charleston, wherein Rebellion loftily reared its head five years
ago, on whose beautiful promenade the fairest of cultured
women gathered with passionate hearts to applaud the
assault of ten thousand upon the little garrison of Fort
Sumter ! . . .
We never again can have the Charleston of the decade
previous to the war. The beauty and pride of the city are
as dead as the glories of Athens. Five millions of dollars
could not restore the ruin of these four past years ; and that
sum is so far beyond the command of the city as to seem
the boundless measure of immeasurable wealth. Yet, after
all, Charleston was Charleston because of the hearts of its
people. St. Michael's Church, they held, was the centre of
the universe ; and the aristocracy of the city were the very
elect of God's children on earth. One marks now how few
young men there are, how generally the young women are
dressed in black. The flower of their proud aristocracy is
buried on scores of battle-fields. If it were possible to
restore the broad acres of crumbling ruins to their foretime
style and uses, there would even then be but the dead body
of Charleston. . . .
Of Massachusetts men, some are already in business here,
336

No. ia73 Southern Conditions 337
and others came on to "see the lay of the land," as one No. 9: Gm-
of them said. "That's all right," observed an ex-Rebel 'w*™"*'
captain in one of our after-dinner chats, — " that's all right ; See above
let's have Massachusetts and South Carolina brought Nos. 3^94-
together, for they are the only two States that amount ££ " "*
to anything." . . .
There are many Northern men here already, though one
cannot say that there is much Northern society, for the
men are either without families or have left them at home.
Walking out yesterday with a former Charlestonian, — "a man
who left here in the first year of the war and returned soon
after our occupation of the city, — he pointed out to me the
various " Northern houses " ; and I shall not exaggerate if I
say that this classification appeared to include at least half
the stores on each of the principal streets. " The presence
of these men," said he, " was at first very distasteful to our
people, and they are not liked any too well now; but we
know they are doing a good work for the city."
I fell into some talk with him concerning the political
situation, and found him of bitter spirit toward what he was
pleased to denominate "the infernal radicals." When I
asked him what should be done, he answered : " You
Northern people are making a great mistake in your treat
ment of the South. We are thoroughly whipped ; we give
up slavery forever ; and now we want you to quit reproaching
us. Let us back into the Union, and then come down here
and help us build up the country." . . .
Business is reviving slowly, though perhaps the more
surely. The resident merchants are mostly at the bottom
of the ladder of prosperity. They have idled away the
summer in vain regrets for vanished hopes, and most of them
are only just now beginning to wake to the new life. Some
have already been North for goods, but more are preparing
to go ; not heeding that, while they vacillate with laggard
time, Northern men are springing in with hands swift to catch

" March to
the Sea,"
1864.

33»

Reconstruction

[1865

opportunity. It pains me to see the apathy and indifference
that so generally prevails; but the worst feature of the
situation is, that so many young men are not only idle, but
give no promise of being otherwise in the immediate future.
Many of the stores were more or less injured by the
shelling. A few of these have been already repaired, and
are now occupied, — very likely by Northern men. A
couple of dozen, great and small, are now in process of
repair; and scores stand with closed shutters or gaping
doors and windows. . . . Rents of eligible store-rooms are
at least from one fourth to one third higher than before the
war, and resident business men say only Northern men who
intend staying but a short time can afford to pay present
prices. .
It would seem that it is not clearly understood how
thoroughly Sherman's army destroyed everything in its
line of march, — destroyed it without questioning who
suffered by the action.' That this wholesale destruction
was often without orders, and often against most positive
orders, does not change the fact of destruction. The Rebel
leaders were, too, in their way, even more wanton, and just
as thorough as our army in destroying property. They did
not burn houses and barns and fences as we did ; but, during
the last three months of the war, they burned immense
quantities of cotton and rosin."
The action of the two armies put it out of the power of
men to pay their debts. The values and the bases of value
were nearly all destroyed. Money lost about everything it
had saved. Thousands of men who were honest in purpose
have lost everything but honor. The cotton with which they
meant to pay their debts has been burned, and they are
without other means. What is the part of wisdom in respect
to such men? It certainly cannot be to strip them of the
last remnant. Many of them will pay in whole or in part,
if proper consideration be shown them. It is no question

no. 128] A Negro School

339

of favor to any one as a favor, but a pure question of
business, — how shall the commercial relations of the two
sections be re-established? In determining it, the actual
and exceptional condition of the State with respect to
property should be constantly borne in mind. . . .
That Rebellion sapped the foundations of commercial
integrity in the State is beyond question. That much of
the Northern indebtedness will never be paid is also beyond
question. ...
The city io under thorough military rule ; but the iron
hand rests very lightly. Soldiers do police duty, and there
is some nine-o'clock regulation ; but, so far as I can learn,
anybody goes anywhere at all hours of the night without
molestation. "There never was such good order here
before," said an old colored man to me. The main street
is swept twice a week, and all garbage is removed at sun
rise. " If the Yankees was to stay here always and keep
the city so clean, I don't reckon we'd have 'yellow jack*
here any more," was a remark I overheard on the street
" Now is de fust time sence I can 'mem'er when brack men
was safe in dc street afer nightfall," stated the negro tailor
in whose shop I sat an hour yesterday.
Sidney Andrews, Tlie South since the War (Boston, 1866), \-%
passim.

128. A Negro School (1862)
ONE bright November morning I started to take pos
session of my contraband school. . . ,
The schoolhouse to which I was appointed was a rough,
wooden building standing on palmetto posts two or three
feet from the ground, with an open piazza on one side.
When I first came in sight of this building, the piazza was
crowded with children, all screaming and chattering Uke a

By EUZA
BETH Hyde
Botume,
one of the
first teachers
of the negro
on the Caro
lina coast,
and one who
knows the
South from
personal ac
quaintance

34°

Reconstruction

[1862

both before
and after the
war. Her
narrativeshows her to
be a keen ob
server and an
accurate re
porter. It
deals with
the contra
bands, chiefly the
women and
children, telling of
their escape
from the war
and of the
attempts to
educate them.Though marked by
some confu
sion of ar
rangement, it
seems to be
founded on
a contempo
rary journal.
— On the
negroes in
reconstruction, see Con
temporaries, IV, ch.

flock of jays and blackbirds in a quarrel. But as soon
as they saw me they all gave a whoop and a bound and
disappeared. When I reached the door there was no Uving
thing to be seen ; all was literally " as stUl as a mouse ; " so
I inspected my new quarters while waiting for my forces.
There was one good sized room without partitions ; it was
not ceiled, but besides the usual heavy board shutters its six
windows were glazed. This was a luxury which belonged
to but few of the school-buildings. Indeed, these glazed
windows had been held up to me as a marked feature in my
new location.
The furniture consisted of a few wooden benches, a tall
pine desk with a high office stool, one narrow blackboard
leaning against a post, and a huge box stove large enough
to warm a Puritan meeting-house in the olden times. The
pipe of the stove was put through one window.
... I believe this was the first building ever erected
exclusively for a colored school. . . . AU the " contraband
schools " were at that time kept in churches, or cotton-barns,
or old kitchens. Some teachers had their classes in tents.
Inspection over, I vigorously rang a little cracked hand
bell which I found on the desk. Then I saw several pairs
of bright eyes peering in at the open door. But going
towards them, there was a general scampering, and I could
only see a head or a foot disappearing under the house.
Again I rang the bell, with the same result, until I began to
despair of getting my scholars together. When I turned my
back they all came out. When I faced about they darted
off. In time, however, I succeeded in capturing one small
urchin, who howled vociferously, " O Lord ! O Lord ! "
This brought out the others, who Seemed a little scared and
much amused. I soon reassured my captive, so the rest
came in. Then I tried to " seat " them, which was about
as easy as keeping so many marbles in place on a smooth
floor. Going towards half a dozen little fellows huddled

No. 128]

A Negro School 341

together on one bench, they simultaneously darted down
under the seat, and scampered off on their hands and feet
to a corner of the room, looking very much like a family of
frightened kittens. ... I " halted " the rest, and got them
on to their feet and into their seats. Then I looked them
over. ... ,
All these children were black as ink and as shy as wild
animals. ... I tried in vain to fix upon some distinguish
ing mark by which I might know one from another. Some
of these children had been in a school before, but they were
afraid of white people, and especially of strangers. As they
said of a teacher on a subsequent occasion, " Us ain't know
she." ...
... In time, after some more skirmishing, the little gang
before me was brought into a degree of order. They
listened, apparently, with open mouths and staring eyes
to what I had to say. But I soon discovered my words
were like an unknown tongue to them. I must first know
something of their dialect in order that we might understand
each other.
Now I wished to take down the names of these children ;
so 1 turned to the girl nearest me and said, " What is your
name ? "
" It is Phyllis, ma'am." .
" But what is your other name? "
"Only Phyllis, ma'am."
I then explained that we all have two names ; but she still
replied, " Nothing but Phyllis, ma'am."
Upon this an older girl started up and exclaimed, "Pshaw,
gal ! What's you'm title?" whereupon she gave the name
of her old master.
After this each child gave two names, most of them funny
combinations. Sometimes they would tell me one thing,
and when asked to repeat it, would say something quite
different. . . .

By Robert
EdwardLee (1807-
1870), com
manding
general of the
armies of the
Confederacy.After the war
Lee retired to
private life,
taking a posi
tion as presi-

342

Reconstruction

[1865

I thought of Adam's naming the animals, and wondered
if he had been as much puzzled as I. Certainly he gave out
the names at first hand, and had no conflicting incongruities
to puzzle him. In time I enrolled fifteen names, the number
present. The next morning I called the roll, but no one answered,
so I was obliged to go around again and make out a new fist.
I could not distinguish one from another. They looked Uke
so many peas in a pod. The woolly heads of the girls and
boys looked just alike. All wore indiscriminately any cast-
off garments given them, so it was not easy to tell " which
was which." Were there twenty-five new scholars, or
only ten?
The third morning it was the same work over again.
There were forty children present, many of them large
boys and girls. I had already a Ust of over forty names.
Amongst these were most of the months of the year and
days of the week, besides a number of Pompeys, Cudjos,
Sambos, and Rhinas, and Rosas and Floras. I now wrote
down forty new names, and I began to despair of ever
getting regulated. . . .
Elizabeth Hyde Botume, First Days amongst the Contrabands
(Boston, 1893), 41-47 passim.

129. A Southerner's Advice on
Reconstruction (1865)

I

HAVE received your letter of the 23d ult.
[August, 1865], and in reply will state the
course I have pursued under circumstances similar to your
own, and will leave you to judge of its propriety. Like
yourself, I have, sin^e the cessation of hostilities, advised

No. 129]

A Southerner's Advice 343

all with whom I have conversed on the subject, who come
within the terms of the President's proclamations, to take
the oath of allegiance, and accept in good faith the amnesty
offered. But I have gone further, and have recommended
to those who were excluded from their benefits, to make
application under the proviso of the proclamation of the
29th of May, to be embraced in its provisions. Both
classes, in order to be restored to their former rights and
privileges, were required to perform a certain act, and I do
not see that an acknowledgment of fault is expressed in one
more than the other. The war being at an end, the Southern
States having laid down their arms, and the questions at issue
between them and the Northern States having been decided,
I believe it to be the duty of every one to unite in the
restoration of the country, and the reestablishment of peace
and harmony. These considerations governed me in the
counsels I gave to others, and induced me on the 13th of
June to make application to be included in the terms of the
amnesty proclamation. I have not received an answer,
and cannot inform you what has been the decision of the
President. But, whatever that may be, I do not see how
the course I have recommended and practised can prove
detrimental to the former President of the Confederate
States. It appears to me that the allayment of passion, the
dissipation of prejudice, and the restoration of reason, will
alone enable the people of the country to acquire a true
knowledge and form a correct judgment of the events of
the past four years. It will, I think, be admitted that
Mr. Davis has done nothing more than all the citizens of
the Southern States, and should not be held accountable for
acts performed by them in the exercise of what had been
considered by them unquestionable right. I have too exalted
an opinion of the American people to believe that they wiU
consent to injustice ; and it is only necessary, in my opinion,
that truth should be known, for the rights of every one to be

dent of
Washington
College at
Lexington,
Virginia,now Wash
ington and
Lee Uni
versity, and
lent his influ
ence to the
work of rec
onciling the
South to the
new situa
tion. This
letter, written
to a private
person,throws the
best light on
the attitude
which he had
adopted and
which he
sought to in
duce others
to adopt —
On Lee, see
Contempora
ries, IV, No..
. — On the
condition' of
the Southern
whites, see
Contempora
ries, IV, ch.

344

Reconstruction

[1865

(Entered. secured. I know of no surer way of eliciting the truth than
according to » v • ...
Act of Con- by burying contention with the war. . . .
gress, in the
year 1874. by Reverend J. William Jones, Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes.
andS°n and Utters °f Gm- Robert E- Le' (New York, 1875), 205-206.
pany.)

By THAD-
deus Ste
vens (1702-
1868). From
March, 1859,
to his death
in August,
1868, he was
one of the
leaders of the
most ad
vanced wing
of the Repub
licans in the
national House of
Representa
tives. He
initiated and
had a large
share in the
adoption of
the Four
teenth
Amendment, and, as chair
man of the
House Com
mittee on Re
construction,
reported the
bill dividing
theSouthinto
five military
districts' until
it should
adopt consti
tutions grant
ing suffrage
and equal
rights to
negroes. In
a speech of
February 24,

130. Congressional Reconstruction (1865)

Nl

O one doubts, that the late rebel States have
lost their constitutional relations to the Union,
and are incapable of representation in Congress, except by
permission of the Government. It matters but little, with
this admission, whether you call them States out of the
Union, and now conquered territories, or assert that because
the Constitution forbids them to. do what they did do, that
they are therefore only dead as to all national and political
action, and will remain so until the Gojernment shall breathe
into them the breath of life anew and permit them to occupy
their former position. In other words, that they are not out
of the Union, but are only dead carcasses lying within the
Union. In either case, it is very plain that it requires the
action of Congress to enable them to form a State govern
ment and send representatives to Congress. Nobody, I
believe, pretends that with their old constitutions and frames
of government they can be permitted to claim their old
rights under the Constitution. They have torn their con
stitutional States into atoms, and built on their foundations
fabrics of a totally different character. Dead men cannot
raise themselves. Dead States cannot restore their own
existence "as it was." Whose especial duty is it to do it?
In whom does the Constitution place the power? Not in the
judicial branch of Government, for it only adjudicates and
does not prescribe laws. Not in the Executive, for he only
executes and cannot make laws. Not in the Commander-

No. 130]

By Congress

345

in-Chief of the armies, for he can only hold them under
miUtary rule until the sovereign legislative power of the
conqueror shall give them law. . . .
Congress alone can do it. But Congress does not mean
the Senate, or the House of Representatives, and President,
all acting severally. Their joint action constitutes Con
gress. . . . Congress must create States and declare when
they are entitled to be represented. Then each House
must judge whether the members presenting themselves
from a recognized State possess the requisite qualifications
of age, residence, and citizenship ; and whether the election
and returns are according to law. The Houses, separately,
can judge of nothing else. It seems amazing that any man
of legal education could give it any larger meaning.
It is obvious from all this that the first duty of Congress
is to pass a law declaring the condition of these outside or
defunct States, and providing proper civil governments for
them. Since the conquest they have been governed by
martial law. Military rule is necessarily despotic, and ought
not to exist longer than is absolutely necessary. As there
are no symptoms that the people of these 'provinces will be
prepared to participate in constitutional government for
some years, I know of no arrangement so proper for them
as territorial governments. There they can learn the princi
ples of freedom and eat the fruit of foul rebellion. Under
such governments, while electing members to the Territorial
Legislatures, they will necessarily mingle with those to whom
Congress shall extend the right of suffrage. In Territories
Congress fixes the qualifications of electors; and I know of
no better place nor better occasion for the conquered rebels
and the conqueror to practice justice to all men, and accus
tom themselves to make and obey equal laws. . . .
According to my judgment they ought never to be recog
nized as capable of acting in the Union, or of being counted
as valid States, until the Constitution shall have been so

1868, he pro
posed the
impeach
ment of
Johnson, was
one of the
committee of
seven to pre
pare the arti
cles, and was
chairman of
the board of
managers
appointed to
conduct the
trial. This
extract, from
a speech of
December18, 1865, well
illustrates his
extreme Re
publican the
ory. — On
Stevens, see
American Orations, IV,
458. — On
congressional recon
struction, see
No. 127
above.

346

Reconstruction

[1865-1866

amended as to make it what its framers intended ; and so
as to secure perpetual ascendency to the party of the Union ;
and so as to render our republican Government firm and
stable forever. The first of those amendments is to change
the basis of representation among the States from Federal
numbers to actual voters. . . .
But this is not aU that we ought to do before these invet
erate rebels are invited to participate in our legislation.
We have turned, or are about to turn, loose four million
slaves without a hut to shelter them or a cent in their
pockets. The infernal laws of slavery have prevented them
from acquiring an education, understanding the commonest
laws of contract, or of managing the ordinary business of
Ufe. This Congress is bound to provide for them until they
can take care of themselves. If we do not furnish them with
homesteads, and hedge them around with protective laws ;
if we leave them to the legislation of their late masters, we
had better have left them in bondage. Their condition
would be worse than that of our prisoners at Anderson-
ville. If we fail in this great duty now, when we have the
power, we shall deserve and receive the execration of history
and of all future ages.
Congressional Globe, 39 Cong., 1 sess. (Washington, 1866), Part
I, 72-74 passim.

By General
Oliver
Otis How
ard (1830-
), who
served with
distinction
during the
war, and
after its close,
from May,

I3I-

A Military Governor in Louisiana
(1865-1866)

IN no other State have there arisen so many difficult
questions with reference to labor, the status of the
freedmen, and the power of military authorities. The assist
ant commissioner of the State has been able to give general

No. 131]

Louisiana

347

satisfaction to the whites and freedmen, and aid in the resto
ration of law and order. Harmonious relations have existed
between the State officials and bureau officers, which has
materially aided the administration of the bureau. I am
sorry to report a lack of hearty co-operation on the part of
the municipal authorities of New Orleans with the plans of
General Baird for the employment, protection, and educa
tion of the freedmen. Much that is to be regretted with
reference to the present condition of colored people of New
Orleans can be traced to this cause.
A large amount of abandoned property was held by the
bureau officer during the year 1865, but was restored as
rapidly as claimants could present proper proofs of owner
ship and loyalty. This property, consisting of large planta
tions and city property, furnished all the funds necessary to
carry on the affairs of the bureau [.] As nearly all of this
property was restored prior to January 1, 1866, this source
of revenue has ceased. . . .
General Baird reports that "outrages upon freedmen
reported from the distant parishes of the State remain
uncorrected for want of adequate military force to make
arrests. This condition of affairs can only be remedied by
force. The perpetrators of the outrages are lawless and
irresponsible men, the terror of property holders and labor
ers. They are countenanced by the community, either
through sympathy or fear."
General Sheridan says : " Homicides are frequent in some
localities ; sometimes they are investigated by a coroner's
jury, which justifies the act and releases the perpetrator;
iii other instances, when the proof comes to the knowledge
of an agent of the bureau, the parties are held to bail in a
nominal sum, for appearance at the next term of court, but
the trial of a white man for the killing of a freedman can, in
the existing state of society in this State, be nothing more or
less than a farce."

1865, to July,
1874. was
commissioner of the
Freedman's Bureau at
Washington.
GeneralSheridan,
whom he
largelyquotes in his
report, had a
low opinion
of the politi
cians of Lou
isiana and
Texas, and
was in favor
of strong
measures.
From July 17
to August 15,
1866, Sheri
dan was in
charge of the
military" divi
sion of the
Gulf, and
later, by the
act of March
2, 1867, di
viding the
ten Southern
States into
five military
districts, he
was put in
command of
the fifth dis
trict, which
included Louisiana
and Texas.
Baird was
assistantcommissioner of
Louisiana.

348

Reconstruction

[ i 865-1 866

I regret that the reports of officers of the bureau reveal
such a bad state of society. It will be impossible for the
military authorities to restore order and remedy the evils
complained of by General Sheridan without an increase of
the number of troops in the State. . . .
General Baird says : " The ' civil rights bill ' has gone into
operation in this State, and is having a good effect, restrain
ing those who are disposed to set United States laws at
defiance or to treat them with contempt. Several magistrates
are under arrest for violating its provisions. The machinery
for the execution of the law is yet in a very imperfect con
dition." General Sheridan reports : " That the location of home
steads by the freedmen is progressing favorably, but it is a
question whether they will be allowed to remain peaceably
upon the lands selected." The agent for the location of
homesteads reports depredations on the public lands, such
as cutting timber, &c, by white citizens. Circumstances
beyond the control of the bureau have greatly injured
the once prosperous schools of this State. Enemies of the
bureau and its officers have made a general attack upon the
school administration. General Baird, being without money,
was obliged to suspend all the public schools, promising that
as soon as possible they should commence again. The
colored people seeing their public schools closed did not
abandon the education of their children, but opened a large
number of private schools. A tax system was devised by
which the people were to support their own education. For
many reasons this tax became oppressive, and was never
popular. The schools rapidly decreased, and a chaotic state
ensued from which it took time to recover.
General Sheridan reports, under date of September 30, a
great increase of interest, and the prospect of flourishing
schools this autumn and winter. The present number of
schools is 73 ; teachers, 90 ; scholars, 3,389.

No. 132]

Fail

ure

349

The number of irregular and private schools cannot at
present be ascertained, but they are numerous.
General Sheridan reports that the total suspension of the
issue of rations will cause much distress among the people
that most need aid, viz, widows and families of soldiers
killed in the army, and that the cotton and corn crop is
tnearly an entire failure in some parishes. He has found it
impossible to induce [t]he State authorities to provide for
either white or black paupers.
The number of rations issued in this State from June 1,
1865, to September 1, 1866, (one year and three months,)
was as follows: Aggregate, 612,788 — to whites, 157,491;
to freedmen, 455,290; average rations per month, 40,852;
average freedmen and refugees assisted daily, 1,362.
Report of the Secretary of War, House Executive Documents,
39 Cong., 2 sess. No. 1 (Washington, 1867), III, 742-744
passim.

Tnearly =
nearly ; by a
printer's error in the
original, the
" t " evidently
slipped from.
its proper
place in the
word *' the "
below.

132. Failure of Reconstruction (1871)
I PROPOSE to lay aside all partisanship, and simply to
state facts as I conceive them to exist. Let us look at
our State when the reconstruction acts first took effect in
1868. A social revolution had been accomplished — an entire
reversal of the political relations of most of our people had
ensued. The class which formerly held all the political
power of our State were stripped of all.
The class which had formerly been less than citizens, with
no political power or social position, were made the sole
depositaries of the political power of the State. I refer
now to practical results, not to theories. The numerical
relations of the two races here were such that one race,

By Daniel
Henry
Chamber lain (1835-
).a
Massachu
setts man
who served
in the Union
army, and
after the war,
in 1866, re
moved to
South Caro
lina and
became a cot
ton planter.
From 1868 to
1872 he was
attorney-gen eral of South
Carolina, and in 1875
was elected

35°

Reconstruction

[1871

governor of
the State.
His testi
mony is very
interesting,coming as it
does from
one who, if
he" were in
clined to be
partial, would
lean rather
to the side
of the na
tional gov>
eminent.

under the new laws, held absolute political control of the
State. The attitude and action of both races under these new
conditions, while not unnatural, was, as I must think, unwise
and unfortunate. One race stood aloft and haughtily re
fused to seek the confidence of the race which was just
entering on its new powers ; while the other race quickly
grasped all the political power which the new order of
things had placed within their reach.
From the nature of the case, the one race were devoid of
political experience, of all or nearly aU education, and de
pended mainly for all these qualities upon those who, for
the most part, chanced to have drifted here from other
States, or who, in very rare instances, being former resi
dents of the State, now allied themselves with the other
race. No man of common prudence, or who was even
shghtly familiar with the working of social forces, could have
then failed to see that the elements which went to compose
the now dominant party were not of the kind which produce
public virtue and honor, or which could long secure even
public order and peace.
I make all just allowance for exceptional cases of indi
vidual character, but I say that the result to be expected,
from the very nature of the situation in 1868, was that a
scramble for office would ensue among the members of the
party in power, which, again, from the nature of the case,
must result in filling the offices of the State, local and gen
eral, with men of no capacity and Uttle honesty or desire to
really serve the public.
The nation had approved the reconstruction measures,
not because they seemed to be free of danger, nor because
they were blind to the very grave possibilities of future evils,
but in the hope that the one race, wearing its new laurels
and using its new powers with modesty and forbearance,
would gradually remove the prejudices and enlist the sym-

No. 132]

Fail

ure

351

pathies and cooperation of the other race, until a fair degree
of political homogeneity should be reached, and race lines
should cease to mark the limits of political parties.
Three years have passed, and the result is — what? In
competency, dishonesty, corruption in all its forms, have
" advanced their miscreated fronts," have put to flight the
small remnant that opposed them, and now rules the party Error in
which rules the State. original>
You may imagine the chagrin with which I make this
statement. Truth alone compels it. My eyes see it — all
my senses testify to the startling and sad fact. I can never
be indifferent to anything which touches the fair fame of
that great national party to which all my deepest convictions
attach me, and I repel the libel which the party bearing that
name in this State is daily pouring upon us. I am a repub
lican by habit, by conviction, by association, but my repub
licanism is not, I trust, composed solely of equal parts of
ignorance and rapacity.
Such is the plain statement of the present condition of
the dominant party of our State.
What is the remedy ? That a change will come, and come
speedily, let no man doubt. Corruption breeds its own kind.
Ignorance rushes to its downfall. Close behind any political
party which tolerates such qualities in its public representa
tives stalks the headsman. If the result is merely political
disruption, let us be profoundly thankful. Let us make haste
to prevent it from being social disruption — the sundering
of all the bonds which make society and government possible.
Charleston Daily Republican, May 8, 1871 ; quoted in Testimony
taken by the Joint Select Committee to inquire into the Condi
tion of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States. — South
Carolina, Part II (Washington, 1872), IV, Appendix iv, 1250-
1251. (This is the same as Senate Report, 42 Cong., 2 sess.,
No. 41, pt. 4.)

By Samuel
Ionks Til-
den (1814-
i886).» By
1868 Tilden
had come to
be recog
nized as the
leader of the
Democratic
party in New
York State.
The cele
brated ex
posure of the
" Tweed
Ring " ap
peared in the
New York
Times in
July, 1871 ;
but Tilden
had taken a
stand against
this corrupt
faction a year
earlier
through his
decided op
position to
the " Tweed
charter." He.also de
nounced the
" side-part
ners " of
Tweed, who,
with the aid
of the courts,
were plun
dering the
siock-holdersof the Erie
Railroad. —

CHAPTER XX — UNION RESTORED,
1871-1885
133. Iniquities of the Tweed Ring
( 1 869-1 871)
THE Ring had its origin in the Board of Supervisors.
That body was created by an Act passed in 1857 in
connection with the charter of that year. The Act pro
vided that but six persons should be voted for by each
elector, and twelve should be chosen. In other words, the
nominees of the Republican and Democratic party caucuses
should be elected. At the next session the term was ex
tended to six years. So we had a body composed of six
Republicans and six Democrats, to change a majority of
which you must control the primaries of both of the great
National and State parties for four years in succession.
Not an easy job, certainly ! . . .
The Ring was doubly a Ring ; it was a Ring between the
six Republican and the six Democratic supervisors. It soon
grew to a Ring between the Republican majority in Albany
and the half-and-half supervisors, and a few Democratic
officials of this city.
The very definition of a Ring is that it encircles enough
influential men in the organization of each party to control
the action of both party machines, — men who in public
push to extremes the abstract ideas of their respective
parties, while they secretly join their hands in schemes for
personal power and profit.
The Republican partners had the superior power. They
* Copyright, 1885.
352

no. 133] The Tweed Ring 353

could create such institutions as the Board of Supervisors,
and could abolish them at will. They could extinguish
offices and substitute others ; change the laws which fix
their duration, functions, and responsibilities; and nearly
always could invoke the executive power of removal. The
Democratic members, who in some city offices represented
the " firm " to the supposed prejudices of a local Demo
cratic majority, were under the necessity of submitting to
whatever terms the Albany legislators imposed ; and at
length found out by experience, what they had not intel
lect to foresee, — that all real power was in Albany. They
began to go there in person to share it. The lucrative city
offices — subordinate appointments, which each head of
department could. create at pleasure, with salaries in his dis
cretion, distributed among the friends of the legislators ;
contracts ; money contributed by city officials, assessed on
their subordinates, raised by jobs under the departments,
and sometimes taken from the city treasury — were the
pabulum of corrupt influence which shaped and controlled
all legislation. Every year the system grew worse as a gov
ernmental institution, and became more powerful and more
corrupt. The executive departments gradually swallowed
up all local powers, and themselves were mere deputies of
legislators at Albany, on whom alone they were dependent.
The Mayor and Common Council ceased to have much legal
authority, and lost all practical influence. There was nobody
to represent the people of the city ; there was no discussion,
there was no publicity. Cunning and deceptive provisions
of law concocted in the secrecy of the departments, com
missions, and bureaus, agreed upon in the lobbies at Albany
between the city officials and the legislators or their go-
betweens, appeared on the statute book after every session.
In this manner all institutions of government, all taxation,
all appropriations of money for our million of people were
formed. For many years there was no time when a vote

On the
Tweed Ring,
see Contem
poraries, I V,
No. ; on
the period,
American Orations, IV,
191-430; Contempora
ries, IV, ch.

354

Union Restored [1860-1871

at a city election would in any practical degree or manner
affect the city government.
The Ring became completely organized and matured on
the 1st of January, 1869, when Mr. A. Oakey Hall became
mayor. Mr. Connolly had been comptroller two years
earlier. Its power had already become great, but was as
nothing compared with what it acquired on the 5 th of April,
1870, by an Act which was a mere legislative grant of the
offices, giving the powers of local government to individuals
of the Ring for long periods, and freed from all accounta
bility, as if their names had been mentioned as grantees in
the Bill. Its duration was through 1869, 1870, and 187 1,
until its overthrow at. the election of November, when it lost
most of the senators and assemblymen from this city, and was
shaken in its hold on the legislative power of the State. . . .
In 1870, for the first time in four and twenty years, the
Democrats had the law-making power. They had in the
Senate just one vote, and in the Assembly seven votes, more
than were necessary to pass a Bill, — if so rare a thing should
happen as that every member was present and all should
agree. This result brought more dismay than joy to the
Ring. They had intrenched themselves in the legislative
bodies against the people of this city. But the Democratic
party was bound by countless pledges to restore local gov
ernment to the voting power of the people of the city. The
Ring could trade in the lobbies at Albany, or with the half-
and-half Supervisors in the mysterious chambers of that
Board. They might even risk a popular vote on mayor, if
secure in the departments which had all the patronage and
which could usually elect their own candidate. But they
had no stomach for a free fight over the whole government,
at a separate election.
Their motives were obvious, on a general view of human
nature. None but the Ring then knew that in the secret
recesses of the Supervisors, and other similar bureaus, were

no. 134] The Tweed Ring 355
hidden ten millions of bills largely fraudulent, and that, in
the perspective, were eighteen other miUions, nearly all
fraudulent . . .
. . . Tweed was in his office until April, 1874 ; Connolly
until 1875, and Sweeney until 1875. They> with the mayor,
were vested with the exclusive legal power of appropriating
all moneys raised by taxes or by loans, and an indefinite
authority to borrow. Practically, they held all power of
municipal legislation and aU power of expending as well
as of appropriating moneys. . . .
They wielded the enormous patronage of offices and con
tracts ; they swayed aU the institutions of local government,
— the local judiciary, the unhappily localized portion of the
State judiciary, which includes the Circuit Courts, the Oyer
and Terminers, the Special Terms and the General Terms,
— in a word, everything below the Court of Appeals. They
also controlled the whole machinery of elections. New
York city, with its million of people, with its concentration
of vast interests of individuals in other States and in foreign
countries, with its conspicuous position before the world,
had practically no power of self-government. It was ruled,
and was to be ruled so long as the terms of these offices
continued, — from four to eight years, — as if it were a con
quered province. The central source of all this power was
Albany. The system emanated from Albany ; it could only
be changed at Albany. . . .
Samuel J. Tilden, Writings and Speeches (edited by John Bige-
low, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1885), I, 560-582 passim.

Tilden was
the leading
spirit in im
peachment
proceedingsagainst Judges Car-
dozo and
Barnard,tools of the
Ring.

By Caleb
Cushing

134. Treaty of Washington (1871)
THE Treaty of Washington, whether it be regarded Cu^n^had
in the light of its general spirit and object, of its had c°nsid-
particular stipulations, or of its relation to the high con- matteexpferi^

35&

Union Restored

[1871

ence. As
American commissioner in
China in
1844, he ne
gotiated the
first treaty
between that
country and
the United
States, and
was later our
Chinese min
ister. In
1868 he was
sent by the
government to Bogota on
a diplomatic
mission. In
1872 he was
one of the
council for
the United
States at the
Geneva con
ference for
the settle
ment ot the
Alabamaclaims. From 1874 to
1877 he was
minister to
Spain. His
Treaty of
H ashington
was pub
lished in
1877. This
extract is an
example of a
careful work
written by a
participant in
a negotiation.
— On the
relations with
England, see
Contempora
ries, IV, ch.

tracting parties, constitutes one of the most notable and
interesting of all the great diplomatic acts of the present
age. It disposes, in forty-three articles, of five different sub
jects of controversy between Great Britain and the United
States, two of them European or imperial, three American
or colonial, and some of them of such nature as most im
minently to imperil the precious peace of the two great
English-speaking nations.
Indeed, several of these objects of controversy are ques
tions coeval with the national existence of the United States,
and which, if lost sight of occasionally in the midst of other
pre-occupations of peace or war, yet continually came to
the surface again from time to time to vex and disturb the
good understanding of both Governments. Others of the
questions, although of more modern date, incidents of our
late Civil War, were all the more irritating, as being fresh
wounds to the sensibility of the people of the United States.
If, to all these considerations, be added the fact that
negotiation after negotiation respecting these questions had
failed to resolve them in a satisfactory manner, it will be
readily seen how great was the diplomatic triumph achieved
by the Treaty of Washington.
It required peculiar inducements and agencies to accom
plish this great result.
Prominent among the inducements were the pacific spirit
of the President of the United States and the Queen of
Great Britain, and of their respective Cabinets, and the
sincere and heartfelt desire of a great majority of the people
of both countries that no shadow of offense should be
allowed any longer to linger on the face of their international
relations. Great Britain, it is but just to her to say, if not confessedly
conscious of wrong, yet, as being the party to whom wrong
was imputed, did honorably and wisely make the decisive

no. 134] Treaty of Washington 357
advance toward reconciliation, by consenting to dispatch
five Commissioners to Washington, there, under the eye of
the President, to treat with five Commissioners on behalf of
the United States. . . .
On the part of the United States were five persons, —
Hamilton Fish, Robert C. Schenck, Samuel Nelson, Eben-
ezer Rockwood Hoar, and George H. Williams, — eminently
fit representatives of the diplomacy, the bench, the bar, and
the legislature of the United States : on the part of Great
Britain, Earl De Grey and Ripon, President of 'the Queen's
Council; Sir Stafford Northcote, ex-Minister and actual
Member of the House of Commons ; Sir Edward Thornton,
the universally respected British Minister at Washington;
Sir John Macdonald, the able and eloquent Premier of the
Canadian Dominion ; and, in revival of the good old time,
when learning was equal to any other title of public honor,
the Universities in the person of Professor Mountague
Bernard. . . .
In the face of many difficulties, the Commissioners, on
the 8th of May, 1871, completed a treaty, which received
the prompt approval of their respective Governments ;
which has passed unscathed through the severest ordeal
of a temporary misunderstanding between the two Govern
ments respecting the construction of some of its provisions ;
which has already attained the dignity of a monumental act
in the estimation of mankind ; and which is destined to
occupy hereafter a lofty place in the history of the diplomacy
and the international jurisprudence of Europe and America.
Coming now to the analysis of this treaty, we find that
Articles I. to XI. inclusive make provisions for the settle
ment by arbitration of the injuries alleged to have been
suffered by the United States in consequence of the fitting
out, arming, or equipping, in the ports of Great Britain, of
Confederate cruisers to make war on the United States.
Articles XII. to XVII. inclusive make provision to settle,

35*

Union Restored

[i876

by means of a mixed Commission, all claims on either side
for injuries by either Government to the citizens of the
other during the late Civil War, other than claims growing
out of the acts of Confederate cruisers disposed of by the
previous articles of the Treaty.
Articles XVIII. to XXV. inclusive contain provisions for
the permanent regulation of the coast fisheries on the
Atlantic shores of the United States and of the British
Provinces of Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick,
and the Colony of Prince Edward's Island (including the
Colony of Newfoundland by Article XXXII.) .
Articles XXVI. to XXXIII. inclusive provide for the
reciprocal free navigation of certain rivers, including the
River St. Lawrence ; for the common use of certain canals
in the Canadian Dominion and in the United States ; for
the free navigation of Lake Michigan ; for reciprocal free
transit across the territory either of the United States or of
the Canadian Dominion, as the case may be : the whole,
subject to legislative provisions hereafter to be enacted by
the several Governments.
Articles XXXIV. to XLII. provide for determining by
arbitration which of two different channels between Van
couver's Island and the main-land constitutes the true
boundary-line in that region of the territories of the United
States and Great Britain.
Caleb Cushing. The Treaty of Washington (New York, Harper &
Brothers, 1873), 9-14 passim.

By John
Green leaf
Whittier,
for whom see
above. No.
99. This was
written for
the opening
of the Inter-

135. "Centennial Hymn" (1876)
1.
OUR fathers' God ! from out whose hand
The centuries fall like grains of s,and,
We meet to-day, united, free,

no. 135] "Centennial Hymn" 359
And loyal to our land and Thee,
To thank Thee for the era done,
And trust Thee for the opening one.

II.
Here, where of old, by Thy design,
The fathers spake that word of Thine
Whose echo is tha glad refrain
Of rended bolt and falling chain,
To grace our festal time, from all
The zones of earth our guests we calL
III.
Be with us while the New World greets
The Old World thronging all its streets,
UnveUing all the triumphs won
By art or toil beneath the sun ;
And unto common good ordain
This rivalship of hand and brain. .
IV.
Thou, who hast here in concord furled
The war flags of a gathered world,
Beneath our Western skies fulfil
The Orient's mission of good-will,
And, freighted with love's Golden Fleece,
Send back its Argonauts of peace.

national Ex
hibition at
Philadelphia,
May 10, 1876,
to celebrate
the centenary
of American
independence. The
music for the
hymn, which
may be found
in the Atlan
tic Monthly
for June,
1876, was
composed by
Professor
John K.
Paine of
HarvardUniversity.

For art and labor met in truce,
For beauty made the bride of use,
We thank Thee ; but, withal, we crave
The austere virtues strong to save,

From the
New York
World.
This is an
example of
casual news
paper reports
used as a
source ; they
give, with
many inaccu
racies of de
tail, a picture
of the actual
workings of
public affairs
not to be had
from official
documents. The United
States ceased
to redeem its
notes in gold
Jan. i, 1862,
and had '
never re
sumed till
lan. 1, 1879.
— On

360 Union Restored [i879
The honor proof to place or gold,
The manhood never bought nor sold 1

VI.
Oh make Thou us, through centuries long,
In peace secure, in justice strong ;
Around our gift of freedom draw
The safeguards of Thy righteous law :
And, cast in some diviner mould,
Let the new cycle shame the old !
John Greenleaf Whittier, Complete Poetical Works (Household
Edition, Boston, 1879), 4°9-

1 36. Resumption of Specie Payments
(1879)
THE DAY OF RESUMPTION.
MUCH MORE GOLD RECEIVED THAN PAID OUT AT THE SUB-
TREASURY — THE FLAGS UP.
DUTIES PAID IN PAPER AND THE BANKS HANDING ALMOST NO
COIN OVER THEIR COUNTERS.
BEFORE the bankers and merchants had left their
breakfast tables yesterday [Jan. 2, 1879J the city
down town was in holiday attire. The national flag floated
from every bank, from the Government buildings and the
insurance buildings and hung in the windows or over the
doors of private banking offices. The only exception to
the general rule was at the Stock Exchange, whose bare
flag pole poked up into the snow-storm until 2 p.m. This

No. 136]

Resumption

361

neglect was noticed and criticised, and finally an enterpris- finances, see
ing official of the Exchange ordered the flag hoisted, and oration?
hoisted it was. The flags were about the only outward and ' v- 1Qi-366:
 , __ ,_ Contempora-
visible sign of Resumption Day. ries, IV. ch.
It had been fancied that at the opening of the Sub-
Treasury rather an animated demand for gold would be
developed, but it wasn't. The opening at 10 a.m. was
greeted with a salute from the Navy- Yard. Every prepara
tion had been made to redeem United States notes in gold,
but up to 10.30 only one soUtary individual had come for
gold and he wanted only $210. Up to 1.30 p.m., $10,000
had been disbursed and this included the payment to one
person of $5,000. He was a burly good-natured man, who
was so glad to see gold again that he gave his bag an enthu
siastic whirl in the air and losing his balance let it drop on
the stone floor. The cord that held the bag snapped and
from its golden throat the eagles rolled helter-skelter. He
picked them up with some concern, and counting his pile
over again went up to the counter and said : " I guess you
had better give me something with less ring in it, that
doesn't roll so much." The cashier accommodated him
with $5,000 in crisp legal-tender notes and canceUed that
transaction. On coin obligations falling due most of the
applicants preferred to be paid in currency. Up to 3 p.m.
there had been redeemed in gold $130,000 of United States
notes, and $400,000 in gold had been taken in and paid for
in United States notes, so thoroughly has gold resumed its
old position. The associated banks deposited $300,000 in
gold certificates and received in exchange that amount
in Clearing-House certificates, representing hitherto legal
tenders specially deposited in the vaults of the Sub-Treasury.
An order was received from the Secretary of the Treasury
discontinuing the redemption of called bonds at the Sub-
Treasury. This restores the former order of things, the
privilege of redeeming called bonds at the Sub-Treasury

362

Union Restored

[1879

having been enforced only when a recent attempt was made
by speculators to lock up gold and disturb the money mar
ket. For the future called bonds will have to be sent to
Washington for redemption. The Treasury officials were
inclined to think that the Government wiU find great diffi
culty in getting rid of its gold coin.
At the Clearing-House the clearances were unusually
large, but in accordance with a recent resolution the gold
exchanges were dropped.
The Gold Room was open only for the closing of con
tracts entered into on December 31. The clerk shut the
indicator which had gone to sleep at " 100," locked his desk
at noon, and announced "This shop is closed henceforward."
Not a transaction was placed upon the record book all day.
The gold clearances were made for the last time at the
Bank of the State of New York and included only the
unsettled transactions of the Gold Room on December 31.
At the Custom-House the first payment of duties made
was made in three $1,000 legal-tender notes. The Custom-
House officials will continue to take gold and silver cer
tificates until all which are outstanding are in. They wiU
continue to make up their accounts in detail, giving the
amount received in gold and silver certificates, gold and
silver coin and legal-tender notes. Only one wagon was
required to take the coin received yesterday to the Sub-
Treasury — usually five have been needed. The total re
ceipts for duties reached $194,000, distributed as follows:
Gold certificates $30,000 ; silver certificates $26,000 ; gold
coin $35,000; silver coin $1,000; and United States notes
$102,000. . . .
SOME GRUMBLING IN WASHINGTON. . . .
Quite a number of people came with greenbacks expect
ing that they would get the gold for them, ignorant of the

No. 137]

Civil Service

363

fact that the Government would redeem its notes only in
New York. A member of Congress from the West planked
down a fifty-dollar bUl and said : "Give me fifty one-dollar
gold pieces." His attention was called to the law, which
says that the Treasury shall redeem its notes in sums of
fifty dollars and upwards at the sub-Treasury in New York.
"Don't you resume everywhere?" he asked in aston
ishment. " We do not," said the teller.
" You ought to," he asserted authoritatively. " As soon
as Congress reassembles I will see to it that the necessary
legislation is enacted that will compel Mr. Sherman to redeem
United States notes whenever presented at any branch of
the Department"
New York World, January 3, 1879, P- *•

137. Workings of Civil Service Reform
(1881)
A VITAL and enduring reform in administra
tive methods, although it be but a return to
the constitutional intention, can be accomplished only by
the commanding impulse of public opinion. Permanence is
secured by law, not by individual pleasure. But in this
country law is only formulated public opinion. Reform of
the Civil Service does not contemplate an invasion of the
constitutional prerogative of the President and the Senate,
nor does it propose to change the Constitution by statute.
The whole system of the Civil Service proceeds, as I said,
from the President, and the object of the reform movement
is to enable him to fulfil the intention of the Constitution by
revealing to him the desire of the country through the action

By George
WilliamCurtis (1824-1892).
Although
Curtis was
editor of a
political magazine.Harper's Weekly, and
took an
active inter
est in current
issues, he
never sought
political office. He
was placed
by General
Grant on a
commissionto draw up
rules for the
regulation of
the civil

364

Union Restored

[1881

service, and
under his
guidance the
national Civil Service
ReformLeague was
established in 1881.—
On Curtis,
see American
Orations, IV,
478.— On the
reform, see
American Orations, IV,
400-420; Contempora
ries, IV,
No.

of its authorized representatives. When the ground-swell of
public opinion lifts Congress from the rocks, the President
wiU gladly float with it into the deep water of wise and
patriotic action 
The root of the complex evil ... is personal favoritism.
This produces congressional dictation, senatorial usurpation,
arbitrary removals, interference in elections, political assess
ments, and all the consequent corruption, degradation, and
danger that experience has disclosed. The method of
reform, therefore, must be a plan of selection for appoint
ment which makes favoritism impossible. The general feel
ing undoubtedly is that this can be accomplished by a fixed
Umited term. But the terms of most of the offices to which
the President and the Senate appoint, and upon which the
myriad minor places in the service depend, have been fixed
and limited for sixty years, yet it is during that very period
that the chief evils of personal patronage have appeared. . . .
If, then, legitimate cause for removal ought to be de
termined in public as in private business by the respon
sible appointing power, it is of the highest public necessity
that the exercise of that power should be made as absolutely
honest and independent as possible. But how can it be
made honest and independent if it is not protected so far as
practicable from the constant bribery of selfish interest and
the illicit solicitation of personal influence ? The experience
of our large public patronage offices proves conclusively that
the cause of the larger number of removals is not dishonesty
or incompetency ; it is the desire to make vacancies to fill.
This is the actual cause, whatever cause may be assigned.
The removals would not be made except for the pressure
of politicians. But those politicians would not press for
removals if they could not secure the appointment of their
favorites. Make it impossible for them to secure appoint
ment, and the pressure would instantly disappear and
arbitrary removal cease.

No. 137]

Civil Service

3^5

So long, therefore, as we permit minor appointments to
be made by mere personal influence and favor, a fixed
limited term and removal during that term for cause only
would not remedy the evil, because the incumbents would
still be seeking influence to secure reappointment, and the
aspirants doing the same to replace them. Removal under
plea of good cause would be as wanton and arbitrary as it is
now, unless the power to remove were intrusted to some
other discretion than that of the superior officer, and in that
case the struggle for reappointment and the knowledge that
removal for the term was practically impossible would totally
demoralize the service. To make sure, then, that removals
shall be made for legitimate cause only, we must provide that
appointment shall be made only for legitimate cause. . . .
. . . The reform ... is essentially the people's reform.
With the instinct of robbers who run with the crowd and
lustily cry " Stop thief ! " those who would make the public
service the monopoly of a few favorites denounce the deter
mination to open that service to the whole people as a plan
to establish an aristocracy. The huge ogre of patronage,
gnawing at the character, the honor, and the life of the
country, grimly sneers that the people cannot help them
selves and that nothing can be done. But much greater
things have been done. Slavery was the Giant Despair of
many good men of the last generation, but slavery was over
thrown. If the spoils system, a monster only less threaten
ing than slavery, be unconquerable, it is because the country
has lost its convictions, its courage, and its common-sense.
" I expect," said the Yankee as he surveyed a stout antago
nist, " I expect that you're pretty ugly, but I cal'late I'm
a darned sight uglier." I know that patronage is strong, but
I believe that the American people are very much stronger.
George William Curtis; Orations and Addresses (edited by
Charles Eliot Norton, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1894),
II, 186-196 passim.

366

Union Restored

[1891

By Thomas
"Jefferson
MO ROAN
(1839- ),
Commis sioner of
Indian Af
fairs under
PresidentHarrison (1889-1893).
The Indian
question has
been a seri
ous and diffi
cult problem
ever since the
beginnings of civilization
(see above,
Nos. 9, 38,
80). This is
a summary
of the matter
by a man
who had
every oppor
tunity of
knowingabout it. —
On the Indi
ans, see Con
temporaries, IV, ch.

138. Our Treatment of the Indians (1891)
THERE are certain things which the people of
the United States wiU do well to remember.
First. — The people of this country during the past hun
dred years have spent enormous sums of money in Indian
wars. These wars have cost us vast quantities of treasure
and multitudes of valuable lives, besides greatly hindering
the development of the country, have destroyed great
numbers of Indians, and have wrought upon them incalcu
lable disaster. The record which the nation has made for
itself in this sanguinary conflict is not one to be proud of.
Second. — So long as the Indians remain in their jiresent
condition, the possibility of other wars, costly and dreadful,
hangs over us as a perpetual menace. The recent events
have shown us how easy it is to spread alarm throughout our
entire borders, and what fearful possibilities there are in
store for us.
Third. — Indian wars are unnecessary, and if we will but
take proper precautions, they may be entirely avoided in
the future. Justice, firmness, kindness, and wisdom will not
only prevent future wars, but will promote the prosperity
and welfare of the Indians, as well as of the entire common
wealth. Fourth. — We should remember that the circumstances
surrounding the Indians are constantly, in many cases, aggra
vating the difficulties in the way of their procuring a proper.
supply of food ; and that unless wise precautions are taken
at once to assist them in the development of the resources
of the lands upon which they are compelled to live, they
will be confronted more and more with the dread spectre
of hunger, and we with that of war. We are called upon
not so much to feed them, as we are to make it possible for
them to feed themselves.

No. 138]

Indians

367

Fifth. — The only possible solution of our Indian troubles
lies in the suitable education of the rising generation. So
long as -the Indians remain among us aliens, speaking foreign
languages, unable to communicate with us except through
the uncertain and often misleading medium of interpreters,
so long as they are ignorant of our ways, are superstitious
and fanatical, they will remain handicapped in the struggle
for existence, will be an easy prey to the medicine man and
the false prophet, and will be easily induced, by reason of
real or imaginary wrongs, to go upon the war-path. An
education that will give them the mastery of the EngUsh
language, train their hands to useful industries, awaken
within them ambition for civilized ways, and develop a con
sciousness of power to achieve honorable places for them
selves, and that arouses within them an earnest and abiding
patriotism, wiU make of them American citizens, and render
future conflicts between them and the Government im
possible. Sixth. — Let it be especially remembered that the recent
troubles, deplorable as they have been, have been very
small and insignificant compared with what they might have
been ; and that this has been brought about largely by the
influence exerted upon the Indians through the schools of
learning which have been established, and have already
accomplished so much for their enlightenment and elevation.
The influence for good exerted by the great school at Car
lisle alone, throughout the whole country, has been beyond
estimate, and has repaid the Government many times over
every dollar that has been put into that institution.
Sez'enth. — It should be remembered that the time for
making provision for the education of the entire body of
Indian youth is now, and that any delay or postponement
in the matter is hazardous and unwise.
Eighth. — In our judgment of the Indians and of the
difficulties of the Indian question, we should remember that

368

Union Restored

[1891

the most perplexing element in the problem is not the In
dian, but the white man. The white man furnishes the
Indians with arms and ammunition ; the white man provides
him with whiskey ; the white man encroaches upon his
reservation, robs him of his stock, defrauds him of his prop
erty, invades the sanctity of his home, and treats him with
contempt, thus arousing within the Indian's breast those
feelings of a sense of wrong, and dishonor, and wounded
manhood that prepares him to vindicate his honor and
avenge his wrongs.
In the late troubles in Dakota, the wrongs arid outrages
inflicted upon the Indians have vastly exceeded those in
flicted by them upon the whites.
Ninth. — We should not forget that the prime object to be
aimed at is the civilization of the Indians and their absorp
tion into our national life, and that the agencies for the
accomplishment of this work are not bayonets, but books.
A school-house will do vastly more for the Indians than a
fort. It is better to teach the Indian to farm than to teach
him to fight. Civil policemen are in every way to be pre
ferred to Indian scouts, and we can much better afford to
spend money in the employment of the Indians in useful
industries, than to enroll them as soldiers in the army.
Tenth. — Finally, let us not forget what progress has
already been made in this work of civilization ; how potent
are the forces now at work in preparing them for citizenship ;
how hopeful is the outlook if we, as a people, simply do our
duty. Let us keep our faith with the Indian ; protect him
in his rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ;
provide for all his children a suitable English and industrial
education ; throw upon them the responsibilities of citizen
ship, and welcome them to aU the privUeges of American
freemen. The end at which we aim is that the American Indians
shall become as speedily as possible Indian-Americans ; that

No. 139]

Americans

369

the savage shall become a citizen ; that the nomad shall
cease to wander, and become a resident in a fixed habitation ;
that hunting shall cease to be a necessity, and become a
pastime; that the smouldering fires of war shall become
extinguished; that tribal animosities shall end; that the
Indians, no longer joining in the "Sun Dance," or the
" Ghost Dance," or other ceremonies in which they recount
their wrongs and glory in the deeds of blood of their an
cestors, shall gather at their firesides to talk of the memory
of their days in school, and assemble in their places of wor
ship to thank the Great Father above for the blessings of a
Christian civilization vouchsafed to them in common with
us all
Thomas J. Morgan,. The Present Phase of the Indian Question
(Boston, 1891), 18-21.

139. Character of the Americans (1888)
THE Americans are a good-natured people, kindly,
helpful to one another, disposed to take a charitable
view even of wrongdoers. Their anger sometimes flames
up, but the fire is soon extinct. Nowhere is cruelty more
abhorred. Even a mob lynching a horse thief in the West
has consideration for the criminal, and will give him a good
drink of whisky before he is strung up. Cruelty to slaves was
unusual while slavery lasted, the best proof of which is the
quietness of the slaves during the war when all the men and
many of the boys of the South were serving in the Confed
erate armies. As everybody knows, juries are more lenient
to offences of all kinds but one, offences against women,
than they are anywhere in Europe. The Southern " rebels "
were soon forgiven ; and though civil wars are proverbially
bitter, there have been few struggles in which the comba-
2 B

By James
Bryce (1838- ).
Mr. Bryce, a
member of
Parliament,
and in the
ministry of
Great Britain
under Glad
stone, has
been a
repeated traveller in
the United
States, and
is universally
acknowledged to be
the sanest
and most
appreciative
foreign observer of
Americangovernment. The extract

37°

Union Restored

[1888

is a good
example of
the matured
generalizations of a
man who has
seen things
for himself.
— For earlier
critics, see
above, Nos.
64, 82. — For
discussionsof American
institutions,
see Contem
poraries, IV,
ch.

tants did so many Uttle friendly acts for one another, few in
which even the vanquished have so quickly buried their
resentments. It is true that newspapers and public speak
ers say hard things of their opponents ; but this is a part of
the game, and is besides a way of relieving their feelings :
the bark is sometimes the louder in order that a bite may
not follow. Vindictiveness shown by a public man excites
general disapproval, and the maxim of letting bygones be
bygones is pushed so far that an offender's misdeeds are
often forgotten when they ought to be remembered against
him. All the world knows that they are a humorous people.
They are as conspicuously the purveyors of humour to the
nineteenth century as the French were the purveyors of wit
to the eighteenth. Nor is this sense of the ludicrous side
of things confined to a few brilliant writers. It is diffused
among the whole people ; it colours their ordinary life, and
gives to their talk that distinctively new flavour which a
European palate enjoys. ...
They are a hopeful people. Whether or no they are
right in calling themselves a new people, they certainly
seem to feel in their veins the bounding pulse of youth.
They see a long vista of years stretching out before them,
in which they will have time enough to cure all their faults,
to overcome aU the obstacles that block their path. They
look at their enormous territory with its still only half-
explored sources of wealth, they reckon up the growth of
their population and their products, they contrast the com
fort and intelligence of their labouring classes with the con
dition of the masses in the Old World. They remember the
dangers that so long threatened the Union from the slave
power, and the rebellion it raised, and see peace and har
mony now restored, the South more prosperous and con
tented than at any previous epoch, perfect good feeling
between all sections of the country. It is natural for them

No. 139]

Americans

371

to believe in their star. And this sanguine temper makes
them tolerant of evils which they regard as transitory, re
movable as soon as time can be found to root them up.
They have unbounded faith in what they call the People
and in a democratic system of government. The great
States of the European continent are distracted by the con
tests of RepubUcans and Monarchists, and of rich and poor,
— contests which go down to the foundations of govern
ment, and in France are further embittered by religious
passions. Even in England the ancient Constitution is
always under repair, and while many think it is being ruined
by change's, others hold that still greater changes are needed
to make it tolerable. No such questions trouble native
American minds, for nearly everybody believes, and every
body declares, that the frame of government is in its main
lines so excellent that such reforms as seem called for need
not touch those lines, but are required only to protect the
Constitution from being perverted by the parties. Hence a
further confidence that the people are sure to decide right
in the long run, a confidence inevitable and essential in a
government which refers every question to the arbitrament
of numbers. ...
Religion apart, they are an unreverential people. I do
not mean irreverent, — far from it ; nor do I mean that
they have not a great capacity for hero-worship, as they
have many a time shown. I mean that they are little dis
posed, especially in public questions — political, economi
cal, or social — to defer to the opinions of those who are
wiser or better instructed than themselves. Everything
tends to make the individual independent and self-reliant.
He goes early into the world ; he is left to make his way
alone ; he tries one occupation after another, if the first or
second venture does not prosper ; he gets to think that each
man is his own best helper and adviser. Thus he is led, I
will not say to form his own opinions, for even in America

372

Union Restored

[1888

few are those who do that, but to fancy that he has formed
them, and to feel Uttle need of aid from others towards cor
recting them. . . .
They are a changeful people. Not fickle, for they are if
anything too tenacious of ideas once adopted, too fast bound
by party ties, too willing to pardon the errors of a cherished
leader. But they have what chemists call low specific heat ;
they grow warm suddenly and cool as suddenly ; they are
liable to swift and vehement outbursts of feeling which rush
like wildfire across the country, gaining glow, like the wheel
of a railway car, by the accelerated motion. The very simi
larity of ideas and equality of conditions which makes them
hard to convince at first makes a conviction once implanted
run its course the more triumphantly. They seem all to
take flame at once, because what has told upon one, has
told in the same way upon all the rest, and the obstructing
and separating barriers which exist in Europe scarcely exist
here. Nowhere is the saying so applicable that nothing suc
ceeds like success. The native American or so-called Know-
nothing party had in two years from its foundation become
a tremendous force, running, and seeming for a time likely
to carry, its own presidential candidate. In three years
more it was dead without hope of revival. ...
. . . The Americans are at bottom a conservative people,
in virtue both of the deep instincts of their race and of that
practical shrewdness which recognizes the value of perma
nence and solidity in institutions. They are conservative in
their fundamental beliefs, in the structure of their govern
ments, in their social and domestic usages. They are like
a tree whose pendulous shoots quiver and rustle with the
lightest breeze, while its roots enfold the rock with a grasp
which storms cannot loosen.
James Bryce, The American Commonwealth (third edition, New
York, etc., 1895), II, 281-292 pa ssim.

CHAPTER XXI— THE SPANISH WAR,
1 895-1 899
140. Troubles in Cuba (i 867-1 873)
IN 1867 the Spanish government instituted a new and
onerous system of taxation, which created so great
dissatisfaction among both Cubans and Spaniards in the
central and eastern departments, that some of the more
sanguine revolutionary leaders believed that a combination
could be formed between the two classes, by which the
representatives of Spain could be easily driven out and the
autonomy established. . . .
The more important military operations of the insurrec
tion commenced in 1870, and their history is soon told.
De Rodas, accustomed only to the European method of
warfare, determined to concentrate his forces and crush the
insurgents at once. During the latter part of December,
1869, three thousand men under Gen. Puello, a native of
San Domingo, moved from Puerto Principe to Nuevitas and
thence took up the line of march for Guaimaro. On the
first of January they encountered the Cubans under the
American General Jordan, were sadly beaten and compelled
to return with great loss to the coast. Soon afterward, a
still larger Spanish force, numbering forty-five hundred men
under Brigadier Goyeneche, moved directly on Guaimaro.
The want of arms and ammunition, and especiaUy of artil
lery, prevented the Cubans from opposing successful resist
ance to their march, and they reached their objective point
373

ByWilliam J.
STARKS, a
contributor to Scribner's
Monthly.

Puerto Prin
cipe is an in
land city, 36
miles from its
port Nuevi
tas, which is
on the north
east coast,
Guaimaro in
the moun
tains, south
of Nuevitas.

374

Around
Puerto Prin
cipe.

Spanish War [18*7-1873

to find the seat of the repubHcan government abandoned
and partially destroyed. . . .
The extent of country occupied by the insurgents is very
great, and it is not probable that any Spanish force that can
be sent against them can bring them into submission. In
the remote localities occupied by them, the Cubans have
manufactories of various kinds. Powder in small quantities
has been manufactured, but under difficulties owing to the
want of material.
In the mountains of Camaguey are to be found the head
quarters of Cespedes and those of the republican army, and
here too the Cuban House of Representatives holds its
sessions when occasion demands. The patriot army is sub
divided into divisions, with headquarters at such localities in
the respective departments as the exigencies of the service
will permit. The policy of the Cubans is the same as that
adopted by the Dominicans upon the last invasion of their
island by the Spaniards and by the Mexican Liberals under
Juarez during the French intervention ; that is, of keeping
out of the way of their enemy and allowing him to wear
himself out in a hostile country, and in a climate deadly to
Europeans. But though the insurgents adopt this course in
the main, they are constantly attacking the Spanish columns
when opportunity offers, and often inflict heavy loss upon
them. The plan of operating with small detachments, adopted
by the Spaniards after the futile march of Goyeneche upon
Guaimaro, has been continued for two years ; military posts
have been established at various points throughout the
departments, and expeditionary columns have been sent
out. These have given the war its peculiarly bloody and
desolating character. The orders are to kill every man in
the country, whether armed or otherwise. When an igno
rant peasant, a Chinaman, or a negro is captured, he is
brought into the presence of the commanding officer, who

No. 140]

Cuban Troubles

375

questions him in reference to the whereabouts of the insur
gents, and then gives a signal to an officer in attendance,
who takes the victim out in advance of the column and
shoots him, leaving the body to the vultures. If the pris
oner is of any prominence, he is taken to Havana, there to
perish on the garrote for the delectation of the volunteers,
as in the case of Goicuria, the brothers Aguero and Ayestu-
ran. The women and children, when captured, are sent to
the cities, where they are ostensibly provided for, but are in
reality exposed to the greatest suffering. Every house is
burned, fruits and growing crops destroyed, cattle and
horses driven off, all small stock killed, and, in a word, the
country over which the troops are operating is rendered a
desert, bare of animal Ufe and of aught that can contribute
to sustain it. . . .
... In consequence of that conservative tendency which
is the natural consequence of authority, Valmaseda, like his
predecessor, opposed those sanguinary and radical meas
ures which found their advocacy in the Casino Espanol or
Spanish Club of Habana. Additional troops were sent to
him from Spain as they could be spared for that purpose,
but still the insurrection continued, a fact which was attrib
uted to his leniency. The murmurs became louder and
deeper as the months passed on, and it was not long before
the once favorite Count followed De Rodas to Spain. His
successor distinguished his accession by an attempt to bring
the volunteers into submission. As he succeeds or fails in
this, so is his government likely to prove a success or a
failure. . . .
To the credit of the Great Republic be it said, that she
at one time interested herself to change the character of the
warfare in Cuba and to stop the horrible barbarities which
were disgracing civilization. Under date of August roth,
1869, General Sickles, American Minister in Madrid, was
instructed solemnly to protest in the name of the President

This policy
of dealing
with the
so-called
" reconcen-
trados " was
repeated in
1895-98. and
greatly shocked the
people of the
United States. Valmaseda succeeded De Rodas in
1870-71.
Ix. Havana.

Campos.

In 1873 'he
UnitedStates again
remonstratedagainst the
continuanceof a devastat
ing and inef
fectual war,
and in 1878
the Spanish,
through Gen
eral Campos,
offered terms
of peace,
which were
accepted.

By Don
Knrique |osfe
VARONA,
previously a
Cubandeputy to the
SpanishCortes. The
extract is
taken from a
pamphlet
submitted to
the Secretary
of State by
T. Estrada
Palma, "au
thorized rep
resentativeof theCubans

376

Spanish War

[1895

against any longer prosecuting the war in Cuba in this bar
barous manner. The protest was apparently received in a
proper spirit, and response was made that orders had
been given to prevent such scenes of cruelty in the future.
Doubtless in this reply the statesmen of Spain were influ
enced by that sentiment of humanity which they professed,
and by that advanced liberalism upon which the revolution
of 1868, to which they owed their position, was based, but
the cruelties and barbarities continue.
To-day Cuba, in its independent relations an outlaw
among the nations, stands alone. Maintaining a heroic
struggle amid every obstacle, she is confident, as were our
forefathers, of that good time coming when victory shall
perch on her banners and liberty belong to her people.
WiUiam J. Starks, Cuba and the Cuban Insurrection, in Scrib-
ner's Monthly, May, 1873 (New York, 1873), VI> I2~2\ passim.

141,

A Cuban Indictment of Spanish
Rule (1895)

IN exchange for all that Spain withholds from us they
say that it has given us liberties. This is a mockery.
The liberties are written in the constitution but obliterated
in its practical application. Before and after its promulga
tion the public press has been rigorously persecuted in
Cuba. Many journalists, such as Sefiores Cepeda and
Lopes Briiias, have been banished from the country withput
the formality of a trial. . . . The official organ of the
home-rule party, El Pais, named before El Triunfo, has
undergone more than one trial for having pointed in
measured terms to some infractions of the law on the part

No. 141]

Spanish Rule

377

the defects
of Spanish
rule.

of officials, naming the transgressors. In 1887 that period- in arms." It
ical was subjected to criminal proceedings simply because October 93,
it had stated that a son of the president of the Havana l8o5> and
,. , .... . rr , well states
"audiencia was holding a certain office contrary to law.
They say that in Cuba the people are at liberty to hold
public meetings, but every time the inhabitants assemble,
previous notification must be given to the authorities, and
a functionary is appointed to be present, with power to
suspend the meeting whenever he deems such a measure
advisable. The meetings of the " Circulo de Trabajadores"
(an association of workingmen) were forbidden by the
authorities under the pretex[t] that the building where they
were to be held was not sufficiently safe. Last year the
members of the " Circulo de Hacendados " (association of
planters) invited their fellow-members throughout the coun
try to get up a great demonstration to demand a remedy
which the critical state of their affairs required. The
Government found means to prevent their meeting. . . .
The work of preparation was already far advanced when
a friend of the Government, Senor Rodriguez Correa, stated
that the Governor-General looked with displeasure upon
and forbade the holding of the great meeting. This was
sufficient to frighten the "Circulo" and to secure the failure
of the project. It is then evident that the inhabitants of
Cuba can have meetings only when the Government thinks
it advisable to permit them.
Against this political regime, which is a sarcasm and in
which deception is added to the most absolute contempt
for right, the Cubans have unceasingly protested since it
was implanted in 1878. It would be difficult to enumerate
the representations made in Spain, the protests voiced by
the representatives of Cuba, the commissions that have
crossed the ocean to try to impress upon the exploiters of
Cuba what the fatal consequences of their obstinacy would
be. The exasperation prevailing in the country was such

378

I.e. those
who, etc.

Spanish War

[1895

that the "junta central" of the home-rule party issued in
1892 a manifesto in which it foreshadowed that the moment
might shortly arrive when the country would resort to
" extreme measures, the responsibility of which would fall
on those who, led by arrogance and priding themselves
on their power, hold prudence in contempt, worship force,
and shield themselves with their impunity."
This manifesto, which foreboded the mournful hours of
the present war, was unheeded by Spain, and not until a
division took place in the Spanish party, which threatened
to turn into an armed struggle, did the statesmen of Spain
think that the moment had arrived to try a new farce, and
to make a false show of reform in the administrative regime
of Cuba. . . .
This project, to which the Spaniards have endeavored to
give capital importance in order to condemn the revolution
as the work of impatience and anarchism, leaves intact the
political regime of Cuba. It does not alter the electoral
law. It does not curtail the power of the bureaucracy. It
increases the power of the general Government. It leaves
the same burdens upon the Cuban taxpayer, and does not
give him the right to participate in the information of the
budgets. The reform is confined to the changing of the
council of administration (now in existence in the island,
and the members of which are appointed by the Govern
ment) into a partially elective body. One-half of its
members are to be appointed by the Government and the
other half to be elected by the qualified electors — that is,
who assessed and pay for a certain amount of taxes. The
Governor-General has the right to veto all its resolutions
and to suspend at will the elective members. This council
is to make up a kind of special budget embracing the items
included now in the general budget of Cuba under the head
of "Fomento." The State reserves for itself all the rest.
Thus the council can dispose of 2.75 per cent of the

No. 141]

Spanish Rule

379

revenues of Cuba, while the Government distributes, as at
present, 97.25 per cent for its expenses, in the form we have
explained. The general budget will, as heretofore, be made
up in Spain ; the tariff laws wiU be enacted by Spain. The
debt, militarism, and bureaucracy will continue to devour
Cuba, and the Cubans will continue to be treated as a sub
jugated people. All power is to continue in the hands of
the Spanish Government and its delegates in Cuba, and aU
the influence with the Spanish residents. This is the self-
government which Spain has promised to Cuba, and which
it is announcing to the world, . . .
The Cubans would have been wanting not only in self-
respect but even in the instincts of self-preservation if they
could have endured such a degrading and destructive regime.
Their grievances are of such a nature that no people, no
human community capable of valuing its honor and of
aspiring to better its condition, could bear them without
degrading and condemning itself to utter nulUty and anni
hilation. Spain denies to the Cubans all effective powers in their
own country.
Spain condemns the Cubans to a political inferiority in
the land where they are born.
Spain confiscates the product of the Cuban's labor without
giving them in return either safety, prosperity, or education.
Spain has shown itself utterly incapable of governing Cuba.
Spain exploits, impoverishes, and demoralizes Cuba.
To maintain by force of arms this monstrous regime,
which brings ruin on a country rich by nature and degrades
a vigorous and intelligent population, a population filled
with noble aspirations, is what Spain calls to defend its
honor and preserve the prestige of its social functions as a
civilizing power of America.
Senate Reports, 55 Cong., 2 sess., No. 885, pp. 28-29 passim.

By Colonel
Theodore Roosevelt (i8S8- ).
former As
sistant Secre
tary of War,
and later
governor of
New York ;
second in
command of
the First
United States
Volunteer Cavalry,
commonly called the
" Rough
Riders."
The horses
of the regi
ment were
not taken to
Cuba, and
the troops
fought in
front. Land
ing in Cuba
on lune 22,
1898, they
began their
march on the
23d, and this
fight oc
curred on the
24th at Las
Guasimas.Wood
was at this
time colonel
of the regi
ment, and for
gallantryhere and at
San Juan was
later pro
moted to be
a general.

380

142.

Spanish War

[1898

The Rough Riders at the Front
(1898)

I HAD not seen Wood since the beginning of the skir
mish, when he hurried forward. When the firing
opened some of the men began to curse. " Don't swear —
shoot ! " growled Wood, as he strode along the path leading
his horse, and everyone laughed and became cool again.
The Spanish outposts were very near our advance guard,
and some minutes of the hottest kind of firing foUowed
before they were driven back and slipped off through the
jungle to their main lines in the rear. . . .
. . . When I came to the front I found the men spread out
in a very thin skirmish line, advancing through comparatively
open ground, each man taking advantage of what cover he
could, while Wood strolled about leading his horse, Brodie
being close at hand. How Wood escaped being hit, I do
not see, and still less how his horse escaped. I had left
mine at the beginning of the action, and was only regretting
that I had not left my sword with it, as it kept getting
between my legs when I was tearing my way through the
jungle. I never wore it again in action. Lieutenant Rivers
was with Wood, also leading his horse. Smedburg had been
sent off on the by no means pleasant task of establishing
communications with Young.
Very soon after I reached the front, ... I noticed Good
rich, of Houston's troop, tramping along behind his men,
absorbed in making them keep at good intervals from one
another and fire slowly with careful aim. As I came close
up to the edge of the troop, he caught a glimpse of me,
mistook me for one of his own skirmishers who was crowd
ing in too closely, and called out, "Keep your interval, sir;
keep your interval, and go forward."
A perfect hail of bullets was sweeping over us as we

no. x4a] Rough Riders

381

advanced. Once I got a glimpse of some Spaniards, appar
ently retreating, far in the front, and to our right, and we
fired a couple of rounds after them. Then I became con
vinced, after much anxious study, that we were being fired
at from some large red-tiled buildings, part of a ranch on
our front. Smokeless powder, and the thick cover in our
front, continued to puzzle us, and I more than once con
sulted anxiously the officers as to the exact whereabouts of
our opponents. I took a rifle from a wounded man and
began to try shots with it myself. It was very hot and
the men were getting exhausted, though at this particular
time we were not suffering heavily from bullets, the Spanish
fire going high. As we advanced, the cover became a little
thicker and I lost touch of the main body under Wood ; so
I halted and we fired industriously at the ranch buildings
ahead of us, some five hundred yards off. Then we heard
cheering on the right, and I supposed that this meant a
charge on the part of Wood's men, so I sprang up and
ordered the men to rush the buildings ahead of us. They
came forward with a will. There was a moment's heavy
firing from the Spaniards, which all went over our heads,
and then it ceased entirely. When we arrived at the build
ings, panting and out of breath, they contained nothing but
heaps of empty cartridge-shells and two dead Spaniards,
shot through the head.
The country all around us was thickly forested, so that it
was very difficult to see any distance in any direction. The
firing had now died out, but I was still entirely uncertain as
to exactly what had happened. I did not know whether the
enemy had been driven back or whether it was merely a lull
in the fight, and we might be attacked again; nor did I
know what had happened in any other part of the line,
while as I occupied the extreme left, I was not sure whether
or not my flank was in danger. At this moment one of our
men who had dropped out, arrived with the information

Written
under date
of August 27,
1898, by
GeneralFrancisVinton
Greene (1850- ).

382

Spanish War

[1898

(fortunately false) that Wood was dead. Of course, this
meant that the command devolved upon me, and I hastily
set about taking charge of the regiment. I had been par
ticularly struck by the coolness and courage shown by Ser
geants Dame and Mcllhenny, and sent them out with small
pickets to keep watch in front and to the left of the left
wing. I sent other men to fill the canteens with water, and
threw the rest out in a long line in a disused sunken road,
which gave them cover, putting two or three wounded men,
who had hitherto kept up with the fighting-line, and a dozen
men who were suffering from heat exhaustion — for the fight
ing and running under that blazing sun through the thick
dry jungle was heart-breaking — into the ranch buildings.
Then I started over toward the main body, but to my delight
encountered Wood himself, who told me the fight was over
and the Spaniards had retreated. . . .
The Rough Riders had lost eight men tilled and thirty-
four wounded . . . The First Cavalry, white, lost seven
men killed and eight wounded ; the Tenth Cavalry, colored,
one man killed and ten wounded ; so, out of 964 men
engaged on our side, 16 were killed and 52 wounded. The
Spaniards were under General Rubin, with, as second in
command, Colonel Alcarez. They had two guns, and eleven
companies of about a hundred men each . . .
Theodore Roosevelt, The Rough Riders, in Scribner's Magazine,
March, 1899 (New York, 1899), XXV, 272-274 passim.

143. The Conditions of the Philippines
(1898)
IF the United States evacuate these islands, anarchy and
civil war will immediately ensue and lead to foreign
intervention. The insurgents were furnished arms and the

No. 143]

Philippines

383

moral support of the Navy prior to our arrival, and we can
not ignore obligations, either to the insurgents or to foreign
nations, which our own acts have imposed upon us. The
Spanish Government is completely demoralized, and Spanish
power is dead beyond possibility of resurrection. Spain
would be unable to govern these islands if we surrendered
them. Spaniards individually stand in great fear of the
insurgents. The Spanish Government is disorganized and
their treasury bankrupt, with a large floating debt. The
loss of property has been great. On the other hand, the
Filipinos can not govern the country without the support
of some strong nation. They acknowledge this themselves,
and say their desire is for independence under American
protection ; but they have only vague ideas as to what our
relative positions would be — what part we should take in
collecting and expending the revenue and administering the
government. The hatred between the Spanish and natives is very in
tense and can not be eradicated. The natives are aU
Roman Catholics and devoted to the church, but have bitter
hatred for monastic orders — Dominican, Franciscan, and
Recollects. They insist that these be sent out of the coun
try or they will murder them. These friars own the greater
part of the land, and have grown rich by oppressing the
native husbandmen. Aguinaldo's army numbers 10,000 to
15,000 men in vicinity of Manila, who have arms and am
munition, but no regular organization. They receive no
pay, and are held together by hope of booty when they
enter Manila. They are composed largely of young men
and boys from surrounding country, who have no property
and nothing to lose in a civil war. Aguinaldo has two or
three ships, and is sending armed men to the northern por
tions of Luzon and to other islands. The Spaniards there,
being cut off from communication with Manila and Spain)
can not be reenforced.

for the Use*
of the Ameri
can commis
sion for the
negotiationof a peace at
Paris. Gen
eral Greene
was in com
mand of the
Second Bri-
fade, Second
)i vision,
Eighth Army
Corps, in the
Philippines.

3»+

Provinces of
Turkey,forciblyseized by
Austria in
1878-79.A native re
volt in Egypt
was sup
pressed by
England in
1882.

Spanish War

[1898

The result will be an extension of the civil war and
further destruction of property. There are in Manila itself
nearly 200,000 native Filipinos, among whom are large
numbers with more or less Spanish and Chinese blood who
are men of character, education^ ability, and wealth. They
hate the Spanish, are unfriendly toward other nations, and
look only to America for assistance. They are not altogether
in sympathy with Aguinaldo, fearing the entry of his army
into Manila almost as much as the Spaniards fear it. They
say Aguinaldo is not fitted either by ability or experience to
be the head of a native government, and doubt if he would
be elected President in an honest election. Principal foreign
interests here are British, and their feeling is unanimous in
favor of American occupation. They have already forwarded
a memorial to their Government asking for it as the only
way to protect life and property.
Altogether the situation here is somewhat similar to
Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, and Egypt in 1882, and
the only practicable solution seems to be on lines somewhat
similar to those adopted in those cases. The length of our
occupation would depend on circumstances as developed in
the future, but should be determined solely in our discretion
without obligation to or consultation with other powers.
This plan can only be worked out by careful study by the
Paris Commission, and they should have advice and full
information from some one who has been here during our
occupation and thoroughly understands the situation. It is
not understood in America, and unless properly dealt with
at Paris will inevitably lead to future complications and
possibly war.
The currency of the country is silver. The Mexican dollar
is preferred, and worth about 47 cents gold, but the gold
dollar will not buy in labor or merchandise any more than
the Mexican dollar, and any attempt to establish a gold
basis for currency would ruin any business in the islands.

No. 144]

Beginning

385

The total revenue is about $ 17,000,000 Mexican, derived
about 35 per cent from customs,. 50 per cent from internal
taxes, and 15 per cent from state lottery and sale of monop
olies. More than two-thirds of the internal revenue comes
from poll tax or cedula, which is very unpopular. The
country was self-supporting and free of debt until the insur
rection broke out about two years ago, but the expenses of
the civil war have disorganized finances. There is a bonded
debt, Series A, $15,000,000 Mexican, held in Spain, for
which the colony never received any consideration, and
another debt, Series B, same amount, which was forced on
the people here, and the validity of which is open to question.
Both debts are secured by first liens on custom-house re
ceipts, but this does not appear to have been respected.
Senate Executive Documents, 55 Cong., 2 sess., No. 52, Part II,
374-375- -

144. A Review of the Spanish War (1898)
THE first encounter of the war in point of date took
place April 27th, when a detachment of the block
ading squadron made a reconnaissance in force at Matanzas,
shelled the harbor forts, and demolished several new works
in construction.
The next engagement was destined to mark a memorable
epoch in maritime warfare. The Pacific fleet, under Com
modore George Dewey, had lain for some weeks at Hong-
Kong. Upon the colonial proclamation of neutrality being
issued and the customary twenty-four hours' notice being
given, it repaired to Mirs Bay, near Hong-Kong, whence
it proceeded to the Philippine Islands under telegraphed
orders to capture or destroy the formidable Spanish fleet
then assembled at Manila. At daybreak on the 1st of May
the American force entered Manila Bay and after a few
2 c

From the
annual mes
sage of
President
William McKinley (1844- ).
December 5,
1898. Presi
dent McKin
ley was a
soldier in the
Civil War,
member of
Congress
from 1877 to
1891, gov
ernor of Ohio
from 1891 to
1895, and was
inaugurated
as President
on March 4,
1807. — For
accounts of
the events

386

leading to
war, see the
Annual Cyclcpccdia
for 1898 ;
Contempora
ries, IV, ch.
Matanzas is
on the north
ern coast of
Cuba, next to
Havana in
commercialimportance.Cavite is
ten miles
southwest of
Manila.

On the
northerncoast of
Cuba, a short
distance east
of Matanzas.

Spanish War

[1898

Second city
ofCuba,capital of the
eastern divi-

hours' engagement effected the total destruction of the
Spanish fleet, consisting of ten warships and a transport,
besides capturing the naval station and forts at Cavite, thus
annihilating the Spanish naval power in the Pacific Ocean
and completely controlling the Bay of Manila, with the
ability to take the city at will. Not a life was lost on our
ships, the wounded only numbering seven, while not a vessel
was materially injured. For this gallant achievement the
Congress, upon my recommendation, fitly bestowed upon
the actors preferment and substantial reward. . . .
Following the comprehensive scheme of general attack,
powerful forces were assembled at various points on our
coast to invade Cuba and Porto Rico. Meanwhile naval
demonstrations were made at several exposed points. On
May nth the cruiser Wilmington and torpedo boat Winslow
were unsuccessful in an attempt to silence the batteries at
Cardenas, a gallant ensign, Worth Bagley, and four seamen
falling. These grievous fatalities were strangely enough
among the very few which occurred during our naval opera
tions in this extraordinary conflict.
Meanwhile the Spanish naval preparations had been
pushed with great vigor. A powerful squadron under
Admiral Cervera, which had assembled at the Cape Verde
Islands before the outbreak of hostilities, had crossed the
ocean, and by its erratic movements in the Caribbean Sea
delayed our military plans while baffling the pursuit of our
fleets. For a time fears were felt lest the Oregon and
Marietta, then nearing home after their long voyage from
San Francisco of over 15,000 miles, might be surprised by
Admiral Cervera's fleet, but their fortunate arrival dispelled
these apprehensions and lent much needed reinforcement.
Not until Admiral Cervera took refuge in the harbor of
Santiago de Cuba, about May 19th, was it practicable to
plan a systematic naval and military attack upon the Antillean
possessions of Spain.

No. 144]

Hostilities

387

Several demonstrations occurred on the coasts of Cuba
and Porto Rico in preparation for the larger event. On
May 13th the North Atlantic Squadron shelled San Juan de
Porto Rico. On May 30th Commodore Schley's squadron
bombarded the forts guarding the mouth of Santiago har
bor. Neither attack had any material result. It was evident
that well-ordered land operations were indispensable to
achieve a decisive advantage.
The next act in the war thrilled not alone the hearts of
our countrymen but the world by its exceptional heroism.
On the night of June 3d, Lieutenant Hobson, aided by
seven devoted volunteers, blocked the narrow outlet from
Santiago harbor by sinking the collier Merrimac in the
channel, under a fierce fire from the shore batteries, escaping
with their lives as by a miracle, but falling into the hands of
the Spaniards. It is a most gratifying incident of the war
that the bravery of this little band of heroes was cordiaUy
appreciated by the Spanish admiral, who sent a flag of truce
to notify Admiral Sampson of their safety and to compliment
them on their daring act. They were subsequently ex
changed July 7th.
By June 7th the cutting of the last Cuban cable isolated
the Island. Thereafter the invasion was vigorously prose
cuted. On June 10th, under a heavy protecting fire, a
landing of 600 marines from the Oregon, Marblehead, and
Yankee was effected in Guantanamo Bay, where it had been
determined to establish a naval station.
This important and essential port was taken from the
enemy after severe fighting by the marines, who were the
first organized force of the United States to land in Cuba.
The position so won was held despite desperate attempts
to dislodge our forces. By June 16th additional forces were
landed and strongly intrenched. On June 2 2d the advance
of the invading army under Major-General Shafter landed at
Daiquiri, about 15 miles east of Santiago. This was accom-

On the
southern coast of
Cuba.

388

Spanish War

[1898

plished under great difficulties but with marvelous dispatch.
On June 23d the movement against Santiago was begun.
On the 24th the first serious engagement took place, in
which the First and Tenth Cavalry and the First United
States Volunteer Cavalry, General Young's brigade of General
Wheeler's division, participated, losing heavily. By night
fall, however, ground within 5 miles of Santiago was won.
The advantage was steadily increased. On July 1st a severe
battle took place, our forces gaining the outworks of San-
El Caney is a tiago; on the 2d El Caney and San Juan were taken after
little north- j , , J, J , ,
east of a desperate charge, and the investment of the city was
Santiago. completed. The Navy cooperated by shelling the town and
the coast forts.
On the day foUowing this brilliant achievement of our land
forces, the 3d of July, occurred the decisive naval combat
of the war. The Spanish fleet, attempting to leave the
harbor, was met by the American squadron under command
of Commodore Sampson. In less than three hours all the
Spanish ships were destroyed, the two torpedo boats being
sunk, and the Maria Teresa, Almirante Oquendo, Vizcaya,
and Cristobal Colon driven ashore. The Spanish admiral
and over 1,300 men were taken prisoners, while the enemy's
loss of life was deplorably large, some 600 perishing. On
our side but one man was killed, on the Brooklyn, and one
man seriously wounded. Although our ships were repeatedly
struck, not one was seriously injured. 'Where all so con
spicuously distinguished themselves, from the commanders
to the gunners and the unnamed heroes in the boiler rooms,
each and all contributing toward the achievement of this
astounding victory, for which neither ancient nor modern
history affords a parallel in the completeness of the event
and tlie marvelous disproportion of casualties, it would be
invidious to single out any for especial honor. Deserved
promotion has rewarded the more conspicuous actors — the
nation's profoundest gratitude is due to all of these brave

No. 144]

Conclusion

389

men who by their skill and devotion in a few short hours
crushed the sea power of Spain and wrought a triumph
whose decisiveness and far-reaching consequences can
scarcely be measured. Nor can we be unmindful of the
achievements of our builders,, mechanics, and artisans for
their skill in the construction of our warships.
With the catastrophe of Santiago Spain's effort upon the
ocean virtually ceased. ...
The capitulation of Santiago followed. The city was
closely besieged by land, while the entrance of our ships
into the harbor cut off all relief on that side. After a truce
to allow of the removal of noncombatants protracted nego
tiations continued from July 3d until July 15th, when, under
menace of immediate assault, the preliminaries of surrender
were agreed upon. On the 17th General Shafter occupied
the city. The capitulation embraced the entire eastern end
of Cuba. . . .
With the fall of Santiago the occupation of Porto Rico
became the next strategic necessity. General Miles had
previously been assigned to organize an expedition for that
purpose. Fortunately he was already at Santiago, where he
had arrived on the nth of July with reinforcements for
General Shafter's army.
With these troops, consisting of 3,415 infantry and
artillery, two companies of engineers, and one company of
the Signal Corps, General Miles left Guantanamo on July 21st,
having nine transports convoyed, by the fleet under Captain
Higginson with the Massachusetts (flagship), Dixie, Glouces
ter, Columbia, and Yale, the two latter carrying troops.
The expedition landed at Guanica July 25th, which port onthesouth
,.,,., ... west coast of
was entered with little opposition. . . . Port0 Rico
On July 27th he entered Ponce, one of the most impor- Nearthe
tant ports in the island, from which he thereafter directed southern
operations for the capture of the island.
With the exception of encounters with the enemy at

coast.

39°

Spanish War

[1895

In the south
ern part of
the island.

No. 145 is
by Iohn
DavisLong (1838-
), gov
ernor of
Massachu
setts from
1880 to 1882,
and Secre
tary of the
Navy since
1897. The
extract is
from an
address de
livered be
fore the City
Council and
citizens of
Boston,
July 4, 1882.

Guayama, Hormigueros, Coamo, and Yauco, and an attack
on a force landed at Cape San Juan, there was no serious
resistance. The campaign was prosecuted with great vigor,
and by the 12th of August much of the island was in our
possession ...
The last scene of the war was enacted at Manila, its start
ing place. On August 15, after a brief assault upon the
works by the land forces, in which the squadron assisted,
the capital surrendered unconditionally. The casualties
were comparatively few. By this the conquest of the PhiHp-
pine Islands, virtually accomplished when the Spanish capac
ity for resistance was destroyed by Admiral Dewey's victory
of the 1st of May, was formally sealed. To General Merritt,
his officers and men for their uncomplaining and devoted
service and for their gallantry in action the nation is sincerely
grateful. Their long voyage was made with singular success,
and the soldierly conduct of the men, most of whom were
without previous experience in the military service, deserves
unmeasured praise.
The total casualties in killed and wounded in the Army
during the war with Spain were : Officers killed, 23 ; enlisted
men killed, 257 ; total, 280; officers wounded, 113 ; enlisted
men wounded, 1,464; total, 1,577. Of the Navy : Killed,
17; wounded, 67; died as result of wounds, 1; invalided
from service, 6 ; total, 91.
[William McKinley], Message . . . communicated to the two
Houses of Congress at the beginning of the Third Session of the
Fifty-fifth Congress (Washington, 1898), 10-15 passim.

145. The Future of the Republic (1895)

a

kUR beloved country is more than a hundred
years old. A century has come and has gone.
It is indeed but as a day ; yet what a day ! Not the short

No. 145]

A Retrospect

391

and sullen day of the winter solstice, but the long, glorious,
and prolific summer day of June. It rose in the twilight
glimmerings of the dawn of Lexington, and its rays, falling
on the mingled dew and gore of that greensward, and a little
later across the rebel gun-barrels of Bunker Hill, and then
tenderly lingering on the dead, upturned face of Warren,
broke in the full splendor of the first Fourth of July, and
lay warm upon the beU in the tower of Independence Hall,
as it rang out upon the air the cry of a free nation newly
born. Its morning sun, now radiant and now obscured,
shone over the battlefields of the Revolution, over the ice
of the Delaware, and over the ramparts at Yorktown swept
by the onslaught of the chivalrous Lafayette. It looked
down upon the calm figure of Washington inaugurating the
new government under the Constitution. It saw the slow
but steady consolidation of the Union. It saw the marvelous
stride with which, in the early years of the present century,
the republic grew in wealth and population, sending its ships
into every sea, and its pioneers into the wilds of the Oregon
and to the lakes, of the North. It burst through the clouds
of the War of 1812, and saw the navy of the young nation
triumph in encounters as romantic as those of armed knights
in tournament. It heard the arguments of Madison, Ham
ilton, Marshal, Story, and Webster, determining the scope of
the Constitution, and establishing forever the theory of its
powers and restrictions. It beheld the overthrow of the de
lusion which regarded the United States as a league and not
a nation, and that would have sapped it with the poison of
nullification and secession. It saw an era of literature begin,
distinguished by the stately achievements of the historian,
the thought of the philosopher, the grace of oratory, the
sweet pure verse of the American poets, — poets of nature
and the heart. It brought the tender ministry of uncon
sciousness to human pain. It caught the song of machinery,
the thunder of the locomotive, the first click of the telegraph.

See above,
No. 57.
See Contem
poraries, II,
No. 193.
See above,
No. 58.

See above,
Nos. 59, 63.
See above,
No. 71.

See above,
No. 80.
See above,
ch. xiii.
See above,
Nos. 68, 69.

See above,
Nos. 70, 99,
103, 104, 126,
135-

392

See above,
Nos. 90, 92,
103.See above,
No. 105.

See above,
No. 104.
See above,
chs.xviii, xix.

Spanish War

[1895
It saw the measureless West unfold its prairies into great
activities of life and product and wealth. It saw the virtue
and culture and thrift of New England flow broad across the
Mississippi, over the Rocky Mountains, and down the Pacific
slope, expanding into a civilization so magnificent that its
power and grandeur and influence to-day overshadow indeed
the fount from which they sprang. It saw America, first
wrenching liberty for itself from the hand of European
tyranny, share it free as the air with the oppressed and
cramped peoples of Europe, carrying food to them in their
starvation, offering them an asylum, welcoming their cooper
ation in the development and enjoyment of the generous
culture and freedom and opportunity of the New World
and setting them, from the first even till now, an example
of free institutions and local popular government, which
every intelligent and self-respecting people must follow. Its
afternoon was indeed overcast with shameful assault made
on an unoffending neighbor to strengthen the hold of slavery
upon the misguided interests of the country ; and there came
the fiery tempest of civil war : the heart of the nation mourned
the slaughter of its patriots, and the treason and folly of its
children of the South, yet welcomed them back to their place
in the family circle. And now eventide has come ; the storm
is over ; the long day has drawn to its close in the magnificent
irradiation that betokens a glorious morning. We gather at
our thresh is and hold sweet neighborly converse. Our chil
dren are about us in pleasant homes ; our flocks are safe ; our
fields are ripening with the harvest. We recall the day, and
pray that the God of the pilgrim and the patriot will make
the morrow of our republic even brighter and better.
John D. Long, After-Dinner and other Speeches (Boston, etc.,
1895), 221-223.

INDEX

[The names of the authors of extracts are in boldface. The titles of the pieces are in
SMALL Capitals. The titles of books cited are in. italics.]

ABOLITIONISTS, topics, xxxvii, xliii ; a
western argument, 242; a southern de
fence, 246 ; in Boston, 248 ; poem, 258 ;
political, 263; Lincoln, 291; Stephenson,
297. — See also Emancipation, Slavery.
Adams, C F., Richard Henry Dana, 284.
Adams, John, Declaration of Inde
pendence, 147; Works, 149.-
Adams, John Quincy, Missouri Com
promise, 234; Memoirs, 237.
Admiralty Court, at Halifax, C04.
Admission of new Otates, topics, xii.
Aguinaldo, forces under, 383.
Albany, description of, 44 ; Indian trade at,
66; politics at, 355.
Allegiance, Lee on oath of, 343.
Alligators, on the Mississippi, 97,
Amendment, of Constitution proposed, 202.
America, discovery of, 1 ; charges against,
141 ; Crevecceur describes, 161 ; future
of, 168, 390; Jackson's impressions of,
212; character of Americans, 369. — See
also Colonies, Congress, Revolution,
United States, and Table of Contents.
America and her Commentators, x.\i.
American Antiquarian Society, Transac
tions and Collections, 14.
American Colonial Tracts, xxi.
American Historical Association, Report,
xviii.
American History Leaflets, xxi.
American History Studies, xviii, xxi.
American Histoiy told by Contemporaries,
xviii, xxi.

American Orations, xxi.
American State Papers, 194, 196.
Ames, Fisher, On the Tariff, 183;
Speeches, 186.
Anabaptists,- in N^w Amsterdam, 43;
Roger Willia.is, 53.
Andrews, Sidney, The South, 336;
South since the War, 339.
Andros, Sir Edmund, New York, 58.
Anghiera, Peter Martyr, An English
Vovage, 4.
Annexations, topics, xii.
Anonymous, English Plundering Voy
age, 9; First English Exploration,
ii ; Plantation Like in Virginia,
91; Destruction of Deerfiild, 98;
American Patriot's Prayer, 143; A
Ballad on Cornwallis, 159; Cave
Life in Vicksburg, 320.
Antietam, effect on emancipation, 317.
Anti-slavery. — See Abolitionists, Slavery.
Appointments. — See Patronage.
Appomattox, surrender at. 330.
Aquiday, settled, 56.
Arbitration, with Great Britain, 358.
Archdale, John, Description of Caro
lina, 65; governor of Carolina, 67.
Arkansas, religion in, 231.
Army, American, Revolution, topics, xxxix;
land bounties, topics, xl ; list of battles,
xiv ; Civil War, topics, xiv ; minute-
men at Lexington, 145; militia, 150;
regulars, 151; in South Carolina, 153;
at Bull Run, 305; wounded, 311; at

393

394

Index

Murfreesboro, 318; at Gettysburg, 324;
destruction by, 338. — See also Indians,
Revolution, War.
Army, British, at Concord, 145; Hessians
serve in, 154; at S.natoga, 155; at Phila
delphia, 158; at New Orleans, 222.
Army, Confederate, former U. S. officers,
301; conditions, 308; at Gettysburg, 326;
destruction by, 338. — See also Civil War.
Articles of Confederation. — See Confed
eration.
Ash, Thomas, Indian. Corn, 32; Caro
lina, 32,
Ashland, Confederate camp at, 309.
Assemblies, troubles with governors, 128.
Assistants, in Massachusetts, 47.
Associations of Colleges and Preparatory
Schools, xviii.
Assumption, of State debts, 186.
Astoria, founded, 209.
Autobiographies and reminiscences, xxiii.
BACCALLAOS, Cabot's discovery of, 4.
Baird, Gen., in New Orleans, 347.
Batch, Thomas, Letters and Papers, 128.
Baltimore, Cecil, Lord. — See Maryland.
Baptists, in Rhode Island, 54 ; in the West,
231.
Barlow, William, King and the Puri
tans, 37 ; Conference at Hampton Court. 39.
Barnes, Mary Sheldon, " what is time for,"
xx viii.
Bath Archives, 213.
Battles, topics, xiv, xlvi. — See also Army,
Navy, War.
Baynton, Sir Edward, an English gentle
man, 20.
Beauregard, Gen., fires on Sumter, 303.
Beer, made from Indian corn, 32.
Belcher, Jonathan, governor of Massa
chusetts, 110.
Benton, Thomas Hart, Kansas-Ne
braska, 284.
Berkeley, Sir William, governor of Virginia,
9»-
Berlin Decree, 214.
Besse, Joseph , Sufferings of the People called
Quakers, 82.

Bibliographies, of sources, xx.
Bigot, Francois, Capture of Quebec,
105.
Biiiynge, E., proprietor of Jersey, 63.
Birds, in the West Indies, 2.
Birkbeck, Morris, A Settler in Illinois,
237 ; Letters, 240.
Black, William, Social Life in Phila
delphia, 115.
Bladensburg, battle of, 219.
Board of Trade.-!- See Trade and Planta
tions.
Border States, emancipation in, 328.
Boston, Josselyn at, 29; named, 46; reli
gious disturbances in, 55, 80 ; disease in,
74; traders of, 88; Colonial town-
Meeting, 132; Records, 136. ; meeting in
Faneuil Hall, 137; in 1806,226; charac
ter of inhabitants, 227; anti-abolitionist
mob in, 249.
Botume, Elizabetii Hyde, A Negro
SCHOOL, 339; First Days amongst the
Contrabands, 342.
Boudinot, Elias, President of Congress, 165.
Bowen, Abel, The Naval Monument, 218.
Bowery, Charity, A Slave's Narrative,
255-
Braddock, .Gen., defeated, 103.
Bradford, William, Settlement of
Plymouth, 39 ; History, 41.
Breckinridge, John C, candidate for presi
dency, 297.
Brewster, William, kindness of, 41 ; advice
as to Roger Williams, 52.
Brown, Henry Box, A Fugitive's Narra
tive, 260.
Brown, John, Last Speech, 294; exe
cuted, 295.
Bruce, John, editor, The Verney Family, 29.
Bryce, James, Character of the
AMERICANS, 369; The American Com
monwealth, 372.
Buffaloes, Coronado finds, 6.
Bull-fights, at New Orleans, 241.
Bull Run, battle of, 305, 310 ; Pope's defeat
at, 317.
Burnaby, Rev. Andrew, Supremacy of
Parliament, 141 ; Travels, 143.

Army — Colonies

395

Butler, Gen., arrives in New Orleans, 314.
Byrd, Col. William, Criticism of Sla
very, 119.
CABINET (Lincoln's), topics, xiv; on
emancipation, 316.
Cabot, Sebastian, discoveries of, 4.
Calhoun, John C, on the Union, 234.
California, topics, xliv ; . Drake in, 11 ;
emigration to, 270; gold-mining in, 276;
admission of, 280; prohibits slavery,
286.
Calvin, John, influence on government, 50.
Calvinists, in New Amsterdam, 42.
Cambridge (Mass.), founded, 47.
Camp-meeting, description of, 232.
Campos, Gen., commands in Cuba, 375.
Canada, topics, xxxvii; captives in, 100;
fur trade in, 100 ; Canadian soldiers, 107.
— See also French, Indians.
Canal, between Atlantic and Pacific, 168.
Canary Islands, trade with, 89.
Cape Cod/whale found at, 76.
Cape Rouge, English anchored at, 105.
Capital, located on the Potomac, 188.
Cardenas, fight at, 386.
Carhagouha, Champlain in, 15.
Carolinas, topics, xxxiv ; Ash describes, 32 ;
government of, 65 ; war against the Kus-
soes, 66; toleration in, 66; land-holding
jn| 67. _ See also North Carolina, South
Carolina.
Carpenter, F. B., Proclamation of
Emancipation, 315 ; Six Months at the
White House, 318.
Carter, Richard, Case of Impressment,
i94-
Carver, John, governor of Plymouth, 41.
Castell, Rev. William, Reasons for
Emigration, 21.
Cathay, supposed discovery, I.
Catholics, in New Amsterdam, 43; in the
West, 231, 234; in the Philippines, 383.
" Centennial Hymn," 358.
. Cervera, Admiral, movements of, 386;
courtesy of, 387.
Chamberlain, D. H., Failure of Recon
struction, 349.

Champlain, Samuel, as an illustration,
xxviii ; A French Exploration, 14.
Charleston, (S. C), in 1682; after the war,
336; a newspaper, 351.
Charlestown (Mass.), founded, 46; scurvy
in, 74.
Charters, granted by the king, 141. — See
also Colonies.
Chase, S. P., A Political Abolition
ist, 263; The Address of the. Southern
and Western Liberty Convention, 265; on
emancipation, 316.
Chester (Pa.), Quakers at, 70.
Chicago River, La Salle on, 96.
Child, Lydia Maria, Letters from New York,
257-
Chili, Drake off coast of, 9.
Christiana, Swedes at, 43.
Christmas, not observed in England, 19;
Lewis and Clark's, 207.
Church, of England, 50, 62; formation of a,
77; in New Netherlands, 87.— See also
Religion.
Cibola, Coronado in, 8.
Cities and towns, topics, xiii.
Civil Service Reform, topics, xlvi; Curtis
on the working of, 363.
Civil War, topics, xiv; causes, 244-302;
outbreak, 303 ; battles, 305, 313, 318, 323 ;
soldiers, 308 ; wounded, 311 ; slavery, 315,
327; siege, 326; surrender, 329; commer
cial effects, 334; diplomatic complica
tions, 358.
Class-room, work in, xxv; with sources,
xxvii, xxxi.
Clay, Henry, Compromise of 1850, 279.
Cleveland, Henry, Alexander H. Stephens,
299.
Cod-fish, discovered, 5,
Colchester, founded, 57.
Colonies, topics on conditions, xxxiv; on
government, xxxviii; discoveries, 1-17;
conditions, 18-32 ; first era, 33-57 '. second
era, 58-73; seventeenth century life, 74-
95; French wars, 98-107; eighteenth
century life, 108-123; government, 124-
136; Revolution, 137-160. — See also
Table of Contents and colonies by name.

396

Index

Colton, Rev. Walter, At the Gold
FIELDS, 276; Three Years in California,
279.
Columbia River, Lewis and Clark on, 209.
Columbus, Christopher, reference to,
xxviii; DISCOVERY OF THE NEW
WORLD, i ; Select Letters, 3.
Commissioners, for Treaty of Washington,
357-
Committee of Seven, Study of History in
Schools, xviii.
Committee of Ten, Report on Secondary
Schools, xviii.
Companies, topics, xxiii. — See also com
panies by name.
Compromise of 1850, topics, xliv; Clay on,
279-
Compromises of the Constitution, topics,
xii. — See also Constitution.
Concord, fight at, 145.
Confederate States of America, topics, xiv.
— See also Civil War, Secession, Slavery,
South.
Confederation, Articles, xl ; topics, xl ; Con
gress of, 164 ; Northwest Ordinance, 169 ;
criticism, 172. — See also Constitution.
Congress, Continental, 147 ; Confederation,
164 ; Northwest Ordinance, 169 ; in 1789,
183, 186; embargo, 209; War of 1812,
214; Missouri Compromise, 234; Com
promise of 1850, 279; Kansas-Nebraska
Act, 284; Reconstruction, 344; Civil
Service Reform, 363.
Congressional Globe, extracts, 281, 287, 346.
Connecticut, topics, xxxv; foundation of
government, 51 ; prosperity, 59 ; North
west Ordinance, 171 ; Jefferson, 199.
Connecticut Historical Society, Collections,
5s-
Constitution (ship), captures the Guerriere,
217.
Constitution, topics, xl; topics on ratifi
cation, xl ; objections to, 172; scope of,
174 ; advocated, 175 ; poem on, 178 ; in
danger, 199; amendment, 202; slavery
compromise, 236; Lincoln on, 327; affec
tion for, 371. — See also Union, United
States.

Continental Congress. — See Confedera
tion, Congress.
Conventicles, in New Netherlands, 87.
Cook, Ebenezcr, Tobacco Planters, hi ;
Sot- Weed Factor, 115.
Copper, found in the Blue Ridge, 14.
Corn. — See Indian Corn.
Cornwallis, ballad on, 159.
Coronado, A Spanish Exploration, 2c6.
Cotton plantations. — See Slavery.
Crevecoeur, What is an American? 161 ;
American Farmer, 163.
Cromwell, Oliver, 18.
Cuba, topics, xliv ; discovered, 1 ; first insur
rection, 373; the Cubans, 374; the Span
iards, 375; press, 376; public meetings,
377; politics, 378; Spanish reforms, 378 ;
war, 380, 385.
Currency, topics, xxxviii, xl ; wampum used
as, 70; regulated in Massachusetts, 76;
Indian, 103; in Pennsylvania, 105; paper
money, 157 ; resumption of specie pay
ments, 360,
Curtis, George William, Civil Service
REFORM, 363; Orations and Addresses,
365- ,
Cushing, Caleb, Treaty of Washing
ton, 355-358.
Cutler, Rev. Manasseh, Northwest Or
dinance, 169.
Cutler, W. P. and Julia P., Life of Manasseh
Cutler, 172.
TAAKOTA, Indian troubles in, 368.
•*-' Dana, RichaH Henry, Rescue ok
Shadrach, 282.
Bankers, Jasper, Maryland, 48 ; Voyage
to A'ew York, 51.
Davis, Charles Augustus, Jackson's Re
sponsibility. 266; Letters of J. Down
ing, Major, 268.
Debates, topics for, xii.
Deerfield, destruction of, 98.
Delaware, governed from New York, 70;
part of Pennsylvania, 70.
Delaware River, Washington crosses, 149.
Delaware Town, description of, 70.
De Rodas, policy in Cuba, 373.

Colton — Filipinos

397

Dewey, George, at Cavitfe, 385.
Discoveries, topics, xxxiii, xxxiv; accounts
of, 1-17, 33, 39, 42. — See Table of Con
tents.
Diseases, in New England, 30, 74.
Dix, Rev. Morgan, Rousing of the
NORTH, 303; Memoirs of John Adams
Dix, 305.
Dorchester (Eng.), emigration from, 45.
Dorchester (Mass.), founded, 47.
Doubleday, Abner, Attack on Fort
SUMTER, 299; Reminiscences, 302; killed
at Gettysburg, 326.
Douglas, Stephen A., Kansas-Nebraska
Act, 284; Criticism of Lincoln, 2911
Political Debates (with Lincoln), 294;
candidate for presidency, 296.
Downing; Major Jack. — See Davis, C. A.
Doyle, J. A., English in America, xxi.
Drake, Sir Francis, voyage, 9.
Dred Scott Decision, McLean, 290; dicta
in, 291 ; Lincoln on, 293.'
Drunkenness, 72. — See Temperance.
Dudley, Thomas, Massachusetts, 45;
Letter to the Countess of Lincoln, 48.
Dutch, discoverers, topics, xxxiv; settle
ments, topics, xxxv; Indians, 15; ships
to Virginia, 23; trade with New England,
46; in Delaware, 70; coasting trade, 75;
Minister at Princeton, 164; loan, 192.
Dwight, Theodore, Election of Jeffer
son, 197 ; Oration at New Haven, 200.
EAST INDIA, trade with, 90; teashipped
from, 137.
Easton, Nicholas, teaching of, 56.
Edmundson, Rev. William, Journey
through Delaware, 69; Journal,^.
Education, topics, xxxvi, xxxviii. — See also
Schools.
Edwards, Rev. Jonathan, Whitefield's visit
to, no.
Eggleston, George Cary, The Southern
Soldier, 308 ; Rebel's Recollections, 311.
El Caney, taken, 388.
Election, 1801, topics, xii; i860, topics, xliv;
management of colonial, 126; in Kan
sas, 287, — See also Government,

Emancipation, J. Q. Adams foresees, 235 ;
Douglas on, 293; proclamation, 315;
military, 328 ; in the border States, 328. —
See also Abolitionists, Slavery.
Embargo, effects, 209; constitutionality, 211.
Emerson, R. W., on history, xxix.
Emerson, Rev. William, Lexington and
Concord, 144; killed at Ticonderoga,
144.
Emigration, cost of colonial, 26 ; from Ger
many, 68 ; from Wales, 68 ; of Quakers,
70 ; to the West, 167 ; from England,
239 ; to Oregon, 269.
Endicott, John, plants in New England, 45.
England. — See Colonies, English, Revolu
tion, Treaty, United States, War, and
Table of Contents.
English, in America, topics, xxxiv ; discover
ies, 4, 9 ; exploration, 11, 34 ; life, 18 ; over
population, 21; in New Netherlands, 43;
ignorance on colonies, 140; interests in
Philippines, 384.
Erskine, negotiates in America, 212.
Espanola, discovered, 2.
Evelyn, John, Life in England, 18;
typical English gentleman, 20; Memoirs,
21.
Exeter (N.H.), foundation, 57.
Exploration. — See separate nations, and
Table of Contents.
FARRAGUT, David Glasgow, Farra
gut at New Orleans, 313.
Fearon, H. B., Amusements in New
ORLEANS, 240; Sketches of America,
241.
Featherstonhaugh, G. W., Internal
SLAVE-TRADE, 25 1 ; Excursion, 254.
Federal Convention, topics, xl. — See Con
stitution.
Federalists, principles, 181-196; and Jeffer
son, 197 ; and Sir Francis Jackson, 213.
Fen wick, John, New Jersey, 62; at
Salem, 70.
Ferdinand and Isabella. — See Spain.
Fernow, Berthold, Records of New Amster
dam, 88.
Filipinos. — See Philippines.

39«

Index

Finances, topics, xl, xlvi. — See Currency.
Finns, in Delaware, 70.
Fisheries, in Treaty of Ghent, 224; in
Treaty of Washington, 358.
Fletcher, Francis, The World Encom
passed, 11.
Flint, Rev. Timothy, Religious Life in
THE WEST, 231 ; The Mississippi Valley,
834.
Floridas, value of, 201 ; our title to, 202.
Flowers, in South Carolina, 32.
Foreign relations, topics, xii, xlvi; rival
voyages, 1-17 ; maritime grievances, 188 ;
XYZ, 191; impressment, 194; Louisi
ana, 200; Oregon, 206; embargo, 209;
Peace of Ghent, 223; Mexican War,
271 ; Treaty of Washington, 355 ; Cuban
troubles, 373-392. — See also Dutch, Eng
lish, French, War.
Fort Duquesne, fight at, 104.
Fort Moultrie, firing from, 302.
Fort Orange. — See Albany.
Fort Sumter, attack on, 299.
France. — See French.
Frankfort Advice, vote on, 147.
Frankland, population of, 167. — See also
Tennessee.
Franklin, Benjamin, on taxation, 126; Gov
erning of Colonies, 130; Works,
132; on Declaration of Independence,
148.
Freedmen. — See Negroes.
Free-schools. — See Schools..
Fremont, Gen., military emancipation,
3=8.
French, B. J., Historical Collections of
Louisiana, 98.
French, discoverers, topics, xxxiv ; relations
with English, topics, xxxvii; Champlain,
14; Iroquois, 15; trade with Indians, 59,
89,100; La Salle, 96; destruction of Deer
field, 98; Montcalm, 106; X Y Z affair,
192; sell Louisiana, 200; conduct in 1812,
214.
Friends. — See Quakers.
Fruits, in West Indies, 2; in Kansas, 7;
in Viiginia, 12.
Fugitive slaves. — See Slavery.

GALLATIN, Albert, Discussion of
the PEACE, 223 ; Writings, 225.
Gaming, in England, 21.
Garrison, William Lloyd, An Anti-
Abolitionist Mob, 248; arrested, 250
Garrison, W. P. and F. J., William Lloyd
Garrison, 251.
Gass, Patrick, Lewis and Clark's
Oregon Expedition, ao6; Journal,
269.
Geary, Gen., at Gettysburg, 325.
George III, question of instructions, 131 ;
relations to Revolution, 138-142; John
Adams on, 148.
Georgia, topics, xxxvi; founded by Ogle
thorpe, 71.
Germans, immigrants, 68.
Gerry, Elbridge, XYZ Despatches, 191.
Gettysburg, battle of, 323.
Ghent, Treaty of, 223.
Gileadites, League of, 294.
Gleig, Rev. George Robert, Capture of
Washington, 218 ; Narrative, 220.
Gold, in West Indies, 2; not found in
Kansas, 7 ; in California, 276. — See also
Currency.
Government, topics, colonial and Revolu
tionary, xxxviii, xxxix; in Connecticut,
51; colonies in general, 124-136 ; in
structions, 130; Revolutionary, 147, 157;
Confederation, 164; federal, 181-187;
Jackson's, 266 ; Kansas, 287 ; Civil
War, 315, 333; Reconstruction, 336-351;
Tweed Ring, 352; civil service, 363;
prophecy, 390. — See also Colonies,
colonies by name, Congress, English,
President.
Governors, Massachusetts, 74; New York,
128; salaries, 129. — See also colonies
and governors by name, and Instruc
tions.
Grant, Gen. U. S., Lee's surrender, 329.
Graydon, Alexander, Colonial School
boy, 122 ; Memoirs, 123.
Greene, Gen. Francis, The Philippines,
382.
Guaimaro, Cuban capital, 373.
Guanahani, landfall at, 1.

Finances — James

399

Guantanamo Bay, landing at, 387.
Ouasimas, battle, 38a
Guerriere, captured, 216.
HAD LEY (town), relieves Deerfield, 99.
Halifax, Admiralty Court at, 204.
Hall, Basil, "Blockading a Neutral
PORT," 202; Voyages and Travels, 206.
Hamilton, Alexander, on assumption, 186;
hostility to Jefferson, 186.
Hampton (Va.), site of, 34.
Hancock, Gen., at Gettysburg, 325.
Hart, Dr. Albert Gaillard, In the Thick
of the Fight, 318; MS. letters, 32a
Harvard, Whitefield visits, no.
Hayes, Gen., at Gettysburg, 325.
Hening, W. W., Statutes of Virginia, 95.
Henry VII, of England, 5.
Hessians, at Saratoga, 126.
History, founded on sources, xvii ; source
study, xviii; functions, xix; source mate
rials, xx; purposes, xxiv, xxv, xxix ; com
pared with science, xxv; in secondary
schools, xxiv-xxviii; in normal schools,
xxix-xxxii ; topics, xxxiii-xlvi.
Hoar, Samuel, in Charleston, 275.
Hobson, Lieut., heroism of, 387.
Holden, Robert, Trade of the Colo
nies, 88.
Holland.— See Dutch.
Holston, population of, 167.
Hooker, Rev. Thomas, Government in
Connecticut, 51.
Hopkinson, Francis, The New Roof, 178 ;
Miscellaneous Essays, 180.
House ol Representatives, Report of Kansas
Committee, 289. — See also Congress.
Howard, Benjamin C, Decision of the
Supreme Court, 291.
Howard, Oliver Otis. Military Gov
ernor in Louisiana, 346.
Hudson, Dutch settlements on, 42, 43.
Huling, Ray Greene, Sources in Second
ary Schools, xxiv.
Hull, Capt. Isaac, Capture of the
Guerriere, 216.
Hunter, Gen., attempts military emancipa
tion, 328.

Huntington, Benjamin, Life in Con
gress, 164.
Hurons, French relations, 15.
Hutchinson, Mrs. Anne, settles Aquiday,
55.56-
IBERVILLE (River), boundary of Lou
isiana, aoi.
Illinois, La Salle in, 96 ; settlements in, 237.
Illustrations, use of, xxv.
Impressment, Jay on, 190; a case of, 195.
Independence, declared, 147. — See also
Congress, Revolution, Union, United
States.
India, supposed discovery of, 1.
Indian corn, ways of cooking, 32; drinks
made from, 32 ; raised in Maryland, 5a
Indians, as illustrations, xxviii ; topics on,
xxxiii, xlvi; in Cuba, 1; dress, 7, 8; in
Virginia, 12; War-path, 17, 25; relations
with English, 23, 67; worship, 23, 25;
villages, 24; houses, 24; chiefs, 24; recre
ation, 24, 26, 103 ; boats, 25 ; relation with
French, 28, 100; right to the land, 57;
small-pox, 75 ; domestic animals, 97 ; on
the Mississippi, 97 ; firearms sold to, 101 ;
of the West, 207; our treatment of, 366;
education of, 367.
Indies, West, Columbus in, 1 ; East, trade
with, 90, 137.
Industries, topics, xxxviii.
Instructions, of governors, 125 ; Franklin on,
130; of town representatives, 134. — See
also Government, Governors.
Ireland, trade with, 89.
Ireton, Henry, funeral, 18.
Irish, character as emigrants, 228.
Iroquois, topics, xxxvii ; cruelty of, 15 ; and
French, 16. — See also Indians.
JACKSON, ANDREW, topics, xiii:; at
J New Orleans, 221 ; criticism of, 266 ; re
sponsibility of, 266.
Jackson, Francis James, Impressions of
America, 212.
Jacobins, Jeffersonian Republicans, 197.
James 1, and the Puritans, 37.
James River, exploration, 12.

4-oo

Index

Jamestown, site of, 33 ; rebuilt, 35.
Jay, John, Maritime Grievances, 188;
in England, 189; Correspondence, 190.
Jefferson, Thomas, topics on, xii;
Declaration of Independence, 147;
Question of Compromise, 186; Writ
ings, 188, 202 ; criticism of, 197 ; Acqui
sition of Louisiana, 200 ; characterized,
228 ; appearance, 228.
Jogues, Father Isaac, New Amsterdam,
42 ; Papers, 44.
Johnson and Buel, editors, Battles and
Leaders of the Civil War, 333.
Jones, Rev. J. William, Personal Remi
niscences of Robert E. Lee, 344.
Josselyn, John, Rarities of New Eng
land, 29; Two Voyages, 31,
T/ ALM, Professor Peter, French Trade
** with the Indians, 100; Town of
New York, 117; Governor and
ASSEMBLY, 128; Travels into North
America, 103, 119, 130.
Kanawha, slave-trade on, 251.
Kansas, topics, xliv; Coronado in, 7;
election in, 287.
Kansas-Nebraska Act, topics, xliv ; Benton
on, 284; repeals Missouri Compromise,
284 ; author of, 292. — See also Slavery,
Territories.
Kentucky, population of, 167; trade with
New Orleans, 240; abolition in, 265.
Kings. — See English, George III, Henry
VII, James I.
J ADD, Erastus D., Troubles in Kan-
¦> SAS, 287.
Lady, A., Cave Life in Vicksburg, 323.
Lake Michigan, navigation, 358.
I.ake of the Woods, boundary, 201, 225.
Land-holding, topics, xl ; in New Jersey,
64; in the Carolinas, 65; in common,
76. — See also Emigration, Govern-
menL
La Salle, explorations, 96; character, 97.
Latour, Arsene, BATrLF. of New Or
leans, 220; Historical Memoir, 223.
Leander, frigate, 204.

Lechford, Thomas, Church Services,
77; Plain Dealing, 79.
Lee, Robert E., at Gettysburg, 326; sur
render, 329; Advice on Reconstruc
tion, 342.
Levee, Washington's, 183.
Lewis and Clark, expedition to Oregon,
206.
Lexington, battle, 145.
Leyden, Pilgrims at, 79.
Liberator, newspaper, 249.
Liberty Bell Leaflets, xxii.
Libraries, use for schools, xxvi.
Library of American Literature, xxii.
Lincoln, Abraham, topics, xiv; criticism
of, 291 ; Political Debates (with Douglas),
294; calls for men, 304; on emancipa
tion, 315; War and Slavery, 327;
Complete Works, 329 ; Lowell on, 333.
Lincoln, Benjamin, in South Carolina, 153.
Literature, colonial, topics, xxxvi.
Long, John Davis, Future of the Re
public, 390; Speeches, 392.
Lords of Trade. — See Trade and Plan
tations.
Louisiana, topics, xxxvii; acquisition, 200;
boundary, 201; population, 202; dis
posal, 202 ; religion, 231 ; amusements,
240 ; slave-trade in, 252 ; after the war,
346.
Lowell, James Russell, Mexican War,
271; Biglow Papers, 276; ABRAHAM
LINCOLN, 333; Commemoration Ode,
335-
Lundy, Benjamin, abolitionist, 248.
Lutherans, in New Amsterdam, 43.
Lynn, shoe manufacture in, 228.
MCCRACKAN, W. D., Huntington Let
ters, 166.
McDuffie, George, Defence of Slavery,
244.
McKinley, William, Spanish War, 385 ;
Message to Congress, 390.
Maclay, William, A View of Washing
ton, 181 ; Journal, 183.
McLean, John, Dred Scott Decision.
29a

Jamestown — Navy

401

Madagascar, trade with, 90.
Maderas, trade with, 89.
Madison, James, Causes of the War,
214; Writings, 216; at Bladensburg, 219.
Magellan, Straits, Drake at, 9.
Maine, boundary, 225.
Maize. — See Indian Corn.
Manhattan. — See New Amsterdam, New
York.
Manila, Aguinaldo threatens, 383; sur
render, 390.
Marshall, John, XYZ Despatches,
191.
Martin, Susanna, trial of, 82.
Martyr, Peter, Decades of the Newe Worlde,
6.
Maryland, topics, xxxiv; description of, 48 ;
unpopular, 49; prosperity, 59 ; losses, 108;
satire, in; food, 114; Northwest Ordi
nance, 171.
Mason, George, Objections to the Con
stitution, 172.
Massachusetts, topics, xxxv; first planting,
45; boundary, 45; question of appeal,
56; settlement, 74; religion, 77; perse
cution, 80; Proceedings of the Conven
tion, 178; on Treaty of Ghent, 223; in
Mexican War, 275; on secession, 304;
on South Carolina, 336.
Matanzas, Spanish War begins at, 385.
Mather, Cotton, A Witch Trial, 82;
Wonders of the Invisible H 01 Id, 85.
Maverick, Samuel, note on, 75; buries In
dians, 75; bail for Indians, 76.
Mayday, observances, 74, 86.
Meade, George G.,hero of Gettysburg, 325.
Medford, founded, 46.
Medicine, early New England, 31 ; in Phila
delphia, 116.
Meeting-houses, description of, 79.
Melish, John, BOSTON, 226 ; Travels, 228.
Mennonites, name, 43 ; in politics, 127.
Merrimac, settlements on, 57.
Mcrrirnac (ship) sunk by Hobson, 387.
Merritt, Gen. Wesley, in the Philippines, 390,
Merryniount, Morton at, 74.
Methodists, in the West, 231, 234.
Mexico, topics on war with, xliv; Lowell
2D

on the war, 271 ; abolition of slavery by
280.
Miles, Gen. Nelson, at Porto Rico, 389.
Military. —See Army, Battles, War.
Militia, — See Army.
Ministers, religious, in New York, 61;
elected in New England, 77; in the
West, 231 ; itinerant, 232.
Minute-Men. — See Army.
Mississippi River, La Salle on the, 06; de
scription of the upper, 98; navigation,
167, 225; value of, 201; slave-trade on
the, 252.
Missouri, emigration to Oregon, 370; Mis-
sourians vote in Kansas, 289.
Missouri Compromise, topics, xiii; J. Q.
Adams on, 234, 236; constitutionality of,
290. — See also Kansas-Nebraska Act
Missouri River, La Salle discovers the, 96.
Molasses, duty on, 184.
Monastic orders, in the Philippines, 383.
Monong.-il ela River, Braddock at, 104.
Monroe Doctrine, topics, xiii.
Montcalm, Marquis de, at Quebec, 106.
Moore, Frank, Songs and Ballads of the
Revolution, 160.
Moose Island, ceded to Great Britain, 224.
Morgan, Thomas Jefferson, I reatmf.nt
OF THE INDIANS, 366; Present Phase
of the Indian Question, 369.
Morton, Joseph, governor of Carolina, 66.
Morton, Nathaniel, Rhode Island, 52;
New-Eitglands Memoriall, 54.
Morton, Robert, Paper Money, 157;
Diary, 159.
Morton, Thomas, note on, 74,
Mosquitoes, in New Jersey, 164.
Murfreesboro, battle of, 318.
Muskingum, prosperity of, 167.
Mystic River, settlements on, 46, 74.
NATCHEZ, slave-trade at, 352.
Nation. — See Union.
Naturalization, in Pennsylvania, 127.
Navigation Acts, in New York, 61. — See
also Trade.
Navy, topics, xiii, xiv; maritime discover
ies, 1-6; Drake, 9; at Quebec, 105;

4-0 2

Index

grievances, 188; impressment, 194;
blockade, 202; in War of 1812, 216; at
New Orleans, 313; at Manila, 385; at
Santiago, 386. — See also Dutch, English,
French, War.
Negroes, topics, xiv ; as slave-holders, 94 ;
capacity, 243; destiny, 245; citizenship,
293; proper status, 296; arming, 328;
education, 339, 348; effect of war, 346;
franchise, 349. — See also Abolitionists,
Slavery.
Neutral trade, topics, xii; vexation on,
204 ; rights of, 215.
New Amsterdam, description, 42; Ordi
nances, 85; Life in New York, 85;
streets, 88; government, 88. — See also
Dutch, New Netherlands, New York.
New Ceserea. — See New Jersey.
New England, Josselyn's description, 29;
rents, 43; planting of, 45; early town-
meetings, 47; difficulties, 47; life in, 48,
74; motives for settling, 48; Quakers, 80;
opinion of Jefferson, 199. — See also
Colonies, and States by name.
New England Confederation, topics, xxxv.
New Hampshire, topics, xxxv; foundation,
55-
New Holland. — See New Netherlands.
New Jersey, topics, xxxv ; land system, 63 ;
communistic tendencies, 64 ; government,
64; militia, 151 ; mosquitoes, I64.
New Mexico, territorial government, 280,
286. — See also Mexico, Spain.
New Netherlands, situation, 42; religion,
42, 87 ; settlement, 43 ; climate, 43 ; fur-
trade, 44; government, 86; population,
89. — See also Dutch, New Amsterdam,
New York.
New Orleans, to become American, 168;
battle of, 220 ; amusements, 240 ; capture,
313. — See also Louisiana.
Newport, Capt. Christopher, note, 11 ; enter
tained by Indians, 12; arrival, 35.
" New Roof," The, 178.
Newspapers, as sources, xxiii, 36a
Newtowne. — See Cambridge.
New Year's Day, in New Netherlands,
86.

New York, topics, xxxv; courts, 38; stat
utes, 58; government, 58, 128; militia,
58; fortification, 59; boundary, 59; trade,
60, 203; population, 61, 118; religion,
62; taxes, 62; description by Kalm, 117;
buildings, 118; blockade, 202; on seces
sion, 304. — See also Colonies, New Am
sterdam, New Netherlands.
New York City. — See New York.
New York Historical Society, The Jogues
Papers, 44.
Nipissings, lake of the, 14.
Normal Schools, sources in, xxix.
North. — See Civil War, Secession, Slavery,
States by name, Territories, Union.
North Carolina, inducements to immi
grants, 108; exemption from debts, 108.
— See also Carolinas, South.
North River.— See Hudson.
North Wales, in Pennsylvania, 68.
Northwest Ordinance, inner history, 169;
passes, 172; effect, 280.; on the Missouri
Compromise, 29a
Nullification, McDuffie on, 245. — See also
Secession.
O'CALLAGHAN, E. B., Documents
relative to the Colonial History of the
State of New York, 62, 107.
Ogilby, John, America, 63.
Oglethorpe, j- E-, Progress of Georgia.
71-
Ohio, La Salle on the, 97.
Ohio Company, before Congress, 169.
Old South Church, mentioned, 137.
Old South Leaflets, xxii.
Orders in Council. — See Neutral Trade.
Ordinance of 1787. — See Northwest Ordi
nance.
Oregon, topics, xliii ; Drake off the coast,
11; Lewis and Clark in, 209; trail to,
268 ; emigration to, 270.
Oregon (ship), remarkable voyage, 386.
Oxford, examinations at, 20.
Oysters, in Virginia, 34.
PACIFIC OCEAN, Lewis and Clark at,
009.

Negroes — Reconcentrados 403

Paine, Thomas, poem attributed to, 143;
Additions to Common Sense, 144.
Pakenham, Sir Edward, killed at New
Orleans, 222,
Papal bull, English opinion, 22.
Paper money. — See Currency.
Parkman, Francis, Jr., Oregon Trail,
268-271.
Parliament, petition to, 23; claims of, 138;
colonial measures, 138; supremacy, 161.
— See also England.
Parroquets, in Virginia, 92.
Passaroaquoddy Bay, in Treaty of 1814,
225.
Patronage, removals by Jefferson, 198 ; used
by Tweed Ring, 355; conduct of national,
363. 364.
Patroon system, in New Netherlands, 44.
Pausch, Capt. Georg, At Saratoga, 154;
Journal, 157.
Peace. — See Treaties.
Peloubet, F. W., Supplies for the
Wounded, 311.
Penn, William, relations with Fenwick, 63 ;
proprietor of Pennsylvania, 68; treat
ment of Indians, 68.
Pennsylvania, topics, xxxvi; settlement, 67;
religion, 67; industry, 68; immigration
from Germany, 68 ; growth, 69.
Pennsylvania Magazine, 65, 159.
Perfect Description of Virginia, 92.
Petition of W. C, 23.
Petitions, to Parliament, 23 ; to James 1,37 ;
right of the colonists, 142.
Philadelphia, growth, 69; social life, 115;
markets, 115; Christ Church, 116; mili
tia, 151 ; under the British, 158 ; Centen
nial Exposition, 359, — See also Pennsyl
vania.
Philippines, topics, xlvi ; conditions, 382.
Pilgrims. — See Plymouth.
Pinckney, C. C, XYZ Despatches, 191.
Piscataqua, settlements on, 56.
Plantations, life on, 50, 91, in. — See also
Slavery.
Plymouth, topics, xxxv; settlement of, 39;
Roger Williams in, 52.
Pocahontas, note on, 34.

Politics. — See Colonies, Election, Govern
ment, Union.
Ponce, Gen. Miles occupies, 389.
Porter, David D., at New Orleans, 314.
Porter, Horace, Surrender of Lee, 329,
Porto Rico, Gen. Miles occupies, 389.
Potomac — See Army, Civil War.
Poultry, in New England; 31.
Powhatan, and Capt Newport, 13; and
Capt Smith, 34.
Presbyterians, James I on, 38 ; in the col
onies, 234.
Prescott, Samuel, alarms Concord, 144.
President, position of, 173, 363. '
Princeton, battle, 149; Congress at, 164.
Proprietors, Maryland, 49; Carolina, 65,
90; Pennsylvania, 68.
Proud, Robert, History of Pennsylvania,
69.
Providence, founded, 54. — See also Rhode
Island.
Provincetown, Mayflower at, 40.
Puritans, character, xxx; in New Amster
dam, 43. — See also Massachusetts, Ply
mouth, Religion.
Purviance, Samuel, How to Manack
Elections, 126.
QUAKERS, topics, xxxvi; characteristics,
20; in Pennsylvania, 67; persecuted in
Massachusetts, 80; meeting, 117. — See
also Religion.
Quebec, founded. 14; captured, 105.— See
also Canada, French.
Quincy, Josiah, Effect of the Em
bargo, 209; Speeches, 211.
Quivira, Coronado in, 7.
RANDOLPH. SARAH N.. Domestic Ufe
•*¦»¦ of Thomas Jefferson, 231.
Randolph, Thomas, Virginia Gentle
man, 228.
Rankin, Rev. John, American Slavery, 244.
Ratification. — See Constitution.
Reading, in schools, xxv ; in classes, xxvii.
Rebellion. — See Civil War.
Recollect Fathers, note on, 15.
Reconcentrados, note on, 375.

4<H

Index

Reconstruction, topics, xiv; Lee on, 342;
proclamation of May 29, 1865, 343 ; con
gressional, 344; in Louisiana, 346; failure,
349-
Redpath, James, John Brown, 296.
Reform. — See Civil Service, Patronage.
Religion, topics, xxxvi; prophesying, 37;
superstition in New England, 75 ; Puritan
doctrine, 77; Quaker doctrine, 80. — See
also colonies by name and sects by
name.
Removals. — See Patronage.
Rensselaers, colony of, 44.
Reorganization, topics, xiii.
Report of the Committee of Seven, xviii.
Republic. — See Union.
Republican party, on reconstruction, 344.
Resumption, of specie payments, 360. —
See also Currency.
Revolution, illustrations from, xxviii ; topics,
xxxix, xl; Boston Tea-Party, 137; colo
nists' case, 138 ; English case, 141 ; " Pa
triot's Prayer," 143 ; battles, 144, 149, 151,
154; government, 147, 181; finances, 157.
— See_ also Army, colonies by name, Eng
lish, Government, Union, War.
Rhode Island, topics, xxxv ; founded, 52.
— See also Williams, Roger.
Rice, in Virginia, 91 ; slavery on planta
tions, 254, 258.
Richmond, site, 13;
Rio del Norte, boundary, 201.
Rio Perdita, boundary, 201.
Riots, in elections, 127, 289; anti-abolition
ist, 248.
Ribinson, William, A Quaker Warn
ing, 80.
R iman Catholics. — See Catholics.
R josevelt, Theodore, The Rough Riders,
380; at Guasimas, 380.
R lsecrans, Gen., at Murfreesboro, 320.
Rojgh Riders, at the front, 380.
Roxbury, founded, 47.
Russell, W. H., account of Bull Run, 308.
SABBATH. — See Sunday.
Sadler, John, Requirements of an
Emigrant, 26.

Saint Gabriel. — See Carhagouha.
St. Lawrence, Champlain on, 14 ; naviga
tion, 358.
Salem (Del.), visit to, 70.
Salem (Mass.), Puritans at, 46; Roger
Williams at, 52.
Sampson, Admiral, at Santiago, 388.
Sanchez, Raphael, letter to, 1.
San Domingo, discovered, 2.
San Francisco, Drake in the bay, II.
San Juan (Cuba), battle of, 388.
San Juan (Porto Rico), shelled, 387.
San Salvador, discovered, 1.
Santiago de Cuba, Cervera in, 386; shelled,
387 ; capitulates, 389.
Saratoga, battle of, 154.
Saunders, William L, Records of North
Carolina, 90, 109.
Savannah, founded, 72; site, 73.
Schley, Commodore, at Santiago, 387.
Schools, secondary, sources in, xxiv; at
Oxford, 20 ; in Virginia, 92 ; colonial, 122 ;
flogging, 123 ; school-committee, 134; in
Boston, 227; for contrabands, 339; in
Louisiana, 348.
Scioto, prosperity of, 167.
Scotch-Irish, in America, 138.
Scotland, peace with, 22; trade with, 89.
Scott, Dred. — See Dred Scott.
Scribner's Magazine, 382.
Scrooby, Pilgrims come from, 39.
Search, right of. — See Neutral Trade.
Secession, topics, xliv; causes, 282-296;
corner-stone, 296 ; attack on Fort Sumter,
299; North aroused, 303; Southern sol
dier, 308; cave life, 320; surrender, 329;
effects, 336. — See also Civil War,
Slavery, South.
Secondary schools, sources in, xxiv-xxviii.
Secretary of the Navy, Report, 315.
Secretary of War, Report, 349.
Senate Executive Documents, 385.
Senate Reports, 379.
Servants (white), topics, xxxvii; cost of,
26; needed in Virginia, 26; sold in
Maryland, 50; in New Jersey, 63; Vir
ginia laws, 93. — See also Industries,
Slavery.

Reconstruction - — States

405

Settlement, topics, xxxiv ; conditions, 18-32 ;
first era, 33-57; second era, 58-73. — See
also Colonies, and the colonies by name,
Territories, West.
Seventeenth century, topics, xxxvi.
Seward, William H., on emancipation,
316.
Seymour, John, Discomforts of Colo
nial Life, 108.
Shadrach, rescue, 282.
Shafter, Major-Gen., lands at Daiquiri, 387 ;
occupies Santiago, 389.
Shays's Rebellion, effects, 176.
Sheldon, George, History of Deerfield, 100.
Sheridan, Gen. P. H„ in Louisiana, 347.
Sherman, Roger, in Congress, 148.
Sioux, country of, 98. — See also Indians,
Six Nations. — See Indians, Iroquois.
Staffer, E. F., Voyages of Champlain, 17.
Slavery, general topics, xxxvi, xl, xliv; argu
ments against, topics, xliii; arguments
against, extracts, 235, 242, 263, 271, 323;
defence of, topics, xliii ; defence of, ex
tracts, 245, 247, 296; episodes, topics,
xliii ; episodes, extract, 255 ; life of slaves,
topics, xliii ; life of slaves, narrative, 246 ;
fugitive slaves, topics, xliv; fugitive slaves,
narratives, 253, 160; fugitive slaves, legis
lation, 93, 281; colonial legislation, 92;
baptism, 93 ; numbers, 120, 244 ; dangers,
120, 243; English government on, 121;
price, 254; sugar plantations, 254; pri
vate earnings, 257 ; rice plantations, 258 ;
Missouri Compromise, 286 ; in the terri
tories, 200, 291 ; in the Confederacy, 296 ;
emancipation, 315. — See also colonies
and States by name, and Slave-trade,
Squatter Sovereignty.
Slave-trade, international, topics, xliii; in
terstate, topics, xliii; interstate, conduct
of, 251 ; slave-drivers, 253.
Sluyter, Peter, Maryland, 48, Voyage to
New York, 51.
Smith, John, Settlement of Virginia,
33 ; exertions, 36; Generall Historic 37,
Smith, Jonathan B., Political Harvest
Time, 175.
Smithfield, woman burned at, 18.

Smuggling, in South Carolina, 89. — See
also Trade,
Smyth, Thomas, governor of Carolina, 67.
Social life, topics, xxxvi, xxxvii. — See also
Table of Contents. •
Sources, use of, xvii; materials for source
study, xx ; bibliographies of, xx ; reprints
of, xxi; additional, xxii; in secondary
schools, xxiv; in normal schools, xxix;
topics for, xxxiii.
South, topics, xiv; policy before the war,
271; spirit, 310; reconstruction, 336;
political corruption after the war, 351. —
See also Civil War, Reconstruction, Seces
sion, Slavery, Territories, States by name.
South America, trade with, 167.
South Carolina, description, 65 ; govern
ment, 65; nobility in, 65; history, 66;
aids Georgia, 73 ; war in, 151 ; slavery in,
245; begins the Civil War, 303; recon
struction, 336. — See also Carol inas, Civil
War, Colonies, Slavery, South.
Southwest, life in the, 240. — See also the
States and territories by name.
Spain, discoverers, topics, xxxiv, accounts,
1,6; claims Virginia, 22; trade, 89, 167 ; on
the Mississippi, 167; in the Floridas, aoi ;
rule in Cuba, 373 ; war policy in Cuba,
374; rule in the Philippines, 383. — See
also Spanish War.
Spanish War, topics, xlvi ; review of, 385;
naval preparations, 386; destruction of
Spanish fleet, 388; results of, 39a — See
also Army, Cuba, Spain, War.
Spelman, Henry, Indian Life, 23; Rela
tion of Virginia, 26.
Squatter sovereignty, Benton on, 285;
Douglas on, 291 ; Dred Scott Decision,
292. — See also Slavery, Territories.
Stamp Act, topics, xxxix.
Standish, Miles, character of, 41.
Stanhope, Earl of, Council of Trade,
124.
Starks, William J., Troubles in Cuba,
373-
States, records as sources, xxiii; land
claims, xl ; constitutions, xl ; ratification,
xl; admissions, xii; secession, xliv. —

406

Index

See also Secession, Union, and States by
name.
Stearns, Charles, Henry Box Brown,
263.
Stedman, E. C, Bull Run, 305; Battle
of Bull Run, 308.
Stephens, A. H., Corner-Stone of the
Confederacy, 296.
Stevens, Thaddeus, Congressional Re
construction, 344.
Stevenson, Marmaduke, A Quaker
Warning, 80.
Stone River. — See Murfreesboro.
Sunday, observance of, in New England,
79; in New Amsterdam, 85; in New
Orleans, 240. — Sec also Religion.
Swedes, settlement of, 43; receive the
Quakers, 67 ; in Delaware, 7a
Symes, Benjamin, free-school, 92.
TALLEYRAND, in X Y Z affair, 191.
Tariff, illustrated, xxx ; danger to Union,
174 ; first tariff debate, 184.
Taylor, Geo. L., Supplies for the
Wounded, 311.
Taylor, Zachary, on Compromise, 280.
Teaching, reforms in, xxiv ; with sources,.
xxiv-xxxii ; Normal training, xxxii, xxxiii.
Tea-party, Boston, 1773, 137.
Temperance, in South Carolina, 72; in
Massachusetts, 74; need of, 121.
Temple, Sir John, at Philadelphia, 170.
Territories, topics, xliii, xliv ; rival claims
to America, 1-17 ; Northwest Ordinance
169; Louisiana, 200, 240; Oregon, 206;
Missouri Compromise, 234; Western
settlements, 237 ; Mexican War, 271 ;
California, 276; Compromise of 1850,
279 ; Kansas-Nebraska, 284 ; Kansas, 287 ;
Dred Scott, 290; Cuba, 373; Philippines,
382. — See also States and territories by
name, Slavery, West.
Texas, topics, xliv ; title to, 202 ; annexa
tion, 272 ; slavery, 280, 286.
Text-books, use of, xxv, xxx. — See also
Class-room.
Thanksgiving, in Georgia, 72; in Massa
chusetts, 74.

Tilden, Samuel Jones, Tweed Ring, 352;
Writings and Speeches, 355.
Tobacco, in Virginia, 28 ; m Maryland, 49 ;
in North Carolina, 89.
Toleration, in England, 39; in Maryland,
50; in Rhode Island, 54; in the Caro-
linas, 66; Quakers claim, 82. — See also
Puritans, Religion.
Tonty, Henry Sieur de, La Salle on the
Mississippi, 96.
Town life, topics, xxxvi. — See also towns
and cities by name.
Town-meeting, description, 132; conduct,
132; officers, 132; summons, 133.
Townsend, Richard, Settlement of
Pennsylvania, 67.
Trade, topics, xxxviii, xiii: colonial, 88;
fur, 101; Indian, 101. — See also Indus
tries, and colonies, towns, and nations by
name.
Trade and Plantations, Commissioners of,
letter to, 108; duties, 124; activity, 131.
Travel, topics, xxxvi, xxxviii.
Treaties, topics, xl, xiii, xlvi; Jay's, 194;
Ghent, 223 ; Washington, 355. — See also
War.
Trees, in West Indies, 2 ; in New England,
29 ; in Virginia, 91.
Tribune, New York, Battle of Gettys
burg, 323-327.
Tudor, Deacon John, Boston Tea-Party,
137-
Tudor, William, Deacon Tudor's Diary,
137.
Turkeys, in Virginia, 12 ; in Pennsylvania,
68.
Tweed Ring, Tilden on, 352.
UNION, topics, xiii, xlvi; New York
Tories, 140; Declaration of Inde
pendence, 147; Articles of Confedera
tion, 164; Federal Constitution, 172-180;
organization, 181-188; Calhoun on, 234;
J. Q. Adams on, 237; Lowell on, 276;
and uniformity, 292; and slavery, 296;
effect of the war on, 344 ; future of, 390.
— See also Congress, Constitution, Gov
ernment, Revolution.

Stearns — Women

407

United States. — See Army, Cabinet, Civil
War, Colonies, Confederation, Congress,
Constitution, Cuba, Foreign Relations,
Government, Indians, Navy, Revolution,
Secession, Slavery, Territories, Union,
West, and Table of Contents.
U. S. Christian Commission, First Annual
Report, 312.
University of Pennsylvania, Graydon at, 122.
Uplands. — See Chester.
Utah, territorial government, 280, 286.
VALMASEDA, commander in Cuba, 375.
Vancouver's Island, arbitration, 358.
Varona, Enrique Jose, Cuban Indict
ment of Spanish Rule, 376.
Verney,- Lady, letter to, 26.
Vicksburg, siege of, 320 ; life in, 322.
Virginia, character of, xxix ; topics, xxxiv ;
resources, 21 ; danger from Spain, 22 ;
voyage to, 23; Dutch in, 23; troubles
with Indians, 33; Smith in, 33; neglect,
35; exports, 35, 75 ; climate, 92; schools,'
92; Cornwallis in, 160; exhaustion of soil,
254 ; slave-trade, 254.
Virginia Assembly, Slavery in Vir
ginia, 92.
Virginia Company, note' on, 35.
Visitations, archdeaconal, 37.
WALES, emigration from, 68.
Wampum. — See Currency.
War, Revolutionary, topics, xxxix; account,
137-160 ; of 1812, topics, xiii ; account,
212-225 : Mexican, topics, xliv ; satirized,
271 ; Civil, topics, xiv ; account, 303-335 ;
Spanish, topics, xlvi ; account, 373-392.
Warville, Brissot de, The West, 166;
New Travels, 168.
Washington, George, Braddock's De
feat, 103 ; Writings, 105, 151 ; REPORT
of the Battle of Princeton, 149;
praise of, 159; Democratic view of, 181 ;
inauguration, 181.
Washington, city, capture of, 218; during
the Civil War, 311 ; Treaty of, 355.
Waterfalls, in Virginia, 13.
Watertown, founded, 47 ; dam at, 75.

Wellington, Duke of, on peace of 1814, 224.
West, topics, xxxix ; frontier life, topics, xiii ;
pilgrims, 163; description of, 166; land-
holding, 167; Northwest Ordinance, 169;
religious life, 231 ; farm life, 237 ; aboli
tion, 242; political abolition, 263 ; Oregon
Trail, 268 ; California, 276 ; Kansas, 287 ;
Lincoln, 291; soldiers, 318 ; Indians, 366.
— See also Colonies, French, Indians,
Territories and States by name.
Whale, found at Cape Cod, 76.
Wheelwright, John, note on, 55; troubles
Massachusetts, 55; appeals to the king,
56 ; banished, 57 ; goes to Exeter, 57.
Whiskey,.from Indian corn, 32.
Whitefield, Rev. George, The Great
Awakening, 109; visits Harvard, no;
Continuation of Journal, III.
Whitehead, W. A., Documents relating to
the Colonial History of New Jersey, 126.
White Mountains, noticed by Josselyn, 29.
Whitney, J. L, Literature of the Nineteenth
of April, 146.
Whittier, John Greenleaf, FAREWELL OF
a Slave Mother, 258; as an aboli
tionist, 258 ; Poems, 260, 360 ; " CENTEN
NIAL Hymn," 358.
Wilkinson, Eliza, SOUTHERN LADY'S
Experience, 151 ; Letters, 154.
Williams, Roger, doctrine, 53; banished,
54 ; founds Providence, 54 ; establishes
toleration, 54.
Wilson, Rev. John, anecdote of, 75.
Wine, trade in, 89; irr Virginia, 91.
Winship, George Parker, The Coronado
Expedition, 8.
Winthrop, Fitz-John, papers of, 98.
Winthrop, John, goes to New England, 45 ;
New Hampshire, 55; New England
Life, 74 ; History of New England, 57,
76.
Witchcraft, topics, xxxvi ; a trial for, 8a. *
Witherspoon, Rev. John, Conduct of
THE BRITISH MINISTRY-, 138; Miscel
laneous Works, 140.
Wolves, in Salem, 79; in Maryland, na.
Women, dress, 20 ; encourage emigrants, 26 ;
at Plymouth, 40; Anne Hutchinson, 55;

408

Index

in New England churches, 77, 78 ; witch
trials, 82 ; in New Netherlands, 87 ; slaves,
93; at Deerfield, 99; a proper bride, 111 ;
a white servant, 113; pretty creatures,
115, 116; Eliza Wilkinson, 151 ; fashions,
165; at camp-meeting, 233; in New Or
leans, 241; abolitionists, 249; Charity
Bowery, 255 ; slave mother, 258 ; cross
ing the plains, 270 ; a lady at Vicksburg,
320 ; a Yankee negro teacher, 339.

World, Hew York, Resumption, 360-
3^3-
Writing schools. — See Schools.
Written work, from sources, xx, xxvii.

X

Y Z affair, despatches, 191 ; result of,

194.
RK
62.

V ORK, Duke of, aids Church of England,

AMERICAN HISTORY
TOLD BY CONTEMPORARIES.

by

ALBERT BUSHNELL HAST,
Harvard University.

The Set of Four Volumes, $7.00. Each Volume
sold separately, price $2.00.

Vol. I. Era of Colonization, 1493-1689.
Publislied i8oj.
Vol. II. Buildingof the Nation, 1689-1783.
Published 1807.
Vol. III. National Expansion, 1783- 1844.
In Preparation.
Vol. IV. Welding of the Nation, 1845-1897.
In Preparation.

Professor T. H. Wood, of Worcester Academy, Worces
ter, Mass., says of Vol. I.: "The plan and the contents
are alike admirable. The set will be a necessity for
libraries and for teachers of American History."

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY,
66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK.

The American Commonwealth.

BY THE

Right Hon. JAMES BRYCE, D.C.L.,
Author of "Tub Holy Romam Empire "; MJP. fob Aberdeen.
Third Edition, Revised Throughout. In Two Volumes.

Large umow $4.00, net. Abridged Edition, In one volume, 91.75, net.

PRESS NOTICES.
"His work rises at once to an eminent place among studies of great nations and
their institutions. It is, so far as America goes, a work unique in scope, spirit, and
knowledge. There is nothing like it anywhere extant, nothing that approaches
it. . . . Without exaggeration it may be called the most considerable and gratify
ing tribute that has yet been bestowed upon us by an Englishman, and perhaps by
even England herself. . . . One despairs in an attempt to give, in a single news
paper article, an adequate account of a work so infused with knowledge and spark
ling with suggestion. . . . Every thoughtful American will read it and will long
hold in grateful remembrance its author's name." — The New York Times.
"Written with full knowledge by a distinguished Englishman to dispel vulgar
prejudices and to help kindred people to understand each other better, Professor
Bryce 's work is in a sense an embassy of peace, a message of good-will from one
nation to another." — The Times, London.
"This work will be invaluable . . . to the American citizen who wishes something
more than a superficial knowledge of the political system under which he lives and
of the differences between it and those of other countries. . . . The fact is that no
writer has ever attempted to present so comprehensive an account of our political
system, founded upon such length of observation, enriched with so great a mass of
detail, and so thoroughly practical in its character. . . . We have here a store
house of political information regarding America such as no other writer, American
or other, has ever provided in one work. ... It will remain a standard even for
the American reader." — New York Tribune.
" The book should be known by every American who wishes to understand his
own country. ... It is by far the most able, sincere, candid, and impartial study
of the condition of the United States that has ever appeared since De Tocqueville's
memorable work." — Boston Beacon.
THE AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH. Abridged Edition. For the use
of Colleges and High Schools. Being an Introduction to the Study of
the Government and Institutions of the United States. One VoL Crown
8vo. £1.75, rut.
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY,
66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK.

3 9002 00613 7260