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by John Bach McMaster
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Title: A Brief History of the United States
Author: John Bach McMaster
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE U.S. ***
Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
BY
JOHN BACH McMASTER
[Illustration: GEORGE WASHINGTON. Painted by Rembrandt Peale.]
PREFACE
It is not too much to assert that most of our countrymen acquire at school
all the knowledge they possess of the past history of their country. In
view of this fact it is most desirable that a history of the United States
for elementary schools should present not only the essential features of
our country's progress which all should learn, but also many things of
secondary consequence which it is well for every young American to know.
In this book the text proper consists of the essentials, and these are
told in as few words as truth and fairness will permit. The notes, which
form a large part of the book, include the matters of less fundamental
importance: they may be included in the required lessons, or may be
omitted, as the teacher thinks proper; however, they should at least be
read. Some of the notes are outline biographies of men whose acts require
mention in the text and who ought not to be mere names, nor appear
suddenly without any statement of their earlier careers. Others are
intended to be fuller statements of important events briefly described or
narrated in the text, or relate to interesting events that are of only
secondary importance. Still others call attention to the treatment of
historical personages or events by our poets and novelists, or suggest
passages in standard histories that may be read with profit. Such
suggested readings have been chosen mostly from books that are likely to
be found in all school libraries.
Much of the machinery sometimes used in history teaching--bibliographies,
extensive collateral readings, judgment questions, and the like--have been
omitted as out of place in a brief school history. Better results may be
obtained by having the pupils write simple narratives in their own words,
covering important periods and topics in our history: as, the discovery of
America; the exploration of our coast and continent; the settlements that
failed; the planting of the English colonies; the life of the colonists;
the struggles for possession of the country; the causes of the Revolution;
the material development of our country between certain dates; and other
subjects that the teacher may suggest. The student who can take such broad
views of our history, and put his knowledge in his own words, will acquire
information that is not likely to be forgotten.
No trouble has been spared in the selection of interesting and authentic
illustrations that will truly illustrate the text. Acknowledgment is due
for permission to photograph many articles in museums and in the
possession of various historical societies. The reproduction of part of
Lincoln's proclamation on page 365 is inserted by courtesy of David McKay,
publisher of Lossing's _Civil War in America_.
JOHN BACH McMASTER.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
[Illustration: U. S. BATTLESHIP.]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION
I. THE NEW WORLD FOUND
II. THE ATLANTIC COAST AND THE PACIFIC DISCOVERED
III. FRANCE AND ENGLAND ATTEMPT TO SETTLE AMERICA
THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA
IV. THE ENGLISH ON THE CHESAPEAKE
V. THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND
VI. THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES
VII. HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED
RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH
VIII. THE INDIANS
IX. THE FRENCH IN AMERICA
X. WARS WITH THE FRENCH
XI. THE FRENCH DRIVEN FROM AMERICA
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
XII. THE QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY
XIII. THE FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE BEGUN
XIV. THE WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON THE SEA
XV. THE WAR IN THE WEST AND IN THE SOUTH
DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION
XVI. AFTER THE WAR
XVII. OUR COUNTRY IN 1789
XVIII. THE NEW GOVERNMENT
XIX. GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY, 1789-1805
XX. THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE
XXI. RISE OF THE WEST
XXII. THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING
XXIII. POLITICS FROM 1829 TO 1841
XXIV. GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1820 TO 1840
THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY
XXV. MORE TERRITORY ACQUIRED
XXVI. THE STRUGGLE FOR FREE SOIL
XXVII. STATE OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1840 TO 1860
XXVIII. THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1863
XXIX. THE CIVIL WAR, 1863-1865
XXX. THE NAVY IN THE WAR; LIFE IN WAR TIMES
XXXI. RECONSTRUCTION
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
XXXII. GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1860 TO 1880
XXXIII. A QUARTER CENTURY OF STRUGGLE OVER INDUSTRIAL QUESTIONS, 1872
TO 1897
XXXIV. THE WAR WITH SPAIN, AND LATER EVENTS
APPENDIX
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
TABLE OF STATES
TABLE OF PRESIDENTS
INDEX
LIST OF COLORED MAPS
FRENCH CLAIMS, ETC., IN 1700
EASTERN NORTH AMERICA, 1754
BRITISH TERRITORY, 1764
NORTHERN COLONIES DURING THE REVOLUTION--SOUTHERN COLONIES DURING THE
REVOLUTION
THE UNITED STATES, ABOUT 1783, SHOWING STATE CLAIMS
THE UNITED STATES, 1805
THE UNITED STATES, 1824
THE UNITED STATES, 1850
THE UNITED STATES, 1861
THE WEST IN 1870 (ALSO 1860 AND 1907)
THE UNITED STATES AND ITS OUTLYING POSSESSIONS
[Illustration: "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for
which it stands; one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for
all."]
COLUMBUS
Behind him lay the gray Azores,
Behind the Gates of Hercules;
Before him not the ghost of shores,
Before him only shoreless seas.
The good mate said: "Now we must pray,
For, lo! the very stars are gone.
Brave Admiral, speak; what shall I say?"
"Why say, 'Sail on! sail on! and on!'"
"My men grow mutinous day by day;
My men grow ghastly wan and weak."
The stout mate thought of home; a spray
Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek.
"What shall I say, brave Admiral, say,
If we sight naught but seas at dawn?"
"Why you shall say at break of day,
'Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!'"
They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow,
Until at last the blanched mate said:
"Why, now not even God would know
Should I and all my men fall dead.
These very winds forget their way,
For God from these dread seas is gone,
Now speak, brave Admiral; speak and say"--
He said, "Sail on! sail on! and on!"
They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate:
"This mad sea shows its teeth to-night.
He curls his lips, he lies in wait
With lifted teeth, as if to bite!
Brave Admiral, say but one good word;
What shall we do when hope is gone?"
The words leapt like a leaping sword:
"Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!"
Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck,
And peered through darkness. Ah, that night
Of all dark nights! And then a speck--
A light! A light! A light! A light!
It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!
It grew to be Time's burst of dawn.
He gained a world; he gave that world
Its grandest lesson: "On! sail on!"
--Joaquin Miller.
Copyrighted and published by The Whitaker & Ray Wiggin Co. San Francisco,
California. Used by permission.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
CHAPTER I
THE NEW WORLD FOUND
The New World, of which our country is the most important part, was
discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492. When that great man set sail
from Spain on his voyage of discovery, he was seeking not only unknown
lands, but a new way to eastern Asia. Such a new way was badly needed.
THE ROUTES OF TRADE.--Long before Columbus was born, the people of Europe
had been trading with the far East. Spices, drugs, and precious stones,
silks, and other articles of luxury were brought, partly by vessels and
partly by camels, from India, the Spice Islands, and Cathay (China) by
various routes to Constantinople and the cities in Egypt and along the
eastern shore of the Mediterranean. There they were traded for the copper,
tin, and lead, coral, and woolens of Europe, and then carried to Venice
and Genoa, whence merchants spread them over all Europe. [1] The merchants
of Genoa traded chiefly with Constantinople, and those of Venice with
Egypt.
THE TURKS SEIZE THE ROUTES OF TRADE.--While this trade was at its height,
Asia Minor (from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean) was conquered by the
Turks, the caravan routes across that country were seized, and when
Constantinople was captured (in 1453), the trade of Genoa was ruined.
Should the Turkish conquests be extended southward to Egypt (as later they
were), the prosperity of Venice would likewise be destroyed, and all
existing trade routes to the Orient would be in Turkish hands.
[Illustration: THE KNOWN WORLD IN 1490; ROUTES TO INDIA.]
THE PORTUGUESE SEEK A NEW ROUTE.--Clearly an ocean route to the East was
needed, and on the discovery of such a route the Portuguese had long been
hard at work. Fired by a desire to expand Portugal and add to the
geographical knowledge of his day, Prince Henry "the Navigator" sent out
explorer after explorer, who, pushing down the coast of Africa, had almost
reached the equator before Prince Henry died. [2] His successors continued
the good work, the equator was crossed, and in 1487 Dias passed the Cape
of Good Hope and sailed eastward till his sailors mutinied. Ten years
later Vasco da Gama sailed around the end of Africa, up the east coast,
and on to India, and brought home a cargo of eastern products. A way to
India by water was at last made known to Europe. [3]
[Illustration: A CARAVEL, A SHIP OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.]
COLUMBUS PLANS A ROUTE.--Meanwhile Christopher Columbus [4] planned what
he thought would be a shorter ocean route to the East. He had studied all
that was known of geography in his time. He had carefully noted the
results of recent voyages of exploration. He had read the travels of Marco
Polo [5] and had learned that off the coast of China was a rich and
wonderful island which Polo called Cipango. He believed that the earth is
a sphere, and that China and Cipango could be reached by sailing about
2500 miles due westward across the Atlantic.
COLUMBUS SEEKS AID.--To make others think so was a hard task, for nearly
everybody believed the earth to be flat, and several sovereigns were
appealed to before one was found bold enough to help him. He first applied
to the king of Portugal, and when that failed, to the king and queen of
Spain. [6] When they seemed deaf to his appeal, he sent his brother to
England, and at last, wearied with waiting, set off for France. Then Queen
Isabella of Spain was persuaded to act. Columbus was recalled, [7] ships
were provided with which to make the voyage, and on Friday, the 3d of
August, 1492, the _Santa Maria_ (sahn'tah mah-ree'ah), the _Pinta_
(peen'tah), and the _Niña_ (neen'yah) set sail from Palos (pah'los), on
one of the greatest voyages ever made by men. [8]
[Illustration: THE COUNCIL OF SALAMANCA.]
THE VOYAGE WESTWARD.--The little fleet went first to the Canary Islands
and thence due west across the Sea of Darkness, as the Atlantic was
called. The voyage was delightful, but every sight and sound was a source
of new terror to the sailors. An eruption of a volcano at the Canaries was
watched with dread as an omen of evil. They crossed the line of no
magnetic variation, and when the needle of the compass began to change its
usual direction, they were sure it was bewitched. They entered the great
Sargasso Sea and were frightened out of their wits by the strange expanse
of floating vegetation. They entered the zone of the trade winds, and as
the breeze, day after day, steadily wafted them westward, the boldest
feared it would be impossible to return. When a mirage and flights of
strange birds raised hopes that were not promptly realized, the sailors
were sure they had entered an enchanted realm. [9]
[Illustration: SEA MONSTERS DRAWN ON OLD MAPS.]
LAND DISCOVERED.--Columbus, who was above such fear, explained the unusual
sights, calmed the fears of the sailors, hid from them the true distance
sailed, [10] and steadily pursued his way till unmistakable signs of land
were seen. A staff carved by hand and a branch with berries on it floated
by. Excitement now rose high, and a reward was promised to the man who
first saw land. At last, on the night of October 11, Columbus beheld a
light moving as if carried by hand along a shore. A few hours later a
sailor on the _Pinta_ saw land distinctly, and soon all beheld, a few
miles away, a long, low beach. [11]
[Illustration: ANCIENT VIKING SHIP FOUND BURIED IN NORWAY.]
THE VOYAGE AMONG THE ISLANDS.--Columbus thought he had found one of the
islands of the Indies, as the southern and eastern parts of Asia were
called. Dressed in scarlet and gold and followed by a band of his men
bearing banners, he landed, fell on his knees, and having given thanks to
God, took possession for Spain and called the island San Salvador (sahn
sahl-va-dor'), which means Holy Savior. The day was October 12, 1492, and
the island was one of the Bahamas. [12]
After giving red caps, beads, and trinkets to the natives who crowded
about him, Columbus set sail to explore the group and presently came in
sight of the coast of Cuba, which he at first thought was Cipango. Sailing
eastward, landing now and then to seek for gold, he reached the eastern
end of Cuba, and soon beheld the island of Haiti; this so reminded him of
Spain that he called it Hispaniola, or Little Spain.
THE FIRST SPANISH COLONY IN THE NEW WORLD.--When off the Cuban shore, the
_Pinta_ deserted Columbus. On the coast of Haiti the _Santa Maria_ was
wrecked. To carry all his men back to Spain in the little _Nina_ was
impossible. Such, therefore, as were willing were left at Haiti, and
founded La Navidad, the first colony of Europeans in the New World. [13]
This done, Columbus sailed for home, taking with him ten natives, and
specimens of the products of the lands he had discovered.
THE VOYAGE HOME.--The _Pinta_ was overtaken off the Haitian coast, but a
dreadful storm parted the ships once more, and neither again saw the
other till the day when, but a few hours apart, they dropped anchor in the
haven of Palos, whence they had sailed seven months before. As the news
spread, the people went wild with joy. The journey of Columbus to
Barcelona was a triumphal procession. At Barcelona he was received with
great ceremony by the king and queen, and soon afterward was sent back
with many ships and men to found a colony and make further explorations in
the Indies.
[Illustration: THE WEST INDIES--SHOWING THE DISCOVERIES OF COLUMBUS.]
OTHER VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS.--In all Columbus made four voyages to the New
World. On the second (1493) he discovered Porto Rico, Jamaica, and other
islands. On the third (1498) he saw the mainland of South America at the
mouth of the Orinoco River. [14] On the fourth (1502-4) he sailed along
the shores of Central America. Returning to Spain, he died poor,
neglected, and broken-hearted in 1506. [15]
COLUMBUS BELIEVED HE REACHED THE INDIES.--To his dying day Columbus was
ignorant of the fact that he had led the way to a new continent. He
supposed he had reached the Indies. The lands he discovered were therefore
spoken of as the Indies, and their inhabitants were called Indians, a name
given in time to the copper-colored natives of both North and South
America.
SPAIN'S CLAIM TO NEW-FOUND LANDS.--One of the first results of the
discoveries of Columbus was an appeal to the Pope for a bull securing to
Spain the heathen lands discovered; for a bull had secured to Portugal the
discoveries of her mariners along the coast of Africa. Pope Alexander VI
accordingly drew a north and south line one hundred leagues west of the
Cape Verde Islands, and gave to Spain all she might discover to the west
of it, reserving to Portugal all she might discover to the east. A year
later (1494) Spain and Portugal by treaty moved the "Line of Demarcation"
to three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands (map,
p. 20), and on this agreement, approved by the Pope, Spain rested her
claim to America.
SUMMARY
1. For many centuries before the discovery of America, Europe had been
trading with the far East.
2. The routes of this trade were being closed by the Turks.
3. Columbus believed a new route could be found by sailing due westward
from Europe.
4. After many years of fruitless effort to secure aid to test his plan, he
obtained help from Spain.
5. On his first voyage westward Columbus discovered the Bahama Islands,
Cuba, and Haiti; on his later voyages, various other lands about the
Caribbean Sea.
6. In the belief that he had reached the Indies, the lands Columbus found
were called the Indies, and their inhabitants Indians.
FOOTNOTES
[1] In the Middle Ages, when food was coarse and cookery poor, cinnamon
and cloves, nutmeg and mace, allspice, ginger, and pepper were highly
prized for spicing ale or seasoning food. But all these spices were very
expensive in Europe because they had to be brought so far from the distant
East. Even pepper, which is now used by every one, was then a fit gift
from one king to another. Camphor and rhubarb, indigo, musk, sandalwood,
Brazil wood, aloes wood, all came from the East. Muslin and damask bear
the names of eastern cities whence they were first obtained. In the
fifteenth century the churches, palaces, manor houses, and homes of rich
merchants were adorned with the rugs and carpets of the East.
[2] Prince Henry was the fourth son of John I, king of Portugal. In 1419
he established his home on Cape St. Vincent, gathered about him a body of
trained seamen, and during forty years sent out almost every year an
exploring expedition. His pilots discovered the Azores and the Madeira
Islands. He died in 1460. His great work was training seamen. Many men
afterward famous as discoverers and navigators, as Dias (dee'ahss), Da
Gama (dah gah'ma), Cabral (ca-brahl'), Magellan, and Columbus, served
under Henry or his successors.
In those days there were neither steamships nor such sailing vessels as we
have. For purposes of exploration the caravel was used. It was from 60 to
100 feet long, and from 18 to 25 feet broad, and had three masts from the
heads of which were swung great sails. Much of the steering was done by
turning these sails. Yet it was in such little vessels that some of the
most famous voyages in history were made.
[3] These voyages were possible because of the great progress which had
recently been made in the art of navigation. The magnetic compass enabled
seamen to set their course when the sun and stars could not be seen. The
astrolabe (picture, p. 35) made it possible roughly to estimate distances
from the equator, or latitude. These instruments enabled mariners to go on
long voyages far from land. Read the account of the Portuguese voyages in
Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol. I, pp. 294-334.
[4] Christopher Columbus was a native of Genoa, Italy, where he was born
about 1436. He was the son of a wool comber. At fourteen he began a
seafaring life, and between voyages made charts and globes. About 1470 he
wandered to Portugal, went on one or two voyages down the African coast,
and on another (1477) went as far north as Iceland. Meantime (1473) he
married a Portuguese woman and made his home at the Madeira Islands; and
it was while living there that he formed the plan of finding a new route
to the far East.
[5] In 1271 Marco Polo, then a lad of seventeen, was taken by his father
and uncle from Venice to the coast of Persia, and thence overland to
northwestern China, to a city where Kublai Khan held his court. They were
well received, and Marco spent many years making journeys in the khan's
service. In 1292 they were sent to escort a royal bride for the khan from
Peking (in China) to Tabriz, a city in Persia. They sailed from China in
1292, reached the Persian coast in 1294, and arrived safely at Tabriz,
whence they returned to Venice in 1295. In 1298 Marco was captured in a
war with Genoa, and spent about a year in prison. While thus confined he
prepared an account of his travels, one of the most famous books of the
Middle Ages. He described China (or Cathay, as it was then called), with
its great cities teeming with people, its manufactures, and its wealth,
told of Tibet and Burma, the Indian Archipelago with its spice islands, of
Java and Sumatra, of Hindustan,--all from personal knowledge. From hearsay
he told of Japan. In the course of the next seventy-five years other
travelers found their way to Cathay and wrote about it. Thus before 1400
Europe had learned of a great ocean to the east of Cathay, and of a
wonderful island kingdom, Cipan'go (Japan), which lay off its coast. All
this deeply interested Columbus, and his copy of Marco Polo may still be
seen with its margins full of annotations.
[6] These sovereigns were just then engaged in the final struggle for the
expulsion of the Moors from Spain, so they referred the appeal to the
queen's confessor, who laid it before a body of learned men. This council
of Salamanca made sport of the idea, and tried to prove that Columbus was
wrong. If the world were round, they said, people on the other side must
walk with their heads down, which was absurd. And if a ship should sail to
the undermost part, how could it come back? Could a ship sail up hill?
[7] On the way to France Columbus stopped, by good luck, at the monastery
of La Rabida (lah rah'bee-dah), and so interested the prior, Juan Perez
(hoo-ahn' pa'rath), in his scheme, that a messenger was sent to beg an
interview for Perez with the queen of Spain. It was granted, and so well
did Perez plead the cause of his friend that Columbus was summoned to
court. The reward Columbus demanded for any discoveries he might make
seemed too great, and was refused. Thereupon, mounting his mule, he again
set off for France. Scarcely had he started when the royal treasurer
rushed into the presence of the queen and persuaded her to send a
messenger to bring Columbus back. Then his terms were accepted. He was to
be admiral of all the islands and countries he might discover, and have a
part of all the gems, gold, and silver found in them.
[8] The vessels were no larger than modern yachts. The _Santa Maria_
was single-decked and ninety feet long. The Pinta and Niña (picture, p.
11) were smaller caravels, and neither was decked amidships. In 1893
reproductions of the three vessels, full size and as exact as possible,
were sent across the sea by Spain, and exhibited at the World's Fair in
Chicago.
[9] The ideas of geography held by the unlearned of those days are very
curious to us. They believed that near the equator was a fiery zone where
the sea boiled and no life existed; that hydras, gorgons, chimeras, and
all sorts of horrid monsters inhabited the Sea of Darkness; and that in
the Indian Ocean was a lodestone mountain that could draw nails out of
ships. Because of the way in which ships disappeared below the horizon, it
was believed that they went down hill, and that if they went too far they
could never get back.
[10] The object of Columbus was not to let the sailors know how far they
were from home.
[11] Columbus was not the first European to reach the New World. About six
hundred years earlier, Vikings from Norway settled in Iceland, and from
the Icelandic chronicles we learn that about 986 A.D. Eric the Red planted
a colony in Greenland. His son, Leif Ericsson, about 1000 A.D., led a
party south-westward to a stony country which was probably the coast of
Labrador or Newfoundland. Going on southward, they came at last to a spot
where wild grapes grew. To this spot, probably on the New England coast,
Leif gave the name Vinland, spent the winter there, and in the spring went
back to Greenland with a load of timber. The next year Leif's brother
sailed to Vinland and passed two winters there. In later years others
went, but none remained long, and the land was soon forgotten. Iceland and
Greenland were looked upon as part of Europe; and the Vikings' discoveries
had no influence on Columbus and the explorers who followed him. Read
Fiske's _Discovery of America_ Vol. I, pp. 148-255; and Longfellow's
_Skeleton in Armor_.
[12] Nobody knows just which of the Bahamas Columbus discovered. Three of
the group--Cat, Turks and Watling--each claim the honor. At present
Watling is believed to have been San Salvador. A good account of the
voyage is given in Irving's _Life and Voyages of Columbus_, Vol. I,
Book iii, and in Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol. I, pp. 408-442.
[13] When Columbus on his second voyage returned to Hispaniola, he found
that every one of the forty colonists had perished. They had been killed
by the natives.
[14] Despite the great thing he did for Spain. Columbus lost favor at
court. Evil men slandered him; his manner of governing the new lands was
falsely represented to the king and queen; a new governor was sent out,
and Columbus was brought back in chains. Though soon released, he was
never restored to his rights.
[15] Columbus was buried at Valladolid, in Spain, but in 1513 his body was
taken to a monastery at Seville. There it remained till 1536, when it was
carried to Santo Domingo in Haiti. In 1796 it was removed and buried with
imposing ceremonies at Havana in Cuba. In 1898, when Spain was driven from
Cuba, his bones were carried back to Seville.
CHAPTER II
THE ATLANTIC COAST AND THE PACIFIC DISCOVERED
THE ATLANTIC COAST LINE EXPLORED.--Columbus having shown the way, English,
Spanish, and Portuguese explorers followed. Some came in search of China
or the Spice Islands; some were in quest of gold and pearls. The result
was the exploration of the Atlantic coast line from Labrador to the end of
South America.
SOME FAMOUS VOYAGES.--In 1497 John Cabot, sailing from England, reached
Newfoundland, which he believed to be part of China. [1] In 1498 John
Cabot and his son Sebastian, while in search of the Spice Islands, sailed
along the coast from Newfoundland to what is now South Carolina. [2]
[Illustration: RECORD OF PAYMENT OF JOHN CABOT'S PENSION FOR 1499. [3]
Photographed from the original accounts of the Bristol customs collectors,
now in Westminster Abbey, London.]
[Illustration: DISCOVERY ON THE EAST COAST OF AMERICA.]
Before 1500 Spaniards in search of gold, or pearls, or new lands had
explored the coast line from Central America to Cape St. Roque. [4]
In 1500 Cabral, while on his way from Portugal to India by Da Gama's route
(p. 11), sailed so far westward that he sighted the coast of the country
now called Brazil. Cabral went on his way; but sent back a ship to the
king of Portugal with the news that the new-found land lay east of the
Line of Demarcation. The king dispatched (1501) an expedition which
explored the coast southward nearly as far as the mouth of the Plata
River.
SOME RESULTS OF THESE VOYAGES.--The results of these voyages were many and
important. They furnished a better knowledge of the coast; they proved the
existence of a great mass of land called the New World, but still supposed
to be a part of Asia; they secured Brazil for Portugal, and led to the
naming of our continent.
WHY THE NEW WORLD WAS CALLED AMERICA.--In the party sent by the king of
Portugal to explore the coast of Brazil, was an Italian named Amerigo
Vespucci (ah-ma'ree-go ves-poot'chee), or Americus Vespucius, who had
twice before visited the coast of South America. Of these three voyages
and of a fourth Vespucius wrote accounts, They were widely read, led to
the belief that he had discovered a new or fourth part of the world, and
caused a German professor of geography to suggest that this fourth part
should be called America. The name was applied first to what is now
Brazil, then to all South America, and finally also to North America, when
it was found, long afterward, that North America was part of the new
continent and not part of Asia.
[Illustration: THE FIRST PRINTED SUGGESTION OF THE NAME AMERICA. [5] Part
of a page from Waldseemüller's book _Cosmographie Introductio_, printed in
1507, now in the Lenox Library, New York.]
BALBOA DISCOVERS THE PACIFIC.--The man who led the way to the discovery
that America was not part of Asia was Balbo'a. [6] He came to the eastern
border of Panama (1510) with a band of Spaniards seeking gold. There they
founded the town of Darien and in time made Balboa their commander. He
married the daughter of a chief, made friends with the Indians, and heard
from them of a great body of water across the mountains. This he
determined to see, and in 1513, with Indian guides and a party of
Spaniards, made his way through dense and tangled forests and from the
summit of a mountain looked down on the Pacific Ocean, which he called the
South Sea. Four days later, standing on the shore, he waited till the
rising tide came rolling in, and then rushing into the water, sword in
hand, he took possession of the ocean in the name of Spain. [7]
[Illustration: SPANISH HELMET AND SHIRT OF MAIL FOUND IN MEXICO.
Now in Essex Hall, Salem, Mass.]
THE PACIFIC CROSSED; THE PHILIPPINES DISCOVERED.--The Portuguese meantime,
by sailing around Africa, had reached the Spice Islands. So far beyond
India were these islands that the Portuguese sailor Ferdinand Magellan
took up the old idea of Columbus, and maintained that they could be most
easily reached by sailing west. To this proposition the king of Portugal
would not listen; so Magellan persuaded the king of Spain to let him try;
and in 1519 set sail with five small ships. He crossed the Atlantic to the
mouth of the Plata, and went south till storms and cold drove him into
winter quarters. [8] In August, 1520 (early spring in the southern
hemisphere), he went on his way and entered the strait which now bears his
name. One of the ships had been wrecked. In the strait another stole away
and went home. The three remaining vessels passed safely through, and out
into an ocean so quiet compared with the stormy Atlantic that Magellan
called it the Pacific. Across this the explorers sailed for five months
before they came to a group of islands which Magellan called the Ladrones
(Spanish for _robbers_) because the natives were so thievish. [9] Ten
days later they reached another group, afterward named the Philippines.
[10]
On one of these islands Magellan and many of his men were slain. [11] Two
of the ships then went southward to the Spice Islands, where they loaded
with spices. One now started for Panama, but was forced to return. The
other sailed around Africa, and in 1522 reached Spain in safety. It had
sailed around the world. The surviving captain was greatly honored. The
king ennobled him, and on his coat of arms was a globe with the motto "You
first sailed around me."
[Illustration: MAGELLAN'S SHIP THAT SAILED AROUND THE WORLD.]
RESULTS OF THE VOYAGE.--Of all the voyages ever made by man up to that
time, this of Magellan and his men was the greatest. It gave positive
proof that the earth is a sphere. It revealed the vast width of the
Pacific. It showed that America was probably not a part of Asia, and
changed the geographical ideas of the time. [12]
THE COAST OF FLORIDA EXPLORED.--What meantime had happened along the coast
of North America? In 1513 Ponce de Leon [13] (pon'tha da la-on'), a
Spaniard, sailed northwest from Porto Rico in search of an island which
the Indians told him contained gold, and in which he believed was a
fountain or stream whose waters would restore youth to the old. In the
season of Easter, or Pascua Florida, he came upon a land which he called
Florida. Ponce supposed he had found an island, and following the coast
southward went round the peninsula and far up the west coast before going
back to Porto Rico. [14]
[Illustration: SPANISH EXPLORATIONS IN NORTH AMERICA TO 1600.]
THE GULF COAST EXPLORED.--In 1519 another Spaniard, Pineda (pe-na'da),
sailed along the Gulf coast from Florida to Mexico. On the way he entered
the mouth of a broad river which he named River of the Holy Spirit. It was
long supposed that this river was the Mississippi; but it is now claimed
to have been the Mobile. Whatever it was, Pineda spent six weeks in its
waters, saw many Indian towns on its banks, traded with the natives, and
noticed that they wore gold ornaments.
THE EXPEDITION OF NARVAEZ.--Pineda's story of Indians with gold ornaments
so excited Narvaez (nar-vah'eth) that he obtained leave to conquer the
country, and sailed from Cuba with four hundred men. Landing on the west
coast of Florida, he made a raid inland. When he returned to the coast the
ships which were sailing about watching for him were nowhere to be seen.
After marching westward for a month the Spaniards built five small boats,
put to sea, and sailing near the shore came presently to where the waters
of the Mississippi rush into the Gulf. Two boats were upset by the surging
waters. The others reached the coast beyond, where all save four of the
Spaniards perished.
FOUR SPANIARDS CROSS THE CONTINENT.--After suffering great hardships and
meeting with all sorts of adventures among the Indians, the four
survivors, led by Cabeza de Vaca (ca-ba'tha da vah'ca), walked across what
is now Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico to a little Spanish town
near the Pacific coast. They had crossed the continent. [15]
NEW MEXICO EXPLORED.--Cabeza de Vaca had wonderful tales to relate of
"hunchback cows," as he called the buffalo, and of cities in the interior
where gold and silver were plentiful and where the doorways were studded
with precious stones. [16] Excited by these tales, the Spanish viceroy of
Mexico sent Fray Marcos to gather further information. [17] Aided by the
Indians, Marcos made his way over the desert and came at last to the
"cities," which were only the pueblos of the Zuñi (zoo'nyee) Indians in
New Mexico. The pueblos were houses several stories high, built of stone
or of sun-dried brick, and each large enough for several hundred Indians
to live in. But Marcos merely saw them at a distance, for one of his
followers who went in advance was killed by the Zuñi, whereupon Marcos
fled back to Mexico.
[Illustration: PUEBLO, WOODEN PLOW, AND OX CART.]
THE SPANIARDS REACH KANSAS.--Marcos's reports about the seven cities of
Cibola (see'bo-la), as he called them, aroused great interest, and
Corona'do was sent with an army to conquer them. Marching up the east
coast of the Gulf of California and across Arizona, Coronado came at last
to the pueblos and captured them one by one. He found no gold, but did see
doorways studded with the green stones of the Rocky Mountains. Much
disappointed, he pushed on eastward, and during two years wandered about
over the plains of our great Southwest and probably reached the center of
what is now Kansas. [18]
DE SOTO ON THE MISSISSIPPI.--As Coronado was making his way home, an
Indian woman escaped from his army, and while wandering about fell in with
a band of Spaniards belonging to the army of De Soto. [19]
De Soto, as governor of Cuba, had been authorized to conquer and hold all
the territory that had been discovered by Narvaez. He set out accordingly
in 1539, landed an army at Tampa Bay, and spent three years in wandering
over Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. In the spring of 1542 he
crossed the Mississippi River and entered Arkansas, and it was there that
one of his bands met the Indian woman who escaped from Coronado's army. In
Arkansas De Soto died of fever, and was buried in the Mississippi River.
His followers then built a few boats, floated down the river to the Gulf,
and following the coast of Texas came finally to the Spanish settlements
in Mexico.
THE FRENCH ON THE COAST.--Far to the northeast explorers of another
European nation by this time were seeking a foothold. When John Cabot came
home from his first voyage to the Newfoundland coast, he told such tales
of cod fisheries thereabouts, that three small ships set sail from England
to catch fish and trade with the natives of the new-found isle. Portuguese
and Frenchmen followed, and year after year visited the Newfoundland
fisheries. No serious attempt was made to settle the island. What Europe
wanted was a direct westward passage through America to Cathay. This John
Verrazano, an Italian sailing under the flag of France, attempted to find,
and came to what is now the coast of North Carolina. There Verrazano
turned northward, entered several bays along the coast, sailed by the
rock-bound shores of Maine, and when off Newfoundland steered for France.
THE FRENCH ON THE ST. LAWRENCE.--Verrazano was followed (1534) by Jacques
Cartier (zhak car-tya'), also in search of a passage to Cathay. Reaching
Newfoundland (map, p. 114), Cartier passed through the strait to the north
of it, and explored a part of the gulf to the west. A year later he came
again, named the gulf St. Lawrence, and entered the St. Lawrence River,
which he thought was a strait leading to China. Up this river he sailed
till stopped by the rapids which he named Lachine (Chinese). Near by was a
high hill which he called Mont Real (re-ahl'), or Mount Royal. At its base
now stands the city of Montreal. [20] From this place the French went back
to a steep cliff where now stands the city of Quebec, and, it is believed,
spent the winter there. The winter was a terrible one, and when the ice
left the river they returned to France (1536).
[Illustration: INDIAN LONG HOUSE.]
Not discouraged, Cartier (1541) came a third time to plant a colony on the
river. But hunger, mutiny, and the severity of the winter brought the
venture to naught. [21]
NO SETTLEMENTS IN OUR COUNTRY.--From the first voyage of Columbus to the
expeditions of De Soto, Coronado, and Cartier, fifty years had passed. The
coast of the new continent had been roughly explored as far north as
Labrador on the east and California on the west. The Spaniards in quest of
gold and silver mines had conquered and colonized the West Indies, Mexico,
and parts of South America. Yet not a settlement had been made in our
country. Many rivers and bays had been discovered; two great expeditions
had gone into the interior; but there were no colonies on the mainland of
what is now the United States.
SUMMARY
1. The voyage of Columbus led to many other voyages, prompted chiefly by a
hope of finding gold. They resulted in the exploration of the coast of
America, and may be grouped according to the parts explored, as follows:--
2. The Atlantic coast of North America was explored (1497-1535) by Cabot
(for England)--from Newfoundland to South Carolina. Ponce de Leon (for
Spain)--peninsula of Florida. Verrazano (for France)--from North Carolina
to Newfoundland. Cartier (for France)--Gulf of St. Lawrence.
3. The Gulf and Caribbean coasts of North America were explored (1502-
1528) for Spain by Columbus--Central America. Ponce de Leon--west coast of
Florida. Pineda--from Florida to Mexico. Narvaez expedition--from Florida
to Texas.
4. The Atlantic coast of South America was explored (1498-1520) by
Columbus--mouth of the Orinoco. Other explorers for Spain--whole northern
coast. Cabral (for Portugal)--part of eastern coast. Vespucius (for
Portugal)--eastern coast nearly to the Plata River. Magellan (for Spain)--
to the Strait of Magellan.
5. The Pacific coast of America was explored (1513-1542) for Spain by
Balboa--part of Panama. Magellan--part of the southwest coast. Pizarro
(note, p. 23)--from Panama to Peru. Cabrillo (note, p. 28)--from Mexico up
the coast of California.
6. The Spaniards early established colonies in the West Indies, South
America, and Mexico; but fifty years after Columbus's discovery there was
no settlement of Europeans in the mainland part of the United States.
Several Spanish expeditions, however, had explored (1534-1542) large parts
of the interior:--Cabeza de Vaca and his companions walked from Texas to
western Mexico, Coronado wandered from Mexico to Kansas. De Soto wandered
from Florida beyond the Mississippi River.
FOOTNOTES
[1] This discovery made a great stir in Bristol, the port from which Cabot
sailed. A letter written at the time states, "Honors are heaped upon
Cabot. He is called Grand Admiral, he is dressed in silk, and the English
run after him like madmen." The king gave him £10 and a pension of £20 a
year. A pound sterling in those days was in purchasing power quite the
equal of fifty dollars in our time.
[2] These voyages of Cabot were not followed up at the time. But in the
days of Queen Elizabeth, more than eighty years later, they were made the
basis of the English claim to a part of North America.
[3] Bristoll--Arthurus Kemys et Ricardus ap. Meryke collectores custumarum
et subsidiorum regis ibidem a festo Sancti Michaelis Archangeli anno XIIII
mo Regis nunc usque idem festum Sancti Michaelis tunc proximo sequens
reddunt computum de MCCCCXXIIII li. VII S. x d. quadr. De quibus.... Item
in thesauro in una tallia pro Johanne Cabot, xx li. Translation: "Bristol
--Arthur Kemys and Richard ap Meryke, collectors of the king's customs and
subsidies there, from Michaelmas in the fourteenth year of this king's
reign [Henry VII] till the same feast next following render their account
of £1424 7_s._ 10-1/4_d._.... In the treasury is one tally for John Cabot,
£20."
[4] On one of these voyages the Spaniards saw an Indian village built over
the water on piles, with bridges joining the houses. This so reminded them
of Venice that they called it Venezuela (little Venice), a name afterward
applied to a vast extent of country.
[5] "But now these parts [Europe, Asia, and Africa] have been more widely
explored, and another fourth part has been discovered by Americus
Vespucius (as will appear in the following pages); so I do not see why any
one should rightly object to calling it Amerige or America, i.e. land of
Americus, after its discoverer Americus, a man of sagacious mind--since
both Europe and Asia are named after women. Its situation and the ways of
its people may be clearly understood from the four voyages of Americus
which follow."
[6] Vasco Nuñez de Balboa had come from Spain to Haiti and settled down as
a planter, but when (1510) an expedition was about to sail for South
America to plant a colony near Panama, Balboa longed to join it. He was in
debt; so lest his creditors should prevent his going, he had himself
nailed up in a barrel and put on board one of the ships with the
provisions.
[7] In the course of expeditions along the eastern coast of Mexico, the
Spaniards heard of a mighty king, Montezuma, who ruled many cities in the
interior and had great stores of gold. In 1519 Cor'tes landed with 450 men
and a few horses, sank his ships, and began inland one of the most
wonderful marches in all history. The account of the great things which he
did, of the marvelous cities he conquered, of the strange and horrible
sights he saw, reads like fiction. Six days after reaching the city of
Mexico, he seized Montezuma and made himself the real ruler of the
country; but later the Mexicans rose against him and he had to conquer
them by hard fighting. Read the story of the conquest as briefly told in
Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol. II, pp. 245-293.
The Spaniards also heard rumors of a golden kingdom to the southward where
the Incas ruled. After preliminary voyages of exploration Francisco
Pizarro sailed from Panama in 1531 with 200 men and 50 horses to conquer
Peru. Landing on the coast he marched inland to the camp of the Inca, a
young man who had just seized the throne. The sight of the white strangers
clad in shining armor, wielding thunder and lightning (firearms), and
riding unearthly beasts (horses were unknown to the Indians), caused
wonder and dread in Peru as it had in Mexico. The Inca was made prisoner
and hundreds of his followers were killed. He offered to fill his prison
room with gold as high as he could reach if Pizarro would set him free;
the offer was accepted and in 1533 some $15,000,000 in gold was divided
among the conquerors. The Inca, however, was put to death, and the
Spaniards took possession of the whole country.
[8] None of Magellan's vessels were as large as the _Santa Maria_, and
three were smaller than the _Niña_. The sailors demanded that Magellan
return to Spain. When he refused, the captains and crews of three
ships mutinied, and were put down with difficulty.
[9] Guam, which now belongs to our country, is one of the Ladrones.
[10] The Spaniards took possession of the Philippines a few years later,
and in 1571 founded Manila. The group was named after Philip II of Spain.
In 1555 a Spanish navigator discovered the Hawaiian Islands; but though
they were put down on the early Spanish charts, the Spaniards did not take
possession of them. Indeed, these islands were practically forgotten, and
two centuries passed before they were rediscovered by the English
explorer, Captain Cook, in 1778.
[11] Magellan was a very religious man, and after making an alliance with
the king of the island of Cebu, he set about converting the natives to
Christianity. The king, greatly impressed by the wonders the white man
did, consented. A bonfire was lighted, the idols were thrown in, a cross
was set up, and the natives were baptized. This done, the king called on
Magellan to help him attack the chief of a neighboring island; but in the
attack Magellan was killed and his men put to flight. This defeat so
angered the king that he invited thirty Spaniards to a feast, massacred
them, cut down the cross, and again turned pagan.
[12] Read the account in Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol. II, pp.
190-211.
[13] Juan Ponce de Leon had sailed with Columbus on his second voyage, and
had settled in Haiti. Hearing that there was gold in Porto Rico, he
explored it for Spain, in 1509 was made its governor, and in 1511 founded
the city of San Juan (sahn hoo-ahn'). After he was removed from the
governorship, he obtained leave to search for the island of Bimini.
[14] He now obtained authority to colonize the supposed island; but
several years passed before he was ready to make the attempt. He then set
off with arms, tools, horses, and two hundred men, landed on the west
coast of Florida, lost many men in a fight with the Indians, and received
a wound of which he died soon after in Cuba.
[15] The story of this remarkable march across the continent is told in
_The Spanish Pioneers_, by C. F. Lummis.
[16] There was a tradition in Europe that when the Arabs conquered Spain
in the eighth century, a certain bishop with a goodly following fled to
some islands far out in the Sea of Darkness and founded seven cities. When
the Spaniards came in contact with the Indians of Mexico, they were told
of seven caves from which the ancestors of the natives had issued, and
jumped to the conclusion that the seven caves were the seven cities; and
when Cabeza de Vaca came with his story of the wonderful cities of the
north, it was believed that they were the towns built by the bishop.
[17] At an Indian village in Mexico, Marcos heard of a country to the
northward where there were seven cities with houses of two, three, and
four stories, and that of the chief with five. On the doorsills and
lintels of the best houses, he was told, were turquoise stones.
[18] Read _The Spanish Pioneers_, by C. F. Lummis, pp. 77-88, 101-143. The
year that Coronado returned to Mexico (1542) an expedition under Cabrillo
(kah-breel'yo) coasted from Mexico along what is now California. Cabrillo
died in San Diego harbor.
[19] Hernando de Soto was born about 1500 in Spain, and when of age went
to Panama and thence to Peru with Pizarro. In the conquest of Peru he so
distinguished himself that on returning to Spain he was made governor of
Cuba.
[20] Landing on this spot, Cartier set forth to visit the great Indian
village of Hochelaga. He found it surrounded with a palisade of tree
trunks set in three rows. Entering the narrow gate, he beheld some fifty
long houses of sapling frames covered with bark, each containing many
fires, one for a family. From these houses came swarms of women and
children, who crowded about the visitors, touched their beards, and patted
their faces. Soon the warriors came and squatted row after row around the
French, for whom mats were brought and laid on the ground. This done, the
chief, a paralyzed old savage, was carried in, and Cartier was besought by
signs to heal him, and when Cartier had touched him, all the sick, lame,
and blind in the village were brought out for treatment. Read Parkman's
_Pioneers of France in the New World_, pp. 187-193.
[21] As Cartier was on his way home he stopped at the harbor of St. Johns
in Newfoundland, a harbor then frequented by fishermen from the Old World.
There he was met by three ships and 200 colonists under Roberval, who
ordered him to return. But one night Cartier slipped away in the darkness.
Roberval went on to the site of Quebec and there planted his colony. What
became of it is not known; but that it did not last long is certain, and
many years passed before France repeated the attempt to gain a foothold on
the great river of Canada.
CHAPTER III
FRANCE AND ENGLAND ATTEMPT TO SETTLE AMERICA
THE FRENCH IN SOUTH CAROLINA.--After the failure in Canada twenty years
passed away before the French again attempted to colonize. Then (1562)
Admiral Coligny (co-leen'ye), the leader of the Huguenots, or Protestants
of France, sought to plant a colony in America for his persecuted
countrymen, and sent forth an expedition under Ribaut (ree-bo'). These
Frenchmen reached the coast of Florida, and turning northward came to a
haven which they called Port Royal. Here they built a fort in what is now
South Carolina. Leaving thirty men to hold it, Ribaut sailed for France.
Famine, homesickness, ignorance of life in a wilderness, soon brought the
colony to ruin. Unable to endure their hardships longer, the colonists
built a crazy boat, [1] put to sea, and when off the French coast were
rescued by an English vessel.
[Illustration: THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS IN THE SOUTH.]
THE FRENCH IN FLORIDA.--Two years later (1564) Coligny tried again, and
sent forth a colony under Laudonnière (lo-do-ne-air'). It reached the
coast of Florida, and a few miles up the St. Johns River built a fort
called Caroline in honor of the French King Charles. The next year there
came more colonists under Ribaut. [2]
[Illustration: FORT CAROLINE. From an old print.]
THE SPANIARDS FOUND ST. AUGUSTINE.--Now it so happened that just at this
time a Spaniard named Menendez (ma-nen'deth) had obtained leave to conquer
and settle Florida. Before he could set off, news came to Spain that the
French were on the St. Johns River, and Menendez was sent with troops to
drive them out. He landed in Florida in 1565 and built a fort which was
the beginning of St. Augustine, the first permanent settlement on the
mainland part of the United States. Ribaut at once sailed to attack it.
But while he was at sea Menendez marched overland, took Fort Caroline, and
put to death every man there, save a few who made good their escape. [3]
SPAIN HOLDS AMERICA.--More than seventy years had now parsed since
Columbus made his great voyage of discovery. Yet, save some Portuguese
settlements in Brazil, the only European colonies in America were Spanish.
From St. Augustine, around the Gulf of Mexico, down South America to the
Strait of Magellan and up the west coast to California, save the foothold
of Portugal, island and mainland belonged to Spain. And all the rest of
North America she claimed.
ENGLISH ATTACKS ON SPAIN IN THE NEW WORLD.--So far in the sixteenth
century England had taken little or no part in the work of discovery,
exploration, and settlement. Her fishermen came to the Banks of
Newfoundland; but not till 1562, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, did the
contact of England with the New World really begin. Then it was that Sir
John Hawkins, one of England's great "sea kings," went to Africa, loaded
his ships with negroes, sold them to planters in Haiti, and came home with
hides and pearls. Such trade for one not a Spaniard was against the law of
Spain. But Hawkins cared not, arid came again and again. When foul weather
drove him into a Mexican port, the Spaniards sank most of his ships, but
Hawkins escaped with two vessels, in one of which was Francis Drake. [4]
Smarting under defeat, Drake resolved to be avenged. Fitting out a little
squadron at his own cost, without leave of the queen, Drake (1572) sailed
to the Caribbean Sea, plundered Spanish towns along the coast, captured
Spanish ships, and went home loaded with gold, silver, and merchandise.
[5]
DRAKE SAILS AROUND THE GLOBE.--During this raid on the Spanish coast Drake
marched across the Isthmus of Panama and looked down upon Balboa's great
South Sea. As he looked, he resolved to sail on it, and in 1577 left
England with five ships on what proved to be the greatest voyage since
that of Magellan. He crossed the Atlantic, sailed down the coast of South
America, and entered the Strait of Magellan. There four ships deserted,
but Drake went on alone up the west coast, plundering towns and capturing
Spanish vessels. To return the way he came would have been dangerous, for
Spanish cruisers lay in wait. Drake, therefore, went on up the coast in
search of a passage through the continent to the Atlantic. Coasting as far
as southern Oregon and finding no passage, Drake turned southward, entered
a harbor, repaired his ship, and then started westward across the Pacific.
He touched at the Philippines, visited the Spice Islands, came home by way
of the Cape of Good Hope, and won the glory of being the first Englishman
to sail around the globe. [6]
[Illustration: DRAKE'S ASTROLABE. Now in Greenwich Hospital, London.]
THE ENGLISH IN THE FAR NORTH.--While Drake was on his voyage around the
world, Martin Frob'isher discovered Hudson Strait, [7] and Sir Humphrey
Gilbert failed in an attempt to plant a colony somewhere in America. The
failure was disheartening. But the return of Drake laden with spoil
aroused new interest in America, and (in 1583) Gilbert led a colony to
Newfoundland. Disaster after disaster overtook him, and while he was on
his way home with two vessels (all that were left of five), one with
Gilbert on board went down at sea. [8]
THE ENGLISH ON ROANOKE ISLAND.--The work of colonization then passed to
Sir Walter Raleigh, a half-brother of Gilbert. He began by sending out a
party of explorers who sailed along the coast of North Carolina and
brought back such a glowing description of the country that the queen
named it Virginia and Raleigh chose it for the site of a colony. [9]
In 1585, accordingly, a party of men commanded by Ralph Lane were landed
on Roanoke Island (map, p. 44). But the site proved to be ill chosen, and
the Indians were hostile. The colonists were poorly fitted to live in a
wilderness, and were almost starving when Drake, who stopped at Roanoke
(1586) to see how they were getting on, carried them back to England. [10]
[Illustration: RALEIGH'S PIPES.]
THE LOST COLONY.--Not long after Drake sailed away with the colonists, a
party of recruits arrived with supplies. Finding the island deserted,
fifteen men remained to hold the place in the queen's name, and the rest
returned to England. Not disheartened by these reverses, Raleigh summoned
some men of influence to his aid, and (in 1587) sent out a third party of
settlers, both men and women, in charge of John White. This party was to
stop at Roanoke Island, pick up the fifteen men there, and then go on to
Chesapeake Bay. But for some reason the settlers were left on the island
by the convoy, and there they were forced to stay. [11]
[Illustration: INDIANS IN A DUGOUT CANOE. Part of a drawing by John
White.]
White very soon went back to England for help, in the only ship the
colonists had. War with Spain prevented his return for several years, and
then only the ruins of the settlement were found on the island. [12]
[Illustration: ENGLISH DRESS, SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Contemporary portrait of
Raleigh and his son, by Zuccaro.]
SPAIN ATTACKS ENGLAND.--The war which prevented White from promptly
returning to Roanoke began in 1585. The next year, with twenty-five ships,
Drake attacked the possessions of Spain in America, and burned and
plundered several towns. In 1587 he "singed the beard of the king of
Spain" by burning a hundred vessels in the harbor of the Spanish city of
Cadiz.
Enraged by these defeats, King Philip II of Spain determined to invade
England and destroy that nest of sea rovers. A great fleet known as the
Invincible Armada, carrying thirty thousand men, was assembled and in 1588
swept into the English channel. There the English, led by Raleigh, [13]
Drake, Frobisher, Hawkins, Lane, and all the other great sea kings, met
the Armada, drove it into the North Sea, and captured, burned, and sank
many of the ships. The rest fled around Scotland, on whose coast more were
wrecked. Less than half the Armada returned to Spain. [14]
THE ENGLISH EXPLORE THE NEW ENGLAND COAST.--The war lasted sixteen years
longer (till 1604). Though it delayed, it did not stop, attempts at
colonization. In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold, with a colony of thirty-two
men, sailed from England, saw the coast of Maine, turned southward, named
Cape Cod and the Elizabeth Islands, [15] and after a short stay went home.
The next year Martin Pring came with two vessels on an exploring and
trading voyage; and in 1605 George Weymouth was sent out, visited the
Kennebec River in Maine, and brought back a good report of the country.
THE VIRGINIA CHARTER OF 1606.--Peace had now been made with Spain; England
had not been forced to stop her attempts to colonize in America; the
favorable reports of Gosnold, Pring, and Weymouth led to the belief that
colonies could be successfully planted; and in 1606 King James I chartered
two commercial companies to colonize Virginia, as the Atlantic seaboard
region was called.
To the first or London Company was granted the right to plant a colony
anywhere along the coast between 34° and 41° of north latitude (between
Cape Fear River and the Hudson). To the second or Plymouth Company was
given the right to plant a colony anywhere between 38° and 45° (between
the Potomac River and the Bay of Fundy). Each company was to have a tract
of land one hundred miles square--fifty miles along the coast each way
from the first settlement and one hundred miles inland; and to prevent
overlapping, it was provided that the company last to settle should not
locate within one hundred miles of the other company's settlement.
[Illustration: VIRGINIA.]
THE COLONY ON THE KENNEBEC.--The charter having been granted, each company
set about securing emigrants. To get them was not difficult, for in
England at that day there were many people whose condition was so
desperate that they were glad to seek a new home beyond the sea. [16] In a
few months, therefore, the Plymouth Company sent out its first party of
colonists; but the ship was seized by the Spaniards. The next year (1607)
the company sent out one hundred or more settlers in two ships. They
landed in August at the mouth of the Kennebec River, and built a fort, a
church, a storehouse, and fifteen log cabins. These men were wholly unfit
for life in a wilderness, and in December about half went home in the
ships in which they came. The others passed a dismal winter, and when a
relief ship arrived in the spring, all went back, and the Plymouth
Company's attempt to colonize ended in failure.
THE COLONY ON THE JAMES.--Meanwhile another band of Englishmen (one
hundred and forty-three in number) had been sent out by the London Company
to found a colony in what is now Virginia. They set sail in December,
1606, in three ships under Captain Newport, and in April, 1607, reached
the entrance of Chesapeake Bay. Sailing westward across the bay, the ships
entered a river which was named the James in honor of the king, and on the
bank of this river the party landed and founded Jamestown (map, p. 44).
With this event began the permanent occupation of American soil by
Englishmen. At this time, more than a hundred years after the voyages of
Columbus, the only other European settlers on the Atlantic coast of the
United States were the Spaniards in Florida.
[Illustration: RUINS AT JAMESTOWN. Church tower as it looks to-day.]
SUMMARY
1. The Huguenots tried to found French colonies on the coast of South
Carolina (1562) and of Florida (1564); but both attempts failed.
2. In 1565 all America, save Brazil, either was in Spanish hands, or was
claimed by Spain and not yet occupied.
3. During the next twenty years English sailors began to fight Spaniards,
Drake sailed around the globe, Frobisher explored the far north, and Sir
Humphrey Gilbert attempted to plant a colony in Newfoundland.
4. Gilbert's half-brother Raleigh then took up the work of colonization,
but his attempts to plant a colony at Roanoke Island ended in failure.
5. The attacks of English buccaneers on the American colonies of Spain led
to a war (1585-1604), in which the most memorable event was the defeat of
the Spanish Armada.
6. After the war two companies were chartered to plant English colonies in
America. The Plymouth Company's colony was a failure, but in 1607 the
London Company founded Jamestown.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The forests supplied the trees for timbers. The seams were calked with
the moss that hung in clusters from the branches, and then smeared with
pitch from the pines. The Indians made them a rude sort of rope for
cordage, and for sails they sewed together bedding and shirts. On the
voyage home they ate their shoes and leather jerkins. Read Kirk Munroe's
_Flamingo Feather_.
[2] These men were adventurers, not true colonists, and little disposed to
endure the toil, hunger, and dreariness of a life in the wilderness. It
was not long, therefore, before the boldest of them seized two little
vessels and sailed away to plunder Spaniards in the West Indies. Famine
drove them into Havana, where to save their necks they told what was going
on in Florida. Sixty-six mutineers presently seized two other vessels and
turned buccaneers. But the survivors were forced to return to Fort
Caroline, where the leaders were put to death.
[3] Some of these and many others, who were shipwrecked with Ribaut,
afterward surrendered and were killed. As Florida was considered Spanish
territory the French had no right to settle there, so the French king did
nothing more than protest to Spain. Read the story of the French in
Florida as told by Parkman, in _Pioneers of France in the New World_,
pp. 28-162.
[4] Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. I, pp. 19-20.
[5] Read Kingsley's _Westward Ho!_ and Barnes's _Drake and his Yeomen_. On
returning to England in 1573, Drake reached Plymouth on a Sunday, during
church time. So great was the excitement that the people left the church
during the sermon, in order to get sight of him.
[6] On his return in 1580 Queen Elizabeth knighted Drake on his own deck.
A chair made from the timbers of his vessel (the _Golden Hind_) is now at
Oxford. Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. I, pp. 26-28.
[7] In 1576 Frobisher, when in search of a northwest passage to China,
made his way through Arctic ice to the bay which now bears his name. Two
more voyages were made to the far north in search of gold.
[8] The ships were overtaken off the Azores by a furious gale. Gilbert's
vessel was a very little one, so he was urged to come aboard his larger
consort; but he refused to desert his companions, and replied, "Do not
fear; heaven is as near by water as by land."
[9] Queen Elizabeth had declared she would recognize no Spanish claim to
American territory not founded on discovery and settlement. Raleigh was
authorized, therefore, to hold by homage heathen lands, not actually
possessed and inhabited by Christian people, which he might discover
within the next six years.
[10] The colonists took home some tobacco, which at that time was greatly
prized in England. When Columbus reached the island of Cuba in 1492, two
of his followers, sent on an errand into the interior, met natives who
rolled certain dried leaves into tubes, and, lighting one end with a
firebrand, drew the smoke into their bodies and puffed it out. This was
the first time that Europeans had seen cigars smoked. The Spaniards
carried tobacco to Europe, and its use spread rapidly. There is a story to
the effect that a servant entering a room one morning and seeing smoke
issuing from Raleigh's mouth, thought he was on fire and dashed water in
his face.
[11] On Roanoke Island, August 18, 1587, a girl was born and named
Virginia. She was the granddaughter of Governor White and the daughter of
Eleanor and Ananias Dare, and the first child of English parents born on
the soil of what is now the United States.
[12] The settlers had agreed that if they left Roanoke before White
returned, the name of the place to which they went should be cut on a
tree, and a cross added if they were in distress. When White returned the
blockhouse was in ruins, and cut on a tree was the name of a near-by
island. A storm prevented the ship going thither, and despite White's
protests he was carried back to England. What became of the colony, no man
knows.
[13] Raleigh was an important figure in English history for many years
after the failure of his Roanoke colony. When Queen Elizabeth died (1603),
he fell into disfavor with her successor, King James I. He was falsely
accused of treason and thrown into prison, where he remained during twelve
years. There he wrote his _History of the World_. After a short period of
liberty, Raleigh was beheaded. As he stood on the scaffold he asked for
the ax, and said, "This is a sharp medicine, but a sound cure for all
diseases."
[14] Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. I, pp. 33-38.
[15] The Elizabeth Islands are close to the south coast of Massachusetts.
A few miles farther south Gosnold found another small island which he
named Marthas Vineyard. Later explorers by mistake shifted the name
Marthas Vineyard to a large island near by, and the little island which
Gosnold found is now called No Mans Land (map, p. 59).
[16] The industrial condition of England was changing. The end of the long
war with Spain had thrown thousands of soldiers out of employment; the
turning of plow land into sheep farms left thousands of laborers without
work; manufactures were still in too primitive a state to provide
employment for all who needed it.
CHAPTER IV
THE ENGLISH ON THE CHESAPEAKE
LIFE AT JAMESTOWN.--The colonists who landed at Jamestown in 1607 were all
men. While some of them were building a fort, Captain Newport, with
Captain John Smith and others, explored the James River and visited the
Powhatan, chief of a neighboring tribe of Indians. This done, Newport
returned to England (June, 1607) with his three ships, leaving one hundred
and five colonists to begin a struggle for life. Bad water, fever, hard
labor, the intense heat of an American summer, and the scarcity of food
caused such sickness that by September more than half the colonists were
dead. [1] Indeed, had it not been for Smith, who got corn from the Indians
and directed affairs in general, the fate of Jamestown might have been
that of Roanoke. [2] As it was, but forty were alive when Newport returned
In January, 1608, with the "first supply" of one hundred and twenty men.
[Illustration: SMITH IN SLAVERY. Picture in one of his books.]
[Illustration: POWHATAN'S COAT. Now in a museum at Oxford.]
THE COMPANY'S ORDERS.--Newport was ordered to bring back a cargo. So while
some of the colonists cut down cedar and black walnut trees and made
clapboards, others loaded the ship with glittering sand which they thought
was gold dust. These labors drew the men away from agriculture, and only
four acres were planted with corn.
In September Newport was back again with the "second supply" of seventy
persons; two of them were women. This time he was ordered to crown the
Powhatan, and to find a gold mine, discover a passage to the South Sea, or
find Raleigh's lost colony. Smith laughed at these orders. But they had to
be obeyed; so several parties went southward in search of the lost colony,
but found it not; Newport went westward beyond the falls of the James in
search of the passage; and the Powhatan was duly crowned and dressed in a
crimson robe. [3] No gold mine could be found, so Newport sailed for
England with a cargo of pitch, tar, and clapboards.
SMITH RULES THE COLONY.--By this time Smith had become president of the
council for the government of the colony. He decreed that those who did
not work should not eat; and by spring his men had dug a well, shingled
the church, put up twenty cabins, and cleared and planted forty acres of
corn. Yet, despite all he could do, the colony was on the verge of ruin
when in August, 1609, seven ships landed some three hundred men, women,
and children known as the "third supply." [4]
JAMESTOWN ABANDONED.--And now matters went from bad to worse. The leaders
quarreled; Smith was injured and had to go back to England; the Indians
became hostile; food became scarce; and when at last neither corn nor
roots could be had, the colonists began to suffer the horrors of famine.
During that awful winter, long known as "the starving time," cold, famine,
and the Indians swept away more than four hundred. When Newport arrived in
May, 1610, only sixty famishing creatures inhabited Jamestown. To continue
the colony seemed hopeless; and going on board the ships (June, 1610), the
colonists set sail for England and had gone well down the James when they
met Lord Delaware with three well-provisioned ships coming up. [5]
JAMESTOWN RESETTLED.--Lord Delaware had come out as governor under a new
charter granted to the London Company in 1609. This is of interest because
it gave to the colony an immense domain of which we shall hear more after
Virginia became a state. This domain extended from Point Comfort, two
hundred miles up and two hundred miles down the coast, and then "up into
the land throughout from sea to sea, west and northwest."
After the meeting between the departing settlers and the newcomers under
Delaware, the whole band returned to Jamestown and began once more the
struggle for existence.
PROSPERITY BEGINS.--Delaware, who soon went back to England, left Sir
Thomas Dale in command, and under him the colony began to prosper.
Hitherto the colonists had lived as communists. The company owned all the
land, and whatever food was raised was put into the public granary to be
divided among the settlers, share and share alike. Dale changed this
system, and the old planters were given land to cultivate for themselves.
The effect was magical. Men who were lazy when toiling as servants of the
company, become industrious when laboring for themselves, and prosperity
began in earnest.
More settlers soon arrived with a number of cows, goats, and oxen, and the
little colony began to expand. When Dale's term as acting governor ended
in 1616, Virginia contained six little settlements besides Jamestown. The
next governor, Yeardley, introduced the cultivation of tobacco, which was
now much used in Europe and commanded a high price.
[Illustration: VIRGINIA (from 1609 to 1624).]
THE FIRST REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY.--Yeardley was succeeded (1617) by
Argall, who for two years ruled Virginia with a rod of iron. So harsh was
his rule that the company was forced to recall him and send back Yeardley.
Yeardley came with instructions to summon a general assembly, and in July,
1619, the first legislative body in America met in the little church at
Jamestown; eleven boroughs were represented. Each sent two burgesses, as
they were called, and these twenty-two men made the first House of
Burgesses, and had power to enact laws for the colony. [6]
SLAVERY INTRODUCED.--Another event which makes 1619 a memorable year in
our history was the arrival at Jamestown of a Dutch ship with a cargo of
African negroes for sale. Twenty were bought, and the institution of negro
slavery was planted in Virginia. This seemed quite proper, for there were
then in the colony many white slaves, or bond servants--men bound to
service for a term of years. The difference between one of these and an
African negro slave was that the white man served for a short time, and
the negro during his life. [7]
A CARGO OF MAIDS.--Yet another event which makes 1619 a notable year in
Virginian history was the arrival of a ship with ninety young women sent
out by the company to become wives of the settlers. The early comers to
Virginia had been "adventurers," that is, men seeking to better their
fortunes, not intending to live and die in Virginia, but hoping to return
to England in a few years rich, or at least prosperous. That the colony
with such a shifting population could not prosper was certain. Virginia
needed homes. The mass of the settlers were unmarried, and the company
very wisely determined to supply them with wives. The ninety young women
sent over in 1619, and others sent later, were free to choose their own
husbands: but each man, on marrying one of them, had to pay one hundred
and twenty pounds of tobacco for her passage to Virginia.
[Illustration: THE MAIDS ARRIVE IN VIRGINIA.]
THE CHARTER TAKEN AWAY.--For Virginia the future now looked bright. Her
tobacco found ready sale in England at a large profit. The right to make
her own laws gave promise of good government. The founding of home ties
could not fail to produce increased energy on the part of the settlers.
But trouble was brewing for the London Company. The king was quarreling
with a part of his people, and the company was in the hands of his
opponents. Looking upon it as a "seminary of sedition," King James secured
(1624) the destruction of the charter, and Virginia became a royal
province. [8]
STATE OF THE COLONY IN 1624.--The colony of Virginia when deprived of its
charter was a little community of some four thousand souls, scattered in
plantations on and near the James River. Let us go back to those times and
visit one of the plantations. The home of the planter is a wooden house
with rough-hewn beams and unplaned boards, surrounded by a high stockade.
Near by are the farm buildings and the cabins of his bond servants. His
books, his furniture, his clothing and that of his family, have all come
from England. So also have the farming implements and very likely the
greater part of his cows and pigs. On his land are fields of wheat and
barley and Indian corn; but the chief crop is tobacco. [9]
EFFECTS OF TOBACCO PLANTING.--As time passed and the Virginians found that
the tobacco always brought a good price in England, they made it more and
more the chief crop. This powerfully affected the whole character of the
colony. It drew to Virginia a better class of settlers, who came over to
grow rich as planters. It led the people to live almost exclusively on
plantations, and prevented the growth of large towns. Tobacco became the
currency of the colony, and salaries, wages, and debts were paid, and
taxes levied, and wealth and income estimated, in pounds of tobacco.
FEW ROADS IN VIRGINIA.--As there were few towns, [10] so there were few
roads. The great plantations lay along the river banks. It was easy,
therefore, for a planter to go on visits of business or pleasure in a
sailboat or in a barge rowed by his servants. The fine rivers and the
location of the plantations along their banks enabled each planter to have
his own wharf, to which came ships from England laden with tables, chairs,
cutlery, tools, rich silks, and cloth, everything the planter needed for
his house, his family, his servants, and his plantation, all to be paid
for with casks of tobacco.
[Illustration: FOUNDATIONS AT JAMESTOWN.]
GOVERNOR BERKELEY.--Despite the change from rule by the company to rule by
the king, Virginia grew and prospered. When Sir William Berkeley came over
as governor (in 1642), her English population was nearly fifteen thousand
and her slaves three hundred, and many of her planters were men of much
wealth. Berkeley's first term as governor (1642-1652) covered the period
of the Civil War in England.
CIVIL WAR IN ENGLAND.--When King James died (in 1625) he was succeeded by
Charles I, under whom the old quarrel between the king and the people,
which had caused the downfall of the London Company, was pushed into civil
war. In 1642 Charles I took the field, raised the royal standard, and
called all loyal subjects to its defense. The Parliament of England
likewise raised an army, and after varying fortunes the king was defeated,
captured, tried for high treason, found guilty, and beheaded (1649).
England then became a republic, called the Commonwealth.
THE CAVALIERS.--While the Civil War was raging in England, Virginia
(largely because of the influence of Governor Berkeley) remained loyal to
the king. As the war went on and the defeats of the royal army were
followed by the capture of the king, numbers of his friends, the
Cavaliers, fled to Virginia. After Charles I was beheaded, more than three
hundred of the nobility, gentry, and clergy of England came over in one
year. No wonder, then, that the General Assembly recognized the dead
king's son as King Charles II, and made it treason to doubt his right to
the throne. Because of this support of the royal cause, Parliament
punished Virginia by cutting off her trade, and ordered that steps be
taken to reduce her to submission. A fleet was accordingly dispatched,
reached Virginia early in 1652, and forced Berkeley to hand over the
government to three Parliamentary commissioners. One of them was then
elected governor, and Virginia had almost complete self-government till
1660, when England again became a kingdom, under Charles II.
MARYLAND, THE FIRST PROPRIETARY COLONY.--When Virginia became crown
property (1624), the king could do with it what he pleased. King Charles I
accordingly cut off a piece and gave it to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore.
[11] This Lord Baltimore was a Catholic who had tried in vain to found a
settlement in Newfoundland. He died before the patent, or deed, was drawn
for the land cut off from Virginia, so (1632) it was issued to his son
Cecilius, the second Lord Baltimore. The province lay north of the Potomac
River and was called Maryland.
[Illustration: MARYLAND BY THE ORIGINAL PATENT.]
By the terms of the grant Lord Baltimore was to pay the king each year two
arrowheads in token of homage, and as rent was to give the king one fifth
of all the gold and silver mined. This done, he was proprietor of
Maryland. He might coin money, grant titles, make war and peace, establish
courts, appoint judges, and pardon criminals. But he was not allowed to
tax the people without their consent. He had to summon a legislature to
assist him in making laws, but the laws when made did not need to be sent
to the king for approval.
THE FIRST SETTLERS.--The first settlement was made by a company of about
twenty gentlemen and three hundred artisans and laborers. They were led
and accompanied by two of Lord Baltimore's brothers, and by two Catholic
priests. They came over in 1634 in two ships, the _Ark_ and the _Dove_,
and not far from the mouth of the Potomac founded St. Marys. In February,
1635, they held their first Assembly. To it came all freemen, both
landholders and artisans, and by them a body of laws was framed and
sent to the proprietor (Lord Baltimore) for approval.
SELF-GOVERNMENT BEGUN.--This was refused, and in its place the proprietor
sent over a code of laws, which the Assembly in its turn rejected. The
Assembly then went on and framed another set of laws. Baltimore with rare
good sense now yielded the point, and gave his brother authority to assent
to the laws made by the people, but reserved the right to veto. Thus was
free self-government established in Maryland. [12]
TROUBLE WITH CLAIBORNE.--Before Lord Baltimore obtained his grant, William
Claiborne, of Virginia, had established an Indian trading post on Kent
Island in Chesapeake Bay. This fell within the limits given to Maryland;
but Claiborne refused to acknowledge the authority of Baltimore, whereupon
a vessel belonging to the Kent Island station was seized by the
Marylanders for trading without a license. Claiborne then sent an armed
boat with thirty men to capture any vessel belonging to St. Marys. This
boat was itself captured, instead; but another fight soon occurred, in
which Claiborne's forces beat the Marylanders. The struggle thus begun
lasted for years. [13]
THE TOLERATION ACT.--The year 1649 is memorable for the passage of the
Maryland Toleration Act, the first of its kind in our history. This
provided that "no person or persons whatsoever within this province,
professing to believe in Jesus Christ, shall from henceforth be any ways
troubled, molested, or discountenanced for, or in respect to, his or her
religion."
END OF THE CLAIBORNE TROUBLE.--The nine years that followed formed a
stormy period for Maryland. One of the parliamentary commissioners to
reduce Virginia to obedience (1652, p. 49) was our old friend Claiborne.
He and the new governor of Virginia forced Baltimore's governor to resign,
and set up a Protestant government which repealed the Toleration Act and
disfranchised Roman Catholics. Baltimore bade his deposed governor resume
office. A battle followed, the Protestant forces won, and an attempt was
made to destroy the rights of Baltimore; but the English government
sustained him, the Virginians were forced to submit, and the quarrel of
more than twenty years' standing came to an end. Thenceforth Virginia
troubled Maryland no more.
GROWTH OF MARYLAND.--The population of the colony, meantime, grew rapidly.
Pamphlets describing the colony and telling how to emigrate and acquire
land were circulated in England. Many of the first comers wrote home and
brought out more men, and were thus enabled to take up more land.
Emigrants who came with ten or twenty settlers were given manors or
plantations. Such as came alone received farms.
Most of the work on plantations was done by indented white servants, both
convicts and redemptioners. [14] Negro slavery existed in Maryland from
the beginning, but slaves were not numerous till after 1700.
[Illustration: HAND LOOM. [15]]
Food was abundant, for the rivers and bay abounded with geese and ducks,
oysters and crabs, and the woods were full of deer, turkeys, and wild
pigeons. Wheat was not plentiful, but corn was abundant, and from it were
made pone, hominy, and hoe-cakes.
NO TOWNS.--As everybody could get land and therefore lived on manors,
plantations, or farms, there were practically no towns in Maryland. Even
St. Marys, so late as 1678, was not really a town, but a string of some
thirty houses straggling for five miles along the shore. The bay with its
innumerable creeks, inlets, coves, and river mouths, afforded fine water
communication between the farms and plantations; and there were no roads.
As in Virginia, there was no need of shipping ports. Vessels came direct
to manor or plantation wharf, and exchanged English goods for tobacco or
corn. Such farmers or planters as had no water communication packed their
tobacco in a hogshead, with an axle through it, and with an ox or a horse
in a pair of shafts, or with a party of negro slaves or white servants,
rolled it to market.
SUMMARY
1. The struggle of the Jamestown colony for life was a desperate one. For
two years it was preserved by Captain John Smith's skillful leadership,
and the frequent reinforcements and supplies sent over by the London
Company; but in 1610 the settlers started to leave the country.
2. The arrival of Lord Delaware saved the colony. He brought out news of a
new charter (1609) which greatly extended the domain of the company.
3. The settlers were now given land of their own, tobacco was grown, more
settlements were planted, and prosperity began.
4. In 1619 slavery was introduced; a shipload of young women arrived; and
a representative government was established.
5. In 1624 Virginia became a royal colony.
6. During the Civil War in England many Cavaliers came to Virginia.
7. King Charles I cut off a part of Virginia to make (1632) the
proprietary colony of Maryland. The new province was given to Lord
Baltimore, who founded (1634) a colony at St. Marys.
8. Claiborne, a Virginian, denied the authority of Baltimore, and kept up
a struggle against him for many years.
9. In both Maryland and Virginia the people lived on large plantations,
and there were few towns. Travel was mostly by water, and there were no
good roads.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. I, pp. 96-98.
[2] Captain John Smith was born in England in 1580. At an early age he was
a soldier in France and in the Netherlands; then after a short stay in
England he set off to fight the Turks. In France he was robbed and left
for dead, but reached Marseilles and joined a party of pilgrims bound to
the Levant. During a violent storm the pilgrims, believing he had caused
it, threw him into the sea. But he swam to an island, and after many
adventures was made a captain in the Venetian army. The Turks captured him
and sold him into slavery, but he killed his master, escaped to a Russian
fortress, made his way through Germany, France, Spain, and Morocco, and
reached England in time to go out with the London Company's colony. His
career in Virginia was as adventurous as in the Old World. While exploring
the Chickahominy River he and his companions were taken by the Indians.
Lest they should kill him at once Smith showed them a pocket compass with
its quivering needle always pointing north. They could see, but could not
touch it because of the glass. Supposing him a wizard, they took him to
the Powhatan. According to Smith's account two stones were brought and
Smith's head laid upon them, while warriors, club in hand, stood near by
to beat out his brains. But suddenly the chief's little daughter,
Pocahontas, rushed in and laid her head on Smith's to shield him. He was
given his life and sent back to Jamestown.
[3] Smith and Newport visited the old chief at his village of
Werowocomoco, took off the Powhatan's raccoon-skin coat, and put on the
crimson robe. When they told him to kneel, he refused. Two men thereupon
seized him by the shoulders and forced him to bend his knees, and the
crown was clapped on his head. The Powhatan then took off his old
moccasins and sent them, with his raccoon-skin coat, to his royal brother
in London.
[4] They were part of a body of some five hundred in nine ships which left
England in June. On the way over a storm scattered the fleet; one ship was
lost, and another bearing the leaders of the expedition was wrecked on the
Bermudas. The shipwrecked colonists spent ten months building two little
vessels, in which they reached Jamestown in May, 1610.
[5] Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. I, pp. 152-155.
[6] The governor, the council, and the House of Burgesses constituted the
General Assembly. Any act of the Assembly might be vetoed by the governor,
and no law was valid till approved by the "general court" of the company
at London. Neither was any law made by the company for the colony valid
till approved by the Assembly. After 1660 the House of Burgesses consisted
of two delegates from each county, with one from Jamestown.
[7] For some years to come the slaves increased in numbers very slowly. So
late as 1671, when the population of Virginia was 40,000, there were but
2000 slaves, while the bond servants numbered 6000. Some of these
indentured servants, as they were called, were persons guilty of crime in
England, who were sent over to Virginia and sold for a term of years as a
punishment. Others--the "redemptioners"--were men who, in order to pay for
their passage to Virginia, agreed to serve the owner or the captain of the
ship for a certain time. On reaching Virginia the captain could sell them
to the planters for the time specified; at the end of the time they became
freemen.
[8] That is, the unoccupied land became royal domain again, and the king
appointed the governors and controlled the colony through a committee of
his privy council. One unhappy result of the downfall of the London
Company was the defeat of a plan for establishing schools in Virginia. As
early as 1621 some funds were raised for "a public free school," in
Charles City. A tract of land was also set apart in the city of Henricus
for a college, and a rector, or president, was sent out to start it. But
he was killed by the Indians in 1622, and before the company had found a
successor the charter was destroyed. Virginia's first college--William and
Mary--was established at Williamsburg in 1693.
[9] Read the description of early Virginia in J. E. Cooke's _Virginia_
(American Commonwealths Series), pp. 141-157; or _Stories of the Old
Dominion_; or Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. I, pp. 223-
232.
[10] Jamestown was long the chief town of Virginia; but in its best days
the houses did not number more than 75 or 80, and the population was not
more than 250. In 1676 the church, the House of Burgesses, and the
dwellings were burned during Bacon's Rebellion (p. 95). In 1679 the
Burgesses ordered Jamestown "to be rebuilt and to be the metropolis of
Virginia"; but in 1698 the House of Burgesses was again burned and in 1699
Williamsburg became the seat of government. The ruined church tower (p.
40) is the only structure still standing in Jamestown; but remains of the
ancient graveyard, of a mansion built on the foundations of the old House
of Burgesses, and some foundations of dwellings may also be seen. The site
is cared for by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia
Antiquities.
[11] George Calvert was the son of a Yorkshire farmer, was educated at
Oxford, and went to Parliament in 1604. Becoming a favorite of King James
I, he was knighted in 1617, and two years later was made principal
Secretary of State. He became a Roman Catholic, although Catholics were
then bitterly persecuted in England. Just before the king died, he
resigned office, and received the title of Lord Baltimore, the name
referring to a town in Ireland. Finding all public offices closed to him
because he was a Catholic, Baltimore resolved to seek a home in America.
[12] Baltimore ordered that any colonist who came in the _Ark_ or _Dove_
and brought five men with him should have 2000 acres of land, subject to
an annual rent of 400 pounds of wheat. A settler who came in 1635 could
have the same amount of land if he brought ten men, but had to pay 600
pounds of wheat a year as rent. Plantations of 1000 acres or more were
manors, and the lord of the manor could hold courts.
[13] Claiborne's London partners took possession of Kent Island, and
acknowledged the authority of Baltimore; but after the Civil War broke out
in England, Claiborne joined forces with a half pirate named Ingle, and
recovered the island. For two years Ingle and his crew lorded it over all
Maryland, stealing corn, tobacco, cattle, and household goods. Not till
1646, when Calvert received aid from Virginia, was he able to drive out
Claiborne and Ingle, and recover the province.
[14] The redemptioners, when their time was out and they became freemen,
received a set of tools, clothes, and a year's provisions from their
former masters, and fifty acres from the proprietor of the colony.
[15] On such looms skilled servants wove much of the cloth used on the
plantation. Similar looms were used in all the colonies.
CHAPTER V
THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND
NEW ENGLAND NAMED.--While the London Company was planting its colony on
the James River, the Plymouth Company sought to retrieve its failure on
the Kennebec (p. 39). In 1614 Captain John Smith, who had returned to
England from Jamestown, was sent over with two ships to explore. He made a
map of the coast from Maine to Cape Cod, [1] and called the country New
England. The next year Smith led out a colony; but a French fleet took him
prisoner, no settlement was made, and five years passed before the first
permanent English colony was planted in the Plymouth Company's grant--by
the Separatists.
[Illustration: SMITH'S MAP OF THE NEW ENGLAND COAST.]
THE SEPARATISTS.--To understand who these people were, it must be
remembered that during the reign of Queen Elizabeth the Protestant
Episcopal Church was the Established Church of England, and that severe
laws were passed to force all the people to attend its services. But a
sect arose which wished to "purify" the church by abolishing certain forms
and ceremonies. These people were called Puritans, [2] and were divided
into two sects:
1. Those Puritans who wished to purify the Church of England while they
remained members of it.
2. The Independents, or Separatists, who wished to separate from that
church and worship God in their own way.
The Separatists were cruelly persecuted during Queen Elizabeth's reign,
and afterward. One band of them fled to Holland (in 1608), where they
found peace; but time passed and it became necessary for them to decide
whether they should stay in Holland and become Dutch, or find a home in
some land where they might continue to remain Englishmen. They decided to
leave Holland, formed a company, and finally obtained leave from the
London Company to settle near the mouth of the Delaware River.
[Illustration: BREWSTER'S CHAIR. Now in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth.]
VOYAGE OF THE MAYFLOWER.--Led by Brewster, Bradford, and Standish, a party
of Pilgrims sailed from Holland in July, 1620, in the ship _Speedwell_;
were joined in England by a party from London in the _Mayflower_; and in
August both vessels put to sea. But the _Speedwell_ proved unseaworthy,
and all put back to Plymouth in England, where some gave up the voyage.
One hundred and two held fast to their purpose, and in September set sail
in the _Mayflower_. The voyage was long and stormy, and November came
before they sighted a sandy coast far to the northeastward of the
Delaware. For a while they strove hard to go southward; but adverse winds
drove them back, and they dropped anchor in Cape Cod Bay. [3]
THE LANDING.--The land here was within the territory of the Plymouth
Company. The Pilgrims, however, decided to stay and get leave to settle,
but this decision displeased some of them. A meeting, therefore, was held
in the ship's cabin (November 21, 1620), and the "Mayflower compact,"
binding all who signed it to obey such government as might be established,
was drawn up and signed by forty-one of the sixty-five men on the vessel.
This done, the work of choosing a site for their homes began, and for
several weeks little parties explored the coast before one of them entered
a harbor and selected a spot which John Smith had named Plymouth. [4] To
this harbor the _Mayflower_ was brought, and while the men were busy
putting up rude cabins, the women and children remained on the ship.
THE FIRST WINTER was a dreadful one. The Pilgrims lived in crowded
quarters, and the effects of the voyage and the severity of the winter
sent half of them to their graves before spring. But the rest never
faltered, and when the _Mayflower_ returned to England in April, not
one of the colonists went back in her. By the end of the first summer a
fort had been built on a hill, seven houses had been erected along a
village street leading down from the fort to the harbor, six and twenty
acres had been cleared, and a bountiful harvest had been gathered. Other
Pilgrims came over, the neighboring Indians kept the peace, and the colony
was soon prosperous.
[Illustration: SITE OF THE FORT AT PLYMOUTH. In the old "burying ground."]
PLYMOUTH, OR THE OLD COLONY.--As soon as the colony was planted, steps
were taken to buy the land on which it stood. The old Plymouth Company
(pp. 38, 39), organized in 1606, was succeeded in 1620 by a new
corporation called the Council for New England, which received a grant of
all the land in America between 40° and 48° of north latitude. From this
Council for New England, therefore, the Pilgrims bought as much land as
they needed. The king, however, refused to give them a charter, so the
people of Plymouth, or the Old Colony as it came to be called, managed
their own affairs in their own way for seventy years. At first the men
assembled in town meeting, made laws, and elected officers. But when the
growth of the colony made such meetings unwieldy, representative
government was set up, and each settlement sent two delegates to an
assembly.
[Illustration: GRAVE OF MILES STANDISH, near Plymouth.]
THE SALEM COLONY.--Shortly after 1620, attempts were made to plant other
colonies in New England. [5] Most of them failed, but some of the
colonists made a settlement called Naumkeag. Among those who watched these
attempts with great interest was John White, a Puritan rector in England.
He believed that the time had come for the Puritans to do what the
Separatists had done. The quarrel between the king and the Puritans was
then becoming serious, and the time seemed at hand when men who wished to
worship God according to their conscience would have to seek a home in
America. White accordingly began to urge the planting of a Puritan colony
in New England. So well did he succeed that an association was formed, a
great tract of land was obtained from the Council for New England, and in
1628 sixty men, led by John Endicott, settled at Naumkeag and changed its
name to Salem, which means "peace."
THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY.--The members of the association next secured
from King Charles I a charter which made them a corporation, called this
corporation The Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England,
and gave it the right to govern colonies planted on its lands. More
settlers with a great herd of cattle were now hurried to Salem, which thus
became the largest colony in New England.
[Illustration: THE EARLY NEW ENGLAND COLONIES.]
THE GREAT PURITAN MIGRATION.--The same year (1629) that the charter was
obtained, twelve leading Puritans signed an agreement to head an
emigration to Massachusetts, provided the charter and government of the
company were removed to New England. One of the signers was John Winthrop,
and by him in 1630 nearly a thousand Puritans were led to Salem. Thence
they soon removed to a little three-hilled peninsula where they founded
the town of Boston. More emigrants followed, and before the end of 1630
seventeen ships with nearly fifteen hundred Puritans reached
Massachusetts. They settled at Boston, Charlestown, Roxbury, Dorchester,
Watertown, and Cambridge.
The charter was brought with them, the meetings of the company were now
held in the colony, and so many of the colonists became members of the
company that Massachusetts was practically self-governing. Before long a
representative government was established in the colony, each town
electing members of a legislature called the General Court. Every town
also had its local government carried on by town meetings; but only church
members were allowed to vote.
MAINE AND NEW HAMPSHIRE.--About two years after the founding of Plymouth,
the Council for New England granted to John Mason and Sir Ferdinando
Gorges (gor'jess) a large tract of land between the rivers Merrimac and
Kennebec. In it two settlements (now known as Portsmouth and Dover) were
planted (1623) on the Piscat'aqua River, and some fishing stations on the
coast farther north.
In 1629 the province was divided. Mason obtained a patent (or deed) for
the country between the Merrimac and the Piscataqua, and named it New
Hampshire. Gorges received the country between the Piscataqua and the
Kennebec, which was called Maine.
[Illustration: ENGLISH ARMOR. Now in Essex Hall, Salem.]
UNION WITH MASSACHUSETTS.--The towns on the Piscataqua were small fishing
and fur-trading stations, and after Mason died (1635) they were left to
look out for themselves. With two other New Hampshire towns (Exeter and
Hampton) they became almost independent republics. They set up their own
governments, made their own laws, and owed allegiance to nobody save the
king. Massachusetts, however, claimed as her north boundary an east and
west line three miles north of the source of the Merrimac River. [6] She
therefore soon annexed the four New Hampshire towns, and gave them
representation in her legislature.
If the claim of Massachusetts was valid in the case of the New Hampshire
towns, it was equally so for those of Maine. But it was not till 1652,
after Gorges was dead and the settlers in Maine (at York, Wells, and
Kittery) had set up a government of their own, that these towns were
brought under her authority. Later (1677), Massachusetts bought up the
claim of the heirs of Gorges, and came into possession of the whole
province.
[Illustration: ROGER WILLIAMS FLEES TO THE WOODS.]
RHODE ISLAND.--Among those who came to Salem in the early days of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, was a Puritan minister named Roger Williams. [7]
But he had not been long in the colony when he said things which angered
the rulers. He held that all religions should be tolerated; that all laws
requiring attendance at church should be repealed; that the land belonged
to the Indians and not to the king; and that the settlers ought to buy it
from the Indians and not from the king. For these and other sayings
Williams was ordered back to England. But he fled to the woods, lived with
the Indians for a winter, and in the following summer founded Providence
(1636). [8]
And now another disturber appeared in Boston in the person of Anne
Hutchinson, [9] and in a little while she and her followers were driven
away. Some of them went to New Hampshire and founded Exeter (p. 60), while
others with Anne herself went to Rhode Island in Narragansett Bay, and
founded Portsmouth and Newport.
For a time each of the little towns, Providence, Portsmouth, and Newport,
arranged its own affairs in its own way, but in 1643 Williams obtained
from the English Parliament a charter which united them under the name of
The Incorporation of Providence Plantations on the Narragansett Bay in New
England.
CONNECTICUT FOUNDED.--Religious troubles did not end with the banishment
of Williams and Anne Hutchinson. Many persons objected to the law
forbidding any but church members to vote or hold office. So in 1635 and
1636 numbers of people, led by Thomas Hooker and others, went out (from
Dorchester, Watertown, and Cambridge) and founded Windsor, Wethersfield,
and Hartford in the Connecticut River valley. Later a party (from Roxbury)
settled at Springfield. For a while these four towns were part of
Massachusetts. But in 1639 Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield adopted a
constitution [10] and founded a republic which they called Connecticut.
THE NEW HAVEN COLONY.--As the quarrel between the Puritans and the king
was by this time very bitter, the Puritans continued to come to New
England in large numbers. Some of them made settlements on Long Island
Sound. A large band under John Davenport founded New Haven (1638). Next
(in 1639) Milford and Guilford were started, and then (in 1640) Stamford.
In 1643 the four towns joined in a sort of union and took the name New
Haven Colony.
[Illustration: PURITAN DRESS.]
THE UNITED COLONIES OF NEW ENGLAND.--Thus there were planted in New
England between 1620 and 1643 five distinct colonies, [11] namely: (1)
Plymouth, or the Old Colony, (2) Massachusetts Bay Colony, (3) Rhode
Island, or Providence Plantations, (4) Connecticut, and (5) the New Haven
Colony.
In 1643 four of them--Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven
--united for defense against the Indians and the Dutch, [12] and called
their league "The United Colonies of New England." This confederation
maintained a successful existence for forty-one years.
EFFECT OF THE CIVIL WAR IN ENGLAND.--When the New England confederation
was formed, the king and the Puritans in old England had come to blows,
and civil war was raging there. During the next twenty years no more
English colonies were planted in America. War at once stopped the stream
of emigrants. The Puritans in England remained to fight the king, and
numbers went back from New England to join the Parliamentary army. For the
next fifteen years population in New England increased slowly.
TRADE AND COMMERCE.--Life in the New England colonies was very unlike that
in Virginia. People dwelt in villages, cultivated small farms, and were
largely engaged in trade and commerce. They bartered corn and peas, woolen
cloth, and wampum with the Indians for beaver skins, which they sent to
England to pay for articles bought from the mother country. They salted
cod, dried alewives and bass, made boards and staves for hogsheads, and
sent all these to the West Indies to be exchanged for sugar, molasses, and
other products of the tropics. They built ships in the seaports where
lumber was cheap, and sold them abroad. They traded with Spain and
Portugal, England, the Netherlands, and Virginia.
[Illustration: STONE HAND MILL. Brought from England in 1630 and used for
grinding flour. Now in Essex Hall, Salem, Mass.]
SCARCITY OF MONEY.--The colonists brought little money with them, and much
of what they brought went back to England to pay for supplies. Buying and
trading in New England, therefore, had to be done largely without gold or
silver. Beaver skins and wampum, bushels of corn, produce, cattle, and
even bullets were used as money and passed at rates fixed by law. [13] In
the hope of remedying the scarcity of money, the government of
Massachusetts ordered that a mint should be set up, and in 1652 Spanish
silver brought from the West Indies was melted and coined into Pine Tree
currency. [14]
[Illustration: SPINNING WOOL.]
MANUFACTURES.--That less gold and silver might go abroad for supplies,
home manufactures were encouraged by gifts of money, by exemptions of
property from taxation, and by excusing workmen from military duty. The
cultivation of flax was encouraged, children were taught to spin and
weave, and glass works, salt works, and iron furnaces were started.
[Illustration: YARN REEL. [15] In Essex Hall, Salem, Mass.]
On the farms utensils and furniture were generally made in the household.
Almost everything was made of wood, as spoons, tankards, pails, firkins,
hinges for cupboard and closet doors, latches, plows, and harrows. Every
boy learned to use his jack-knife, and could make brooms from birch trees,
bowls and dippers and bottles from gourds, and butter paddles from red
cherry. The women made soap and candles, carded wool, spun, wove, bleached
or dyed the linen and woolen cloth, and made the garments for the family.
They knit mittens and stockings, made straw hats and baskets, and plucked
the feathers from live geese for beds and pillows.
THE HOUSES.--On the farms the houses of the early settlers were of logs,
or were framed structures covered with shingles or clapboards. The tables,
chairs, stools, and bedsteads were of the plainest sort, and were often
made of puncheons, that is, of small tree trunks split in half. Sometimes
the table would be a long board laid across two X supports. This was "the
board," around which the family sat at meals. [16] In the better houses in
the towns the furniture was of course very much finer.
THE VILLAGES.--The center of village life was the meetinghouse, or church.
Near by was the house of the minister, the inn or tavern, and the
dwellings of the inhabitants. In early times, if the village was on the
frontier or exposed to Indian attack it was guarded by blockhouses
surrounded by a high stockade. These "garrison houses," as they were
called, were of stone or logs, with the second story projecting over the
first, and had loopholes in place of windows. Most of them have long since
disappeared, but a few still remain, turned into dwellings. Sometimes
there were three or more blockhouses in a village, and to these when the
Indians were troublesome the farmers and their families came each night to
sleep.
SCHOOLS.-Among the acts passed by the General Court of Massachusetts in
early days were several in regard to education. In 1636 four hundred
pounds [17] was voted for a public school. Two years later, John Harvard,
a former minister, left his library and half his fortune to this school,
and in grateful remembrance it was called Harvard College. Thus started,
the good work went on. Parents and masters were by law compelled to teach
their children and apprentices to read English, know the important laws,
and repeat the orthodox catechism. Another law required every town of
fifty families to maintain a school for at least six months a year, and
every town of two hundred householders a primary and a grammar school,
wherein Latin should be taught.
[Illustration: FAIRBANKS HOUSE, NEAR BOSTON. As it looks to-day. Built
partly in 1650.]
PERSECUTION OF THE QUAKERS.--Though the Puritans suffered persecution in
the Old World, they had not learned to be tolerant. As we have seen, no
man could vote in Massachusetts who was not a member of their church. They
drove out Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, and again and again, in
later times, banished, or fined, imprisoned, and flogged men and women who
wished to worship God in their own way. When two Quaker women arrived
(1656), they were sent away and a sharp law was made against their sect.
[18] But in spite of all persecution, the Quakers kept coming. At last (in
1659-61) three men and a woman were hanged on Boston Common because they
returned after having once been banished. Plymouth and Connecticut also
enacted laws against the Quakers. [19]
CONNECTICUT CHARTERED (1662).--By this time the days of Puritan rule in
old England were over. In 1660 King Charles II was placed upon the throne
of his father. Connecticut promptly acknowledged him as king, and sent her
governor, the younger John Winthrop, to London to obtain a charter. He
easily secured one (in 1662) which spread the authority of Connecticut
over the New Haven Colony, [20] gave her a domain stretching across the
continent to the Pacific, and established a government so liberal that the
charter was kept in force till 1818. New Haven Colony for a time resisted;
but one by one the towns which formed the colony acknowledged the
authority of Connecticut.
THE SECOND CHARTER OF RHODE ISLAND.--Rhode Island, likewise, proclaimed
the king and sought a new charter. When obtained (in 1663), it defined her
boundaries, and provided for a form of government quite as liberal as that
of Connecticut. It remained in force one hundred and seventy-nine years.
THE NEW COLONIAL ERA.--From 1640 to 1660 the English colonies in America
had been left much to themselves. No new colonies had been founded, and
the old ones had managed their own affairs in their own way. But with
Charles II a new era opens. Several new colonies were soon established;
and though Rhode Island and Connecticut received liberal charters, all the
colonies were soon to feel the king's control. As we shall see later,
Massachusetts was deprived of her charter; but after a few years she
received a new one (1691), which united the Plymouth Colony,
Massachusetts, and Maine in the one colony of Massachusetts Bay. New
Hampshire, however, was made a separate royal province.
SUMMARY
1. In 1620 a body of Separatists reached Cape Cod and founded Plymouth,
the first English settlement north of Virginia.
2. Two years later the Council for New England granted land to Gorges and
Mason, from which grew Maine and New Hampshire.
3. Between 1628 and 1630 a great Puritan migration established the colony
of Massachusetts Bay, which later absorbed Maine and New Hampshire.
4. Religious disputes led to the expulsion of Roger Williams and Anne
Hutchinson from Massachusetts. They founded towns later united (1643) as
Providence Plantations (Rhode Island).
5. Other religious disputes led to the migration of people who settled
(1635-36) in the Connecticut valley and founded (1639) Connecticut.
6. Between 1638 and 1640 other towns were planted on Long Island Sound,
and four of them united (1643) and formed the New Haven Colony.
7. Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven joined in a league
--the United Colonies of New England (1643-84).
8. New Haven was united with Connecticut (1662), and Plymouth with
Massachusetts (1691), while New Hampshire was made a separate province; so
that after 1691 the New England colonies were New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
9. The New England colonists lived largely in villages. They were engaged
in farming, manufacturing, and commerce.
10. For twenty years, during the Civil War and the Puritan rule in
England, the colonies were left to themselves; but in 1660 Charles II
became king of England, and a new era began in colonial affairs.
[Illustration: THE CHARTER OAK, HARTFORD, CONN. From an old print.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] On his map Smith gave to Cape Ann, Cape Elizabeth, Charles River, and
Plymouth the names they still retain. Cape Cod he called Cape James.
[2] The Puritans were important in history for many years. Most of the
English people who quarreled and fought with King James and King Charles
were Puritans. In Maryland it was a Puritan army that for a time overthrew
Lord Baltimore's government (p. 52).
[3] Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 79-82.
[4] The little boat or shallop in which they intended to sail along the
coast needed to be repaired, and two weeks passed before it was ready.
Meantime a party protected by steel caps and corselets went ashore to
explore the country. A few Indians were seen in the distance, but they
fled as the Pilgrims approached. In the ruins of a hut were found some
corn and an iron kettle that had once belonged to a European ship. The
corn they carried away in the kettle, to use as seed in the spring. Other
exploring parties, after trips in the shallop, pushed on over hills and
through valleys covered deep with snow, and found more deserted houses,
corn, and many graves; for a pestilence had lately swept off the Indian
population. On the last exploring voyage, the waves ran so high that the
rudder was carried away and the explorers steered with an oar. As night
came on, all sail was spread in hope of reaching shore before dark, but
the mast broke and the sail went overboard. However, they floated to an
island where they landed and spent the night. On the second day after,
Monday, December 21, the explorers reached the mainland. On the beach,
half in sand and half in water, was a large bowlder, and on this famous
Plymouth Rock, it is said, the men stepped as they went ashore.
[5] As to the early settlements read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_,
pp. 90-95.
[6] The Massachusetts charter granted the land from within three miles
south of the Charles River, to within three miles north of the Merrimac
River, and all lands "of and within the breadth aforesaid" across the
continent.
[7] Roger Williams was a Welshman, had been educated at Cambridge
University in England, and had some reputation as a preacher before coming
to Boston. There he was welcomed as "a godly minister," and in time was
called to a church in Salem; but was soon forced out by the General Court.
He then went to Plymouth, where he made the friendship of Mas'sasoit,
chief of the Wam-pano'ags, and of Canon'icus, chief of the Narragansetts,
and learned their language. In 1633 he returned to Salem, and was again
made pastor of a church.
[8] The fate of John Endicott shows to what a result Williams's teaching
was supposed to lead. The flag of the Salem militia bore the red cross of
St. George. Endicott regarded it as a symbol of popery, and one day
publicly cut out the cross from the flag. This was thought a defiance of
royal authority, and Endicott was declared incapable of holding office for
a year.
[9] Anne Hutchinson held certain religious views on which she lectured to
the women of Boston, and made so many converts that she split the church.
Governor Vane favored her, but John Winthrop opposed her teachings, and
when he became governor again she and her followers were ordered to quit
the colony.
[10] The first written constitution made in our country, and the first in
the history of the world that was made by the people, for the people.
Other towns were added later, among them Saybrook, which had grown up
about an English fort built in 1635 at the mouth of the Connecticut.
[11] Besides New Hampshire, which in 1643 was practically part of
Massachusetts; and Maine, which became so a few years later.
[12] The Dutch, as we shall see in the next chapter, had planted a colony
in the Hudson valley, and disputed English possession of the Connecticut.
[13] Students at Harvard College for many years paid their term bills with
produce, meat, and live stock. In 1649 a student paid his bill with "an
old cow," and the steward of the college made separate credits for her
hide, her "suet and inwards." On another occasion a goat was taken and
valued at 30 shillings. Taxes also were paid in corn and cattle.
[14] The coins were the shilling, sixpence, threepence, and twopence. On
one side of each coin was stamped a rude representation of a pine tree.
[15] On which the yarn was wound after it was spun. For a picture of the
loom used in weaving, see p. 52.
[16] On the board were a saltcellar, wooden plates or trenchers, wooden or
pewter spoons, and knives, but no china, no glass. Forks, it is said, were
not known even in England till 1608, and the first ever seen in New
England were at Governor Winthrop's table in 1632. Those who wished a
drink of water drank from a single wooden tankard passed around the table;
or they went to the bucket and used a gourd.
[17] This was a large sum in those days, and about as much as was raised
by taxation in a year. The General Court which voted the money, it has
been said, was "the first body in which the people, by their
representatives, ever gave their own money to found a place of education."
[18] The Friends, or Quakers, lived pure, upright, simple lives. They
protested against all forms and ceremonies, and against all church
government. They refused to take any oaths, to use any titles, or to serve
in war, because they thought these things wrong. They were much persecuted
in England.
[19] Another incident which gives us an insight into the character of
these early times is the witchcraft delusion of 1692. Nearly everybody in
those days believed in witchcraft, and several persons in the colonies had
been put to death as witches. When, therefore, in 1692, the children of a
Salem minister began to behave queerly and said that an Indian slave woman
had bewitched them, they were believed. But the delusion did not stop with
the children. In a few weeks scores of people in Salem were accusing their
neighbors of all sorts of crimes and witch orgies. Many declared that the
witches stuck pins into them. Twenty persons were put to death as witches
before the craze came to an end.
[20] The New Haven Colony was destroyed as a distinct colony because its
people offended the king by sheltering Edward Whalley and William Goffe,
two of the regicides, or judges who sat in the tribunal that condemned
Charles I. When they fled to New England in 1660, a royal order for their
arrest was sent over after them, and a hot pursuit began. For a month they
lived in a cave, at other times in cellars in Milford, Guilford, and New
Haven; and once they hid under a bridge while their pursuers galloped past
overhead. After hiding in these ways about New Haven for three years they
went to Hadley in Massachusetts, where all trace of them disappears.
CHAPTER VI
THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES
THE COMING OF THE DUTCH.--We have now seen how English colonies were
planted in the lands about Chesapeake Bay, and in New England. Into the
country lying between, there came in 1609 an intruder in the form of a
little Dutch ship called the _Half-Moon_. The Dutch East India Company had
fitted her out and sent Captain Henry Hudson in her to seek a
northeasterly passage to China. Driven back by ice in his attempt to sail
north of Europe, Hudson turned westward, and came at last to Delaware Bay.
Up this the _Half-Moon_ went a little way, but, grounding on the
shoals, Hudson turned about, followed the coast northward, and sailed up
the river now called by his name. He went as far as the site of Albany;
then, finding that the Hudson was not a passage through the continent, he
returned to Europe. [1]
[Illustration: LANDING OF HUDSON. From an old print.]
DISCOVERIES OF BLOCK AND MAY.--The discovery of the Hudson gave Holland or
the Netherlands a claim to the country it drained, and year after year
Dutch explorers visited the region. One of them, Adrien Block, (in 1614)
went through Long Island Sound, ascended the Connecticut River as far as
the site of Hartford, and sailed along the coast to a point beyond Cape
Cod; Block Island now bears his name. Another, May, went southward, passed
between two capes, [2] and explored Delaware Bay. The Dutch then claimed
the country from the Delaware to Cape Cod; that is, as far as May and
Block had explored.
[Illustration: NEW NETHERLAND.]
THE FUR TRADE.--Important as these discoveries were, they interested the
Dutch far less than the prospect of a rich fur trade with the Indians, and
in a few years Dutch traders had four little houses on Manhattan Island,
and a little fort not far from the site of Albany. From it buyers went out
among the Mohawk Indians and returned laden with the skins of beavers and
other valuable furs; and to the fort by and by the Indians came to trade.
So valuable was this traffic that those engaged in it formed a company,
obtained from the Dutch government a charter, and for three years (1615-
18) enjoyed a monopoly of the fur trade from the Delaware to the Hudson.
THE DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY.--When the three years expired the charter
was not renewed; but a new association called the Dutch West India Company
was chartered (1621) and given great political and commercial power over
New Netherland, as the Dutch possessions in North America were now called.
More settlers were sent out (in 1623), some to Fort Orange on the site of
Albany, some to Fort Nassau on the South or Delaware River, some to the
Fresh or Connecticut River, some to Long Island, and some to Manhattan
Island, where they founded the town of New Amsterdam.
[Illustration: DUTCH MERCHANT (1620).]
THE PATROONS.--All the little Dutch settlements were forts or strong
buildings surrounded by palisades, and were centers of the fur trade. Very
little farming was done. In order to encourage farming, the West India
Company (in 1629) offered an immense tract of land to any member of the
company who should take out a colony of fifty families. The estate of a
Patroon, as such a man was called, was to extend sixteen miles along one
bank or eight miles along both banks of a river, and back almost any
distance into the country. [3] A number of these patroonships were
established on the Hudson.
THE DUTCH ON THE CONNECTICUT.--The first attempt (in 1623) of the Dutch to
build a fort on the Connecticut failed; for the company could not spare
enough men to hold the valley. But later the Dutch returned, nailed the
arms of Holland to a tree at the mouth of the river in token of ownership,
and (1633) built Fort Good Hope where Hartford now stands. When the
Indians informed the English of this, the governor of Massachusetts bade
the Dutch begone; and when they would not go, built a fort higher up the
river at Windsor (1633), and another (1635) at Saybrook at the river's
mouth, so as to cut them off from New Amsterdam. The English colony of
Connecticut was now established in the valley; but twenty years passed
before Fort Good Hope was taken from the Dutch.
DUTCH AND SWEDES ON THE DELAWARE.--The Dutch settlers on the Delaware were
driven off by Indians, but a garrison was sent back to hold Fort Nassau.
Meantime the Swedes appeared on the Delaware. After the organization of
the Dutch West India Company (1623), William Usselinex of Amsterdam went
to Sweden and urged the king to charter a similar company of Swedish
merchants. A company to trade with Asia, Africa, and America was
accordingly formed. Some years later Queen Christina chartered the South
Company, and in 1638 a colony was sent out by this company, the west bank
of the Delaware from its mouth to the Schuylkill (skool'kill) was bought
from the Indians, and a fort (Christina) was built on the site of
Wilmington. The Dutch governor at New Amsterdam protested, but for a dozen
years the Swedes remained unmolested, and scattered their settlements
along the shores of Delaware River and Bay, and called their country New
Sweden. Alarmed at this, Governor Peter Stuyvesant (sti've-sant) of New
Netherland built a fort to cut off the Swedes from the sea. But a Swedish
war vessel captured the Dutch fort; whereupon Stuyvesant sailed up the
Delaware with a fleet and army, quietly took possession of New Sweden, and
made it once more Dutch territory (1655).
DUTCH RULE.--The rulers of New Netherland were a director general, or
governor, and five councilmen appointed by the West India Company. One of
these governors, Peter Minuit, bought Manhattan (the island now covered by
a part of New York city) from the Indians (1626) for 60 guilders, or about
$24 of our money. [4]
DEMAND FOR POPULAR GOVERNMENT.--As population increased, the people began
to demand a share in the government; they wished to elect four of the five
councilmen. A long quarrel followed, but Governor Stuyvesant at last
ordered the election of nine men to aid him when necessary. [5]
POPULATION AND CUSTOMS.--Though most of the New Netherlanders were Dutch,
there were among them also Germans, French Huguenots, English, Scotch,
Jews, Swedes, and as many religious sects as nationalities.
The Dutch of New Netherland were a jolly people, much given to bowling and
holidays. They kept New Year's Day, St. Valentine's Day, Easter and
Pinkster (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday the seventh week after Easter), May
Day, St. Nicholas Day (December 6), and Christmas. On Pinkster days the
whole population, negro slaves included, went off to the woods on picnics.
Kirmess, a sort of annual fair for each town, furnished additional
holidays. The people rose at dawn, dined at noon, and supped at six. In no
colony were the people better housed and fed.
[Illustration: DUTCH DOOR AND STOOP.]
THE HOUSES stood with their gable ends to the street, and often a beam
projected from the gable, by means of which heavy articles might be raised
to the attic. The door was divided into an upper and a lower half, and
before it was a spacious stoop with seats, where the family gathered on
warm evenings.
Within the house were huge fireplaces adorned with blue or pink tiles on
which were Bible scenes or texts, a huge moon-faced clock, a Dutch Bible,
spinning wheels, cupboards full of Delft plates and pewter dishes, rush-
bottom chairs, great chests for linen and clothes, and four-posted
bedsteads with curtains, feather beds, and dimity coverlets, and
underneath a trundle-bed for the children. A warming pan was used to take
the chill off the linen sheets on cold nights. In the houses of the
humbler sort the furniture was plainer, and sand on the floors did duty
for carpets.
[Illustration: FOUR-POSTED BED, AND STEPS USED IN GETTING INTO IT. In the
Van Cortland Mansion, New York city.]
TRADE AND COMMERCE.--The chief products of the colony were furs, lumber,
wheat, and flour. The center of the fur trade was Fort Orange, from which
great quantities of beaver and other skins purchased from the Indians were
sent to New Amsterdam; and to this port came vessels from the West Indies,
Portugal, and England, as well as from Holland. There was scarcely any
manufacturing. The commercial spirit of the Dutch overshadowed everything
else, and kept agriculture at a low stage.
THE ENGLISH SEIZE NEW NETHERLAND.--The English, who claimed the continent
from Maine to Florida, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, regarded the
Dutch as intruders. Soon after Charles II came to the throne, he granted
the country from the Delaware to the Connecticut, with Long Island and
some other territory, to his brother James, the Duke of York.
In 1664, accordingly, a fleet was sent to take possession of New
Amsterdam. Stuyvesant called out his troops and made ready to fight. But
the people were tired of the arbitrary rule of the Dutch governors, and
petitioned him to yield. At last he answered, "Well, let it be so, but I
would rather be carried out dead."
NEW YORK.--The Dutch flag was then lowered, and New Netherland passed into
English hands. New Amsterdam was promptly renamed New York; Fort Orange
was called Albany; and the greater part of New Netherland became the
province of New York. [6]
GOVERNMENT OF NEW YORK.--The governor appointed by the Duke of York drew
up a code of laws known later as the Duke's Laws. No provision was made
for a legislature, nor for town meetings, nor for schools. [7] Government
of this sort did not please the English on Long Island and elsewhere.
Demands were at once made for a share in the lawmaking. Some of the people
refused to pay taxes, and some towns to elect officers, and sent strong
protests against taxation without their consent. But nearly twenty years
passed before New York secured a representative legislature. [8]
EDUCATION.--In the schools established by the Dutch, the master was often
the preacher or the sexton of the Dutch church. Many of the Long Island
towns were founded by New Englanders, who long kept up their Puritan
customs and methods of education. But outside of New York city and a few
other large towns, there were no good schools during the early years of
the New York colony.
[Illustration: NEW JERSEY, DELAWARE, AND EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA.]
NEW JERSEY.--Before the Duke of York had possession of his province, he
cut off the piece between the Delaware River and the lower Hudson and gave
it to Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley (1664). They named this land
New Jersey, and divided it by the line shown on the map into East and West
Jersey. Lord Berkeley sold his part--West Jersey--to some Quakers, and a
Quaker colony was planted at Burlington. Carteret's portion--East Jersey--
was sold after his death to William Penn [9] and other Quakers, who had
acquired West Jersey also. In 1702, however, the proprietors gave up their
right to govern, and the two colonies were united into the one royal
province of New Jersey.
PENNSYLVANIA.--Penn had joined the Friends, or Quakers, when a very young
man. The part he took in the settlement of New Jersey led him to think of
founding a colony where not only the Quakers, but any others who were
persecuted, might find a refuge, and where he might try a "holy
experiment" in government after his own ideas. The king was therefore
petitioned "for a tract of land in America lying north of Maryland," and
in 1681 Penn received a large block of land, which was named Pennsylvania,
or Penn's Woodland. [10]
[Illustration: CHARLES II AND PENN.]
PHILADELPHIA FOUNDED.--Having received his charter, Penn wrote an account
of his province and circulated it in England, Ireland, Wales, Holland, and
Germany. In the autumn of 1681 three shiploads of colonists were sent
over. Penn himself came the next spring, and made his way to the spot
chosen for the site of Philadelphia. The land belonged to three Swedish
brothers; so Penn bought it, and began the work of marking out the streets
and building houses. Before a year went by, Philadelphia was a town of
eighty houses.
PENN AND THE INDIANS.--In dealing with the Indians the aim of Penn was to
make them friends. Before coming over he sent letters to be read to them..
After his arrival he walked with them, sat with them to watch their young
men dance, joined in their feasts, and, it is said, planned a sort of
court or jury of six whites and six Indians to settle disputes with the
natives. In June, 1683, Penn met the Indians and made a treaty which,
unlike most other treaties, was kept by both parties.
THE GOVERNMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA.--As proprietor of Pennsylvania it became
the duty of Penn to provide a government for the settlers, which he did in
the _Frame of Government_. This provided for a governor appointed by
the proprietor, a legislature of two houses elected by the people, judges
partly elected by the people, and a vote by ballot. [11] In 1701 Penn
granted a new constitution which kept less power for his governor, and
gave more power and rights to the legislature and the people. This was
called the _Charter of Privileges_, and it remained in force as long
as Pennsylvania was a colony.
THE "TERRITORIES," OR DELAWARE.--Pennsylvania had no frontage on the sea,
and its boundaries were disputed by the neighboring colonies. [12] To
secure an outlet to the sea, Penn applied to the Duke of York for a grant
of the territory on the west bank of the Delaware River to its mouth, and
was granted what is now Delaware. This region was also included in Lord
Baltimore's grant of Maryland, and the dispute over it between the two
proprietors was not settled till 1732, when the present boundary was
agreed upon. Penn intended to add Delaware to Pennsylvania, but the people
of these "territories," or "three lower counties," objected, and in 1703
secured a legislature of their own, though they remained under the
governor of Pennsylvania.
[Illustration: PENN'S RAZOR, CASE, AND HOT WATER TANK. Now in the
possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society.]
THE PEOPLING OF PENNSYLVANIA.--The toleration and liberality of Penn
proved so attractive to the people of the Old World that emigrants came
over in large numbers. They came not only from England and Wales, but also
from other parts of Europe. In later times thousands of Germans settled in
the middle part of the colony, and many Scotch-Irish (people of Scottish
descent from northern Ireland) on the western frontier and along the
Maryland border.
As a consequence of this great migration Pennsylvania became one of the
most populous of the colonies. It had many flourishing towns, of which
Philadelphia was the largest. This was a fine specimen of a genuine
English town, and was one of the chief cities in English America.
Between the towns lay some of the richest farming regions in America. The
Germans especially were fine farmers, raised great crops, bred fine
horses, and owned farms whose size was the wonder of all travelers. The
laborers were generally indentured servants or redemptioners.
[Illustration: CAROLINA BY THE GRANT OF 1665.]
CAROLINA.--When Charles II became king in 1660, there were only two
southern colonies, Virginia and Maryland. Between the English settlements
in Virginia and the Spanish settlements in Florida was a wide stretch of
unoccupied land, which in 1663 he granted for a new colony called Carolina
in his honor. [13]
Two groups of settlements were planted. One in the north, called the
Albemarle Colony, was of people from Virginia; the other, in the south,
the Carteret Colony, was of people from England, who founded Charleston
(1670). John Locke, a famous English philosopher, at the request of the
proprietors drew up a form of government, [14] but it was opposed by the
colonists and never went into effect. Each colony, however, had its own
governor, who was sent out by the proprietors till 1729, when the
proprietors surrendered their rights to the king. The province of Carolina
was then formally divided into two colonies known as North and South
Carolina.
LIFE IN NORTH CAROLINA.--The people of North Carolina lived on small farms
and owned few slaves. In the towns were a few mechanics and storekeepers,
in whose hands was all the commerce of the colony. They bought and sold
everything, and supplied the farms and small plantations. In the northern
part of the colony tobacco was grown, in the southern part rice and
indigo; and in all parts lumber, tar, pitch, and turpentine were produced.
Herds of cattle and hogs ran wild in the woods, bearing their owner's
brands, to alter which was a crime.
There were no manufactures; all supplies were imported from England or the
other colonies. There were few roads. There were no towns, but little
villages such as Wilmington, Newbern, and Edenton, the largest of which
did not have a population of five hundred souls. As in Virginia, the
courthouses were the centers of social life, and court days the occasion
of social amusements. Education was scanty and poor, and there was no
printing press in the colony for a hundred years after its first
settlement.
Much of the early population of North Carolina consisted of indented
servants, who, having served out their term in Virginia, emigrated to
Carolina, where land was easier to get. Later came Germans from the Rhine
country, Scotch-Irish from the north of Ireland, and (after 1745)
Scotchmen from the Highlands. [15]
SOUTH CAROLINA.--In South Carolina, also, the only important occupation
was planting or farming. Rice, introduced about 1694, was the chief
product, and next in importance was indigo. The plantations, as in
Virginia, were large and lay along the coast and the banks of the rivers,
from which the crops were floated to Charleston, where the planters
generally lived. At Charleston the crops were bought by merchants who
shipped them to the West Indies and to England, whence was brought almost
every manufactured article the people used. Slaves were almost the only
laborers, and formed about half the population. Bond servants were nearly
unknown. Charleston, the one city, was well laid out and adorned with
handsome churches, public buildings, and fine residences of rich merchants
and planters.
[Illustration: CHARLESTON IN EARLY TIMES. From an old print.]
THE PIRATES.--During the early years of the two Carolinas the coast was
infested with pirates, or, as they called themselves, "Brethren of the
Coast." These buccaneers had formerly made their home in the West Indies,
whence they sallied forth to prey on the commerce of the Spanish colonies.
About the time Charleston was founded, Spain and England wished to put
them down. But when the pirates were driven from their old haunts, they
found new ones in the sounds and harbors of Carolina, and preyed on the
commerce of Charleston till the planters turned against them and drove
them off. [16]
GEORGIA CHARTERED.--The thirteenth and last of the English colonies in
North America was chartered in 1732. At that time and long afterward, it
was the custom in England and the colonies to imprison people for debt,
and keep them in jail for life or until the debt was paid. The sufferings
of these people greatly interested James Oglethorpe, a gallant English
soldier, and led him to attempt something for their relief. His plan was
to have them released, provided they would emigrate to America. Others
aided him, and in 1732 a company was incorporated and given the land
between the Savannah and Altamaha rivers from their mouths to their
sources, and thence across the continent to the Pacific. The new colony
was called Georgia, in honor of King George II.
The site of the new colony was chosen in order that Georgia might occupy
and hold some disputed territory, [17] and serve as a "buffer colony" to
protect Charleston from attacks by the Spaniards and the Indians.
[Illustration: SCOTTISH HIGHLANDER.]
THE SETTLEMENT OF GEORGIA.--In 1732 Oglethorpe with one hundred and thirty
colonists sailed for Charleston, and after a short stay started south and
founded Savannah (1733). The colony was not settled entirely by released
English debtors. To it in time came people from New England and the
distressed of many lands, including Italians, Germans, and Scottish
Highlanders. Oglethorpe's company controlled Georgia twenty years; but the
colonists chafed under its rule, so that the company finally disbanded and
gave the province back to the king (1752).
Under the proprietors the people were required to manufacture silk, plant
vineyards, and produce oil. But the prosperity of Georgia began under the
royal government, when the colony settled down to the production of rice,
lumber, and indigo. Importation of slaves was forbidden by the
proprietors, but under the royal government it was allowed. The towns were
small, for almost everybody lived on a small farm or plantation.
SUMMARY
1. While the English were planting the Jamestown colony, the Dutch under
Hudson explored the Hudson River (1609), and a few years later the
Dutchmen May and Block explored also Delaware Bay and the Connecticut
River.
2. The Dutch fur trade was profitable, and in 1621 the Dutch West India
Company was placed in control of New Netherland.
3. Settlements were soon attempted and patroonships created; but the chief
industry of New Netherland was the fur trade.
4. In 1638 a Swedish colony, called New Sweden, was planted on the
Delaware; but it was seized by the Dutch (1655).
5. The English by this time had begun to settle in New England. This led
to disputes, and in 1664 New Netherland was seized by the English, arid
became a possession of the Duke of York, brother of King Charles II.
6. Most of the province was called New York; but part of it was cut off
and given to two noblemen, and became the province of New Jersey.
7. In 1663 and 1665 Charles II made some of his friends proprietors of
Carolina, a province later divided into North and South Carolina.
8. In 1681 Pennsylvania was granted to William Penn as a proprietary
colony.
9. In order to obtain the right of access to the sea, Penn secured from
the Duke of York what is now Delaware.
10. The last of the colonies was Georgia, chartered in 1732.
11. Education scanty and poor. No printing presses for one hundred years
after first settlement.
[Illustration: POUNDING CORN.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Henry Hudson was an English seaman who twice before had made voyages
to the north and northeastward for an English trading company. Stopping in
England on his return from America, Hudson sent a report of his discovery
to the Dutch company and offered to go on another voyage to search for the
northwest passage. He was ordered to come to Amsterdam, but the English
authorities would not let him go. In 1610 he sailed again for the English
and entered Hudson Bay, where during some months his ship was locked in
the ice. The crew mutinied and put Hudson, his son, and seven sick men
adrift in an open boat, and then sailed for England. There the crew were
imprisoned. An expedition was sent in search of Hudson, but no trace of
him was found.
[2] One of these, Cape May, now bears his name; the other, Cape Henlopen,
is called after a town in Holland.
[3] The first patroonship was Swandale, in what is now the state of
Delaware; but the Indians were troublesome, and the estate was abandoned.
The second, granted to Michael Pauw, included Staten Island and much of
what is now Jersey City; it was sold back to the company after a few
years. The most successful patroonship was the Van Rensselaer (ren'se-ler)
estate on the Hudson near Albany. It extended twenty-four miles along both
banks of the river and ran back into the country twenty-four miles from
each bank. The family still occupies a small part of the estate.
[4] New Amsterdam was then a cluster of some thirty one-story log houses
with bark roofs, and two hundred population engaged in the fur trade. The
town at first grew slowly. There were no such persecution and distress in
Holland as in England, and therefore little inducement for men to migrate.
Minuit was succeeded as governor by Van Twiller (1633), and he by Kieft
(1638), during whose term all monopolies of trade were abandoned. The fur
trade, heretofore limited to agents of the company, was opened to the
world, and new inducements were offered to immigrants. Any farmer who
would go to New Netherland was carried free with his family, and was given
a farm, with a house, barn, horses, cows, sheep, swine, and tools, for a
small annual rent.
[5] From these nine men in time came an appeal to the Dutch government to
turn out the company and give the people a government of their own. The
first demand was refused, but the second was partly granted; for in 1653
New Amsterdam was incorporated as a city with a popular government.
[6] Read Fiske's _Dutch and Quaker Colonies_, Vol. I, pp. 286-291. In
1673, England and Holland being at war, a Dutch fleet recaptured New York
and named it New Orange, and held it for a few months. When peace was made
(1674) the city was restored to the English, and Dutch rule in North
America was over forever.
[7] Each town was to elect a constable and eight overseers, with limited
powers. Several towns were grouped into a "riding," over which presided a
sheriff appointed by the governor. In 1683 the ridings became counties,
and in 1703 it was ordered that the people of each town should elect
members of a board of supervisors.
[8] In 1683 Thomas Dongan came out as governor, with authority to call an
assembly to aid in making laws and levying taxes. Seventeen
representatives met in New York, enacted some laws, and framed a Charter
of Franchises and Privileges. The duke signed this as proprietor in 1684;
but revoked it as King James II.
[9] William Penn was the son of Sir William Penn, an admiral in the navy
of the Commonwealth and a friend of Charles II. At Oxford young William
Penn was known as an athlete and a scholar and a linguist, a reputation he
maintained in after life by learning to speak Latin, French, German,
Dutch, and Italian. After becoming a Quaker, he was taken from Oxford and
traveled in France, Italy, and Ireland, where he was imprisoned for
attending a Quaker meeting. The father at first was bitterly opposed to
the religious views of the son, but in the end became reconciled, and on
the death of the admiral (in 1670), William Penn inherited a fortune.
Thenceforth all his time, means, and energy were devoted to the interests
of the Quakers. For a short account of Penn, read Fiske's _Dutch and
Quaker Colonies_, Vol. II, pp. 114-118, 129-130.
[10] Penn intended to call his tract New Wales, but to please the king
changed it to Sylvania, before which the king put the name Penn, in honor
of Penn's father. The king owed Penn's father £16,000, and considered the
debt paid by the land grant.
[11] All laws were to be proposed by the governor and the upper house; but
the lower house might reject any of them. At the first meeting of the
Assembly Penn offered a series of laws called _The Great Law_. These
provided that all religions should be tolerated; that all landholders and
taxpayers might vote and be eligible to membership in the Assembly; that
every child of twelve should be taught some useful trade; and that the
prisons should be made houses of industry and education.
[12] Pennsylvania extended five degrees of longitude west from the
Delaware. The south boundary was to be "a circle drawn at twelve miles'
distance from Newcastle northward and westward unto the beginning of the
fortieth degree of northern latitude, and then by a straight line
westward." This was an impossible line, as a circle so drawn would meet
neither the thirty-ninth nor the fortieth parallel. Maryland, moreover,
was to extend "unto that part of Delaware Bay on the north which lieth
under the fortieth degree of north latitude."
Penn held that the words of his grant "beginning of the fortieth degree"
meant the thirty-ninth parallel. The Baltimores denied this and claimed to
the fortieth. The dispute was finally settled by a compromise line which
was partly located (1763-67) by two surveyors, Mason and Dixon. In later
days this Mason and Dixon's line became the boundary between the seaboard
free and slave-holding states. The north boundary of Pennsylvania was to
be "the beginning of the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude,"
which, according to Penn's argument in the Maryland case, meant the forty-
second parallel, and on this New York insisted.
[13] The grant extended from the 31st to the 36th degree of north
latitude, and from the Atlantic to the South Sea; it was given to eight
noblemen, friends of the king. In 1665 strips were added on the north and
on the south, and Carolina then extended from the parallel of 29 degrees
to that of 36 degrees 30 minutes.
[14] This plan, the _Grand Model_, as it was called, was intended to
introduce a queer sort of nobility or landed aristocracy into America. At
the head of the state was to be a "palatine." Below him in rank were
"proprietaries," "landgraves," "caciques," and the "leetmen" or plain
people. Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. II, pp.
271-276.
[15] Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. II, pp.
310-319.
[16] Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. II, pp.
361-369.
[17] Ever since the early voyages of discovery Spain had claimed the whole
of North America, and all of South America west of the Line of
Demarcation. But in 1670 Spain, by treaty, acknowledged the right of
England to the territory she then possessed in North America. No
boundaries were mentioned, so the region between St. Augustine and the
Savannah River was left to be contended for in the future. England, in the
charter to the proprietors of Carolina (1665), asserted her claim to the
coast as far south as 29°. But this was absurd; for the parallel of 29°
was south of St. Augustine, where Spain for a hundred years had maintained
a strong fort and settlement. The possessions of England really stopped at
the Savannah River, and sixty-two years passed after the treaty with Spain
(1670) before any colony was planted south of that river.
CHAPTER VII
HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED
GROUPS OF COLONIES.--It has long been customary to group the colonies in
two ways--according to their geographical location, and according to their
form of government.
Geographically considered, there were three groups: (1) the Eastern
Colonies, or New England--New Hampshire, Massachusetts (including Plymouth
and Maine), Rhode Island, and Connecticut; (2) the Middle Colonies--New
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware; and (3) the Southern
Colonies--Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. (Map,
p. 134.)
Politically considered, there were three groups also--the charter, the
royal, and the proprietary. (1) The charter colonies were those whose
organization was described in a charter; namely, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and Rhode Island. (2) The royal colonies were under the
immediate authority of the king and subject to his will and pleasure--New
Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and
Georgia. [1] (3) In the proprietary colonies, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and
Maryland, authority was vested in a proprietor or proprietaries, who owned
the land, appointed the governors, and established the legislatures.
[Illustration: COLONIAL CHAIR. In the possession of the Concord
Antiquarian Society.]
THE FIRST NAVIGATION ACT.--It was from the king that the land grants, the
charters, and the powers of government were obtained, and it was to him
that the colonists owed allegiance. Not till the passage of the Navigation
Acts did Parliament concern itself with the colonies.
The first of these acts, the ordinance of 1651, was intended to cut off
the trade of Holland with the colonies. It provided that none but English
or colonial ships could trade between England and her colonies, or trade
along the coast from port to port, or engage in the foreign trade of the
plantations.
THE SECOND NAVIGATION ACT was passed in 1660. It provided (1) that no
goods should be imported or exported save in English or colonial ships,
and (2) that certain goods [2] should not be sent from the colonies
anywhere except to an English port. A third act, passed in 1663, required
all European goods destined for the colonies to be first landed in
England. The purpose of these acts was to favor English merchants.
THE LORDS OF TRADE.--That the king in person should attend to all the
trade affairs of his colonies was impossible. From a very early time,
therefore, the management of trade matters was intrusted to a committee
appointed by the king, or by Parliament during the Civil War and the
Commonwealth. After the restoration of the monarchy (in 1660) this body
was known first as the Committee for Foreign Plantations, then as the
Lords of Trade, and finally (after 1696) as the Lords of the Board of
Trade and Plantations. It was their duty to correspond with the governors,
make recommendations, enforce the Navigation Acts, examine all colonial
laws and advise the king as to which he should veto or disallow, write the
king's proclamations, listen to complaints of merchants,--in short, attend
to everything concerning the trade and government of the colonies.
THE COLONIAL GOVERNOR.--The most important colonial official was the
governor. In Connecticut and Rhode Island the governor was elected by the
people; in the royal colonies and in Massachusetts (after 1684) he was
appointed by the king, and in the proprietary colonies by the proprietor
with the approval of the king. Each governor appointed by the king
recommended legislation to the assemblies, informed the king as to the
condition of the colony, sent home copies of the laws, and by his veto
prevented the passage of laws injurious to the interests of the crown.
From time to time he received instructions as to what the king wished
done. He was commander of the militia, and could assemble, prorogue
(adjourn), and dismiss the legislature of the colony.
[Illustration: COLONIAL PARLOR (RESTORATION).]
THE COUNCIL.--Associated with the governor in every colony was a Council
of from three to twenty-eight men [3] who acted as a board of advisers to
the governor, usually served as the upper house of the legislature, and
sometimes acted as the highest or supreme court of the colony.
THE LOWER HOUSE of the legislature, or the Assembly,--called by different
names in some colonies, as House of Delegates, or House of Commons,--was
chosen by such of the people as could vote. With the governor and Council
it made the laws, [4] levied the taxes, and appointed certain officers;
but (except in Rhode Island and Connecticut) the laws could be vetoed by
the governor, or disallowed by the king or the proprietor.
There were many disputes between governor and Assembly, each trying to
gain more power and influence in the government. If the governor vetoed
many laws, the Assembly might refuse to vote him any salary. If the
Assembly would not levy taxes and pass laws as requested by the governor,
he might dismiss it and call for the election of a new one.
[Illustration: COLONIAL PEWTER DISHES.]
THE LAWS.--Many of the laws of colonial times seem to us cruel and severe.
A large number of crimes were then punishable with death. For less serious
offenses men and women had letters branded on their foreheads or cheeks or
hands, or sewed on their outer garments in plain sight; or were flogged
through the streets, ducked, stood under the gallows, stood in the
pillory, or put in the stocks. In New England it was an offense to travel
or cook food or walk about the town on the Sabbath day, or to buy any
cloth with lace on it.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT was of three systems: the town (township) in New England;
the county in the Southern Colonies; and in the Middle Colonies a mixture
of both.
TOWN MEETING.--The affairs of a New England town were regulated at town
meeting, to which from time to time the freemen were "warned," or
summoned, by the constable. To be a freeman in Massachusetts and
Connecticut a man had to own a certain amount of property and be a member
of a recognized church. If a newcomer, he had to be formally admitted to
freemanship at a town meeting. These meetings were presided over by a
moderator chosen for the occasion, and at them taxes were levied, laws
enacted, and once a year officers were elected. [5] The principal town
officers were the selectmen who managed the town's affairs between town
meetings, the constables, overseers of the poor, assessors, the town
clerk, and the treasurer.
THE COUNTY.--In the South, where plantations were numerous and where there
were no towns of the New England kind, county government prevailed. The
officers were appointed by the royal governor, formed a board called the
court of quarter sessions, and levied local taxes, made local laws, and as
a court administered justice.
In the Middle Colonies there were both town and county governments. In New
York, each town (after 1703) elected a supervisor, and county affairs were
managed by a board consisting of the supervisors of all the towns in the
county. In Pennsylvania the county officers were elected by the voters of
the whole county.
NO REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENT.--The colonies sent no representatives to
Parliament. In certain matters that body legislated for the colonies, as
in the case of the Navigation Acts. But unless expressly stated in the
act, no law of Parliament applied to the colonies. Having no
representation in Parliament, the colonies often sent special agents to
London to look after their affairs, and in later times kept agents there
regularly, one man acting for several colonies. [6]
A UNION OF THE COLONIES.--The idea of uniting the colonies for purposes of
general welfare and common defense was proposed very early in their
history. In 1697 Penn suggested a congress of delegates from each colony.
A little later Robert Livingston of New York urged the grouping of the
colonies into three provinces, from each of which delegates should be sent
to Albany to consider measures for defense. As yet, however, the colonies
were not ready for anything of this sort.
THE CHARTERS ATTACKED.--The king, on the other hand, had attempted to
unite some of the colonies in a very different way--by destroying the
charters of the northern colonies and putting them under one governor. The
first attack was made by King Charles II, on Massachusetts, and after a
long struggle her charter (p. 58) was taken away by the English courts in
1684. The charters of Rhode Island and Connecticut were next annulled, and
King James II [7] sent over Edmund Andros as governor of New England.
CONNECTICUT SAVES HER CHARTER.--Andros reached Boston in 1686, and assumed
the government of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. [8] He next ordered
Plymouth, Rhode Island, and Connecticut to submit and accept annexation.
Plymouth and Rhode Island did so, but Connecticut resisted. Andros
therefore came to Hartford (1687), dissolved the colonial government, and
demanded the Connecticut charter. Tradition says that the Assembly met
him, and debated the question till dusk; candles were then lighted and the
charter brought in and laid on the table; this done, the candles were
suddenly blown out, and when they were relighted, the charter could not be
found; Captain Wadsworth of Hartford had carried it off and hidden it in
an oak tree thereafter known as the Charter Oak.
But Andros ruled Connecticut, and in the following year New York and East
and West Jersey also were placed under his authority. Andros thus became
ruler of all the provinces lying north and east of the Delaware River. [9]
His rule was tyrannical: he abolished the legislatures, and with the aid
of appointed councilmen he made laws and levied taxes as he pleased.
THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION OF 1689.--In 1689 King James II was driven from his
throne, William and Mary became king and queen of England, and war broke
out with France. News of these events caused an upheaval in the colonies.
The people in Boston promptly seized Andros and put him in jail;
Connecticut and Rhode Island resumed their charter governments; the
Protestants in Maryland overthrew the government of the proprietor and set
up a new one in the name of William and Mary [10]; and in New York Leisler
raised a rebellion.
MASSACHUSETTS RECHARTERED.--Massachusetts sent agents to London to ask for
the restoration of her old charter; but instead William granted a new
charter in 1691, which provided that the governor should be appointed by
the king. Plymouth and Maine were united with Massachusetts, but New
Hampshire was made a separate royal colony. The charters of Rhode Island
and Connecticut were confirmed, so that they continued to elect their own
governors.
[Illustration: THE FORT AT NEW YORK.]
LEISLER'S REBELLION.--Andros had ruled New York through a deputy named
Nicholson, who tried to remain in control. A rich merchant named Jacob
Leisler denied the right of Nicholson to act, refused to pay duty on some
wine he had imported, and, aided by the people, seized the fort and set up
a temporary government. A convention was then called, a committee of
safety appointed, and Leisler was made commander in chief. Later he
assumed the office of lieutenant governor. When King William heard of
these things, he appointed a new governor, and early in 1691 three ships
with some soldiers reached New York. Leisler at first refused to give up
the fort; but was soon forced to surrender, and was finally hanged for
rebellion. [11]
BACON'S REBELLION.--Massachusetts and New York were not the first colonies
in which bad government led to uprisings against a royal governor. In
Virginia, during the reign of Charles II, the rule of Governor Berkeley
was selfish and tyrannical. In 1676 the planters on the frontier asked for
protection against Indian attacks, but the governor, who was engaged in
Indian trade, refused to send soldiers; and when Nathaniel Bacon led a
force of planters against the Indians, Berkeley declared him a rebel,
raised a force of men, and marched after him. While Berkeley was away, the
people in Jamestown rose and demanded a new Assembly and certain reforms.
Berkeley yielded to the demands, and was also compelled to give Bacon a
commission to fight the Indians; but when Bacon was well on his way,
Berkeley again proclaimed him a rebel, and fled from Jamestown.
Bacon, supported by most of the people, now seized the government and sent
a force to capture Berkeley. The governor and his followers defeated this
force and occupied Jamestown. Bacon, who was again on the frontier,
returned, drove Berkeley away, burned Jamestown lest it should be again
occupied, and a month later died. The popular uprising then subsided
rapidly, and when the king's forces arrived (1677) to restore order,
Berkeley was in control. [12]
GROWTH OF POPULATION.--During the century which followed the restoration
of monarchy (1660) the colonies grew not only in number but also in
population and in wealth. In 1660 there were probably 200,000 people in
the English colonies; by 1760 there were nearly 2,000,000--all east of the
Appalachian watershed. The three great centers were Virginia,
Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Sparse as the population seems to us,
the great march across the continent had begun. [13]
CITIES AND TOWNS.--The century (1660-1760) had seen the rise of but one
real city in the South--Charleston. Annapolis was a village, Baltimore a
hamlet of a hundred souls, Williamsburg and Norfolk were but towns, and no
place in North Carolina was more than a country village. Philadelphia,
which did not exist in 1660, had become a place of 16,000 people in 1760,
neat, well-built, and prosperous. Near by was German town, and further
west Lancaster, the largest inland town in all the colonies. Between
Philadelphia and New York there were no places larger than small villages.
New York had a population of some 12,000 souls; Boston, the chief city in
the colonies, some 20,000; and in New England were several other towns of
importance.
LIFE IN THE CITIES.--In the cities and large towns from Boston to
Charleston in 1760 were many fine houses. Every family of wealth had
costly furniture, plenty of silver, china, glass, and tapestry, and every
comfort that money could then buy. The men wore broadcloth, lace ruffles,
silk stockings, and silver shoe buckles, powdered their hair, and carried
swords. The women dressed more elaborately in silks and brocades, and wore
towering head-dresses and ostrich plumes. Shopkeepers wore homespun,
workingmen and mechanics leather aprons.
[Illustration: COLONIAL SIDEBOARD, WITH KNIFE CASES, CANDLESTICK,
PITCHERS, AND DECANTER. In the possession of the Concord Antiquarian
Society.]
THINGS NOT IN USE IN 1660.--Should we make a list of what are to us the
everyday conveniences of life and strike from the list the things not
known in 1660, very few would remain. A business man in one of our large
cities, let us suppose, sets off for his place of business on a rainy day.
He puts on a pair of rubbers, takes an umbrella, buys a morning newspaper,
boards a trolley car, and when his place of business is reached, is
carried by an elevator to his office floor, and enters a steam-heated,
electric-lighted room. In 1660 and for many years after, there was not in
any of the colonies a pair of rubbers, an umbrella, a trolley car, a
morning newspaper, an elevator, a steam-heated room, [14] an electric
light.
[Illustration: COLONIAL FOOT STOVE.]
The man of business sits down in a revolving chair before a rolltop desk.
In front of him are steel pens, India rubber eraser, blotting paper,
rubber bands, a telephone. He takes up a bundle of typewritten letters,
dictates answers to a stenographer, sends a telegram to some one a
thousand miles away, and before returning home has received an answer. In
1660 there was not in all the land a stenographer, or any of the articles
mentioned; no telephone, no telegraph, not even a post office.
TRAVEL AND COMMUNICATION.--If business calls him from home, he travels in
comfort in a steamboat or a railway car, and goes farther in one hour than
in 1660 he could have gone in two days, for at that time there was not a
steamboat, nor a railroad, nor even a stagecoach, in North America. Men
went from one colony to another by sailing vessel; overland they traveled
on horseback; and if a wife went with her husband, she rode behind him on
a pillion. The produce of the farms was drawn to the village market by ox
teams.
[Illustration: TRAVELING IN 1660.]
NEWSPAPERS AND PRINTING.--In 1660 no newspaper or magazine of any sort was
published in the colonies. The first printing press in English America was
set up at Cambridge in 1630, and was long the only one. The first
newspaper in our country was the _Boston News Letter_, printed in 1704,
and there was none in Pennsylvania till 1719, and none south of the
Potomac till 1732.
LIBERTY OF THE PRESS did not exist. No book, pamphlet, or almanac could be
printed without permission. In 1685, when a printer in Philadelphia
printed something in his almanac which displeased the Council, he was
forced to blot it out. Another Philadelphia printer, Bradford, offended
the Quakers by putting into his almanac something "too light and airy for
one that is a Christian," whereupon the almanac was suppressed; and for
later offenses Bradford was thrown into jail and so harshly treated that
he left the colony.
In New York (1725) Bradford started the first newspaper in that colony.
One of his old apprentices, John Peter Zenger, started the second (1733),
and soon called down the wrath of the governor because of some sharp
attacks on his conduct. Copies of the newspaper were burned before the
pillory, Zenger was put in jail, and what began as a trial for libel ended
in a great struggle for liberty of the press; Zenger's acquittal was the
cause of great public rejoicings. [15]
CHANGES BETWEEN 1660 AND 1760.--By 1760 the conditions of life in the
colonies had changed for the better in many respects. Stagecoaches had
come in, and a line ran regularly between New York and Philadelphia. Post
offices had been established. There were printing presses and newspapers
in most of the colonies, there were public subscription libraries in
Charleston and Philadelphia, and six colleges scattered over the colonies
from Virginia to Massachusetts.
EDUCATION.--What we know as the public school system, however, did not yet
exist. Children generally attended private schools kept by wandering
teachers who were boarded around among the farmers or village folk; and
learned only to read, write, and cipher. But a few went to the Latin
school or to college, for which they were often prepared by clergymen.
SPORTS AND PASTIMES.--Amusements in colonial days varied somewhat with the
section of the country and the character of the people who had settled it.
Corn huskings, quilting parties, and spinning bees were common in many
colonies. A house raising or a log-rolling (a piling bee) was a great
occasion for frolic. Picnics, tea parties, and dances were common
everywhere; the men often competed in foot races, wrestling matches, and
shooting at a mark. In New England the great day for such sports was
training day, which came four times a year, when young and old gathered on
the village green to see the militia company drill.
In New York there were also fishing parties and tavern parties, and much
skating and coasting, horse racing, bull baiting, bowling on the greens,
and in New York city balls, concerts, and private theatricals. In
Pennsylvania vendues (auctions), fairs, and cider pressing (besides
husking bees and house raisings) were occasions for social gatherings and
dances. South of the Potomac horse racing, fox hunting, cock fighting, and
cudgeling were common sports. At the fairs there were sack and hogshead
races, bull baiting, barbecues, and dancing. There was a theater at
Williamsburg and another in Charleston.
[Illustration: A MILL OF 1691. The power was furnished by the great
undershot water wheel.]
MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE.--Little manufacturing was done in 1760, save
for the household. A few branches of manufactures--woolen goods, felt
hats, steel--which seemed likely to flourish in the colonies were checked
by acts of Parliament, lest they should compete with industries in
England. But shipbuilding was not molested, and in New England and
Pennsylvania many ships were built and sold.
Land commerce in 1760 was still confined almost entirely to the Indian fur
trade. In sea-going commerce New England led, her vessels trading not only
with Great Britain and the West Indies, but carrying on most of the
coasting trade. In general the Navigation Acts were obeyed; but the
Molasses Act (1733), which levied a heavy duty on sugar or molasses from a
foreign colony, was boldly evaded. The law required that all European
goods must come by way of England; but this too was evaded, and smuggling
of European goods was very common. Tobacco from Virginia and North
Carolina often found its way in New England ships to forbidden ports.
SUMMARY
1. The English colonies were of three sorts--charter, royal, and
proprietary; but before 1660 each managed its affairs much as it pleased.
2. Charles II and later kings tried to rule the colonies for the benefit
of the crown and of the mother country. They acted through the Lords of
Trade in England and through colonial governors in America.
3. In 1676 Bacon led an uprising in Virginia against Governor Berkeley's
arbitrary rule.
4. In 1684 Massachusetts was deprived of her charter, and within a few
years all the New England colonies, with New York and New Jersey, were put
under the tyrannical rule of Governor Andros.
5. When James II lost his throne, Andros was deposed, and Massachusetts
was given a new charter (1691).
6. The government of each colony was managed by (1) a governor elected by
the people (Rhode Island, Connecticut) or appointed by the king or by the
proprietor; (2) by an appointed Council; and (3) by an Assembly or lower
house elected by the colonists.
7. Local government was of three sorts: in New England the township system
prevailed; in the Southern Colonies the county system; and in the Middle
Colonies a mixture of the two.
8. In 1660-1760 the population increased nearly tenfold; stagecoaches,
post offices, and newspapers were introduced; commerce increased, but
little manufacturing was done.
FOOTNOTES
[1] New Hampshire after 1679, New York after 1685 (when the Duke of York
became king), New Jersey after 1702, Virginia after 1624, North and South
Carolina after 1729, Georgia after 1752.
[2] These goods were products of the colonies and were named in the act--
such as tobacco, sugar, indigo, and furs. There was a long list of such
"enumerated goods," as they were called.
[3] In the royal colonies they were appointed by the crown; in
Massachusetts, by the General Court; in the proprietary colonies, by the
proprietor.
[4] In Massachusetts as early as 1634 the General Court consisted of the
governor, the assistants, and two deputies from each town. During ten
years they all met in one room; but a quarrel between the assistants and
the deputies led to their meeting as separate bodies. For an account of
this curious quarrel see Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 106-108.
In Connecticut and Rhode Island also the towns elected deputies. Outside
of New England the delegates to the lower branch of the legislature were
usually elected from counties, but sometimes from important cities or
towns.
[5] The first government of Plymouth Colony was practically a town
meeting. The first town to set up a local government in Massachusetts was
Dorchester (1633). Thus started, the system spread over all New England.
Nothing was too petty to be acted on by the town meeting. For example, "It
is ordered that all dogs, for the space of three weeks after the
publishing hereof, shall have one leg tied up.... If a man refuse to tye
up his dogs leg and he be found scraping up fish [used for fertilizer] in
the corn field, the owner shall pay l2_s._, besides whatever damage the
dog doth." The proceedings of several town meetings at Providence are
given in Hart's _American History told by Contemporaries_, Vol. II,
pp. 214-219.
[6] Penn's charter required him to keep an agent in or near London.
[7] Charles II died in 1685 and was succeeded by his brother, the Duke of
York (proprietor of the colony of New York), who reigned as James II.
[8] New Hampshire, which had been annexed by Massachusetts in 1641, was
made a separate province in 1679; but during the governorship of Andros it
was again annexed.
[9] These were Massachusetts (including Maine), New Hampshire, Plymouth,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, East Jersey, and West Jersey--eight
in all. The only other colonies then in existence were Pennsylvania
(including Delaware), Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina. For an account of
the attack on the New England charters, read Fiske's _Beginnings of New
England_, pp. 265-268.
[10] The Protestant Episcopal Church of England was established in the
colony (1692), and sharp laws were made against Catholics. From 1691 till
1715 Maryland was governed as a royal province; but then it was given back
to the fifth Lord Baltimore, who was a Protestant.
[11] Read Fiske's _Dutch and Quaker Colonies_, Vol. II, pp. 199-208. _In
Leisler's Times_, by Elbridge Brooks, and _The Segum's Daughter_, by Edwin
L. Bynner, are two interesting stories based on the events of Leisler's
time.
[12] Berkeley put so many men to death for the part they bore in the
rebellion that King Charles said, "The old fool has put to death more
people in that naked country than I did here for the murder of my father."
Berkeley was recalled. Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_,
Vol. II, pp. 44-95; or the _Century Magazine_ for July, 1890.
[13] In New Hampshire settlers had moved up the valley of the Merrimac to
Concord. In Massachusetts they had crossed the Connecticut River and were
well on toward the New York border (map, p. 59). In New York settlement
was still confined to Long Island, the valley of the Hudson, and a few
German settlements in the Mohawk valley. In Pennsylvania Germans and
Scotch-Irish had pressed into the Susquehanna valley; Reading had been
founded on the upper Schuylkill, and Bethlehem in the valley of the Lehigh
(map, p. 78). In Virginia population had gone westward up the York, the
Rappahannock, and the James rivers to the foot of the Blue Ridge; and
Germans and Scotch-Irish from Pennsylvania had entered the Great Valley
(map, p. 50). In North Carolina and South Carolina Germans, Swiss, Welsh,
and Scotch-Irish were likewise moving toward the mountains.
[14] Houses were warmed by means of open fireplaces. Churches were not
warmed, even in the coldest days of winter. People would bring foot stoves
with them, and men would sit with their hats, greatcoats, and mittens on.
[15] Read Fiske's _Dutch and Quaker Colonies_, Vol. II, pp. 248-257.
CHAPTER VIII
THE INDIANS
Wherever the early explorers and settlers touched our coast, they found
the country sparsely inhabited by a race of men they called Indians. These
people, like their descendants now living in the West, were a race with
copper-colored skins, straight, jet-black hair, black eyes, beardless
faces, and high cheek bones.
MOUNDS AND CLIFF DWELLINGS.--Who the Indians were originally, where they
came from, how they reached our continent, nobody knows. Long before the
Europeans came, the country was inhabited by a people, probably the same
as the Indians, known as mound builders. Their mounds, of many sizes and
shapes and intended for many purposes, are scattered over the Ohio and
Mississippi valleys in great numbers. Some are in the shape of animals, as
the famous serpent mound in Ohio. Some were for defense, some were village
sites, and others were for burial purposes.
[Illustrations: RUINS OF CLIFF DWELLINGS.]
In the far West and Southwest, where the rivers had cut deep beds, were
the cliff dwellers. In hollow places in the rocky cliffs which form the
walls of these rivers, in Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, are found to-
day the remains of these cliff homes. They are high above the river and
difficult to reach, and could easily be defended. [1]
[Illustration: TOTEM POLE IN ALASKA.]
TRIBES AND CLANS.--The Indians were divided into hundreds of tribes, each
with its own language or dialect and generally living by itself. Each
tribe was subdivided into clans. Members of a clan were those who traced
descent from some imaginary ancestor, usually an animal, as the wolf, the
fox, the bear, the eagle. [2] An Indian inherited his right to be a wolf
or a bear from his mother. Whatever clan she belonged to, that was his
also, and no man could marry a woman of his own clan. The civil head of a
clan was a "sachem"; the military heads were "chiefs." The sachem and the
chiefs were elected or deposed, and the affairs of the clan regulated, by
a council of all the men and women. The affairs of a tribe were regulated
by a council of the sachems and chiefs of the clans. [3]
CONFEDERACIES.--As a few clans were united in each tribe, so some tribes
united to form confederacies. The greatest and most powerful of these was
the league of the Iroquois, or Five Nations, in central New York. [4] It
was composed of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida (o-ni'da), and Mohawk
tribes. Each managed its own tribal affairs, but a council of sachems
elected from the clans had charge of the affairs of the confederacy. So
great was the power of the league that it practically ruled all the tribes
from Hudson Bay to North Carolina, and westward as far as Lake Michigan.
Other confederacies of less power were: the Dakota and Blackfeet, west of
the Mississippi; the Powhatan, in Virginia; and the Creek, the Chickasaw,
and the Cherokee, in the South.
[Illustration: INDIAN HATCHET AND ARROWHEAD, MADE OF STONE.]
HUNTING.--One of the chief occupations of an Indian man was hunting. He
devised traps with great skill. His weapons were bows and arrows with
stone heads, stone hatchets or tomahawks, flint spears, and knives and
clubs. To use such weapons he had to get close to the animal, and to do
this disguises of animal heads and skins were generally adopted. The
Indians hunted and trapped nearly all kinds of American animals.
ANIMALS AND IMPLEMENTS UNKNOWN TO THE INDIANS.--Before the coming of the
Europeans the Indians had never seen horses or cows, sheep, hogs, or
poultry. The dog was their only domesticated animal, and in many cases the
so-called dog was really a domesticated wolf. Neither had the Indians ever
seen firearms, or gunpowder, or swords, nails, or steel knives, or metal
pots or kettles, glass, wheat, flour, or many other articles in common use
among the whites.
[Illustration: INDIANS IN FULL DRESS.]
CLOTHING.--Their clothing was of the simplest kind, and varied, of course,
with the climate. The men usually wore a strip of deerskin around the
waist, a hunting shirt, leggings, moccasins on the feet, and sometimes a
deerskin over the shoulders. Very often they wore nothing but the strip
about the waist and the moccasins. These garments of deerskin were cut
with much care, sewed with fish-bone needles and sinew thread, and
ornamented with shells and quills.
Painting the face and body was a universal custom. For this purpose red
and yellow ocher, colored earths, juices of plants, and charcoal were
used. What may be called Indian jewelry consisted of necklaces of teeth
and claws of bears, claws of eagles and hawks, and strings of sea shells,
colored feathers, and wampum. Wampum consisted of strings of beads made
from sea shells, and was highly prized and used not only for ornament, but
as Indian money.
[Illustration: WAMPUM.]
HOUSES.--The dwelling of many Eastern Indians was a wigwam, or tent-shaped
lodge. It was formed of saplings set upright in the ground in the form of
a circle and bent together at their tops. Branches wound and twisted among
the saplings completed the frame, which was covered with brush, bark, and
leaves. A group of such wigwams made a village, which was often surrounded
with a stockade of tree trunks put upright in the ground and touching one
another.
On the Western plains the buffalo-hunting Indian lived during the summer
in tepees, or circular lodges made of poles tied together at the small
ends and covered with buffalo skins laced together. The upper end of the
tepee was left open to let out the smoke of a fire built inside. In winter
these plains Indians lived in earth lodges.
FOOD.--For food the Eastern Indians had fish from river, lake, or sea,
wild turkeys, wild pigeons, deer and bear meat, corn, squashes, pumpkins,
beans, berries, fruits, and maple sugar (which they taught the whites to
make). In the West the Indians killed buffaloes, antelopes, and mountain
sheep, cut their flesh into strips, and dried it in the sun. [5]
[Illustration: INDIAN JAR, OF BAKED CLAY.]
Fish and meat were cooked by laying the fish on a framework of sticks
built over a fire, and hanging the meat on sticks before the fire. Corn
and squashes were roasted in the ashes. Dried corn was also ground between
stones, mixed with water, and baked in the ashes. Such as knew how to make
clay pots could boil meat and vegetables. [6]
CANOES.--In moving from place to place the Indians of the East traveled on
foot or used canoes. In the northern parts where birch trees were
plentiful, the canoe was of birch bark stretched over a light wooden
frame, sewed with strips of deerskin, and smeared at the joints with
spruce gum to make it watertight. In the South tree trunks hollowed out by
fire and called dugouts were used. In the West there were "bull boats"
made of skins stretched over wooden frames. For winter travel the Northern
and Western Indians used snowshoes.
[Illustration: MAKING A DUGOUT.]
After the Spaniards brought horses to the Southwest, herds of wild horses
roamed the southwestern plains, and in later times gave the plains Indians
a means of travel the Eastern Indians did not have.
INDIAN TRAILS.--The Eastern Indians nevertheless often made long journeys
for purposes of war or trade, and had many well-defined trails which
answered as roads. Thus one great trail led from the site of Boston by way
of what is now the city of Springfield to the site of Albany. Another in
Pennsylvania led from where Philadelphia stands to the Susquehanna, then
up the Juniata, over the mountains, and to the Allegheny River. There were
thousands of such trails scattered over the country. As the Indians always
traveled in single file, these trails were narrow paths; they were worn to
the depth of a foot or more, and wound in and out among the trees and
around great rocks. As they followed watercourses and natural grades, many
of them became in after times routes used by the white man for roads and
railroads.
Along the seaboard the Indians lived in villages and wandered about but
little. Hunting and war parties traveled great distances, but each tribe
had its home. On the great plains the Indians wandered long distances with
their women, children, and belongings.
[Illustrations: WESTERN INDIANS TRAVELING.]
WORK AND PLAY.--The women did most of the work. They built the wigwam, cut
the wood, planted the corn, dressed the skins, made the clothing, and when
the band traveled, carried the household goods. The brave made bows and
arrows, built the canoe, hunted, fished, and fought.
Till a child, or papoose, was able to run about, it was carefully wrapped
in skins and tied to a framework of wicker which could be carried on the
mother's back, or hung on the branch of a tree out of harm's way. When
able to go about, the boys were taught to shoot, fish, and make arrows and
stone implements, and the girls to weave or make baskets, and do all the
things they would have to do as squaws.
For amusement, the Indians ran foot races, played football [7] and
lacrosse, held corn huskings, and had dances for all sorts of occasions,
some of them religious in character. Some dances occurred once a year, as
the corn dance, the thanksgiving of the Eastern tribes; the sun dance of
the plains Indians; and the fish dance by the Indians of the Columbia
River country at the opening of the salmon-fishing season. The departure
of a war party, the return of such a party, the end of a successful hunt,
were always occasions for dances. [8]
INDIAN RELIGION.--The Indians believed that every person, every animal,
every thing had a soul, or spirit, or manitou. The ceremonies used to get
the good will of certain manitous formed the religious rites. On the
plains it was the buffalo manitou, in the East the manitou of corn, or
sun, or rain, that was most feared. Everywhere there was a mythology, or
collection of tales of heroes who did wonderful things for the Indians.
Hiawatha was such a hero, who gave them fire, corn, the canoe, and other
things. [9]
WARFARE.--An Indian war was generally a raid by a small party led by a
warrior of renown. Such a chief, standing beside the war post in his
village, would publicly announce the raid and call for volunteers. No one
was forced to go; but those who were willing would step forward and strike
the post with their tomahawks. Among the plains Indians a pipe was passed
around, and all who smoked it stood pledged to go.
The weapons used in war were like those used in the hunt. Though the
Indians were brave they delighted to fight from behind trees, to creep
through the tall grass and fall upon their enemy unawares, or to wait for
him in ambush. The dead and wounded were scalped. Captive men were
generally put to death with torture; but captive women and children were
usually adopted into the tribe.
INDIAN WARS IN VIRGINIA.--The first Europeans who came to our shores were
looked on by the Indians as superior beings, as men from the clouds. But
before the settlers arrived this veneration was dispelled, and hostility
took its place. Thus the founders of Jamestown had scarcely touched land
when they were attacked. But Smith brought about an alliance with the
Powhatan, and till after his death there was peace.
Then (1622), under the lead of Opekan'kano, an attack was made along the
whole line of settlements in Virginia, and in one day more than three
hundred whites were massacred, their houses burned, and much property
destroyed. The blow was a terrible one; but the colonists rallied and
waged such a war against the enemy that for more than twenty years there
was no great uprising.
But in 1644 Opekankano (then an old and grizzled warrior) again led forth
his tribes, and in two days killed several hundred whites. Once more the
settlers rallied, swept the Indian country, captured Opekankano, and drew
a boundary across which no Indian could come without permission. If he
did, he might be shot on sight. [10]
EARLY INDIAN WARS IN NEW ENGLAND.--In New England the experience of the
early settlers was much the same. Murders by the Pequot Indians having
become unendurable, a little fleet was sent (1686) against them. Block
Island was ravaged, and Pequots on the mainland were killed and their corn
destroyed. Sassacus, sachem of the Pequots, thereupon sought to join the
Narragansetts with him in an attempt to drive the English from the
country; but Roger Williams persuaded the Narragansetts to form an
alliance with the English, and the Pequots began the war alone. In the
winter (1636-37) the Connecticut River settlements were attacked, several
men killed, and two girls carried off.
DESTRUCTION OF THE PEQUOTS.--In May, 1637, a force of seventy-seven
colonists from Connecticut and Massachusetts, led by John Mason and John
Underhill, marched to the Pequot village in what is now the southeast
corner of Connecticut. Some Mohicans and Narragansetts went along; but
when they came in sight of the village, they refused to join in the
attack. The village was a cluster of wigwams surrounded by a stockade,
with two narrow openings for entrance. While some of the English guarded
them, the rest attacked the stockade, flung torches over it, and set the
wigwams on fire. Of the four hundred or more Indians in the village, but
five escaped.
[Illustration: DESTRUCTION OF THE PEQUOTS.]
KING PHILIP'S WAR.--For thirty-eight years the memory of the destruction
of the Pequots kept peace in New England. Then Philip, a chief of the
Wampanoags, took the warpath (1675) and, joined by the Nipmucks and
Narragansetts, sought to drive the white men from New England. The war
began in Rhode Island, but spread into Massachusetts, where town after
town was attacked, and men, women, and children massacred. Roused to fury
by these deeds, a little band of men from Massachusetts, Plymouth, and
Connecticut in the dead of winter stormed the great swamp fortress of the
Narragansetts, destroyed a thousand Indians, and burned the wigwams and
winter supply of corn. The power of the Narragansetts was broken; but the
war went on, and before midsummer (1676) twenty villages had been attacked
by the Nipmucks. But they, too, were doomed; their fighting strength was
destroyed in two victories by the colonists. In August Philip was shot in
a swamp. These victories ended the war in the south, but it broke out
almost immediately in the northeast, and raged till the summer of 1678.
During these three years of war New England suffered terribly. Twelve
towns had been utterly destroyed, forty had been partly burned, and a
thousand men, besides scores of women and children, had perished. As for
the New England Indians, their power was gone forever. [11]
INDIAN WARS IN NEW NETHERLAND.--The Dutch in New Netherland were on
friendly terms with the Iroquois, to whom they sold fire-arms; but the
Tappans, Raritans, and other Algonquin tribes round about New Amsterdam
were enemies of the Iroquois, and with these the Dutch had several wars.
One (1641) was brought on by Governor Kieft's attempt to tax the Indians;
another (1643-45) by the slaughter, one night, of more than a hundred
Indians who had asked the Dutch for shelter from their Mohawk enemies.
Many Dutch farmers were murdered, and a great Indian stronghold in
Connecticut was stormed one winter night and seven hundred Indians killed.
[12] After ten years of peace the Indians rose again, killed men in the
streets of New Amsterdam, and harried Staten Island; and again, after an
outbreak at Esopus, there were several years of war (1658-64).
IN NORTH CAROLINA some Algonquin tribes conspired with the Tuscarora tribe
of Iroquois to drive the white men from the country, and began horrid
massacres (1711). Help came from South Carolina, and the Tuscaroras were
badly beaten. But the war was renewed next year, and then another force of
white men and Indians from South Carolina stormed the Tuscaroras' fort and
broke their power. The Tuscaroras migrated to New York and were admitted
to the great Iroquois confederacy of the Five Nations, which thenceforth
was known as the Six Nations. [13]
IN SOUTH CAROLINA.--Among the Indians who marched to the relief of North
Carolina were men of the Yam'assee tribe. That they should turn against
the people of South Carolina was not to be expected. But the Spaniards at
St. Augustine bought them with gifts, and, joined by Creeks, Cherokees,
and others, they began (in 1715) a war which lasted nearly a year and cost
the lives of four hundred white men. They, too, in the end were beaten,
and the Yamassees fled to Florida.
The story of these Indian wars has been told not because they were wars,
but because they were the beginnings of that long and desperate struggle
of the Indian with the white man which continued down almost to our own
time. The march of the white man across the continent has been contested
by the Indian at every step, and to-day there is not a state in the Union
whose soil has not at some time been reddened by the blood of both.
WHAT WE OWE TO THE INDIAN.--The contact of the two races has greatly
influenced our language, literature, and customs. Five and twenty of our
states, and hundreds of counties, cities, mountains, rivers, lakes, and
bays, bear names derived from Indian languages. Chipmunk and coyote,
moose, opossum, raccoon, skunk, woodchuck, tarpon, are all of Indian
origin. We still use such expressions as Indian summer, Indian file,
Indian corn; bury the hatchet, smoke the pipe of peace. To the Indians we
owe the canoe, the snowshoe, the toboggan, lacrosse. Squanto taught the
Pilgrims how to plant corn in hills, just as it is planted to-day, and
long before the white man came, the Indians ate hominy, mush, and
succotash, planted pumpkins and squashes, and made maple sugar.
SUMMARY
1. The Indians were divided into tribes, and the tribes into clans.
2. Each tribe had its own language or dialect, and usually lived by
itself.
3. Members of a clan traced descent from some common imaginary ancestor,
usually an animal. The civil head of a clan was the sachem; the military
heads were the chiefs.
4. As the clans were united into tribes, so the tribes were in some places
joined in confederacies.
5. The chief occupations of Indian men were hunting and waging war.
6. Their ways of life varied greatly with the locality in which they
lived: as in the wooded regions of the East or on the great plains of the
West; in the cold country of the North or in the warmer South.
7. The growth of white settlements, crowding back the Indians, led to
several notable wars in early colonial times, in all of which the Indians
were beaten:--
In Virginia: uprisings in 1622 and in 1644; border war in 1676.
In New England: Pequot War, 1636-37; King Philip's War, 1675-78.
In New Netherland: several wars with Algonquin tribes.
In North Carolina: Algonquin-Tuscarora uprising, 1711-13.
In South Carolina: Yamassee uprising, 1715-16.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Read Fiske's _Discovery of America_, Vol. I, pp. 85-94, 141-146.
[2] The sign or emblem of this ancestor, called the totem, was often
painted on the clothing, or tattooed on the body. On the northwest coast,
it was carved on a tall pole, made of a tree trunk, which was set up
before the dwelling.
[3] Scientists have grouped the North American tribes into fifty or more
distinct families or groups, each consisting of tribes whose languages
were probably developed from a common tongue. East of the Mississippi most
of the land was occupied by three groups: (1) Between the Tennessee River
and the Gulf of Mexico lived the Muskho'gees (or Maskoki), including the
Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw tribes. (2) The Iroquois (ir-o-kwoi'),
Cherokee', and related tribes occupied a large area surrounding Lakes Erie
and Ontario, and smaller areas in the southern Appalachians and south of
the lower James River. (3) The Algonquins and related tribes occupied most
of the country around Lakes Superior and Michigan, most of the Ohio
valley, and the Atlantic seaboard north of the James River, besides much
of Canada.
[4] Read Fiske's _Discovery of America_, vol. I, pp. 72-78.
[5] The manner of drying was called "jerking." Jerked meat would keep for
months and was cooked as needed. Sometimes it was pounded between stones
and mixed with fat, and was then called pemmican.
[6] Fire for cooking and warming was started by pressing a pointed stick
against a piece of wood and turning the stick around rapidly. Sometimes
this was done by twirling it between the palms of the hands, sometimes by
wrapping the string of a little bow around the stick and moving the bow
back and forth as if fiddling. The revolving stick would form a fine dust
which the heat caused by friction would set on fire.
[7] A game of football is thus described: "Likewise they have the exercise
of football, in which they only forcibly encounter with the foot to carry
the ball the one from the other, and spurn it to the goal with a kind of
dexterity and swift footmanship which is the honor of it. But they never
strike up one another's heels, as we do, not accounting that praiseworthy
to purchase a goal by such an advantage."
[8] One who was with Smith in Virginia has left us this account of what
took place when the Powhatan was crowned (p. 42): "In a fair plain field
they made a fire before which (we were) sitting upon a mat (when) suddenly
amongst the woods was heard ... a hideous noise and shouting. Then
presently ... thirty young women came out of the woods ... their bodies
painted some white, some red, some black, some particolor, but all
differing. Their leader had a fair pair of buck's horns on her head, and
an otter's skin at her girdle, and another at her arm, a quiver of arrows
at her back, a bow and arrows in her hand. The next had in her hand a
sword, another a club ... all horned alike.... These fiends with most
hellish shouts and cries, rushing from among the trees, cast themselves in
a ring about the fire, singing and dancing.... Having spent near one hour
on this masquerade, as they entered in like manner they departed."
[9] Read Longfellow's _Hiawatha_.
[10] Thirty-one years later another outbreak occurred, and for months
burning and scalping went on along the border, till the Indians were
beaten by the men under Nathaniel Bacon (p. 94).
[11] Read Fiske's _Beginnings of New England_, pp. 128-133, 211-226,
235-236.
[12] Read Fiske's _Dutch and Quaker Colonies_, Vol. I, pp. 177-180,
183-188.
[13] Read Fiske's _Old Virginia and her Neighbours_, Vol. II, pp. 298-304.
CHAPTER IX
THE FRENCH IN AMERICA
While English, Dutch, and Swedes were settling on the Atlantic seaboard of
North America, the French took possession of the St. Lawrence, the Great
Lakes, and the Mississippi. Though the attempt of Cartier to plant a
colony on the St. Lawrence failed (p. 30), the French never lost interest
in that part of the world, and new attempts were made to plant colonies.
[Illustration: CANADA (NEW FRANCE) AND ACADIA.]
THE FRENCH IN NOVA SCOTIA.--All failed till De Monts (d'mawng) and
Champlain (sham-plan') [1] came over in 1604 with two shiploads of
colonists. Some landed on the shore of what is now Nova Scotia and founded
Port Royal. The others, led by De Monts, explored the Bay of Fundy, and on
an island at the mouth of a river planted a colony called St. Croix. The
name St. Croix (croy) in time was given to the river which is now part of
the eastern boundary of Maine. One winter in that climate was enough, and
in the spring (1605) the coast from Maine to Massachusetts was explored in
search of a better site for the colony. None suited, and, returning to St.
Croix, De Monts moved the settlers to Port Royal.
QUEBEC FOUNDED.--This too was abandoned for a time, and in 1607 the
colonists were back in France. Champlain, however, longed to be again in
the New World, and soon persuaded De Monts once more to attempt
colonization. In 1608, therefore, Champlain with two ships sailed up the
St. Lawrence and founded Quebec. Here, as was so often the case, the first
winter was a struggle for life; when spring came, only eight of the
colonists were alive. But help soon reached them, and France at last had
secured a permanent foothold in America. The drainage basin of the St.
Lawrence was called New France (or Canada); the lands near Port Royal
became another French colony, called Acadia.
EXPLORATION OF NEW FRANCE.--Champlain at once made friends with the
Indians, and in 1609 went with a party of Hurons to help fight their
enemies, the Iroquois Indians who dwelt in central New York. [2] The way
was up the St. Lawrence and up a branch of that river to the lake which
now bears the name of Champlain. On its western shore the expected fight
took place, and a victory, due to the fire-arms of Champlain and his
companions, was won for the Hurons. [3] Later Champlain explored the
Ottawa River, saw the waters of Lake Huron, and crossed Lake Ontario. But
the real work of French discovery and exploration in the interior was done
by Catholic priests and missionaries.
THE CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES.--With crucifixes and portable altars strapped
on their backs, these brave men pushed boldly into the Indian country.
Guided by the Indians, they walked through the dense forests, paddled in
birch-bark canoes, and penetrated a wilderness where no white man had ever
been. They built little chapels of bark near the Indian villages, and
labored hard to convert the red men to Christianity. It was no easy task.
Often and often their lives were in danger. Some were drowned. Some were
burned at the stake. Others were tomahawked. But neither cold nor hunger,
nor the dangers and hardships of life in the wilderness, could turn the
priests from their good work. One of them toiled for ten years among the
Indians on the Niagara River and the shores of Lake Huron; two others
reached the outlet of Lake Superior; a fourth paddled in a canoe along its
south shore.
[Illustration: FRENCH PRIEST AND INDIANS IN BIRCH-BARK CANOE.]
THE KING'S MAIDENS.--For fifty years after the founding of Quebec few
settlers came to Canada. Then the French king sent over each year a
hundred or more young women who were to become wives of the settlers. [4]
Besides encouraging farming, the government tried to induce the men to
engage in cod fishing and whaling; but the only business that really
nourished in Canada was trading with the Indians for furs.
THE FUR TRADE.--Each year a great fair was held outside the stockade of
Montreal, to which hundreds of Indians came from the far western lakes.
They brought canoe loads of beaver skins and furs of small animals, and
exchanged them for bright-colored cloth, beads, blankets, kettles, and
knives.
[Illustration: INDIAN AND FUR TRADER.]
This great trade was a monopoly. Its profits could not be enjoyed by
everybody. Numbers of hardy young men, therefore, took to the woods and
traded with the Indians far beyond the reach of the king's officers. By so
doing these wood rangers (_coureurs de bois_), as they were called,
became outlaws, and if caught, might be flogged and branded with a hot
iron. They built trading posts at many places in the West, and often
married Indian women, which went a long way to make the Indians friends of
the French. [5]
THE MISSISSIPPI.--When the priests and traders reached the country about
Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, they heard from the Indians of a great
river called the Mississippi--that is, "Big Water" or "Father of Waters."
Might not this, it was asked, be the long-sought northwest passage to the
Indies? In hopes that it was, Father Marquette (mar-ket'), a priest who
had founded a mission on the Strait of Mackinac (mack'i-naw) between Lakes
Huron and Michigan, and Joliet (zho-le-a'), a trapper and soldier, were
sent to find the river and follow it to the sea.
[Illustration: FRENCH CLAIMS, MISSIONS, AND TRADING POSTS IN MISSISSIPPI
VALLEY IN 1700]
They started in the spring of 1673 with five companions in two canoes.
Their way was from the Strait of Mackinac to Green Bay in Wisconsin, up
the Fox River, across a portage to the Wisconsin River, and down this to
the Mississippi, on whose waters they floated and paddled to a place
probably below the mouth of the Arkansas. There the travelers stopped, and
turned back toward Canada, convinced that the great river [6] must flow
not to the Pacific, but to the Gulf of Mexico.
[Illustration: MARQUETTE AND JOLIET AT A PORTAGE.]
LA SALLE ON THE MISSISSIPPI, 1682.--The voyage of Marquette and Joliet was
of the greatest importance to France. Yet the only man who seems to have
been fully awake to its importance was La Salle. If the Mississippi flowed
into the Gulf of Mexico, a new and boundless Indian trade lay open to
Frenchmen. But did it flow into the Gulf? That was a question La Salle
proposed to settle; but three heroic attempts were made, and two failures,
which to other men would have been disheartening, were endured, before he
passed down the river to its mouth in 1682. [7]
LOUISIANA.--Standing on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, La Salle put up a
rude cross, nailed to it the arms of France, and, in the name of the
French king, Louis XIV, took formal possession of all the region drained
by the Mississippi and its branches. He named the country Louisiana.
La Salle knew little of the extent of the region he thus added to the
possessions of France in the New World. But the claim was valid, and
Louisiana stretched from the unknown sources of the Ohio River and the
Appalachian Mountains on the east, to the unknown Rocky Mountains on the
west, and from the watershed of the Great Lakes on the north, to the Gulf
of Mexico on the south.
LA SALLE ATTEMPTS TO OCCUPY LOUISIANA, 1682.--But the great work La Salle
had planned was yet to be done. Louisiana had to be occupied.
A fort was needed far up the valley of the Mississippi to overawe the
Indians and secure the fur trade. Hurrying back to the Illinois River, La
Salle, in December, 1682, on the top of a steep cliff, built a stockade
and named it Fort St. Louis.
A fort and city also needed to be built at the mouth of the Mississippi to
keep out the Spaniards and afford a place whence furs floated down the
river might be shipped to France. This required the aid of the king.
Hurrying to Paris, La Salle persuaded Louis XIV to help him, and was sent
back with four ships to found the city.
LA SALLE IN TEXAS, 1684.--But the little fleet missed the mouth of the
river and reached the coast of Texas. There the men landed and built Fort
St. Louis of Texas. Well knowing that he had passed the river, La Salle
left some men at the fort, and with the rest started on foot to find the
Mississippi--but never reached it. He was murdered on the way by his own
men.
[Illustration: LA SALLE'S HOUSE (CANADA) IN 1900.]
Of the men left in Texas the Indians killed some, and the Spaniards killed
or captured the rest, and the plans of this great explorer failed utterly.
[8]
BILOXI.--La Salle's scheme of founding a city near the mouth of the
Mississippi, however, was carried out by other men. Fear that the English
would seize the mouth of the river led the French to act, and in 1699 a
gallant soldier named Iberville (e-ber-veel') built a small stockade and
planted a colony at Bilox'i on the coast of what is now Mississippi.
NEW ORLEANS FOUNDED.--During fifteen years and more the little colony,
which was soon moved from Biloxi to the vicinity of Mobile (map, p. 134),
struggled on as best it could; then steps were taken to plant a settlement
on the banks of the Mississippi, and (1718) Bienville (be-an-veel') laid
the foundation of a city he called New Orleans.
SUMMARY
1. After many failures, a French colony was planted at Port Royal in
Acadia (Nova Scotia) in 1601; but this was abandoned for a time, and the
first permanent French colony was planted by Champlain at Quebec in 1608.
2. From these settlements grew up the two French colonies called Acadia
and New France or Canada.
3. New France was explored by Champlain, and by many brave priests.
4. Marquette and Joliet reached the Mississippi and explored it from the
Wisconsin to the Arkansas (1673).
5. Their unfinished work was taken up by La Salle, who went down the
Mississippi to the Gulf (1682), and formally claimed for France all the
region drained by the river and its tributaries--a vast area which he
called Louisiana.
6. Occupation of the Mississippi valley by the French followed; forts and
trading posts were built, and in 1718 New Orleans was founded.
[Illustration: AN INDIAN VILLAGE.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Samuel de Champlain (born in 1567) had been a captain in the royal
navy, and had visited the West Indies, Mexico, and the Isthmus of Panama,
across which he suggested a canal should be cut. In 1603 he was offered a
command in a company of adventurers to New France. On this voyage
Champlain went up the St. Lawrence to the site of the Indian town called
Hochelaga by Cartier (p. 30); but the village had disappeared. Returning
to France, he joined the party of De Monts (1604).
[2] The year 1609 is important in our history. Then it was that Champlain
fought the Iroquois; that the second Virginia charter was granted; and
that Hudson's expedition gave the Dutch a claim to territory in the New
World.
[3] The fight with the Iroquois took place not far from Ticonderoga. When
the two parties approached, Champlain advanced and fired his musket. The
woods rang with the report, and a chief fell dead. "There arose," says
Champlain," a yell like a thunderclap and the air was full of arrows." But
when another and another gun shot came from the bushes, the Iroquois broke
and fled like deer. The victory was won; but it made the Iroquois the
lasting enemies of the French. Read Parkman's _Pioneers of France in the
New World_, pp. 310-324.
[4] About 1000 came in eight years. When married, they received each "an
ox, a cow, a pair of swine, a pair of fowls, two barrels of salted meat,
and eleven crowns in money." Read Parkman's _Old Regime in Canada_,
pp. 219-225.
[5] The fur trade, which was the life blood of Canada, is finely described
in Parkman's _Old Regime in Canada_, pp. 302-315.
[6] Marquette named the river Immaculate Conception. He noted the
abundance of fish in its waters, the broad prairies on which grazed herds
of buffalo, and the flocks of wild turkeys in the woods. On his way home
he ascended the Illinois River, and crossed to Lake Michigan, passing over
the site where Chicago now stands. Read Mary Hartwell Catherwood's _Heroes
of the Middle West_; also Parkman's _La Salle and the Discovery of the
Great West_, pp. 48-71; and Hart's _American History as told by
Contemporaries_, Vol. I, pp. 136-140.
[7] In the first attempt he left Fort Frontenac, coasted along the north
shore of Lake Ontario, crossed over and went up the Niagara River, and
around the Falls to Lake Erie. There he built a vessel called the
_Griffin_, which was sailed through the lakes to the northern part of
Lake Michigan (1679). Thence he went in canoes along the shore of Lake
Michigan to the river St. Joseph, where he built a fort (Fort St. Joseph),
and then pushed on to the Illinois River and (near the present city of
Peoria) built another called Fort Crèvecoeur (crav'ker). There he left
Henri de Tonty in charge of a party to build another ship, and went back
to Canada.
When he returned to the Illinois in 1680, on his second trip, Crèvecoeur
was in ruins, and Tonty and his men gone. In hope of finding them La Salle
went down the Illinois to the Mississippi, but he turned back and passed
the winter on the river St. Joseph. (Read Parkman's description of the
great town of the Illinois and its capture by the Iroquois, in _La Salle
and the Discovery of the Great West_, pp. 205-215.)
From the St. Joseph, after another trip to Canada, La Salle (with Tonty)
started westward for the third time (late in 1681), crossed the lake to
where Chicago now is, went down the Illinois and the Mississippi, and in
April, 1682, floated out on the waters of the Gulf.
On his first expedition La Salle was accompanied by Father Hennepin, whom
he sent down the Illinois and up the Mississippi. But the Sioux (soo)
Indians captured Father Hennepin, and took him up the Mississippi to the
falls which he named St. Anthony, now in the city of Minneapolis.
[8] Read Parkman's _La Salle_, pp. 275-288, 350-355, 396-405.
CHAPTER X
WARS WITH THE FRENCH
KING WILLIAM'S WAR.--When James II was driven from his throne (p. 93), he
fled to France. His quarrel with King William was taken up by Louis XIV,
and in 1689 war began between France and England. The strife thus started
in the Old World soon spread to the New, and during eight years the
frontier of New England and New York was the scene of French and Indian
raids, massacres, and burning towns.
[Illustration: SCENE OF THE EARLY WARS WITH THE FRENCH.]
THE FRONTIER.--The frontier of English settlement consisted of a string of
little towns close to the coast in Maine and New Hampshire, and some sixty
miles back from the coast in Massachusetts; of a second string of towns up
the Connecticut valley to central Massachusetts; and of a third up the
Hudson to the Mohawk and up the Mohawk to Schenec'tady. Most of Maine and
New Hampshire, all of what is now Vermont, and all New York north and west
of the Mohawk was a wilderness pierced by streams which afforded the
French and Indians easy ways of reaching the English frontier.
The French frontier consisted of a few fishing towns scattered along the
shores of Acadia (what is now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and eastern
Maine), arid a few settlements along the St. Lawrence to Fort Frontenac,
just where the river leaves Lake Ontario.
Between these frontiers in Maine and New Hampshire were the Abenaki (ab-
nahk'ee) Indians, close allies of the French and bitter enemies of the
English; and in New York the Iroquois, allies of the English and enemies
of the French since the day in 1609 when Champlain defeated them (p. 115).
[1]
THE FRENCH ATTACK THE ENGLISH FRONTIER.--The governor of New France was
Count Frontenac, a man of action, keen, fiery, and daring, a splendid
executive, an able commander, and well called the Father of New France.
Gathering his Frenchmen and Indians as quickly as possible, Frontenac
formed three war parties on the St. Lawrence in the winter of 1689-90:
that at Montreal was to march against Albany; that at Three Rivers was to
ravage the frontier of New Hampshire, and that at Quebec the frontier of
Maine. The Montreal party was ready first, and made its way on snowshoes
to the little palisaded village of Schenectady, passed through the open
gates [2] in a blinding storm of snow, and in the darkness of night
massacred threescore men, women, and children, took captive as many more,
and left the place in ashes.
[Illustration: THE ATTACK AT SCHENECTADY.]
The second war party of French and Indians left the St. Lawrence in
January, 1690, spent three months struggling through the wilderness, and
in March fell upon the village of Salmon Falls, laid it in ashes, ravaged
the farms near by, massacred some thirty men, women, and children, and
carried off some fifty prisoners. This deed done, the party hurried
eastward and fell in with the third party, from Quebec. The two then
attacked and captured Fort Loyal (where Portland now stands), and
massacred or captured most of the inhabitants.
END OF KING WILLIAM'S WAR.--Smarting under the attacks of the French and
Indians, New England struck back. Its fleet, with a few hundred militia
under William Phips, captured and pillaged Port Royal, and for a time held
Acadia. A little army of troops from Connecticut and New York marched
against Montreal, and a fleet and army under Phips sailed for Quebec. But
the one went no farther than Lake Champlain, and Phips, after failing in
an attack on Quebec, returned to Boston. [3]
For seven years more the French and Indians ravaged the frontier [4]
before the treaty of Ryswick (riz'wick) put an end to the war in 1697.
QUEEN ANNE'S WAR.--In the short interval of peace which followed, the
French made a settlement at Biloxi, as we have seen, and founded Detroit
(1701). In Europe the French king (Louis XIV) placed his grandson on the
throne of Spain and, on the death of James II, recognized James's young
son as King James III of England. For this, war was declared by England in
1701. The struggle which followed was known abroad as the War of the
Spanish Succession, but in our country as Queen Anne's War. [5]
Again the frontier from Maine to Massachusetts was the scene of Indian
raids and massacres. Haverhill was laid waste a second time, [6] and
Deerfield in the Connecticut valley was burned.
THE ATTACK ON DEERFIELD was a typical Indian raid. The village, consisting
of forty-one houses strung along a road, stood on the extreme northwestern
frontier of Massachusetts. In the center of the place was a square wooden
meetinghouse which, with some of the houses, was surrounded by a stockade
eight feet high flanked on two corners by blockhouses. [7] Late in
February, 1704, a band of French and Indians from Canada reached the town,
hid in the woods two miles away, and just before dawn moved quietly across
the frozen snow, rushed into the village, and, raising the warwhoop, beat
in the house doors with ax and hatchet. A few of the wretched inmates
escaped half-clad to the next village, but nine and forty men, women, and
children were massacred, and one hundred more were led away captives. [8]
END OF QUEEN ANNE'S WAR.--As the war went on, the English colonists twice
attacked Port Royal in vain, but on the third attack in 1710 the place was
captured. This time the English took permanent possession and renamed it
Annapolis in honor of the queen. To Acadia was given the name Nova Scotia.
Encouraged by the success at Port Royal, the greatest fleet ever seen, up
to that time, in American waters was sent against Quebec, and an army of
twenty-three hundred men marched by way of Lake Champlain to attack
Montreal.
But the fleet, having lost nine ships and a thousand men in the fog at the
mouth of the St. Lawrence, returned to Boston, and the commander of the
army, hearing of this, marched back to Albany. When peace was made by the
treaty of Utrecht (u'trekt) in 1713, France was forced to give up to Great
Britain [9] Acadia, Newfoundland, and all claim to the territory drained
by the rivers that flow into Hudson Bay (map, p. 131).
THE FRENCH BUILD FORTS IN LOUISIANA.--Thirty-one years now passed before
France and Great Britain were again at war, and in this period France took
armed possession of the Mississippi valley, constructed a chain of forts
from New Orleans to the Ohio, and built Forts Niagara and Crown Point.
This meant that the French were determined to keep the British out of
Louisiana and New France and confine them to the seacoast. But the French
were also determined to regain Acadia, and on the island of Cape Breton
they built Louisburg, the strongest fortress in America. [10]
KING GEORGE'S WAR.--Such was the state of affairs when in 1744 Great
Britain and France again went to war. As George II was then king of Great
Britain, the colonists called the strife King George's War. The French now
rushed down on Nova Scotia and attacked Annapolis. It seemed as if the
whole of Nova Scotia would be conquered; but instead the people of New
England sent out a fleet and army and captured Louisburg. [11]
[Illustration: PLAN OF LOUISBURG, 1745.]
When peace was made (1748), after two years more of fighting, Great
Britain gave Louisburg back to France.
THE FRENCH IN THE OHIO VALLEY.--The war ended and no territory lost, the
French at once laid plans to shut the British out of the Ohio valley,
which France claimed because the Ohio River and its tributaries flowed
into the Mississippi. In 1749, therefore, a party of Frenchmen under
Céloron (sa-lo-rawng') were sent to take formal possession of that region.
[12]
[Illustration: ONE OF THE LEAD PLATES BURIED BY CÉLORON. In the possession
of the Virginia Historical Society.]
THE BURIED PLATES.--Paddling up the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, these
men carried their canoes around Niagara Falls, coasted along Lake Erie to
a place near Chautauqua Lake, and going overland to the lake went down its
outlet to the Allegheny River. There the men were drawn up, the French
king was proclaimed owner of all the region drained by the Ohio, and a
lead plate was buried at the foot of a tree. The inscription on the plate
declared that the Ohio and all the streams that entered it and the land on
both sides of them belonged to France.
The party then passed down the Allegheny to the Ohio, and down the Ohio to
the Miami, burying plates from time to time. [13]
THE FRENCH FORTS.--Formal possession having been taken, the next step of
the French was to build a log fort at Presque Isle (on Lake Erie where the
city of Erie now is), and also Forts Le Boeuf and Venango, on a branch of
the Allegheny.
THE OHIO COMPANY.--But the English colonists likewise claimed the
Mississippi valley, by virtue of the old "sea to sea" grants, and the same
year that Céloron came down the Allegheny, they also prepared to take
possession of the Ohio valley in a much more serious way. The French were
burying plates and about to build forts; the English were about to plant
towns and make settlements.
Already in Pennsylvania and Virginia population was pushing rapidly
westward. Already English traders crossed the mountains and with their
goods packed on horses followed the trails down the Ohio valley, going
from village to village of the Indians and exchanging their wares for
furs.
[Illustration: EARLY FORDS IN THE OHIO VALLEY.]
Convinced that the westward movement of trade and population was favorable
for a speculation in land, some prominent men in Virginia [14] formed the
Ohio Company, and obtained from the British king a grant of five hundred
thousand acres in the Ohio valley on condition that within seven years a
hundred families should be settled on it and a fort built and garrisoned.
GOVERNOR DINWIDDIE ALARMED--When, therefore, Governor Dinwiddie of
Virginia heard that the French were building forts on the Allegheny, he
became greatly alarmed, and sent a messenger to demand their withdrawal.
But the envoy, becoming frightened, soon turned back. Clearly a man was
wanted, and Dinwiddie selected George Washington, [15] a young man of
twenty-one and an officer in the Virginia militia.
WASHINGTON'S FIRST PUBLIC SERVICE.--Washington was to find out the
whereabouts of the French, proceed to the French post, deliver a letter to
the officer in command, and demand an answer. He was also to find out how
many forts the French had built, how far apart they were, how well
garrisoned, and whether they were likely to be supported from Quebec.
[Illustration: WASHINGTON AT FORT LE BOEUF.]
Having received these instructions, Washington made his way in the depth
of winter to Fort Le Boeuf, delivered the governor's letter, and brought
back the refusal of the French officer to withdraw. [16]
FORT DUQUESNE (1754)--Dinwiddie now realized that the French held the
Allegheny, and that if they were to be shut out of the Ohio valley,
something had to be done at once. He therefore sent a party of
backwoodsmen to build a fort at the forks of the Ohio (where Pittsburg now
is). While they were at work, the French came down the Allegheny, captured
the half-built fort, and in place of it erected a larger one which they
named Duquesne (doo-kan').
GREAT MEADOWS.--Meantime Washington had been sent with some soldiers to
Wills Creek in western Maryland. When he heard of the capture of the fort,
he started westward, cutting a road for wagons and cannon as he went, and
camped for a time at Great Meadows, in southwestern Pennsylvania. There,
one night, he received word from Half King, a friendly Indian encamped
with his band six miles away, that a French force was hidden near at hand.
Washington with some forty men set off at once for the Indian camp, and
reached it at daylight. A plan of attack was agreed on, and the march
begun. On Washington's approach, the French flew to arms, and a sharp
fight ensued in which the French commander Jumonville [17] and nine of his
men were killed.
FORT NECESSITY.--At Great Meadows Washington now threw up an intrenchment
called Fort Necessity. Some more men having reached him, he left a few at
the fort and went on westward again. But he had not gone far when word
came that the French were coming to avenge the death of Jumonville.
Washington therefore fell back to the fort, where he was attacked and on
July 4, 1754, was forced to surrender, but was allowed to return to
Virginia with his men.
All previous wars between France and England had begun in the Old World,
but now a great struggle had begun in the New.
SUMMARY
1. When William and Mary became king and queen of England, war with France
followed. In the colonies this was called King William's War (1689-97).
2. The French from Canada ravaged the New England frontier and burned
Schenectady in New York. The English colonists captured Port Royal, but
failed to take Montreal and Quebec.
3. After four years of peace (1697-1701), war between France and England
was renewed. This was called Queen Anne's War (1701-13).
4. The great event of the war was the conquest of Acadia. Port Royal was
named Annapolis; Acadia was called Nova Scotia.
5. Thirty-one years of peace followed. During this time the French
occupied the Mississippi valley, and built the fortress of Louisburg on
Cape Breton Island.
6. During King George's War (1744-48), Louisburg was captured, but it was
returned by the treaty of peace.
7. France now proceeded to occupy the Ohio valley, and built forts on a
branch of the Allegheny.
8. The British also claimed the Ohio valley, and started to build a fort
on the site of Pittsburg, but were driven off by the French.
9. Troops under George Washington, on their way toward the fort, defeated
a small French force, but were themselves captured by the French at Fort
Necessity (July 4, 1754).
FOOTNOTES
[1] It was only a few years after this defeat that the Dutch planted their
trading posts on the upper Hudson. They made friends of the Iroquois, and
when the English succeeded the Dutch, they followed the same wise policy,
encouraged the old hatred of the Indians for the French, and inspired more
than one of their raids into Canada. The Iroquois thus became a barrier
against the French and prevented them from coming down the Hudson and so
cutting off New England from the Middle Colonies.
[2] The inhabitants, mostly Dutch, had been advised to be on their guard,
but they laughed at the advice, kept their gates open, and, it is said, at
one of them put two snow men as mock sentinels.
[3] It was expected that the plunder of Quebec would pay the cost of the
expedition. Failure added to the debt of Massachusetts, and forced the
colony to issue paper money or "bills of credit." This was the first time
such money was issued by any of the colonies. (For picture of a bill of
credit, see p. 204.)
[4] They captured, plundered, and burned York, were beaten in an attack on
Wells, burned houses and tomahawked a hundred people at Durham, and burned
the farmhouses near Haverhill.
[5] Queen Mary died in 1694, and King William in 1702. The crown then
passed to Anne, sister of Mary. The war, therefore, was fought mostly
during her reign.
[6] Read Whittier's poem _Pentucket_, and his account in prose called
_The Border War of 1708_.
[7] Formidable as was the fort, the snow of a severe winter had been
suffered to pile in drifts against the stockade till in places it nearly
reached the top, so that the stockade was no longer an obstacle to the
French and Indians.
[8] Read Parkman's _Half-Century of Conflict_, Vol. I, pp. 52-66.
[9] Ever since the accession of King James I (1603) England and Scotland
had been under the same king, but otherwise had been independent, each
having its own Parliament. Now, in Queen Anne's reign, the two countries
were united (1707) and made the one country of Great Britain, with one
Parliament.
[10] It was during these years of peace that Georgia was planted. The
Spaniards at St. Augustine considered this an intrusion into their
territory, and protested vigorously when Oglethorpe established a line of
military posts from the Altamaha to the St. Johns River. When word came
that Great Britain and Spain were at war, Oglethorpe, aided by British
ships, (1740) attacked St. Augustine. He failed to capture the city, and
the Spaniards (1742) invaded Georgia. Oglethorpe, though greatly
outnumbered, made a gallant defense, forced the Spaniards to withdraw, and
(1743) a second time attacked St. Augustine, but failed to take it.
[11] The expedition was undertaken without authority from the king. The
army was a body of raw recruits from the farms, the shops, lumber camps,
and fishing villages. The commander--Pepperell--was chosen because of his
popularity, and knew no more about attacking a fortress than the humblest
man in the ranks. Of cannon suitable to reduce a fortress the army had
none. Nevertheless, by dint of hard work and good luck, and largely by
means of many cannon captured from the French, the garrison was forced to
surrender. Read Hawthorne's _Grandfather's Chair_, Part ii, Chap. vii;
also Chaps. viii and ix.
[12] Read Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I, pp. 20-34, for a
comparison of the French and English colonies in America.
[13] One of these plates was soon found by the Indians and sent to the
governor of Pennsylvania. Two more in recent years were found projecting
from the banks of the Ohio by boys while bathing or at play.
[14] Among the members of the company were Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia,
and two brothers of George Washington.
[15] George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, at Bridges Creek, in
Virginia. At fourteen he thought seriously of going to sea, but became a
surveyor, and at sixteen was sent to survey part of the vast estate of
Lord Fairfax which lay beyond the Blue Ridge. He lived the life of a
frontiersman, slept in tents, in cabins, in the open, and did his work so
well that he was made a public surveyor. This position gave him steady
occupation for three years, and a knowledge of woodcraft and men that
stood him in good stead in time to come. When he was nineteen, his brother
Lawrence procured him an appointment as an adjutant general of Virginia
with the rank of major, a post he held in October, 1753, when Dinwiddie
sent him, accompanied by a famous frontiersman, Christopher Gist, to find
the French.
[16] On the way home Washington left his men in charge of the horses and
baggage, put on Indian walking dress, and with Christopher Gist set off by
the nearest way through the woods on foot. "The following day," says
Washington, in his account of the journey, "just after we had passed a
place called Murdering town, ... we fell in with a party of French
Indians, who had lain in wait for us. One of them fired at Mr. Gist or me,
not fifteen steps off, but fortunately missed." The next day they came to
a river. "There was no way of getting over but on a raft, ... but before
we were half over we were jammed in the ice.... I put out my setting pole
to try and stop the raft that the ice might pass by, when the rapidity of
the stream threw it with such force against the pole, that it jerked me
out into ten feet of water, but I fortunately saved myself by catching
hold of one of the raft logs." They were forced to swim to an island, and
next day crossed on the ice. Read Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I,
pp. 132-136.
[17] The French claimed that Jumonville was the bearer of a dispatch from
the commander at the Ohio, that after the Virginians fired twice he made a
sign that he was the bearer of a letter, that the firing ceased, that they
gathered about him and while he was reading killed him and his companions.
Jumonville's death has therefore been called an "assassination" by French
writers. The story rested on false statements made by Indians friendly to
the French. In reality, there is ample proof that Jumonville made no
attempt to deliver any message to Washington.
[Illustration: EASTERN NORTH AMERICA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FRENCH AND
INDIAN WAR.]
CHAPTER XI
THE FRENCH DRIVEN FROM AMERICA
THE SITUATION IN 1754.--The French were now in armed possession of the
Ohio valley. Their chain of forts bounded the British colonies from Lake
Champlain to Fort Duquesne. Unless they were dislodged, all hope of
colonial expansion westward was ended. To dislodge them meant war, and the
certainty of war led to a serious attempt to unite the colonies.
By order of the Lords of Trade, a convention of delegates from the
colonies [1] was held at Albany to secure by treaty and presents the
friendship of the Six Nations of Indians; it would not do to let those
powerful tribes go over to the French in the coming war. After treating
with the Indians, the convention proceeded to consider the question
whether all the colonies could not be united for defense and for the
protection of their interests.
[Illustration: JOIN, OR DIE.]
FRANKLIN'S PLAN OF UNION.--One of the delegates was Benjamin Franklin. In
his newspaper, the _Philadelphia Gazette_, he had urged union, and he
had put this device [2] at the top of an account of the capture of the
Ohio fort (afterward Duquesne) by the French. At the convention he
submitted a plan of union calling for a president general and a grand
council of representatives from the colonies to meet each year. They were
to make treaties with the Indians, regulate the affairs of the colonies as
a whole, levy taxes, build forts, and raise armies. The convention adopted
the plan, but both the colonial legislatures and the Lords of Trade in
London rejected it. [3]
[Illustration: FRANKLIN, AT THE AGE OF 70.]
THE FIVE POINTS OF ATTACK.--The French held five strongholds, which shut
the British out of New France and Louisiana, and threatened the English
colonies.
1. Louisburg threatened New England and Nova Scotia.
2. Quebec controlled the St. Lawrence.
3. Crown Point (and later Ticonderoga), on Lake Champlain, guarded the
water route to New York and threatened the Hudson valley.
4. Niagara guarded the portage between Lakes Ontario and Erie, and
threatened New York on the west.
5. Fort Duquesne controlled the Ohio and threatened Pennsylvania and
Virginia.
The plan of the British was to strengthen their hold on Nova Scotia
(Acadia), and to attack three of the French strongholds--Crown Point,
Niagara, and Fort Duquesne--at the same time.
ACADIA.--Late in May, 1755, therefore, an expedition set sail from Boston,
made its way up the Bay of Fundy, captured the French forts at the head of
that bay, reduced all Acadia to British rule, and tendered the oath of
allegiance to the French Acadians. This they refused to take, whereupon
they were driven on board ships at the point of the bayonet and carried
off and distributed among the colonies. [4]
[Illustration: FORTS IN NORTHERN NEW YORK.]
CROWN POINT.--The army against Crown Point, composed of troops from the
four New England colonies and New York, gathered at Albany, and Forts in
northern New York, under command of William Johnson [5] marched to the
head of Lake George, where it beat the French under Dieskau (dees'kou),
and built Fort William Henry; but it did not reach Crown Point.
NIAGARA.--A third army, under General Shirley of Massachusetts, likewise
set out from Albany, and pushing across New York reached Oswego, when all
thought of attacking Niagara was abandoned. News had come of the crushing
defeat of Braddock.
BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT.--Under the belief that neither colonial officers nor
colonial troops were of much account, the mother country at the opening of
the war sent over Edward Braddock, one of her best officers, and two
regiments of regulars. Brad-dock came to Virginia, appointed Washington
one of his aids, and having gathered some provincial troops, set off from
Fort Cumberland in Maryland for Fort Duquesne. The country to be traversed
was a wilderness. No road led through the woods, so the troops were forced
to cut one as they went slowly westward (map, p. 144).
On July 9, 1755, when some eight miles from Fort Duquesne, those in the
van suddenly beheld what seemed to be an Indian coming toward them, but
was really a French officer with a band of French and Indians at his back.
The moment he saw the British he stopped and waved his hat in the air,
whereupon his followers disappeared in the bushes and opened fire. The
British returned the fire and stood their ground manfully, but as they
could not see their foe, while their scarlet coats afforded a fine target,
they were shot down by scores, lost heart, huddled together, and when at
last Brad-dock was forced to order a retreat, broke and fled. [6]
Braddock was wounded just as the retreat began, and died as the army was
hurrying back to Fort Cumberland, and lest the Indians should find his
grave, he was buried in the road, and all traces of the grave were
obliterated by the troops and wagons passing over it. From Fort Cumberland
the British marched to Philadelphia, and the whole frontier was left to
the mercy of the French and Indians.
FRENCH VICTORIES.--War parties were sent out from Fort Duquesne in every
direction, settlement after settlement was sacked, and before November the
Indians were burning, plundering, massacring, scalping within eighty miles
of Philadelphia. During the two following years (1756-57), the French were
all energy and activity, and the British were hard pressed. [7] Oswego and
Fort William Henry were captured, [8] and the New York frontier was
ravaged by the French.
BRITISH VICTORIES (1758).--And now the tide turned. William Pitt, one of
the great Englishmen of his day, was placed at the head of public affairs
in Great Britain, and devoted himself with all his energy to the conduct
of the war. He chose better commanders, infused enthusiasm into men and
officers alike, and the result was a series of victories. A fleet of
frigates and battleships, with an army of ten thousand men, captured
Louisburg. Three thousand provincials in open boats crossed Lake Ontario,
took Fort Frontenac, and thus cut communication between Quebec and the
Ohio. A third expedition, under Forbes and Washington, marched slowly
across Pennsylvania, to find Fort Duquesne in ruins and the French gone.
[9]
[Illustration: LETTER WRITTEN BY WASHINGTON'S MOTHER. In the possession of
the Pennsylvania Historical Society]
VICTORIES OF 1759.--Two of the five strongholds (Louisburg and Fort
Duquesne) were now under the British flag, and the next year (1759) the
three others met a like fate. An expedition under Prideaux (prid'o) and
Sir William Johnson captured Fort Niagara; an army under Amherst took
Ticonderoga and Crown Point; and a fleet and army led by Wolfe, a young
officer distinguished at Louisburg, took Quebec.
QUEBEC, 1759.--The victory at Quebec was the greatest of the war. The
fortress was the strongest in America, and stood on the crest of a high
cliff which rose from the waters of the St. Lawrence. The French
commander, Montcalm, was a brave and able soldier. But one night in
September, 1759, the British general, Wolfe, led his army up the steep
cliff west of the city, and in the morning formed in battle array on the
Plains of Abraham. A great battle followed. Both Wolfe and Montcalm were
killed; but the British won, and Quebec has ever since been under their
flag. Montreal fell the next year (1760), and Canada was conquered. [10]
[Illustration: CAPTURE OF QUEBEC]
SPAIN CEDES FLORIDA TO GREAT BRITAIN.--In the spring of 1761, France made
proposals of peace; but while the negotiation was under way, Spain allied
herself with France, and was soon dragged into the war. The British
thereupon captured Havana and Manila (1762), and thus became for a short
time masters of Cuba and the Philippines. A few weeks later preliminary
articles of peace were signed (November, 1762), and the final (or
definitive) treaty in 1763. Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain in return
for Cuba. News of the capture of the Philippines was not received till
after the preliminary treaty was signed; the islands were therefore
returned without any equivalent. [11]
THE FRENCH QUIT AMERICA.--By the treaties of 1762 and 1763 France withdrew
from America.
To Great Britain were ceded (1) all of New France (or Canada), Cape Breton
Island, and all the near-by islands save two small ones near Newfoundland,
and (2) all of Louisiana east of the Mississippi save the city of New
Orleans and a little territory above and below the city.
[Illustration: THE BRITISH TERRITORY AT THE END OF THE FRENCH AND INDIAN
WAR.]
To recompense Spain for her loss in the war, France ceded to her New
Orleans and the neighboring territory, and all of Louisiana west of the
Mississippi.
THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC.--The acquisition of New France made it necessary
for Great Britain to provide for its government. To do this she drew a
line about the part inhabited by whites, and established the province of
Quebec. The south boundary of the new province should be carefully
observed, for it became the northern boundary of New York and New England.
THE PROCLAMATION LINE.--The proclamation which created the province of
Quebec also drew a line "beyond the sources of the rivers which flow into
the Atlantic from the west and northwest": beyond this line no governor of
any of the colonies was to grant land. This meant that the king cut off
the claims to western lands set forth in the charters of Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Virginia, Carolina, and Georgia. The territory so cut off was
for the present to be reserved for the Indians.
THE PROVINCES OF EAST AND WEST FLORIDA.--The proclamation of 1763 also
created two other provinces. One called East Florida was so much of the
present state of Florida as lies east of the Apalachicola River. West
Florida was all the territory received from Spain west of the
Apalachicola. [12]
To Georgia was annexed the territory between the St. Marys River, the
proclamation line, and the Altamaha.
THE FRONTIER.--British settlements did not yet reach the Allegheny
Mountains. In New York they extended a short distance up the Mohawk River.
In Pennsylvania the little town of Bedford, in Maryland Fort Cumberland,
and in Virginia the Allegheny Mountains marked the frontier (p. 144).
THE WILDERNESS ROUTES AND FORTS.--Through the wilderness lying beyond the
frontier ran several lines of forts intended to protect routes of
communication. Thus in New York the route up the Mohawk to Oneida Lake and
down Oswego River to Lake Ontario was protected by Forts Stanwix,
Brewerton, and Oswego. From Fort Oswego the route continued by water to
Fort Niagara at the mouth of the river of that name, then along the
Niagara River and by Lake Erie to Presque Isle, then by land to Fort Le
Boeuf, then by river to Fort Pitt.
[Illustration: WILDERNESS ROUTES AND FORTS.]
From Fort Pitt two roads led back to the frontier. One leading to the
Potomac valley was that cut from Fort Cumberland by Braddock (in 1755) and
known as Braddock's Road. The other to Bedford on the Pennsylvania
frontier was cut by General Forbes (in 1758).
Along the shores of the Great Lakes were a few forts built by the French
and now held by the British. These were Sandusky, Detroit, Mackinaw, and
St. Joseph.
[Illustration: OLD FORT NIAGARA.]
PONTIAC'S WAR.--Between this chain of forts and the Mississippi River, in
the region given up by France, lived many tribes of Indians, old friends
of the French and bitter enemies of the British. The old enmity was kept
aflame by the French Canadians, who still carried on the fur trade with
the Indians. [13]
When, therefore, Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawas, in 1762 sent out among
the Indian nations ambassadors with the war belt of wampum, and tomahawks
stained red in token of war, the tribes everywhere responded to the call.
[14] From the Ohio and its tributaries to the upper lakes, and southward
to the mouth of the Mississippi, they banded against the British, and
early in 1763, led by Pontiac, swept down on the frontier forts. Detroit
was attacked, Presque Isle was captured, Le Boeuf and Venango were burned
to the ground, Fort Pitt was besieged, and the frontier of Pennsylvania
laid waste. Of fourteen posts from Mackinaw to Oswego, all but four were
taken by the Indians. It seemed that not a settler would be left west of
the Susquehanna; but a little army under Colonel Bouquet beat the Indians,
cleared the Pennsylvania frontier, and relieved Fort Pitt in 1763; another
army in 1764 passed along the lake shore to Detroit and quieted the
Indians in that region, while Bouquet (1764) invaded the Ohio country,
forced the tribes to submit, and released two hundred white prisoners.
SUMMARY
1. The war which followed the defeat of Washington is known as the French
and Indian War.
2. Fearing that the French Acadians in Nova Scotia would become
troublesome, the British dispersed them among the colonies.
3. The strongholds of the French were Louisburg, Quebec, Crown Point,
Niagara, and Fort Duquesne.
4. The first expedition against Fort Duquesne ended in Braddock's defeat;
expeditions against other strongholds came to naught, and during the early
years of the war the French carried everything before them.
5. But when Pitt rose to power in England, the tide turned: Louisburg and
Fort Duquesne were captured (in 1758); Niagara, Ticonderoga, Crown Point,
and Quebec were taken (in 1759); and Montreal fell in 1760.
6. Spain now joined in the war, whereupon Great Britain seized Cuba and
the Philippines.
7. Peace was made in 1762-63: the conquests from Spain were restored to
her, but Florida was ceded to Great Britain; and France gave up her
possessions in North America.
8. Canada, Cape Breton, and all Louisiana east of the Mississippi, save
New Orleans and vicinity, went to Great Britain.
9. New Orleans and Louisiana west of the Mississippi went to Spain.
10. Great Britain then established the new provinces of Quebec and East
and West Florida, and drew the Proclamation Line.
11. A great Indian uprising, known as Pontiac's War, followed the peace,
but was quickly put down.
FOOTNOTES
[1] New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York,
Pennsylvania, and Maryland were the only colonies represented.
[2] There was an old superstition that if a snake were cut into pieces and
the pieces allowed to touch, they would join and the snake would not die.
Franklin meant that unless the separate colonies joined they would be
conquered.
[3] Franklin was born in Boston in 1706, the youngest son in a family of
seventeen children. He went to work in his father's candle shop when ten
years old. He was fond of reading, and by saving what little money he
could secure, bought a few books and read them thoroughly. When twelve, he
was bound apprentice to a brother who was a printer. At seventeen he ran
away to Philadelphia, where he found work in a printing office, and in
1729 owned a newspaper of his own, which soon became the best and most
entertaining in the colonies. His most famous publication is _Poor
Richard's Almanac_. To this day the proverbs and common sense sayings
of Poor Richard are constantly quoted. Franklin was a good citizen: he
took part in the founding of the first public library in Philadelphia, the
formation of the first fire engine company, and the organization of the
first militia, and he persuaded the authorities to light and pave streets
and to establish a night watch. He is regarded as the founder of the
University of Pennsylvania. Franklin was also a man of science. He
discovered that lightning is electricity, invented the lightning rod, and
wrote many scientific papers. He served in the legislature of
Pennsylvania, and was made postmaster general for the colonies. All these
things occurred before 1754.
[4] About six thousand were carried off. Nowhere were they welcome. Some
who were taken to Boston made their way to Canada. Such as reached South
Carolina and Georgia were given leave to return; but seven little
boatloads were stopped at Boston. Others reached Louisiana, where their
descendants still live. A few succeeded in returning to Acadia. Do not
fail to read Longfellow's poem _Evangeline_, a beautiful story founded on
this removal of the Acadians. Was it necessary to remove the Acadians?
Read Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I, pp. 234-241, 256-266, 276-
284; read also "The Old French War," Part ii, Chap, viii, in Hawthorne's
_Grandfather's Chair_.
[5] William Johnson was born in Ireland in 1715, and came to America in
1738 to take charge of his uncle's property in the Mohawk valley. He
settled about twenty miles west of Schenectady, and engaged in the Indian
trade. He dealt honestly with the Indians, learned their language,
attended their feasts, and, tomahawk in hand, danced their dances in
Indian dress. He even took as his wife a sister of Brant, a Mohawk chief.
So great was his influence with the Indians that in 1746 he was made
Commissary of New York for Indian Affairs. In 1750 he was made a member of
the provincial Council, went to the Albany convention in 1754, and later
was appointed a major general. After the expedition against Crown Point he
was knighted and made Superintendent of Indian Affairs in North America.
He died in 1774.
[6] It is sometimes said that Braddock fell into an ambuscade. This is a
mistake. He was surprised because he did not send scouts ahead of his
army; but the Indians were not in ambush. Braddock would not permit the
troops to fight in Indian fashion from behind trees and bushes, but forced
his men to form in platoons. A part of the regulars who tried to fight
behind trees Braddock beat with his sword and forced into line. Some
Virginians who sought shelter behind a huge fallen tree were mistaken for
the enemy and fired on. In the fight and after it Washington was most
prominent. Twice a horse was shot under him. Four bullets passed through
his clothes. When the retreat began, he rallied the fugitives, and brought
off the wounded Braddock.
[7] War between France and Great Britain was declared in May, 1756. In
Europe it was known as the Seven Years' War; in America as the French and
Indian. On the side of France were Russia and Austria. On the side of
Great Britain was Frederick the Great of Prussia. The fighting went on not
only in America, but in the West Indies, on the European Continent, in the
Mediterranean, and in India.
[8] When the colonial troops surrendered Fort William Henry, the French
commander, Montcalm, agreed that they should return to their homes in
safety. But the Indians, maddened by liquor, massacred a large number, and
carried off some six hundred prisoners. Montcalm finally secured the
release of some four hundred. Cooper's novel _The Last of the Mohicans_
treats of the war about Lake George.
[9] Instead of using the road cut by Braddock, Forbes chose another route,
(map, p. 144), and spent much time in road making. Late in September he
was still fifty miles from Fort Duquesne, and decided to go into winter
quarters. But the French attacked Forbes and were beaten; and from some
prisoners Forbes learned that the garrison at Fort Duquesne was weak. A
picked force of men, with Washington and his Virginians in the lead, then
hurried forward, and reached the fort to find it abandoned. A new stockade
was built near by, and named Fort Pitt, and the place was named Pittsburg.
[10] Read Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. II, pp. 280-297. The
fall of Quebec is treated in fiction in Gilbert Parker's _Seats of the
Mighty_.
[11] When Manila was captured, all private property was saved from plunder
by the promise of a ransom of £1,000,000. One half was paid in money, and
the rest in bills on the Spanish treasury. Spain never paid these bills.
[12] The north boundary was the parallel of 31°; but in 1764 West Florida
was enlarged, and the north boundary became the parallel of latitude that
passes through the mouth of the Yazoo River.
[13] They told the Indians that the British would soon be driven out, and
that the Mississippi River and Canada would again be in French hands; that
the British were trying to destroy the Indian race, and for this purpose
were building forts and making settlements.
[14] Read Parkman's _Conspiracy of Pontiac_; Kirk Munroe's _At War with
Pontiac_.
CHAPTER XII
THE QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY
The French and Indian War gave the colonists valuable training as
soldiers, freed them from the danger of attack by their French neighbors,
and so made them less dependent on Great Britain for protection. But the
mother country took no account of this, and at once began to do things
which in ten years' time drove the colonies into rebellion.
CAUSES OF THE QUARREL.--We are often told that taxation without
representation was the cause of the Revolution. It was indeed one cause,
and a very important one, but not the only one by any means. The causes of
the Revolution, as stated in the Declaration of Independence, were many,
and arose chiefly from an attempt of the mother country to (1) enforce the
laws concerning trade, (2) quarter royal troops in the colonies, [1] and
(3) support the troops by taxes imposed without consent of the colonies.
THE TRADE LAWS were enacted by Parliament between 1650 and 1764 for the
purpose of giving Great Britain a monopoly of colonial trade. By their
provisions--
1. No goods were to be carried from any port in Europe to America unless
first landed in England.
2. Many articles of colonial production, as tobacco, cotton, silk, indigo,
furs, rice, sugar, could not be sent to any country save England; but
lumber, salt fish, and provisions could be sent also to France, Spain, or
other foreign countries.
3. To help English wool manufacture, the colonists were forbidden to send
their woolen goods or hats to any country whatever, or even from colony to
colony.
4. To help English iron manufacture, the colonists were forbidden to make
steel.
5. To help the British West Indies, a heavy duty was laid (in 1733) on
sugar or molasses imported from any other than a British possession.
SMUGGLING.--Had these laws been rigidly enforced they would have been
severe indeed, but they could not be rigidly enforced. They were openly
violated, and smuggling became so common in every colony [2] that the cost
of collecting the revenue was much more than the amount gathered.
This smuggling the British government now determined to end. Accordingly,
in 1764, the colonies were ordered to stop all unlawful trade, naval
vessels were stationed off the coast to seize smugglers, and new courts,
called vice-admiralty courts, were set up in which smugglers when caught
were to be tried without a jury. [3]
A STANDING ARMY.--It was further proposed to send over ten thousand
regular soldiers to defend the colonies against the Indians and against
any attack that might be made by France or Spain. The colonists objected
to the troops on the ground that they had not asked for soldiers and did
not need any.
[Illustration: BRITISH SOLDIER.]
THE STAMP ACT.--As the cost of keeping the troops would be very great, it
was decided to raise part of the money needed by a stamp tax which
Parliament enacted in 1765. The Stamp Act applied not only to the thirteen
colonies, but also to Canada, Florida, and the West Indies, and was to
take effect on and after November 1, 1765. [4]
1. Every piece of vellum or paper on which was written any legal document
for use in any court was to be charged with a stamp duty of from three
pence to ten pounds.
2. Many kinds of documents not used in court, and newspapers, almanacs,
etc., were to be written or printed only on stamped paper made in England
and sold at prices fixed by law.
The money raised by the stamp tax was not to be taken to Great Britain,
but was to be spent in the colonies in the purchase of food and supplies
for the troops.
THE COLONIES DENY THE RIGHT OF PARLIAMENT TO TAX THEM.--But the colonists
cared not for what use the money was intended. "No taxation without
representation," was their cry. They cast no votes for a member of
Parliament; therefore, they said, they were not represented in Parliament.
Not being represented, they could not be taxed by Parliament, because
taxes could lawfully be laid on them only by their chosen representatives.
[5]
In the opinion of the British people the colonists were represented in
Parliament. British subjects in America, it was held, were just as much
represented in the House of Commons as were the people of Manchester or
Birmingham, neither of which sent a member to the House. Each member of
the House represented not merely the few men who elected him, but all the
subjects of the British crown everywhere. [6]
THE COLONIES RESIST.--Resistance to the Stamp Act began in Virginia, where
the House of Burgesses passed a set of resolutions written by Patrick
Henry. [7] In substance they declared that the colonists were British
subjects and were not bound to obey any law taxing them without the
consent of their own legislatures.
[Illustration: PATRICK HENRY ADDRESSING THE VIRGINIA ASSEMBLY. From an old
print.]
Massachusetts came next with a call for a congress of delegates from the
colonies, to meet at New York in October.
THE STAMP ACT CONGRESS, 1765.--Nine of the colonies sent delegates, and
after a session of twenty days the representatives of six signed a
declaration of rights and grievances.
The declaration of rights set forth that a British subject could not be
taxed unless he was represented in the legislature that imposed the tax;
that Americans were not represented in Parliament; and that therefore the
stamp tax was an attack on the rights of Englishmen and the liberty of
self-government. The grievances complained of were trial without jury,
restrictions on trade, taxation without representation, and especially the
stamp tax.
THE STAMP DISTRIBUTERS.--In August, 1765, the names of the men in America
chosen to be the distributers or sellers of the stamps and stamped paper
were made public, and then the people began to act. Demands were made that
the distributers should resign. When they refused, the people rose and by
force compelled them to resign, and riots occurred in the chief seaboard
towns from New Hampshire to Maryland. At Boston the people broke into the
house of the lieutenant governor and destroyed his fine library and
papers.
[Illustration: THE PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL AND WEEKLY ADVERTISER]
On November 1, 1765, the Stamp Act went into force, but not a stamp or a
piece of stamped paper could be had in any of the thirteen colonies. Some
of the newspapers ceased to be printed, the last issues appearing with
black borders, death's heads, and obituary notices. But soon all were
regularly issued without stamps, and even the courts disregarded the law.
[8]
[Illustration: LANTERN USED AT CELEBRATION OF THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT.
In the Old Statehouse, Boston.]
THE STAMP ACT REPEALED, 1766.--Meantime the merchants had been signing
agreements not to import, and the people not to buy, any British goods for
some months to come. American trade with the mother country was thus cut
off, thousands of workmen in Great Britain were thrown out of employment,
and Parliament was beset with petitions from British merchants praying for
a repeal of the stamp tax. To enforce the act without bloodshed was
impossible. In March, 1766, therefore, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act.
[9] But at the same time it enacted another, known as the Declaratory Act,
in which it declared that it had power to "legislate for the colonies in
all cases whatsoever."
THE TOWNSHEND ACTS, 1767.--In their joy over the repeal of the Stamp Act,
the colonists gave no heed to the Declaratory Act. But the very next year
Charles Townshend, then minister of finance, persuaded Parliament to pass
several laws since known as the Townshend Acts. One of these forbade the
legislature of New York to pass any more laws until it had made provision
for the royal troops quartered in New York city. Another laid taxes on all
paints, paper, tea, and certain other articles imported into the colonies.
[10]
THE COLONIES AGAIN RESIST.--None of the new taxes were heavy, but again
the case was one of taxation without representation, so the legislature of
Massachusetts sent a letter to the other colonial legislatures asking them
to unite and consult for the protection of their rights. This letter gave
so great offense to the mother country that Massachusetts was ordered to
rescind her act, and the governors of the other colonies to see that no
notice was taken of it. [11] And now the royal troops for the defense of
the colonies began to arrive. But Massachusetts, North Carolina, and South
Carolina refused to find them quarters, and for such refusal the
legislature of North Carolina was dissolved.
[Illustration: BOSTON MASSACRE MONUMENT. In Boston Common.]
THE BOSTON MASSACRE.--At Boston the troops were received with every mark
of hatred and disgust, and for three years were subjected to every sort of
insult and indignity, which they repaid in kind. The troops led riotous
lives, raced horses on Sunday on the Common, played "Yankee Doodle" before
the church doors, and more than once exchanged blows with the citizens. In
one encounter the troops fired on the crowd, killing five and wounding
six. This was the famous "Boston Massacre," and produced over all the land
a deep impression. [12]
TOWNSHEND ACTS REPEALED, 1770.--Once more the resistance of the colonies--
chiefly through refusing to buy British goods--was successful, and
Parliament took off all the Townshend taxes except that on tea. This
import tax of three pence a pound on tea was retained in order that the
right of Parliament to tax the colonies might be asserted. But the
colonists stood firm; they refused to buy tea shipped from Great Britain,
but smuggled it from Holland. [13]
TEA TAX JUGGLE.--By 1773 the refusal to buy tea from the mother country
was severely felt by the East India Company, which had brought far more
tea to Great Britain than it could dispose of. Parliament then removed the
export duty of twelve pence a pound which had formerly been paid in Great
Britain on all tea shipped to the colonies. Thus after paying the three-
pence tax at the American customhouses, the tea could be sold nine pence a
pound cheaper than before.
THE TEA NOT ALLOWED TO BE SOLD.--The East India Company now quickly
selected agents in the chief seaports of the colonies, and sent shiploads
of tea consigned to them for sale. [14] But the colonists were tempted by
cheap tea; they were determined that Parliament would not tax them. They
therefore forced the agents to resign their commissions, and when the tea
ships arrived, took possession of them. At Philadelphia the ships were
sent back to London. At Charleston the tea was landed and stored for three
years and then seized and sold by the state of South Carolina. At
Annapolis the people forced the owner of a tea ship to go on board and set
fire to his ship; vessel and cargo were thus consumed. At Boston the
people wished the tea sent back to London, and when the authorities
refused to allow this, a party of men disguised as Indians boarded the
ships and threw the tea into the water. [15]
[Illustration: THROWING THE TEA OVERBOARD, BOSTON.]
THE INTOLERABLE ACTS.--Parliament now determined to punish the colonies,
and for this purpose enacted five laws called by the colonists the
Intolerable Acts:--
1. The port of Boston was shut to trade and commerce till the colony
should pay for the tea destroyed.
2. The charter of Massachusetts was altered.
3. Persons who were accused of murder done in executing the laws might be
taken for trial to another colony or to Great Britain.
4. The quartering of troops on the people was authorized.
5. The boundaries of the province of Quebec were extended to the Ohio and
Mississippi rivers. As Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia claimed
parts of this territory, they regarded the Quebec Act as another act of
tyranny. [16]
THE FIRST CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.--Because of the passage of these laws, a
Congress suggested by Virginia and called by Massachusetts met in
Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia in September, 1774, and issued a
declaration of rights and grievances, a petition to the king, and
addresses to the people of Great Britain, to the people of Canada, and to
the people of the colonies. It also called a second Congress to meet on
May 10, 1775, and take action on the result of the petition to the king.
SUMMARY
1. After the French and Indian War Great Britain determined to enforce the
laws of trade.
2. It also decided that the colonies should bear a part of the cost of
their defense, and for this purpose a stamp tax was levied.
3. The right of Parliament to levy such a tax was denied by the colonists
on the ground that they were not represented in Parliament.
4. The attempt to enforce the tax led to resistance, and a congress of the
colonies (1765) issued a declaration of rights and grievances.
5. The tax was repealed in 1766, but Parliament at the same time asserted
its right to tax.
6. The Townshend Acts (1767) tried to raise a revenue by import duties on
goods brought into the colonies. At the same time the arrival of the
troops for defense of the colonies caused new trouble; in Boston the
people and the troops came to blows (1770).
7. The refusal of the colonists to buy the taxed articles led to the
repeal of all the taxes except that on tea (1770).
8. The colonists still refused to buy taxed tea, whereupon Parliament
enabled the East India Company to send over tea for sale at a lower price
than before.
9. The tea was not allowed to be sold. In Boston it was destroyed.
10. As a punishment Parliament enacted the five Intolerable Acts.
11. The First Continental Congress (1774) thereupon petitioned for
redress, and called a second Congress to meet the next year.
FOOTNOTES
[1] That is, compel the colonists to furnish quarters--rooms or houses--
for the troops to live in. Read Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_, Vol. I,
pp. 439-440.
[2] In order to detect and seize smugglers the crown had resorted to
"writs of assistance." The law required that every ship bringing goods to
America should come to some established port and that her cargo should be
reported at the customhouse. Instead, the smugglers would secretly land
goods elsewhere. If a customs officer suspected this, he could go to court
and ask for a search warrant, stating the goods for which he was to seek
and the place to be searched. But this would give the smugglers warning
and they could remove the goods. What the officers wanted was a general
warrant good for any goods in any place. This writ of assistance, as it
was called, was common in England, and was issued in the colonies about
1754. In 1760 King George II died, and all writs issued in his name
expired. In 1761, therefore, application was made to the Superior Court of
Massachusetts for a new writ of assistance to run in the name of King
George III. Sixty merchants opposed the issue, and James Otis and
Oxenbridge Thacher appeared for the merchants. The speech of Otis was a
famous plea, sometimes called the beginning of colonial resistance; but
the court granted the writ.
[3] These acts are complained of in the Declaration of Independence. The
king is blamed "For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world,"
that is, enforcing the trade laws; again, "He has erected a multitude of
new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people,"
that is to say, the vice-admiralty judges and naval officers sworn to act
as customhouse officers and seize smugglers. In doing this duty these
officers did "harass our people."
[4] While the Stamp Act was under debate in Parliament, Colonel Barré, who
fought under Wolfe at Louisburg, opposed it. A member had spoken of the
colonists as "children planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence,
and protected by our arms." "They planted by your care!" said Barré. "No,
your oppression planted them in America. Nourished by your indulgence!
They grew up by your neglect of them. They protected by your arms! These
Sons of Liberty have nobly taken up arms in your defense." The words "Sons
of Liberty" were at once seized on, and used in our country to designate
the opponents of the stamp tax. Read "The Stamp Act" in Hawthorne's
_Grandfather's Chair_.
[5] The colonists did not deny the right of Parliament to regulate the
trade of the whole British Empire, and to lay "external taxes"--customs
duties--for the purpose of regulating trade. But this stamp tax was an
"internal tax" for the purpose of raising revenue.
[6] Parliament was divided then, as now, into two houses--the Lords,
consisting of nobles and clergy, and the Commons, consisting then of two
members elected by each county and two elected by each of certain towns.
Some change was made in the list of towns thus represented in Parliament
before the sixteenth century, but no change had been made since, though
many of them had lost all or most of their population. Thus Old Sarum had
become a green mound; its population had all drifted away to Salisbury. A
member of the Commons, so the story runs, once said: "I am the member from
Ludgesshall. I am also the population of Ludgesshall. When the sheriff's
writ comes, I announce the election, attend the poll, deposit my vote for
myself, sign the return, and here I am." When a town disappeared, the
landowner of the soil on which it once stood appointed the two members.
Such towns were called "rotten boroughs," "pocket boroughs," "nomination
boroughs."
[7] Patrick Henry was born in Virginia in 1736. As a youth he was dull and
indolent and gave no sign of coming greatness. After two failures as a
storekeeper and one as a farmer he turned in desperation to law, read a
few books, and with difficulty passed the examination necessary for
admittance to the bar. Henry had now found his true vocation. Business
came to him, and one day in 1763 he argued the weak (but popular) side of
a case with such eloquence that he carried court and jury with him, and it
is said was carried out of the courthouse on the shoulders of the people.
He was now famous, and in 1765 was elected to the Virginia House of
Burgesses to represent the county in which he had lived, just in time to
take part in the proceedings on the Stamp Act. His part was to move the
resolutions and support them in a fiery and eloquent speech, of which one
passage has been preserved. Recalling the fate of tyrants of other times,
he exclaimed, "Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and
George the Third--." "Treason! treason!" shouted the Speaker. "Treason!
treason!" shouted the members. To which Henry answered, "and George the
Third may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of
it."
[8] In Canada and the West Indies the stamp tax was not resisted, and
there stamps were used.
[9] When Parliament was considering the repeal, Benjamin Franklin, then in
London as agent for Pennsylvania and other colonies, was called before a
committee and examined as to the state of colonial affairs; read his
answers in Hart's _American History told by Contemporaries_, Vol. II,
pp. 407-411. Pitt in a great speech declared, "The kingdom has no right to
lay a tax on the colonies, because they are unrepresented in Parliament. I
rejoice that America has resisted." Edmund Burke, one of the greatest of
Irish orators, took the same view.
[10] In the Declaration of Independence the king is charged with giving
his assent to acts of Parliament "For suspending our own legislatures,"
and "For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us," and "For
imposing taxes on us without our consent."
[11] For refusing to obey, the legislature of Massachusetts was dissolved,
as were the assemblies of Maryland and Georgia for having approved it, and
that of New York for refusing supplies to the royal troops, and that of
Virginia for complaining of the treatment of New York. Read Fiske's
_American Revolution_, Vol. I, pp. 28-36, 39-52.
[12] The two regiments of British troops in Boston were now removed, on
demand of the people, to a fort in the harbor. The soldiers who fired the
shots were tried for murder and acquitted, save two who received light
sentences.
[13] One of the vessels sent to stop smuggling was the schooner _Gaspee_.
Having run aground in Narragansett Bay (June, 1772), she was boarded by a
party of men in eight boats and burned. The Virginia legislature appointed
a "committee of correspondence," to find out the facts regarding the
destruction of the _Gaspee_ and "to maintain a correspondence with our
sister colonies." This plan of a committee to inform the other colonies
what was happening in Virginia, and obtain from them accurate information
as to what they were doing, was at once taken up by Massachusetts and
other colonies, each of which appointed a similar committee. Such
committees afterward proved to be the means of revolutionary organization.
Read Fiske's _American Revolution_, Vol. I, pp. 76-80.
[14] Parliament had given the company permission to do this. The company
had long possessed the monopoly of trade with the East Indies, and the
sole right to bring tea from China to Great Britain. Before 1773, however,
it was obliged to sell the tea in Great Britain, and the business of
exporting tea to the colonies had been carried on by merchants who bought
from the company.
[15] Read "The Tea Party" in Hawthorne's _Grandfather's Chair_.
[16] All the Intolerable Acts are referred to in the Declaration of
Independence. See if you can find the references.
CHAPTER XIII
THE FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE BEGUN
LEXINGTON, 1775.--When the second Continental Congress met (May 10, 1775),
the mother country and her colonies had come to blows.
The people of Massachusetts, fearing that this might happen, had begun to
collect and hide arms, cannon, and powder. General Gage, the royal
governor of Massachusetts and commander of the British troops in Boston,
was told that military supplies were concealed at Concord, a town some
twenty miles from Boston (map, p. 168). Now it happened that in April,
1775, two active patriots, Samuel Adams [1] and John Hancock, were at
Lexington, a town on the road from Boston to Concord. Gage determined to
strike a double blow at the patriots by sending troops to arrest Adams and
Hancock and destroy the military stores. On the evening of April 18,
accordingly, eight hundred regulars left Boston as quietly as possible.
Gage hoped to keep the expedition a secret, but the patriots in Boston,
suspecting where the troops were going, sent off Paul Revere [2] and
William Dawes to ride by different routes to Lexington, rousing the
countryside as they went. As the British advanced, alarm bells, signal
guns, and lights in the villages gave proof that their secret was out.
[Illustration: JOHN HANCOCK'S BIBLE. Now in the Old Statehouse, Boston.]
[Illustration: ONE OF THE LANTERNS HUNG IN THE BELFRY. Now in the
possession of the Concord Antiquarian Society.]
The sun was rising as the first of the British, under Major Pitcairn,
entered Lexington and saw drawn up across the village green some fifty
minutemen [3] under Captain John Parker. "Disperse, ye villains," cried
Pitcairn; "ye rebels, disperse!" Not a man moved, whereupon the order to
fire was given; the troops hesitated to obey; Pitcairn fired his pistol,
and a moment later a volley from the British killed or wounded sixteen
minutemen. [4] Parker then gave the order to retire.
[Illustration: STONE ON VILLAGE GREEN AT LEXINGTON.]
THE CONCORD FIGHT.--From Lexington the British went on to Concord, set the
courthouse on fire, spiked some cannon, cut down the liberty pole, and
destroyed some flour. Meantime the minutemen, having assembled beyond the
village, came toward the North Bridge, and the British who were guarding
it fell back. Shots were exchanged, and six minutemen were killed. [5] But
the Americans crossed the bridge, drove back the British, and then
dispersed.
[Illustration: BOSTON, CHARLESTON, ETC.]
About noon the British started for Boston, with hundreds of minutemen, who
had come from all quarters, hanging on their flanks and rear, pouring in a
galling fire from behind trees and stone fences and every bit of rising
ground. The retreat became a flight, and the flight would have become a
rout had not reinforcements met them near Lexington. Protected by this
force, the defeated British entered Boston by sundown. By morning the
hills from Charlestown to Roxbury were black with minutemen, and Boston
was in a state of siege.
When the Green Mountain Boys heard of the fight, they took arms, and under
Ethan Allen [6] surprised and captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain
(map, p. 168).
THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.--On the day that Fort Ticonderoga was
captured (May 10, 1775), the Continental Congress met at Philadelphia. It
had been created, not to govern the colonies, nor to conduct a war, but
merely to consult concerning the public welfare, and advise what the
colonies should do. But war had begun, Congress was forced to become a
governing body, and after a month's delay it adopted the band of patriots
gathered about Boston, made it the Continental army, and appointed George
Washington (then a delegate to Congress from Virginia) commander in chief.
Washington accepted the trust, and left Philadelphia June 21, but had not
gone twenty miles when he was met by news of the battle of Bunker Hill.
BUNKER HILL, JUNE 17,1775.--Since the fight at Lexington and Concord in
April, troops under General Howe, Sir Henry Clinton, and General Burgoyne
had arrived at Boston and raised the number there to ten thousand. Gage
now felt strong enough to seize the hills near Boston, lest the Americans
should occupy them and command the town. Learning of this, the patriots
determined to forestall him, and on the night of June 16 twelve hundred
men under Prescott were sent to fortify Bunker Hill in Charlestown.
Prescott thought best to go beyond Bunker Hill, and during the night threw
up a rude intrenchment on Breeds Hill instead.
[Illustration: DRUM USED AT BUNKER HILL. Now in the possession of the
Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, Boston.]
To allow batteries to be planted there would never do, so Gage dispatched
Howe with nearly three thousand regulars to drive away the Americans and
hold the hill. Coming over from Boston in boats, the British landed and
marched up the hill till thirty yards from the works, when a deadly volley
mowed down the front rank and sent the rest down the hill in disorder.
A little time elapsed before the regulars were seen again ascending, only
to be met by a series of volleys at short range. The British fought
stubbornly, but were once more forced to retreat, leaving the hillside
covered with dead and wounded. Their loss was dreadful, but Howe could not
bear to give up the fight, and a third time the British were led up the
hill. The powder of the Americans was spent, and the fight was hand to
hand with stones, butts of muskets, anything that would serve as a weapon,
till the bayonet charges of the British forced the Americans to retreat.
[7]
WASHINGTON IN COMMAND.--Two weeks later Washington reached Cambridge and
took formal command of the army. For eight months he kept the British shut
up in Boston, while he gathered guns, powder, and cannon, and trained the
men.
To the Continental army mean time came troops from Virginia, Maryland,
Pennsylvania, and of course from the four New England colonies, commanded
by men who were destined to rise to high positions during the war. There
was Daniel Morgan of Virginia, with a splendid band of sharpshooters, and
Israel Putnam of Connecticut, John Stark and John Sullivan of New
Hampshire, Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island, Henry Knox of Boston, Horatio
Gates of Virginia, and Benedict Arnold and Charles Lee who later turned
traitors.
THE HESSIANS.--When King George III heard of the fight at Bunker Hill, he
issued a proclamation declaring the colonists rebels, closed their ports
to trade and commerce, [8] and sought to hire troops from Russia and
Holland. Both refused, whereupon he turned to some petty German states and
hired many thousand soldiers who in our country were called Hessians. [9]
[Illustration: HESSIAN HAT. Now in Essex Hall, Salem.]
CANADA INVADED.--Now that the war was really under way, Congress turned
its attention to Canada. It was feared that the British governor there
might take Ticonderoga, enter New York, and perhaps induce the Indians to
harry the New England frontier as they did in the old French wars. In the
summer of 1775, therefore, two expeditions were sent against Canada. One
under Richard Montgomery went down Lake Champlain from Ticonderoga and
captured Montreal. Another under Benedict Arnold sailed from Massachusetts
to the mouth of the Kennebec River, arid forced its way through the dense
woods of Maine to Quebec. There Montgomery joined Arnold, and on the night
of December 31, 1775, the American army in a blinding snowstorm assaulted
the town. Montgomery fell dead while leading the attack on one side of
Quebec, Arnold was wounded during the attack on the other side, and
Morgan, who took Arnold's place and led his men far into the town, was cut
off and captured. Though the attack on Quebec failed, the Americans
besieged the place till spring, when they were forced to leave Canada and
find shelter at Crown Point.
BOSTON EVACUATED.--During the winter of 1775-76, some heavy guns were
dragged over the snow on sledges from Ticonderoga to Boston. A captured
British vessel provided powder, and in March, 1776, Washington seized
Dorchester Heights, fortified them, and by so doing forced Howe, who had
succeeded Gage in command, to evacuate Boston, March 17.
WHIGS AND TORIES.--During the excitement over the Stamp Act, the Townshend
Acts, and the tea tax, the people were divided into three parties. Those
who resisted and--finally rebelled were called Whigs, or Patriots, or
"Sons of Liberty." Those who supported king and Parliament were called
Tories or Loyalists. [10] Between these two extremes were the great mass
of the population who cared little which way the struggle ended. In New
York, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas the Tories were numerous and active,
and when the war opened, they raised regiments and fought for the king.
FIGHTING IN THE CAROLINAS.--In January, 1776, Sir Henry Clinton sailed
from Boston to attack North Carolina, and a force of sixteen hundred
Tories marched toward the coast to aid. But North Carolina had its
minutemen as well as Massachusetts. A body of them under Colonel Caswell
met and beat the Tories at Moores Creek (February 27) and so large a force
of patriots had assembled when Clinton arrived that he did not make the
attack.
The next attempt was against South Carolina. Late in June, Clinton with
his fleet appeared before Charleston, and while the fleet opened fire on
Fort Moultrie (mol'try) from the water, Clinton marched to attack it by
land. But the land attack failed, the fleet was badly damaged by shot from
the fort, and the expedition sailed away to New York. [11]
INDEPENDENCE NECESSARY.--Prior to 1776 many of the colonies denied any
desire for independence, [12] but the events of this year caused a change.
After the battle of Moores Creek, North Carolina bade her delegates in
Congress vote for independence. Virginia, in May, ordered her delegates to
propose that the United Colonies be declared free and independent. South
Carolina and Georgia instructed their delegates to assent to any measure
for the good of America. Rhode Island dropped the king's name from state
documents and sheriffs' writs, and town after town in Massachusetts voted
to uphold Congress in a declaration of independence.
Thus encouraged, Congress, in May, resolved that royal authority must be
suppressed, and advised all the colonies to establish independent
governments. Some had already done so; the rest one by one framed written
constitutions of government, and became states. [13]
INDEPENDENCE DECLARED.--To pretend allegiance to the king any longer was a
farce. Congress, therefore, appointed Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin,
John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston to write a declaration
of independence, and on July 2, 1776, resolved: "That these United
Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that
they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all
political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and
ought to be, totally dissolved." [14] This is the Declaration of
Independence. The document we call the Declaration contains the reasons
why independence was declared. It was written by Jefferson, and after some
changes by Congress was adopted on July 4, 1776, [15] and copied were
ordered to be sent to the states.
[Illustration: THE COMMITTEE ON DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. From an old
print.]
SUMMARY
1. Governor Gage, hearing that the people of Massachusetts were gathering
military stores, sent troops to destroy the stores.
2. The battles at Lexington and Concord followed, and Boston was besieged.
3. The militia from the neighboring colonies gathered about Boston. They
were formed into a Continental army by Congress, and Washington was
appointed commander in chief.
4. The battle of Bunker Hill, meantime, took place (June, 1775).
5. King George III now declared the colonists rebels, shut their ports,
and sent troops from Germany to subdue them.
6. An expedition of the patriots for the conquest of Canada failed (1775-
76).
7. But the British were forced to leave Boston (March, 1776).
8. British attacks on North Carolina and South Carolina came to naught.
9. July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF LEXINGTON.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Samuel Adams was born in Boston in 1722, graduated from Harvard
College, and took so active a part in town politics that he has been
called "the Man of the Town Meeting." From 1765 to 1774 he was a member of
the Massachusetts Assembly, and for some years its clerk. He was a member
of the committee sent to demand the removal of the soldiers after the
massacre of 1770, and of that sent to demand the resignations of the men
appointed to receive the tea, and presided over the town meeting that
demanded the return of the tea ships to England. He was a member of the
Continental Congress, and signed the Declaration of Independence. After
the Revolution he was lieutenant governor and then governor of
Massachusetts, and died in 1803.
[2] Revere went by way of Charlestown (map, p. 160), first crossing the
river from Boston in a rowboat. As there was danger that his boat might be
stopped by the British warships, two lanterns were shown from the belfry
of the North Church as a signal to his friends in Charlestown; and when he
landed there at midnight, he found the patriots astir, ready to give the
alarm if he had not appeared. Read "Paul Revere's Ride" in Longfellow's
_Tales of a Wayside Inn_.
[3] In 1774 the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts ordered one quarter
of all the militiamen to be enlisted for emergency service. They came to
be known as minutemen, and in 1775 the Continental Congress recommended
"that one fourth part of the militia in every colony, be selected for
minutemen ... to be ready on the shortest notice, to march to any place
where their assistance may be required."
[4] Just before the fight began Adams and Hancock left Lexington and set
out to attend the Congress at Philadelphia.
[5] Read Emerson's _Concord Hymn_; also Cooper's admirable description of
the day's fighting in _Lionel Lincoln_.
[6] Ethan Allen was born in Connecticut in 1737, and went to Vermont about
1769. Vermont was then claimed by New York and New Hampshire, and when New
York tried to enforce her authority, the settlers in "New Hampshire
Grants" resisted, and organized as the "Green Mountain Boys" with Allen as
leader. At Fort Ticonderoga Allen found the garrison asleep. The British
commandant, awakened by the noise at his door, came out and was ordered to
surrender the fort. "By what authority?" he asked. "In the name of the
Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress," said Allen.
[7] Read Fiske's _American Revolution_, Vol. I, pp. 136-146, and
Holmes's _Grandmother's Story of Bunker Hill_. The British lost 1054
and the Americans 449. Among the British dead was Pitcairn, who began the
war at Lexington. Among the American dead was Dr. Warren, an able leader
of the Boston patriots. While the battle was raging, Charlestown was
shelled and set on fire and four hundred houses burned. Later, in October,
a British fleet entered the harbor of Falmouth (now Portland in Maine),
and burned three fourths of the houses. January 1, 1776, Lord Dunmore,
royal governor of Virginia, set fire to Norfolk, the chief city of
Virginia. The fire raged for three days and reduced the place to ashes.
These acts are charged against the king in the Declaration of
Independence: "He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our
towns, and destroyed the lives of our people."
[8] This is made a charge against the king in the Declaration: "He has
abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection, and
waging war against us." And again, "For cutting off our trade with all
parts of the world."
[9] The Duke of Brunswick, the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and four other
princes furnished the men. Their generals were Riedesel (ree'de-zel),
Knyp-hausen (knip'hou-zen), Von Heister, and Donop. The employment of
these troops furnishes another charge against the king in the Declaration:
"He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to
complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny." The first
detachment of German troops landed on Staten Island in New York Bay on
August 15, 1776. Before the war ended, the six petty German princes
furnished 29,867, of whom 12,550 never returned. Some 5000 of these
deserted.
[10] Before fighting began, the Tories were denounced and held up as
enemies to their country; later their leaders were mobbed, and if they
held office, were forced to resign. After the battle of Bunker Hill, laws
of great severity were enacted against them. They were disarmed, forced to
take an oath of allegiance, proclaimed traitors, driven into exile, and
their estates and property were confiscated. At the close of the war,
fearing the anger of the Whigs, thousands of Tories fled from our country
to Jamaica, Bermuda, Halifax in Nova Scotia, and Canada. Some 30,000 went
from New York city in 1782-83, and upward of 60,000 left our country
during and after the war.
[11] While the battle was hottest, a shot carried away the flagstaff of
Fort Moultrie. The staff and flag fell outside the fort. Instantly
Sergeant William Jasper leaped down, fastened the flag to the ramrod of a
cannon, climbed back, and planted this new staff firmly on the fort. A
fine monument now commemorates his bravery.
[12] However, many leaders in New England, as Samuel Adams, John Adams,
and Elbridge Gerry; in Pennsylvania, as Benjamin Rush and Benjamin
Franklin; in Delaware, as Thomas McKean; as Chase of Maryland; Lee, Henry,
Jefferson, Washington, of Virginia; and Gadsden of South Carolina, favored
independence. In this state of affairs Thomas Paine, in January, 1776,
wrote a pamphlet called _Common Sense_, in which independence was strongly
urged. The effect was wonderful. Edition after edition was printed in many
places. "_Common Sense_," says one writer, "is read to all ranks; and as
many as read, so many become converted."
[13] Rhode Island and Connecticut did not abandon their charters, for in
these colonies the people had always elected their governors and had
always been practically independent of the king. Connecticut did not make
a constitution till 1818, and Rhode Island not till 1842.
[14] This resolution had been introduced in Congress, in June, by Richard
Henry Lee of Virginia. For a fine description of the debate on
independence read Webster's _Oration on Adams and Jefferson_. Why did
John Dickinson oppose a declaration of independence? Read Fiske's
_American Revolution_, Vol. I, pp. 190-192.
[15] A few copies signed by Hancock, president of Congress, and Thomson,
the secretary, were made public on July 5; and on July 8 one of these was
read to a crowd of people in the Statehouse yard at Philadelphia. The
common idea that the Declaration was signed at one time is erroneous. The
signing did not begin till August 2. Of those who signed then and
afterward, seven were not members of Congress on July 4, 1776. Of those
signers who were members on July 4, it is known that five were absent on
that day. Seven men who were members of Congress on July 4 were not
members on August 2, and never signed.
[Illustration: THE NORTHERN COLONIES DURING THE REVOLUTION]
CHAPTER XIV
THE WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON THE SEA
BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND.--When Howe sailed from Boston (in March, 1776), he
went to Halifax in Nova Scotia. But Washington was sure New York would be
attacked, so he moved the Continental army to that city and took position
on the hills back of Brooklyn on Long Island.
He was not mistaken, for to New York harbor in June came General Howe, and
in July Clinton from his defeat at Charleston, and Admiral Howe [1] with
troops from England. Thus reinforced, General Howe landed on Long Island
in August, and drove the Americans from their outposts, back to Brooklyn.
[2] Washington now expected an assault, but Howe remembered Bunker Hill
and made ready to besiege the Americans, whereupon two nights after the
battle Washington crossed with the army to Manhattan Island. [3]
WASHINGTON'S RETREAT.--Washington left a strong force under Putnam in the
heart of New York city, and stationed his main army along Harlem Heights.
Howe crossed to Manhattan and landed behind Putnam, [4] who was thus
forced to leave his guns and tents, and flee to Harlem Heights, where Howe
attacked Washington the next day and was repulsed.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF HARLEM HEIGHTS. Tablet on a Columbia College
building, New York city.]
So matters stood for nearly a month, when Howe attempted to go around the
east end of Washington's line, and thus forced him to retreat to White
Plains. Baffled in an attack at this place, Howe went back to New York and
carried Fort Washington by storm, taking many prisoners.
Washington meantime had crossed the Hudson to New Jersey, leaving General
Charles Lee with seven thousand men in New York state. He now ordered Lee
to join him [5]; but Lee disobeyed, and Washington, closely pursued by the
British, retreated across New Jersey.
THE VICTORY AT TRENTON, DECEMBER 26, 1776.--On the Pennsylvania side of
the Delaware River, Washington turned at bay, and having at last received
some reënforcements, he recrossed the Delaware on Christmas night in a
blinding snowstorm, marched nine miles to Trenton, surprised a body of
Hessians, captured a thousand prisoners, and went back to Pennsylvania.
Washington now proposed to follow up this victory with other attacks. But
a new difficulty arose, for the time of service of many of the Eastern
troops would expire on January 1. These men were therefore asked to serve
six weeks longer, and were offered a bounty of ten dollars a man.
[Illustration: MORRIS'S STRONG BOX. Now in the possession of the
Pennsylvania Historical Society.]
ROBERT MORRIS SENDS MONEY.--Many agreed to serve, but the paymaster had no
money. Washington therefore pledged his own fortune, and appealed to
Robert Morris at Philadelphia. [6] "If it be possible, Sir," he wrote, "to
give us assistance, do it; borrow money while it can be done, we are doing
it upon our private credit." Morris responded at once, and on New Year's
morning, 1777, went from house to house, roused his friends from their
beds to borrow money from them, and early in the day sent fifty thousand
dollars.
BATTLE OF PRINCETON, JANUARY 3, 1777.--Washington crossed again to
Trenton, whereupon Lord Cornwallis hurried up with a British army, and
shut in the Americans between his forces and the Delaware. But Washington
slipped out, went around Cornwallis, and the next morning attacked three
British regiments at Princeton and beat them. He then took possession of
the hills at Morristown, where he spent the rest of the winter.
THE ATTEMPT TO CUT OFF NEW ENGLAND.--The British plan for the campaign of
1777 was to seize Lake Champlain and the Hudson River and so cut off New
England from the Middle States. To carry out this plan, (1) General
Burgoyne was to come down from Canada, (2) Howe was to go up the Hudson
from New York and join Burgoyne at Albany, and (3) St. Leger was to go
from Lake Ontario down the Mohawk to Albany. [7]
ORISKANY.--Hearing of the approach of St. Leger, General Herkimer of the
New York militia gathered eight hundred men and hurried to the relief of
Fort Stanwix. Near Oriskany, about six miles from the fort, he fell into
an ambuscade of British and Indians, and a fierce hand-to-hand fight
ensued, till the Indians fled and the British, forced to follow, left the
Americans in possession of the field, too weak to pursue.
Just at this time the garrison of the fort made a sortie against part of
the British army, captured their camp, and carried a quantity of supplies
and their flags [8] back to the fort.
[Illustration: THE FIRST NATIONAL FLAG.]
When news of Oriskany reached Schuyler, the patriot general commanding in
the north, he called for a volunteer to lead a force to relieve Fort
Stanwix. Arnold responded, and with twelve hundred men hurried westward,
and by a clever ruse [9] forced St. Leger to raise the siege and flee to
Montreal.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF BENNINGTON. From an old print.]
BENNINGTON.--Burgoyne set out in June, captured Ticonderoga, and advanced
to the upper Hudson. As he came southward, the sturdy farmers of Vermont
and New York began to gather on his flank, and collected at Bennington
many horses and large stores of food and ammunition. As Burgoyne needed
horses, he sent a force of Hessians to attack Bennington. But Stark, with
his Green Mountain Boys and New Hampshire militia, met the Hessians six
miles from town, surrounded them on all sides, beat them, and took seven
hundred prisoners and quantities of guns and some cannon (August 16).
SARATOGA.--These defeats were serious blows to Burgoyne, around whose army
the Americans had been gathering. He decided, however, to fight, crossed
the Hudson, and about the middle of September attacked the Americans at
Bemis Heights, and again on the same ground early in October. [10] He was
beaten in both battles and on October 17 was forced to surrender at
Saratoga.
BATTLE OF BRANDYWINE.--What, meantime, had Howe been doing? He should have
pushed up the Hudson to join Burgoyne. But he decided to capture
Philadelphia before going north, and having put his army on board a fleet,
he started for that city by sea. Not venturing to enter the Delaware, he
sailed up Chesapeake Bay and two weeks after landing found Washington
awaiting him on Brandywine Creek, where (September 11, 1777) a battle was
fought and won by the British. Among the wounded was Marquis de Lafayette,
[11] who earlier in the year had come from France to offer his services to
Congress.
PHILADELPHIA OCCUPIED.--Two weeks later Howe entered Philadelphia in
triumph. [12] Congress had fled to Lancaster, and later went to York,
Pennsylvania. Washington now attacked Howe at Germantown (just north of
Philadelphia), but was defeated and went into winter quarters at Valley
Forge, where the patriots suffered greatly from cold and hunger. [13]
[Illustration: AT VALLEY FORGE.]
RESULT OF THE CAMPAIGN.--The year's campaign was far from a failure. [14]
The surprise at Trenton and the victory at Princeton showed that
Washington was a general of the first rank. The defeats at Brandywine and
Germantown did not dishearten the army. The victory at Saratoga was one of
the decisive campaigns of the world's history; for it ruined the plans of
the British [15] and secured us the aid of France.
HELP FROM FRANCE, 1778.--In 1776 Congress commissioned Benjamin Franklin,
Arthur Lee, and Silas Deane to go to France and seek her help. France,
smarting under the loss of Louisiana and Canada (1763), would gladly have
helped us; but not till the victories at Trenton, Princeton, Oriskany, and
Saratoga could she feel sure of the ability of the Americans to fight.
Then the French king recognized our independence, and in February, 1778,
made with us a treaty of alliance and went to war with Great Britain.
The effect of the French alliance was immediate. France began to fit out a
fleet and army to help us. Hearing of this, Clinton, who had succeeded
Howe in command at Philadelphia, left that city with his army and started
for New York.
[Illustration: CHURCH NEAR MONMOUTH BATTLEFIELD, BUILT IN 1752.]
MONMOUTH, JUNE 28, 1778.--Washington decided to pursue, and as Clinton,
hampered by an immense train of baggage, moved slowly across New Jersey,
he was overtaken by the Americans at Monmouth. Charles Lee [16] was to
begin the attack, and Washington, coming up a little later, was to
complete the defeat of the enemy. But Lee was a traitor, and having
attacked the British, began a retreat which would have lost the day had
not Washington come up just in time to lead a new attack. The battle raged
till nightfall, and in the darkness Clinton slipped away and went on to
New York.
Washington now crossed the Hudson, encamped at White Plains, and during
three years remained in that neighborhood, constantly threatening the
British in New York. [17]
BEGINNING OF THE NAVY.--More than three years had now passed since the
fight at Lexington, and here let us stop and review what the Americans had
been doing at sea. At the outset, the colonists had no warships at all.
Congress therefore (in December, 1775) ordered thirteen armed vessels to
be built at once, bought merchant ships to serve as cruisers, and thus
created a navy of thirty vessels before the 4th of July, 1776. [18]
Eight of the cruisers were quickly assembled at Philadelphia, and early in
January, 1776, Esek Hopkins, commander in chief, stepped on board of one
of them and took command. As he did so, Lieutenant John Paul Jones hoisted
a yellow silk flag on which was the device of a pine tree and a coiled
rattlesnake and the motto "Don't tread on me." This was the first flag
ever displayed on an American man-of-war. Ice delayed the departure of the
squadron; but in February it put to sea, went to the Bahama Islands,
captured the forts on the island of New Providence, and carried off a
quantity of powder and cannon.
CAPTAIN BARRY.--Soon afterward another cruiser, the sixteen-gun brig
_Lexington_, Captain John Barry, [19] fell in with a British armed
vessel off the coast of Virginia, and after a sharp engagement captured
her. She was the first prize brought in by a commissioned officer of the
American navy.
THE CRUISERS IN EUROPE.--In 1777 the cruisers carried the war into British
ports and waters, across the Atlantic. The _Reprisal_ (which had carried
Franklin to France), under Captain Wilkes, in company with two other
vessels, sailed twice around Ireland, made fifteen prizes, and alarmed the
whole coast. [20] Another cruiser, the _Revenge_, scoured British waters,
and when in need of repairs boldly entered a British port in disguise and
refitted.
In 1778 John Paul Jones, [21] in the _Ranger_, sailed to the Irish
Channel, destroyed four vessels, set fire to the shipping in a British
port, fought and captured a British armed schooner, sailed around Ireland
with her, and reached France in safety.
The next year (1779) Jones, in the _Bonhomme Richard_ (bo-nom' re-shar'),
fell in with the British frigate _Serapis_ off the east coast of Great
Britain, and on a moonlight night fought one of the most desperate battles
in naval history and won it.
[Illustration: GOLD MEDAL GIVEN TO JONES. [22]]
THE FRIGATES.--Of the thirteen frigates ordered by Congress in 1775, only
four remained by the end of 1778. Some were captured at sea, some were
destroyed to prevent their falling into British hands, and one blew up
while gallantly fighting. Of the cruisers bought in 1775, only one
remained. Other purchases at home and abroad were made, but three frigates
were captured and destroyed at Charleston in 1779, and by the end of the
year our navy was reduced to six vessels. During the war 24 vessels of the
navy were lost by capture, wreck, or destruction. The British navy lost
102.
THE PRIVATEERS.--So far we have considered only the American navy--the
warships owned by the government. Congress also (March, 1776) issued
letters of marque, or licenses to citizens to fit out armed vessels and
make war on British ships armed or unarmed; and the sea soon swarmed with
privateers fitted out, not only by citizens but also by the states. The
privateers were active throughout the war, and took hundreds of prizes.
SUMMARY
1. After the British left Boston, Washington moved his army to Long
Island, where he was attacked by the British and driven up the Hudson to
White Plains.
2. Later in the year (1776), Washington crossed the Hudson and retreated
through New Jersey to Pennsylvania; then he turned about, won the battles
of Trenton (December 26, 1776) and Princeton (January 3, 1777), and spent
the rest of the winter in New Jersey.
3. The British plan for the campaign of 1777 was to cut off New England
from the Middle States; Burgoyne was to come down from Canada and meet
Howe, who was to move up the Hudson.
4. Burgoyne lost several battles, and was forced to surrender at Saratoga
(October 17, 1777).
5. Howe put off going up the Hudson till too late; instead, he defeated
Washington at Brandywine Creek (September 11, 1777), and captured
Philadelphia. Washington then attacked Howe at Germantown, was defeated,
and spent the winter at Valley Forge.
6. After Burgoyne's surrender, France recognized our independence
(February, 1778) and joined us in the war.
7. Fearing a French attack on New York, the British left Philadelphia
(June, 1778); Washington followed and fought the battle of Monmouth; but
the British went on to New York, and for three years Washington remained
near that city.
8. Congress, in December, 1775, created a little navy; but some of these
vessels never got to sea; others under Hopkins and Barry won victories
during 1776.
9. In 1777 the cruisers were sent to British waters and under Wilkes and
others harried British coasts.
10. In 1778 Paul Jones sailed around Ireland and in 1779 he won his great
victory in the _Bonhomme Richard_.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Admiral Howe now wrote to Washington, offering pardon to all persons
who should desist from rebellion; he addressed the letter to "George
Washington, Esq.," and sent it under flag of truce. The messenger was told
there was no one in the army with that title. A week later another
messenger came with a paper addressed "George Washington, Esq. etc. etc."
This time he was received; and when Washington declined to receive the
letter, explained that "etc. etc." meant everything. "Indeed," said
Washington, "they might mean anything." He was determined that Howe should
recognize him as commander in chief of the Continental army, and not treat
him as the leader of rebels.
[2] Many of the prisoners taken in this and other battles were put on
board ships anchored near Brooklyn. Their sufferings in these "Jersey
prison ships" were terrible, and many died and were buried on the beach.
From these rude graves their bones from time to time were washed out. At
last in 1808 they were taken up and decently buried near the Brooklyn navy
yard, and in 1873 were put in a vault in Washington Park, Brooklyn.
[3] While Washington was near New York, a young man named Nathan Hale
volunteered to enter the British lines on Long Island to procure
information greatly needed. As he was returning he was recognized by a
Tory kinsman, was captured, tried as a spy, and hanged. His last words
were: "I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."
[4] When Howe, marching across Manhattan Island, reached Murray Hill, Mrs.
Lindley Murray sent a servant to invite him to luncheon. The army was
halted, and Mrs. Murray entertained Howe and his officers for two hours.
It was this delay that enabled Putnam to escape.
[5] Charles Lee was in general command at Charleston during the attack on
Fort Moultrie, and when he joined Washington at New York, was thought a
great officer. Lee was jealous, hoped to be made commander in chief, and
purposely left Washington to his fate. Later Lee crossed to New Jersey and
took up his quarters at Basking Ridge, not far from Morristown, where the
British captured him (December 13, 1776).
[6] Robert Morris was born at Liverpool, England, but came to Philadelphia
as a lad and entered on a business career, and when the Revolution opened,
was a man of means and influence. He signed the non-importation agreement
of 1765, and signed the Declaration of Independence, and at this time
(December, 1776) was a leading member of Congress. A year later, when the
army was at Valley Forge, he sent it as a gift a large quantity of food
and clothing. In 1781 Morris was made Superintendent of Finance, and in
order to supply the army in the movement against Yorktown, lent his notes
to the amount of $1,400,000. In 1781 he founded the Bank of North America,
which is now the oldest bank in our country. After the war Morris was a
senator from Pennsylvania. He speculated largely in Western lands, lost
his fortune, and from 1798 to 1802 was a prisoner for debt. He died in
1806.
[7] Read the story of Jane McCrea in Fiske's _American Revolution_, Vol.
I, pp. 277-279.
[8] These flags were hoisted on the fort and over them was raised the
first flag of stars and stripes ever flung to the breeze. Congress on June
14, 1777, had adopted our national flag. The flag at Fort Stanwix was made
of pieces of a white shirt, a blue jacket, and strips of red flannel. The
day was August 6.
[9] The story runs that several Tory spies were captured and condemned to
death, but one named Cuyler was spared by Arnold on condition that he
should go to the camp of St. Leger and say that Burgoyne was captured and
a great American army was coming to relieve Fort Stanwix. Cuyler agreed,
and having cut what seemed bullet holes in his clothes, rushed into the
British camp, crying out that a large American army was at hand, and that
he had barely escaped with life. The Indians at once began to desert, the
panic spread to the British, and the next day St. Leger was fleeing toward
Lake Ontario.
[10] The second battle is often called the battle of Stillwater. Shortly
before this Congress removed Schuyler from command and gave it to Gates,
who thus reaped the glory of the whole campaign. In both battles Arnold
greatly distinguished himself. He won the first fight and was wounded in
the second.
[11] Lafayette was a young French nobleman who, fired by accounts of the
war in America, fitted out a vessel, and despite the orders of the French
king escaped and came to Philadelphia, and offered his services to
Congress. With him were De Kalb and eleven other officers. Two gallant
Polish officers, Pulaski and Kosciusko, had come over before this time.
Kosciusko had been recommended to Washington by Franklin, then in France;
he was made a colonel in the engineer corps and superintended the building
of the American fortifications at Bemis Heights. After the war he returned
to Poland, and long afterward led the Poles in their struggle for liberty.
[12] An interesting novel on this period of the war is Dr. S. W.
Mitchell's _Hugh Wynne_.
[13] At Valley Forge Baron Steuben joined the army. He was an able German
officer who had seen service under Frederick the Great of Prussia, and had
been persuaded by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs to come to
America and help to organize and discipline the army. He landed in New
Hampshire late in 1777, and spent the dreadful winter at Valley Forge in
drilling the troops, teaching them the use of the bayonet, and organizing
the army on the European plan. After the war New York presented Steuben
with a farm of 16,000 acres not far from Fort Stanwix. There he died in
1794.
[14] Certain officers and members of Congress plotted during 1777 to have
Washington removed from the command of the army. For an account of this
Conway Cabal read Fiske's American Revolution, Vol. II, pp. 34-43.
[15] Great Britain now sent over commissioners to offer liberal terms of
peace,--no taxes by Parliament, no restrictions on trade, no troops in
America without consent of the colonial assemblies, even representation in
Parliament,--but the offer was rejected. Why did the commissioners fail?
Read Fiske's American Revolution, Vol. II, pp. 4-17, 22-24.
[16] Lee had been exchanged for a captured British general, and came to
Valley Forge in May. From papers found after his death we know that while
a prisoner he advised Howe as to the best means of conquering the states.
For his conduct in the battle and insolence to Washington after it, Lee
was suspended from the army for one year, but when he wrote an insolent
letter to Congress, he was dismissed from the army.
[17] A French fleet of twelve ships, under Count d'Estaing, soon arrived
near New York. It might perhaps have captured the British fleet in the
harbor; but without making the attempt D'Estaing went on to Newport to
attempt the capture of a British force which had held that place since
December, 1776. Washington sent Greene and Lafayette with troops to assist
him, the New England militia turned out by thousands, and all seemed ready
for the attack, when a British fleet appeared and D'Estaing went out to
meet it. A storm scattered the vessels of the two squadrons, and D'Estaing
went to Boston for repairs, and then to the West Indies.
[18] Six of the thirty never got to sea, but were captured or destroyed
when the British took New York and Philadelphia. Our navy, therefore, may
be considered at the outset to have consisted of 24 vessels, mounting 422
guns. Great Britain at that time had 112 war vessels, carrying 3714 guns,
and 78 of these vessels were stationed on or near our coast.
[19] John Barry was a native of Ireland. He came to America at thirteen,
and at twenty-five was captain of a ship. At the opening of the war he
offered his services to Congress, and in February, 1776, was given command
of the _Lexington_. After his victory Barry was transferred to the
28-gun frigate _Effingham_, and in 1777 (while blockaded in the Delaware),
with 27 men in four boats captured and destroyed a 10-gun schooner and
four transports. For this he was thanked by Washington. When the British
captured Philadelphia, Barry took the _Effingham_ up the river to save
her; but she was burned by the British. At different times Barry commanded
several other ships, and in 1782, in the _Alliance_, fought the last
action of the war. In 1794 he was senior captain of the navy, with the
title of commodore. He died in 1803.
[20] When these ships returned to France with the prizes, the British
government protested so vigorously that the _Reprisal_ and the _Lexington_
were seized and held till security was given that they would leave France.
The prizes were ordered out of port, were taken into the offing, and then
quietly sold to French merchants. The _Reprisal_ on her way home was lost
at sea. The _Lexington_ was captured and her men thrown into prison. They
escaped by digging a hole under the wall, and were on board a vessel in
London bound for France, when they were discovered and sent back to
prison. A year later one of them, Richard Dale, escaped by walking past
the guards in daylight, dressed in a British uniform. He never would tell
how he got the uniform.
[21] John Paul, Jr., was born in Scotland in 1747. He began a seafaring
life when twelve years old and followed it till 1773, when he fell heir to
a plantation in Virginia on condition that he should take the name of
Jones. Thereafter he was known as John Paul Jones. In 1775 Jones offered
his services to Congress, assisted in founding our navy, and in December,
1775, was commissioned lieutenant. He died in Paris in 1792, but the
whereabouts of his grave was long unknown. In 1905, however, the United
States ambassador to France (Horace Porter) discovered the body of Jones,
which was brought with due honors to the United States and deposited at
the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Porter's account of how the body was found
may be read in the _Century Magazine_ for October, 1905. Jones is the
hero of Cooper's novel called _The Pilot_.
[22] The wording on the medal may be translated as follows: "The American
Congress to John Paul Jones, fleet commander--for the capture or defeat of
the enemy's ships off the coast of Scotland, Sept. 23, 1779."
CHAPTER XV
THE WAR IN THE WEST AND IN THE SOUTH
THE WEST.--After Great Britain obtained from France the country between
the mountains and the Mississippi, the British king, as we have seen (p.
143), forbade settlement west of the mountains. But the westward movement
of population was not to be stopped by a proclamation. The hardy
frontiersmen gave it no heed, and, passing over the mountains of Virginia
and North Carolina, they hunted, trapped, and made settlements in the
forbidden land.
[Illustration: THE WEST DURING THE REVOLUTION.]
TENNESSEE.--Thus, in 1769, William Bean of North Carolina built a cabin on
the banks of the Watauga Creek and began the settlement of what is now
Tennessee. The next year James Robertson and many others followed and
dotted the valleys of the Holston and the Clinch with clearings and log
cabins. These men at first were without government of any sort, so they
formed an association and for some years governed themselves; but in 1776
their delegates were seated in the legislature of North Carolina, and next
year their settlements were organized as Washington county in that state.
Robertson soon (1779) led a colony further west and on the banks of the
Cumberland founded Nashboro, now called Nashville.
[Illustration: INDIAN ATTACKING A FRONTIERSMAN.]
KENTUCKY.--The year (1769) that Bean went into Tennessee, Daniel Boone,
one of the great men of frontier history, entered what is now Kentucky.
Others followed, and despite Indian wars and massacres, Boonesboro,
Harrodsburg, and Lexington were founded before 1777. These backwoodsmen
also were for a time without any government; but in December, 1776,
Virginia organized the region as a county with the present boundaries of
Kentucky. [1]
GEORGE ROGERS CLARK.--In the country north of the Ohio were a few old
French towns,--Detroit, Kaskaskia, Vincennes,--and a few forts built by
the French and garrisoned by the British, from whom the Indians obtained
guns and powder to attack the frontier. Against these forts and villages
George Rogers Clark, a young Virginian, planned an expedition which was
approved by Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia. Henry could give him
little aid, but Clark was determined to go; and in 1778, with one hundred
and eighty men, left Pittsburg in boats, floated down the Ohio to its
mouth, marched across the swamps and prairies of south-western Illinois,
and took Kaskaskia.
Vincennes [2] thereupon surrendered; but was soon recaptured by the
British general at Detroit with a band of Indians. But Clark, after a
dreadful march across country in midwinter, attacked the fort in the dead
of night, captured it, and then conquered the country near the Wabash and
Illinois rivers, and held it for Virginia. [3]
SPAIN IN THE WEST.--The conquest was most timely; for in 1779 Spain joined
in the war against Great Britain, seized towns and British forts in
Florida, and in January, 1781, sent out from St. Louis a band of Spaniards
and Indians who marched across Illinois and took possession of Fort St.
Joseph in what is now southwestern Michigan, occupied it, and claimed the
Northwest for Spain.
THE SOUTH INVADED.--Near the end of 1778, the British armies held strong
positions at New York and Newport, and the French fleet under D'Estaing
was in the West Indies. The British therefore felt free to strike a blow
at the South. A fleet and army accordingly sailed from New York and
(December 29, 1778) captured Savannah. Georgia was then overrun, was
declared conquered, and the royal governor was reestablished in office.
[4]
[Illustration: THE SOUTHERN COLONIES DURING THE REVOLUTION]
THE AMERICANS REPULSED AT SAVANNAH.--Governor Rutledge of South Carolina
now appealed to D'Estaing, who at once brought his fleet from the West
Indies; and Savannah was besieged by the American forces under Lincoln and
the French under D'Estaing. After a long siege, an assault was made on the
British defenses (October, 1779), in which the brave Pulaski was slain and
D'Estaing was wounded. The French then sailed away, and Lincoln fell back
into South Carolina.
BRITISH CAPTURE CHARLESTON.--Hearing of this, Sir Henry Clinton and Lord
Cornwallis sailed with British troops from New York (December, 1779) to
Savannah. Thence the British marched overland to Charleston. Lincoln did
all he could to defend the city, but in May, 1780, was compelled to
surrender. South Carolina was then overrun by the British, and Clinton
returned to New York, leaving Cornwallis in command.
PARTISAN LEADERS.--South Carolina now became the seat of a bitter partisan
war. The Tories there clamored for revenge. That no man should be neutral,
Cornwallis ordered everyone to declare for or against the king, and sent
officers with troops about the state to enroll the royalists in the
militia. The whole population was thus arrayed in two hostile parties. The
patriots could not offer organized opposition; but little bands of them
found refuge in the woods, swamps, and mountain valleys, whence they
issued to attack the British troops and the Tories. Led by Andrew Pickens,
Thomas Sumter, and Francis Marion whom the British called the Swamp Fox,
they won many desperate fights. [5]
CAMDEN.--Congress, however, had not abandoned the South. Two thousand men
under De Kalb were marching south before the surrender of Charleston.
After it, a call for troops was made on all the states south of
Pennsylvania, and General Gates, then called "the Hero of Saratoga," was
sent to join De Kalb and take command. The most important point in the
interior of South Carolina was Camden, and against this Gates marched his
troops. But he managed matters so badly that near Camden the American army
was beaten, routed, and cut to pieces by the British under Cornwallis
(August 16, 1780). [6]
[Illustration: WAYNE'S CAMP KETTLE. Now in possession of the Pennsylvania
Historical Society.]
THE WAR IN THE NORTH.--What meantime had happened in the North? The main
armies near New York had done little fighting; but the British had made a
number of sudden raids on the coast. In 1779 Norfolk and Portsmouth in
Virginia, and New Haven and several other towns in Connecticut had been
attacked, and ships and houses burned. In New York, Clinton captured Stony
Point; but Anthony Wayne led a force of Americans against the fort, and at
dead of night, by one of the most brilliant assaults in the world's
military history, recaptured it (July, 1779). [7]
[Illustration: AT WEST POINT: LOOKING UP THE HUDSON.]
TREASON OF ARNOLD.--Stony Point was one of several forts built by order of
Washington to defend the Hudson. The chief fort was at West Point, the
command of which, in July, 1780, was given to Arnold. When the British
left Philadelphia in 1778, Arnold was made military commander there, and
so conducted himself that he was sentenced by court-martial to be
reprimanded by Washington. This censure, added to previous unfair
treatment by Congress, led him to seek revenge in the ruin of his country.
To bring this about he asked for the command of West Point, and having
received it, offered to surrender the fort to the British.
Clinton's agent in the matter was Major John André (an'dra), who one day
in September, 1780, came up the river in the British ship _Vulture_, went
ashore, and at night met Arnold near Stony Point. Morning came before the
terms [8] of surrender were arranged, and the _Vulture_ having been fired
on dropped down the river out of range.
WEST POINT SAVED.--Thus left within the American lines, André crossed the
river to the east shore, and started for New York by land, but was stopped
by three Americans, [9] searched, and papers of great importance were
found in his stockings. Despite an offer of his watch and money for his
release, André was delivered to the nearest American officer, was later
tried by court-martial, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged as a spy.
The American officer to whom André was delivered, not suspecting Arnold,
sent the news to him as well as to Washington. Arnold received the message
first; knowing that Washington was at hand, he at once procured a boat,
was rowed down the river to the _Vulture_, and escaped. From then till the
end of the war he served as an officer in the British army.
The disasters at Charleston and Camden, and the narrow escape from
disaster at West Point, made 1780 the most disheartening year of the war.
KINGS MOUNTAIN.--But the tide quickly turned. After his victory at Camden,
Cornwallis began to invade North Carolina, and sent Colonel Ferguson into
the South Carolina highlands to enlist all the Tories he could find. As
Ferguson advanced into the hill country, the backwoodsmen and mountaineers
rallied from all sides, and led by Sevier, Shelby, and Williams,
surrounded him and forced him to make a stand on the summit of Kings
Mountain, October 7, 1780. Fighting in true Indian fashion from behind
every tree and rock, they shot Ferguson's army to pieces, killed him, and
forced the few survivors to surrender. This victory forced Cornwallis to
put off his conquest of North Carolina.
COWPENS.--General Greene was now sent to replace Gates in command of the
patriot army in the South. He was too weak to attack Cornwallis, but by
dividing his army and securing the aid of the partisan bands he hoped to
annoy the British with raids. Morgan, who commanded one of these
divisions, was so successful that Cornwallis sent Tarleton with a thousand
men against him. Morgan offered battle on the grounds known as the
Cowpens, and there Tarleton was routed and three fourths of his men were
killed, wounded, or taken prisoners.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF THE COWPENS.]
THE GREAT RETREAT.--This victory won, Morgan set off to join Greene, with
Cornwallis himself in hot pursuit. When Greene heard the news, he
determined to draw the British general far northward and then fight him
wherever he would be at most disadvantage. [10] The retreat of the
American army was therefore continued to the border of Virginia.
GUILFORD COURT HOUSE.--Having received reinforcements, Greene turned
southward and offered battle at Guilford Court House (March 15, 1781). A
desperate fight ensued, and when night came, Greene retired, leaving the
British unable to follow him. Cornwallis had lost one quarter of his army
in killed and wounded. He was in the midst of a hostile country, too weak
to stay, and unwilling to confess defeat by retreating to South Carolina.
Thus outgeneraled he hurried to Wilmington, where he could be aided by the
British fleet.
[Illustration: LAFAYETTE MONUMENT. Washington, D.C.]
Greene followed for a time, and then turned into South Carolina, drove the
British out of Camden, and by the 4th of July had reconquered half of
South Carolina. Late in August, he forced the British back to Eutaw
Springs, where (September 8, 1781) a desperate battle was fought. [11] The
British troops held their ground, but on the following night they set off
for. Charleston, where they remained until the end of the war. [12]
YORKTOWN.--From Wilmington Cornwallis marched to southeastern Virginia,
where a British force under Benedict Arnold joined him. He then set off to
capture Lafayette, who had been sent to defend Virginia from Arnold. But
Lafayette retreated to the back country, till reinforcements came. When
Cornwallis could drive him no farther, the British army retreated to the
coast, and fortified itself at Yorktown.
In August Washington received word that a large French fleet under De
Grasse was about to sail from the West Indies to Chesapeake Bay. He saw
that the supreme moment had come. Laying aside his plan for an attack on
New York, he hurried southward, marched his army to the head of Chesapeake
Bay, and then took it by ships to Yorktown. [13] The French fleet was
already in the bay. Some French troops had joined Lafayette, and
Cornwallis was already surrounded when Washington arrived. The siege was
now pressed with overwhelming force, and Cornwallis surrendered on October
19, 1781.
END OF THE WAR.--Swift couriers carried the news to Philadelphia, where,
at the dead of night, the people were roused from sleep by the watchman
crying in the street, "Past two o'clock and Cornwallis is taken." In the
morning Congress received the dispatches and went in solemn procession to
a church to give thanks to God.
When the British prime minister, Lord North, heard the news, he exclaimed,
"All is over; all is over!" The king alone remained stubborn, and for a
while insisted on holding Georgia, Charleston, and New York. But his
advisers in time persuaded him to yield, and (November 30, 1782) a
preliminary treaty, acknowledging the independence of the United States,
was signed at Paris. [14] The final treaty was not signed till September
3, 1783. [15]
[Illustration: WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS AT NEWBURGH. From an old print.]
In November the Continental army was disbanded, and in December, at
Annapolis, where Congress was sitting, Washington formally surrendered his
command, and went home to Mount Vernon. [16]
SUMMARY
1. Despite the king's proclamation in 1763, frontiersmen soon crossed the
mountains and settled in what is now Kentucky and Tennessee.
2. In the region north of the Ohio were a few British forts, some of which
George Rogers Clark captured in 1778 and 1779; but Fort St. Joseph in
Michigan was captured by the Spanish.
3. At the end of 1778 the British began an attack on the Southern states
by capturing Savannah.
4. Georgia was then overrun. The Americans, aided by a French fleet,
attacked Savannah and were repulsed (1779).
5. In 1780, reënforced by a fleet and army from New York, the British
captured Charleston and overran South Carolina. The Americans under Gates
were badly beaten at Camden; but a British force was destroyed at Kings
Mountain.
6. In the same year Benedict Arnold turned traitor, and sought in vain to
deliver West Point to the British.
7. In the following year (1781) our arms were generally victorious. Morgan
won the battle of the Cowpens; Greene outgeneraled Cornwallis and then
reconquered South Carolina. At the end of the year Charleston and Savannah
were the only Southern towns held by the British.
8. Cornwallis marched into Virginia, and fortified himself at Yorktown.
There Washington, aided by a French army and fleet, forced him to
surrender (1781).
9. Peace was made next year, our independence was acknowledged, and by the
end of 1783 the last British soldiers had left the country.
[Illustration: WASHINGTON AND LAFAYETTE AT MOUNT VERNON.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] About this time the settlers on the upper Ohio River (in what is now
West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania) became eager for statehood.
Both Virginia and Pennsylvania claimed their allegiance. They asked
Congress, therefore, for recognition as the state of Westsylvania, the
fourteenth province of the American Confederacy. Congress did not grant
their prayer.
[2] Read Thompson's _Alice of Old Vincennes_.
[3] Farther east, meantime, a band of savages led by Colonel John Butler
swept down from Fort Niagara, entered Wyoming Valley in northeastern
Pennsylvania, near the site of Wilkes-Barre, and perpetrated one of the
most awful massacres in history (July 4, 1778). (Read Campbell's poem
_Gertrude of Wyoming_). A little later another band, led by a son of
Butler, burned the village of Cherry Valley in New York, and murdered many
of the inhabitants--men, women, and children. Cruelties of this sort could
not go unpunished. In the summer of 1779, therefore, General Sullivan with
an army invaded the Indian country in central New York, burned forty
Indian villages, destroyed their crops, cut down their fruit trees, and
brought the Indians to the verge of famine.
[4] Congress now put Lincoln in command in the South; but when he marched
into Georgia, the British set off to attack Charleston, sacking houses and
slaughtering cattle as they went. This move forced Lincoln to follow them,
and having been joined by Pulaski, he compelled the British to retreat.
[5] Four novels by Simms,--_The Partisan_, _Mellichampe_, _Katharine
Walton_, and _The Scout_,--and _Horseshoe Robinson_, by Kennedy, are
famous stories relating to the Revolution in the South. Read Bryant's
_Song of Marion's Men_.
[6] A large number of men were killed, and a thousand taken prisoners.
Among the dead was De Kalb. Among the living was Gates, who fled among the
first and made such haste to escape that he covered two hundred miles in
four days.
[7] The purpose of the attack on Stony Point was to draw the British from
Connecticut. The capture had the desired result, and Stony Point was then
abandoned. The fort stood on a rocky promontory with the water of the
Hudson River on three sides. On the fourth was a morass crossed by a
narrow road which at high tide was under water. The country between the
British forces in New York and the American army on the highlands of the
Hudson was known as the neutral ground, and is the scene of Cooper's great
novel _The Spy_.
[8] The British were to come up the river and attack West Point. Arnold
was to man the defenses in such a way that they could easily be taken, one
at a time, and so afford an excuse for surrendering them, with the three
thousand men under Arnold's command.
[9] The names of André's captors were John Paulding, David Williams, and
Isaac Van Wart. Congress gave each a medal and a pension for life.
[10] To accomplish this Greene sent the greater part of his army northward
under General Huger, while he with a small guard hurried across country,
and took command of Morgan's army. And now a most exciting chase began.
Cornwallis destroyed his heavy baggage that he might move as rapidly as
possible, and vainly strove to get near enough to Greene to make him
fight. Greene with great skill kept just out of reach and for ten days
lured the British farther and farther north. At Guilford Court House
Greene and Morgan were joined by the main army. Cornwallis then proclaimed
North Carolina conquered, and called on all Loyalists to join him.
[11] Two good works relating to these events are _The Forayers_ and
_Eutaw_, by Simms.
[12] While these things were happening in the South, a French army of 6000
men under Rochambeau arrived at Newport (1780), from which the British had
withdrawn in 1779. There, for a while, the French fleet was blockaded by
the British, and the troops remained to aid the fleet in case of
necessity. The next year, however, this army marched across Connecticut
and joined Washington's forces (July, 1781), and preparations were begun
for an attack on New York.
[13] When Clinton realized that Washington was on the way to Yorktown, he
sent Arnold on a raid into Connecticut, in hope of forcing Washington to
return. Early in September Arnold attacked New London, carried one of its
forts by storm, and set tire to the town, but was driven off by the
minutemen.
[14] Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin (our minister in France), John
Adams (in Holland), John Jay (in Spain), Thomas Jefferson, and Henry
Laurens to negotiate the treaty. Jefferson's appointment came too late for
him to serve; the other four signed the treaty of 1782, and Franklin,
Adams, and Jay signed the treaty of 1783.
[15] After the surrender of Cornwallis, Washington returned with his army
to the Hudson and made his headquarters at Newburgh. In April, 1783, a
cessation of war on land and sea was formally proclaimed, and the British
prepared to leave New York. Charleston and Savannah were evacuated in
1782, but November 25, 1783, came before the last British soldier left New
York. When the troops under Washington entered New York city, they found a
British flag nailed to the staff, the halyards gone, and the staff soaped.
A sailor climbed the pole by nailing on cleats, pulled down the British
flag, and reeved new halyards. The stars and stripes were then raised and
saluted with thirteen guns.
[16] Washington refused to be paid for his services. Actual expenses
during the war were all he would take, and these amounted to about
$70,000.
[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES ABOUT 1783 SHOWING STATE CLAIMS TO
WESTERN LANDS]
CHAPTER XVI
AFTER THE WAR
OUR BOUNDARIES.--By the treaty of 1783 our country was bounded on the
north by a line (very much as at present) from the mouth of the St. Croix
River in Maine to the Lake of the Woods; on the west by the Mississippi
River; and on the south by the parallel of 31° north latitude from the
Mississippi to the Apalachicola, and then by the present south boundary of
Georgia to the sea. [1]
But our flag did not as yet wave over every part of the country within
these bounds. Great Britain, claiming that certain provisions in the
treaty had been violated, held the forts from Lake Champlain to Lake
Michigan and would not withdraw her troops. [2] Spain, having received the
Floridas back from Great Britain by a treaty of 1783, held the forts at
Memphis, Baton Rouge, and Vicksburg, and much of what is now Alabama and
Mississippi. [3]
A CENTRAL GOVERNMENT.--From 1775 to 1781 the states were governed, so far
as they had any general government, by the Continental Congress. During
these years there was no written document fixing the powers of Congress
and limiting the powers of the states. While the war was going on,
Congress submitted a plan for a general government, called Articles of
Confederation and Perpetual Union; but nearly four years passed before all
the states accepted it. The delay was caused by the refusal of Maryland to
approve the Articles unless the states having sea-to-sea charters would
give to Congress, for the public good, the lands they claimed beyond the
mountains. [4]
Congress therefore appealed to the states to cede their Western lands. If
they would do this, Congress promised to sell the lands, use the money to
pay the debts of the United States, and cut the region into states and
admit them into the Union at the proper time. New York, Connecticut, and
Virginia at last agreed to give up their lands northwest of the Ohio
River, and on March 1, 1781, the Maryland delegates signed the Articles
and by so doing put them in force. [5]
THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION.--In the government set up by the Articles
of Confederation there was no President of the United States, no Supreme
Court, no Senate. Congress consisted of a single body to which each state
sent at least two delegates, and might send any number up to seven. The
members were elected annually, were paid by the states they represented,
could not serve more than three years in six, and might be recalled at any
time. Each state cast one vote, and nine affirmative votes were necessary
to carry any important measure. Congress could make war and peace, enter
into treaties with foreign powers, coin money, contract debts in the name
of the United States, and call upon each state for its share of the
general expenses.
THE STATES CEDE LANDS.--Although three states had tendered their Western
lands when Maryland signed the Articles, the conditions of cession were
not at once accepted by Congress, and some time passed before the deeds
were delivered. By the year 1786, however, the claims northwest of the
Ohio had been ceded by New York, Virginia, [6] Massachusetts, and
Connecticut. [7] South of the Ohio, what is now West Virginia and Kentucky
still belonged to Virginia. North Carolina offered what is now Tennessee
to Congress in 1784, [8] but the conditions were not then accepted, and
that territory was not turned over to Congress till 1790. The long, narrow
strip of western land owned by South Carolina was ceded to Congress in
1787. South of this was a strip owned by Georgia, and farther south lands
long in dispute between Georgia and Spain and Congress. Georgia did not
accept her present western limits till 1802.
MIGRATION WESTWARD.--Into the country west of the mountains the people
were moving in three great streams. One from New England was pushing out
along the Mohawk valley into central New York; another from Pennsylvania
and Virginia was pouring its population into Kentucky; the third from
North Carolina was overrunning Tennessee.
[Illustration: A SETTLER'S LOG CABIN.]
For this movement the hard times which followed the Revolution were
largely the cause. Compared with our time, the means of making a
livelihood were few and far less remunerative. Great mills and factories
each employing thousands of persons had no existence. The imports from
Great Britain far surpassed in value our exports; the difference was
settled in specie (coin) taken from the country. The people were poor, and
as land in the West was cheap, they left the East and went westward.
ROUTES TO THE OHIO VALLEY.--New England people bound to the Ohio valley
went through Connecticut to Kingston, New York, on across New Jersey to
Easton, Pennsylvania, and thence to Bedford, where they struck the road
cut years before by the troops of General Forbes, and by it went to
Pittsburg (p. 194). Settlers from Maryland and Virginia went generally to
Fort Cumberland in Maryland, and then on by Brad dock's Road to Pittsburg,
or turned off and reached the Monongahela at Redstone, or the Ohio at
Wheeling (map, p. 201).
Such was the rush to the Ohio valley that each spring and summer hundreds
of boats and arks left Pittsburg and Wheeling or Redstone, and floated
down the Ohio to Maysville, Louisville, and other places in Kentucky. [9]
The flatboat was usually twelve feet wide and forty feet long, with high
sides and a flat or slightly arched top, and was steered, and when
necessary was rowed, by long oars or sweeps. Some were arranged to carry
cattle as well as household goods.
[Illustration: OHIO RIVER FLATBOAT OF ABOUT 1840. The boat is like those
used in earlier times.]
THE OHIO COMPANY OF ASSOCIATES.--Meanwhile, some old soldiers of New
England and New Jersey who had claims for bounty lands, [10] organized the
Ohio Company of Associates, and in 1787 sent an agent (Manasseh Cutler) to
New York, where Congress was sitting, and bade him buy a great tract of
land northwest of the Ohio, on which they might settle.
[Illustration: THE SOUTHERN PART OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.]
THE ORDINANCE OF 1787.--When Cutler reached New York, he found Congress
debating a measure of great importance. This was an ordinance for the
government of the Northwest Territory, including the whole region from the
Lakes to the Ohio, and from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi. When passed,
this famous Ordinance of 1787 provided--
1. That until five thousand free white males lived in the territory, the
governing body should be a governor and three judges appointed by
Congress.
2. That when there were five thousand free white men in the territory,
they might elect a legislature and send a delegate to Congress.
3. That slavery should not be permitted in the territory, but that
fugitive slaves should be returned.
4. That the territory should in time be cut up into not more than five, or
less than three, states.
5. That when the population of each division numbered sixty thousand, it
should be admitted into the Union on the same footing as the original
states.
OHIO SETTLED.--After the ordinance was passed, Cutler bought five million
acres of land north of the Ohio River, and in the winter of 1787-88 a
party of young men sent out by the Ohio Company made their way from New
England to a branch of the Monongahela River. There they built a great
boat, and when the ice broke up, floated down the Ohio to the lands of the
Ohio Company, where they erected a few log huts and a fort of hewn timber
which they called Campus Martius. The little settlement was called
Marietta. [11]
Farther down the Ohio, on land owned by John Cleve Symmes and associates,
Columbia and Losantiville, afterward called Cincinnati, were founded in
1788.
STATE BOUNDARIES.--The old charters which led to the conflicting claims to
land in the West, caused like disputes in the East. Massachusetts claimed
a strip of country embracing western New York, and did not settle the
dispute till 1786. [12] A similar dispute between Connecticut and
Pennsylvania was settled in 1782. [13] New York claimed all Vermont as
having once been part of New Netherland; but Vermont was really an
independent republic. [14] In Kentucky the people were insisting that
their country be separated from Virginia and made a state.
TROUBLE WITH SPAIN.--Congress had trouble in trying to secure from foreign
nations fair treatment for our commerce, and was involved in a dispute
over the navigation of the Mississippi. Spain owned both banks at the
mouth of the river, and denied the right of Americans to go in or out
without her consent. The Spanish minister who came over in 1785 was ready
to make a commercial treaty if the river was closed to navigation for
twenty-five years, and the Eastern states were quite ready to agree to it.
But the people of Kentucky and Tennessee threatened to leave the Union if
cut off from the sea, and no treaty was made with Spain till 1795.
THE WEAKNESS OF THE CONFEDERATION.--The question of trade and commerce
with foreign powers and between the states was very serious, and the
weakness of Congress in this and other matters soon wrecked the
Confederation.
1. In the first place, the Articles of Confederation gave Congress no
power to levy taxes of any kind. Money, therefore, could not be obtained
to pay the debts of the United States, or the annual cost of government.
[15]
2. Congress had no power to regulate the foreign trade. As there were few
articles manufactured in the country, china, glass, cutlery, edged tools,
hardware, woolen, linen, and many other articles of daily use were
imported from Great Britain. As Great Britain took little from us, these
goods were largely paid for in specie, which grew scarcer and scarcer each
year. Great Britain, moreover, hurt our trade by shutting our vessels out
of her West Indies, and by heavy duties on American goods coming to her
ports in American ships. [16] Congress, having no power to regulate trade,
could not retaliate by treating British ships in the same way.
3. Congress had no power to regulate trade between the states. As a
consequence, some of the states laid heavy duties on goods imported from
other states. Retaliation followed, and the safety of the Union was
endangered.
4. Congress did not have sole power to coin money and regulate the value
thereof. There were, therefore, nearly as many kinds of paper money as
there were states, and the money issued by each state passed in others at
all sorts of value, or not at all. This hindered interstate trade.
5. Congress could not enforce treaties. It could make treaties with other
countries, but only the states could compel the people to observe them,
and the states did not choose to do so.
[Illustration: NEW HAMPSHIRE COLONIAL PAPER MONEY. Similar bills were
issued by the states before 1789.]
CONGRESS ASKS FOR MORE POWER.--Of the defects in the Articles of
Confederation Congress was fully aware, and it asked the states to amend
the Articles and give it more authority. [17] To do this required the
assent of all the states, and as the consent of thirteen states could not
be obtained, the additional powers were not given to Congress.
This soon brought matters to a crisis. With no regulation of trade, the
purchase of more and more goods from British merchants made money so
scarce that the states were forced to print and issue large amounts of
paper bills. In Massachusetts, when the legislature refused to issue such
currency, the debtors rose and, led by a Revolutionary officer named
Daniel Shays, prevented the courts from trying suits for the recovery of
debts. The governor called out troops, and several encounters took place
before a bitter winter dispersed the insurgents. [18]
THE ANNAPOLIS TRADE CONVENTION.--In this condition of affairs, Virginia
invited her sister states to send delegates to a convention at Annapolis
in 1786. They were to "take into consideration the trade and commerce of
the United States." Five states sent delegates, but the convention could
do nothing, because less than half the states were present, and because
the powers of the delegates were too limited. A request was therefore made
by it that Congress call a convention of the states to meet at
Philadelphia and "take into consideration the situation of the United
States."
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.--Congress issued the call early in 1787,
and delegates from twelve states [19] met at Philadelphia and framed the
Constitution of the United States. Washington was made president of the
convention, and among the members were many of the ablest men of the time.
[20]
[Illustration: INVITATION SENT BY WASHINGTON, AS PRESIDENT OF THE
CONVENTION. In the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society.]
THE COMPROMISES.--In the course of the debates in the convention great
difference of opinion arose on several matters.
The small states wanted a Congress of one house, and equality of state
representation. The great states wanted Historical a Congress of two
houses, with representation in proportion to population. This difference
of opinion was so serious that a compromise was necessary, and it was
agreed that in one branch (House of Representatives) the people should be
represented, and in the other (Senate) the states.
The question then arose whether slaves should be counted as population.
The Southern delegates said yes; the Northern, no. It was finally agreed
that direct taxes and representatives should be apportioned according to
population, and that three fifths of the slaves should be counted as
population. This was the second compromise.
The convention agreed that Congress should regulate foreign commerce. But
the Southern members objected that by means of this power Congress might
pass navigation acts limiting trade to American ships, which might raise
freights on exports from the South. Many Northern members, on the other
hand, wanted the slave trade stopped. These two matters were therefore
made the basis of another compromise, by which Congress could pass
navigation acts, but could not prohibit the slave trade before 1808.
THE CONSTITUTION RATIFIED.--When the convention had finished its work
(September 17, 1787), the Constitution [21] was sent to the old
(Continental) Congress, which referred it to the states, and the states,
one by one, called on the people to elect; delegates to conventions to
ratify or reject the new plan of government. In a few states it was
accepted without any demand for changes. In others it was vigorously
opposed as likely to set up too strong a government. In Massachusetts, New
York, and Virginia adoption was long in doubt. [22]
By July, 1788, eleven states had ratified, and the Constitution was in
force as to these States. [23]
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NEW GOVERNMENT.--The Continental Congress then
appointed the first Wednesday in January, 1789, as the day on which
electors of President should be chosen in the eleven states; the first
Wednesday in February as the day on which the electors should meet and
vote for President; and the first Wednesday in March (which happened to be
the 4th of March) as the day when the new Congress should assemble at New
York and canvass the vote for President.
[Illustration: FEDERAL HALL, ON WALL STREET, NEW YORK. From an old print.]
WASHINGTON THE FIRST PRESIDENT.--When March 4 came, neither the Senate nor
the House of Representatives had a quorum, and a month went by before the
electoral votes were counted, and Washington and John Adams declared
President and Vice President of the United States. [24]
Some time now elapsed before Washington could be notified of his election.
More time was consumed by the long journey from Mount Vernon to New York,
where, on April 30, 1789, standing on the balcony of Federal Hall, he took
the oath of office in the presence of a crowd of his fellow-citizens.
SUMMARY
1. The treaty of peace defined the boundaries of our country; but Great
Britain continued to hold the forts along the north, and Spain to occupy
the country in the southwest.
2. Seven of the thirteen states claimed the country west of the mountains.
3. The other six, especially Maryland, denied these claims, and this
dispute delayed the adoption of the Articles of Confederation till 1781.
4. By the year 1786 the lands northwest of the Ohio had been ceded to
Congress.
5. In 1787, therefore, Congress formed the Northwest Territory.
6. Certain states, meantime, were settling disputes as to their boundaries
in the east.
7. We had trouble with Spain over the right to use the lower Mississippi
River, and with Great Britain over matters of trade.
8. Six years' trial proved that the government of the United States was
too weak under the Articles of Confederation.
9. In 1787, therefore, the Constitution was framed, and within a year was
ratified by eleven states.
10. In 1789 Washington and Adams became President and Vice President, and
government under the Constitution began.
[Illustration: LIBERTY BELL.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Both France and Spain had tried to shut us out of the Mississippi
valley. Read Fiske's Critical Period of American History, pp. 17-25.
[2] By the treaty of 1783 Congress provided that all debts due British
subjects might be recovered by law, and that the states should be asked to
pay for confiscated property of the Loyalists. But the states would not
permit the recovery of the debts nor pay for the property taken from the
Loyalists. Great Britain, by holding the forts along our northern
frontier, controlled the fur trade and the Indians, and ruled the country
about the forts. These were Dutchman's Point, Point au Fer, Oswegatchie,
Oswego, Niagara, Erie, Detroit, Mackinaw.
[3] To understand her conduct we must remember that in 1764, shortly after
the French and Indian War, Great Britain made 32° 28' north latitude
(through the mouth of the Yazoo, p. 143) the north boundary of West
Florida; and although Great Britain in her treaty with us made 31° the
boundary between us and West Florida, Spain insisted that it should be 32°
28'. Spain's claim to the Northwest, founded on her occupation of Fort St.
Joseph (p. 183), had not been allowed; she was therefore the more
determined to expand her claims in the South.
[4] The states claiming such lands by virtue of their colonial charters
were Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and
Georgia. New York had acquired the Iroquois title to lands in the West.
Her claim conflicted with those of Virginia, Connecticut, and
Massachusetts. The claims of Connecticut and Massachusetts covered lands
included in the Virginia claim--Maryland denied the validity of all these
claims, for these reasons: (1) the Mississippi valley belonged to France
till 1763; (2) when France gave the valley east of the Mississippi to
Great Britain in 1763, it became crown land; (3) in 1763 the king drew the
line around the sources of the rivers flowing into the Atlantic Ocean, and
forbade the colonists to settle beyond that line (p. 143).
[5] The Articles were not to go into effect till every state signed.
Maryland was the thirteenth state to sign.
[6] Virginia reserved ownership of a large tract called the Virginia
Military Lands. It lay in what is now Ohio between the Scioto and Little
Miami rivers (map, p. 201), and was used to pay bounties to her soldiers
of the Revolution.
[7] Connecticut reserved the ownership (and till 1800 the government) of a
tract 120 miles long, west of Pennsylvania. Of this "Western Reserve of
Connecticut," some 500,000 acres were set apart in 1792 for the relief of
persons whose houses and farms had been burned and plundered by the
British. The rest was sold and the money used as a school fund.
[8] When the settlers on the Watauga (pp. 181, 182) heard of this, they
became alarmed lest Congress should not accept the cession, and forming a
new state which they called Franklin, applied to Congress for admission
into the Union. No attention was given to the application. North Carolina
repealed the act of cession, arranged matters with the settlers, and in
1787 the Franklin government dissolved.
[9] The favorite time for the river trip was from February to May, when
there was high water in the Ohio and its tributaries the Allegheny and
Monongahela. Then the voyage from Pittsburg to Louisville could be made in
eight or ten days. An observer at Pittsburg in 1787 saw 50 flatboats
depart in six weeks. Another man at Fort Finney counted 177 passing boats
with 2700 people in eight months.
[10] In order to encourage enlistment in the army, Congress had offered to
give a tract of land to each officer and man who served through the war.
The premium in land, or gift, over and above pay, was known as land
bounty.
[11] Read McMaster's History of the People of the U. S., Vol. I, pp. 505-
519. All the land bought by the Ohio Company was not for its use. A large
part was for another, known as the Scioto Company, which sent an agent to
Paris and sold the land to a French company. This, in turn, sold in small
pieces to Frenchmen eager to leave a country then in a state of
revolution. In 1790, accordingly, several hundred emigrants reached
Alexandria, Virginia, and came on to the little square of log huts, with a
blockhouse at each corner, which the company had built for them and named
Gallipolis. Most of them were city-bred artisans, unfit for frontier life,
who suffered greatly in the wilderness.
[12] The land was included in the limits laid down in the charter of
Massachusetts; but that charter was granted after the Dutch were in actual
possession of the upper Hudson. In 1786 a north and south line was drawn
82 miles west of the Delaware. Ownership of the land west of that line
went to Massachusetts; but jurisdiction over the land, the right to
govern, was given to New York.
[13] Connecticut, under her sea-to-sea grant from the crown, claimed a
strip across northern Pennsylvania, bought some land there from the
Indians (1754), and some of her people settled on the Susquehanna in what
was known as the Wyoming Valley (1762 and 1769). The dispute which
followed, first with the Penns and then with the state of Pennsylvania,
dragged on till a court of arbitration appointed by the Continental
Congress decided in favor of Pennsylvania.
[14] Because of Champlain's discovery of the lake which now bears his name
(p. 115), the French claimed most of Vermont; on their early maps it
appears as part of New France, and as late as 1739 they made settlements
in it. About 1750 the governor of New Hampshire granted land in Vermont to
settlers, and the country began to be known as "New Hampshire Grants"; but
in 1763 New York claimed it as part of the region given to the Duke of
York in 1664. This brought on a bitter dispute which was still raging
when, in 1777, the settlers declared New Hampshire Grants "a free and
independent state to be called New Connecticut." Later the name was
changed to Vermont. But the Continental Congress, for fear of displeasing
New York, never recognized Vermont as a state.
[15] Each state was bound to pay its share of the annual expenses; but
they failed or were unable to do so.
[16] Why would not Great Britain make a trade treaty with us? Read Fiske's
_Critical Period_, pp. 136-142; also pp. 142-147, about difficulties
between the states.
[17] Congress asked for authority to do three things: (1) to levy taxes on
imported goods, and use the money so obtained to discharge the debts due
to France, Holland, and Spain; (2) to lay and collect a special tax, and
use the money to meet the annual expenses of government; and (3) to
regulate trade with foreign countries.
[18] The story of Shays's Rebellion is told in fiction in Bellamy's _Duke
of Stockbridge_. Read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._,
Vol. I, pp. 313-326.
[19] All the states except Rhode Island.
[20] One had written the Albany Plan of Union; some had been members of
the Stamp Act Congress; some had signed the Declaration of Independence,
or the Articles of Confederation; two had been presidents and twenty-eight
had been members of Congress; seven had been or were then governors of
states. In after times two (Washington and Madison) became Presidents, one
(Elbridge Gerry) Vice President, four members of the Cabinet, two Chief
Justices and two justices of the Supreme Court, five ministers at foreign
courts, and many others senators and members of the House of
Representatives. One, Franklin, has the distinction of having signed the
Declaration of Independence, the treaty of alliance with France (1778),
the treaty of peace with Great Britain (1783), and the Constitution of the
United States, the four great documents in our early history.
[21] Every student should read the Constitution, as printed near the end
of this book or elsewhere, and should know about the three branches of
government, legislative, executive, and judicial; the powers of Congress
(Art. I, Sec. 8), of the President (Art. I, Sec. 7; Art. II, Secs. 2 and
3), and of the United States; courts (Art. III); the principal powers
forbidden to Congress (Art. I, Sec. 9) and to the states (Art. I, Sec.
10); the methods of amending the Constitution (Art. V); the supremacy of
the Constitution (Art. VI).
[22] To remove the many objections made to the new plan, and enable the
people the better to understand it, Hamilton, Madison, and Jay wrote a
series of little essays for the press, in which they defended the
Constitution, explained and discussed its provisions, and showed how
closely it resembled the state constitutions. These essays were called
_The Federalist_, and, gathered into book form (in 1788), have become
famous as a treatise on the Constitution and on government. Those who
opposed the Constitution were called Anti-Federalists, and they wrote
pamphlets and elaborate series of letters in the newspapers, signed by
such names as Cato, Agrippa, A Countryman. They declared that Congress
would overpower the states, that the President would become a despot, that
the Courts would destroy liberty; and they insisted that amendments should
be made, guaranteeing liberty of speech, freedom of the press, trial by
jury, no quartering of troops in time of peace, liberty of conscience.
Read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. I, pp.
490-491; 478-479.
[23] Because the Constitution provided that it should go into force as
soon as nine states ratified it. North Carolina and Rhode Island did not
ratify till some months later, and, till they did, were not members of the
new Union.
[24] In three of the eleven states then in the Union (Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and Virginia) the presidential electors were chosen by vote of
the people. In Massachusetts the voters in each congressional district
voted for two candidates, and the legislature chose one of the two, and
also two electors at large. In New Hampshire also the people voted for
electors, but none receiving a majority vote, the legislature made the
choice. Elsewhere the legislatures appointed electors; but in New York the
two branches of the legislature fell into a dispute and failed to choose
any. Washington received the first vote of all the 69 electors, and Adams
received 34 votes, the next highest number.
CHAPTER XVII
OUR COUNTRY IN 1789
THE STATES.--When Washington became President, the thirteen original
states of the Union [1] were in many respects very unlike the same states
in our day. In some the executive was called president; in others
governor. In some he had a veto; in others he had not. In some there was
no senate. To be a voter in those days a man had to have an estate worth a
certain sum of money, [2] or a specified annual income, or own a certain
number of acres. [3]
Moreover, to be eligible as governor or a member of a state legislature a
man had to own more property than was needed to qualify him to vote. In
many states it was further required that officeholders should be
Protestants, or at least Christians, or should believe in the existence of
God.
The adoption of the Constitution made necessary certain acts of
legislation by the states. They could issue no more bills of credit;
provision therefore had to be made for the redemption of those
outstanding. They could lay no duties on imports; such as had laid import
duties had to repeal their laws and abolish their customhouses. All
lighthouses, beacons, buoys, maintained by individual states were
surrendered to the United States, and in other ways the states had to
adjust themselves to the new government.
[Illustration: CONTINENTAL PAPER MONEY.]
THE NATIONAL DEBT.--Each of the states was in debt for money and supplies
used in the war; and over the whole country hung a great debt contracted
by the old Congress. Part of this national debt was represented by bills
of credit, loan-office certificates, lottery certificates, and many other
sorts of promises to pay, which had become almost worthless. This was
strictly true of the bills of credit or paper money issued in great
quantities by the Continental Congress. [4] Besides this domestic debt
owed to the people at home, there was a foreign debt, for Congress had
borrowed a little money from Spain and a great deal from France and
Holland. On this debt interest was due, for Congress had not been able to
pay even that.
THE MONEY OF THE COUNTRY.--The Continental bills having long ceased to
circulate, the currency of the country consisted of paper money issued by
individual states, and the gold, silver, and copper coins of foreign
countries. These passed by such names as the Joe or Johannes, the
doubloon, pistole, moidore, guinea, crown, dollar, shilling, sixpence,
pistareen, penny. A common coin was the Spanish milled dollar, which
passed at different ratings in different parts of the country. [5]
Congress in 1786 adopted the dollar as a unit, divided it into the half,
quarter, dime, half dime, cent, and half cent, and ordered some coppers to
be minted; but very few were made by the contractor.
[Illustration: SETTLED AREA IN 1790.]
POPULATION.--Just how many people dwelt in our country before 1790 can
only be guessed at. In that year they were counted for the first time, and
it was then ascertained that they numbered 3,929,000 (in the thirteen
states) of whom 700,000 were slaves. All save about 200,000 dwelt along
the seaboard, east of the mountains; and nearly half were between
Chesapeake Bay and Florida.
The most populous state was Virginia; after her, next in order were
Massachusetts (including Maine), Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and New
York.
The most populous city was Philadelphia, after which came New York,
Boston, Charleston, and Baltimore.
LIFE IN THE CITIES.--What passed for thriving cities in those days were
collections of a thousand or two houses, very few of which made any
pretension to architectural beauty, ranged along narrow streets, none of
which were sewered, and few of which were paved or lighted even on nights
when the moon did not shine. During daylight a few constables kept order.
At night small parties of men called the night watch walked the streets.
Each citizen was required to serve his turn on the watch or find a
substitute or pay a fine. He had to be a fireman and keep in his house
near the front door a certain number of leather fire buckets with which at
the clanging of the courthouse or market bell he would run to the burning
building and take his place in the line which passed the full buckets from
the nearest pump to the engine, or in the line which passed the empty
buckets from the engine back to the pump. Water for household use or for
putting out fires came from private wells or from the town pumps. There
were no city water works.
[Illustration: EARLY FIRE ENGINE.]
Lack of good and abundant water, lack of proper drainage, ignorance of the
laws of health, filthy, unpaved streets, spread diseases of the worst
sort. Smallpox was common. Yellow fever in the great cities was of almost
annual occurrence, and often raged with the violence of a plague.
LACK OF CONVENIENCES.--Few appliances which increase comfort, or promote
health, or save time or labor, were in use. Not even in the homes of the
rich were there cook stoves or furnaces or open grates for burning
anthracite coal, or a bath room, or a gas jet. Lamps and candles afforded
light by night. The warming pan, the foot stove (p. 97), and the four-
posted bedstead (p. 76), with curtains to be drawn when the nights were
cold, were still essentials. The boy was fortunate who did not have to
break the ice in his water pail morning after morning in winter. Clocks
and watches were luxuries for the rich. The sundial was yet in use, and
when the flight of time was to be noted in hours or parts, people resorted
to the hour glass. Many a minister used one on Sundays to time his
preaching by, and many a housewife to time her cooking. [6]
[Illustration: HOUR GLASS. In Essex Hall, Salem.]
No city had yet reached such size as to make street cars or cabs or
omnibuses necessary. Time was less valuable than in our day. The merchant
kept his own books, wrote all business letters with a quill pen, and
waited for the ink to dry or sprinkled it with sand. There were no
envelopes, no postage stamps, no letter boxes in the streets, no
collection of the mails. The letter written, the paper was carefully
folded, sealed with wax or a wafer, addressed, and carried to the post
office, where postage was paid in money at rates which would now seem
extortionate. A single sheet of paper was a single letter, and two sheets
a double letter on which double postage was paid. Three mails a week
between Philadelphia and New York, and two a week between New York and
Boston, were thought ample. The post offices in the country towns
consisted generally of a drawer or a few boxes in a store.
[Illustration: QUILLS AS SOLD FOR MAKING PENS. In Essex Hall, Salem.]
NEWSPAPERS could not be sent by mail, and there were few to send. Though
the first newspaper in the colonies was printed in Boston as early as
1704, the first daily newspaper in our country was issued in Philadelphia
in 1784. Illustrated newspapers, trade journals, scientific weeklies,
illustrated magazines, [7] were unknown. Such newspapers as existed in
1789 were published most of them once a week, and a few twice, and were
printed by presses worked by hand; and no paper anywhere in our country
was issued on Sunday or sold for as little as a penny.
BOOKS.--In no city in 1790 could there have been found an art gallery, a
free museum of natural history, a school or institute of any sort where
instruction in the arts and sciences was given. There were many good
private libraries, but hardly any that were open to public use. Books were
mostly imported from Great Britain, or such as were sure of a ready sale
were reprinted by some American publisher when enough subscribers were
obtained to pay the cost. Of native authors very few had produced anything
which is now read save by the curious. [8]
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES.--In education great progress had been made. There
were as yet no normal schools, no high schools, no manual training
schools, and, save in New England, no approach to the free common school
of to-day. There were private, parish, and charity schools and academies
in all the states. In many of these a small number of children of the
poor, under certain conditions, might receive instruction in reading,
writing, and arithmetic. But as yet the states did not have the money with
which to establish a great system of free common schools.
[Illustration: AN OLD-TIME PRIVATE CARRIAGE.]
Money in aid of academies and colleges was often raised by lotteries.
Indeed, every one of the eight oldest colleges of that day had received
such help. [9] In each of these the classes were smaller, the course of
instruction much simpler, and the graduates much younger than to-day. In
no country of that time were the rich and well-to-do better educated than
in the United States, [10] and it is safe to say that in none was primary
education--reading, writing, and arithmetic--more diffused among the
people. [11]
TRAVEL.--To travel from one city to another in 1789 required at least as
many days as it now does hours. [12] The stagecoach, horseback, or private
conveyances were the common means of land travel. The roads were bad and
the large rivers unbridged, and in stormy weather or in winter the delays
at the ferries were often very long. Breakdowns and upsets were common,
and in rainy weather a traveler by stagecoach was fortunate if he did not
have to help the driver pull the wheels out of the mud. [13]
THE INNS AND TAVERNS, sometimes called coffeehouses or ordinaries, at
which travelers lodged, were designated by pictured signs or emblems hung
before the door, and were given names which had no relation to their uses,
as the Indian Head, the Crooked Billet, the Green Dragon, the Plow and
Harrow. In these taverns dances or balls were held, and sometimes public
meetings. To those in the country came sleigh-ride parties. From them the
stagecoaches departed, and before their doors auctions were often held,
and in the great room within were posted public notices of all sorts.
[Illustration: SIGN OF THE INDIAN HEAD TAVERN, NEAR CONCORD, MASS. Now in
the possession of the Concord Antiquarian Society.]
THE SHOPS were designated in much the same way as the inns, not by street
numbers but by signs; as the Lock and Key, the Lion and the Glove, the
Bell in Hand, the Golden Ball, the Three Doves. One shop is described as
near a certain bake-house, another as close by the townhouse, another as
opposite a judge's dwelling. The shop was usually the front room of a
little house. In the rear or overhead lived the tradesman, his family, and
his apprentice.
METHODS OF BUSINESS.--For his wares the tradesman took cash when he could
get it, gave short credit with good security when he had to, and often was
forced to resort to barter. Thus paper makers took rags for paper, brush
makers exchanged brushes for hog's bristles, and a general shopkeeper took
grain, wood, cheese, butter, in exchange for dry goods and clothing.
Few of the modern methods of extending business, of seeking customers, of
making the public aware of what the merchant had for sale, existed, even
in a rude state. There were no commercial travelers, no means of
widespread advertising. When an advertisement had been inserted in a
newspaper whose circulation was not fifteen hundred copies, when a
handbill had been posted in the markets and the coffeehouses, the means of
reaching the public were exhausted.
THE WORKINGMAN.--What was true of the merchant was true of men in every
walk in life. Their opportunities were few, their labor was hard, their
comforts of life were far inferior to what is now within their reach. In
every great city to-day are men, women, and boys engaged in a hundred
trades, professions, and occupations unknown in 1790. The great
corporations, mills, factories, mines, railroads, the steamboats, rapid
transit, the telegraph, the telephone, the typewriter, the sewing machine,
the automobile, the postal delivery service, the police and fire
departments, the banks and trust companies, the department stores, and
scores of other inventions and business institutions of great cities, now
giving employment to millions of human beings, have been created since
1790.
The working day was from sunrise to sunset, with one hour for breakfast
and another for dinner. Wages were about a third what they are now, and
were less when the days were short than when they were long. The
redemptioner was still in demand in the Middle States. In the South almost
all labor was done by slaves.
SLAVERY.--In the North slavery was on the decline. While still under the
crown, Virginia and several other colonies had attempted to check slavery
by forbidding the importation of more slaves, but their laws for this
purpose were disallowed by the king. After 1776 the states were free to do
as they pleased in the matter, and many of them stopped the importation of
slaves. Moreover, before Congress shut slavery out of the Northwest
Territory, the New England states and Pennsylvania had either abolished
slavery outright or provided for its extinction by gradual abolition laws.
[14]
INDUSTRIES.--In New England the people lived on their own farms, which
they cultivated with their own hands and with the help of their children,
or engaged in codfishing, whaling, lumbering, shipbuilding, and commerce.
They built ships and sold them abroad, or used them to carry away the
products of New England to the South, to the ports of France, Spain,
Russia, Sweden, the West Indies, and even to China. To the West Indies
went horses, cattle, lumber, salt fish, and mules; and from them came
sugar, molasses, coffee, indigo, wines. From Sweden and Russia came iron,
hemp, and duck.
The Middle States produced much grain and flour. New York had lost much of
her fur trade because of the British control of the frontier posts; but
her exports of flour, grain, lumber, leather, and what not, in 1791, were
valued at nearly $3,000,000. The people of Pennsylvania made lumber,
linen, flour, paper, iron; built ships; carried on a prosperous commerce
with foreign lands and a good fur trade with the Indians.
[Illustration: TRADING CANOE.]
In Maryland and Virginia the staple crop was still tobacco, but they also
produced much grain and flour. North Carolina produced tar, pitch, resin,
turpentine, and lumber. Some rice and tobacco were raised. Great herds of
cattle and hogs ran wild. In South Carolina rice was the most important
crop. Indigo, once an important product, had declined since the
Revolution, and cotton was only just beginning to be grown for export.
From the back country came tar, pitch, turpentine, and beaver, deer, and
bear skins for export.
THE FUR TRADE.--The region of the Great Lakes, where the British still
held the forts on the American side of the boundary, was the chief seat of
the fur trade. Goods for Indian use were brought from England to Montreal
and Quebec, and carried in canoes to Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, Mackinaw,
Sault Ste. Marie (map, p. 194), and thence scattered over the Northwest.
[15]
SUMMARY
1. In 1789 the states had governments less democratic than at present; in
general only property owners could vote and hold office.
2. The states were all in debt, and Congress had incurred besides a large
national debt.
3. The population was less than 4,000,000, mostly on the Atlantic
seaboard.
4. Cities were few and small, without street cars, pavements, water works,
gas or electric lights, public libraries or museums, letter carriers, or
paid firemen. Everywhere many of the common conveniences of modern life
were unknown.
5. Travel was slow and tiresome, because there were no railroads,
steamboats, or automobiles.
6. Occupations were far fewer than now, wages lower, and hours of labor
longer. Slavery had been abolished, or was being gradually stopped, in New
England and Pennsylvania, but existed in all the other states; and in the
South nearly all the labor was done by slaves.
7. New Englanders were engaged in farming, fishing, lumbering, and
commerce; the Middle States produced much wheat and flour, and also
lumber; the South chiefly tobacco, rice, and tar, pitch, and turpentine.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The states ratified the Constitution on the dates given below:--
1. Delaware......... Dec. 7, 1787
2. Pennsylvania..... Dec. 12,1787
3. New Jersey....... Dec. 18, 1787
4. Georgia.......... Jan. 2, 1788
5. Connecticut...... Jan. 9, 1788
6. Massachusetts.... Feb. 7, 1788
7. Maryland......... April 28, 1788
8. South Carolina... May 23, 1788
9. New Hampshire.... June 21, 1788
10. Virginia........ June 26, 1788
11. New York........ July 26, 1788
12. North Carolina.. Nov. 21, 1789
13. Rhode Island.... May 29, 1790
[2] In New Jersey any "person" having a freehold (real estate owned
outright or for life) worth £50 might vote. In New York each voter had to
have a freehold of £20, or pay 40 shillings house rent and his taxes. In
Massachusetts he had to have an estate of £60, or an income of £3 from his
estate.
[3] In Maryland 50 acres; in South Carolina 50 acres or a town lot; in
Georgia £10 of taxable property.
[4] When Congress was forced to assume the conduct of the war, money was
needed to pay the troops. But the Congress then had no authority to tax
either the colonies or the people, so (in 1775-81) it issued bills of
credit, or Continental money, of various denominations. A loan office was
also established in each state, and the people were asked to loan Congress
money and receive in return loan-office certificates bearing interest and
payable in three years. But little money came from this source; and the
people refused to take the bills of credit at their face value. The states
then made them legal tender, that is, made them lawful money for the
payment of debts. But as they became more and more plentiful, prices of
everything paid for in Continental money rose higher and higher. From an
old bill of January, 1781, it appears that in Philadelphia a pair of boots
cost $600 in paper dollars; six yards of chintz, $900; eight yards of
binding, $400; a skein of silk, $10; and butter, $20 a pound. In Boston at
the same time sugar was $10 a pound; beef, $8; and flour, $1575 a barrel.
To say of anything that it was "not worth a continental" was to say that
it was utterly worthless.
[5] In New England it was valued at six shillings; in New York at eight;
in Pennsylvania at seven and six pence; in South Carolina and Georgia at
four shillings and eight pence.
[6] The hour glass consisted of two small glass bulbs joined by a small
glass tube. In one bulb was as much fine sand as in the course of an hour
could run through the tube into the other bulb. At auctions when ships or
real estate were for sale it was common to measure time by burning an inch
or more of candle; that is, the bidding would go on till a certain length
of candle was consumed.
[7] The _Massachusetts Magazine_ was illustrated with occasional
engravings of cities and scenery; but it was not what we know as an
illustrated magazine. Read a description of the newspapers of this time in
McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. I, pp. 35-38.
[8] Franklin is still the most popular of colonial writers. His
autobiography, his _Way to Wealth_, and many of his essays are still
republished and widely read. The poetry of Philip Freneau, of John
Trumbull, and Francis Hopkinson is still read by many; but it was in
political writing that our countrymen excelled. No people have ever
produced a finer body of political literature than that called forth by
the Revolution. Read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._,
Vol. I, pp. 74-80.
[9] Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, Pennsylvania, Columbia,
Brown, and Dartmouth. In a lottery "drawn" in 1797 for the benefit of
Brown University, 9000 tickets were sold at $6 each--a total of $54,000.
Of this, $8000 was kept by the university, and $46,000 distributed in 3328
prizes--2000 at $9 each, 1000 at $12 each, and the rest from $20 to $4000.
[10] In the convention which framed the Constitution twenty of the fifty-
five men were college graduates. Five were graduates of Princeton, three
of Harvard, three of Yale, three of William and Mary, two of Pennsylvania,
one of King's (now Columbia), and one each of Oxford, Edinburgh, and
Glasgow.
[11] The writings of men who were not college graduates--Washington,
Franklin, Dickinson, and many others--speak well for the character of the
early schools.
[12] The journey from Boston to New York by land consumed six days, but
may now be made in less than six hours. New York was a two days' journey
from Philadelphia, but the distance may now be traversed in two hours.
[13] One pair of horses usually dragged the stage eighteen miles, when a
fresh team was put on, and if no accident happened, the traveler would
reach an inn about ten at night. After a frugal meal he would betake
himself to bed, for at three the next morning, even if it rained or
snowed, he had to make ready, by the light of a horn lantern or a farthing
candle, for another ride of eighteen hours.
[14] In 1777 Vermont forbade the slavery of men and women. In 1780
Pennsylvania passed a gradual abolition act. Massachusetts by her
constitution declared "All men are born free and equal," which her courts
held prohibited slavery. New Hampshire in her constitution made a similar
declaration with a like result. In 1784 Connecticut and Rhode Island
adopted gradual abolition laws, providing that children born of a slave
parent after a certain date should be free when they reached a certain
age, and that their children were never to be slaves. These were states
where slaves had never been much in demand, and where the industries of
the people did not depend on slave labor.
[15] The departure of a fleet of canoes from Quebec or Montreal was a fine
sight. The trading canoe of bark was forty-five feet long, and carried
four tons of goods. The crew of eight men, with their hats gaudy with
plumes and tinsel, their brilliant handkerchiefs tied around their
throats, their bright-colored shirts, flaming belts, and gayly worked
moccasins, formed a picture that can not be described. When the axes,
powder, shot, dry goods, and provisions were packed in the canoes, when
each voyager had hung his votive offering in the chapel of his patron
saint, a boatman of experience stepped into the bow and another into the
stern of each canoe, the crew took places between them, and at the word
the fleet glided up the St. Lawrence on its way to the Ottawa, and thence
on to Sault Ste. Marie, to Grand Portage (near the northeast corner of
what is now Minnesota), or to Mackinaw.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE NEW GOVERNMENT
FIRST ACTS OF CONGRESS.--During Washington's first term of office as
President (1789-93), the time of Congress was largely taken up with the
passage of laws necessary to put the new government in operation, and to
carry out the plan of the Constitution.
[Illustration: DESK USED BY WASHINGTON WHILE PRESIDENT. In the possession
of the Pennsylvania Historical Society.]
Departments of State, Treasury, and War were established; a Supreme Court
was organized with a Chief Justice [1] and five associates; three Circuits
(one for each of the three groups of states, Eastern, Middle, and
Southern) and thirteen District Courts (one for each state) were created,
and provision was made for all the machinery of justice; and twelve
amendments to the Constitution were sent out to the states, of which ten
were ratified by the requisite number of states and became a part of the
Constitution. [2]
At the second session of Congress provision was made, in the Funding
Measure, for the assumption of the Continental and state debts incurred
during the war for independence. [3] The District of Columbia as the
permanent seat of government was located on the banks of the Potomac, [4]
and the temporary seat of government was moved from New York to
Philadelphia, there to remain for ten years.
NEW STATES.--The states of North Carolina and Rhode Island, having at last
ratified the Constitution, sent representatives and senators to share in
the work of Congress during this session.
The quarrel between New York and Vermont having been settled, Vermont was
admitted in 1791; and Virginia having given her consent, the people of
Kentucky were authorized to form a state constitution, and Kentucky
entered the Union in 1792. [5]
THE NATIONAL BANK AND THE CURRENCY.--The funding of the debt (proposed by
Hamilton) was the first great financial measure adopted by Congress. [6]
The second (1791) was the charter of the Bank of the United States with
power to establish branches in the states and to issue bank notes to be
used as money. The third (1792) was the law providing for a national
coinage and authorizing the establishment of a United States mint for
making the coin. [7] It was ordered that whoever would bring gold or
silver to the mint should receive for it the same weight of coins. This
was free coinage of gold and silver, and made our standard of money
bimetallic, or of two metals; for a debtor could choose which kind of
money he would pay.
[Illustration: HAMILTON'S TOMB, NEW YORK CITY.]
THE REVENUE LAWS.--Other financial measures of Washington's first term
were the tariff law, which levied duties on imported goods, wares, and
merchandise, the excise or whisky tax, and the law fixing rates of postage
on letters. [8]
THE RISE OF PARTIES.--As to the justice and wisdom of the acts of Congress
the people were divided in their opinions. Those who approved and
supported the administration were called Federalists, and had for leaders
Washington, John Adams, Hamilton, Robert Morris, John Jay, and Rufus King;
those who opposed the administration were the Anti-Federalists, or
Republicans, whose great leaders were Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Gerry,
Gallatin, and Randolph.
The Republicans had opposed the funding and assumption measures, the
national bank, and the excise. They complained that the national debt was
too large, that the salaries of the President, Congressmen, and officials
were too high, and that the taxes were too heavy; and they accused the
Federalists of a fondness for monarchy and aristocracy.
Washington opened each session of Congress with a speech just as the king
opened Parliament, and each branch of Congress presented an answer just as
the Lords and Commons did to the king. Nobody could go to the President's
reception without a card of invitation. The judges of the Supreme Court
wore gowns as did English judges. The Senate held its daily sessions in
secret, and shut out reporters and the people. All this the Anti-
Federalists held to be unrepublican.
[Illustration: LADY WASHINGTON'S RECEPTION. From an old print.]
THE ELECTION OF 1792.--When the time came, in 1792, to elect a successor
to Washington, there were thus two political parties. Both parties
supported Washington for President; but the Republicans tried hard, though
in vain, to defeat Adams for Vice President.
OPPOSITION TO THE GOVERNMENT by no means ended with the formation of
parties and votes at the polls. The Assembly of Virginia condemned the
assumption of the state debts. North Carolina denounced assumption and the
excise law. In Maryland a resolution declaring assumption dangerous to the
rights of the states was lost by the casting vote of the Speaker. The
right of Congress to tax pleasure carriages was tested in the Supreme
Court, which declared the tax constitutional. When that court decided
(1793) that a citizen of one state might sue another state, Virginia,
Connecticut, and Massachusetts called for a constitutional amendment to
prevent this, and the Eleventh Amendment was proposed by Congress (1794)
and declared in force in 1798. The tax on whisky caused an insurrection in
Pennsylvania.
THE WHISKY INSURRECTION.--The farmers around Pittsburg were largely
engaged in distilling whisky, refused to pay the tax, and drove off the
collectors. Congress thereupon (1794) enacted a law to enforce the
collection, but when the marshal arrested some of the offenders, the
people rose, drove him away, and by force of arms prevented the execution
of the law. Washington then called for troops from Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, and these marching across the state by a
mere show of force brought the people to obedience. Leaders of the
insurrection were arrested, tried, and convicted of treason, but were
pardoned by Washington. [9]
THE INDIAN WAR.--Still farther west, meantime, a great battle had been
fought with the Indians. The succession of boats loaded with emigrants
floating down the Ohio, and the arrivals of settlers north of the river at
Marietta, Gallipolis, and Cincinnati, had greatly excited the Indians. The
coming of the whites meant the destruction of game and of fur-bearing
animals, and the pushing westward of the Indians. This the red men
determined to resist, and did so by attacking boats and killing emigrants,
and in January, 1790, they marched down on the settlement called Big
Bottom (northwest of Marietta) and swept it from the face of the earth.
Washington sent fifteen hundred troops from Kentucky and Pennsylvania
against the Indians in the autumn of 1790. Led by Colonel Harmar, the
troops burned some Indian supplies and villages, but accomplished nothing
save to enrage the Indians yet more. Washington thereupon put General St.
Clair in command, and in the autumn of 1791 St. Clair set off to build a
chain of forts from Cincinnati to Lake Michigan; but the Indians surprised
him and cut his army to pieces.
[Illustration: TERRITORY CEDED BY THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE.]
Anthony Wayne was next placed in command, and two years were spent in
careful preparation before he began his march across what is now the state
of Ohio. At the Falls of the Maumee (August, 1794) he met and beat the
Indians so soundly that a year later, by the treaty of Greenville, a
lasting peace was made with the ten great nations of the Northwest.
NEUTRALITY.--Washington's second term of office was a stormy time in
foreign as well as in domestic affairs. In February, 1793, the French
Republic declared war on Great Britain, and so brought up the question,
Which side shall the United States take? Washington said neither side, and
issued a proclamation of neutrality, warning the people not to commit
hostile acts in favor of either Great Britain or France. The Republicans
(and many who were Federalists) grew angry at this and roundly abused the
President. France, they said, is an old friend; Great Britain, our old
enemy. France helped win independence and loaned us money and sent us
troops and ships; Great Britain attempted to enslave us. We were bound to
France by a treaty of alliance and a treaty of commerce; we were bound to
Great Britain by no treaty of any kind. To be neutral, then, was to be
ungrateful to France. [10] As a result the Federalists were called the
British party, and they, in turn, called the Republicans the French party
or Democrats.
[Illustration: WASHINGTON'S COACH.]
GREAT BRITAIN SEIZES OUR SHIPS.--To preserve neutrality under such
conditions would have been hard enough, but Great Britain made it harder
still by seizing American merchant ships that were carrying lumber, fish,
flour, and provisions to the French West Indies. [11]
Our merchants at once appealed to Congress for aid, and the Republicans
attempted to retaliate on Great Britain in a way that might have brought
on war. In this they failed, but Congress laid an embargo for a short
time, preventing all our vessels from sailing to foreign ports; and money
was voted to build fortifications at the seaports from Maine to Georgia,
and for building arsenals at Springfield (Mass.) and Carlisle (Pa.), and
for constructing six frigates. [12]
Washington did not wish war, and with the approval of the Senate sent
Chief-Justice John Jay to London to make a treaty of friendship and
commerce with Great Britain.
JAY'S TREATY, when ratified (1795), was far from what was desired. But it
provided for the delivery of the posts on our northern frontier, its other
provisions were the best that could be had, and it insured peace. For this
reason among others the treaty gave great offense to the Republicans, who
wanted the United States to quarrel with Great Britain and take sides with
France. They denounced it from one end of the country to the other, burned
copies of it at mass meetings, and hanged Jay in effigy. For the same
reason, also, France took deep offense.
TREATY WITH SPAIN.--Our treaty with Great Britain was followed by one with
Spain, by which the vexed question of the Mississippi was put at rest.
Spain agreed to withdraw her troops from all her posts north of the
parallel of 31 degrees. She also agreed that New Orleans should be a port
of deposit. This was of great advantage to the growing West, for the
farmers, thereafter, could float their bacon, flour, lumber, etc. down the
Ohio and the Mississippi to New Orleans and there sell it for export to
the West Indies or Europe.
[Illustration: LAST PAGE OF THE AUTOGRAPH COPY OF WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL
ADDRESS. In the Lenox Library, New York.]
THE ELECTION OF 1796.--Washington, who had twice been elected President,
now declined to serve a third time, and in September, 1796, announced his
determination by publishing in a newspaper what is called his _Farewell
Address_. [13] There was no such thing as a national party convention
in those days, or for many years to come. The Federalists, however, by
common consent, selected John Adams as their candidate for President, and
most of them supported Thomas Pinckney for Vice President. The Republicans
put forward Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr and others. The French
minister to our country used his influence to help the Republican
candidates; [14] but when the election was over, it turned out that Adams
[15] was chosen President and Jefferson Vice President. Pinckney, the
Federalist candidate for Vice President, was defeated because he failed to
receive the votes of all the Federalist electors. [16]
THE X. Y. Z. AFFAIR.--The French Directory, a body of five men that
governed the French Republic, now refused to receive a minister whom
Washington had just sent to that country (Charles G. Pinckney). This
deliberate affront to the United States was denounced by Adams in his
first message to Congress; but he sent to Paris a special commission
composed of two Federalists and one Republican, [17] in an earnest effort
to keep the peace. These commissioners were visited by three agents of the
Directory, who told them that before a new treaty could be made they must
give a present of $50,000 to each Director, apologize for Adams's
denunciation of France, and loan a large sum (practically pay tribute
money) to France.
In reporting this affair to Congress the Secretary of State concealed the
names of the French agents and called them Mr. X, Mr. Y, and Mr. Z. This
gave the affair the name of the X. Y. Z. Mission.
PREPARATION FOR WAR WITH FRANCE (1798).--The reading of the dispatches in
Congress caused a great change in feeling. The country had been insulted,
and Congress, forgetting politics, made preparations for war. An army was
raised and Washington made lieutenant general. The Navy Department was
created and the first Secretary of the Navy appointed. Ships were built,
purchased, and given to the government; and with the cry, "Millions for
defense, not a cent for tribute," the people offered their services to the
President, and labored without pay in the erection of forts along the
seaboard. Then was written by Joseph Hopkinson, of Philadelphia, and sung
for the first time, our national song _Hail, Columbia_! [18]
THE ALIEN AND SEDITION ACTS.--In preparing for war, Congress had acted
wisely. But the Federalists, whom the trouble with France had placed in
control of Congress, also passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which
aroused bitter opposition.
The Alien Acts were (1) a law requiring aliens, or foreigners, to live in
our country fourteen years before they could be naturalized and become
citizens; (2) a law giving the President power, for the next two years, to
send out of the country any alien he thought to be dangerous to the peace
of the United States; and (3) the Alien Enemies Act for the expulsion, in
time of war, of the subjects of the hostile government.
The Sedition Act provided for the punishment of persons who acted, spoke,
or wrote in a seditious manner, that is, opposed the execution of any law
of the United States, or wrote, printed, or uttered anything with intent
to defame the government of the United States or any of its officials.
Adams did not use the power given him by the second Alien Act; but the
Sedition Act was rigorously enforced with fines and imprisonment. Such
interference with the liberty of the press cost Adams much of his
popularity.
THE VIRGINIA AND KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS.--The Republicans were greatly
excited by the Alien and Sedition Acts, and at the suggestion of Jefferson
resolutions condemning them as unconstitutional [19] and hence "utterly
void and of no force" were passed by the legislatures of Kentucky and
Virginia.
[Illustration: THE ENTERPRISE.]
Seven states answered with resolutions declaring the acts constitutional.
Whereupon, in the following year (1799), Kentucky declared that when a
state thought a law of Congress unconstitutional, that state might veto or
nullify it, that is, forbid its citizens to obey it. This doctrine of
nullification, as we shall see, was later of serious importance.
THE NAVAL WAR WITH FRANCE.--Meantime, the little navy which had been so
hastily prepared was sent to scour the seas around the French West Indies,
and in a few months won many victories. [20] The publication of the X. Y.
Z. letters created almost as much indignation in France as in our country,
and forced the Directory to send word that if other commissioners came,
they would be received. Adams thereupon appointed three; but when they
reached France the Directory had fallen from power, Napoleon was ruling,
and with him a new treaty was concluded in 1800.
[Illustration: THOMAS JEFFERSON.]
THE ELECTION OF 1800.--The cost of this war made new taxes necessary, and
these, coupled with the Alien and Sedition Acts, did much to bring about
the defeat of the Federalists. Their candidates for the presidency and
vice presidency were John Adams and Charles C. Pinckney. The Republicans
nominated Jefferson [21] and Aaron Burr, and won. Unfortunately Jefferson
and Burr each received the same number of votes, so it became the duty of
the House of Representatives to determine which should be President. When
the House elects a President, each state, no matter how many
representatives it may have, casts one vote. There were then sixteen
states [22] in the Union. The votes of nine, therefore, were necessary to
elect. But the Federalists held the votes of six, and as the
representatives of two more were equally divided, the Federalists thought
they could say who should be President, and tried hard to elect Burr.
Finally some of them yielded and allowed the Republicans to make Jefferson
President, thus leaving Burr to be Vice President.
PRESIDENT JEFFERSON.--The inauguration took place on March 4, 1801, at
Washington, to which city the government was removed from Philadelphia in
the summer of 1800. [23] Everywhere the day was celebrated with bell
ringing, cannonading, dinners, and parades. The people had triumphed; "the
Man of the People" was President. Monarchy, aristocracy, and Federalism,
it was said, had received a deathblow.
SUMMARY
1. The first Congress under the Constitution passed laws establishing the
executive departments and the United States courts, and other laws
necessary to put the new government in operation.
2. The debts incurred during the Revolution were assumed and funded, and
the permanent seat of government (after 1800) was located on the Potomac.
3. Import and excise duties were laid, a national bank was chartered, and
a mint was established for coining United States money.
4. In Washington's second term as President (1793-97) there was war
between Great Britain and France, and it was with difficulty that our
government succeeded in remaining neutral.
5. Treaties were made with Great Britain and Spain, whereby these powers
withdrew from the posts they held in our country, the right of deposit at
New Orleans was secured, and peace was preserved.
6. A five years' Indian war in the Northwest Territory was ended by
Wayne's victory (1794) and the treaty of Greenville (1795).
7. The people of western Pennsylvania resisted the excise tax on whisky,
but their insurrection was easily suppressed by a force of militia.
8. Differences on questions of domestic and foreign policy had resulted in
the growth of the Federalist and Republican parties, but party
organization was imperfect. In 1796 Adams (Federalist) was elected
President, and Jefferson (Republican) Vice President.
9. The British treaty and the election of Adams gave offense to the French
government, which made insulting demands upon our commissioners sent to
that country. A brief naval war in the French West Indies was ended by a
treaty made by a new French government in 1800.
10. The passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts brought out protests
against them in what are called the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of
1798-99, one of which claimed the right of a state to nullify an act of
Congress which it deemed unconstitutional.
11. In the next presidential election (1800) the Republicans were
successful; but as Jefferson and Burr had each the same number of votes,
the House of Representatives had to decide which should be President and
which Vice President. After a long contest Jefferson was given the higher
office, as the Republicans had wished.
[Illustration: A SILHOUETTE, A KIND OF PORTRAIT OFTEN MADE BEFORE 1840. In
the possession of the Concord Antiquarian Society.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Washington appointed John Jay the first Chief Justice, and gave the
newly created secretaryships of State, Treasury, and War to Thomas
Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Henry Knox respectively. These men were
intended to be heads of departments; but Washington soon began to consult
them and the Attorney General on matters of state and thus made them also
a body of advisers known as "the Cabinet." All the Secretaries and the
Postmaster General and the Attorney General are now members of the
Cabinet.
[2] These ten amendments form a sort of "bill of rights," and were
intended to remove objections to the Constitution by those who feared that
the national government might encroach on the liberties of the people.
[3] For the different kinds of debt, see p. 211. The Continental money was
funded at $1 in government stock for $100 in the paper money; but the
other forms of debt were assumed by the government at their face value.
All told,--state debts, foreign debt, loan-office certificates, etc.,--
these obligations amounted to about $75,000,000. To pay so large a sum in
cash was impossible, so Congress ordered interest-bearing stock to be
given in exchange for evidence of debt.
[4] As first laid out, the District of Columbia was a square ten miles on
a side, and was partly in Virginia and partly in Maryland. But the piece
in Virginia many years later (1846) was given back to that state.
[5] After these two states were admitted each was given a star and a
stripe on the national flag. Until 1818 our flag thus had fifteen stars
and fifteen stripes, no further change being made as new states were
admitted. In 1818 two stripes were taken off, the number of stars was made
the same as the number of states, and since then each new state has been
represented by a new star.
[6] Alexander Hamilton was born in 1757 on the island of Nevis, one of the
British West Indies. He was sent to New York to be educated, and entered
King's College (now Columbia University). There he became an ardent
patriot, wrote pamphlets in defense of the first Congress, and addressed a
public meeting when but seventeen. He was captain of an artillery company
in 1776, one of Washington's aids in 1777-81, distinguished himself at
Yorktown, and (in 1782) went to Congress. He was a man of energy,
enthusiasm, and high ideals, was possessed of a singular genius for
finance, and believed in a vigorous national government. As Secretary of
the Treasury, Hamilton proposed not only the funding and assumption plans,
but the national bank and the mint.
[7] The coins were to be the eagle or ten-dollar piece, half eagle, and
quarter eagle of gold; the dollar, half, quarter, dime, and half dime of
silver; and the cent and half cent of copper. The mint was established at
once at Philadelphia, and the first copper coin was struck in 1793. But
coinage was a slow process, and many years passed before foreign coins
ceased to circulate. The accounts of Congress were always kept in dollars
and cents. But the states and the people used pounds, shillings, pence,
and Spanish dollars, and it was several years before the states, by law,
required their officers to levy taxes and keep accounts in dollars and
cents (Virginia in 1792, Rhode Island and Massachusetts in 1795, New York
and Vermont in 1797, New Jersey in 1799).
[8] A single letter in those days was one written on a single sheet of
paper, large or small, and the postage on it was 6 cents for any distance
under 30 miles, 8 cents from 30 to 60, 10 cents from 60 to 100, and so on
to 450 miles, above which the rate was 25 cents. In all our country there
were but 75 post offices, and the revenue derived from them was about
$100,000 a year.
[9] Read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. II, pp.
189-204.
[10] Good feeling toward France led the Republicans to some funny
extremes. To address a person as Sir, Mr., Mrs., or Miss was unrepublican.
You should say, as in France, Citizen Jones, or Citizeness Smith. Tall
poles with a red liberty cap on top were erected in every town where there
were Republicans; civic feasts were held; and July 14 (the anniversary of
the day the Bastile of Paris fell in 1789) was duly celebrated.
[11] When Great Britain drove French ships from the sea, France threw open
the trade with the French West Indies to other ships. But Great Britain
had laid down a rule that no neutral could have in time of war a trade
with her enemy it did not have in time of peace. Our merchants fell under
the ban of Great Britain for this reason.
[12] These frigates were not built. They were really intended for use
against the Barbary powers (Morocco, Tunis, Algiers, Tripoli) that were
plundering our Mediterranean commerce. These nations of northern Africa
had long been accustomed to prey upon European ships and sell the crews
into slavery. To obtain protection against such treatment the nations of
southern Europe paid these pirates an annual tribute. Some of our ships
and sailors were captured, and as we had no navy with which to protect our
commerce, a treaty was made with Algiers (1795) which bound us to pay a
yearly tribute of "twelve thousand Algerine sequins in maritime stores."
We shall see what came of this a few years later.
[13] In the Farewell Address, besides giving notice of his retirement,
Washington argued at length against sectional jealousy and party spirit,
and urged the promotion of institutions "for the general diffusion of
knowledge." He disapproved of large standing armies ("overgrown military
establishments"), and earnestly declared that our true policy is "to steer
clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world,"
especially European nations. Washington died at Mount Vernon, December 14,
1799.
[14] He called on all French citizens living in the United States to wear
on their hats the French tricolor (blue, white, and red) cockade, and of
course all the Republican friends of France did the same and made it their
party badge. He next published in the newspapers a long letter in which he
said, in substance, that unless the United States changed its policy
toward France it might expect trouble. This meant that unless a Republican
President (Jefferson) was elected, there might be war between the two
countries.
[15] John Adams was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1735. He graduated
from Harvard College, studied law, and in 1770 was one of the lawyers who
defended the soldiers that were tried for murder in connection with the
famous "Boston Massacre." He was sent to the First and Second Continental
Congresses, and was a member of the committee appointed to frame the
Declaration of Independence, and of the committee to arrange treaties with
foreign powers. He was for a time associated with Franklin in the ministry
to France; in 1780 went as minister to Holland; and in 1783 was one of the
signers of the treaty of peace with Great Britain. In 1785 he was
appointed the first United States minister to Great Britain; and in 1789-
97 was Vice President.
[16] Adams received 71 votes, Jefferson 68, Pinckney 59, Burr 30, and nine
other men also received votes. Under the original Constitution the
electors did not vote separately for President and Vice President. Each
cast one ballot with two names on it; the man receiving the most votes (if
a majority of the number of electors) was elected President, and the man
receiving the next highest number was elected Vice President. Thus it
happened that while the Federalists elected the President, the Republicans
elected the Vice President.
[17] The Federalists were John Marshall and Charles C. Pinckney. Elbridge
Gerry was the Republican member.
[18] Read the account of the popular excitement in McMaster's _History
of the People of the U. S._, Vol. II, pp. 376-387.
[19] That is, condemning them on the ground that the Constitution did not
give Congress power to make such laws. The Virginia and Kentucky
Resolutions are printed in full in MacDonald's Select Documents, 1776-
1861, pp. 149-160.
[20] One squadron that captured a number of vessels was under the command
of Captain John Barry. Another squadron under Captain Truxtun captured
sixty French privateers. The _Constellation_ took the French frigate
_Insurgente_ and beat the _Vengeance_, which escaped; the _Enterprise_
captured eight privateers and recaptured four American merchantmen; and
the _Boston_ captured the _Berceau_. During the war eighty-four armed
French vessels were taken by our navy.
[21] Thomas Jefferson was born on a Virginia plantation April 13, 1743,
attended William and Mary College, studied law, and in 1769 became a
member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. He rose into notice as a
defender of colonial rights, was sent to the Second Continental Congress,
and in 1776 wrote the Declaration of Independence. Between 1776 and 1789
he was a member of the Virginia legislature, governor of Virginia, member
of Congress (1783-1784), and minister to France (1784-1789). He was a
strict constructionist of the Constitution; he wrote the original draft of
the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, had great faith in the ability of the
people to govern themselves, and dreaded the growth of great cities and
the extension of the powers of the Supreme Court. He and John Adams died
the same day, July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of
the Declaration of Independence.
[22] Tennessee, the sixteenth, was admitted in 1796.
[23] A story is current that on inauguration day Jefferson rode unattended
to the Capitol and tied his horse to the fence before entering the Senate
Chamber and taking the oath of office. The story was invented by an
English traveler and is pure fiction. The President walked to the Capitol
attended by militia and the crowd of supporters who came to witness the
end of the contested election, and was saluted by the guns of a company of
artillery as he entered the Senate Chamber and again as he came out.
CHAPTER XIX
GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY, 1789-1805
PROSPERITY.--Twelve years had now elapsed since the meeting at New York of
the first Congress under the Constitution, and they had been years of
great prosperity.
When Washington took the oath of office, each state regulated its trade
with foreign countries and with its neighbors in its own way, and issued
its own paper money, which it made legal tender. Agriculture was in a
primitive stage, very little cotton was grown, mining was but little
practiced, manufacture had not passed the household stage, transportation
was slow and costly, and in all the states but three banks had been
chartered. [1]
With the establishment of a strong and vigorous government under the new
Constitution, and the passage of the much-needed laws we have mentioned,
these conditions began to pass away. Now that the people had a government
that could raise revenue, pay its debts, regulate trade with foreign
nations and between the states, enforce its laws, and provide a uniform
currency, confidence returned. Men felt safe to engage in business, and as
a consequence trade and commerce revived, and money long unused was
brought out and invested. Banks were incorporated and their stock quickly
purchased. Manufacturing companies were organized and mills and factories
started; a score of canals were planned and the building of several was
begun; [2] turnpike companies were chartered; lotteries [3] were
authorized to raise money for all sorts of public improvements,--schools,
churches, wharves, factories, and bridges; and speculation in stock and
Western land became a rage.
NEW INDUSTRIES.--It was during the decade 1790-1800 that Slater built the
first mill for working cotton yarn; [4] that Eli Terry began the
manufacture of clocks as a business; that sewing thread was first made in
our country (at Pawtucket, R.I.); that Jacob Perkins began to make nails
by machine; that the first broom was made from broom corn; that the first
carpet mill and the first cotton mill were started; that Eli Whitney
invented the cotton gin; and that the first steamboat went up and down the
Delaware.
[Illustration: A TERRY CLOCK.]
THE COTTON GIN.--Before 1790 the products of the states south of Virginia
were tar, pitch, lumber, rice, and indigo. But the destruction of the
indigo plants by insects year after year suggested the cultivation of some
other crop, and cotton was tried. To clean it of its seeds by hand was
slow and costly, and to remove the difficulty Eli Whitney of
Massachusetts, then a young man living in Georgia, invented a machine
called the cotton gin. [5] Then the cultivation of cotton became most
profitable, and the new industry spread rapidly in the South.
[Illustration: MODEL OF WHITNEY'S COTTON GIN. In the National Museum,
Washington.]
THE STEAMBOAT.--The idea of driving boats through water by machinery moved
by steam was an old one. Several men had made such experiments in our
country before 1790. [6] But in that year John Fitch put a steamboat on
the Delaware and during four months ran it regularly from Philadelphia to
Trenton. He was ahead of his time and for lack of support was forced to
give up the enterprise.
[Illustration: MODEL OF FITCH'S STEAMBOAT. In the National Museum,
Washington.]
THE NEW WEST.--In the western country ten years had wrought a great
change. Good times in the commercial states and the Indian war in the West
had done much to keep population out of the Northwest Territory from 1790
to 1795. But from the South population had moved steadily over the
mountains into the region south of the Ohio River. The new state of
Kentucky (admitted in 1792) grew rapidly in population.
North Carolina, after ratifying the Constitution, again ceded her Western
territory, and out of this and the narrow strip ceded by South Carolina,
Congress (1790) made the "Territory of the United States south of the
river Ohio." But population came in such numbers that in 1796 the North
Carolina cession was admitted as the state of Tennessee.
In the far South, after Spain accepted the boundary of 31°, Congress
established the territory of Mississippi (1798), consisting of most of the
southern half of the present states of Mississippi and Alabama. Four years
later Georgia accepted her present boundaries, and the territory of
Mississippi was then enlarged, so as to include all the Western lands
ceded by South Carolina and Georgia (map, p. 242).
CLEVELAND.--Jay's treaty, by providing for the surrender of the forts
along the Great Lakes, opened that region to settlement, and in 1796 Moses
Cleveland led a New England colony across New York and on the shore of
Lake Erie laid out the town which now bears his name. Others followed, and
by 1800 there were thirty-two settlements in the Connecticut Reserve.
DETROIT.--The chief town of the Northwest was Detroit. Wayne, who saw it
in 1796, described it as a crowded mass of one- and two-story buildings
separated by streets so narrow that two wagons could scarcely pass. Around
the town was a stockade of high pickets with bastions and cannon at proper
distances, and within the stockade "a kind of citadel." The only entrances
were through two gates defended by blockhouses at either end of a street
along the river. Every night from sunset to sunrise the gates were shut,
and during this time no Indian was allowed to remain in the town.
INDIANA TERRITORY.--After Wayne's treaty with the Indians, five years
brought so many people into the Northwest Territory that in 1800 the
western part was cut off and made the separate territory of Indiana. [7]
Not 6,000 white people then lived in all its vast area.
The census of 1800 showed that more than 5,000,000 people then dwelt in
our country; of these, nearly 400,000 were in the five Western states and
territories--Kentucky, Tennessee, Northwest, Indiana, Mississippi.
PUBLIC LAND ON CREDIT.--The same year (1800) in which Congress created the
territory of Indiana, it changed the manner of selling the public lands.
Hitherto the buyer had been obliged to pay cash. After 1800 he might buy
on credit, paying one quarter annually. The effect of this was to bring
settlers into the West in such numbers that the state of Ohio was admitted
in 1803, and the territory of Michigan formed in 1805. [8]
[Illustration: SETTLED AREA IN 1810.]
FRANCE ACQUIRES LOUISIANA.--For yet another reason the year 1800 is a
memorable one in our history. When the French Minister of Foreign Affairs
heard that Spain (in 1795) had agreed that 31° north latitude should be
the dividing line between us and West Florida, he became alarmed. He
feared that our next step would be to acquire West Florida, and perhaps
the country west of the Mississippi. To prevent this he asked Spain to
give Louisiana back to France as France had given it to Spain in 1762 (see
page 143); France would then occupy and hold it forever. Spain refused;
but soon after Napoleon came into power the request was renewed in so
tempting a form that Spain yielded, and by a secret treaty returned
Louisiana to France in 1800.
[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES, 1805.]
THE MISSISSIPPI CLOSED TO OUR COMMERCE.--The treaty for a while was kept
secret; but when it became known that Napoleon was about to send an army
to take possession of Louisiana, a Spanish official at New Orleans took
away the "right of deposit" at that city and so prevented our citizens
from sending their produce out of the Mississippi River. This was a
violation of the treaty with Spain, and the settlers in the valley from
Pittsburg to Natchez demanded the instant seizure of New Orleans. Indeed,
an attempt was made in Congress to authorize the formation of an army of
fifty thousand men for this very purpose.
[Illustration: THE CABILDO, CITY HALL OF NEW ORLEANS.]
LOUISIANA PURCHASED, 1803.--But President Jefferson did not want war;
instead, he obtained the consent of Congress to offer $2,000,000 for West
Florida and New Orleans. Monroe was then sent to Paris to aid Livingston,
our minister, in making the purchase, and much to their surprise Napoleon
offered to sell all Louisiana. [9] After some hesitation the offer was
accepted. The price was $15,000,000, of which $11,250,000 was paid to
France and $3,750,000 to citizens of our country who had claims against
France. [10]
THE BOUNDARIES OF LOUISIANA.--The splendid territory thus acquired had
never been given definite bounds. But resting on the discoveries and
explorations of Marquette, Joliet, and La Salle, Louisiana was understood
to extend westward to the Rio Grande and the Rocky Mountains, and
northward to the sources of the rivers that flowed into the Mississippi.
Whether the purchase included West Florida was doubtful, but we claimed
it, so that our claim extended eastward to the Perdido River.
THE TERRITORY OF ORLEANS.--The country having been acquired, it had to be
governed. So much of it as lay west of the Mississippi and south of 33°
north latitude, with the city of New Orleans and the region round about
it, was made the new territory of Orleans. The rest of the purchase west
of the Mississippi was called the territory of Louisiana (map, p. 242).
LOUISIANA EXPLORED.--When the Louisiana purchase was made in 1803, most of
the country was an unknown land. But in 1804 an exploring party under
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark [11] went up the Missouri River from
St. Louis, spent the winter of 1804-5 in what is now North Dakota, crossed
the Rocky Mountains in the summer of 1805, and went down the Columbia to
the Pacific. After passing a winter (1805-6) near the coast, the party
started eastward in the spring, recrossed the mountains, and in the autumn
reached St. Louis.
ST. LOUIS was then a little frontier hamlet of maybe a thousand people of
all sorts--French, Spanish, American, negro slaves, and Indians. The
houses were built on a bottom or terrace at the foot of a limestone cliff
and arranged along a few streets with French names. The chief occupation
of the people was the fur trade, and to them the reports brought back by
Lewis and Clark were so exciting that the St. Louis Fur Company was
organized to hunt and trap on the upper Missouri.
[Illustration: BRANDING IRON USED BY LEWIS.]
REFORMS IN THE STATES.--During the years which had passed since the
adoption of the Federal Constitution, great political reforms had been
made. The doctrine that all men are born politically equal was being put
into practice, and the states had begun to reform their old constitutions
or to adopt new ones, abolishing religious qualifications for
officeholders or voters, [12] and doing away with the property
qualifications formerly required of voters. [13] Some states had reformed
their laws for punishing crime, had reduced the number of crimes
punishable with death from fifteen or twenty to one or two, and had
abolished whipping, branding, cutting off the ears, and other cruel
punishments of colonial times. The right of man to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness was more fully recognized than ever before.
REFORMS IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.--When the Republican party came into
power in 1801, it was pledged to make reforms "to put the ship of state,"
as Jefferson said, "on the Republican tack." About a third of the
important Federalist office-holders were accordingly removed from office,
the annual speech at the opening of Congress was abolished, and the
written message introduced--a custom followed ever since by our
Presidents. Internal taxes were repealed, the army was reduced, [14] the
cost of government lessened, and millions of dollars set aside annually
for the payment of the national debt.
That there might never again be such a contested election as that of 1800,
Congress submitted to the states an amendment to the Constitution
providing that the electors should vote for President and Vice President
on separate ballots, and not as theretofore on the same ballot. The states
promptly ratified, and as the Twelfth Amendment it went into force in 1804
in time for the election of that year.
JEFFERSON REËLECTED.--The Federalist candidates for President and Vice
President in 1804 were Charles C. Pinckney and Rufus King; but the
Republican candidates, Thomas Jefferson and George Clinton, [15] were
elected by a very large majority.
BURR KILLS HAMILTON.--Vice-President Burr, who had consented to be a
candidate for the presidency in 1801 (p. 235) against Jefferson, had never
been forgiven by his party, and had ever since been a political outcast.
His friends in New York, however, nominated him for governor and tried to
get the support of the Federalists, but Hamilton sought to prevent this.
After Burr was defeated he challenged Hamilton to a duel (July, 1804) and
killed him.
BURR'S CONSPIRACY.--Fearing arrest for murder, Burr fled to Philadelphia
and applied to the British minister for British help in effecting "a
separation of the western part of the United States from that which lies
between the Atlantic and the mountains"; for he believed the people in
Orleans territory were eager to throw off American rule. After the end of
his term as Vice President (March 4, 1805) Burr went west and came back
with a scheme for conquering a region in the southwest, enlisted a few men
in his enterprise, assembled them at Blennerhassets Island in the Ohio
River (a few miles below Marietta), and (in December, 1806) started for
New Orleans. The boats with men and arms floated down the Ohio, entered
the Mississippi, and were going down that river when General James
Wilkinson, a fellow-conspirator, betrayed the scheme to Jefferson. Burr
was arrested and sent to Virginia, charged with levying war against the
United States, which was treason, and with setting on foot a military
expedition against the dominions of the king of Spain, which was a "high
misdemeanor." Of the charge of treason Burr was acquitted; that of high
misdemeanor was sent to a court in Ohio for trial, and came to naught.
[16]
[Illustration: BURR'S GRAVE AT PRINCETON, N. J.]
SUMMARY
1. With the establishment of government under the Constitution, confidence
was restored and prosperity began.
2. Banks were chartered by the states, some roads and canals were
constructed, and money was gathered by lotteries for all sorts of public
improvements.
3. New industries were started, and the cotton gin and other machines were
invented.
4. The defeat of the Indians, the removal of the British and Spanish from
our Western country, and the sale of public land on credit encouraged a
stream of emigrants into the West.
5. Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio entered the Union, and the territories of
Mississippi, Indiana, and Michigan were organized.
6. The cession of Louisiana to France in 1800, and the closing of the
Mississippi River to Americans, led to the purchase of Louisiana in 1803.
7. This great region was organized into the territories of Orleans and
Louisiana; and the width of the continent from St. Louis to the mouth of
the Columbia was explored by Lewis and Clark.
8. Many reforms were made in the state and national governments tending to
make them more democratic.
9. In 1804 Jefferson was reelected President, but Burr was not again
chosen Vice President. Having engaged in a plan for conquering a region in
the southwest (1806), Burr was arrested for treason, but was not
condemned.
[Illustration: PIONEER HUNTER.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Read "Town and Country Life in 1800," Chap. xii in McMaster's
_History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. II.
[2] The Middlesex from Boston to Lowell; the Dismal Swamp in Virginia; the
Santee in South Carolina.
[3] In those days lotteries for public purposes were not thought wrong.
The Continental Congress and many state legislatures used them to raise
revenue. Congress authorized one to secure money with which to improve
Washington city. Faneuil Hall in Boston and Independence Hall in
Philadelphia were aided by lotteries. Private lotteries had been forbidden
by many of the colonies. But the states continued to authorize lotteries
for public purposes till after 1830, when one by one they forbade all
lotteries.
[4] Parliament in 1774 forbade any one to take away from England any
drawing or model of any machine used in the manufacture of cotton goods.
No such machines were allowed in our country in colonial times. In 1787,
however, the Massachusetts legislature voted six tickets in the State Land
Lottery to two Scotchmen named Burr to help them build a spinning jenny.
About the same time £200 was given to a man named Somers to help him
construct a machine. The models thus built were put in the Statehouse at
Boston for anybody to copy who wished, and mills were soon started at
Worcester, Beverly, and Providence. But it was not till 1790, when Samuel
Slater came to America, that the great English machines were introduced.
Slater was familiar with them and made his from memory.
[5] Eli Whitney was born in 1765, and while still a lad showed great skill
in making and handling tools. After graduating from Yale College, he went
to reside in the family of General Greene, who had been given a plantation
by Georgia. While he was making the first cotton gin, planters came long
distances to see it, and before it was finished and patented some one
broke into the building where it was and stole it. In 1794 he received a
patent, but he was unable to enforce his rights. After a few years, South
Carolina bought his right for that state, and North Carolina levied a tax
on cotton gins for his benefit. But the sum he received was very small.
[6] James Rumsey, as early as 1785, had experimented with a steamboat on
the Potomac, and about the same time John Fitch built one in Pennsylvania,
and succeeded so well that in 1786 and in 1787 one of his boats made trial
trips on the Delaware. Later in 1787 Rumsey ran a steamboat on the Potomac
at the rate of four miles an hour.
[7] Not the Indiana of to-day, but the great region including what is now
Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and half of Michigan and Minnesota. The
settlements were Mackinaw, Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, Cahokia, Belle
Fontaine, L'Aigle, Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, Fort Massac, and
Vincennes. Notice that most of these names are of French origin. The
governor was William H. Harrison, afterward a President.
[8] In 1809 Illinois territory was created from the western part of
Indiana territory. When the census was taken in 1810, nearly 1,000,000
people were living west of the Appalachians.
[9] Read the scene between Napoleon and his brothers over the sale of
Louisiana, as told in Adams's _History of the U. S._, Vol. II, pp. 33-39.
[10] The transfer of Louisiana to France took place on November 30, 1803,
and the delivery to us on December 20. Our commissioners William C. C.
Claiborne and James Wilkinson met the French commissioner Laussat (lo-
sah') in the hall of the Cabildo (a building still in existence, p. 243),
presented their credentials, received the keys of the city, and listened
to Laussat as he proclaimed Louisiana the property of the United States.
This ceremony over, the commissioners stepped out on a balcony to witness
the transfer of flags. The tricolor which floated from the top of a staff
in the Place d'Armes (now Jackson Square) was drawn slowly down and the
stars and stripes as slowly raised till the two met midway, when both were
saluted by cannon. Our flag was then raised to the top of the pole, and
that of France lowered and placed in the hands of Laussat. One hundred
years later the anniversary was celebrated by repeating the same ceremony.
The Federalists bitterly opposed the purchase of Louisiana. Read
McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. II, pp. 629-631. For
descriptions of life in Louisiana, read Cable's _Creoles of Louisiana_,
_The Grandissimes_, and _Strange True Stories of Louisiana_.
[11] Both Lewis and Clark were Virginians and experienced Indian fighters.
On their return Lewis was made governor of the upper Louisiana territory,
later called Missouri territory; and died near Nashville in 1809. Clark
was likewise a governor of Missouri territory and later a Superintendent
of Indian Affairs; he died at St. Louis in 1838. He was a younger brother
of George Rogers Clark.
[12] Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia.
[13] In Pennsylvania all free male taxpayers could vote. Georgia and
Delaware gave the suffrage to all free white male taxpayers. In Vermont
and Kentucky there had never been a property qualification.
[14] In 1802, however, there was founded the United States Military
Academy at West Point.
[15] Clinton was born in 1739, took an active part in Revolutionary
affairs, was chosen governor of New York in 1777, and was reflected every
election for eighteen years. He was the leader of the popular party in
that state, was twice chosen Vice President of the United States, and died
in that office in 1812.
[16] Burr's trial was conducted (in a circuit court) with rigid
impartiality by Chief-Justice John Marshall, one of the greatest judges
our country has known. As head of the Supreme Court for thirty-four years
(1801-35), he rendered many decisions of lasting influence.
CHAPTER XX
THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE
WAR WITH TRIPOLI.--In his first inaugural Jefferson announced a policy of
peace, commerce, and friendship with all nations; but unhappily he was not
able to carry it out. Under treaties with Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis, we
had paid tribute or made presents to these powers, to prevent them from
attacking our ships. In 1800, however, when Adams sent the yearly tribute
to Algiers, the ruler of Tripoli demanded a large present, and when it did
not come, declared war. Expecting trouble with this nest of pirates,
Jefferson in 1801 sent over a fleet which was to blockade the coast of
Tripoli and that of any other Barbary power that might be at war with us.
But four years passed, and Tripoli was five times bombarded before terms
of peace were dictated by Captain Rodgers under the muzzles of his guns
(1805). [1]
GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE.--While our contest with Tripoli was dragging
along, France and Great Britain again went to war (1803), and our neutral
rights were again attacked. British cruisers captured many American ships
on the ground that they were carrying on trade between the ports of France
and her colonies.
Napoleon attacked British commerce by decrees which closed the ports of
Europe to British goods, declared a blockade of the British Isles, and
made subject to capture any neutral vessels that touched at a British
port. Great Britain replied with orders in council, blockading the ports
of France and her allies, and requiring all neutral vessels going to a
closed port to stop at some British port and pay tribute. [2]
As Great Britain ruled the sea, and Napoleon most of western Europe, these
decrees and orders meant the ruin of our commerce. Against such rules of
war our government protested, claiming the right of "free trade," or the
"freedom of the seas,"--the right of a neutral to trade with either
belligerent, provided the goods were not for use in actual war (as guns,
powder, and shot).
OUR SAILORS IMPRESSED.--But we had yet another cause of quarrel with Great
Britain. She claimed that in time of war she had a right to the services
of her sailors; that if they were on foreign ships, they must come home
and serve on her war vessels. She denied that a British subject could
become a naturalized American; once a British subject, always a British
subject, was her doctrine. She stopped our vessels at sea, examined the
crews, and seized or "impressed" any British subjects found among them--
and many American sailors as well. Against such "impressment" our
government set up the claim of "sailors' rights"--denying the right of
Great Britain to search our ships at sea or to seize sailors of any
nationality while on board an American vessel.
THE ATTACK ON THE CHESAPEAKE.--Before 1805 Great Britain confined
impressment to the high seas and to her own ports. After 1805 she carried
it on also off our coasts and in our ports. Finally, in 1807, a British
officer, hearing that some British sailors were among the crew of our
frigate _Chesapeake_ which was about to sail, only partly equipped,
from the Washington navy yard, ordered the _Leopard_ to follow the
_Chesapeake_ to sea and search her. This was done, and when Commodore
Barron refused to have his vessel searched, she was fired on by the
_Leopard_, boarded, searched, and one British and three American
sailors were taken from her deck. [3]
[Illustration: THE CHESAPEAKE SURRENDERS TO THE LEOPARD.]
CONGRESS RETALIATES.--It was now high time for us to strike back at France
and Great Britain. We had either to fight for "free trade and sailors'
rights," or to abandon the sea and stop all attempts to trade with Europe
and Great Britain. Jefferson chose the latter course. Our retaliation
therefore consisted of
1. The Long Embargo (1807-9).
2. The Non-intercourse Act (1809).
3. Macon's Bill No. 2 (1810).
4. The Declaration of War (1812).
THE LONG EMBARGO.--Late in December, 1807, at the request of Jefferson,
Congress laid an embargo and cut off all trade with foreign ports. [4] The
restriction was so sweeping and the damage to farmers, planters,
merchants, shipowners, and sailors so great, that the law was at once
evaded. More stringent laws were therefore enacted, till at last trade
along the coast from port to port was made all but impossible. Defiance to
the embargo laws became so general [5] that a Force Act (1809) was passed,
giving the President authority to use the army and navy in enforcing
obedience. This was too much, and such a storm of indignation arose in the
Eastern states that Congress repealed the embargo laws (1809) and
substituted
THE NON-INTERCOURSE ACT.--This forbade commerce with Great Britain and
France, but allowed it with such countries as were not under French or
British control. If either power would repeal its orders or decrees, the
President was to announce this fact and renew commerce with that power.
Just at this time the second term of Jefferson ended, [6] and Madison
became President (March 4, 1809). [8]
THE ERSKINE AGREEMENT(1809).--And now the British minister, Mr. Erskine,
offered, in the name of the king, to lift the orders in council if the
United States would renew trade with Great Britain. The offer was
accepted, and the renewal of trade proclaimed. But when the king heard of
it, he recalled Erskine and disavowed the agreement, and Madison was
forced to declare trade with Great Britain again suspended.
MACON'S BILL NO. 2.--Non-intercourse having failed, Congress in 1810 tried
a new experiment, and by Macon's Bill No. 2 (so-called because it was the
second of two bills introduced by Mr. Macon) restored trade with France
and Great Britain. At the same time it provided that if either power would
withdraw its decrees or orders, trade should be cut off with the other
unless that power also would withdraw them.
Napoleon now (1810) pretended to recall his decrees, but Great Britain
refused to withdraw her orders in council, whereupon in 1811 trade was
again stopped with Great Britain.
THE DECLARATION OF WAR.--And now the end had come. We had either to submit
tamely or to fight. The people decided to fight, and in the elections of
1810 completely changed the character of the House of Representatives. A
large number of new members were elected, and the control of public
affairs passed from men of the Revolutionary period to a younger set with
very different views. Among them were two men who rose at once to
leadership and remained so for nearly forty years to come. One was Henry
Clay of Kentucky; [9] the other was John C. Calhoun of South Carolina.
Clay was made speaker of the House of Representatives, and under his lead
the House at once began preparations for war with Great Britain, which was
formally declared in June, 1812. The causes stated by Madison in the
proclamation were (1) impressing our sailors, (2) sending ships to cruise
off our ports and search our vessels, (3) interfering with our trade by
orders in council, and (4) urging the Indians to make war on the Western
settlers.
THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE.--That the British had been tampering with the
Indians was believed to be proved by the preparation of many of the Indian
tribes for war. From time to time some Indian of great ability had arisen
and attempted to unite the tribes in a general war upon the whites. King
Philip was such a leader, and so was Pontiac, and so at this time were the
twin brothers Tecumthe and the Prophet. The purpose of Tecumthe was to
unite all the tribes from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico in a
general war, to drive the whites from the Mississippi valley. After
uniting many of the Northern tribes he went south, leaving his brother,
the Prophet, in command. But the action of the Prophet so alarmed General
Harrison, [10] governor of Indiana territory, that he marched against the
Indians and beat them at the Tippecanoe (1811). [11]
[Illustration: VICINITY OF THE TIPPECANOE RIVER.]
MADISON REËLECTED.--As Madison was willing to be a war President the
Republicans nominated him for a second term of the presidency, with
Elbridge Gerry [12] for the vice presidency. The Federalists and those
opposed to war, the peace party, nominated DeWitt Clinton for President.
Madison and Gerry were elected. [13]
THE WAR OPENS.--The war which now followed, "Mr. Madison's War" as the
Federalists called it, was fought along the edges of our country and on
the sea. It may therefore be considered under four heads:--
1. War on land along the Canadian frontier.
2. War on land along the Atlantic seaboard.
3. War on land along the Gulf coast.
4. War on the sea.
Scarcely had the fighting begun when news arrived that Great Britain had
recalled the hated orders in council, but she would not give up the right
of search and of impressment, so the war went on, as Madison believed that
cause enough still remained.
[Illustration: WAR OF 1812.]
FIGHTING ON THE FRONTIER, 1812.--The hope of the leaders of the war party,
"War Hawks" as the Federalists called them, was to capture the British
provinces north of us and make peace at Halifax. Three armies were
therefore gathered along the Canadian frontier. One under General Hull was
to cross at Detroit and march eastward. A second under General Van
Rensselaer was to cross the Niagara River, join the forces under Hull,
capture York (now Toronto), and then go on to Montreal. The third under
General Dearborn was to enter Canada from northeastern New York, arid meet
the other troops near Montreal. The three armies were then to capture
Montreal and Quebec and conquer Canada.
But the plan failed; Hull was driven out of Canada, and surrendered at
Detroit. Van Rensselaer did not get a footing in Canada, and Dearborn went
no farther than the northern boundary line of New York.
FIGHTING ON THE FRONTIER, 1813.--The surrender of Hull filled the people
with indignation, and a new army under William Henry Harrison was sent
across the wilds of Ohio in the dead of winter to recapture Detroit. But
the British and Indians attacked and captured part of the army at
Frenchtown on the Raisin River, where the Indians massacred the prisoners.
They then attacked Fort Meigs and Fort Stephenson, but were driven off.
BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE.--Meantime a young naval officer, Oliver Hazard Perry,
was hastily building at Erie (Presque Isle) a little fleet to attack the
British, whose fleet on Lake Erie had been built just as hurriedly. The
fight took place near the west end of the lake and ended in the capture of
all the British ships. [14] It was then that Perry sent off to Harrison
those familiar words "We have met the enemy and they are ours." [15]
BATTLE OF THE THAMES.--This signal victory gave Perry command of Lake Erie
and enabled him to carry Harrison's army over to Canada, where, on the
Thames River, he beat the British and Indians and put them to flight. [16]
By these two victories of Perry and Harrison we regained all that we had
lost by the surrender of Hull. On the New York frontier neither side
accomplished anything decisive in 1813, though the public buildings at
York (now Toronto) were destroyed, and some villages on both sides of the
Niagara River were burned.
FIGHTING ON THE FRONTIER, 1814.--Better officers were now put in command
on the New York frontier, and during 1814 our troops under Jacob Brown and
Winfield Scott captured Fort Erie and won the battles of Chippewa and
Lundys Lane. But in the end the British drove our army out of Canada.
Further eastward the British gathered a fleet on Lake Champlain and sent
an army to attack Plattsburg, but Thomas Macdonough utterly destroyed the
fleet in Plattsburg Bay, and the army was repulsed.
FIGHTING ALONG THE SEABOARD.--During 1812 and 1813 the British did little
more than blockade our coast from Rhode Island to New Orleans, leaving all
the east coast of New England unmolested. [17] But in 1814 the entire
coast was blockaded, the eastern part of Maine was seized and occupied,
and Stonington in Connecticut was bombarded.
WASHINGTON AND BALTIMORE ATTACKED.--A fleet entered Chesapeake Bay and
landed an army which marched to Washington, burned the Capitol, the
President's house, the Treasury Building, and other public buildings, [18]
and with the aid of the fleet made a vain attack on Baltimore.
It was during the bombardment of a fort near Baltimore that Francis Scott
Key, temporarily a prisoner with the British, wrote _The Star-spangled
Banner_.
[Illustration: RUINS OF THE CAPITOL AFTER THE FIRE.]
FIGHTING ALONG THE GULF COAST.--After the repulse at Baltimore the British
army was carried to the island of Jamaica to join a great expedition
fitting out for an attack on New Orleans. It was November before the fleet
bearing the army set sail, and December when the troops landed on the
southeast coast of Louisiana and started for the Mississippi. On the banks
of that river, a few miles below New Orleans, they met our forces under
General Andrew Jackson drawn up behind a line of rude intrenchments,
attacked them on the 8th of January, 1815, and were badly beaten.
[Illustration: BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. From an old print.]
THE SEA FIGHTS.--The victories won by the army were indeed important, but
those by the navy were more glorious still. In years before the war
British captains laughed at our little navy and called our ships "fir-
built things with a bit of striped bunting at their mastheads." These fir-
built things now inflicted on the British navy a series of defeats such as
it had never before suffered from any nation.
[Illustration: NAVAL CANNON OF 1812.]
Before the end of 1812 the frigate _Constitution,_ "Old Ironsides" as she
is still popularly called, [19] beat the _Guerrière_ (gar-e-ar') so badly
that she could not be brought to port; the little sloop _Wasp_ almost shot
to pieces the British sloop _Frolic_; [20] the frigate _United States_
brought the _Macedonian_ in triumph to Newport (R.I.); [21] and the
_Constitution_ made a wreck of the _Java_.
[Illustration: CUTLASS.]
In 1813 the _Hornet_, Commander James Lawrence, so riddled the British
sloop _Peacock_ that after surrendering she went down carrying with her
nine of her own crew and three of the _Hornet's_. The brig _Enterprise_,
William Burrows in command, fought the British brig _Boxer_, Captain
Blythe, off Portland harbor, Maine. Both commanders were killed, but the
Boxer was taken and carried into Portland, where Burrows and Blythe,
wrapped in the flags they had so well defended, were buried in the Eastern
Cemetery which overlooks the bay.
THE CHESAPEAKE CAPTURED.--But we too met with defeats. When Lawrence
returned home with the _Hornet_, he was given command of the _Chesapeake_,
then fitting out in Boston harbor, and while so engaged was challenged by
the commander of the British frigate _Shannon_ to come out and fight. He
went, was mortally wounded, and a second time the _Chesapeake_ struck to
the British. As Lawrence was carried below he cried out, "Don't give up
the ship--keep her guns going--fight her till she sinks"; but the British
carried her by boarding.
The brig _Argus_, while destroying merchantmen off the English coast,
was taken by the British brig _Pelican_. [22]
PEACE.--Quite early in the war Russia tendered her services as mediator
and they were accepted by us. Great Britain declined, but offered to treat
directly if commissioners were sent to some neutral port. John Quincy
Adams, Henry Clay, Albert Gallatin, James A. Bayard, and Jonathan Russell
were duly appointed, and late in December, 1814, signed a treaty of peace
at Ghent. Nothing was said in it about impressment, search, or orders in
council, nor indeed about any of the causes of the war.
Nevertheless the gain was great. Our naval victories made us respected
abroad and showed us to be the equal of any maritime power. At home, the
war aroused a national feeling, did much to consolidate the Union, and put
an end to our old colonial dependence on Europe. Thenceforth Americans
looked westward, not eastward.
THE HARTFORD CONVENTION.--News of the treaty signed in December, 1814, did
not reach our country till February, 1815. [23] Had there been ocean
steamships or cables in those days, two famous events in our history would
not have happened. The battle of New Orleans would not have been fought,
and the report of the Hartford Convention would not have been published.
The Hartford Convention was composed of Federalist delegates from the New
England states, [24] met in December, 1814, and held its sessions in
secret. But its report proposed some amendments to the United States
Constitution, state armies to defend New England, and the retention of a
part of the federal taxes to pay the cost. Congress was to be asked to
agree to this, arid if it declined, the state legislatures were to send
delegates to another convention to meet in June, 1815. [25] When the
commissioners to present these demands reached Washington, peace had been
declared, and they went home, followed by the jeers of the nation.
SUMMARY
1. The war with Tripoli (1801-5) ended in victory for our navy.
2. The renewal of war between France and Great Britain involved us in more
serious trouble.
3. When France attacked British commerce by decrees, Great Britain replied
with orders in council (1806-7). In these paper blockades we were the
chief sufferers.
4. Great Britain claimed a right to take her subjects off American ships,
and while impressing many British sailors into her navy, she impressed
many Americans also.
5. She sent vessels of war to our coast to search our ships, and in 1807
even seized sailors on board an American ship of war, the
_Chesapeake_.
6. Congress retaliated with several measures cutting off trade with France
and Great Britain; these failing, war on Great Britain was declared in
1812.
7. War on land was begun by attempts to invade Canada from Detroit,
Niagara, and northeastern New York. These attempts failed, and Detroit was
captured by the British.
8. In 1813 Perry won a great naval victory on Lake Erie; and the American
soldiers, after a reverse at Frenchtown, invaded Canada and won the battle
of the Thames.
9. In 1814 the Americans won the battles of Chippewa and Lundys Lane, but
were later driven from Canada. A British invasion of New York met disaster
at Plattsburg Bay.
10. Along the seaboard the British blockaded the entire coast, seized the
eastern part of Maine, took Washington and burned the public buildings,
and attacked Baltimore.
11. Later New Orleans was attacked, but in 1815 Jackson won a signal
victory and drove the British from Louisiana.
12. On the sea our vessels won many ship duels.
13. Peace was made in 1814, just as the New England Federalists were
holding their Hartford Convention. The war resulted in strengthening the
Union and making it more respected.
[Illustration: FLINTLOCK MUSKET, SUCH AS WAS USED IN THE WAR OF 1812.]
[Illustration: MODERN MILITARY CARBINE.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] During the war, in 1803, the frigate _Philadelphia_ ran on the rocks
in the harbor of Tripoli, and was captured by the Tripolitans. The
Americans then determined to destroy her. Stephen Decatur sailed into the
harbor with a volunteer crew in a little vessel disguised as a fishing
boat. The Tripolitans allowed the Americans to come close, whereupon they
boarded the _Philadelphia_, drove off the pirate crew, set the vessel
on fire, and escaped unharmed.
[2] The French decrees and British orders in council were as follows: (1)
Napoleon began (1806) by issuing a decree closing the ports of Hamburg and
Bremen (which he had lately captured) and so cutting off British trade
with Germany. (2) Great Britain retaliated with an order in council (May,
1806), blockading the coast of Europe from Brest to the mouth of the river
Elbe. (3) Napoleon retaliated (November, 1806) with the Berlin Decree,
declaring the British Isles in a state of blockade, and forbidding English
trade with any country under French control. (4) Great Britain issued
another order in council (November, 1807), commanding her naval officers
to seize any neutral vessel going to any closed port in Europe unless it
first touched at a British port, paid duty, and bought a license to trade.
(5) Napoleon thereupon (December, 1807) issued his Milan Decree,
authorizing the seizure of any neutral vessel that had touched at any
British port and taken out a license. Read Adams's _History of the U. S._,
Vol. III, Chap. 16; Vol. IV, Chaps. 4, 5, 6; McMaster's _History of the
People of the U. S._, Vol. III, pp. 219-223, 249-250, 272-274.
[3] The British sailor was hanged at Halifax. The three Americans were not
returned till 1812. Read Maclay's _History of the Navy_, Vol. I, pp. 305-
308.
[4] The Federalists ridiculed the embargo as the "terrapin-policy"; that
is, the United States, like a terrapin when struck, had pulled its head
and feet within its shell instead of fighting. They reversed the letters
so that they read "o-grab-me," and wrote the syllables backward so as to
spell "go-bar-'em."
[5] Read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. III,
pp. 279-338.
[7] The people would gladly have given him a third term. Indeed, the
legislatures of eight states invited him to be a candidate for reflection.
In declining he said, "If some termination to the services of the Chief
Magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution, or supplied by practice, his
office, nominally four years, will in fact become for life; and history
shows how easily that degenerates into an inheritance." The examples of
Washington and Jefferson established an unwritten law against a third term
for any President.
[8] James Madison was born in Virginia in 1751, and educated partly at
Princeton. In 1776 he was a delegate to the Virginia convention to frame a
state constitution, was a member of the first legislature under it, went
to Congress in 1780-83, and then returned to the state legislature, 1784-
87. He was one of the most important members of the convention that framed
the United States Constitution. After the adoption of the Constitution, he
led the Republican party in Congress (1789-97). He wrote the Virginia
Resolutions of 1798, and in 1801-9 was Secretary of State under Jefferson.
As the Republican candidate for President in 1808, he received 122
electoral votes against 47 for the Federalist candidate Charles C.
Pinckney. He died in 1836.
[9] Henry Clay, the son of a Baptist minister, was born in Virginia in
1777 in a neighborhood called "the Slashes." One of his boyhood duties was
to ride to the mill with a bag of wheat or corn. Thus he earned the name
of "the Mill Boy of the Slashes," which in his campaigns for the
presidency was used to get votes. His education was received in a log-
cabin schoolhouse. At fourteen he was behind the counter in a store at
Richmond; but finally began to read law, and in 1797 moved to Kentucky to
"grow up with the country." There he prospered greatly, and in 1803 was
elected to the state legislature, in 1806 and again in 1809-10 served as a
United States senator to fill an unexpired term, and in 1811 entered the
House of Representatives. From then till his death, June 29, 1852, he was
one of the most important men in public life; he was ten years speaker of
the House, four years Secretary of State, twenty years a senator, and
three times a candidate for President. He was a great leader and an
eloquent speaker. He was called "the Great Pacificator" and "the Great
Compromiser," and one of his sayings, "I had rather be right than be
President," has become famous.
[10] William Henry Harrison was a son of Benjamin Harrison, a signer of
the Declaration of Independence. He was born in Virginia in 1773, served
in the Indian campaigns under St. Clair and Wayne, commanded Fort
Washington on the site of Cincinnati, was secretary of the Northwest
Territory, and then delegate to Congress, and did much to secure the law
for the sale of public land on credit. He was made governor of Indiana
Territory in 1801, and won great fame as a general in the War of 1812.
[11] Tecumthe's efforts in the South led to a war with the Creeks in 1813-
14. These Indians began by capturing Fort Mims in what is now southern
Alabama, and killing many people there; but they were soon subdued by
General Andrew Jackson. Read Edward Eggleston's _Roxy_; and Eggleston
and Seelye's _Tecumseh and the Shawnee Prophet_.
[12] Gerry was a native of Massachusetts and one of the delegates who
refused to sign the Constitution when it was framed in 1787. As a leading
Republican he was chosen by Adams to represent his party on the X. Y. Z.
Mission. As governor of Massachusetts he signed a bill rearranging the
senatorial districts in such wise that some towns having Federalist
majorities were joined to others having greater Republican majorities,
thus making more than a fair proportion of the districts Republican. This
political fraud is called Gerrymandering. Gerry died November 23, 1814,
the second Vice President to die in office.
[13] Eighteen states cast electoral votes at this election (1812). The
electors were chosen by popular vote in eight states, and by vote of the
legislature in ten states, including Louisiana (the former territory of
Orleans), which was admitted into the Union April 8, 1812. The admission
of Louisiana was bitterly opposed by the Federalists. For their reasons,
read a speech by Josiah Quincy in Johnston's _American Orations_, Vol. I,
pp. 180-204.
[14] Perry's flagship was named the _Lawrence_, after the gallant
commander of the _Chesapeake_, captured a short while before off
Boston. As Lawrence, mortally wounded, was carried below, he said to his
men, "Don't give up the ship." Perry put at the masthead of the _Lawrence_
a blue pennant bearing the words "Don't give up the ship," and fought two
of the largest vessels of the enemy till every gun on his engaged side was
disabled, and but twenty men out of a hundred and three were unhurt. Then
entering a boat with his brother and four seamen, he was rowed to the
_Niagara_, which he brought into the battle, and with it broke the enemy's
line and won.
[15] The story of the naval war is told in Maclay's _History of the Navy_,
Part Third; and in Roosevelt's _Naval War of 1812_.
[16] In this battle the great Indian leader Tecumthe was killed.
[17] In New England the ruin of commerce made the war most unpopular, and
it was because of this that the British did not at first blockade the New
England coast. British goods came to Boston, Salem, and other ports in
neutral ships, or in British ships disguised as neutral, and great
quantities of them were carried in four-horse wagons to the South, whence
raw cotton was brought back to New England to be shipped abroad. The
Republicans made great fun of this "ox-and-horse-marine."
[18] For a description of the scenes in Washington, read McMaster's
_History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. IV, pp. 138-147; or Adams's
_History of the U. S._, Vol. VIII, pp. 144-152; or _Memoirs of Dolly
Madison_, Chap. 8.
[19] Read Holmes's poem _Old Ironsides_.
[20] This battle was fought on a clear moonlight night and was full of
dramatic incidents. A storm had lashed the sea into fury and the waves
were running mountain high. Wave after wave swept the deck of the _Wasp_
and drenched the sailors. The two sloops rolled till the muzzles of their
guns dipped in the sea; but both crews cheered heartily and fought on
till, as the _Wasp_ rubbed across the bow of the _Frolic_, her jib boom
came in between the masts of the _Wasp_. A boarding party then leaped upon
her bowsprit, and as they ran down the deck were amazed to see nobody save
the man at the wheel and three wounded officers. As the British were not
able to lower their flag, Lieutenant Biddle of the _Wasp_ hauled it down.
Scarcely had this been done when the British frigate _Poictiers_ came in
sight, and chased and overhauled the _Wasp_ and captured her.
[21] Of all the British frigates captured during the war, the _Macedonian_
was the only one brought to port. The others were shot to pieces and sank
or were destroyed soon after the battle. The _Macedonian_ arrived at
Newport in December, 1812. When the lieutenant bearing her flag and
dispatches reached Washington, he was informed that a naval ball was being
held in honor of the capture of the _Guerrière_ and another ship, and that
their flags were hanging on the wall. Hastening to the hotel, he announced
himself and was quickly escorted to the ballroom, where, with cheers and
singing, the flag of the _Macedonian_ was hung beside those of the other
two captured vessels.
[22] In October, 1812, the frigate _Essex_, Captain Porter in command,
sailed from Delaware Bay, cruised down the east and up the west coast of
South America, and captured seven British vessels. But she was captured
near Valparaiso by the British frigates _Cherub_ and _Phoebe_ in March,
1814. In January, 1815, the _President_, Commodore Decatur, was captured
off Long Island by a British squadron of four vessels. In February the
_Constitution_, Captain Stewart, when near Madeira, captured the _Cyane_
and the _Levant_.
[23] Some idea of the difficulty of travel and the transmission of news in
those days may be gained from the fact that when the agent bearing the
treaty of peace arrived at New, York February 11, 1815, an express rider
was sent post haste to Boston, at a cost of $225.
[24] The states of Vermont and New Hampshire sent no delegates to this
convention; but three delegates were appointed by certain counties in
those states. When Connecticut and Rhode Island chose delegates, a
Federalist newspaper published in Boston welcomed them in an article
headed "Second and Third Pillars of a New Federal Edifice Reared." Despite
the action of the Hartford Convention, the fact remains that Massachusetts
contributed more than her proportionate share of money and troops for the
war.
[25] The report is printed in MacDonald's _Select Documents_.
CHAPTER XXI
RISE OF THE WEST
TRADE, COMMERCE, AND THE FISHERIES.--The treaty of 1814 did not end our
troubles with Great Britain. Our ships were still shut out of her West
Indian ports. The fort at Astoria, near the mouth of the Columbia River,
had been seized during the war and for a time was not returned as the
treaty required. The authorities in Nova Scotia claimed that we no longer
had a right to fish in British waters, and seized our fishing vessels or
drove them from the fishing grounds. We had no trade treaty with Great
Britain. In 1815, therefore, a convention was made regulating trade with
Great Britain and her East Indian colonies, but not with her West Indies;
[1] in 1817, a very important agreement limited the navies on the Great
Lakes; [2] and in 1818 a convention was made defending our fishing rights
in British waters. [3]
BANKS AND THE CURRENCY.--But there were also domestic affairs which
required attention. When the charter of the Bank of the United States (p.
224) expired in 1811, it was not renewed, for the party in power denied
that Congress had authority to charter a bank. A host of banks chartered
by the states thereupon sprang up, in hope of getting some of the business
formerly done by the national bank and its branches.
[Illustration: THE FIRST BANK OF THE UNITED STATES.]
In three years' time one hundred and twenty new state banks were created.
Each issued bank notes with a promise to exchange them for specie (gold or
silver coin) on demand. In 1814, however, nearly all the banks outside of
New England "suspended specie payment"; that is, refused to redeem their
notes in specie. Persons having gold and silver money then kept it, and
the only money left in circulation was the bank notes--which, a few miles
away from the place of issue, would not pass at their face value. [4]
Business and travel were seriously interfered with, and in order to
provide the people with some kind of money which would pass at the same
value everywhere, Congress in 1816 chartered a second Bank of the United
States, [5] very much like the first one, for a period of twenty years.
MANUFACTURES AND THE TARIFF.--Before the embargo days, trade and commerce
were so profitable, because of the war in Europe, that manufactures were
neglected. Almost all manufactored articles--cotton and woolen goods,
china, glass, edge tools, and what not--were imported, from Great Britain
chiefly.
But the moment our foreign trade was cat off by the embargo, manufactures
sprang up, and money hitherto put into ships and commerce was invested in
mills and factories. Societies for the encouragement of domestic
manufactures were started everywhere. To wear American-made clothes, walk
in American-made shoes, write on American-made paper, and use American-
made furniture were acts of patriotism which the people publicly pledged
themselves to perform. Thus encouraged, manufactories so throve and
flourished that by 1810 the value of goods made in our country each year
was $173,000,000.
When trade was resumed with Great Britain after the war, her goods were
sent over in immense quantities. This hurt our manufacturers, and
therefore Congress in 1816 laid a tariff or tax on imported manufactures,
for the purpose of keeping the price of foreign goods high and thus
protecting home manufactures.
PROSPERITY OF THE COUNTRY.--Despite the injury done by British orders,
French decrees, the embargo, non-intercourse, and the war, the country
grew more prosperous year by year. Cities were growing, new towns were
being planted, rivers were being bridged, colleges, [6] academies,
schools, were springing up, several thousand miles of turnpike had been
built, and over these good roads better stagecoaches drawn by better
horses carried the mail and travelers in quicker time than ever before.
ROUTES TO THE WEST.--Goods for Pittsburg and the West could now leave
Philadelphia every day in huge canvas-covered wagons drawn by four or six
horses, and were only twenty days on the road. The carrying trade in this
way was very great. More than twelve thousand wagons came to Pittsburg
each year, bringing goods worth several millions of dollars. From New York
wares and merchandise for the West went in sloops up the Hudson to Albany,
were wagoned to the falls of the Mohawk, where they were put into
"Schenectady boats," which were pushed by poles up the Mohawk to Utica.
Thence they went by canal and river to Oswego on Lake Ontario, in sloops
to Lewiston on the Niagara River, by wagon to Buffalo, by sloop to
Westfield on Lake Erie, by wagon to Chautauqua Lake, and thence by boat
down the lake and the Allegheny River to Pittsburg.
[Illustration: ROUTES FROM PHILADELPHIA AND NEW YORK TO THE WEST.]
THE STEAMBOAT.--The growth of the country and the increase in travel now
made the steamboat possible. Before 1807 all attempts to use such boats
had failed. [7] But when Fulton in that year ran the _Clermont_ from
New York to Albany and back, practical steam navigation began. In 1808 a
line of steamboats ran up and down the Hudson. In 1809 there was one on
the Delaware, another on the Raritan, and a third on Lake Champlain. In
1811 a steamboat went from Pittsburg to New Orleans, and in 1812 there
were steam ferryboats between what is now Jersey City and New York, and
between Philadelphia and Camden. [8]
[Illustration: AN EARLY FERRYBOAT.]
By the use of the steamboat and better roads it was possible in 1820 to go
from New York to Philadelphia between sunrise and sunset in summer, and
from New York to Boston in forty-eight hours, and from Boston to
Washington in less than five days.
THE RUSH TO THE WEST.--After the peace in 1815 came a period of hard
times. Great Britain kept our ships out of her ports in the West Indies.
France, Spain, and Holland did their own trading with their colonies.
Demands for our products fell off, trade and commerce declined, thousands
of people were thrown out of employment, and another wave of emigration
started westward. Nothing like it had ever before been known. People went
by tens of thousands, building new towns and villages, clearing the
forests, and turning the prairies into farms and gardens. Some went in
wagons, some on horseback; great numbers even went on foot, pushing their
children and household goods in handcarts, in wheelbarrows, in little box
carts on four small wheels made of plank. [9]
Once on the frontier, the pioneer, the "mover," the "newcomer," would
secure his plot of land, cut down a few trees, and build a half-faced
camp,--a shed with a roof of sapling and bark, and one side open,--and in
this he would live till the log cabin was finished.
THE LOG CABIN.--To build a log cabin the settler would fell trees of the
proper size, cut them into logs, and with his ax notch them half through
at the ends. Laid one on another these logs formed the four sides of the
cabin. Openings were left for a door, one window, and a huge fireplace;
the cracks between the logs were filled with mud; the roof was of hewn
boards, and the chimney of logs smeared on the inside with clay and lined
at the bottom with stones. Greased paper did duty for glass in the window.
The door swung on wooden hinges and was fastened with a wooden latch on
the inside, which was raised from the outside by a leather string passed
through a hole in the door. Some cabins had no floor but the earth; in
others the floor was of puncheons, or planks split and hewn from trunks of
trees and laid with the round side down. [10]
[Illustration: CORN-HUSK MOP.]
PIONEER LIFE.--If the farm were wooded, the first labor of the settler was
to grub up the bushes, cut down the smaller trees, and kill the larger
ones by cutting a girdle around each near the roots. When the trees were
felled, the neighbors would come and help roll the logs into great piles
for burning. From the ashes the settler made potash; for many years potash
was one of the important exports of the country.
In the land thus cleared and laid open to the sun the pioneer planted his
corn, flax, wheat, and vegetables. The corn he shelled on a gritter, and
ground in a handmill, or pounded in a wooden mortar with a wooden pestle,
or carried on horseback to some mill perhaps fifteen miles away.
Cooking stoves were not used. Game was roasted by hanging it by a leather
string before an open fire. All baking was done in a Dutch oven on the
hearth, or in an out oven built, as its name implies, out of doors. [11]
Deerskin in the early days, and later tow linen, woolens, jeans, and
linseys, were the chief materials for clothing till store goods became
common. [12] The amusements of the pioneers were like those of colonial
days--shooting matches, bear hunts, races, militia musters, raisings, log
rollings, weddings, corn huskings, and quilting parties.
[Illustration: BREAKING FLAX.]
FIVE NEW STATES.--The first effect of the emigration to the West was such
an increase of population there that five new states were admitted in five
years. They were Indiana (1816), Mississippi (1817), Illinois (1818),
Alabama (1819), Missouri (1821). As Louisiana (1812) and Maine (1820) had
also been admitted by 1821, the Union then included twenty-four states
(map, p. 279).
POWER OF THE WEST.--A second result of this building of the West was an
increase in its political importance. The West in 1815 sent to Congress 8
senators and 28 members of the House; after 1822 it sent 18 senators out
of 48, and 47 members of the House out of 213.
[Illustration: TRADING WITH A RIVER MERCHANT.]
TRADE OF THE WEST.--A third result was a straggle for the trade of the
West. Favored by the river system, the farmers of the West were able to
float their produce, on raft and flatboat, to New Orleans. Before the
introduction of the steamboat, navigation up the Mississippi was all but
impossible. Flatboats, rafts, barges, broadhorns, with their contents,
were therefore sold at New Orleans, and the money brought back to
Pittsburg or Wheeling and there used to buy the manufactures sent from the
Eastern states. But now a score of steamboats went down and up the
Mississippi and the Ohio, stopping at Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis,
Natchez, and a host of smaller towns, loaded with goods obtained at
Pittsburg and New Orleans. [13] Commercially the West was independent of
the East. The Western trade of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore was
seriously threatened.
THE ERIE CANAL.--So valuable was this trade, and so important to the East,
that New York in 1817 began the construction of the Erie Canal from Albany
to Buffalo, and finished it in 1825. [14] The result, as we shall see in a
later chapter, was far-reaching.
SLAVERY.--A fourth result of the rush to the West was the rise of the
question of slavery beyond the Mississippi.
Before the adoption of the Constitution, as we have seen, slavery was
forbidden or was in course of abolition in the five New England states, in
Pennsylvania, and in the Northwest Territory. Since the adoption of the
Constitution gradual abolition laws had been adopted in New York (1799)
and in New Jersey (1804). [15] Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Alabama came into the Union as slave-holding states; and
Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois (besides Vermont) as free states. So in 1819
the dividing line between the eleven free and the eleven slave states was
the south boundary line of Pennsylvania (p. 81) and the Ohio River.
SLAVERY BEYOND THE MISSISSIPPI.--By 1819 so many people had crossed the
Mississippi and settled on the west bank and up the Missouri that Congress
was asked to make a new territory to be called Arkansas and a new state to
be named Missouri.
Whether the new state was to be slave or free was not stated, but the
Missourians owned slaves and a settlement of this matter was important for
two reasons: (1) there were then eleven slave and eleven free states, and
the admission of Missouri would upset this balance in the Senate; (2) her
entrance into the Union would probably settle the policy as to slavery in
the remainder of the great Louisiana Purchase. The South therefore
insisted that Missouri should be a slave-holding state, and the Senate
voted to admit her as such. The North insisted that slavery should be
abolished in Missouri, and the House of Representatives voted to admit her
as a free state. As neither would yield, the question went over to the
next session of Congress.
MAINE.--By that time Maine, which belonged to Massachusetts, had obtained
leave to frame a constitution, and applied for admission as a free state.
This afforded a chance to preserve the balance of states in the Senate,
and Congress accordingly passed at the same time two bills, one to admit
Maine as a free state, and one to authorize Missouri to make a proslavery
constitution.
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE, 1820.--The second of these bills embodied the
Missouri Compromise, or Compromise of 1820, which provided that in all the
territory purchased from France in 1803 and lying north of the parallel
36° 30' there never should be slavery, except in Missouri (map p. 279).
[16]
This Compromise left a great region from which free states might be made
in future, and very little for slave states. We shall see the consequences
of this by and by.
EXPLORATION OF THE WEST.--West of Missouri the country was still a
wilderness overrun by Indians, and by buffalo and other wild animals. Many
believed it to be almost uninhabitable. Pike, who (1806-7) marched across
the plains from St. Louis to the neighborhood of Pikes Peak and on to the
upper waters of the Rio Grande, and Long, who (1820) followed Pike,
brought back dismal accounts of the country. Pike reported that the banks
of the Kansas, the Platte, and the Arkansas rivers might "admit of a
limited population," but not the plains. Long said the country west of
Council Bluffs "is almost wholly unfit for cultivation, and of course
uninhabitable by people depending on agriculture," and that beyond the
Rockies it was "destined to be the abode of perfect desolation."
[Illustration: BUFFALO RUNNING AWAY FROM A PRAIRIE FIRE.]
THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT.--This started the belief that in the West was a
great desert, and for many years geographers indicated such a desert on
their maps. It covered most of what is now Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma,
and parts of Texas, Colorado, and South Dakota. One geographer (1835)
declared, "a large part maybe likened to the Great Sahara or African
Desert."
THE NORTHWESTERN BOUNDARY.--When Louisiana was purchased in 1803 no
boundary was given it on the north or west.
By treaty with Great Britain in 1818, the 49th parallel was made our
northern boundary from the Lake of the Woods to the summit of the Rocky
Mountains. [17]
THE OREGON COUNTRY.--The country west of the sources of the Missouri River
and the Rocky Mountains, the region drained by the Columbia, or as it was
sometimes called, the Oregon River, was claimed by both Great Britain and
the United States. As neither would yield, it was agreed that the Oregon
country should be held jointly for a time. [18]
THE SPANISH BOUNDARY.--South of Oregon and west of the mountains lay the
possessions of Spain, with which country in 1819 we made a treaty, fixing
the western limits of the Louisiana Purchase. We began by claiming as far
as the Rio Grande, and asking for Florida. We ended by accepting the line
shown on the map, p. 278, and buying Florida. [19]
SUMMARY
1. The treaty of peace in 1814 left several issues unsettled; it was
therefore followed by a trade treaty with Great Britain, an agreement to
limit naval power on the northern lakes, and (1818) a treaty about
fisheries in British waters.
2. The suspension of specie payments by the state banks during the war
caused such disorder in the currency that a national bank was chartered to
regulate it.
3. The embargo, by cutting off importation of British goods, encouraged
home manufactures. Heavy importations after the war injured home
manufactures, and to help them Congress enacted a protective tariff law.
4. Despite commercial troubles and the war, the people were prosperous.
New towns were founded, travel was improved, the steamboat was introduced,
and the West grew rapidly.
5. After 1815 a great wave of population poured over the West.
6. Seven new states were admitted between 1812 and 1821.
7. A struggle for the trade of the growing West led to the building of the
Erie Canal.
8. A struggle over slavery led to the Missouri Compromise (1820).
9. By treaties with Great Britain and Spain, boundaries of the Louisiana
Purchase were established, Florida was purchased, and the Oregon country
was held jointly with Great Britain.
[Illustration: AN OLD STAGECOACH.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] A serious quarrel over the West Indian trade now arose and was not
settled till 1830. Read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._,
Vol. V, pp. 483-487.
[2] The agreement of 1817 provided that each power might have one armed
vessel on Lake Ontario, two on the upper lakes, and one on Lake Champlain.
Each vessel was to have but one eighteen-pound cannon. All other armed
vessels were to be dismantled and no others were to be built or armed. In
Europe such a water boundary between two powers would have been guarded by
strong fleets and forts and many armed men.
[3] The fishery treaty provides (1) that our citizens may _forever_ catch
and dry fish on certain parts of the coasts of Newfoundland and of
Labrador; (2) that they may not catch fish within three miles of any other
of the coasts of the British dominions in America; (3) that our fishermen
may enter the harbors on these other coasts for shelter, or to obtain
water, or wood, or to repair damages, "and for no other purpose whatever."
[4] As to the straits to which people were put for small change, read
McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. IV, pp. 297-298.
[5] This bank had branches in the various states, and specie could be had
for its notes at any branch. Hence its notes passed at their face value
over all the country, and became, like specie, of the same value
everywhere. Authority to charter the bank was found in the provision of
the Constitution giving Congress power to "regulate the currency."
[6] Thirty-nine of our colleges, theological seminaries, and universities
were founded between 1783 and 1820.
[7] For Rumsey and Fitch, see p. 239. William Longstreet in 1790 tried a
small model steamboat on the Savannah River; and in 1794 Elijah Ormsbee at
Providence and Samuel Morey on Long Island Sound, in 1796 John Fitch on a
pond in New York city, in 1797 Morey on the Delaware, in 1802 Oliver Evans
at Philadelphia, and in 1804 and 1806 John Stevens at Hoboken,
demonstrated that boats could be moved by steam. But none had made the
steamboat a practical success.
[8] The state of New York gave Fulton and his partner, Livingston, the
sole right to use steamboats on the waters of the state. This monopoly was
evaded by using teamboats, on which the machinery that turned the paddle
wheel was moved by six or eight horses hitched to a crank and walking
round and round in a circle on the deck. Teamboats were used chiefly as
ferryboats. Read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. IV,
pp. 397-407.
[9] Read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. IV, pp.
381-394. All the great highways to the West were crowded with bands of
emigrants. In nine days 260 wagons bound for the West passed through one
New York town. At Easton, in Pennsylvania, on a favorite route from New
England (map, p. 194), 511 wagons accompanied by 3066 persons passed in a
month. A tollgate keeper on another route reported 2000 families as having
passed during nine months. From Alabama, whither people were hurrying to
settle on the cotton lands, came reports of a migration quite as large.
When the census of 1820 was taken, the returns showed that there were but
75 more people in Delaware in 1820 than there were in 1810. In the city of
Charleston there were 24,711 people in 1810 and 24,780 in 1820. In many
states along the seaboard the rate of increase of population was less
during the census period 1810-20 than it had been before, because of the
great numbers who had left for the West.
[10] If the newcomer chose some settlement for his home, the neighbors
would gather when the logs were cut, hold a "raising," and build his cabin
in the course of one day. Tables, chairs, and other furniture were
generally made by the settler with his own hands. Brooms and brushes were
of corn husks, and many of his utensils were cut from the trunks of trees.
"I know of no scene more primitive," said a Kentucky pioneer, "than such a
cabin hearth as that of my mother's. In the morning a buckeye backlog, a
hickory forestick, resting on stones, with a johnny cake on a clean ash
board, set before the fire to bake; a frying pan with its long handle
resting on a splint-bottom chair, and a teakettle swung from a log pole,
with myself setting the table, or turning the meat. Then came the blowing
of the conch-shell for father in the field, the howling of old Lion, the
gathering around the table, the blessing, the dull clatter of pewter
spoons on pewter dishes, and the talk about the crops and stock."
[11] For an account of the social conditions in 1820, read McMaster's
_History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. IV, Chap, xxxvii; also
Eggleston's _Circuit Rider_, Cooper's _Prairie_, and _Recollections of
Life in Ohio_, by W. C. Howells.
[12] A story is told of an early settler who was elected to the
territorial legislature of Illinois. Till then he had always worn buckskin
clothes, but thinking them unbecoming a lawmaker, he and his sons gathered
hazel nuts and bartered them at the crossroads store for a few yards of
blue strouding, out of which the women of the settlement made him a coat
and pantaloons.
[13] On the Ohio River floated odd craft of many sorts. There were timber
rafts from the mountain streams; pirogues built of trunks of trees;
broadhorns; huge pointed and covered hulks carrying 50 tons of freight and
floating downstream with the current and upstream by means of poles,
sails, oars, or ropes; keel boats for upstream work, with long, narrow,
pointed bow and stern, roofed, manned with a crew of ten men, and
propelled with setting poles; flatboats which went downstream with the
pioneer never to come back--flat-bottomed, box-shaped craft manned by a
crew of six, kept in the current by oars 30 feet long called "sweeps" and
a steering oar 50 feet long at the stern. Those intended to go down the
Mississippi were strongly built, roofed over, and known as "Orleans
boats." "Kentucky flatboats" for use on the Ohio were half roofed and
slighter. Mingled with these were arks, galleys, rafts, and shanty boats
of every sort, and floating shops carrying goods, wares, and merchandise
to every farmhouse and settlement along the river bank. Now it would be a
floating lottery office, where tickets were sold for pork, grain, or
produce; now a tinner's establishment, where tinware was sold or mended;
now a smithy, where horses and oxen were shod and wagons mended; now a
factory for the manufacture of axes, scythes, and edge tools; now a dry-
goods shop fitted up just as were such shops in the villages, and filled
with all sorts of goods and wares needed by the settlers.
[14] This canal was originally a ditch 4 feet deep, 40 feet wide, and 363
miles long. The chief promoter was De Witt Clinton. The opponents of the
canal therefore called it in derision "Clinton's big ditch," and declared
that it could never be made a success. But Clinton and his friends carried
the canal to completion, and in 1825 a fleet of canal boats left Buffalo,
went through the canal, down the Hudson, and out into New York Bay. There
fresh water brought from Lake Erie in a keg was poured into the salt water
of the Atlantic.
[15] It was once hoped that Southern states also would in time abolish
slavery; but as more and more land was devoted to cotton raising in the
South, the demand for slave labor there increased. The South came to
regard slavery as necessary for her prosperity, and to desire its
extension to more territory.
[16] Meantime Arkansas (1819) had been organized as a slave-holding
territory. As Missouri had to make a state constitution and submit it to
Congress she did not enter the Union till 1821. The Compromise line 36°
30' was part of the south boundary of Missouri and extended to the 100th
meridian. Missouri did not have the present northwestern boundary till
1836; compare maps on pp. 279 and 331. On the Compromise read the speech
of Senator Rufus King, in Johnston's _American Orations_, Vol. II, pp. 33-
62; and that of Senator Pinckney, pp. 63-101.
[17] By the treaty with Great Britain in 1783 a line was to be drawn from
the Lake of the Woods _due west_ to the Mississippi. This was impossible,
but the difficulty was ended by the treaty of 1818. From the
northwesternmost point of the Lake of the Woods a line (as the treaty
provides) is drawn due south to the 49th parallel. This makes a little
knob on our boundary.
[18] We claimed it because in 1792 Captain Gray, in the ship _Columbia_,
discovered the river, entered, and named it after his ship; because in
1805-6 Lewis and Clark explored both its main branches and spent the
winter near its mouth; and because in 1811 an American fur-trading post,
Astoria, was built on the banks of the Columbia near its mouth. Great
Britain claimed a part of it because of explorations under Vancouver
(1792), and occupation of various posts by the Hudson's Bay Company. At
first Oregon was the country drained by the Columbia River. Through our
treaty with Spain, in 1819, part of the 42d parallel was made the southern
boundary. In 1824, by treaty with Russia, the country which then owned
Alaska, 54° 40' became the northern boundary. The Rocky Mountains were
understood to be the eastern limit.
[19] What is called the purchase of Florida consisted in releasing Spain
from all liability for damages of many sorts inflicted on our citizens
from 1793 to the date of the treaty, and paying them ourselves; the sum
was not to exceed $5,000,000.
[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES IN 1824.]
CHAPTER XXII
THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING
THE PARTY ISSUES.--The issues which divided the Federalists and the
Republicans from 1793 to 1815 arose chiefly from our foreign relations.
Neutrality, French decrees, British orders in council, search,
impressment, the embargo, non-intercourse, the war, were the matters that
concerned the people. Soon after 1815 all this changed; Napoleon was a
prisoner at St. Helena, Europe was at peace, and domestic issues began to
be more important.
THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING.--The election of 1816, however, was decided
chiefly on the issues of the war. James Monroe, [1] the Republican
candidate for President, was elected by a very large majority over Rufus
King. During Monroe's term domestic issues were growing up, but had not
become national. They were rather sectional. Party feeling subsided, and
this was so noticeable that his term was called "the Era of Good Feeling."
In this condition of affairs the Federalist party died out, and when
Monroe was renominated in 1820, no competitor appeared. [1] The
Federalists presented no candidate.
POLITICAL EVENTS.--The chief political events of Monroe's first term
(1817-21), as we have seen, were the admission of several new states, the
Compromise of 1820, and the treaties of 1818 and 1819, with Great Britain
and Spain. The chief political events of his second term (1821-25) were: a
dispute over the disposition of public lands in the new states; [3] a
dispute over the power of Congress to aid the building of roads and
canals, called "internal improvements"; the recognition of the
independence of South American colonies of Spain; the announcement of the
Monroe Doctrine; the passage of a new tariff act; and the breaking up of
the Republican party.
THE SOUTH AMERICAN REPUBLICS.--In 1808 Napoleon invaded Spain, drove out
the king, and placed his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne. Thereupon
many of the Spanish colonies in America rebelled and organized themselves
as republics. When Napoleon was sent to St. Helena, the Spanish king (who
was restored in 1814) brought back most of the colonies to their
allegiance. La Plata, however, rebelled, and was quickly followed by the
others. In 1822 President Monroe recognized the independence of La Plata
(Argentina), Chile, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, and Central America.
THE HOLY ALLIANCE.--The king of Spain, unable to conquer the revolted
colonies, applied for aid to the Holy Alliance which was formed by Russia,
Prussia, Austria, and France for the purpose of maintaining monarchical
government in Europe. For a while these powers did nothing, but in 1823
they called a conference to consider the question of restoring to Spain
her South American colonies. But the South American republics had won
their independence from Spain, and had been recognized by us as sovereign
powers; what right had other nations to combine and force them back again
to the condition of colonies? In his annual message (December, 1823), the
President therefore took occasion to make certain announcements which have
ever since been called the Monroe Doctrine. [4]
[Illustration: AN OLD-TIME SOFA.]
THE MONROE DOCTRINE.--Referring to the conduct of the Holy Alliance, he
said--
1. That the United States would not meddle in the political affairs of
Europe.
2. That European governments must not extend their system to any part of
North and South America, nor in any way seek to control the destiny of any
of the nations of this hemisphere.
As Russia had been attempting to plant a colony on the coast of
California, which was then a part of Mexico, the President announced (as
another part of the doctrine)--
3. That the American continents were no longer open for colonization by
European powers.
[Illustration: AN OLD-TIME PIANO.]
THE TARIFF OF 1824.--Failure of the tariff of 1816 to shut out British
manufactures, the hard times of 1819, and the general ruin of business led
to a demand for another tariff in 1820. To this the cotton states were
bitterly opposed. In the South there were no manufacturing centers, no
great manufacturing industries of any sort. The planters sold their cotton
to the North and (chiefly) to Great Britain, from which they bought almost
all kinds of manufactured goods they used. Naturally, they wanted low
duties on their imported articles; just enough tax to support the
government and no more.
In the North, especially in towns now almost wholly given up to
manufactures, as Lynn and Lowell and Fall River and Providence and Cohoes
and Paterson and others; in regions where the farmers were raising sheep
for wool; in Pennsylvania, where iron was mined; and in Kentucky, where
the hemp fields were, people wanted domestic manufactures protected by a
high tariff.
The struggle was a long one. At each session of Congress from 1820 to 1824
the question came up. Finally in 1824 a new tariff for protection was
enacted despite the efforts of the South and part of New England.
BREAKING UP OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.--Though the three questions of
internal improvements, the tariff, and the use of the public lands led to
bitter disputes, they did less to break up the party harmony than the
action of the leaders. After the second election of Monroe the question of
his successor at once arose. The people of Tennessee nominated Andrew
Jackson; South Carolina named the Secretary of War, Calhoun; Kentucky
wanted Henry Clay, who had long been speaker of the House of
Representatives; the New England states were for John Quincy Adams, the
Secretary of State. Finally the usual party caucus of Republican members
of Congress nominated Crawford of Georgia, the Secretary of the Treasury.
THE ELECTION OF 1824-25.--The withdrawal of Calhoun from the race for the
presidency left in it Adams, Clay, Crawford, and Jackson, representing the
four sections of the country--Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest.
As no one had a majority of the electoral votes, it became the duty of the
House of Representatives to elect one from the three who had received the
highest votes. [5] They were Jackson, Adams, and Crawford. The House chose
Adams, [6] who was duly inaugurated in 1825. [7] The electoral college had
elected Calhoun Vice President. [8]
THE CHARGE OF CORRUPTION.--The friends of Jackson were bitterly
disappointed by his defeat. He was "the Man of the People," had received
the highest number of electoral votes (though not a majority), and ought,
they said, to have been elected by the House. That he had not been elected
was due, they claimed, to a bargain: Clay was to urge his friends to vote
for Adams; if elected, Adams was to make Clay Secretary of State. No such
bargain was ever made. But after Adams became President he appointed Clay
Secretary of State, and then the supporters of Jackson were convinced that
the charge was true.
RISE OF THE NEW PARTIES.--The legislature of Tennessee, therefore, at once
renominated Jackson, and about him gathered all who, for any reason,
disliked Adams and Clay, all who were opposed to the tariff and internal
improvements, or wanted "a man of the people" for President. They were
called Jackson men, or Democratic Republicans.
Adams, it was well known, would also be renominated, as the candidate of
the supporters of the tariff and internal improvements. They were the
Adams men, or National Republicans. Thus was the once harmonious
Republican party broken into fragments, out of which grew two distinctly
new parties.
[Illustration: LETTER WRITTEN BY JACKSON, THEN A SENATOR.]
THE TARIFF OF 1828.--The act of 1824 not proving satisfactory to the
growers and manufacturers of wool, a new tariff law was enacted in 1828.
So many and so high were the duties laid that the opponents of protection
named the law the Tariff of Abominations. To the cotton states it was
particularly hateful, and in memorials, resolutions, and protests they
declared that a tariff for protection was unconstitutional, unjust, and
oppressive. They made threats of ceasing to trade with the tariff states,
and talked of nullifying, or refusing to obey the law, and even of leaving
the Union.
THE ELECTION OF 1828.--Great as was the excitement in the South over this
new tariff law, it produced little effect in the struggle for the
presidency. The campaign had really been going on for three years past and
would have ended in the election of Jackson had the tariff never existed.
"Old Hickory," the "Hero of New Orleans," the "Man of the People," was
more than ever the favorite of the hour, and though his party was anti-
tariff he carried states where the voters were deeply interested in the
protection of manufactures. Indeed, he received more than twice the number
of electoral votes cast for Adams. [9]
SUMMARY
1. After the election of Monroe (1816) the Federalist party died out, the
old party issues disappeared, and Monroe's term is known as the Era of
Good Feeling.
2. The South American colonies of Spain, having rebelled, formed
republics, and were recognized by the United States. To prevent
interference with them by European powers, especially by the Holy
Alliance, Monroe announced the doctrine now known by his name (1823).
3. The growth of the West and the rise of new states brought up the
question of internal improvements at national expense.
4. The growth of manufactures brought up the question of more protection
and a new tariff. In 1824 a new tariff law was enacted, in spite of the
opposition of the South, which had no manufactures and imported largely
from Great Britain.
5. These issues, which were largely sectional, and the action of certain
leaders, split the Republican party, and led to the nomination of four
presidential candidates in 1824.
6. The electors failed to choose a President, but did elect a Vice
President. Adams was then elected President by the House of
Representatives.
7. A new tariff was enacted in 1828, though the South opposed it even more
strongly than the tariff of 1824.
8. In 1828 Jackson, one of the candidates defeated in 1824, was elected
President.
[Illustration: A CONESTOGA WAGON, SUCH AS WAS IN USE ABOUT 1825.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] James Monroe was a Virginian, born in 1758; he entered William and
Mary College, served in the Continental army, was a member of the Virginia
Assembly, of the Continental Congress for three years, and of the Virginia
convention that adopted the Federal Constitution in 1788. He strongly
opposed the adoption of the Constitution. As United States senator (1790-
94), he opposed Washington's administration; but was sent as minister to
France (1794-96). In 1799-1802 Monroe was governor of Virginia, and then
was sent to France to aid Livingston in the purchase of Louisiana; was
minister to Great Britain 1804-6, and in 1811-17 was Secretary of State,
and in 1814-15 acted also as Secretary of War. In 1817-25 he was
President. He died in 1831.
[2] Monroe carried every state in the Union and was entitled to every
electoral vote. But one elector did not vote for him, in order that
Washington might still have the honor of being the only President
unanimously elected.
[3] In the new Western states were great tracts which belonged to the
United States, and which the Western states now asked should be given to
them, or at least be sold to them for a few cents an acre. The East
opposed this, and asked for gifts of Western land which they might sell so
as to use the money to build roads and canals and establish free schools.
[4] Read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. V, pp.
28-54.
[5] Jackson had 99 votes, Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37. The
Constitution (Article XII of the amendments) provides that if no person
have a majority of the electoral votes, "then from the persons having the
highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as
President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by
ballot, the President."
[6] By a vote of 13 states, against 7 for Jackson, and 4 for Crawford.
[7] John Quincy Adams was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1767, went
with his father John Adams to France, and spent several years abroad; then
graduated from Harvard, studied law, and was appointed by Washington
minister to the Netherlands and then to Portugal, and in 1797 to Prussia.
He was a senator from Massachusetts in 1803-8. In 1809 Madison sent him as
minister to Russia, where he was when the war opened in 1812. Of the five
commissioners at Ghent he was the ablest and the most conspicuous. In 1815
Madison appointed him minister to Great Britain, and in 1817 he came home
to be Secretary of State under Monroe. In 1831 he became a member of the
House of Representatives and continued as such till stricken in the House
with paralysis in February, 1848.
[8] John Caldwell Calhoun was born in South Carolina in 1782, entered Yale
College in 1802, studied law, and became a lawyer at Abbeville, South
Carolina, in 1807. In 1808 he went to the legislature, and in 1811 entered
Congress, and was appointed chairman of the committee on foreign
relations. As such he wrote the report and resolutions in favor of war
with Great Britain. At this period of his career he favored a liberal
construction of the Constitution, and supported the tariff of 1816, the
charter of the Second Bank of the United States, and internal
improvements. He was Secretary of War in Monroe's Cabinet, and was Vice
President from 1825 until 1832, when he resigned and entered the Senate,
where he remained most of the time till his death in 1850.
[9] This election is noteworthy also as the first in which nearly all the
states chose electors by popular vote. Only two of the twenty-four states
made the choice by vote of the legislature; in the others the popular vote
for Jackson electors numbered 647,276 and that for Adams electors 508,064.
A good book on presidential elections is _A History of the Presidency_, by
Edward Stanwood.
CHAPTER XXIII.
POLITICS FROM 1829 TO 1841
In many respects the election of Jackson [1] was an event of as much
political importance as was the election of Jefferson. Men hailed it as
another great uprising of the people, as another triumph of democracy.
They acted as if the country had been delivered from impending evil, and
hurried by thousands to Washington to see the hero inaugurated and the era
of promised reform opened. [2]
THE NEW PARTY.--Jackson treated the public offices as the "spoils of
victory," and within a few weeks hundreds of postmasters, collectors of
revenue, and other officeholders were turned out, and their places given
to active workers for Jackson. This "spoils system" was new in national
politics and created immense excitement. But it was nothing more than an
attempt to build up a new national party in the same way that parties had
already been built up in some of the states. [3]
JACKSON AS PRESIDENT.--In many respects Jackson's administration was the
most exciting the country had yet experienced. Never since the days of
President John Adams had party feeling run so high. The vigorous
personality of the President, his intense sincerity, his determination to
do, at all hazards, just what he believed to be right, made him devoted
friends and bitter enemies and led to his administration being often
called the Reign of Andrew Jackson. The questions with which he had to
deal were of serious importance, and on the solution of some of them hung
the safety of the republic.
[Illustration: GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON.]
THE SOUTH CAROLINA DOCTRINE.--Such a one was the old issue of the tariff.
The view of the South as set forth by the leaders, especially by Calhoun
of South Carolina, was that the state ought to nullify the Tariff Act of
1828 because it was unconstitutional. [4] Daniel Webster attacked this
South Carolina doctrine and (1830) argued the issue with Senator Hayne of
South Carolina. The speeches of the two men in the Senate, the debate
which followed, and the importance of the issue, make the occasion a
famous one in our history. That South Carolina would go so far as actually
to carry out the doctrine and nullify the tariff did not seem likely. But
the seriousness of South Carolina alarmed the friends of the tariff, and
in 1832 Congress amended the act of 1828 and reduced the duties.
SOUTH CAROLINA NULLIFIES THE TARIFF.--This did not satisfy South Carolina.
The new tariff still protected manufactures, and it was protection that
she opposed; and in November, 1832, she adopted the Ordinance of
Nullification, which forbade any of her citizens to pay the tariff duties
after February 1, 1833.
When Congress met in December, 1832, the great question was what to do
with South Carolina. Jackson was determined the law should be obeyed, [5]
sent vessels to Charleston harbor, and asked for a Force Act to enable him
to collect the revenue by force if necessary. [6]
THE GREAT DEBATE.--In the course of the debate on the Force Act, Calhoun
(who had resigned the vice presidency and had been elected a senator from
South Carolina) explained and defended nullification and contended that it
was a peaceable and lawful remedy and a proper exercise of state rights.
Webster [7] denied that the Constitution was a mere compact, declared that
nullification and secession were rebellion, and upheld the authority and
sovereignty of the Union. [8]
[Illustration: BIRTHPLACE OF DANIEL WEBSTER.]
THE COMPROMISE OF 1833.--Clay meantime came forward with a compromise. He
proposed that the tariff of 1832 should be reduced gradually till 1842,
when all duties should be twenty per cent on the value of the articles
imported. As such duties would not be protective, Calhoun and the other
Southern members accepted the plan, and the Compromise Tariff was passed
in March, 1833. [10] To satisfy the North arid uphold the authority of the
government, the Force Act also was passed. But as South Carolina repealed
the Ordinance of Nullification there was never any need to use force.
FIRST NATIONAL NOMINATING CONVENTIONS.--In the midst of the excitement
over the tariff, came the election of 1832. Since 1824, when the
Republican party was breaking up, presidential candidates had been
nominated by state legislatures and caucuses of members of state
legislatures. But in 1831 the Antimasons [11] held a convention at
Baltimore, nominated William Wirt and Amos Ellmaker for President and Vice
President, and so introduced the national nominating convention.
The example thus set was quickly followed: in December, 1831, a national
convention of National Republicans nominated Clay (then a senator) for
President, and John Sergeant for Vice President. In May, 1832, a national
convention of Jackson men, or Democrats as some called them, nominated
Martin Van Buren for Vice President. There was no need to renominate
Jackson, for in a letter to some friends he had already declared himself a
candidate, and many state legislatures had made the nomination. He was
still the idol of the people and was re-elected by a greater majority than
in 1828.
THE BANK ATTACKED.--One of the issues in the campaign was the recharter of
the Bank of the United States, whose charter was to expire in 1836.
Jackson always hated that institution, had attacked it in his annual
messages, and had vetoed (1832) a recharter bill passed (for political
effect) by Clay and his friends in Congress.
REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS.--Jackson therefore looked upon his reflection as
a popular approval of his treatment of the bank. He continued to attack
it, and in 1833 requested the Secretary of the Treasury, William Duane, to
remove the deposits of government money from the bank and its branches.
When Duane refused, Jackson turned him out of office and put in Roger B.
Taney, who made the removal. [12]
The Senate passed resolutions, moved by Clay, censuring the President for
this action; but Senator Benton of Missouri said that he would not rest
till the censure was expunged. Expunging now became a party question;
state after state instructed its senators to vote for it, and finally in
1837 the Senate ordered a black line to be drawn around the resolutions
and the words "Expunged by order of the Senate" to be written across them.
RISE OF THE WHIG PARTY.--The hatred which the National Republicans felt
for Jackson was intense. They accused him of trying to set up a despotic
government, and, asserting that they were contending against the same kind
of tyranny our forefathers fought against in the War of Independence, they
called themselves Whigs. In the state elections of 1834 the new name came
into general use, and thenceforth for many years there was a national Whig
party.
THE ANTISLAVERY MOVEMENT.--The Missouri Compromise was supposed to have
settled the issue of slavery. But its effect was just the reverse.
Antislavery agitators were aroused. The antislavery newspapers grew more
numerous and aggressive. New antislavery societies were formed and old
ones were revived and became aggressive, and in 1833 delegates from many
of them met at Philadelphia and formed the American Antislavery Society.
[13]
ANTISLAVERY DOCUMENTS.--The field of work for the anti-slavery people was
naturally the South. That section was flooded with newspapers, pamphlets,
pictures, and handbills intended to stir up sentiment for instant
abolition of slavery and liberation of the slaves.
[Illustration: SLAVE QUARTERS ON A SOUTHERN PLANTATION.]
Against this the South protested, declared such documents were likely to
cause slaves to run away or rise in insurrection, and called on the North
to suppress them.
PROSLAVERY MOBS.--To stop their circulation by legal means was not
possible; so attempts were made to do it by illegal means. In many
Northern cities, as Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Utica, and elsewhere,
mobs broke up the antislavery meetings. In Charleston, South Carolina, the
postmaster seized some antislavery documents and the people burned them.
At Cincinnati the newspaper office of James G. Birney was twice sacked and
his presses destroyed (1836). Another at Alton, Illinois, was four times
attacked, and the owner, Elijah Lovejoy, was at last killed by the mob
while protecting his press.
THE RIGHT OF PETITION.--Not content with this, the pro-slavery people
attempted to pass a bill through Congress (1836) to exclude antislavery
documents from the mails, and even attacked the right of petition. The
bill to close the mails to antislavery documents failed. But the attempt
to exclude antislavery petitions from the House of Representatives
succeeded: a "Gag Rule" was adopted which forbade any petition,
resolution, or paper relating in any way to slavery or the abolition of
slavery to be received, and this was in force down to 1844. [14]
OUR COUNTRY OUT OF DEBT.--Despite all this political commotion our country
for years past had prospered greatly. In this prosperity the government
had shared. Its income had far exceeded its expenses, and by using the
surplus year by year to reduce the national debt it succeeded in paying
the last dollar by 1835.
THE SURPLUS.--After the debt was extinguished a surplus still remained,
and was greatly increased by a sudden speculation in public lands, so that
by the middle of 1836 the government had more than $40,000,000 of surplus
money in the banks.
What to do with the money was a serious question, and all sorts of uses
were suggested. But Congress decided that from the surplus as it existed
on January 1, 1837, $5,000,000 should be subtracted and the remainder
distributed among the states in four installments. [15]
THE ELECTION OF VAN BUREN.--When the time came to choose a successor to
Jackson, a Democratic national convention nominated Martin Van Buren, with
Richard M. Johnson for Vice President. The Whigs were too disorganized to
hold a national convention; but most of them favored William Henry
Harrison for President. Van Buren was elected (1836); but no candidate for
Vice President received a majority of the electoral vote. The duty of
choosing that officer therefore passed to the United States Senate, which
elected Richard M. Johnson.
THE ERA OF SPECULATION.--On March 4, 1837, Van Buren [16] entered on a
term made memorable by one of the worst panics our country has
experienced. From 1834 to 1836 was a period of wild speculation. Money was
plentiful and easy to borrow, and was invested in all sorts of schemes by
which people expected to make fortunes. Millions of acres of the public
land were bought and held for a rise in price. Real estate in the cities
sold for fabulous prices. Cotton, timber lands in Maine, railroad, canal,
bank, and state stocks, and lots in Western towns which had no existence
save on paper, all were objects of speculation.
[Illustration: NEW YORK MERCHANT, 1837.]
PANIC OF 1837.--Money used for these purposes was borrowed largely from
the state banks, and much of it was the surplus which the government had
deposited in the banks. When, therefore, in January, 1837, the government
drew out one quarter of its surplus to distribute among the states, the
banks were forced to stop making loans and call in some of the money they
had lent. This hurt business of every sort. Quite unexpectedly the price
of cotton fell; this ruined many. Business men failed by scores, and the
merchants of New York appealed to Van Buren to assemble Congress and stop
the further distribution of the surplus. Van Buren refused, and the banks
of New York city suspended specie payment, that is, no longer redeemed
their notes in gold and silver. Those in every other state followed, and a
panic swept over the country. [17]
THE NEW NATIONAL DEBT.--With business at a standstill, the national
revenues fell off; and the desperate financial state of the country forced
Van Buren to call Congress together in September. By that time the third
installment of the surplus had been paid to the states, and times were
harder than ever. To mend matters Congress suspended payment of the fourth
installment, and authorized the debts of the government to be paid in
treasury notes. This put our country again in debt, and it has ever since
remained so.
POLITICAL DISCONTENT.--As always happens in periods of financial distress,
hard times bred political discontent. The Whigs laid all the blame on the
Democrats, who, they said, had destroyed the United States Bank, and by
their reckless financial policy had caused the panic and the hard times.
Whether this was true or not, the people believed it, and various state
elections showed signs of a Whig victory in 1840. [18]
THE LOG-CABIN CAMPAIGN.--The Whigs in their national convention nominated
William Henry Harrison and John Tyler. The Democrats renominated Van
Buren, but named no one for the vice presidency. The antislavery people,
in hopes of drawing off from the Whig and Democratic parties those who
were opposed to slavery, and so making a new party, nominated James G.
Birney.
The Whig convention did not adopt a platform, but an ill-timed sneer at
Harrison furnished just what they needed. He would, a Democratic newspaper
said, be more at home in a log cabin drinking cider than living in the
White House as President. The Whigs hailed this sneer as an insult to the
millions of Americans who then lived, or had once lived, or whose parents
had dwelt in log cabins, and made the cabin the emblem of their party. Log
cabins were erected in every city, town, and village as Whig headquarters;
were mounted on wheels, were drawn from place to place, and lived in by
Whig stump speakers. Great mass meetings were held, and the whole campaign
became one of frolic, song, and torchlight processions. [19] The people
wanted a change. Harrison was an ideal popular candidate, and "Tippecanoe
[20] and Tyler too" and a Whig Congress were elected.
DEATH OF HARRISON; TYLER PRESIDENT (1841).--As soon as Harrison was
inaugurated, a special session of Congress was called to undo the work of
the Democrats. But one month after inauguration day Harrison died, and
when Congress assembled, Tyler [21] was President.
SUMMARY
1. The inauguration of Jackson was followed by the introduction of the
"spoils system" into national politics.
2. The question of nullification was debated in the Senate by Webster and
Hayne. Under Calhoun's leadership, South Carolina nullified the tariff of
1832. Jackson asked for a Force Act; but the dispute was settled by the
Compromise of 1833.
3. Jackson vigorously opposed the Bank of the United States, and after his
reëlection he ordered the removal of the government deposits.
4. This period is notable in the history of political parties for (1) the
introduction of the national nominating convention, (2) the rise of the
Whig party, (3) the formation of the antislavery party.
5. Slavery was now a national issue. An attempt was made to shut
antislavery documents out of the mails, and antislavery petitions were
shut out of the House of Representatives.
6. Financially, Jackson's second term is notable for (1) the payment of
the national debt, (2) the growth of a great surplus in the treasury, (3)
the distribution of the surplus among the states.
7. The manner of distributing the surplus revenue among the states
interrupted a period of wild speculation and brought on the panic of 1837.
8. Van Buren, who succeeded Jackson as President, called a special session
of Congress; and the fourth installment of the surplus was withheld.
9. Financial distress, hard times, and general discontent led to a demand
for a change; and the log-cabin, hard-cider campaign that followed ended
with the election of Harrison (1840).
FOOTNOTES
[1] Andrew Jackson was born in Waxhaw, North Carolina, 1767, but always
considered himself a native of South Carolina, for the place of his birth
was on the border of the two states. During the Revolution a party of
British came to the settlement where Jackson lived. An officer ordered the
boy to clean his boots, and when Jackson refused, struck him with a sword,
inflicting wounds on his head and arm. Andrew and his brothers were taken
prisoners to Camden. His mother obtained his release and shortly after
died while on her way to nurse the sick prisoners in Charleston. Left an
orphan, Jackson worked at saddlery, taught school, studied law, and went
to Tennessee in 1788; was appointed a district attorney, in 1796 was the
first representative to Congress from the state of Tennessee, and in 1797
became one of its senators. In 1798-1804 he was one of the judges of the
Tennessee supreme court. His military career began in 1813-14, when he
beat the Indians in the Creek War. In 1814 he was made a major general, in
1815 won the battle of New Orleans, and in 1818 beat the Seminoles in
Florida. He was the first governor of the territory of Florida. He died in
June, 1845. Read the account of Jackson's action in the Seminole War and
the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, in McMaster's _History of the
People of the U. S._, Vol. IV, pp. 439-456.
[2] The inauguration was of the simplest kind. Uncovered, on foot,
escorted by the committee in charge, and surrounded on both sides by gigs,
wood wagons, hacks full of women and children, and followed by thousands
of men from all parts of the country, Jackson walked from his hotel to the
Capitol and on the east portico took the oath of office. A wild rush was
then made by the people to shake his hand. With difficulty the President
reached a horse and started for the White House, "pursued by a motley
concourse of people, riding, running helter-skelter, striving who should
first gain admittance." So great was the crowd at the White House that
Jackson was pushed through the drawing room and would have been crushed
against the wall had not his friends linked arms and made a barrier about
him. The windows had to be opened to enable the crowd to leave the room.
[3] Editors of newspapers that supported Jackson were given office or were
rewarded with public printing, and a party press devoted to the President
was thus established. To keep both workers and newspapers posted as to the
policy of the administration, there was set up at Washington a partisan
journal for which all officeholders were expected to subscribe. The
President, ignoring his secretaries, turned for advice to a few party
leaders whom the Adams men nicknamed the "Kitchen Cabinet."
[4] Calhoun maintained (1) that the Constitution is a compact or contract
between the states; (2) that Congress can only exercise such power as this
compact gives it; (3) that when Congress assumes power not given it, and
enacts a law it has no authority to enact, any state may veto, or nullify,
that law, that is, declare it not a law within her boundary; (4) that
Congress has no authority to lay a tariff for any other purpose than to
pay the debts of the United States; (5) that the tariff to protect
manufactures was therefore an exercise of power not granted by the
Constitution. This view of the Constitution was held by the Southern
states generally. But as the two most ardent expounders of it were Hayne
and Calhoun, both of South Carolina, it was called the South Carolina
doctrine.
[5] On the anniversary of Jefferson's birthday, April 13, 1830, a great
dinner was given in Washington at which nullification speeches were made
in response to toasts. Jackson was present, and when called on for a toast
offered this: "Our Federal Union, it must be preserved."
[6] Read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. VI, pp.
153-163.
[7] Daniel Webster was born in New Hampshire in 1782, graduated from
Dartmouth, studied law, wrote some pamphlets, and made several Fourth of
July orations, praising the Federal Constitution and denouncing the
embargo. In 1813 he entered Congress as a representative from New
Hampshire, but lost his seat by removing to Boston in 1816. In 1823
Webster returned to Congress as a representative from one of the
Massachusetts districts, rose at once to a place of leadership, and in
1827 entered the United States Senate. By this time he was famous as an
orator. Passages from his speeches were recited by schoolboys, and such
phrases as "Our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country,"
"Thank God, I, I also, am an American," "Independence _now_, and
Independence forever!" passed into everyday speech. In his second reply to
Hayne of South Carolina, defending and explaining the Constitution (p.
290), he closed with the words "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one
and inseparable." In 1836 he received the electoral vote of Massachusetts
for the presidency. He was a senator for many years, was twice Secretary
of State, and died in October, 1852.
[9] Read the speeches of Calhoun in Johnston's _American Orations_,
Vol. I, pp. 303-319.
[10] Shortly before February 1, 1833, the day on which nullification was
to go into effect, the South Carolina leaders met and suspended the
Ordinance of Nullification till March 3, the last day of the session of
Congress. This, of course, they had no power to do. The state authorities
did not think it wise to put the ordinance in force till they saw what
Congress would do with the tariff.
[11] In 1826 a Mason named William Morgan, living at Batavia, in western
New York, threatened to reveal the secrets of masonry. But about the time
his book was to appear, he suddenly disappeared. The Masons were accused
of having killed him, and the people of western New York denounced them at
public meetings as members of a society dangerous to the state. A party
pledged to exclude Masons from public office was quickly formed and soon
spread into Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New England, where it became very
strong.
[12] This so-called removal consisted in depositing the revenue, as it was
collected, in a few state banks, the "pet banks,"--instead of in the
United States Bank as before,--and gradually drawing out the money on
deposit with the United States Bank. Read an account of the interviews of
Jackson with committees from public meetings in McMaster's _History of
the People of the U. S._, Vol. VI, pp. 200-204.
[13] The principles of this new society, formulated by William Lloyd
Garrison, were: (1) that each state had a right to regulate slavery within
its boundaries; (2) that Congress should stop the interstate slave trade;
(3) that Congress should abolish slavery in the territories and in the
District of Columbia; (4) that Congress should admit no more slave states
into the Union.
[14] Read Whittier's poem _A Summons_--"Lines written on the adoption
of Pinckney's Resolutions."
[15] The surplus on January 1, 1837, was $42,468,000. The amount to be
distributed therefore was $37,468,000. Only three installments (a little
over $28,000,000) were paid. For the use the states made of the money,
read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. VI, pp. 351-
358.
[16] Martin Van Buren was born in New York state in 1782, studied law,
began his political career at eighteen, and held several offices before he
was sent to the state senate in 1812. From 1815 to 1819 he was attorney
general of New York, became United States senator in 1821, and was
reflected in 1827; but resigned in 1828 to become governor of New York.
Jackson appointed him Secretary of State in 1829; but he resigned in 1831
and was sent as minister to Great Britain. The appointment was made during
a recess of the Senate, which later refused to confirm the appointment,
and Van Buren was forced to come home. Because of this "party persecution"
the Democrats nominated him for Vice President in 1832, and from 1833 to
1837 he had the pleasure of presiding over the body that had rejected him.
He died in 1862.
[17] Specie payment was resumed in the autumn of 1838; but most of the
banks again suspended in 1839, and again in 1841. Read the account of the
panic in McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. VI, pp.
398-405.
[18] Financial distress was not the only thing that troubled Van Buren's
administration. During 1837 many Canadians rebelled against misrule, and
began the "Patriot War" in their country. One of their leaders enlisted
aid in Buffalo, and seized a Canadian island in the Niagara River. The
steamer _Caroline_ was then run between this island and the New York
shore, carrying over visitors, and, it was claimed, guns and supplies.
This was unlawful, and one night in December, 1837, a force of Canadian
government troops rowed over to the New York shore, boarded the
_Caroline_, and destroyed her; it was a disputed question whether she
was burned and sunk, or whether she was set afire and sent over the Falls.
The whole border from Vermont to Michigan became greatly excited over this
invasion of our territory. Men volunteered in the "Patriot" cause,
supplies and money were contributed, guns were taken from government
arsenals, and raids were made into Canada. Van Buren sent General Scott to
the frontier, did what he could to preserve peace and neutrality, and thus
made himself unpopular in the border states. There was also danger of war
over the disputed northern boundary of Maine. State troops were sent to
the territory in dispute, along the Aroostook River (1839; map, p. 316);
but Van Buren made an unpopular agreement with the British minister,
whereby the troops were withdrawn and both sides agreed not to use force.
[19] In the West, men came to these meetings in huge canoes and wagons of
all sorts, and camped on the ground. At one meeting the ground covered by
the people was measured, and allowing four to the square yard it was
estimated about 80,000 attended. Dayton, in Ohio, claimed 100,000 at her
meeting. At Bunker Hill there were 60,000. In the processions, huge balls
were rolled along to the cry, "Keep the ball a-rolling." Every log cabin
had a barrel of hard cider and a gourd drinking cup near it. On the walls
were coon skins, and the latch-string was always hanging out. More than a
hundred campaign songs were written and sung to popular airs. Every Whig
wore a log-cabin medal, or breastpin, or badge, or carried a log-cabin
cane. Read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. VI,
pp. 550-588.
[20] The battle fought in 1811, meaning Harrison, the victor in that
battle. See note on p. 254.
[21] John Tyler was born in Virginia in 1790 and died in 1862. At twenty-
one he was elected to the legislature of Virginia, was elected to the
House of Representatives in 1821, and favored the admission of Missouri as
a slave state. In 1825 he became governor of Virginia, and in 1827 was
elected to the United States Senate. There he opposed the tariff and
internal improvements, supported Jackson, but condemned his proclamation
to the milliners, voted for the censure of Jackson, and when instructed by
Virginia to vote for expunging, refused and resigned from the Senate in
1836.
CHAPTER XXIV
GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1820 TO 1840
POPULATION.--When Harrison was elected in 1840, the population of our
country was 17,000,000, spread over twenty-six states and three
territories. Of these millions several hundred thousand had come from the
Old World. No records of such arrivals were kept before 1820; since that
date careful records have been made, and from them it appears that between
1820 and 1840 about 750,000 immigrants came to our shores. They were
chiefly from Ireland, England, and Germany. [1]
[Illustration: SETTLED AREA IN 1840.]
West of the mountains were over 6,000,000 people; yet but two Western
states, Arkansas (1836) and Michigan (1837), had been admitted to the
Union since 1821; and but two new Western territories, Wisconsin and Iowa,
had been organized. This meant that the Western states already admitted
were filling up with population. [2]
[Illustration: A PUBLIC SCHOOL OF EARLY TIMES.]
THE PUBLIC LANDS.--The rise of new Western states brought up the
troublesome question, What shall be done with the public lands? [3] The
Continental Congress had pledged the country to sell the lands and use the
money to pay the debt of the United States. Much was sold for this
purpose, but Congress set aside one thirty-sixth part of the public domain
for the use of local schools. [4] As the Western states made from the
public domain had received land grants for schools, many of the Eastern
states about 1821 asked for grants in aid of their schools. The Western
states objected, and both then and in later times asked that all the
public lands within their borders be given to them or sold to them for a
small sum. After 1824 efforts were made by Benton and others to reduce the
price of land to actual settlers. [5] But Congress did not adopt any of
these measures. After 1830, when the public debt was nearly paid, Clay
attempted to have the money derived from land sales distributed among all
the states. The question what to do with the lands was discussed year
after year. At last in 1841 (while Tyler was President) Clay's bill became
a law with the proviso that the money should not be distributed if the
tariff rates were increased. The tariff rates were soon increased (1842),
and but one distribution was made.
THE INDIANS.--Another result of the filling up of the country was the
crowding of the Indians from their lands. They had always been regarded as
the rightful owners of the soil till their title should be extinguished by
treaty. Many such treaties had been made, ceding certain areas but
reserving others on which the whites were not to settle. But population
moved westward so rapidly that it seemed best to set apart a region beyond
the Mississippi and move all the Indians there as quickly as possible. [6]
In 1834, therefore, such a region, an "Indian Country," was created in
what was later called Indian Territory, and the work of removal began.
In the South this proved a hard matter. In Georgia the Creeks and
Cherokees refused for a while to go, and by so doing involved the federal
government in serious trouble with Georgia and with the Indians. In 1835
an attempt to move the Seminoles from Florida to the Indian Country caused
a war which lasted seven years and cost millions of dollars. [7]
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.--Another issue with which the growth of the West
had much to do was that of government aid to roads, canals, and railroads.
Much money was spent on the Cumberland Road; [18] but in 1817 Madison
vetoed a bill appropriating money to be divided among the states for
internal improvements, and from that time down to Van Buren's day the
question of the right of Congress to use money for such purposes was
constantly debated in Congress. [9]
[Illustration: THE NATIONAL ROAD.]
THE STATES BUILD CANALS AND ROADS.--All this time population was
increasing, the West was growing, interstate trade was developing, new
towns and villages were springing up, and farms increasing in number as
the people moved to the new lands. The need of cheap transportation became
greater and greater each year, and as Congress would do nothing, the
states took upon themselves the work of building roads and canals.
What a canal could do to open up a country was shown when the Erie Canal
was finished in 1825 (see p. 273). So many people by that time had settled
along its route, that the value of land and the wealth of the state were
greatly increased. [10] The merchants of New York could then send their
goods up the Hudson, by the canal to Buffalo, and then to Cleveland or
Detroit, or by Chautauqua Lake and the Allegheny to Pittsburg, for about
one third of what it cost before the canal was opened (maps, pp. 267,
279). Buffalo began to grow with great rapidity, and in a few years its
trade had reached Chicago. In 1839 eight steamboats plied between these
two towns.
A TRIP ON A CANAL PACKET.--Passengers traveled on the canal in packet
boats, as they were called. The hull of such a craft was eighty feet long
and eleven feet wide, and carried on its deck a long, low house with flat
roof and sloping sides. In each side were a dozen or more windows with
green blinds and red curtains. When the weather was fine, passengers sat
on the roof, reading, talking, or sewing, till the man at the helm called
"Low bridge!" when everybody would rush down the steps and into the cabin,
to come forth once more when the bridge was passed. Walking on the roof
when the packet was crowded was impossible. Those who wished such exercise
had to take it on the towpath. Three horses abreast could drag a packet
boat some four miles an hour.
[Illustration: LOCKS ON THE ERIE CANAL, ROCKPORT, N.Y.]
WESTERN ROUTES.--Aroused by the success of the Erie Canal, Pennsylvania
began a great highway from Philadelphia to Pittsburg. As planned, it was
to be part canal and part turnpike over the mountains. But before it was
completed, railroads came into use, and when finished, it was part
railroad, part canal. Not to be outdone by New York and Pennsylvania, the
people of Baltimore began the construction (1828) of the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad, the first in the country for the carriage of passengers and
freight. [11] Massachusetts, alarmed at the prospect of losing her trade
with the West, appointed (1827) a commission and an engineer to select a
route for a railroad to join Boston and Albany. Ohio had already commenced
a canal from Cleveland to the Ohio. [12]
EARLY RAILROADS.--The idea of a public railroad to carry freight and
passengers was of slow growth, [13] but once it was started more and more
miles were built every year, till by 1835 twenty-two railroads were in
operation. The longest of them was only one hundred and thirty-six miles
long; it extended from Charleston westward to the Savannah River, opposite
Augusta. These early railroads were made of wooden beams resting on stone
blocks set in the ground. The upper surface of the beams, where the wheels
rested, was protected by long strips or straps of iron spiked to the beam.
The spikes often worked loose, and, as the car passed over, the strap
would curl up and come through the bottom of the car, making what was
called a "snake head."
[Illustration: AN EARLY RAILROAD.]
What should be the motive power, was a troublesome question. The horse was
the favorite; it sometimes pulled the car, and sometimes walked on a
treadmill on the car. Sails were tried also, and finally locomotives. [14]
Locomotives could not climb steep grades. When a hill was met with, the
road had to go around it, or if this was not possible, the engine had to
be taken off and the cars pulled up or let down an inclined plane by means
of a rope and stationary engine. [15]
A TRIP ON AN EARLY RAILROAD.--A traveler from Philadelphia to Pittsburg,
in 1836, would set off about five o'clock in the morning for what was
called the depot. There his baggage would be piled on the roof of a car,
which was drawn by horses to the foot of an inclined plane on the bank of
the Schuylkill. Up this incline the car would be drawn by a stationary
engine and rope to the top of the river bank. When all the cars of the
train had been pulled up in this way, they would be coupled together and
made fast to a little puffing, wheezing locomotive without cab or brake,
whose tall smokestack sent forth volumes of wood smoke and red-hot
cinders. At Lancaster (map, p. 267) the railroad ended, and passengers
went by stage to Columbia on the Susquehanna, and then by canal packet up
that river and up the Juniata to the railroad at the foot of the
mountains.
[Illustration: HANDBILL OF A PHILADELPHIA TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, OF
1835.]
The mountains were crossed by the Portage Railroad, a series of inclined
planes and levels somewhat like a flight of steps. At Johnstown, west of
the Alleghenies, the traveler once more took a canal packet to Pittsburg.
[16]
THE WEST BUILDS RAILROADS AND CANALS.--Prior to 1836 most of the railroads
and canals were in the East. But in 1836 the craze for internal
improvements raged in Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, and in each an
elaborate system of railroads and canals was planned, to be built by the
state. Illinois in this way contracted a debt of $15,000,000; Indiana,
$10,000,000, and Michigan, $5,000,000.
But scarcely was work begun on the canals and railroads when the panic of
1837 came, and the states were left with heavy debts and unfinished public
works that could not pay the cost of operating them. Some defaulted in the
payment of interest, and one even repudiated her bonds which she had
issued and sold to establish a great bank.
THE MAILS.--As the means of transportation improved, the mails were
carried more rapidly, and into more distant parts of the country. By 1837
it was possible to send a letter from New York to Washington in one day,
to New Orleans in less than seven days, to St. Louis in less than five
days, and to Buffalo in three days; and after 1838 mail was carried by
steamships to England in a little over two weeks.
[Illustration: THE SAVANNAH.]
OCEAN STEAMSHIPS.--In the month of May, 1819, the steamship
_Savannah_ left the city of that name for Liverpool, England, and reached
it in twenty-five days, using steam most of the way. She was a side-
wheeler with paddle wheels so arranged that in stormy weather they could
be taken in on deck. [17]
No other steamships crossed the Atlantic till 1838, when the _Sirius_
reached New York in eighteen days, and the _Great Western_ in sixteen
days from England. Others followed, in 1839 the Cunard line was founded,
and regular steam navigation of the Atlantic was established.
EXPRESS.--Better means of communication made possible another convenience,
of which W. F. Harnden was the originator. He began in 1839 to carry
packages, bundles, money, and small boxes between New York and Boston,
traveling by steamboat and railroad. At first two carpetbags held all he
had to carry; but his business increased so rapidly that in 1840 P. B.
Burke and Alvin Adams started a rival concern which became the Adams
Express Company.
[Illustration: CARPETBAG.]
MECHANICAL DEVELOPMENT.--The greater use of the steamboat, the building of
railroads, and the introduction of the steam locomotive, were but a few
signs of the marvelous industrial and mechanical development of the times.
The growth and extent of the country, the opportunities for doing business
on a great scale, led to a demand for time-saving and labor-saving
machinery.
One of the characteristics of the period 1820-40, therefore, is the
invention and introduction of such machinery. Boards were now planed, and
bricks pressed, by machine. It was during this period that the farmers
began to give up the flail for the thrashing machine; that paper was
extensively made from straw; that Fairbanks invented the platform scales;
that Colt invented the revolver; that steel pens were made by machine; and
that a rude form of friction match was introduced. [18]
Anthracite coal was now in use in the large towns and cities, and grate
and coal stoves were displacing open fires and wood stoves, just as gas
was displacing candles and lamps.
THE CITIES AND TOWNS.--The increase of manufacturing in the northeastern
part of the country caused the rise of large towns given up almost
exclusively to mills and factories and the homes of workmen. [19] The
increase of business, trade, and commerce, and the arrival of thousands of
immigrants each year, led to a rapid growth of population in the seaports
and chief cities of the interior. This produced many changes in city life.
The dingy oil lamps in the streets, lighted only when the moon did not
shine, were giving way to gas lights. The constable and the night watchman
with his rattle were being replaced by the policeman. Such had been the
increase in population and area of the chief cities, that some means of
cheap transportation about the streets was needed, and in 1830 a line of
omnibuses was started in New York city. So well did it succeed that other
lines were started; and three years later omnibuses were used in
Philadelphia.
[Illustration: NEW YORK OMNIBUS, 1830. From a print of the time.]
THE WORKINGMAN.--The growth of manufactures and the building of works of
internal improvement produced a demand for workmen of all sorts, and
thousands came over, or were brought over, from the Old World. The
unskilled were employed on the railroads and canals; the skilled in the
mills, factories, and machine shops.
As workingmen increased in number, trades unions were formed, and efforts
were made to secure better wages and a shorter working day. In this they
succeeded: after a long series of strikes in 1834 and 1835 the ten-hour
day was adopted in Philadelphia and Baltimore, and in 1840, by order of
President Van Buren, went into force "in all public establishments" under
the federal government.
THE SOUTH.--No such labor issues troubled the southern half of the
country. There the laborer was owned by the man whose lands he cultivated,
and strikes, lockouts, questions of wages, and questions of hours were
unknown. The mills, factories, machine shops, the many diversified
industries of the Northern states were unknown. In the great belt of
states from North Carolina to the Texas border, the chief crop was cotton.
These states thus had two common bonds of union: the maintenance of the
institution of negro slavery, and the development of a common industry. As
the people of the free states developed different sorts of industry, they
became less and less like the people of the South, and in time the two
sections were industrially two separate communities. The interests of the
people being different, their opinions on great national issues were
different and sectional.
REFORMS.--As we have seen, a great antislavery agitation (p; 293) occurred
during the period 1820-40. It was only one of many reform movements of the
time. State after state abolished imprisonment for debt, [20] lessened the
severity of laws for the punishment of crime, extended the franchise, [21]
or right to vote, reformed the discipline of prisons, and established
hospitals and asylums. So eager were the people to reform anything that
seemed to be wrong, that they sometimes went to extremes. [22] The
antimasonic movement (p. 292) was such a movement for reform; the Owenite
movement was another. Sylvester Graham preaching reform in diet, Mrs.
Bloomer advocating reform in woman's dress, and Joseph Smith, who founded
Mormonism, were but so many advocates of reform of some sort.
Owen believed that poverty came from individual ownership, and the
accumulation of more money by one man than by another. He believed that
people should live in communities in which everything--lands, houses,
cattle, products of the soil--are owned by the community; that the
individual should do his work, but be fed, housed, clothed, educated, and
amused by the community. Owen's teachings were well received, and Owenite
communities were founded in many places in the West and in New York, only
to end in failure. [23]
MORMONISM had better fortune. Joseph Smith, its founder, published in 1830
the _Book of Mormon_, as an addition to the Bible. [24] A church was
next organized, missionaries were sent about the country, and in 1831 the
sect moved to Kirtland in Ohio, and there built a temple. Trouble with
other sects and with the people forced them to move again, and they went
to Missouri. But there, too, they came in conflict with the people, were
driven from one county to another, and in 1839-40 were driven from the
state by force of arms. A refuge was then found in Illinois, where, on the
banks of the Mississippi, they founded the town of Nauvoo. In spite of
their wanderings they had increased in number, and were a prosperous
community. [25]
[Illustration: PACK ANIMALS.]
THE GREAT WEST EXPLORED.--During the twenty years since Major Long's
expedition, the country beyond the Missouri had been more fully explored.
In 1822 bands of merchants at St. Louis began to trade with Santa Fe,
sending their goods on the backs of mules and in wagons, thus opening up
what was known as the Santa Fe trail. One year later a trapper named
Prevost found the South Pass over the Rocky Mountains, and entered the
Great Salt Lake country. [26] This was the beginning, and year after year
bands of trappers wandered over what was then Mexican territory but is now
part of our country, from the Great Salt Lake to the lower Colorado River,
and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. [27]
[Illustration: THE FAR WEST IN 1840.]
Between 1830 and 1832 Hall J. Kelley attempted to found a colony in
Oregon, but failed, as did another leader, Nathaniel J. Wyeth. [28] Wyeth
tried again in 1834, but his settlements were not permanent. A few fur
traders and missionaries to the Indians had better fortune; but in 1840
most of the white men in the Oregon country were British fur traders. It
was not till 1842 that the tide of American migration began to set
strongly toward Oregon; but within a few years after that time the
Americans there greatly outnumbered the British.
SUMMARY
1. In 1840 the population of the country was 17,000,000, of whom more than
a third dwelt west of the Allegheny Mountains.
2. For twenty years there had been much discussion about the disposition
of the public lands; but Congress did not give up the plan of selling them
for the benefit of the United States.
3. As population increased, the Indians were pushed further and further
west. Some went to the Indian Country peaceably. In Georgia and Florida
they resisted.
4. As Congress would not sanction a general system of federal
improvements, the states built canals and railroads for themselves.
5. The success of those in the East encouraged the Western states to
undertake like improvements. But they plunged the states into debt.
6. The period was one of great mechanical development, and many inventions
of world-wide use date from this time.
7. The growth of manufactures produced great manufacturing towns, and the
increase of artisans and mechanics led to the formation of trades unions.
8. The unrest caused by the rapid development, of the country invited
reforms of all sorts, and many--social, industrial, and political--were
attempted.
FOOTNOTES
[1] In the early thirties much excitement was aroused by the arrival of
hundreds of paupers sent over from England by the parishes to get rid of
them. But when Congress investigated the matter, it was found not to be so
bad as represented, though a very serious evil.
[2] Life in the West at this period is well described in Eggleston's
_Hoosier Schoolmaster_ and _The Graysons_.
[3] The credit system of selling lands (p. 241) was abolished in 1820,
because a great many purchasers could not pay for what they bought.
[4] The public domain is laid off in townships six miles square. Each
township is subdivided into 36 sections one mile square, and the sixteenth
section in each township was set apart in 1785 for the use of schools in
the township. This provision was applied to new states erected from the
public domain down to 1848; in states admitted after that time both the
sixteenth and the thirty-sixth sections have been set apart for this
purpose. In addition to this, before 1821, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana had each received two entire townships
for the use of colleges and academies.
[5] After the Indian title to land was extinguished, the land was surveyed
and offered for sale at auction. Land which did not sell at auction could
be purchased at private sale for $1.25 an acre. Benton proposed that land
which did not sell at private sale within five years should be offered at
50 cents an acre, and if not sold, should be given to any one who would
cultivate it for three years.
[6] An attempt to remove the Indians in northern Illinois and in Wisconsin
led to the Black Hawk War in 1832. The Indians had agreed to go west, but
when the settlers entered on their lands, Black Hawk induced the Sacs and
Foxes to resist, and a short war was necessary to subdue them.
[7] The leader was Osceola, a chief of much ability, who perpetrated
several massacres before he was captured. In 1837 he visited the, camp of
General Jesup under a flag of truce, and was seized and sent to Fort
Moultrie, near Charleston, where he died. His followers were beaten (1837)
in a hard-fought battle by Colonel Zachary Taylor, but kept up the war
till 1842.
[8] When Ohio was admitted (p. 241), Congress promised to use a part of
the money from the sale of land to build a road joining the Potomac and
Ohio rivers. Work on the National Road, as it was called, was started in
1811. It began at Cumberland on the Potomac and reached the Ohio at
Wheeling. But Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois demanded that the road be
extended, and in time it was built through Columbus and Indianapolis to
Vandalia. Thence it was to go to Jefferson City in Missouri; but a dispute
arose as to whether it should cross the Mississippi at Alton or at St.
Louis, and work on it was stopped.
[9] Jackson vetoed several bills for internal improvements, and the
hostility of his party to such a use of government money was one of the
grievances of the Whigs.
[10] For a description of life in central New York, read _My Own Story_,
by J. T. Trowbridge.
[11] The first railroad in our country was used in 1807, at Boston, to
carry earth from a hilltop to grade a street. Others, only a few miles
long, were soon used to carry stone and coal from quarry and mine to the
wharf--in 1810 near Philadelphia, in 1826 at Quincy (a little south of
Boston), in 1827 at Mauchchunk (Pennsylvania). All of these were private
roads and carried no passengers.
[12] While the means of travel were improving, the inns and towns even
along the great stage routes had not improved. "When you alight at a
country tavern," said a traveler, "it is ten to one you stand holding your
horse, bawling for the hostler while the landlord looks on. Once inside
the tavern every man, woman, and child plies you with questions. To get a
dinner is the work of hours. At night you are put into a room with a dozen
others and sleep two or three in a bed. In the morning you go outside to
wash your face and then repair to the barroom to see your face in the only
looking glass the tavern contains." Another traveler complains that at the
best hotel in New York there was neither glass, mug, cup, nor carpet, and
but one miserable rag dignified by the name of towel.
[Illustration: MANSION HOUSE, 39 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, IN 1831.]
[13] As early as 1814 John Stevens applied to New Jersey for a railroad
charter, and when it was granted, he sought to persuade the New York Canal
Commission to build a railroad instead of a canal. In 1823 Pennsylvania
granted Stevens and his friends a charter to build a railroad from
Philadelphia to the Susquehanna. In 1825 Stevens built a circular road at
Hoboken and used a steam locomotive to show the possibility of such a
means of locomotion. But all these schemes were ahead of the times.
[14] The friends of canals bitterly opposed railroads as impractical.
Snow, it was said, would block them for weeks. If locomotives were used,
the sparks would make it impossible to carry hay or other things
combustible. The boilers would blow up as they did on steamboats. Canals
were therefore safer and cheaper. Read McMaster's _History of the People
of the U. S._, Vol. VI, pp. 87-89.
[15] Almost all the early roads used this device. There was one such
inclined plane at Albany; another at Belmont, now in Philadelphia; a third
on the Paterson and Hudson Railroad near Paterson; and a fourth on the
Baltimore and Ohio. When Pennsylvania built her railroad over the
Allegheny Mountains, many such planes were necessary, so that the Portage
Railroad, as it was called, was a wonder of engineering skill.
[16] The state built the railroads, like the canals, as highways open to
everybody. At first no cars or motive power, except at the inclined
planes, were supplied. Any car owner could carry passengers or freight who
paid the state two cents a mile for each passenger and $4.92 for each car
sent over the rails. After 1836 the state provided locomotives and charged
for hauling cars.
[17] The captain of a schooner, seeing her smoke, thought she was a ship
on fire and started for her, "but found she went faster with fire and
smoke than we possibly could with all sails set. It was then that we
discovered that what we supposed a vessel on fire was nothing less than a
steamboat crossing the Western Ocean." In June, when off the coast of
Ireland, she was again mistaken for a ship on fire, and one of the king's
revenue cutters was sent to her relief and chased her for a day.
[18] A common form was known as the loco-foco. In 1835 the Democratic
party in New York city was split into two factions, and on the night for
the nomination of candidates for office one faction got possession of the
hall by using a back door. But the men of the other faction drove it from
the room and were proceeding to make their nominations when the gas was
cut off. For this the leaders were prepared, and taking candles out of
their pockets lit them with loco-foco matches. The next morning a
newspaper called them "Loco-Focos," and in time the name was applied to a
wing of the Democratic party.
[19] Good descriptions of life in New England are Lucy Larcom's _New
England Girlhood_; T. B. Aldrich's _Story of a Bad Boy_; and E. E. Hale's
_New England Boyhood_.
[20] Read Whittier's _Prisoner for Debt_.
[21] In Rhode Island many efforts to have the franchise extended came to
naught. The old colonial charter was still in force, and under it no man
could vote unless he owned real estate worth $134 or renting for $7 a
year, or was the eldest son of such a "freeman." After the Whig victory in
1840, however, a people's party was organized, and adopted a state
constitution which extended the franchise, and under which Thomas W. Dorr
was elected governor. Dorr attempted to seize the state property by force,
and establish his government; but his party and his state officials
deserted him, and he was arrested, tried, found guilty of treason, and
sentenced to life imprisonment. He was finally pardoned, and in 1842 a
state constitution was regularly adopted, and the old charter abandoned.
[22] In New York many people were demanding a reform in land tenure. One
of the great patroonships granted by the Dutch West India Company (p. 72)
still remained in the Van Rensselaer family. The farmers on this vast
estate paid rent in produce. When the patroon, Stephen Van Rensselaer,
died in 1839, the heir attempted to collect some overdue rents; but the
farmers assembled, drove off the sheriff, and so compelled the government
to send militia to aid the sheriff. The Anti-rent War thus started dragged
on till 1846, during which time riots, outrages, some murders, and much
disorder took place. Again and again the militia were called out. In the
end the farmers were allowed to buy their farms, and the old leasehold
system was destroyed. Cooper's novels _The Redskins_, _The Chainbearer_,
and _Satanstoe_ relate to these troubles. So also does Ruth Hall's
_Downrenter's Son_.
[23] Read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. V, pp. 90-
97.
[24] Joseph Smith asserted that in a vision the angel of the Lord told him
to dig under a stone on a certain hill near Palmyra, New York, and that on
doing so he found plates of gold inscribed with unknown characters, and
two stones or crystals, on looking through which he was enabled to
translate the characters.
[25] Read McMaster's _History of the People of the U. S._, Vol. VI,
pp. 102-107; 454-458.
[26] In 1824 W. H. Ashley led a party from St. Louis up the Platte River,
over the mountains, and well down the Green River, and home by Great Salt
Lake, the South Pass, the Big Horn, the Yellowstone, and the Missouri. In
1826 Ashley and a party went through the South Pass, dragging a six-pound
cannon, the first wheeled vehicle known to have crossed the mountains
north of the Santa Fe trail, The cannon was put in a trading post on Utah
Lake.
[27] In 1826 Jedediah Smith with fifteen trappers went from near the Great
Salt Lake to the lower Colorado River, crossed to San Diego, and went up
California and over the Sierra Nevada to Great Salt Lake. In 1827, with
another party, Smith went over the same ground to the lower Colorado,
where the Indians killed ten of his men and stole his property. With two
companions Smith walked to San Jose, where the Mexicans seized him. At
Monterey (mon-te-rá) an American ship captain secured his release, and
with a new band of followers Smith went to a fork of the Sacramento River.
While Smith and his party were in Oregon in 1828, the Indians massacred
all but five of them. The rest fled and Smith went on alone to Fort
Vancouver, a British fur-trading post on the Columbia River. Up this river
Smith went (in the spring of 1829) to the mountains, turned southward, and
in August, near the head waters of the Snake River, met two of his
partners. Together they crossed the mountains to the source of the Big
Horn, and then one went on to St. Louis. Early in 1830 he returned with
eighty-two men and ten wagons. This was the first wagon train on the
Oregon trail.
[28] Wyeth had joined Kelley's party; but finding that it would not start
for some time, he withdrew, and organized a company to trade in Oregon,
and early in 1832, with twenty-nine companions, left Boston, went to St.
Louis, joined a band of trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, and
went with them to a great Indian fair on the upper waters of the Snake
River. There some of his companions deserted him, as others had done along
the way. With the rest Wyeth reached Fort Vancouver, where the company
went to pieces, and in 1833 Wyeth returned to Boston.
CHAPTER XXV
MORE TERRITORY ACQUIRED
TYLER AND THE WHIGS QUARREL.--When Congress (in May, 1841) first met in
Tyler's term, Clay led the Whigs in proposing measures to carry out their
party principles. But Tyler vetoed their bill establishing a new national
bank. The Whigs then made some changes to suit, as they supposed, his
objections, and sent him a bill to charter a Fiscal Corporation; but this
also came back with a veto; whereupon his Cabinet officers (all save
Daniel Webster, Secretary of State) resigned, and the Whig members of
Congress, in an address to the people, read him out of the party. Later in
his term Tyler vetoed two tariff bills, but finally approved a third,
known as the Tariff of 1842. For these uses of the veto power the Whigs
thought of impeaching him; but did not.
[Illustration: THE DISPUTED MAINE BOUNDARY.]
WEBSTER-ASHBURTON TREATY.--When Tyler's cabinet officers resigned, Webster
remained in order to conclude a new treaty with Great Britain, [1] by
which our present northeastern boundary was fixed from the St. Croix to
the St. Lawrence. Neither power obtained all the territory it claimed
under the treaty of 1783, but the disputed region was divided about
equally between them. [2]
Soon after the treaty was concluded Webster resigned the secretaryship of
state, and the rupture between Tyler and the Whigs was complete.
THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS.--The great event of Tyler's time was the decision
to annex the republic of Texas.
[Illustration: THE ALAMO.]
In 1821 Mexico secured her independence of Spain, and about three years
afterward adopted the policy of granting a great tract of land in Texas to
anybody who, under certain conditions, and within a certain time, would
settle a specified number of families on the grant. To colonize in this
way at once became popular in the South, and in a few years thousands of
American citizens were settled in Texas.
For a while all went well; but in 1833 serious trouble began between the
Mexican government and the Texans, who in 1836 declared their
independence, founded the republic of Texas, [3] and sought admission into
our Union as a state. Neither Jackson nor Van Buren favored annexation, so
the question dragged on till 1844, when Tyler made with Texas a treaty of
annexation and sent it to the Senate. That body refused assent.
[Illustration: THE WAR WITH MEXICO.]
THE DEMOCRATS AND TEXAS.--The issue was thus forced. The Democratic
national convention of 1844 claimed that Texas had once been ours, [4] and
declared for its "reannexation." To please the Northern Democrats it also
declared for the "reoccupation" of Oregon up to 54° 40'. This meant that
we should compel Great Britain to abandon all claim to that country, and
make it all American soil.
The Democrats went into the campaign with the popular cries, "The
reannexation of Texas;" "The whole of Oregon or none;" "Texas or
disunion"--and elected Polk [5] after a close contest.
TEXAS ANNEXED; OREGON DIVIDED.--Tyler, regarding the triumph of the
Democrats as an instruction from the people to annex Texas, urged Congress
to do so at once, and in March, 1845, a resolution for the admission of
Texas passed both houses, and was signed by the President. [6] The
resolution provided also that out of her territory four additional states
might be made if Texas should consent. The boundaries were in dispute, but
in the end Texas was held to have included all the territory from the
boundary of the United States to the Rio Grande and a line extending due
north from its source.
After Texas was annexed, notice was served on Great Britain that joint
occupation of Oregon must end in one year. The British minister then
proposed a boundary treaty which was concluded in a few weeks (1846). The
line agreed on was the 49th parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the
Strait of Juan de Fuca (hoo-ahn' da foo'ca), and by it to the Pacific
Ocean (compare maps, pp. 278 and 330).
WAR WITH MEXICO.--Mexico claimed that the real boundary of Texas was the
Nueces (nwâ'sess) River. When, therefore, Polk (in 1846) sent General
Zachary Taylor with an army to the Rio Grande, the Mexicans attacked him;
but he beat them at Palo Alto (pah'lo ahl'to) and again near by at Resaca
de la Palma (ra-sah'ca da lah pahl'ma), and drove them across the Rio
Grande. When President Polk heard of the first attack, he declared that
"Mexico has shed American blood upon American soil.... War exists,... and
exists by the act of Mexico herself." Congress promptly voted men and
money for the war.
MONTEREY.--Taylor, having crossed the Rio Grande, marched to Monterey and
(September, 1846) attacked the city. It was fortified with strong stone
walls in the fashion of Old World cities; the flat-roofed houses bristled
with guns; and across every street was a barricade. In three days of
desperate fighting our troops forced their way into the city, entered the
buildings, made their way from house to house by breaking through the
walls or ascending to the roofs, and reached the center of the city before
the Mexicans surrendered the town.
NEW MEXICO AND CALIFORNIA.--Immediately after the declaration of war,
Colonel Stephen W. Kearny with a force of men set off (June, 1846) by the
old Santa Fe trail and (August 18) captured Santa Fe without a struggle,
established a civil government, declared New Mexico annexed to the United
States, and then started to take possession of California. But California
had already been conquered by the Americans. In June, 1846, some three
hundred American settlers, believing that war was imminent and fearing
they would be attacked, revolted, adopted a flag on which was a grizzly
bear, and declared California an independent republic. Fremont, who had
been exploring in California, came to their aid (July 5), and two days
later Commodore Sloat with a naval force entered Monterey and raised the
flag there. In 1847 (January 8, 9) battles were fought with the Mexicans
of California; but the Americans held the country.
BUENA VISTA.--Toward the close of 1846 General Winfield Scott was put in
command of the army in Mexico, and ordered Taylor to send a large part of
the army to meet him at Vera Cruz (vâ'ra kroos). Santa Anna, hearing of
this, gathered 18,000 men and at Buena Vista, in a narrow valley at the
foot of the mountains, attacked Taylor (February 23, 1847). The battle
raged from morning to night. Again and again the little American army of
5000 seemed certain to be overcome by the 18,000 Mexicans. But they fought
on desperately, and when night came, both armies left the field. [7]
[Illustration: GENERAL TAYLOR AT BUENA VISTA. From an old print.]
THE MARCH TO MEXICO.--Scott landed at Vera Cruz in March, 1847, took the
castle and city after a siege of fifteen days, and about a week later set
off for the city of Mexico, winning victory after victory on the way. The
heights of Cerro Gordo were taken by storm, and the army of Santa Anna was
beaten again at Jalapa (ha-lah'pa). Puebla (pwâ'bla) surrendered at
Scott's approach, and there he waited three months. But on August 7 Scott
again started westward with 10,000 men, and three days later looked down
on the distant city of Mexico surrounded by broad plains and snow-capped
mountains.
[Illustration: CATHEDRAL, MEXICO.]
Then followed in quick succession the victory at Contreras (kôn-trâ'ras),
the storming of the heights of Churubusco, the victory at Molino del Rey
(mô-lee'no del râ') the storming of the castle of Chapultepec' perched on
a lofty rock, and the triumphal entry into Mexico (September 14). [8]
THE TERMS OF PEACE (1848).--The republic of Mexico was now a conquered
nation and might have been added to our domain; but the victors were
content to retain Upper California and New Mexico--the region from the Rio
Grande to the Pacific, and from the Gila River to Oregon (compare maps,
pp. 318, 330). For this great territory we paid Mexico $15,000,000, and in
addition paid some $3,500,000 of claims our citizens had against her for
injury to their persons or property. [9]
[Illustration: MONUMENT ON MEXICAN BOUNDARY.]
SHALL THE NEWLY ACQUIRED TERRITORY BE SLAVE SOIL OR FREE?--The treaty with
Mexico having been ratified and the territory acquired, it became the duty
of Congress to provide the people with some American form of government.
There needed to be American governors, courts, legislatures, customhouses,
revenue laws, in short a complete change from the Mexican way of
governing. To do this would have been easy if it had not been for the fact
that (in 1827) Mexico had abolished slavery. All the territory acquired
was therefore free soil; but the South wished to make it slave soil. The
question of the hour thus became, Shall New Mexico and California be slave
soil or free soil? [10]
THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1848.--So troublesome was the issue that the
two great parties tried to keep it out of politics. The Democrats in their
platform in 1848 said nothing about slavery in the new territory, and the
Whigs made no platform. This action of the two parties so displeased the
antislavery Whigs and Wilmot Proviso Democrats that they held a
convention, formed the Free-soil party, [11] nominated Martin Van Buren
for President, and drew away so many New York Democrats from their party
that the Whigs carried the state and won the presidential election. [12]
On March 5, 1849 (March 4 was Sunday), Taylor [13] and Fillmore [14] were
inaugurated.
[Illustration: DEMOCRATIC CARTOON IN CAMPAIGN OF 1848]
GOLD IN CALIFORNIA.--By this time the question of slavery in the new
territory was still more complicated by the discovery of gold in
California. Many years before this time a Swiss settler named J. A. Sutter
had obtained a grant of land in California, where the city of Sacramento
now stands. In 1848 James W. Marshall, while building a sawmill for Sutter
at Coloma, some fifty miles away from Sutter's Fort, discovered gold in
the mill race. Both Sutter and Marshall attempted to keep the fact secret,
but their strange actions attracted the attention of a laborer, who also
found gold. Then the news spread fast, and people came by hundreds and by
thousands to the gold fields. [15] Later in the year the news reached the
East, and when Polk in his annual message confirmed the rumors, the rush
for California began. Some went by vessel around Cape Horn. Others took
ships to the Isthmus of Panama, crossed it on foot, and sailed to San
Francisco. Still others hurried to the Missouri to make the overland
journey across the plains. [16] By August, 1849, some eighty thousand gold
hunters, "forty-niners," as they came to be called, had reached the mines.
[17]
[Illustration: A ROCKER.]
THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA.--As Congress had provided no government, and as
scarcely any could be said to exist, the people held a convention, made a
free-state constitution, and applied for admission into the Union as a
state.
ISSUES BETWEEN THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH.--The election of Taylor, and
California's application for statehood, brought on a crisis between the
North and the South.
Most of the people in the North desired no more slave states and no more
slave territories, abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the
District of Columbia, and the admission of California as a free state.
The South opposed these things; complained of the difficulty of capturing
slaves that escaped to the free states, and of the constant agitation of
the slavery question by the abolitionists; and demanded that the Mexican
cession be left open to slavery.
Since 1840 two slave-holding states, Florida and Texas (1845), and two
free states, Iowa (1846) and Wisconsin (1848), had been admitted to the
Union, making fifteen free and fifteen slave states in all; and the South
now opposed the admission of California, partly because it would give the
free states a majority in the Senate.
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850.--At this stage Henry Clay was again sent to the
Senate. He had powerfully supported two great compromise measures--the
Missouri Compromise of 1820, and the Compromise Tariff of 1833. He
believed that the Union was in danger of destruction; but that if the two
parties would again compromise, it could be saved.
To please the North he now proposed (1) that California should be admitted
as a free state, and (2) that the slave trade (buying and selling slaves),
but not the right to own slaves, should be abolished in the District of
Columbia. To please the South he proposed (1) that Congress should pass a
more stringent law for the capture of fugitive slaves, and (2) that two
territories, New Mexico and Utah, should be formed from part of the
Mexican purchase, with the understanding that the people in them should
decide whether they should be slave soil or free. This principle was
called "squatter sovereignty," or "popular sovereignty."
[Illustration: CLAY ADDRESSING THE SENATE IN 1850. From an old engraving.]
Texas claimed the Rio Grande as part of her west boundary. But the United
States claimed the part of New Mexico east of the Rio Grande, and both
sides seemed ready to appeal to arms. Clay proposed that Texas should give
up her claim and be paid for so doing.
During three months this plan was hotly debated, [18] and threats of
secession and violence were made openly. But in the end the plan was
accepted: (1) California was admitted, (2) New Mexico and Utah were
organized as territories open to slavery, (3) Texas took her present
bounds (see maps, pp. 318, 330) and received $10,000,000, (4) a new
fugitive slave law [19] was passed, and (5) the slave _trade_ was
prohibited in the District of Columbia. These measures together were
called the Compromise of 1850.
DEATH OF TAYLOR.--While the debate on the compromise was under way, Taylor
died (July 9, 1850) and Fillmore was sworn into office as President for
the remainder of the term.
SUMMARY
1. Congress in 1841 passed two bills for chartering a new national bank,
but President Tyler vetoed both. The Whig leaders then declared that Tyler
was not a Whig.
2. The next year the Webster-Ashburton treaty settled a long-standing
dispute over the northeastern boundary.
3. In 1844 the Democrats declared for the annexation of Texas and Oregon,
and elected Polk President. Congress then quickly decided to admit Texas
to the Union.
4. War with Mexico followed a dispute over the Texas boundary. In the
course of it Taylor won victories at Monterey and Buena Vista; Scott made
a famous march to the city of Mexico; and Kearny marched to Santa Fe and
on to California.
5. Peace added to the United States a great tract of country acquired from
Mexico. Meanwhile, the Oregon country had been divided by treaty with
Great Britain.
6. The acquisition of Mexican territory brought up the question of the
admission of slavery, for the territory was free soil under Mexican rule.
7. The opponents of extension of the slave area formed the Free-soil party
in 1848, and drew off enough Democratic votes so that the Whigs elected
Taylor and Fillmore.
8. Meanwhile gold had been discovered in California, and a wild rush for
the "diggings" began.
9. The people in California formed a free-state constitution and applied
for admission to the Union.
10. The chief political issues now centered around slavery, and as they
had to be settled, lest the Union be broken, the Whigs and Democrats
arranged the Compromise of 1850.
11. This made California a free state, but left the new territories of
Utah and New Mexico open to slavery.
[Illustration: OLD ADOBE RANCH HOUSE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Besides the long-standing dispute over the Maine boundary, two other
matters were possible causes of war with Great Britain. (1) Her cruisers
had been searching our vessels off the African coast to see if they were
slavers. (2) In the attack on the _Caroline_ (p. 297) one American was
killed, and in 1840 a Canadian, Alexander McLeod, was arrested in New
York and charged with the murder. Great Britain now avowed responsibility
for the burning of the _Caroline_, and demanded that the man should
be released. McLeod, however, was tried and acquitted.
[2] Two other provisions of the treaty were of especial importance. (1) In
order to stop the slave trade each nation was to keep a squadron (carrying
at least eighty guns) cruising off the coast of Africa. (2) It was agreed
that any person who, charged with the crime of murder, piracy, arson,
robbery, or forgery, committed in either country, shall escape to the
other, shall if possible be seized and given up to the authorities of the
country which he fled.
[3] A war between Mexico and Texas followed, and was carried on with great
cruelty by the Mexicans. Santa Anna, the president of Mexico, having
driven some Texans into a building called the Alamo (ah'la-mo), in San
Antonio, carried it by storm and ordered all of its defenders shot. A band
of Texans who surrendered at Goliad met the same fate. In 1836, however,
General Samuel Houston (hu'stun) beat the Mexicans in the decisive battle
of San Jacinto. The struggle of the Texans for independence aroused
sympathy in our country; hundreds of volunteers joined their army, and
money, arms, and ammunition were sent them. Read A. E. Barr's novel
_Remember the Alamo_.
[4] Referring to our claim between 1803 and 1819 (p. 276) that the
Louisiana Purchase extended west to the Rio Grande.
[5] James K. Polk was born in North Carolina in 1795, but went with his
parents to Tennessee in 1806, where in 1823 he became a member of the
legislature. From 1824 to 1839 he was a member of Congress, and in 1839
was elected governor of Tennessee. Polk was the first presidential "dark
horse"; that is, the first candidate whose nomination was unexpected and a
surprise. In the Democratic national convention at Baltimore the contest
was at first between Van Buren and Cass. Polk's name did not appear till
the eighth ballot; on the ninth the convention "stampeded" and Polk
received every vote. When the news was spread over the country by means of
railroads and stagecoaches, many people would not believe it till
confirmed by the newspapers. The Whigs nominated Henry Clay; and the
Liberty party, James G. Birney. Tyler also was renominated by his friends,
but withdrew.
[6] Read Whittier's _Texas_.
[7] In the course of the fight a son of Henry Clay was killed, and
Jefferson Davis, afterward President of the Confederate States of America,
was wounded. At one stage of the battle Lieutenant Crittenden was sent to
demand the surrender of a Mexican force that had been cut off; but the
Mexican officer in command sent him blindfolded to Santa Anna. Crittenden
thereupon demanded the surrender of the entire Mexican army, and when told
that Taylor must surrender in an hour or have his army destroyed, replied,
"General Taylor never surrenders." Read Whittier's _Angels of Buena
Vista_.
[8] The war was bitterly opposed by the antislavery people of the North as
an attempt to gain more slave territory. Numbers of pamphlets were written
against it. Lincoln, then a member of Congress, introduced resolutions
asking the President to state on what spot on American soil blood had been
shed by Mexican troops, and James Russell Lowell wrote his famous
_Biglow Papers_.
[9] Five years later (1853), by another treaty with Mexico, negotiated by
James Gadsden, we acquired a comparatively small tract south of the Gila,
called the Gadsden Purchase (compare maps, pp. 330, 352). The price was
$10,000,000. The purchase was made largely because Congress was then
considering the building of a railroad to the Pacific, and because the
route likely to be chosen went south of the Gila.
[10] As early as 1846 the North attempted to decide the question in favor
of freedom. Polk had asked for $2,000,000 with which to settle the
boundary dispute with Mexico, and when the bill to appropriate the money
was before the House, David Wilmot moved to add the proviso that all
territory bought with it should be free soil. The House passed the Wilmot
Proviso, but the Senate did not; so the bill failed. The following year
(1847) a bill to give Polk $3,000,000 was introduced, and again the
proviso was added by the House and rejected by the Senate. Then the House
gave way, and passed the bill; but the acquisition of California and New
Mexico by treaty left the question still unsettled.
[11] Their platform declared: (1) that Congress has no more power to make
a slave than to make a king; (2) that there must be "free soil for a free
people"; (3) that there must be "no more slave states, no more slave
territories"; (4) that "we inscribe on our banner, 'Free soil, free
speech, free labor, and freemen.'"
[12] The Liberty party nominated John P. Hale of New Hampshire, but he
withdrew in favor of Van Buren. The Liberty party was thus merged in the
Free-soil party, and so disappeared from politics. The Democratic
candidates for President and Vice-President were Lewis Cass and William O.
Butler.
[13] Zachary Taylor was born in Virginia in 1784, was taken to Louisville,
Kentucky, while still a child, and grew up there. In 1808 he entered the
United States army as a lieutenant, and by 1810 had risen to be a captain.
For a valiant defense of Fort Harrison on the Wabash, he was made a major.
He further distinguished himself in the Black Hawk and Seminole wars. In
the Mexican War General Taylor was a great favorite with his men, who
called him in admiration "Old Rough and Ready." Before 1848 he had taken
very little interest in politics. He was nominated because of his record
as a military hero.
[14] Millard Fillmore was born in central New York in 1800, and at
fourteen was apprenticed to a trade, but studied law at odd times, and
practiced law at Buffalo. He served three terms in the state assembly, was
four times elected to Congress, and was once the Whig candidate for
governor. In 1848 he was nominated for the vice presidency as a strong
Whig likely to carry New York.
[15] Laborers left the fields, tradesmen the shops, and seamen deserted
their ships as soon as they entered port. One California newspaper
suspended its issue because editor, typesetters, and printer's devil had
gone to the gold fields. In June the Star stopped for a like reason, and
California was without a newspaper. Some men made $5000, $10,000, and
$15,000 in a few days. California life in the early times is described in
Kirk Munroe's _Golden Days of '49_, and in Bret Harte's _Luck of Roaring
Camp_ and _Tales of the Argonauts_.
[16] Those who crossed the plains suffered terribly, and for many years
the wrecks of their wagons, the bones of their oxen and horses, and the
graves of many of the men were to be seen along the route. This route was
from Independence in Missouri, up the Platte River, over the South Pass,
past Great Salt Lake, and so to "the diggings."
[17] Some miners obtained gold by digging the earth, putting it into a tin
pan, pouring on water, and then shaking the pan so as to throw out the
muddy water and leave the particles of gold. Others used a box mounted on
rockers and called a "cradle" or "rocker."
[18] Read the speeches of Calhoun and Webster in _Johnston's American
Orations_, Vol. II. Webster's speech gave great offense in the North.
Read McMaster's _Daniel Webster_, pp. 314-324, and Whittier's poem
_Ichabod_. The debate and its attendant scenes are well described in
Rhodes's _History of the U. S._, Vol. I, pp. 104-189.
[19] The fugitive slave law gave great offense to the North. It provided
that a runaway slave might be seized wherever found, and brought before a
United States judge or commissioner. The negro could not give testimony to
prove he was not a fugitive but had been kidnapped, if such were the case.
All citizens were "commanded," when summoned, to aid in the capture of a
fugitive, and, if necessary, in his delivery to his owner. Fine and
imprisonment were provided for any one who harbored a fugitive or aided in
his escape. The law was put in execution at once, and "slave catchers,"
"man hunters," as they were called, "invaded the North." This so excited
the people that many slaves when seized were rescued. Such rescues
occurred during 1851 at New York, Boston, Syracuse, and at Ottawa in
Illinois. Read Wilson's _Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America_,
Chap. 26.
In the midst of this excitement Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe published her
story of _Uncle Tom's Cabin_. Mrs. Stowe's purpose was "to show the
institution of slavery truly just as it existed." The book is rather a
picture of what slavery might have been than of what slavery really was;
but it was so powerfully written that everybody read it, and thousands of
people in the North who hitherto cared little about the slavery issue were
converted to abolitionism.
[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES IN 1850.]
CHAPTER XXVI
THE STRUGGLE FOR FREE SOIL
THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1852.--The Compromise of 1850 was thought to
be a final settlement of all the troubles that had grown out of slavery.
The great leaders of the Whig and Democratic parties solemnly pledged
themselves to stand by the compromise, and when the national conventions
met in 1852, the two parties in their platforms made equally solemn
promises.
The Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce [1] of New Hampshire for
President, and declared they would "abide by and adhere to" the
compromise, and would "resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out
of it, the agitation of the slavery question." The Whigs selected Winfield
Scotland declared the compromise to be a "settlement in principle" of the
slavery question, and promised to do all they could to prevent further
agitation of it. The Free-soilers nominated John P. Hale of New Hampshire.
The refusal of the Whig party to stand against the compromise drove many
Northern voters from its ranks. Pierce carried every state save four and,
March 4, 1853, was duly inaugurated. [2]
THE SLAVERY QUESTION NOT SETTLED.--But Pierce had not been many months in
office when the quarrel over slavery was raging once more. In January,
1854, Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois introduced into the Senate a bill to
organize a new territory to be called Nebraska. Every foot of it was north
of 36° 30' and was, by the Compromise of 1820 (p. 274), free soil. But an
attempt was made to amend the bill and declare that the Missouri
Compromise should not apply to Nebraska, whereupon such bitter opposition
arose that Douglas recalled his bill and brought in another. [3]
KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT.--The new bill provided for the creation of two
territories, one to be called Kansas and the other Nebraska; for the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise, thus opening the country north of 36°
30' to slavery; and for the adoption of the doctrine of popular
sovereignty.
The Free-soilers, led by Salmon P. Chase, William H. Seward, and Charles
Sumner, tried hard to defeat the bill. But it passed Congress, and was
signed by the President (1854). [4]
[Illustration: GOVERNOR'S MANSION, KANSAS, IN 1857. Contemporary drawing.]
THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS.--And now began a seven years' struggle between
the Free-soilers and the proslavery men for the possession of Kansas. Men
of both parties hurried to the territory. [5] The first election was for
territorial delegate to Congress, and was carried by the proslavery party
assisted by hundreds of Missourians who entered the territory, voted
unlawfully, and went home. The second election was for members of the
territorial legislature. Again the Missourians swarmed over the border,
and a proslavery legislature was elected. Governor Reeder set the
elections aside in seven districts, and in them other members were chosen;
but the legislature when it met turned out the seven so elected and seated
the men rejected by the governor. The proslavery laws of Missouri were
adopted, and Kansas became a slave-holding territory.
THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION.--Unwilling to be governed by a legislature so
elected, looking on it as illegal and usurping, the free-state men framed
a state constitution at Topeka (1855), organized a state government, and
applied to Congress for admission into the Union as a state. The House of
Representatives voted to admit Kansas, but the Senate would not consent,
and (July 4, 1856) United States troops dispersed the legislature when it
attempted to assemble under the Topeka constitution. Kansas was a slave-
holding territory for two years yet before the free-state men secured a
majority in the legislature, [6] and not till 1861 did it secure admission
as a free state.
PERSONAL LIBERTY LAWS.--In the East meantime the rapidly growing feeling
against slavery found expression in what were called personal liberty
laws, which in time were enacted by all save two of the free states. Their
avowed object was to prevent free negroes from being sent into slavery on
the claim that they were fugitive slaves; but they really obstructed the
execution of the fugitive slave law of 1850.
Another sign of Northern feeling was the sympathy now shown for the
Underground Railroad. This was not a railroad, but a network of routes
along which slaves escaping to the free states-were sent by night from one
friendly house to another till they reached a place of safety, perhaps in
Canada.
[Illustration: RECEPTION AT THE WHITE HOUSE, IN 1858. Contemporary
drawing.]
BREAKING UP OF OLD PARTIES.--On political parties the events of the four
years 1850-54 were serious. The Compromise of 1850, and the vigorous
execution of the new fugitive slave law, drove thousands of old line Whigs
from their party. The deaths of Clay and Webster in 1852 deprived the
party of its greatest leaders. The Kansas-Nebraska bill completed the
ruin, and from that time forth the party was of small political
importance. The Democratic party also suffered, and thousands left its
ranks to join the Free-soilers. Out of such elements in 1854-56 was
founded the new Republican party. [7]
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1856.--At Philadelphia, in June, 1856, a Republican
national convention nominated John C. Fremont for President. The Democrats
nominated James Buchanan. A remnant of the Whigs, now nicknamed "Silver
Grays," indorsed Fillmore, who had been nominated by the American, or
"Know-nothing," party. [8] The Free-soilers joined the Republicans.
Buchanan was elected. [9]
DRED SCOTT DECISION, 1857.--Two days after the inauguration of Buchanan,
the Supreme Court made public a decision which threw the country into
intense excitement. A slave named Dred Scott had been taken by his owner
from Missouri to the free state of Illinois and then to Minnesota, made
free soil by the Compromise of 1820. When brought back to Missouri, Dred
Scott sued for freedom. Long residence on free soil, he claimed, had made
him free. The case finally reached the Supreme Court of the United States,
which decided against him. [10] But in delivering the decision, Chief-
Justice Taney announced: (1) that Congress could not shut slavery out of
the territories, and (2) that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was
unconstitutional and void.
THE TERRITORIES OPEN TO SLAVERY.--This decision confirmed all that the
South had gained by the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Compromise of 1850,
and also opened to slavery Washington and Oregon, which were then free
territories.
If the court supposed that its decision would end the struggle, it was
much mistaken. Not a year went by but some incident occurred which added
to the excitement.
[Illustration: LINCOLN'S LAW OFFICE IN SPRINGFIELD.]
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE.--In 1858 the people of Illinois were to elect a
legislature which would choose a senator to succeed Stephen A. Douglas.
The Democrats declared for Douglas. The Republicans nominated Abraham
Lincoln, [11] and as the canvass proceeded the two candidates traversed
the state, holding a series of debates. The questions discussed were
popular sovereignty, the Dred Scott decision, and the extension of slavery
into the territories, and the debates attracted the attention of the whole
country. Lincoln was defeated; but his speeches gave him a national
reputation. [12]
JOHN BROWN AT HARPERS FERRY.--In 1859 John Brown, a lifelong enemy of
slavery, went to Harpers Ferry, Virginia, with a little band of followers,
to stir up an insurrection and free the slaves. He was captured, tried for
murder and treason, and hanged. The attempt was a wild one; but it caused
intense excitement in both the North and the South, and added to the
bitter feeling which had long existed between the two sections. [13]
THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1860.--The Democrats were now so divided on
the slavery issues that when they met in convention at Charleston, South
Carolina, in 1860, the party was rent in twain, and no candidates were
chosen. Later in the year the Northern wing nominated Stephen A. Douglas
for President. The Southern delegates, at a convention of their own,
selected John C. Breckinridge.
Another party made up of old Whigs and Know-nothings nominated John Bell
of Tennessee. This was the Constitutional Union party. The Republicans
[14] named Abraham Lincoln and carried the election. [15]
SUMMARY
1. The Compromise of 1850 was supposed to settle the slavery issues, and
the two great parties pledged themselves to support it.
2. But the issues were not settled, and in 1854 the organization of Kansas
and Nebraska reopened the struggle.
3. The Kansas-Nebraska bill and the contest over Kansas split both the
Whig party and the Democratic party, and by the union of those who left
them, with the Free-soilers, the Republican party was made, 1854-56.
4. In 1857 the Supreme Court declared the Missouri Compromise
unconstitutional, and opened all territories to slavery.
5. In 1858 this decision and other slavery issues were debated by Lincoln
and Douglas.
6. This debate made Lincoln a national character, and in 1860 he was
elected President by the Republican party.
[Illustration: SCHOOLHOUSE IN THE MOUNTAINS, USED BY BROWN AS AN ARSENAL.
Contemporary drawing.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Franklin Pierce was born in New Hampshire in 1804, and died in 1869.
He began his political career in the state legislature, went to Congress
in 1833, and to the United States Senate in 1837. In the war with Mexico,
Pierce rose from the ranks to a brigadier generalship. He was a bitter
opponent of anti-slavery measures; but when the Civil War opened he became
a Union man.
[2] The electoral vote was, for Pierce, 254; for Scott, 42. The popular
vote was, for Pierce, 1,601,474; for Scott, 1,386,580; for Hale, 155,667.
[3] Stephen A. Douglas was born in Vermont in 1813, went west in 1833, was
made attorney-general of Illinois in 1834, secretary of state and judge of
the supreme court of Illinois in 1840, a member of Congress in 1843, and
of the United States Senate in 1847. He was a small man, but one of such
mental power that he was called "the Little Giant." He was a candidate for
the presidential nomination in the Democratic conventions of 1852 and
1856, and in 1860 was nominated by the Northern wing of that party. He was
a Union man.
[4] For popular opinion on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, read Rhodes's
_History of the U. S._, Vol. I, pp. 461-470.
[5] Proslavery men from Missouri and other Southern states founded
Atchison, Leavenworth, Lecompton, and Kickapoo, in the northeastern part
of Kansas. Free-state men from the North founded Lawrence, Topeka,
Manhattan, Osawatomie, in the east-central part of the territory.
[6] In 1856 border war raged in Kansas, settlers were murdered, property
destroyed, and the free-state town of Lawrence was sacked by the
proslavery men. In 1857 the proslavery party made a slave-state
constitution at Lecompton and applied for admission, and the Senate (1858)
voted to admit Kansas under it; but the House refused. In 1859 the Free-
soilers made a second (the Wyandotte) constitution, under which Kansas was
admitted into the Union (1861).
[7] The breaking up of old parties over the slavery issues naturally
brought up the question of forming a new party, and at a meeting at Ripon
in Wisconsin in 1854, it was proposed to call the new party Republican.
After the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, a thousand citizens of
Michigan signed a call for a state convention, at which a Republican state
party was formed and a ticket nominated on which were Whigs, Free-soilers,
and Anti-Nebraska Democrats. Similar "fusion tickets," as they were
called, were adopted in eight other states. The success of the new party
in the elections of 1854, and its still greater success in 1855, led to a
call for a convention at Pittsburg on Washington's Birthday, 1856. There
and then the national Republican party was founded.
[8] The American party was the outcome of a long-prevalent feeling against
the election of foreign-born citizens to office. At many times and at many
places this feeling had produced political organizations. But it was not
till 1852 that a secret, oath-bound organization, with signs, grips, and
passwords, was formed and spread its membership rapidly through most of
the states. As its members would not tell its principles and methods, and
professed entire ignorance of them when questioned, the American party was
called in derision "the Know-nothings." Its success, however, was great,
and in 1855 Know-nothing governors and legislatures were elected in eight
states, and heavy votes polled in six more.
[9] The electoral vote was, for Buchanan, 174; for Frémont, 114; for
Fillmore, 8. The popular vote was, for Buchanan, 1,838,169; for Frémont,
1,341,264; for Fillmore, 874,534. James Buchanan was born in Pennsylvania
in 1791, was educated at school and college, studied law, served in the
state legislature, was five times elected to the House of Representatives,
and three times to the Senate. In the Senate he was a warm supporter of
Jackson, and favored the annexation of Texas under Tyler. He was Secretary
of State under Polk, and had been minister to Great Britain.
[10] The Chief Justice ruled that no negro whose ancestors had been
brought as slaves into the United States could be a citizen; Scott
therefore was not a citizen, and hence could not sue in any United States
court.
[11] Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, February 12, 1809, and while
still a child was taken by his parents to Indiana. The first winter was
spent in a half-faced camp, and for several years the log cabin that
replaced it had neither door nor wood floor. Twelve months' "schooling"
was all he ever had; but he was fond of books and borrowed Aesop's
_Fables_, _Robinson Crusoe_, and Weems's _Life of Washington_, the book in
which first appeared the fabulous story of the hatchet and the cherry
tree. At nineteen Lincoln went as a flatboatman to New Orleans. In 1830
his father moved to Illinois, where Lincoln helped build the cabin and
split the rails to fence in the land, and then went on another flatboat
voyage to New Orleans. He became a clerk in a store in 1831, served as a
volunteer in the Black Hawk War, tried business and failed, became
postmaster of New Salem, which soon ceased to have a post office,
supported himself as plowman, farm hand, and wood cutter, and tried
surveying; but made so many friends that in 1834 he was sent to the
legislature, and reelected in 1836, 1838, and 1840. He now began the
practice of law, settled in Springfield, was elected to Congress in 1846,
and served there one term.
[12] For a description of the Lincoln-Douglas debate of 1858, read
Rhodes's _History of the U. S._, Vol. II, pp. 314-338.
[13] Many persons regarded Brown as a martyr. Read Whittier's _Brown of
Ossawatomie_, or Stedman's _How Old Brown took Harper's Ferry_. Read,
also, Rhodes's _History of the U. S._, Vol. II, pp. 383-398.
[14] The platform of the Republicans adopted in 1860 (at Chicago) sets
forth: (1) that the party repudiates the principles of the Dred Scott
decision, (2) that Kansas must be admitted as a free state, (3) that the
territories must be free soil, and (4) that slavery in existing states
should not be interfered with.
[15] The electoral vote was, for Lincoln, 180; for Douglas, 12; for
Breckinridge, 72; for Bell, 39. The popular vote was, for Lincoln,
1,866,452; for Douglas, 1,376,957; for Breckinridge, 849,781; for Bell,
588,879. Lincoln received no votes at all in ten Southern states. The
popular votes were so distributed that if those for Douglas, Breckinridge,
and Bell had all been cast for one of the candidates, Lincoln would still
have been elected President (by 173 electoral votes to 130).
CHAPTER XXVII
STATE OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1840 TO 1860
POPULATION.--In the twenty years which had elapsed since 1840 the
population of our country had risen to over 31,000,000. In New York alone
there were, in 1860, about as many people as lived in the whole United
States in 1789.
Not a little of this increase of population was due to the stream of
immigrants which had been pouring into the country. From a few thousand in
1820, the number who came each year rose gradually to about 100,000 in the
year 1842, and then went down again. But famine in Ireland and hard times
in Germany started another great wave of immigration, which rose higher
and higher till (1854) more than 400,000 people arrived in one year. Then
once more the wave subsided, and in 1861 less than 90,000 came.
[Illustration: SETTLED AREA IN 1860.]
NEW STATES AND TERRITORIES.--Though population was still moving westward,
few of our countrymen, before the gold craze of 1849, had crossed the
Missouri. Those who did, went generally to Oregon, which was organized as
a territory in 1848 and admitted into the Union as a state in 1859. By
that time California (1850) and Minnesota (1858) had also been admitted,
so that the Union in 1860 consisted of thirty-three states and five
territories. Eighteen states were free, and fifteen slave-holding. The
five territories were New Mexico, Utah, Washington (1853), Kansas, and
Nebraska (small map, p. 394).
CITY LIFE.--About one sixth of the population in 1860 lived in cities, of
which there were about 140 of 8000 or more people each. Most of them were
ugly, dirty, badly built, and poorly governed. The older ones, however,
were much improved. The street pump had given way to water works; gas and
plumbing were in general use; many cities had uniformed police; [1] but
the work of fighting fires was done by volunteer fire departments. Street
cars (drawn by horses) now ran in all the chief cities, omnibuses were in
general use, and in New York city the great Central Park, the first of its
kind in the country, had been laid out. Illustrated magazines, and weekly
papers, Sunday newspapers, and trade journals had been established, and in
some cities graded schools had been introduced. [2]
SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES.--In the country the district school for boys and
girls was gradually being improved. The larger cities of the North now had
high schools as well as common schools, and in a few instances separate
high schools for girls. Between 1840 and 1860 eighty-two sectarian and
twenty non-sectarian colleges were founded, and the Naval Academy at
Annapolis was opened. Not even the largest college in 1860 had 800
students, and in but one (University of Iowa, 1856) were women admitted to
all departments.
LITERATURE.--Public libraries were now to be found not only in the great
cities, but in most of the large towns, and in such libraries were
collections of poetry, essays, novels, and histories written by American
authors. Longfellow, Holmes, Lowell, Poe, Bryant, and Whittier among
poets; Hawthorne, Irving, Cooper, Simms, and Poe among writers of fiction;
Emerson and Lowell among essayists, were read and admired abroad as well
as at home. Prescott, who had lately (1859) died, had left behind him
histories of Spain in the Old World and in the New; Parkman was just
beginning his story of the French in America; Motley had published his
_Rise of the Dutch Republic_, and part of his _History of the United
Netherlands_; Hildreth had completed one _History of the United States_,
and Bancroft was still at work on another.
Near these men of the first rank stood many writers popular in their day.
The novels of Kennedy, and the poetry of Drake, Halleck, and Willis are
not yet forgotten.
OCCUPATIONS.--In the Eastern states the people were engaged chiefly in
fishing, commerce, and manufacturing; in the Middle states in farming,
commerce, manufacturing, and mining. To the great coal and iron mines of
Pennsylvania were (1859) added the oil fields. That petroleum existed in
that state had long been known; but it was not till Drake drilled a well
near Titusville (in northwestern Pennsylvania) and struck oil that enough
was obtained to make it marketable. Down the Ohio there was a great trade
in bituminous coal, and the union of the coal, iron, and oil trades was
already making Pittsburg a great city. In the South little change had
taken place. Cotton, tobacco, sugar, and the products of the pine forests
were still the chief sources of wealth; mills and factories hardly
existed. The West had not only its immense farms, but also the iron mines
of upper Michigan, the lead mines of the upper Mississippi and in
Missouri, the copper mines of the Lake Superior country, and the lumber
industry of Michigan and Wisconsin. Through the lakes passed a great
commerce. California was the great gold-mining state; but gold and silver
had just been discovered near Pikes Peak, and in what is now Nevada.
THE MORMONS.--Utah territory in 1860 contained forty thousand white
people, nearly all Mormons. These people, as we have seen, when driven
from Missouri, built the city called Nauvoo in Illinois. Their leaders now
introduced the practice of polygamy, and in various ways opposed the state
authorities. In 1844 they came to blows with the state; the leaders were
arrested, and while in jail Joseph Smith and his brother were murdered by
a mob. Brigham Young then became head of the church, and in the winter of
1846 the Mormons, driven from Nauvoo, crossed the Mississippi and began a
long march westward over the plains to Great Salt Lake, then in Mexico.
There they settled down, and when the war with Mexico ended, they were
again in the United States. When Utah was made a territory in 1850,
Brigham Young was appointed its first governor. [3]
[Illustration: FORT UNION, BUILT IN 1829 BY THE AMERICAN FUR COMPANY.]
THE FAR WEST.--Before 1850 each new state added to the Union had bordered
an some older state; but now California and Oregon were separated from the
other states by wide stretches of wilderness. The Rocky Mountain highland
and the Great Plains, however, were not entirely uninhabited. Over them
wandered bands of Indians mounted on fleet ponies; white hunters and
trappers, some trapping for themselves, some for the great fur companies;
and immense herds of buffalo, [4] and in the south herds of wild horses.
The streams still abounded with beaver. Game was everywhere, deer, elk,
antelope, bears, wild turkeys, prairie chickens, and on the streams wild
ducks and geese. Here and there were villages of savage and merciless
Indians, and the forts or trading posts of the trappers. Every year bands
of emigrants crossed the plains and the mountains, bound to Utah,
California, or Oregon.
PROPOSED RAILROAD TO THE PACIFIC.--In 1842 John C. Fremont, with Kit
Carson as guide, began a series of explorations which finally extended
from the Columbia to the Colorado, and from the Missouri to California and
Oregon (map, p. 314). [5] Men then began to urge seriously the plan of a
railroad across the continent to some point on the Pacific. In 1845 Asa
Whitney [6] applied to Congress for a grant of a strip of land from some
point on Lake Michigan to Puget Sound, and came again with like appeals in
1846 and 1848. By that time the Mexican cession had been acquired, and
this with the discovery of gold in California gave the idea such
importance that (in 1853) money was finally voted by Congress for the
survey of several routes. Jefferson Davis, as Secretary of War, ordered
five routes to be surveyed and (in 1855) recommended the most southerly;
and the Senate passed a bill to charter three roads. [7] Jealousy among
the states prevented the passage of the bill by the House. In 1860 the
platforms of the Democratic and Republican parties declared for such a
railroad.
MECHANICAL IMPROVEMENT.--During the period 1840-60 mechanical improvement
was more remarkable than in earlier periods. The first iron-front building
was erected, the first steam fire engine used, wire rope manufactured, a
grain drill invented, Hoe's printing press with revolving type cylinders
introduced, and six inventions or discoveries of universal benefit to
mankind were given to the world. They were the electric telegraph, the
sewing machine, the improved harvester, vulcanized rubber, the photograph,
and anaesthesia.
[Illustration: MORSE AND HIS FIRST TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENT.]
THE TELEGRAPH.--Seven years of struggle enabled Samuel F. B. Morse, helped
by Alfred Vail, to make the electric telegraph a success, [8] and in 1844,
with the aid of a small appropriation by Congress, Morse built a telegraph
line from Baltimore to Washington. [9] Further aid was asked from Congress
and refused. [10] The Magnetic Telegraph Company was then started. New
York and Baltimore were connected in 1846, and in ten years some forty
companies were in operation in the most populous states.
[Illustration: HOWE'S FIRST SEWING MACHINE.]
THE SEWING MACHINE; THE HARVESTER.--A man named Hunt invented the
lockstitch sewing machine in 1834; but it was not successful, and some
time elapsed before his idea was taken up by Elias Howe, who after several
years of experiment (1846) made a practical machine. People were slow to
use it, but by 1850 he had so aroused the interest of inventors that seven
rivals were in the field, and to their joint labors we owe one of the most
useful inventions of the century. From the household the sewing machine
passed into use in factories (1862), and to-day gives employment to
hundreds of thousands of people.
[Illustration: EARLY HARVESTER. From an old print.]
What the sewing machine is to the home and the factory, that is the reaper
to the farm. After many years of experiment Cyrus McCormick invented a
practical reaper and (1840) sought to put it on the market, but several
more years passed before success was assured. To-day, greatly improved and
perfected, it is in use the world over, and has made possible the great
grain fields, not only of our own middle West and Northwest, but of
Argentina, Australia, and Russia.
VULCANIZED RUBBER; PHOTOGRAPHY; ANAESTHESIA.--The early attempts to use
India rubber for shoes, coats, caps, and wagon covers failed because in
warm weather the rubber softened and emitted an offensive smell. To
overcome this Goodyear labored year after year to discover a method of
hardening or, as it is called, vulcanizing rubber. Even when the discovery
was made and patented, several years passed before he was sure of the
process. In 1844 he succeeded and gave to the world a most useful
invention.
[Illustration: A DAGUERREOTYPE, IN METAL CASE, 1843.]
In 1839 a Frenchman named Daguerre patented a method of taking pictures by
exposing to sunlight a copper plate treated with certain chemicals. The
exposure for each picture was some twenty minutes. An American, Dr. John
W. Draper, so improved the method that pictures were taken of persons in a
much shorter time, and photography was fairly started.
Greater yet was the discovery that by breathing sulphuric ether a person
can become insensible to pain and then recover consciousness. The glory of
the discovery has been claimed for Dr. Morton and Dr. Jackson, who used it
in 1846. Laughing gas (nitrous oxide) was used as an ansesthetic before
this time by Dr. Wells of Hartford.
TRANSPORTATION IMPROVED.--In the country east of the Mississippi some
thirty thousand miles of railroad had been built, and direct communication
opened from the North and East to Chicago (1853) and New Orleans (1859).
For the growth of railroads between 1850 and 1861 study the maps on pp.
331, 353. [11] At first the lines between distant cities were composed of
many connecting but independent roads. Thus between Albany and Buffalo
there were ten such little roads; but in 1853 they were consolidated and
became the New York Central, and the era of the great trunk lines was
fairly opened.
On the ocean, steamship service between the Old World and the New was so
improved that steamships passed from Liverpool to New York in less than
twelve days.
Better means of transportation were of benefit, not merely to the traveler
and the merchant, but to the people generally. Letters could be carried
faster and more cheaply, so the rate of postage on a single letter was
reduced (1851) from five or ten cents to three cents, [12] and before 1860
express service covered every important line of transportation.
THE ATLANTIC CABLE.--The success of the telegraph on land suggested a bold
attempt to lay wires across the bed of the ocean, and in 1854 Cyrus W.
Field of New York was asked to aid in the laying of a cable from St. Johns
to Cape Ray, Newfoundland. But Field went further and formed a company to
join Newfoundland and Ireland by cable, and after two failures succeeded
(1858). During three weeks all went well and some four hundred messages
were sent; then the cable ceased to work, and eight years passed before
another was laid. Since then many telegraph cables have been laid across
the Atlantic; but it was not till 1903 that the first was laid across the
Pacific.
FOREIGN RELATIONS.--We have seen how during this period our country was
expanded by the annexation of Texas (1845) and by two cessions of
territory from Mexico (1848 and 1853). But this was not enough to satisfy
the South, and attempts were made to buy Cuba. Polk (1848) offered Spain
$100,000,000 for it. Filibusters tried to capture it (in 1851), and Pierce
(1853) urged its annexation. With this end in view our ministers to Great
Britain, France, and Spain met at Ostend in Belgium in 1854 and issued
what was called the Ostend Manifesto. This set forth that Cuba must be
annexed to protect slavery, and if Spain would not sell for a fair price,
"then by every law, human and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it
from Spain if we possess the power." Buchanan also (1858) urged the
purchase of Cuba; but in vain.
CHINA AND JAPAN.--More pleasing to recall are our relations with China and
Japan. Our flag was first seen in China in 1784, when the trading vessel
_Empress of China_ reached Canton. Washington (1790) appointed a consul to
reside in that city, the only one in China, then open to foreign trade;
but no minister from the United States was sent to China till Caleb
Gushing went in 1844. By him our first treaty was negotiated with China,
under which five ports were opened to American trade and two very
important concessions secured: (1) American citizens charged with any
criminal act were to be tried and punished only by the American consul.
(2) All privileges which China might give to any other nation were
likewise to be given to the United States.
At that time Japan was a "hermit nation." In 1853, however, Commodore M.
C. Perry went to that country with a fleet, and sent to the emperor a
message expressing the wish of the United States to enter into trade
relations with Japan. Then he sailed away; but returned in 1854 and made a
treaty (the first entered into by Japan) which resulted in opening that
country to the United States. Other nations followed, and Japan was thus
opened to trade with the civilized world.
SUMMARY
1. Between 1840 and 1860 the population increased from 17,000,000 to
31,000,000.
2. During this period millions of immigrants had come.
3. As population continued to move westward new states and territories
were formed.
4. In one of these new territories, Utah, were the Mormons who had been
driven from Illinois.
5. The rise of a new state on the Pacific coast revived the old demand for
a railroad across the plains, and surveys were ordered.
6. East of the Mississippi thousands of miles of railroads were built, and
the East, the West, and the far South were connected.
7. This period is marked by many great inventions and discoveries,
including the telegraph, the sewing machine, and the reaper.
8. It was in this period that trade relations were begun with China and
Japan.
[Illustration: MODERN HARVESTER.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] All the large cities were so poorly governed, however, that they were
often the scenes of serious riots, political, labor, race, and even
religious.
[2] An unfriendly picture of the United States in 1842 is Dickens's
_American Notes_, a book well worth reading.
[3] Several non-Mormon officials were sent to Utah, but they were not
allowed to exercise any authority, and were driven out. The Mormons formed
the state of Deseret and applied for admission into the Union. Congress
paid no attention to the appeal, and (1857) Buchanan appointed a new
governor and sent troops to Utah to uphold the Federal authority. Young
forbade them to enter the territory, and dispatched an armed force that
captured some of their supplies. In the spring of 1858 the President
offered pardon "to all who will submit themselves to the just authority of
the Federal Government," and Young and his followers did so.
[4] An interesting account of the buffalo is given in A. C. Laut's The
Story of the Trapper_, pp. 65-80. Herds of a hundred thousand were common.
As many as a million buffalo robes were sent east each year in the
thirties and forties.
[5] John C. Fremont was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1813, and in 1842
was Lieutenant of Engineers, United States Army. In 1842 he went up the
Platte River and through the South Pass. The next year he passed southward
to Great Salt Lake, then northwestward to the Columbia, then southward
through Oregon to California, and back by Great Salt Lake to South Pass in
1844. In 1845 he crossed what is now Nebraska and Utah, and reached the
vicinity of Monterey in California. The Mexican authorities ordered him
away; but he remained in California and helped to win the country during
the war with Mexico. Later, he was senator from California, Republican
candidate for President in 1856, and an army general during the Civil War.
[6] Whitney asked for a strip sixty miles wide. So much of the land as was
not needed for railroad purposes was to be sold and the money used to
build the road. During 1847-49 his plan was approved by the legislatures
of seventeen states, and by mass meetings of citizens or Boards of Trade
in seventeen cities.
[7] One from the west border of Texas to California; another from the west
border of Missouri to California; and a third from the west border of
Wisconsin to the Pacific in Oregon or Washington.
[8] In 1842 Morse laid the first submarine telegraph in the world, from
Governors Island in New York harbor to New York city. It consisted of a
wire wound with string and coated with tar, pitch, and india rubber, to
prevent the electric current running off into the water. It was laid on
October 18, and the next morning, while messages were being received, the
anchor of a vessel caught and destroyed the wire.
[9] The wire was at first put in a lead tube and laid in a furrow plowed
in the earth. This failed; so the wire was strung on poles. One end was in
the Pratt St. Depot, Baltimore, and the other in the Supreme Court Chamber
at Washington. The first words sent, after the completion of the line,
were "What hath God wrought." Two days later the Democratic convention
(which nominated Polk for President) met at Baltimore, and its proceedings
were reported hourly to Washington by telegraph.
[10] Morse offered to sell his patent to the government, but the
Postmaster General reported that the telegraph was merely an interesting
experiment and could never have a practical value, so the offer was not
accepted.
[11] The use of vast sums of money in building so many railroads, together
with overtrading and reckless speculation, brought on a business panic in
1857. Factories were closed, banks failed, thousands of men and women were
thrown out of employment, and for two years the country suffered from hard
times.
[12] It was not till 1883 that the rate was reduced to two cents. Before
the introduction of the postage stamp, letters were sent to the post
offices, and when the postage had been paid, they were marked "Paid" by
the officials. When the mails increased in volume in the large cities,
this way of doing business consumed so much time that the postmasters at
St. Louis and New York sold stamps to be affixed to letters as evidence
that the postage had been paid. The convenience was so great that public
opinion forced Congress to authorize the post office department to furnish
stamps and require the people to use them (1847).
[Illustration: MAP OF EASTERN UNITED STATES IN 1861.]
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1863
[Illustration: NEWSPAPER BULLETIN POSTED IN THE STREETS OF CHARLESTON.]
THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA.--After Lincoln's election, the cotton
states, one by one, passed ordinances declaring that they left the Union.
First to go was South Carolina (December 20, 1860), and by February 1,
1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had
followed. On February 4 delegates from six of these seven states met at
Montgomery, Alabama, framed, a constitution, [1] established the
"Confederate States of America," and elected Jefferson Davis [2] and
Alexander H. Stephens provisional President and Vice President. Later they
were elected by the people.
[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Photograph of 1856.]
[Illustration: JEFFERSON DAVIS.]
LINCOLN'S POLICY.--President Buchanan did nothing to prevent all this, and
such was the political situation when Lincoln was inaugurated (March 4,
1861). His views and his policy were clearly stated in his inaugural
address: "I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the
institution of slavery in the states where it exists.... No state on its
own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union.... The Union is
unbroken, and to the extent of my ability I shall take care that the laws
of the Union be faithfully executed in all the states.... In doing this
there need be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it
be forced upon the national authority.... The power confided in me will be
used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the
government."
FORT SUMTER CAPTURED.--Almost all the "property and places" belonging to
the United States government in the seven seceding states had been seized
by the Confederates. [3] But Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor was still in
Union hands, and to this, Lincoln notified the governor of South Carolina,
supplies would be sent. Thereupon the Confederate army already gathered in
Charleston bombarded the fort till Major Anderson surrendered it (April
14, 1861). [4]
[Illustration: ONE OF THE BATTERIES THAT BOMBARDED FORT SUMTER.]
THE WAR OPENS.--With the capture of Fort Sumter the war for the Union
opened in earnest. On April 15 Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand
militia to serve for three months. [5] Thereupon Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee, and Arkansas seceded and joined the Confederacy. The capital of
the Confederacy was soon moved from Montgomery to Richmond, Virginia.
In the slave-holding states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri
the Union men outnumbered the secessionists and held these states in the
Union. When Virginia seceded, the western counties refused to leave the
Union, and in 1863 were admitted into the Union as the state of West
Virginia.
THE DIVIDING LINE.--The first call for troops was soon followed by a
second. The responses to both were so prompt that by July 1, 1861, more
than one hundred and eighty thousand Union soldiers were under arms. They
were stationed at various points along a line that stretched from Norfolk
in Virginia up the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River to Harpers Ferry, and
then across western Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. South of this
dividing line were the Confederate armies. [6]
Geographically this line was cut into three sections: that in Virginia,
that in Kentucky, and that in Missouri,
[Illustration: STONE BRIDGE OVER BULL RUN. Crossed by many fleeing Union
men.]
BULL RUN.--General Winfield Scott was in command of the Union army. Under
him and in command of the troops about Washington was General McDowell,
who in July, 1861, was sent to drive back the Confederate line in
Virginia. Marching a few miles southwest, McDowell met General Beauregard
near Manassas, and on the field of Bull Run was beaten and his army put to
flight. [7] The battle taught the North that the war would not end in
three months; that an army of raw troops was no better than a mob; that
discipline was as necessary as patriotism. Thereafter men were enlisted
for three years or for the war.
General George B. McClellan [8] was now put in command of the Union Army
of the Potomac, and spent the rest of 1861, and the early months of 1862,
in drilling his raw volunteers.
[Illustration: DRIVING BACK THE CONFEDERATE LINE IN THE WEST.]
CONFEDERATE LINE IN KENTUCKY DRIVEN BACK, 1862.--In Kentucky the
Confederate line stretched across the southern part of the state as shown
on the map. Against this General Thomas was sent in January, 1862. He
defeated the Confederates at Mill Springs near the eastern end. In
February General U. S. Grant and Flag-Officer Foote were sent to attack,
by land and water, Forts Donelson and Henry near the western end of the
line. Foote arrived first at Fort Henry on the Tennessee and captured it.
Thereupon Grant marched across country to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland,
and after three days' sharp fighting forced General Buckner to surrender.
[9]
[Illustration: ULYSSES S. GRANT.]
SHILOH OR PITTSBURG LANDING.--The Confederate line was now broken, and
abandoning Nashville and Columbus, the Confederates fell back toward
Corinth in Mississippi. The Union army followed in three parts.
1. One under General Curtis moved to southwestern Missouri and won a
battle at Pea Ridge (Arkansas).
2. Another under General Pope on the banks of the Mississippi aided Flag-
Officer Foote in the capture of Island No. 10. [10] The fleet then passed
down the river and took Fort Pillow.
3. The third part under Grant took position very near Pittsburg Landing,
at Shiloh, [11] where it was attacked and driven back. But the next day,
being strongly reënforced, General Grant beat the Confederates, who
retreated to Corinth. General Halleck now took command, and having united
the second and third parts of the army, took Corinth and cut off Memphis,
which then surrendered to the fleet in the river.
BRAGG'S RAID.--And now the Confederates turned furiously. Their army under
General Bragg, starting from Chattanooga, rushed across Tennessee and
Kentucky toward Louisville, but after a hot fight with General Buell's
army at Perryville was forced to turn back, and went into winter quarters
at Murfreesboro. [12]
[Illustration: NORTHERN CAVALRYMAN. A war-time drawing published in 1869.]
There Bragg was attacked by the Union forces, now under General Rosecrans,
was beaten in one of the most bloody battles of the war (December 31,
1862, and January 2, 1863), and was forced to retreat further south.
NEW ORLEANS, 1862.--Both banks of the Mississippi as far south as the
Arkansas were by this time in Union hands. [13] South of that river on the
east bank of the Mississippi the Confederates still held Vicksburg and
Port Hudson (maps, pp. 353, 368). But New Orleans had been captured in
April, 1862, by a naval expedition under Farragut; [14] and the city was
occupied by a Union army under General Butler. [15]
[Illustration: WAR IN THE EAST, 1862.]
THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN, 1862.--In the East the year opened with great
preparation for the capture of Richmond, the Confederate capital.
1. Armies under Fremont and Banks in the Shenandoah valley were to prevent
an attack on Washington from the west.
2. An army under McDowell was to be ready to march from Fredericksburg to
Richmond, when the proper time came.
3. McClellan was to take the largest army by water from Washington to Fort
Monroe, and then march up the peninsula formed by the York and James
rivers to the neighborhood of Richmond, where McDowell was to join him.
Landing at the lower end of the peninsula early in April, McClellan moved
northward to Yorktown, and captured it after a long siege. McClellan then
hurried up the peninsula after the retreating enemy, and on the way fought
and won a battle at Williamsburg. [16]
THE SHENANDOAH CAMPAIGN, 1862.--It was now expected that McDowell, who had
been guarding Washington, would join McClellan, but General T. J. Jackson
[17] (Stonewall Jackson), who commanded the Confederate forces in the
Shenandoah, rushed down the valley and drove Banks across the Potomac into
Maryland. This success alarmed the authorities at Washington, and McDowell
was held in northern Virginia to protect the capital. Part of his troops,
with those of Banks and Fremont, were dispatched against Jackson; but
Jackson won several battles and made good his escape.
[Illustration: THOMAS J. JACKSON.]
END OF PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN.--Though deprived of the aid of McDowell,
General McClellan moved westward to within eight or ten miles of Richmond;
but the Confederate General J. E. Johnston now attacked him at Fair Oaks.
A few weeks later General R. E. Lee, [18] who had succeeded Johnston in
command, was joined by Jackson; the Confederates then attacked McClellan
at Mechanicsville and Gaines Mill and forced him to retreat, fighting as
he went (June 26 to July 1), to Harrisons Landing on the James River.
There the Union army remained till August, when it went back by water to
the Potomac.
[Illustration: ROBERT E. LEE.]
LEE'S RAID; BATTLE OF ANTIETAM, 1862.--The departure of the Union army
from Harrisons Landing left General Lee free to do as he chose, and
seizing the opportunity he turned against the Union forces under General
Pope, whose army was drawn up between Cedar Mountain and Fredericksburg,
on the Rappahannock River. Stonewall Jackson first attacked General Banks
at the western end of the line at Cedar Mountain, and beat him. Jackson
and Lee then fell upon General Pope on the old field of Bull Run, beat
him, and forced him to fall back to Washington, where his army was united
with that of McClellan. [19] This done, Lee crossed the Potomac and
entered Maryland. McClellan attacked him at Antietam Creek (September,
1862), where a bloody battle was fought (sometimes called the battle of
Sharpsburg). Lee was beaten; but McClellan did not prevent his recrossing
the Potomac into Virginia. [20]
FREDERICKSBURG, 1862.--McClellan was now removed, and General A. E.
Burnside put in command. The Confederates meantime had taken position on
Marye's Heights on the south side of the Rappahannock, behind
Fredericksburg. The position was impregnable; but in December Burnside
attacked it and was repulsed with dreadful slaughter. The two armies then
went into winter quarters with the Rappahannock between them.
THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.--Ever since the opening of the year 1862,
the question of slavery in the loyal states and in the territories had
been constantly before Congress. In April Congress abolished slavery in
the District of Columbia and set free the slaves there with compensation
to the owners. In June it abolished slavery in the territories and freed
the slaves there without compensation to the owners, and in July
authorized the seizure of slaves of persons then in rebellion.
In March Lincoln had asked Congress to help pay for the slaves in the
loyal slave states, if these states would abolish slavery; but neither
Congress nor the states adopted the plan. [21] Lincoln now determined, as
an act of war, to free the slaves in the Confederate states, and when the
armies of Lee and McClellan stood face to face at Antietam, he decided, if
Lee was beaten, to issue an emancipation proclamation. Lee was beaten, and
on September 22, 1862, the proclamation came forth declaring that on
January 1, 1863, "all persons held as slaves" in any state or part of a
state then "in rebellion against the United States, shall be then,
thenceforth, and forever free." The Confederate states did not return to
their allegiance, and on January 1, 1863, a second proclamation was
issued, declaring the slaves within the Confederate lines to be free men.
[Illustration: PART OF THE AUTOGRAPH COPY OF LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION OF
JANUARY 1, 1863.]
1. Lincoln _did not abolish slavery anywhere_. He emancipated certain
slaves.
2. His proclamation did not apply to the loyal slave states--Delaware,
Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri.
3. It did not apply to such Confederate territory as the Union armies had
conquered; namely, Tennessee, seven counties in Virginia, and thirteen
parishes in Louisiana.
4. Lincoln freed the slaves by virtue of his authority as commander in
chief of the Union armies, "and as a fit and necessary war measure."
SUMMARY
1. In 1860 and 1861 seven cotton states seceded, formed the Confederate
States of America, and elected Jefferson Davis President.
2. The capture of Fort Sumter (April, 1861) and Lincoln's call for troops
were followed by the secession of four more Southern states.
3. In 1861 an attempt was made to drive back the Confederate line in
Virginia; but this ended in disaster at the battle of Bull Run.
4. In 1862 the Peninsular Campaign failed, Pope was defeated at Bull Run,
Lee's invasion of Maryland was ended by the battle of Antietam, and
Burnside met defeat at Fredericksburg.
5. In the West in 1862 the Confederate line was forced back to northern
Mississippi, and New Orleans was captured. Great battles were fought at
Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Perryville, and Murfreesboro.
6. On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln declared free the slaves in the
states and parts of states held by the Confederates.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The constitution of the Confederacy was the Constitution of the United
States altered to suit conditions. The President was to serve six years
and was not to be eligible for reëlection; the right to own slaves was
affirmed, but no slaves were to be imported from any foreign country
except the slave-holding states of the old Union. The Congress was
forbidden to establish a tariff for protection of any branch of industry.
A Supreme Court was provided for, but was never organized.
[2] Jefferson Davis was born in 1808, graduated from the Military Academy
at West Point in 1828, served in the Black Hawk War, resigned from the
army in 1835, and became a cotton planter in Mississippi. In 1845 he was
elected to Congress, but resigned to take part in the Mexican War, and was
wounded at Buena Vista. In 1847 lie was elected a senator, and from 1853
to 1857 was Secretary of War. He then returned to the Senate, where he was
when Mississippi seceded. He died in New Orleans in 1889.
[3] Property of the United States seized by the states was turned over to
the Confederate government. Thus Louisiana gave up $536,000 in specie
taken from the United States customhouse and mint at New Orleans.
[4] Read "Inside Sumter in '61" in _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_,
Vol. I, pp. 65-73.
[5] Read "War Preparations in the North" in _Battles and Leaders of the
Civil War_, Vol. I, pp. 85-98; on pp. 149-159, also, read "Going to the
Front."
[6] An interesting account of "Scenes in Virginia in '61" may be found in
_Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. I, pp. 160-166.
[7] "The Confederate army was more disorganized by victory than that of
the United States by defeat," says General Johnston; and no pursuit of the
Union forces was made. "The larger part of the men," McDowell telegraphed
to Washington, "are a confused mob, entirely disorganized." None stopped
short of the fortifications along the Potomac, and numbers entered
Washington. Read _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. I, pp.
229-239. "I have no idea that the North will give it up," wrote Stephens,
Vice President of the Confederacy. "Their defeat will increase their
energy." He was right.
[8] George Brinton McClellan was born in Philadelphia in 1826, graduated
from West Point, served in the Mexican War, and resigned from the army in
1857, to become a civil engineer, but rejoined it at the opening of the
war. In July, 1861, he conducted a successful campaign against the
Confederates in West Virginia, and his victories there were the cause of
his promotion to command the Army of the Potomac. After the battle of
Antietam (p. 363) he took no further part in the war, and finally resigned
in 1864. From 1878 to 1881 he was governor of New Jersey. He died in 1885.
[9] Hiram Ulysses Grant was born in Ohio in 1822, and at seventeen entered
West Point, where his name was registered Ulysses S. Grant, and as such he
was ever after known. He served in the Mexican War, and afterward engaged
in business of various sorts till the opening of the Civil War, when he
was made colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois Regiment, and then commander
of the district of southeast Missouri. When General Buckner, who commanded
at Fort Donelson, wrote to Grant to know what terms he would offer, Grant
replied: "No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be
accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." This won for
Grant the popular name "Unconditional Surrender" Grant.
Andrew H. Foote was born in Connecticut in 1806, entered the navy at
sixteen, and when the war opened, was made flag officer of the Western
navy. His gunboats were like huge rafts carrying a house with flat roof
and sloping sides that came down to the water's edge. The sloping sides
and ends were covered with iron plates and pierced for guns; three in the
bow, two in the stern, and four on each side. The huge wheel in the stern
which drove the boat was under cover; but the smoke stacks were
unprotected. Foote died in 1863, a rear admiral.
[10] The islands in the Mississippi are numbered from the mouth of the
Ohio River to New Orleans.
[11] Read _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. I, pp. 465-486.
[12] Farther west the Confederates attacked the Union army at Corinth
(October 4), but were defeated by General Rosecrans.
[13] In January, 1862, the Confederate line west of the Mississippi
stretched from Belmont across southern Missouri to Indian Territory; but
Grant drove the Confederates out of Belmont; General Curtis, as we have
seen, beat them at Pea Ridge (in March), and when the year ended, the
Union army was in possession of northern Arkansas.
[14] David G. Farragut was born in 1801, and when eleven years old served
on the _Essex_ in the War of 1812. When his fleet started up the
Mississippi River, in 1862, he found his way to New Orleans blocked by two
forts, St. Philip and Jackson, by chains across the river on hulks below
Fort Jackson, and by a fleet of ironclad boats above. After bombarding the
forts for six days, he cut the chains, ran by the forts, defeated the
fleet, and went up to New Orleans, and later took Baton Rouge and Natchez.
For the capture of New Orleans he received the thanks of Congress, and was
made a rear admiral; for his victory in Mobile Bay (p. 379) the rank of
vice admiral was created for him, and in 1866 a still higher rank, that of
admiral, was made for him. He died in 1870.
[15] When it was known in New Orleans that Farragut's fleet was coming,
the cotton in the yards and in the cotton presses was hauled on drays to
the levee and burned to prevent its falling into Union hands. The capture
of the city had a great effect on Great Britain and France, both of whom
the Confederates hoped would intervene to stop the war. Slidell, who was
in France seeking recognition for the Confederacy as an independent
nation, wrote that he had been led to believe "that if New Orleans had not
been taken and we suffered no very serious reverses in Virginia and
Tennessee, our recognition would very soon have been declared." Read
_Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. II, pp. 14-21,91-94.
[16] The story of the march is interestingly told in "Recollections of a
Private," in _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. II, pp. 189-199.
[17] Thomas J. Jackson was born in West Virginia in 1824, graduated from
West Point, served in the Mexican War, resigned from the army, and till
1861 taught in the Virginia State Military Institute at Lexington. He then
joined the Confederate army, and for the firm stand of his brigade at Bull
Run gained the name of "Stonewall."
[18] Robert E. Lee was born in Virginia in 1807, a son of "Light Horse"
Harry Lee of the Revolutionary army. He was a graduate of West Point, and
served in the Mexican War. After Virginia seceded he left the Union army
and was appointed a major general of Virginia troops, and in 1862 became
commander in chief. At the end of the war he accepted the presidency of
Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), and died in
Lexington, Virginia, in 1870.
[19] Part of McClellan's army had joined Pope before the second battle of
Bull Run.
[20] Read "A Woman's Recollections of Antietam," in _Battles and Leaders
of the Civil War_, Vol. II, pp. 686-695; also O. W. Holmes's _My Hunt
after "The Captain_."
[21] West Virginia and Missouri later (1863) provided for gradual
emancipation, and Maryland (1864) adopted a constitution that abolished
slavery.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE CIVIL WAR, 1863-1865
THE GETTYSBURG CAMPAIGN, 1863.--After the defeat at Fredericksburg,
Burnside was removed, and General Hooker put in command of the Army of the
Potomac. "Fighting Joe," as Hooker was called, led his army of 130,000 men
against Lee and Jackson, and after a stubborn fight at Chancellorsville
(May 1-4, 1863) was beaten and fell back. [1] In June Lee once more took
the offensive, rushed down the Shenandoah valley to the Potomac River,
crossed Maryland, and entered Pennsylvania with the Army of the Potomac in
hot pursuit. On reaching Maryland General Hooker was removed and General
Meade put in command.
[Illustration: WAR IN THE EAST, 1863-65.]
On the hills at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the two armies met, and there
(July 1-3) Lee attacked Meade. The struggle was desperate. About one
fourth of the men engaged were killed or wounded. But the splendid valor
of the Union army prevailed, and Lee was beaten and forced to return to
Virginia, where he remained unmolested till the spring of 1864. [2] The
battle of Gettysburg ended Lee's plan for carrying the war into the North,
and from the losses on that field his army never fully recovered. [3]
[Illustration: BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. Contemporary drawing.]
[Illustration: THE VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN.]
[Illustration: GRANT'S HEADQUARTERS NEAR VICKSBURG. From a recent
photograph.]
VICKSBURG, 1863.--In January, 1863, the Confederates held the Mississippi
River only from Vicksburg to Port Hudson. The capture of these two towns
would complete the opening of the river. Grant, therefore, determined to
capture Vicksburg. The town stands on the top of a bluff which rises
straight and steep from the river, and had been so strongly fortified on
the land side that to take it seemed impossible. Grant, having failed in a
direct advance through Mississippi, cut a canal across a bend in the
river, on the west bank, hoping to divert the waters and get a passage by
the town. This, too, failed; and he then decided to cross below Vicksburg
and attack by land. To aid him, Admiral Porter ran his gunboats past the
town on a night in April and carried the army across the river. Landing on
the east bank, Grant won a victory at Port Gibson, and hearing that J. E.
Johnston was coming to help Pemberton, pushed in between them, beat
Johnston, and turning against Pemberton drove him into Vicksburg. After a
siege of seven weeks, in which Vicksburg suffered severely from
bombardment and famine, Pemberton surrendered the town and army July 4,
1863.
In less than a week (July 9) Port Hudson surrendered, the Mississippi was
opened from source to mouth, and the Confederacy was cut in two.
[Illustration: WAR IN THE WEST, 1863-65, AND ON THE COAST.]
CHICKAMAUGA, 1863.--While Grant was besieging Vicksburg, Rosecrans forced
a Confederate army under Bragg to quit its position south of Murfreesboro,
and then to leave Chattanooga and retire into northern Georgia. There
Bragg was reënforced, and he then attacked Rosecrans in the Chickamauga
valley (September 19 and 20, 1863), where was fought one of the most
desperate battles of the war. The Union right wing was driven from the
field, but the left wing under General Thomas held the enemy in check and
saved the army from rout. By his firmness Thomas won the name of "the Rock
of Chickamauga."
CHATTANOOGA.--Rosecrans now went back to Chattanooga. Bragg followed, and,
taking position on the hills and mountains which surround the town on the
east and south, shut in the Union army and besieged it. Hooker was sent
from Virginia with more troops, Sherman [4] brought an army from
Vicksburg, Rosecrans was replaced by Thomas, and Grant was put in command
of all. Then matters changed. The troops under Thomas (November 23) seized
some low hills at the foot of Missionary Ridge, east of Chattanooga.
Hooker (November 24) carried the Confederate works on Lookout Mountain,
southwest of the town, in a fight often called "the Battle above the
Clouds." Sherman (November 24 and 25) attacked the northern end of
Missionary Ridge. Thomas (November 25) thereupon carried the heights of
Missionary Ridge, and drove off the enemy. Bragg retreated to Dalton in
northwestern Georgia, where the command of his army was given to General
J. E. Johnston.
[Illustration: WILLIAM T. SHERMAN.]
[Illustration: CHARGING UP MISSIONARY RIDGE.]
THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN, 1864.--The Confederates had now but two great armies
left. One under Lee was lying quietly behind the Rappahannock and Rapidan
rivers, protecting Richmond; the other under J. E. Johnston [5] was at
Dalton, Georgia. The two generals chosen to lead the Union armies against
these forces were Grant and Sherman. Grant (now lieutenant general arid in
command of all the armies) with the Army of the Potomac was to drive Lee
back and take Richmond. Sherman with the forces under Thomas, McPherson,
and Schofield was to attack Johnston and enter Georgia. The Union soldiers
outnumbered the Confederates.
[Illustration: JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON.]
MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA.--On May 4, 1864, accordingly, Sherman moved
forward against Johnston, flanked him out of Dalton, and drove him, step
by step, through the mountains to Atlanta. Johnston's retreat forced
Sherman to weaken his army by leaving guards in the rear to protect the
railroads on which he depended for supplies; Johnston intended to attack
when he could fight on equal terms. But his retreat displeased Davis, and
at Atlanta he was replaced by General Hood, who was expected to fight at
once.
In July Hood made three furious attacks, was repulsed, and in September
left Atlanta and started northward. His purpose was to draw Sherman out of
Georgia, but Sherman sent Thomas with part of the army into Tennessee, and
after following Hood for a while, [6] turned back to Atlanta.
After partly burning the town, Sherman started for the seacoast in
November, tearing up the railroads, burning bridges, and living on the
country as he went. [7] In December Fort McAllister was taken and Savannah
occupied.
[Illustration: RAIL TWISTED AROUND POLE BY SHERMAN'S MEN. In the
possession of the Long Island Historical Society.]
GRANT AND LEE IN VIRGINIA, 1864.--On the same day in May, 1864, on which
Sherman set out to attack Johnston in Georgia, the Army of the Potomac
began the campaign in Virginia. General Meade was in command; but Grant,
as commander in chief of all the Union armies, directed the campaign in
person. Crossing the Rapidan, the army entered the Wilderness, a stretch
of country covered with dense woods of oak and pine and thick undergrowth.
Lee attacked, and for several days the fighting was almost incessant. But
Grant pushed on to Spottsylvania Court House and to Cold Harbor, where
bloody battles were fought; and then went south of Richmond and besieged
Petersburg. [8]
EARLY'S RAID, 1864.--Lee now sought to divert Grant by an attack on
Washington, and sent General Early down the Shenandoah valley. Early
crossed the Potomac, entered Maryland, won a battle at the Monocacy River,
and actually threatened the defenses of Washington, but was forced to
retreat. [9]
[Illustration: PHILLIP H. SHERIDAN.]
To stop these attacks Grant sent Sheridan [10] into the valley, where he
defeated Early at Winchester and at Fishers Hill and again at Cedar Creek.
It was during this last battle that Sheridan made his famous ride from
Winchester. [11]
THE SITUATION EARLY IN 1865.--By 1865, Union fleets and armies had seized
many Confederate strongholds on the coast. In the West, Thomas had
destroyed Hood's army in the great battle of Nashville (December, 1864).
In the East, Grant was steadily pressing the siege of Petersburg and
Richmond, and Sherman was making ready to advance northward from Savannah.
The cause of the Confederacy was so desperate that in February, 1865,
Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States, was sent
to meet Lincoln and Secretary Seward and discuss terms of peace. Lincoln
demanded three things: the disbanding of the Confederate armies, the
submission of the seceded states to the rule of Congress, and the
abolition of slavery. The terms were not accepted, and the war went on.
SHERMAN MARCHES NORTHWARD, 1865.--After resting for a month at Savannah,
Sherman started northward through South Carolina, (February 17) entered
Columbia, the capital of the state, and forced the Confederates to
evacuate Charleston. To oppose him, a new army was organized and put under
the command of Johnston. But Sherman pressed on, entered North Carolina,
and reached Goldsboro in safety.
THE SURRENDER OF LEE, 1865.--Early in April, Lee found himself unable to
hold Richmond and Petersburg any longer. He retreated westward. Grant
followed, and on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House,
seventy-five miles west of Richmond. [12]
FALL OF THE CONFEDERACY.--The Confederacy then went rapidly to pieces.
Johnston surrendered to Sherman near Raleigh on April 26; Jefferson Davis
was captured at Irwinville, Georgia, on May 10, and the war on land was
over. [13]
REFLECTION OF LINCOLN.--While the war was raging, the time again came to
elect a President and Vice President. The Republicans nominated Lincoln
and Andrew Johnson. The Democrats selected General McClellan and George H.
Pendleton. Lincoln and Johnson were elected and on March 4, 1865, were
inaugurated.
DEATH OF LINCOLN.--On the night of April 14, the fourth anniversary of the
day on which Anderson marched out of Fort Sumter, while Lincoln was seated
with his wife and some friends in a box at Ford's Theater in Washington,
he was shot by an actor who had stolen up behind him. [14] The next
morning he died, and Andrew Johnson became President.
SUMMARY
1. In 1863, Lee repulsed an advance by Hooker's army, and invaded
Pennsylvania, but was defeated by Meade at Gettysburg.
2. In the West, Grant took Vicksburg, and the Mississippi was opened to
the sea. The Confederates defeated Rosecrans at Chickamauga, but were
defeated by Grant and other generals at Chattanooga.
3. In 1864, Grant moved across Virginia, after much hard fighting, and
besieged Petersburg and Richmond, and Sherman marched across Georgia to
Savannah.
4. In 1865, Sherman marched northward into North Carolina, and Grant
forced Lee to leave Richmond and surrender.
5. In 1864, Lincoln was reëlected.
6. In April, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated and Johnson became President.
[Illustration: SHARPSHOOTER'S RIFLE USED IN THE CIVIL WAR. With telescope
sight. Weight, 32 lb.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Jackson was mortally wounded by a volley from his own men, who mistook
him and his escort for Union cavalry, in the dusk of evening of the second
day at Chancellorsville. His last words were: "Let us cross over the river
and rest under the shade of the trees."
[2] Read "The Third Day at Gettysburg" in Battles and Leaders of the Civil
War, Vol. III, pp. 369-385. The field of Gettysburg is now a national park
dotted with monuments erected in memory of the dead, and marking the
positions of the regiments and spots where desperate fighting occurred.
Near by is a national cemetery in which are interred several thousand
Union soldiers. Read President Lincoln's beautiful Gettysburg Address.
[3] With the exception of a small body of regulars, the Union armies were
composed of volunteers. When it became apparent that the war would not end
in a few months, Congress passed a Draft Act: whenever a congressional
district failed to furnish the required number of volunteers, the names of
able-bodied men not already in the army were to be put into a box, and
enough names to complete the number were to be drawn out by a blindfolded
man. In July, 1863, when this was done in New York city, a riot broke out
and for several days the city was mob-ruled. Negroes were killed, property
was destroyed, and the rioters were not put down till troops were sent by
the government.
[4] William Tecumseh Sherman was born in Ohio in 1820, graduated from West
Point, and served in the Seminole and Mexican wars. He became a banker in
San Francisco, then a lawyer in Kansas, in 1860 superintendent of a
military school in Louisiana, and then president of a street car company
in St. Louis. In 1861 he was appointed colonel in the regular army. He
fought at Bull Run, was made brigadier general of volunteers, and was
transferred to the West, where he rose rapidly. After the war, Grant was
made general of the army, and Sherman lieutenant general; and when Grant
became President, Sherman was promoted to the rank of general. He was
retired in 1884 and died in 1891 at New York.
[5] Joseph Eggleston Johnston was born in Virginia in 1807, graduated from
West Point, and served in the Black Hawk, Seminole, and Mexican wars. When
the Civil War opened, he joined the Confederacy, was made a major general,
and with Beauregard commanded at the first battle of Bull Run. Johnston
was next put in charge of the operations against McClellan (1862); but was
wounded at Fair Oaks and succeeded by Lee. In 1863 he was sent to relieve
Vicksburg, but failed. In 1864 he was put in command of Bragg's army after
its defeat, and so became opposed to Sherman.
[6] Early in October Hood had reached Dallas on his way to Tennessee. From
Dallas he sent a division to capture a garrison and depots at Allatoona,
commanded by General Corse. Sherman, who was following Hood, communicated
with Corse from the top of Kenesaw Mountain by signals; and Corse, though
greatly outnumbered, held the fort and drove off the enemy. On this
incident was founded the popular hymn _Hold the Fort, for I am Coming_.
[7] To destroy the railroads so they could not be quickly rebuilt, the
rails, heated red-hot in fires made of burning ties, were twisted around
trees or telegraph poles. Stations, machine shops, cotton bales, cotton
gins and presses were burned. Along the line of march, a strip of country
sixty miles wide was made desolate.
[8] While the siege of Petersburg was under way, a tunnel was dug and a
mine exploded under a Confederate work called Elliott's Salient (July 30,
1864). As soon as the mass of flying earth, men, guns, and carriages had
settled, a body of Union troops moved forward through the break thus made
in the enemy's line. But the assault was badly managed. The Confederates
rallied, and the Union forces were driven back into the crater made by the
explosion, where many were killed and 1400 captured.
[9] On October 19, 1864, St. Albans, a town in Vermont near the Canadian
border, was raided by Confederates from Canada. They seized all the horses
they could find, robbed the banks, and escaped. A little later the people
of Detroit were excited by a rumor that their city was to be raided on
October 30. Great preparations for defense were made; but no enemy came.
[10] Philip H. Sheridan was born at Albany, New York, in 1831, graduated
from West Point, and was in Missouri when the war opened. In 1862 he was
given a command in the cavalry, fought in the West, and before the year
closed was made a brigadier and then major general for gallantry in
action. At Chattanooga he led the charge up Missionary Ridge. After the
war he became lieutenant general and then general of the army, and died in
1888.
[11] Sheridan had spent the night at Winchester, and as he rode toward his
camp at Cedar Creek, he met such a crowd of wagons, fugitives, and wounded
men that he was forced to take to the fields. At Newtown, the streets were
so crowded he could not pass through them. Riding around the village, he
met Captain McKinley (afterward President), who, says Sheridan, "spread
the news of my return through the motley throng there." Between Newtown
and Middletown he met "the only troops in the presence of and resisting
the enemy.... Jumping my horse over the line of rails, I rode to the crest
of the elevation and ... the men rose up from behind their barricade with
cheers of recognition." When he rode to another part of the field, "a line
of regimental flags rose up out of the ground, as it seemed, to welcome
me." With these flags was Colonel Hayes (afterward President). Hurrying to
another place, he came upon some divisions marching to the front. When the
men "saw me, they began cheering and took up the double-quick to the
front." Crossing the pike, he rode, hat in hand, "along the entire line of
infantry," shouting, "We are all right.... Never mind, boys, we'll whip
them yet. We shall sleep in our quarters to-night." And they did. Read
_Sheridan's Ride_ by T. Buchanan Read.
[12] Read _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. IV, pp. 729-746.
[13] On the flight of Davis from Richmond, read _Battles and Leaders of
the Civil War_, Vol. IV, pp. 762-767; or the _Century Magazine_,
November, 1883.
[14] After firing the shot, the assassin waved his pistol and shouted
"_Sic semper tyrannis_"--"Thus be it ever to tyrants" (the motto of
the state of Virginia) and jumped from the box to the stage. But his spur
caught in an American flag which draped the box, and he fell and broke his
leg. Limping off the stage, he fled from the theater, mounted a horse in
waiting, and escaped to Virginia. There he was found hidden in a barn and
shot. The body of the Martyr President was borne from Washington to
Springfield, by the route he took when coming to his first inauguration in
1861. Read Walt Whitman's poem _My Captain_.
CHAPTER XXX
THE NAVY IN THE WAR; LIFE IN WAR TIMES
THE SOUTHERN COAST BLOCKADE.--The naval war began with a proclamation of
Davis offering commissions to privateers, [1] and two by Lincoln (April 19
and 27, 1861), declaring the coast blockaded from Virginia to Texas.
[Illustration: SINKING THE PETREL. Contemporary drawing.]
The object of the blockade was to cut off the foreign trade of the
Southern states, and to prevent their getting supplies of all sorts. But
as Great Britain was one of the chief consumers of Southern cotton, and
was, indeed, dependent on the South for her supply, it was certain that
unless the blockade was made effective by many Union ships, cotton would
be carried out of the Southern ports, and supplies run into them, in spite
of Lincoln's proclamation.
[Illustration: CARTOON PUBLISHED IN 1861.]
RUNNING THE BLOCKADE.--This is just what was done. Goods of all sorts were
brought from Great Britain to the city of Nassau in the Bahama Islands
(map, p. 353). There the goods were placed on board blockade runners and
started for Wilmington in North Carolina, or for Charleston. So nicely
would the voyage be timed that the vessel would be off the port some night
when the moon did not shine. Then, with all lights out, the runner would
dash through the line of blockading ships, and, if successful, would by
daylight be safe in port. The cargo landed, cotton would be taken on
board; and the first dark night, or during a storm, the runner, again
breaking the blockade, would steam back to Nassau.
THE TRENT AFFAIR.--Great Britain and France promptly acknowledged the
Confederate States as belligerents. This gave them the same rights in the
ports of Great Britain and France as our vessels of war. Hoping to secure
a recognition of independence from these countries, the Confederate
government sent Mason and Slidell to Europe. These two commissioners ran
the blockade, went to Havana, and boarded the British mail steamship
_Trent_. Captain Wilkes of the United States man-of-war _San Jacinto_,
hearing of this, stopped the _Trent_ and took off Mason and Slidell.
Intense excitement followed in our country and in Great Britain, [2] which
at once demanded their release and prepared for war. They were released,
and the act of Wilkes was disavowed as an exercise of "the right of
search" which we had always resisted when exercised by Great Britain, and
which had been one of the causes of the War of 1812.
THE CRUISERS.--While the commerce of the Confederacy was almost destroyed
by the blockade, a fleet of Confederate cruisers attacked the commerce of
the Union.
The most famous of these, the _Florida_, _Alabama_, _Georgia_, and
_Shenandoah_ [3] were built or purchased in Great Britain for the
Confederacy, and were suffered to put to sea in spite of the protests of
the United States minister. Once on the ocean they cruised from sea to
sea, destroying every merchant vessel under our flag that came in their
way.
[Illustration: SHELL LODGED IN THE STERN POST OF THE KEARSARGE. Now in the
Ordnance Museum, Washington Navy Yard.]
One of them, the _Alabama_, sailed the ocean unharmed for two years.
She cruised in the North Atlantic, in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribbean
Sea, off the coast of Brazil, went around the Cape of Good Hope, entered
the China Sea, came again around the Cape of Good Hope, and by way of
Brazil and the Azores to Cherbourg in France. During the cruise she
destroyed over sixty merchantmen. At Cherbourg the _Alabama_ was found by
the United States cruiser _Kearsarge_, and one Sunday morning in June,
1864, the two met in battle off the coast of France, and the Alabama was
sunk. [4]
OPERATIONS ALONG THE COAST.--Besides blockading the coast, the Union navy
captured or aided in capturing forts, cities, and water ways. The forts at
the entrance to Pamlico Sound and Port Royal were captured in 1861.
Control of the waters of Pamlico and Albemarle [5] sounds was secured in
1862 by the capture of Roanoke Island, Elizabeth City, Newbern, and Fort
Macon (map, p. 369). In 1863 Fort Sumter was battered down in a naval
attack on Charleston. In 1864 Farragut led his fleet into Mobile Bay (in
southern Alabama), destroyed the Confederate fleet, captured the forts at
the entrance to the bay, and thus cut the city of Mobile off from the sea.
In 1865 Fort Fisher, which guarded the entrance to Cape Fear River, on
which was Wilmington, fell before a combined attack by land and naval
forces.
ON THE INLAND WATERS.--On the great water ways of the West the notable
deeds of the navy were the capture of Fort Henry on the Tennessee by
Foote's flotilla (p. 358), the capture of New Orleans by Farragut (p.
361), and the run of Porter's fleet past the batteries at Vicksburg (p.
368).
[Illustration: ONE OF PORTER'S GUNBOATS PASSING VICKSBURG.]
THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC .--But the most famous of all the naval
engagements was that of the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_ in 1862. When the
war opened, there were at the navy yard at Norfolk, Virginia, a quantity
of guns, stores, supplies, and eleven vessels. The officer in command,
fearing that they would fall into Confederate hands, set fire to the
houses, shops, and vessels, and abandoned the place. One of the vessels
which was burned to the water's edge and sunk was the steam frigate
_Merrimac_. Finding her hull below the water line unhurt, the Confederates
raised the _Merrimac_, turned her into an ironclad ram, renamed her
_Virginia_, and sent her forth to destroy a squadron of United States
vessels at anchor in Hampton Roads (at the mouth of the James River).
[Illustration: MERRIMAC AND MONITOR.]
Steaming across the roads one day in March, 1862, the _Merrimac_ rammed
and sank the _Cumberland_, [6] forced the _Congress_ to surrender, and set
her on fire. This done, the _Merrimac_ withdrew, intending to resume the
work of destruction on the morrow; for her iron armor had proved to be
ample protection against the guns of the Union ships. But the next
morning, as she came near the _Minnesota_, the strangest-looking craft
afloat came forth to meet her. Its deck was almost level with the water,
and was plated with sheets of iron. In the center of the deck was an iron-
plated cylinder which could be revolved by machinery, and in this were two
large guns. This was the _Monitor_ [7] which had arrived in the Roads the
night before, and now came out from behind the _Minnesota_ to fight the
_Merrimac_. During four hours the battle raged with apparently no result;
then the _Merrimac_ withdrew and the _Monitor_ took her place beside the
_Minnesota_. [8] This battle marks the doom of wooden naval vessels; all
the nations of the world were forced to build their navies anew.
FINANCES OF THE WAR.--Four years of war on land and sea cost the people of
the North an immense sum of money. To obtain the money Congress began
(1861) by raising the tariff on imported articles; by taxing all incomes
of more than $800 a year; and by levying a direct tax, which was
apportioned among the states according to their population. [9] But the
money from these sources was not sufficient, and (1862) an internal
revenue tax was resorted to, and collected by stamp duties. [10] Even this
tax did not yield enough money, and the government was forced to borrow on
the credit of the United States. Bonds were issued, [11] and then United
States notes, called "greenbacks," were put in circulation and made legal
tender; that is, everybody had to take them in payment of debts. [12]
MONEY IN WAR TIME.--After the government began to issue paper money, the
banks suspended specie payment, and all gold and silver coins, including
the 3, 5, 10, 25, and 50 cent pieces, disappeared from circulation. The
people were then without small change, and for a time postage stamps and
"token" pieces of brass and copper were used instead. In March, 1863,
however, Congress authorized the Issue of $50,000,000 in paper fractional
currency. [13] Both the greenbacks and the fractional currency were merely
promises to pay money. As the government did not pay on demand, coin
commanded a premium; that is, $100 in gold or silver could be exchanged in
the market (down till 1879) for more than $100 in paper money.
NATIONAL BANKS.--Besides the paper money issued by the government there
were in circulation several thousand different kinds of state bank notes.
Some had no value, some a little value, and others were good for the sums
(in greenbacks) expressed on their faces. In order to replace these notes
by a sound currency having the same value everywhere, Congress (1863)
established the national banking system. Legally organized banking
associations were to purchase United States bonds and deposit them with
the government. Each bank so doing was then entitled to issue national
bank notes to the value of ninety per cent [14] of the bonds it had
deposited. Many banks accepted these terms; but it was not till (1865)
after Congress taxed the notes of state banks that those notes were driven
out of circulation.
COST OF THE WAR.--Just what the war cost can never be fully determined.
Hundreds of thousands of men left occupations of all sorts and joined the
armies. What they might have made had they stayed at home was what they
lost by going to the front. Every loyal state, city, and county, and
almost every town and village, incurred a war debt. The national
government during the war spent for war purposes $3,660,000,000. To this
must be added the value of our merchant ships destroyed by Confederate
cruisers; the losses in the South; and many hundred millions paid in
pensions to soldiers and their widows.
The loss in the cities and towns burned or injured by siege and the other
operations of war, and the loss caused by the ruin of trade and commerce
and the destruction of railroads, farms, plantations, crops, and private
property, can not be fully estimated, but it was very great.
The most awful cost was the loss of life. On the Union side more than
360,000 men were killed, or died of wounds or of disease. On the
Confederate side the number was nearly if not quite as large, so that some
700,000 men perished in the war. Many were young men with every prospect
of a long life before them, and their early death deprived their country
of the benefit of their labor.
DISTRESS IN THE SOUTH.--In the North the people suffered little if any
real hardship. In the South, after the blockade became effective, the
people suffered privations. Not merely luxuries were given up, but the
necessaries of life became scarce. Thrown on their own resources, the
people resorted to all manner of makeshifts. To get brine from which salt
could be obtained by evaporation, the earthen floors of smokehouses,
saturated by the dripping of bacon, were dug up and washed, and barrels in
which salt pork had been packed were soaked in water. Tea and coffee
ceased to be used, and dried blackberry, currant, and raspberry leaves
were used instead. Rye, wheat, chicory, chestnuts roasted and ground, did
duty for coffee. The spinning wheel came again into use, and homespun
clothing, dyed with the extract of black-walnut bark, or with wild indigo,
was generally worn. As articles were scarce, prices rose, and then went
higher and higher as the Confederate money depreciated, like the old
Continental money in Revolutionary times. In 1864 Mrs. Jefferson Davis
states that in Richmond a turkey cost $60, a barrel of flour $300, and a
pair of shoes $150. No little suffering was caused for want of medicines,
[15] woolen goods, blankets, [16] shoes, paper, [17] and in some of the
cities even bread became scarce. [18] To get food for the army the
Confederate Congress (1863) authorized the seizure of supplies for the
troops and payment at fixed prices which were far below the market rates.
[19]
Some men made fortunes by blockade running, smuggling from the North, and
speculation in stocks. Dwellers on the great plantations, remote from the
operations of the contending armies, suffered not from want of food; but
the great body of the people had much to endure.
SUMMARY
1. The operations of the navy comprised (1) the blockade of the coast of
the Confederate States, (2) the capture of seaports, (3) the pursuit and
capture of Confederate cruisers, and (4) aiding the army on the western
rivers.
2. A notable feature in the naval war was the use of ironclad vessels.
These put an end to the wooden naval vessels, and revolutionized the
navies of the world.
3. The cost of the war in human life, money, and property destroyed was
immense, and can be stated only approximately.
4. In the South, as the war progressed, the hardships endured by the mass
of the people caused much suffering.
[Illustration: LOADING A NAVAL CANNON IN THE CIVIL WAR. Contemporary
drawing.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] The first Confederate privateer to get to sea was the _Savannah_. She
took one prize and was captured. Another, the _Beauregard_, was taken
after a short cruise. A third, the _Petrel_, mistook the frigate St.
Lawrence for a merchantman and attempted to take her, but was sunk by a
broadside. After a year the blockade stopped privateering.
[2] Captain Wilkes was congratulated by the Secretary of the Navy, thanked
by the House of Representatives, and given a grand banquet in Boston; and
the whole country was jubilant. The British minister at Washington was
directed to demand the liberation of the prisoners and "a suitable apology
for the aggression," and if not answered in seven days, or if unfavorably
answered, was to return to London at once.
[3] Early in the war an agent was sent to Great Britain by the Confederate
navy department to procure vessels to be used as commerce destroyers. The
_Florida_ and _Alabama_ were built at Liverpool and sent to sea unarmed.
Their guns and ammunition were sent in vessels from another British port.
The _Shenandoah_ was purchased at London (her name was then the _Sea
King_) and was met at Madeira by a tender from Liverpool with men and
guns. On her way to Australia, the _Shenandoah_ destroyed seven of our
merchantmen. She then went to Bering Sea and in one week captured twenty-
five whalers, most of which she destroyed. This was in June, 1865, after
the war was over. In August a British ship captain informed the commander
of the _Shenandoah_ that the Confederacy no longer existed. The
_Shenandoah_ was then taken to Liverpool and delivered to the British
government, which turned her over to the United States.
[4] Read _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_, Vol. IV, pp. 600-614.
[5] In 1864 a Confederate ironclad ram, the _Albemarle_, appeared on
the waters of Albemarle Sound. As no Union war ship could harm her,
Commander W. B. Gushing planned an expedition to destroy her by a torpedo.
On the night of October 27, with fourteen companions in a steam launch, he
made his way to the ram, blew her up with the torpedo, and with one other
man escaped. His adventures on the way back to the fleet read like
fiction, and are told by himself in _Battles and Leaders of the Civil
War_, Vol. IV, pp. 634-640.
[6] The hole made in the Cumberland by the Merrimac was "large enough for
a man to enter." Through this the water poured in so rapidly that the
sick, wounded, and many who were not disabled were carried down with the
ship. After she sank, the flag at the masthead still waved above the
water. Read Longfellow's poem _The Cumberland_.
[7] The _Monitor_ was designed by John Ericsson, who was born in Sweden in
1803. After serving as an engineer in the Swedish army, he went to
England; and then came to our country in 1839. He was the inventor of
the first practical screw propeller for steamboats, and by his invention
of the revolving turret for war vessels he completely changed naval
architecture. His name is connected with many great inventions. He died in
1889.
[8] When the Confederates evacuated Norfolk some months later, the
_Merrimac_ was blown up. The _Monitor_, in December, 1862, went down in a
storm at sea.
[9] As the right of a State to secede was not acknowledged, this direct
tax of $20,000,000 was apportioned among the Confederate as well as among
the Union states. The Confederate states, of course, did not pay their
share.
[10] Deeds, mortgages, bills of lading, bank checks, patent medicines,
wines, liquors, tobacco, proprietary articles, and many other things were
taxed. Between 1862 and 1865 about $780,000,000 was raised in this way.
[11] Between July 1, 1861, and August 31, 1865, bonds to the amount of
$1,109,000,000 were issued and sold.
[12] The Legal Tender Act, which authorized the issue of greenbacks, was
enacted in 1862, and two years later $449,000,000 were in circulation. The
greenbacks could not be used to pay duties on imports or interest on the
public debt, which were payable in specie.
[13] This paper fractional currency consisted of small paper bills in
denominations of 3, 5, 10, 15, 25, and 50 cents. Read the account in
Rhodes's _History of the U. S._, Vol. V, pp. 191-196.
[14] In 1902 changed to one hundred per cent.
[15] When Sherman was in command at Memphis, a funeral procession was
allowed to pass beyond the Union lines. The coffin, however, was full of
medicines for the Confederate army.
[16] Blankets were sometimes made of cow hair, or long moss from the
seaboard, and even carpets were cut up and sent as blankets to the army.
[17] The newspapers of the time give evidence of the scarcity of paper.
Some are printed on half sheets, a few on brown paper, and some on note
paper.
[18] Riots of women, prompted by the high prices of food, occurred in
Atlanta, Mobile, Richmond, and other places.
[19] Read "War Diary of a Union Woman in the South," in the Century
Magazine, October, 1889; Rhodes's _History of the U. S._, Vol. V, pp.
348-384.
CHAPTER XXXI
RECONSTRUCTION
THREE ISSUES.--After the collapse of the Confederacy, our countrymen were
called on to meet three issues arising directly from the war:--
1. The first was, What shall be done to destroy the institution of
slavery? [1]
2. The second was, What shall be done with the late Confederate states?
[2]
3. The third had to do with the national debt and the currency.
THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT.--When the war ended, slavery had been abolished
in Maryland, Missouri, and West Virginia, by gradual or immediate
abolition acts, and in Tennessee by a special emancipation act. In order
that it might be done away with everywhere Congress (in January, 1865)
sent out to the states a Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution,
declaring slavery abolished throughout the United States. In December,
1865, three fourths of the states having ratified, it became part of the
Constitution, and slavery was no more.
RECONSTRUCTION.--After the death of Lincoln, the work of reconstruction
was taken up by his successor, Johnson. [3] He recognized the governments
established by loyal persons in Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas, and
Louisiana. For the other states he appointed provisional governors and
authorized conventions to be called. These conventions repudiated the
Confederate debt, repealed the ordinances of secession, and ratified the
Thirteenth Amendment.
This done, Johnson considered these states as reconstructed and entitled
to send senators and representatives to Congress. But Congress thought
otherwise and would not admit their senators and representatives. Johnson
then denied the right of Congress to legislate for the states not
represented in Congress. He vetoed many bills which chiefly affected the
South, and in the summer of 1866 made speeches denouncing Congress for its
action.
THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT.--One measure which President Johnson would have
vetoed if he could, was a Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution which
Congress proposed in 1866. Ten of the former Confederate states rejected
it, as did also four of the Union states. Congress, therefore, in March,
1867, passed over the veto a Reconstruction Act setting forth what the
states would have to do to get back into the Union. One condition was that
they must ratify the Fourteenth Amendment; when they had done so, and
_when the amendment had become a part of the Constitution_, they were
to be readmitted.
SOUTHERN STATES READMITTED.--Six states--North Carolina, South Carolina,
Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas--submitted, and the amendment
having become a part of the Constitution, they were (1868) declared again
in the Union. Tennessee had been readmitted in 1866. Virginia, Mississippi
and Texas were not readmitted till 1870, and Georgia not till 1871.
THE DEBT AND THE CURRENCY.--The financial question to be settled included
two parts: What shall be done with the bonds (p. 381)? and What shall be
done with the paper money? As to the first, it was decided to pay the
bonds as fast as possible, [4] and by 1873 some $500,000,000 were paid. As
to the second, it was at first decided to cancel (instead of reissuing)
the greenbacks as they came into the treasury in payment of taxes and
other debts to the government. But after the greenbacks in circulation had
been thus reduced (from $449,000,000) to $356,000,000, Congress ordered
that their cancellation should stop.
JOHNSON IMPEACHED.--The President meantime had been impeached. In March,
1867, Congress passed (over Johnson's veto) the Tenure of Office Act,
depriving him of power to remove certain officials. He might suspend them
till the Senate examined into the cause of suspension. If it approved, the
officer was removed. If it disapproved, he was reinstated. [5]
Johnson soon disobeyed the law. In August, 1867, he asked Secretary-of-War
Stanton to resign, and when Stanton refused, suspended him. The Senate
disapproved and reinstated Stanton. But Johnson then removed him and
appointed another man in his place. For this act, and for his speeches
against Congress, the House impeached the President, and the Senate tried
him, for "high crimes and misdemeanors." He was not found guilty. [6]
[Illustration: REPUBLICAN CARTOON OF 1868. "Blood will tell: The great
race for the presidential sweepstakes, between the Western War Horse U. S.
Grant and the Manhattan Donkey."]
GRANT ELECTED PRESIDENT, 1868.--In the midst of Johnson's quarrel with
Congress the time came to elect his successor. The Democratic party
nominated Horatio Seymour. The Republicans chose Ulysses S. Grant and
elected him.
Grant's first term is memorable because of the adoption of the Fifteenth
Amendment; the restoration to the Union of the last four of the former
Confederate states, Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas; the
disorder in the South; and the character of our foreign relations.
THE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT.--Encouraged by their success at the polls, the
Republicans went on with the work of reconstruction, and (in February,
1869) Congress sent out the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
By the Fourteenth Amendment the states were left (as before) to settle for
themselves who should and who should not vote. But if any state denied or
in any way abridged the right of any portion of its male citizens over
twenty-one years old to vote, Congress was to reduce the number of
representatives from that state in Congress in the same proportion. But
now by the Fifteenth Amendment each state was forbidden to deprive any man
of the right to vote because of his "race, color, or previous condition of
servitude." In March, 1870, the amendment went into force, having been
ratified by a sufficient number of states.
CARPETBAG RULE.--President Grant began his administration in troubled
times. The Reconstruction Act had secured the negro the right to vote.
Many Southern states were thereby given over to negro rule. Seeing this, a
swarm of Northern politicians called "carpetbaggers" went south, made
themselves political leaders of the ignorant freedmen, and plundered and
misgoverned the states. In this they were aided by a few Southerners who
supported the negro cause and were called "scalawags." But most of the
Southern whites were determined to stop the misgovernment; and, banded
together in secret societies, called by such names as Knights of the White
Camelia, and the Ku-Klux-Klan, they terrorized the negroes and kept them
from voting. [7]
FORCE ACT.--Such intimidation was in violation of the Fifteenth Amendment.
Congress therefore enacted the "Ku-Klux Act," or Force Act (1871), which
prescribed fine and imprisonment for any one convicted of hindering or
attempting to hinder a negro from voting, or his vote when cast from being
counted.
RISE OF THE LIBERAL REPUBLICANS.--The troubles which followed the
enforcement of this act led many to think that the government had gone too
far, and a more liberal treatment of the South was demanded. Many
complained that the civil service of the government was used to reward
party workers, and that fitness for office was not duly considered. There
was opposition to the high tariff. These and other causes now split the
Republican party in the West and led to the formation of the Liberal
Republican party.
[Illustration: CARTOON OF 1862. "Say, Missus [Mexico], me and these other
gents 'ave come to nurse you a bit." [8]]
FOREIGN RELATIONS.--Our foreign relations since the close of the Civil War
present many matters of importance. In 1867 Alaska [9] was purchased from
Russia for $7,200,000. At the opening of the war France sent troops to
Mexico, overthrew the government, and set up an empire with Maximilian,
Archduke of Austria, as emperor. This was a violation of the Monroe
Doctrine (p. 282). When the war was over, therefore, troops were sent to
the Rio Grande, and a demand was made on France to recall her troops. The
French army was withdrawn, and Maximilian was captured by the Mexicans and
shot. These things happened while Johnson was President.
SANTO DOMINGO.--In 1869 Grant negotiated a treaty for the annexation of
the negro republic of Santo Domingo, and urged the Senate to ratify it.
When the Senate failed to do so, he made a second appeal, with a like
result.
ALABAMA CLAIMS.--In 1871 the treaty of Washington was signed, by which
several outstanding subjects of dispute with Great Britain were submitted
to arbitration. (1) Chief of these were the Alabama claims for damage to
the property of our citizens by the Confederate cruisers built or
purchased in Great Britain. [10] The five [11] arbitrators met at Geneva
in 1872 and awarded us $15,500,000 in gold as indemnity. (2) A dispute
over the northeastern fisheries [12] was referred to a commission which
met at Halifax and awarded Great Britain $5,500,000. (3) The same treaty
provided that a dispute over a part of the northwest boundary should be
submitted to the emperor of Germany as arbitrator. He decided in favor of
our claim, thus confirming our possession of the small San Juan group of
islands, in the channel between Vancouver and the mainland.
CUBA.--In 1868 the people of Cuba rebelled against Spain, proclaimed a
republic, and began a war which lasted nearly ten years. American ships
were seized, our citizens arrested; American property in Cuba was
destroyed or confiscated; and our ports were used to fit out filibusters
to aid the Cubans. Because of these things and the sympathy felt in our
country for the Cubans, Grant made offers of mediation, which Spain
declined. As the war continued, the question of giving the Cubans rights
of belligerents, and recognizing their independence, was urged on
Congress.
While these issues were undecided, a vessel called the Virginius, flying
our flag, was seized by Spain as a filibuster, and fifty-three of her
passengers and crew were put to death (1873). War seemed likely to follow;
but Spain released the ship and survivors, and later paid $80,000 to the
families of the murdered men.
SUMMARY
1. The end of the Civil War brought up several issues for settlement.
2. Out of the negro problem came the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth
amendments to the Constitution.
3. Out of the issue of readmitting the Confederate states into the Union
grew a serious quarrel with President Johnson.
4. Congress passed the Reconstruction Act over Johnson's veto (1867), and
by 1868 seven states were back in the Union.
5. Johnson's intemperate speeches and his violation of an act of Congress
led to his impeachment and trial. He was not convicted.
6. Johnson was succeeded by Grant, in whose administration the remaining
Southern states were readmitted to the Union; but the condition of the
South, under carpetbag government, became worse than ever, and led to the
passage of the Force Act.
7. Our foreign relations after the end of the war are memorable for the
purchase of Alaska, the withdrawal of the French from Mexico, the treaty
with Great Britain for the settlement of several old issues, the attempt
of Grant to purchase Santo Domingo, and the Virginius affair with Spain.
FOOTNOTES
[1] A closely related question was, What shall be done for the negroes set
free by the Emancipation Proclamation? During the war, as the Union armies
occupied more and more of Confederate territory, the number of freedmen
within the lines grew to hundreds of thousands. Many were enlisted as
soldiers, others were settled on abandoned or confiscated lands, and
societies were organized to aid them. In 1865, however, Congress
established the Freedmen's Bureau to care for them. Tracts of confiscated
land were set apart to be granted in forty-acre plots, and the bureau was
to find the negroes work, establish schools for them, and protect them
from injustice.
[2] When the eleven Southern states passed their ordinances of secession,
they claimed to be out of the Union. As to this there were in the North
three different views. (1) Lincoln held that no state could secede; that
the people of the seceding states were insurgents or persons engaged in
rebellion; that when the rebellion was crushed in any state, loyal persons
could again elect senators and representatives, and thus resume their old
relations to the Union. (2) Others held that these states had ceased to
exist; that nothing but their territory remained, and that Congress could
do what it pleased with this territory. (3) Between these extremes were
most of the Republican leaders, who held that these states had lost their
rights under the Constitution, and that only Congress could restore them
to the Union.
[3] Andrew Johnson was born in North Carolina in 1808. He never went to
school, and when ten years old was apprenticed to a tailor. When eighteen,
he went to Tennessee, where he married and was taught to read and write by
his wife. He was a man of ability, was three years alderman and three
years mayor of Greenville, was three times elected a member of the
legislature, six times a member of Congress, and twice governor of
Tennessee. When the war opened, he was a Democratic senator from
Tennessee, and stoutly opposed secession. In 1862 Lincoln made him
military governor of Tennessee. In 1875 he was again elected United States
senator, but died the same year.
[4] Some of these bonds (issued after March, 1863) contained the provision
that they should be paid "in coin." But others (issued in 1862) merely
provided that the interest should be paid in coin. Now, greenbacks were
legal tender for all debts except duties on imports and interest on the
bonds. A demand was therefore made that the early bonds should be paid in
greenbacks; also that all government bonds (which had been exempted from
taxation) should be taxed like other property. This idea was so popular in
Ohio that it was called the "Ohio idea," and its supporters were nicknamed
"Greenbackers." To put an end to this question Congress (1869) provided
that all bonds should be paid in coin.
[5] This Tenure of Office Act was afterward repealed (partly in 1869, and
partly in 1887).
[6] There have been eight cases of impeachment of officers of the United
States. The House begins by sending a committee to the Senate to impeach,
or accuse, the officer in question. The Senate then organizes itself as a
court with the Vice President as the presiding officer, and fixes the time
for trial. The House presents articles of impeachment, or specific charges
of misconduct, and appoints a committee to take charge of its side of the
case. The accused is represented by lawyers, witnesses are examined,
arguments made, and the decision rendered by vote of the senators. When a
President is impeached, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides in
place of the Vice President.
[7] Read _A Fool's Errand_, by A. W. Tourgée, and _Red Rock_, by Thomas
Nelson Page--two interesting novels describing life in the South during
this period.
[8] When France first interfered in Mexican affairs, it was in conjunction
with Great Britain and Spain, on the pretext of aiding Mexico to provide
for her debts to these powers. But when France proceeded to overthrow the
Mexican government, Great Britain and Spain withdrew.
[9] Soon after the purchase a few small Alaskan islands were leased to a
fur company for twenty years, and during that time nearly $7,000,000 was
paid into the United States treasury as rental and royalty. Besides seals
and fish, much gold has been obtained in Alaska.
[10] The cruisers were the _Alabama_, _Sumter_, _Shenandoah_, _Florida_,
and others (p. 378). We claimed that Great Britain had not done her duty
as a neutral; that she ought to have prevented their building, arming, or
equipping in her ports and sailing to destroy the commerce of a friendly
nation, and that, not having done so, she was responsible for the damage
they did. We claimed damages for (1) private losses by destruction of
ships and cargoes; (2) high rates of insurance paid by citizens; (3) cost
of pursuing the cruisers; (4) transfer of American merchant ships to the
British flag; (5) prolongation of the war because of recognition of the
Confederate States as belligerents, and the resulting cost to us. Great
Britain denied that 2, 3, 4, and 5 were subject to arbitration, and it
looked for a while as if the arbitration would come to naught. The
tribunal decided against 2, 4, and 5 on principles of international law,
and made no award for 3.
[11] One was appointed by the President, one by Great Britain, one by the
King of Italy, one by the President of the Swiss Confederation, and one by
the Emperor of Brazil. In 1794-1904 there were fifty-seven cases submitted
to arbitration, of which twenty were with Great Britain.
[12] The question was, whether the privilege granted citizens of the
United States to catch fish in the harbors, bays, creeks, and shores of
the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward
Island was more valuable than the privilege granted British subjects to
catch fish in harbors, bays, creeks, and off the coast of the United
States north of 39°. The commission decided that it was.
CHAPTER XXXII
GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1860 TO 1880
THE WEST.--In 1860 the great West bore little resemblance to its present
appearance. The only states wholly or partly west of the Mississippi River
were Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas. Louisiana, Texas, California,
and Oregon. Kansas territory extended from Missouri to the Rocky
Mountains. Nebraska territory included the region from Kansas to the
British possessions, and from Minnesota and Iowa to the Rocky Mountains.
New Mexico territory stretched from Texas to California, Utah territory
from the Rocky Mountains to California, and Washington territory from the
mountains to the Pacific.
[Illustration: SCENE IN A MINING TOWN. Deadwood, Dakota, in the '70's.]
GOLD AND SILVER MINING.--One decade, however, completely changed the West.
In 1858 gold was discovered on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains,
near Pikes Peak; gold hunters rushed thither, Denver was founded, and in
1861 Colorado was made a territory. Kansas, reduced to its present limits,
was admitted as a state the same year, and the northern part of Nebraska
territory was cut off and called Dakota territory (map, p. 352).
In 1859 silver was discovered on Mount Davidson (then in western Utah),
and population poured thither. Virginia City sprang into existence, and in
1861 Nevada was made a territory and in 1864, with enlarged boundaries,
was admitted into the Union as a state.
[Illustration: THE WEST.]
Precious metals were found in 1862 in what was then eastern Washington;
the old Fort Boise of the Hudson's Bay Company became a thriving town,
other settlements were made, and in 1863 the territory of Idaho was
organized. In the same year Arizona was cut off from New Mexico.
Hardly had this been done when gold was found on the Jefferson fork of the
Missouri River. Bannack City, Virginia City, and Helena were founded, and
in 1864 Montana was made a territory. [1]
In 1867 Nebraska became a state, and the next year Wyoming territory was
formed.
OVERLAND TRAILS.--When Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861, no railroad
crossed the plains. The horse, the stagecoach, the pack train, the prairie
schooner, [2] were the means of transportation, and but few routes of
travel were well defined. The Great Salt Lake and California trail,
starting in Kansas, followed the north branch of the Platte River to the
mountains, crossed the South Pass, and went on by way of Salt Lake City to
Sacramento. Over this line, once each week, a four-horse Concord coach [3]
started from each end of the route.
From Independence in Missouri another line of coaches carried the mail
over the old Santa Fe trail to New Mexico.
The great Western mail route began at St. Louis, went across Missouri and
Arkansas, curved southward to El Paso in Texas, and then by way of the
Gila River to Los Angeles and San Francisco; the distance of 2729 miles
was covered in twenty-four days. [4]
[Illustration: OVERLAND MAIL COACH STARTING FROM SAN FRANCISCO FOR THE
EAST IN 1858. Contemporary drawing.]
PONY EXPRESS.--This was too slow for business men, and in 1860 the stage
company started the Pony Express to carry letters on horseback from St.
Joseph to San Francisco. Mounted on a swift pony, the rider, a brave,
cool-headed, picked man, would gallop at breakneck speed to the first
relay station, jump on the back of another pony and speed away to the
second, mount a fresh horse and be off for a third. At the third station
he would find a fresh rider mounted, who, the moment the mail bags had
been fastened to his horse, would ride off to cover his three stations in
as short a time as possible. The riders left each end of the route twice a
week or oftener. The total distance, about two thousand miles, was passed
over in ten days. [5]
In the large cities of the East free delivery of letters by carriers was
introduced (1863), the postal money order system was adopted (1864), and
trials were made with postal cars in which the mail was sorted while _en
route_.
THE TELEGRAPH.--Meanwhile Congress (in June, 1860) incorporated the
Pacific Telegraph Company to build a line across the continent. By
November the line reached Fort Kearny, where an operator was installed in
a little sod hut. By October, 1861, the two lines, one building eastward
from California, and the other westward from Omaha, reached Salt Lake
City. The charge for a ten-word message from New York to Salt Lake City
was 87.50.
When the telegraph line was finished, the work of the Pony Express ended,
and all letters went by the overland stage line, whose coaches entered
every large mining center, carrying passengers, express matter, and the
mail. [6]
OVERLAND FREIGHT.--The discovery of gold in western Kansas, in 1858, and
the founding of Denver, led to a great freight business across the plains.
Flour, bacon, sugar, coffee, dry goods, hardware, furniture, clothing,
came in immense quantities to Omaha, St. Joseph, Atchison, Leavenworth,
there to be hauled to the "diggings." Atchison became a trade center.
There, in the spring of 1860, might have been seen hundreds of wagons, and
tons of goods piled on the levee, and warehouses full of provisions,
boots, shoes, and clothing. From it, day after day, went a score of
prairie schooners drawn by horses, mules, or oxen. [7]
THE RAILROAD.--The idea of a railroad over the plains was, as we have
seen, an old one; but at last, in 1862, Congress chartered two railroad
companies to build across the public domain from the Missouri River to
California. One, the Union Pacific, was to start at Omaha and build
westward. The other, the Central Pacific, was to start in California and
build eastward till the two met. Work was begun in November, 1865, and in
May, 1869, the two lines were joined at Promontory Point, near Salt Lake
City.
As the railroad progressed, the overland coaches plied between the ends of
the two sections, their runs growing shorter and shorter till, when the
road was finished, the overland stagecoach was discontinued.
THE HOMESTEAD LAW.--When the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads
were chartered, they were given immense land grants; [8] but in the same
year (1862) the Homestead Law was enacted. Under the provisions of this
law a farm of 80 or 160 acres in the public domain might be secured by any
head of a family or person twenty-one years old who was a citizen of our
country or had declared an intention to become such, provided he or she
would live on the farm and cultivate it for five years. [9] Between 1863
and 1870, 103,000 entries for 12,000,000 acres were made. This showed that
the people desired the land, and was one reason why no more should be
given to corporations.
NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.--In 1864 Congress had chartered a railroad for
the new Northwest, and had given the company an immense land grant. But
building did not begin till 1870. All went well till 1873, when a great
panic swept over the country and the road became bankrupt. It then
extended from Duluth to Bismarck. Two years later the company was
reorganized, and the road was finished in 1883. [10]
WHEAT FIELDS OF DAKOTA.--During the panic certain of the directors of the
road bought great tracts of land from the company, paying for them with
the railroad bonds. On some of these lands in the valley of the Red River
of the North an attempt was made to raise wheat in 1876. It proved
successful, and the next year a wave of emigration set strongly toward
Dakota. In 1860 there were not 5000 people in Dakota; in 1870 there were
but 14,000, mostly miners; in 1880 there were 135,000.
PRAIRIE HOMES.--These newcomers--homesteaders, as they were often called--
broke up the prairie, planted wheat, raised sheep and cattle, and lived at
first in a dugout, or hole dug in the side of a depression in the prairie.
This was roofed (about the level of the prairie) with thick boards covered
with sods. After a year or two in such a home the settler would build a
sod house. The walls, two feet thick, were made of sods cut like great
bricks from the prairie. The roof would be of boards covered with shingles
or oftener with sods, and the walls inside would sometimes be whitewashed.
Near watercourses a few settlers found enough trees to make log cabins.
[Illustration: LOG CABIN WITH SOD ROOF.]
THE RANCHES.--Stretching across the country from Montana and Dakota to
Arizona lay the grass region, the great ranch country, where herds of
cattle grazed and were driven to the railroads to be taken to market. In
later years this became also the greatest sheep-raising and wool-producing
region in the Union.
BUFFALOES AND INDIANS.--With the building of the railroads and the coming
of the settlers the reckless slaughter of the buffalo and the crowding of
the Indians began. [11] To-day the buffalo is as rare an animal in the
West as in the East; and after many wars and treaties with the Indians,
they now hold less than one hundredth of the land west of the Mississippi.
[Illustration: CUSTER'S FIGHT.]
MECHANICAL PROGRESS.--The period 1860 to 1880 was one of great mechanical
and industrial progress. During this time dynamite and the barbed-wire
fence were introduced; the compressed-air rock drill, the typewriter, the
Westinghouse air brake, the Janney car coupler, the cable car, the trolley
systems, the electric light, the search light, electric motors, the Bell
telephone, the phonograph, the gas engine, and a host of other inventions
and mechanical devices were invented. To satisfy the demands of trade and
commerce, great works of engineering were undertaken, such as twenty years
before could not have been attempted. The jetties constructed by James B.
Eads in the South Pass at the mouth of the Mississippi, to force that
river to keep open its own channel; the steel-arch railroad bridge built
by Eads across the Mississippi at St. Louis; the Roebling suspension
bridges over the Ohio at Cincinnati and over the East River at New York;
and the successful laying of the Atlantic cable (1866) by Cyrus W. Field,
are a few of the great mechanical triumphs of this period.
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT.--Industries once carried on in the household or in
small factories were conducted on a large scale by great corporations. The
machine for making tin cans made possible the canning industry. The self-
binding harvester and reaper made possible the immense grain fields of the
West. The production and refining of petroleum became an industry of great
importance. The great flour mills of Minneapolis, the iron and steel mills
of Pennsylvania, the packing houses of Chicago and Kansas City, and many
other enterprises were the direct result of the use of machinery.
[Illustration: STEEL MILL.]
RISE OF GREAT CORPORATIONS.--Trades and occupations, industries of all
sorts, began to concentrate and combine, and large corporations took the
place of individuals and small companies. In place of many little
railroads there were now trunk lines. [12] In place of many little
telegraph companies, express companies, and oil companies there were now a
few large ones.
[Illustration: SETTLED AREA IN 1880.]
IMMIGRATION.--This industrial development, in spite of machinery, could
not have been so great were it not for the increase in population, wealth,
the facilities of transportation, and the great number of workingmen.
These were largely immigrants, who came by hundreds of thousands year
after year. From about 90,000 in 1862, the number who came each year rose
to more than 450,000 in 1873; and then fell to less than 150,000 in 1878.
The population of the whole country in 1880 was 50,000,000, of whom more
than 6,500,000 were of foreign birth.
SUMMARY
1. The discovery of gold and silver near the Rocky Mountains in 1858 and
later brought to that region many thousand miners.
2. Their presence in that wild region made local government necessary, and
by 1868 seven new territories were formed (Colorado, Dakota, Nevada,
Idaho, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming), and one of them (Nevada, 1864) was
admitted into the Union as a state.
3. Means of communication with California and the far West were improved.
First came the Pony Express, then the telegraph, and finally the railroad.
4. The construction of the railroad across the middle of the country was
followed by the building of another near the northern border.
5. Railroad building, the Homestead Law, and the success of the Dakota
wheat farms, led to the rapid development of the new Northwest.
6. Quite as noticeable is the mechanical and industrial progress of the
country, the rise of great corporations, and the flood of immigrants that
came to our shores each year.
FOOTNOTES
[1] For descriptions of the wild life in the new Northwest in the pioneer
days read Langford's Vigilante Days and Ways.
[2] A large wagon with a white canvas top.
[3] A kind of heavy coach, so called because first manufactured at
Concord, New Hampshire.
[4] When the war opened and Texas seceded, this route was abandoned, and
after April, 1861, letters and passengers went from St. Joseph by way of
Salt Lake City to California.
[5] All letters had to be written on the thinnest paper, and no more than
twenty pounds' weight was allowed in each of the two pouches. The trail
was infested with "road agents" (robbers), and roving bands of Indians
were ever ready to murder and scalp; but in summer and winter, by day and
night, over the plains and over the mountains, these brave men made their
dangerous rides, carrying no arms save a revolver and a knife. Each letter
had to be inclosed in a ten-cent stamped envelope and have on it in
addition for each half ounce five one-dollar stamps of the Pony Express
Company. The story of the Pony Express is told in Henry _Inman's Great
Salt Lake Trail_, Chap. viii.
[6] As the government had no post offices in the mining camps, the stage
company became the postmasters, delivered the letters, and charged twenty-
five cents for each. Sometimes the owner of a little store in a remote
mountain camp would act as postmaster, and charge a high price for sending
letters to or bringing them from the nearest stage station. One such used
a barrel for the letter box, and sent the mail once a month. A hole was
cut in the head of the barrel, and beside it was posted a notice which
read: "This is a Post Office. Shove a quarter through the hole with your
letter. We have no use for stamps as I carry the mail."
[7] The lighter articles went in wagons drawn by four or six horses or
mules, the heavier in great wagons drawn by six and eight yoke of oxen,
which made the trip to Denver in five weeks. The cost of provisions
brought in this way was very great. Thus in 1865, in Helena, Montana,
flour sold for $85 a sack of one hundred pounds. Potatoes cost fifty cents
in gold a pound, and coal oil, at Virginia City, $10 in gold a gallon.
Board and lodgings rose in proportion, and it was not uncommon to see
posted in the boarding houses such notices as this: "Board with bread at
meals, $32; board without bread, $22." Read Hough's _The Way to the
West_, pp. 200-221.
[8] Every other section in a strip of land twenty miles wide along the
entire length of the railroad. The government had always been liberal in
granting land to aid in the construction of roads, canals, and railroads,
and between 1827 and 1860 had given away for such purposes 215,000,000
acres. Had these acres been in one great tract it would have been seven
times as large as Pennsylvania. In 1862 Congress also added to its grants
for educational purposes (p. 301) by giving to each state from 90,000 to
990,000 acres of public land in aid of a college for teaching agriculture
and the mechanical arts.
[9] For conditions on which land could be secured before this, see p. 302.
[10] The history of the railroads across the continent is told in Cy.
Warman's _Story of the Railroad_; for the Northern Pacific, read pp.
179-196.
[11] White men eager for land invaded the Indian reservations; acts of
violence were frequent, and shameful frauds were perpetrated by the agents
of the government. The Indians, in retaliation, killed settlers and ran
off horses, mules, and cattle. There were uprisings of the Sioux in
Minnesota (1862) and in Montana (1866); but the worst offenders were the
Apaches of Arizona, and against them General Crook waged war in 1872.
Toward the close of 1872 the Modocs left their reservation in Oregon, took
refuge in the Lava Beds in northern California, and defied the troops sent
to drive them back. General Canby and several others were treacherously
murdered at a conference (1873), and a war of several months' duration
followed before the Modocs were forced to surrender. In 1874 the Cheyennes
(she-enz'), enraged at the slaughter of the buffaloes by the whites, made
cattle raids, and more fighting ensued. An attempt to remove the Sioux to
a new reservation led to yet another war in 1876, in which Lieutenant-
Colonel Custer and his force of 262 men were massacred in Montana. Read
Longfellow's poem _The Revenge of Rain-in-the-Face_.
[12] Thus (1869) the New York Central (from Albany to Buffalo) and the
Hudson River (from New York to Albany) were combined and formed one
railroad under one management from New York to Buffalo.
CHAPTER XXXIII
A QUARTER CENTURY OF STRUGGLE OVER INDUSTRIAL QUESTIONS, 1872 TO 1897
THE NATIONAL LABOR PARTY.--The changed industrial conditions of the period
1860-80 affected politics, and after 1868 the questions which divided
parties became more and more industrial and financial. The rise of the
national labor party and its demands shows this very strongly. Ever since
1829 the workingman had been in politics in some of the states, and had
secured many reforms. But no national labor congress was held till 1865,
after which like congresses were held each year till 1870, when a national
convention was called to form a "National Labor-Reform Party."
The demands of the party thus formed (1872) were for taxation of
government bonds (p. 387); repeal of the national banking system (p. 382);
an eight-hour working day; exclusion of the Chinese; [1] and no land
grants to corporations (p. 398). At every presidential election since this
time, nominations have been made by one or more labor parties.
THE PROHIBITION PARTY.--Another party which first nominated presidential
candidates in 1872 was that of the Prohibitionists. After much agitation
of temperance reform, [2] efforts were made to prohibit the sale of liquor
entirely, and between 1851 and 1855 eight states adopted prohibitory laws.
Then the movement subsided for a while, but in 1869 it began again and in
that year the National Prohibition Reform party was founded. In 1872 its
platform called for the suppression of the sale of intoxicating liquor,
and for a long series of other reforms. Every four years since that time
the Prohibition party has named its candidates.
GRANT REFLECTED.--In 1872 no great importance was attached to either of
these parties (the Labor and the Prohibition). The contest lay between
General Grant, the Republican candidate for President, and Horace Greeley,
[3] the Liberal Republican nominee (p. 390), who was supported also by
most of the Democrats. Grant was elected by a large majority.
THE PANIC OF 1873.--Scarcely had Grant been reinaugurated when a serious
panic swept over the country. The period since the war had been one of
great prosperity, wild speculation, and extraordinary industrial
development. Since 1869 some 24,000 miles of railroad had been built. But
in the midst of all this prosperity, the city of Chicago was almost
destroyed by fire (1871), [4] and the next year a large part of the city
of Boston was burned. This led to a demand for money to rebuild them. Many
speculative enterprises failed. The railroads that were being built ahead
of population, in order to open up new lands, could not sell their bonds,
and when a banker who was backing one of the railroads failed, the panic
started. Thousands of business men failed, and the wages of workingmen
were cut down.
THE SPECIE PAYMENT ACT.--The cry was then raised for more money, and (in
1874) Congress attempted to increase, or "inflate," the amount of
greenbacks in circulation from $356,000,000 to $400,000,000. Grant vetoed
the bill. What shall be done with the currency? then became the question
of the hour. Paper money was still circulating at less than its face value
as measured in coin. To make it worth face value, Congress (1875) decided
to resume specie payment; that is, the fractional currency was to be
called in and redeemed in 10, 25, and 50 cent silver pieces; and after
January 1, 1879, all greenbacks were to be redeemed in specie.
POLITICAL PARTIES IN 1876. [5]--This policy of resumption of specie
payment did not please everybody. A Greenback party was formed, which
called for the repeal of the Specie Payment Act and for the issue of more
greenbacks. That the presidential election would be close was certain, and
this certainty did much to lead the Democratic and Republican parties to
take up some of the demands of the Prohibition, Liberal Republican, and
Labor parties. Thus both the Democratic and Republican parties called for
no more land grants to corporations, and for the exclusion of the Chinese.
[Illustration: MEMORIAL HALL, PHILADELPHIA.]
THE ELECTION OF 1876.--The Republican candidate for President was
Rutherford B. Hayes; [6] the Democratic candidate was Samuel J. Tilden.
The admission of Colorado in August, 1876, made thirty-eight states,
casting 369 electoral votes. A candidate to be elected therefore needed at
least 185 electoral votes. So close was the contest that the election of
Hayes was claimed by exactly 185 votes. This number included the votes of
South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Oregon, in each of which a dispute
was raging as to whether Republican or Democratic electors were chosen.
Both sets claimed to have been elected, and both met and voted.
ELECTORAL COMMISSION.--The electoral votes of the states are counted in
the presence of the House and Senate. The question then became, Which of
these duplicate sets shall Congress count? To determine the question an
electoral commission of fifteen members was created. [7] It decided that
the votes of the Republican electors In the four states should be counted,
and Hayes was therefore declared elected. [8]
END OF CARPETBAG GOVERNMENTS.--The inauguration of Hayes was followed by
the recall of United States troops from the South, and the downfall of
carpetbag governments in South Carolina and Louisiana. During the first
half of Hayes's term the. Democrats had control of the House of
Representatives, and during the second half, of the Senate as well. As a
result, proposed partisan measures either failed to pass Congress, or were
vetoed by the President.
THE YEAR 1877 was one of great business depression. A strike on the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the summer of 1877 spread to other
railroads and became almost an industrial insurrection. Traffic was
stopped, millions of dollars' worth of freight cars, machine shops, and
other property was destroyed, and in the battles fought around Pittsburg
many lives were lost. [9] Failures were numerous; in 1878 more business
men failed than in the panic year 1873.
SILVER COINAGE.--For much of this business depression the financial policy
of the government was blamed, and when Congress assembled in 1877, this
policy was at once attacked. An attempt to repeal the act for resuming
specie payment (p. 408) was made, but failed. [10] Another measure,
however, concerning silver coinage, was more successful.
Congress had dropped (1873) the silver dollar from the list of coins to be
made at the mint. [11] Soon afterward the silver mines of Nevada began to
yield astonishingly, and the price of silver fell. This led to a demand
(by inflationists and silver-producers) that the silver dollar should
again be coined; and in 1878 Congress passed (over Hayes's veto) the
Bland-Allison Act, which required the Secretary of the Treasury to buy not
less than $2,000,000 nor more than $4,000,000 worth of silver bullion each
month and coin it into dollars. [12]
"THE CHINESE MUST GO."--Another act vetoed by Hayes was intended to stop
the coming of Chinese to our country. In 1877 an anti-Chinese movement was
begun in San Francisco by the workingmen led by Dennis Kearney. Open-air
meetings were held, and the demand for Chinese exclusion was urged so
vigorously that Congress (1879) passed an act restricting Chinese
immigration. Hayes vetoed this as violating our treaty with China, but
(1880) negotiated a new treaty which provided that Congress might regulate
the immigration of Chinese laborers.
THE ELECTION OF 1880; DEATH OF GARFIELD.--In 1880 there were again several
parties, but the contest was between the Republicans with James A.
Garfield [13] and Chester A. Arthur as candidates for President and Vice
President, and the Democrats with Winfield S. Hancock and William H.
English as leaders.
Garfield and Arthur were elected, and on March 4, 1881, were duly
inaugurated. Four months later, as the President stood in a railway
station in Washington, a disappointed office seeker shot him in the back.
After his death (September 19, 1881) Chester A. Arthur became President.
[14]
IMPORTANT LAWS, 1881-85.--All parties had called for anti-Chinese
legislation. The long-desired act was accordingly passed by Congress,
excluding the Chinese from our country for a period of twenty years.
Arthur vetoed it as contrary to our treaty with China. An act "suspending"
the immigration of Chinese laborers for ten years was then passed and
became law; similar acts have been passed from time to time since then.
The Republicans (and Prohibitionists) had demanded the suppression of
polygamy in Utah and the neighboring territories. Another law (the Edmunds
Act, 1882) was therefore enacted for this end. [15]
The murder of Garfield aroused a general demand for civil service reform.
The Pendleton Act (1883) was therefore enacted to secure appointment to
office on the ground of fitness, not party service. [16]
[Illustration: THE CRUISER BOSTON.]
THE NEW NAVY.--After the close of the Civil War our navy was suffered to
fall into neglect and decay. The thirty-seven cruisers, all but four of
which were of wood; the fourteen single-turreted monitors built during the
war; the muzzle-loading guns, belonged to a past age. By 1881 this was
fully realized and the foundation of a new and splendid navy was begun by
the construction of three unarmored cruisers--the _Atlanta_, _Boston_, and
_Chicago_. Once started, the new navy grew rapidly, and in the course of
twelve years forty-seven vessels were afloat or on the stocks. [17]
NEW REFORMS DEMANDED.--Meantime the wonderful development of our country
caused a demand for further reforms. The chief employers of labor were
corporations and capitalists, many of whom abused the power their wealth
gave them. They were accused of importing laborers under contract and
thereby keeping wages down, of getting special privileges from
legislatures, and of combining to fix prices to suit themselves. In the
campaign of 1884, therefore, these issues came to the front, and demands
were made for (1) legislation against the importation of contract labor,
(2) regulation of interstate commerce, especially as carried on by
railways, (3) government ownership of telegraphs and railways, (4)
reduction of the hours of labor, (5) bureaus to collect and spread
information as to labor.
[Illustration: GROVER CLEVELAND.]
THE ELECTION OF 1884.--The Republicans nominated James G. Blaine for
President; the Democrats, Grover Cleveland. [18] The nomination of Blaine
gave offense to many Republicans; they took the name of Independents and
supported Cleveland, who was elected.
IMPORTANT LAWS, 1885-89. [19]--As the two great parties, Democratic and
Republican, had each favored the passage of certain laws demanded by the
labor parties, these reforms were now obtained.
1. An Anti-Contract-Labor Law (1885) forbade any person, company, or
corporation to bring aliens into the United States under contract to
perform labor or service.
2. An Interstate Commerce Act (1887) provided for a commission whose duty
it is to see that all charges for the carriage of passengers or freight
are reasonable and just, and that no unfair special rates are made for
favored shippers.
3. A Bureau of Labor was established and put in charge of a commissioner
whose duty it is to "diffuse among the people of the United States useful
information on subjects connected with labor." Such bureaus or departments
already existed in many of the states.
THE SURPLUS.--These old issues disposed of, the continued growth and
prosperity of our country brought up new ones. For some time past the
revenue of the government had so exceeded its expenses that on December 1,
1887, there was a surplus of $50,000,000 in the treasury. Six months later
this had risen to $103,000,000.
[Illustration: THE STATUE OF LIBERTY.]
Three plans were suggested for disposing of the surplus. Some thought it
should be distributed among the states as in 1837. Some were for buying
government bonds and so reducing the national debt. Others urged a
reduction of the annual revenue by cutting down the tariff rates. The
President in his message in 1887 asked for such a reduction, and in 1888
the House passed a new tariff bill which the Senate rejected.
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1888.--In the campaign of 1888, therefore, the tariff
issue came to the front. The Democrats renominated Grover Cleveland for
President, and called for a tariff for revenue only, and for no more
revenue than was needed to pay the cost of economical government. The
Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison [20] on a platform favoring a
protective tariff, and elected him.
NEW STATES.--Both the great parties had called for the admission of new
states. Just before the end of Cleveland's term, therefore, an enabling
act was passed for North and South Dakota, Washington, and Montana, which
were accordingly admitted to the Union a few months later (1889). Idaho
and Wyoming were admitted the following year (1890), and Utah in 1896.
NEW LAWS OF 1890.--The administration of affairs having again passed to
the Republican party, it enacted the McKinley Tariff Law, which slightly
raised the average rate of duties; the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, forbidding
combinations to restrain trade; and a new financial measure which also
bore the name of Senator Sherman. The law (p. 409) requiring the purchase
and coinage of at least $2,000,000 worth of silver bullion each month did
not satisfy the silver men. They wanted a free-coinage law, giving any man
the privilege of having his silver coined into dollars (p. 224). As they
had a majority of the Senate, they passed a free-coinage bill, but the
House rejected it. A conference followed, and the so-called Sherman Act
was passed, increasing the amount of silver to be bought each month by the
government. [21]
THE CONGRESSIONAL ELECTION OF 1890.--The effect of the increased tariff
rates, the Sherman Act, and large expenditures by Congress was at once
apparent, and in the congressional election of 1890 the Republicans were
beaten. The Democratic minority in the House of Representatives was turned
into a great majority, and in both House and Senate appeared members of a
new party called the Farmers' Alliance. [22]
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1892.--The success of the Alliance men in the
election of 1890, and the conviction that neither the Democrats nor the
Republicans would further all their demands, led to a meeting of Alliance
and Labor leaders in May, 1891, and the formation of "the People's Party
of the United States of America." In 1892 this People's Party, or the
Populists, as they were called, nominated James B. Weaver for President,
cast a million votes, and secured the election of four senators and eleven
representatives in Congress. The Republicans renominated Harrison for
President. But the Democrats secured majorities in the House and the
Senate, and elected Cleveland. [23]
THE PANIC OF 1893.--When Cleveland's second inauguration took place, March
4, 1893, our country had already entered a period of panic and business
depression. Trade had fallen off. Money was hard to borrow. Foreigners who
held our stocks and bonds sought to sell them, and a great amount of gold
was drawn to Europe. So bad did business conditions become that the
President called Congress to meet in special session in August to remedy
matters.
The silver dollars coined by the government were issued and accepted by
the government at their face value, and circulated on a par with gold,
although the price of silver bullion had fallen so low that the metal in a
silver dollar was worth less than seventy cents. Many people believed the
business panic was due to fears that the government could not much longer
keep the increasing volume of silver currency at par with gold. Therefore
Congress repealed part of the Sherman Act of 1890, so as to stop the
purchase of more silver.
THE WILSON TARIFF.--The business revival which the majority of Congress
now expected, did not come. Failures continued; mills remained closed,
gold continued to leave the country, and government receipts were
$34,000,000 less than expenditures when the year ended. By the close of
the autumn of 1893, hundreds of thousands of people were out of employment
and many in want. In this condition of affairs Congress met in regular
session (December, 1893). The Democrats were in control of both branches,
and were pledged to revise the tariff. A bill was therefore passed,
cutting down some of the tariff rates (the Wilson Act). [24]
Nobody expected that the revised tariff would yield enough money to meet
the expenses of the government. One section of the law therefore provided
that all yearly incomes above $4000 should be taxed two per cent. Though
Congress had levied an income tax thirty years before, its right to do so
was now denied by many, and the Supreme Court decided (1895) that the
income tax was unconstitutional. [25]
AUSTRALIAN BALLOT.--One great reform which must not go unnoticed was the
introduction of the Australian or secret ballot. The purpose of this
system of voting, first used in Australia, is to enable the voter to
prepare his ballot in a booth by himself and deposit it without any one
knowing for whom he votes. The system was first used in our country in
Massachusetts and in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1888. So successful was it
that ten states adopted it the next year, and by 1894 it was in use in all
but seven of the forty-four states.
NEGROES DISFRANCHISED.--Six of the seven were Southern states where
negroes were numerous. After the fall of the carpetbag governments,
illegal means were often used to keep negroes from the polls and prevent
"negro domination" in these states. Later legal methods were tried
instead: the payment of taxes, and sometimes such an educational
qualification as the ability to read, were required of voters; but the
laws were so framed as to exclude many negroes and few whites. Mississippi
was the first state to amend her constitution for this purpose (1890), and
nearly all the Southern states have followed her example. [26]
THE FREE COINAGE ISSUE.--Now that the treasury had ceased to buy silver,
the demand for the free coinage of silver was renewed. The Republicans in
their national platform, in 1896, declared against it, whereupon thirty-
four delegates from the silver states (Idaho, Montana, South Dakota,
Colorado, Utah, and Nevada) left the convention. The Democratic party
declared for free coinage, [27] but many Democrats ("gold Democrats")
thereupon formed a new party, called the National Democratic, and
nominated candidates on a gold-standard platform. Both the great parties
were thus split on the issue of free coinage of silver.
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896.--The Republican party nominated William McKinley
[28] for President. The Democrats named William J. Bryan, and he was
indorsed by the People's party and the National Silver party. [29] The
campaign was most exciting. The country was flooded with books, pamphlets,
handbills, setting forth both sides of the silver issue; Bryan and
McKinley addressed immense crowds, and on election day 13,900,000 votes
were cast. McKinley was elected.
THE DINGLEY TARIFF.--The excitement over silver was such that in the
campaign the tariff question was little considered. But the Republicans
were pledged to a revision of the tariff, and accordingly (July, 1897) the
Dingley Bill passed Congress and was approved by the President. Thus in
the course of seven years the change of administration from one party to
the other had led to the passage of three tariff acts--the McKinley
(1890), the Wilson (1894), and the Dingley (1897).
FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS.--It is now time to review our foreign relations
during this period. Twice since 1890 they had brought us apparently to the
verge of war.
THE CHILEAN INCIDENT.--In 1891, while the United States ship _Baltimore_
was in the port of Valparaiso, Chile, some sailors went on shore, were
attacked on the streets, and one was killed and several wounded. Chile
offered no apology and no reparation to the injured, but instead sent an
offensive note about the matter. Harrison, in a message to Congress
(1892), plainly suggested war. But the offensive note was withdrawn, a
proper apology was made, and the incident ended.
THE SEAL FISHERIES.--Great Britain and our country were long at variance
over the question of ownership of seals in Bering Sea. Our purpose was to
protect them from extermination by certain restrictions on seal fishing.
To settle our rights in the matter, a court of arbitration was appointed
and met in Paris in 1893. The decision was against us, but steps were
taken to protect the seals from extermination. [30]
[Illustration: HAWAIIAN BOATS WITH OUTRIGGERS.]
HAWAII.--Just before Harrison retired from office a revolution in the
Hawaiian Islands drove the queen from the throne. A provisional government
was then established, commissioners were dispatched to Washington, and a
treaty for the annexation of Hawaii to the United States was drawn up and
sent to the Senate. President Cleveland recalled the treaty and sought to
have the queen restored. But the Hawaiians in control resisted and in 1894
established a republic.
VENEZUELA.--For many years there was a dispute over the boundary line
between British Guiana and Venezuela, and in 1895 it seemed likely to
involve Venezuela in a war with Great Britain. Our government had tried to
bring about a settlement by arbitration. Great Britain refused to
arbitrate, and denied our right to interfere. President Cleveland insisted
that under the Monroe Doctrine we had a right, and in December, 1895,
asked Congress to authorize a commission to investigate the claims of
Great Britain. This was done, and great excitement at once arose at home
and in Great Britain. But Great Britain and Venezuela soon submitted the
question to arbitration.
SUMMARY
1. The wonderful industrial growth of our country between 1860 and 1880
brought up for settlement grave industrial and financial questions.
2. The failure of the two great parties to take up these questions at
once, caused the formation of many new parties, such as the National
Labor, the Prohibition, the Liberal Republican, and the People's party.
3. Some of their demands were enacted into laws, as the silver coinage
act, the exclusion of the Chinese, the anti-contract-labor and interstate
commerce acts, the establishment of a national labor bureau, and the
antitrust act.
4. In 1890-97 the tariff was three times revised by the McKinley, Wilson,
and Dingley acts.
5. In the political world the most notable events were the contested
election of 1876-77; the recall of United States troops from the South,
and the fall of carpetbag governments; the assassination of Garfield; and
the two defeats of the national Republican ticket (1884 and 1892).
6. In the financial world the chief events were the panics of 1873 and
1893, the resumption of specie payment (1879), and the free-silver issue.
7. In the world at large we had trouble with Chile, Hawaii, and Great
Britain.
FOOTNOTES
[1] After the discovery of gold in California, Chinamen, called coolies,
came to that state in considerable numbers. But they attracted little
attention till 1852, when the governor complained that they were sent out
by Chinese capitalists under contract, that the gold they dug was sent to
China, and that they worked for wages so low that no American could
compete with them. Attempts were then made to stop their importation,
especially by heavy taxes laid on them. But the courts declared such
taxation illegal, and appeals were then made to Congress for relief. No
action was taken; but in 1868 an old treaty with China was amended, and to
import Chinamen without their free consent was made a penal offense. This
did not prevent their coming, so the demand was made for their exclusion
by act of Congress.
[2] In the early years of the nineteenth century liquor was a part of the
workingman's wages. Every laborer on the farm, in the harvest field, every
sailor, and men employed in many of the trades, as carpenters and masons,
demanded daily grog at the cost of the employer. About 1810 a temperance
movement put an end to much of this. But intemperance remained the curse
of the workingman down to the days of Van Buren and Tyler, when a greater
temperance movement began.
[3] Horace Greeley was born in New Hampshire in 1811, and while still a
lad learned the trade of printer. When he went to New York in 1831, he was
so poor that he walked the streets in search of work. During the Harrison
campaign in 1840 he edited the Log Cabin, a Whig newspaper, and soon after
the election founded the New York Tribune. In 1848 he was elected a member
of Congress. He was one of the signers of the bond which released
Jefferson Davis from imprisonment after the Civil War. Greeley overexerted
himself in the campaign of 1872, and died a few weeks after the election.
[4] The fire is said to have been started by a cow kicking over a lamp in
a small barn. Nearly 2200 acres were burned over, some 17,450 buildings
consumed, 200 lives were lost, and 98,000 people made homeless.
[5] The close of the first century of our national independence was the
occasion of a great exposition in Philadelphia--the first of many that
have been held in our country on centennial anniversaries of great events
in our history. The Philadelphia exposition was first planned as a mammoth
fair for the display of the industries and arts of the United States; but
Congress having approved the idea, all foreign nations were invited to
take part, and thirty-three did so. The main building covered some twenty
acres and was devoted to the display of manufactures. The exposition
occupied also four other large buildings devoted to machinery,
agriculture, etc., of which Horticultural Hall and Memorial Hall are still
standing.
[6] Rutherford B. Hayes was born in Ohio in 1822, and after graduating
from Kenyon College and the Harvard Law School settled at Fremont, Ohio,
but soon moved to Cincinnati. At the opening of the war he joined the
Union army and by 1865 had risen to the rank of brevet major general.
While still in the army, he was elected to Congress, served two terms, and
was then twice elected governor of Ohio. In 1875 he was elected for a
third term. He died in 1893.
[7] The commission consisted of five senators, five representatives, and
five justices of the Supreme Court; eight were Republicans, and seven
Democrats.
[8] By 185 electoral votes against 184 for Tilden. The popular vote at the
election of 1876 was (according to the Republican claim): for Hayes,
4,033,768; for Tilden, 4,285,992; for Peter Cooper (Greenback-Labor or
"Independent"), 81,737; for Green Clay Smith (Prohibition), 9522.
[9] The strikers' grievances were reduction of wages, irregular
employment, irregular payment of wages, and forced patronage of company
hotels. There were riots at Baltimore, Chicago, Reading, and other places
besides Pittsburg; state militia was called out to quell the disorder; and
at the request of the state governors, United States troops were sent to
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia.
[10] Specie payment was accordingly begun on January 1, 1879, and then for
the first time since greenbacks were made legal tender they were accepted
everywhere at par with coin. By the provisions of other laws, the amount
of greenbacks kept in circulation was fixed at $346,681,000.
[11] The price of silver in 1872 was such that the 412-1/2 grains in the
dollar were worth $1.02 in gold money. The silver dollar was worth more
as silver bullion than as money, and was therefore little used as money.
This dropping of the silver dollar from the list of coins, or ceasing to
coin it, was called the "demonetization of silver."
[12] To carry any number of these "cart-wheel dollars" in the pocket would
have been inconvenient, because of their size and weight. Provision was
therefore made that the dollars might be deposited in the United States
treasury and paper "silver certificates" issued against them. Get
specimens of different kinds of paper money, read the words printed on a
silver certificate, and compare with the wording on a greenback (United
States note) and on a national bank note.
[13] James A. Garfield was born in Ohio in 1831. While still a lad. he
longed to be a sailor, and failing in this, he became a canal boatman.
After a little experience as such he went back to school, supporting
himself by working as a carpenter and teaching school. In 1854 he entered
the junior class of Williams College, graduated in 1856, became a teacher
in Hiram Institute, was elected to the Ohio senate in 1859, and joined the
Union army in 1861. In 1862 he was elected to Congress, took his seat in
December, 1863, and continued to be a member of the House of
Representatives till 1881.
[14] Chester Alan Arthur was born in Vermont in 1830, graduated from Union
College, became (1853) a lawyer in New York city, and was (1871-78)
customs collector of the port of New York. In 1880 he attended the
national Republican convention as a delegate from New York, and was one of
the 302 members of that convention who voted to the last for the
renomination of Grant. After Grant was defeated and Garfield nominated,
Arthur was named for the vice presidency, in order to appease the
"Stalwarts," as the friends of Grant were called.
[15] When this failed to accomplish its purpose, Congress (1887) enacted
another law providing heavy penalties for polygamy. The Mormon Church then
declared against the practice.
[16] The murder of Garfield led also to a new presidential succession law.
The old law provided that if both the President and the Vice President
should die, the office should be filled temporarily by the president
_pro tem_ of the Senate, or if there were none, by the speaker of the
House of Representatives. But one Congress expired March 4, 1881, and the
next one did not meet and elect its presiding officers till December; so
if Arthur had died before then, there would have been no one to act as
President. A new law passed in 1886 provides that if both the presidency
and the vice presidency become vacant, the presidency shall pass to the
Secretary of State, or, if there be none, to the Secretary of the
Treasury, or, if necessary, to the Secretary of War, Attorney General,
Postmaster General, Secretary of the Navy, or Secretary of the Interior.
[17] In 1881, Lieutenant A. W. Greely was sent to plant a station in the
Arctic regions. Supplies sent in 1882 and 1883 failed to reach him, and
alarm was felt for the safety of his party. In 1884 a rescue expedition
was sent out under Commander W. S. Schley. Three vessels were made ready
by the Navy Department, and a fourth by Great Britain. After a long search
Greely and six companions were found on the point of starvation and five
were brought safely home. During their stay in the Arctic, they had
reached a point within 430 miles of the north pole, the farthest north any
white man had then gone.
[18] Grover Cleveland was born in New Jersey in 1837. In 1841 his father,
a Presbyterian minister, removed to Onondaga County, New York, where
Grover attended school and served as clerk in the village store. Later he
taught for a year in the Institute for the Blind in New York city; but
soon began the study of law, and settled in Buffalo. He was assistant
district attorney of Erie County, sheriff and mayor of Buffalo, and in
1882, as the Democratic candidate for governor of New York, carried the
state by 192,000 plurality. Both when mayor and when governor he was noted
for his free use of the veto power.
[19] In 1885 the Bartholdi statue of Liberty Enlightening the World was
formally received at New York. It was a gift from the people of France to
the people of America. A hundred thousand Frenchmen contributed the money
for the statue, and the pedestal was built with money raised in the United
States. An island in New York harbor was chosen for the site, and there
the statue was unveiled in October, 1886. The top of Liberty's torch is
365 feet above low water.
In September, 1886, a severe earthquake occurred near Charleston, South
Carolina, the vibrations of which were felt as far away as Cape Cod and
Milwaukee. In Charleston most of the houses were made unfit for
habitation, many persons were killed, and some $8,000,000 worth of
property was destroyed.
[20] Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of President William Henry Harrison,
was born at North Bend, Ohio, in 1833. He was educated at Miami
University, studied law, settled at Indianapolis, and when the war opened,
was reporter to the supreme court of Indiana. Joining the volunteers as a
lieutenant, he was brevetted brigadier general before the war ended. In
1881 he became a senator from Indiana. He died in 1901.
[21] This required the Secretary of the Treasury to buy each month
4,500,000 ounces of silver, pay for it with treasury notes, and redeem the
notes on demand in coin. After July 1, 1891, the silver so purchased need
not be coined, but might be stored and silver certificates issued against
it.
[22] Soon after the war the farmers in the great agricultural states had
formed associations under such names as the Grange, Patrons of Husbandry,
Patrons of Industry, Agricultural Wheel, Farmers' Alliance, and others.
About 1886 they began to unite, and formed the National Agricultural Wheel
and the Farmers' Alliance and Cooperative Union. In 1889 these and others
were united in a convention at St. Louis into the Farmers' Alliance and
Industrial Union.
[23] The electoral vote was: for Cleveland, 277; Harrison, 145; Weaver,
22. The popular vote was: Democratic, 5,556,543; Republican, 5,175,582;
Populist, 1,040,886; Prohibition, 255,841; Socialist Labor, 21,532.
[24] Cleveland objected to certain features of the bill, and refused to
sign it; but he did not veto it. By the Constitution, if the President
neither signs a bill nor returns it with his veto within ten days (Sunday
excepted) after he receives it, the bill becomes a law without his
signature, provided Congress has not meanwhile adjourned. If Congress
adjourns before the ten-day limit expires and the President does not sign,
then the bill does not become a law, but is "pocket vetoed."
[25] Because Congress had made the tax uniform--the same on incomes of the
same amount everywhere--instead of fixing the total amount to be raised
and dividing it among the states according to population, as required by
the Constitution in the case of direct taxes.
[26] The franchise has been slightly narrowed in some Northern states by
educational qualifications; but, on the other hand, in four states it has
been extended to women on the same terms as men--in Wyoming (since 1869),
Colorado (since 1893), Utah (since 1895), and Idaho (since 1896). In
nearly half the states, women can now vote in school elections. In Kansas
they vote also in municipal elections.
[27] They demanded "the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold
at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1"; that is, that out of one pound of
gold should be coined as many dollars as out of sixteen pounds of silver.
[28] William McKinley was born in Ohio in 1843, attended Allegheny College
for a short time, then taught a district school, and was a clerk in a
country post office. When the Civil War opened, he joined the army as a
private in a regiment in which Hayes was afterwards colonel, served
through the war, and was brevetted major for gallantry at Cedar Creek and
Fishers Hill. The war over, he became a lawyer, entered politics in Ohio,
and was elected a member of seven Congresses. From 1892 to 1896 he was
governor of Ohio.
[29] The Gold Democrats nominated John M. Palmer; and the Prohibitionists,
the National party, and the Socialist Labor party also named candidates.
But none of these parties cast so many as 150,000 popular votes or secured
any electoral votes.
[30] We contended that we had jurisdiction in Bering Sea; that the seals
rearing their young on our islands in that sea were our property; that
even though they temporarily went far out into the Pacific Ocean they were
under our protection. Our revenue cutters had therefore seized Canadian
vessels taking seals in the open sea.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE WAR WITH SPAIN, AND LATER EVENTS
THE CUBAN REBELLION.--In February, 1895, the Cubans, for the sixth time in
fifty years, rose in rebellion against Spain, and attempted to form a
republic. These proceedings concerned us for several reasons. American
trade with Cuba was interrupted; American money invested in Cuban mines,
railroads, and plantations might be lost; our ports were used by the
Cubans in fitting out military expeditions which our government was forced
to stop at great expense; the cruelty with which the war was waged aroused
indignation. During the summer of 1897 the suffering of Cuban non-
combatants was so great that our people began to send them food and
medical aid.
[Illustration: CUBA AND PORTO RICO.]
DESTRUCTION OF THE MAINE.--While our people were engaged in this humane
work, our battleship _Maine_, riding at anchor in the harbor of Havana,
was blown up (February 15, 1898) and two hundred and sixty of her sailors
killed. War was now inevitable, and on April 19 Congress adopted a
resolution demanding that Spain should withdraw from Cuba, and authorizing
the President to compel her to leave if necessary. [1] Spain at once
severed diplomatic relations, and (April 21, 1898) war began.
THE BATTLE AT MANILA BAY.--A fleet which had assembled at Key West sailed
at once to blockade Havana and other ports on the coast of Cuba. Another
under Commodore Dewey sailed from Hongkong to attack the Spanish fleet in
the Philippine Islands. Dewey found it in Manila Bay, where on the morning
of May 1, 1898, he attacked and destroyed it without losing a man or a
ship. The city of Manila was then blockaded, and General Merritt with
twenty thousand men was sent across the Pacific to take possession of the
Philippines.
BLOCKADE OF CERVERA'S FLEET.--Meantime a second Spanish fleet, under
Admiral Cervera (thair-va'ra), sailed from the Cape Verde Islands. Acting
Rear-Admiral Sampson, with ships which had been blockading Havana, and
Commodore Schley, with a "flying squadron," went in search of Cervera,
who, after a long hunt, was found in the harbor of Santiago on the south
coast of Cuba, and at once blockaded. [2]
[Illustration: THE PHILIPPINES.]
THE MERRIMAC.--The entrance to Santiago harbor is long, narrow, and
defended by strong forts. In an attempt to make the blockade more certain,
Lieutenant Hobson and a volunteer crew of seven men took the collier (coal
ship) _Merrimac_ well into the harbor entrance and sank her in the
channel (June 3). [3] The little band were made prisoners of war and in
time were exchanged.
[Illustration: A FIELD GUN NEAR SANTIAGO.]
BATTLES NEAR SANTIAGO.--As the fleet of Cervera could not be attacked by
water, it was decided to capture Santiago and so force him to run out.
General Shafter with an army was therefore sent to Cuba, and landed a few
miles from the city (June 22, 23), and at once pushed forward. On July 1
the Spanish positions on two hills, El Caney (el ca-na') and San Juan
(sahn hoo-ahn'), were carried by storm. [4]
The capture of Santiago was now so certain that, on July 3, Cervera's
fleet dashed from the harbor and attempted to break through the blockading
fleet. A running sea fight followed, and in a few hours all six of the
Spanish vessels were shattered wrecks on the coast of Cuba. Not one of our
ships was seriously damaged.
Two weeks later General Toral (to-rahl') surrendered the city of Santiago,
the eastern end of Cuba, and a large army.
PORTO RICO.--General Miles now set off with an army to capture Porto Rico.
He landed on the south coast (August 1) near Ponce (pon'tha), and was
pushing across the island when hostilities came to an end.
PEACE.--Meanwhile, the French minister in Washington asked, on behalf of
Spain, on what terms peace would be made. President McKinley stated them,
and on August 12 an agreement, or protocol, was signed. This provided (1)
that hostilities should cease at once, (2) that Spain should withdraw from
Cuba and cede Porto Rico and an island in the Ladrones to the United
States, and (3) that the city and harbor of Manila should be held by us
till a treaty of peace was signed and the fate of the Philippines settled.
[5]
The treaty was signed at Paris, December 10, 1898, and went into force
upon its ratification four months later. Spain agreed to withdraw from
Cuba, and to cede us Porto Rico, Guam (one of the Ladrone Islands), and
the Philippines. Our government agreed to pay Spain $20,000,000.
HAWAII, meanwhile, had steadily been seeking annexation to the United
States. Many causes prevented it; but during the war with Spain the
possibility of our holding the Philippines gave importance to the Hawaiian
Islands, and in July, 1898, they were annexed. In 1900 they were formed
into the territory of Hawaii. About the same time several other small
Pacific islands were acquired by our country. [6]
PORTO RICO AND CUBA.--For Porto Rico, Congress provided a system of civil
government which went into effect May 1, 1900, and made the island a
dependency, or colony--a district governed according to special laws of
Congress, but not forming part of our country. [7]
[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES AND ITS OUTLYING POSSESSIONS.]
When Spain withdrew from Cuba, our government took control, and after
introducing many sanitary reforms, turned the cities over to the Cubans.
The people then elected delegates to a convention which formed a
constitution, and when this had been adopted and a president elected, our
troops were withdrawn, and (May 20, 1901), the Cubans began to govern
their island.
[Illustration: A PHILIPPINE MARKET.]
WAR IN THE PHILIPPINES.--When our forces entered Manila (August, 1898),
native troops under Aguinaldo (ahg-ee-nahl'do), who had revolted against
Spanish rule, held Luzon [8] and most of the other islands. Aguinaldo now
demanded that we should turn the islands over to his party, and when this
was refused, attacked our forces in Manila. War followed; but in battle
after battle the native troops were beaten and scattered, and in time
Aguinaldo was captured. The group of islands is now governed as a
dependency.
WAR IN CHINA.--The next country with which we had trouble was China. Early
in 1900 members of a Chinese society called the Boxers began to kill
Christian natives, missionaries, and other foreigners. The disorder soon
reached Peking, where foreign ministers, many Europeans, and Americans
were besieged in the part of the city where they were allowed to reside.
Ships and troops were at once sent to join the forces of Japan and the
powers of Europe in rescuing the foreigners in Peking. War was not
declared; but some battles were fought and some towns captured before
Peking was taken and China brought to reason. [9]
[Illustration: SETTLED AREA IN 1900.]
THE CENSUS OF 1900.--At home in 1900 our population was counted for the
twelfth time in our history and found to be 76,000,000. This census did
not include the population of Porto Rico, Guam, or the Philippines. In New
York the population exceeded that of the whole United States in 1810; in
Pennsylvania it was greater than that of the whole United States in 1800,
and Ohio and Illinois each had more people than the whole country in 1790.
IMMIGRATION.--In 1879 (p. 403) a great wave of immigration began and rose
rapidly till nearly 800,000 foreigners came in one year, in 1882. Then the
wave declined, but for the rest of the century every year brought several
hundred thousand. In 1900 another great wave was rising, and by 1905 more
than 1,000,000 immigrants were coming every year. For some years these
immigrants have come mostly from southern and eastern Europe.
GROWTH OF CITIES.--Most remarkable has been the rapid growth of our
cities. In 1790 there were but 6 cities of over 8000 inhabitants each in
the United States, and their total population was but 131,000. In 1900
there were 545 such cities, and their inhabitants numbered 25,000,000--
about a third of the entire population; 38 of these cities had each more
than 100,000 inhabitants. By 1906 our largest city, New York, had more
than 4,000,000 people, Chicago had passed the 2,000,000 mark, and
Philadelphia had about 1,500,000.
THE NEW SOUTH.--The census of 1900 brought out other facts of great
interest. For many years after 1860 the South had gone backward rather
than forward. From 1880 to 1900 her progress was wonderful. In 1880 she
was loaded with debt, her manufactures of little importance, her railways
dilapidated, her banks few in number, and her laboring population largely
unemployed. In 1900 her cotton mills rivaled those of New England. Since
1880 her cotton crop has doubled, her natural resources have begun to be
developed, and coal, iron, lumber, cottonseed oil, and (in Texas and
Louisiana) petroleum have become important products. Alabama ranks high in
the list of coal-producing states, and her city of Birmingham has become a
great center of the iron and steel industry. Atlanta and many other
Southern cities are now important manufacturing centers.
With material prosperity came ability to improve the systems of public
schools. Throughout the South separate schools are maintained for white
and for negro children; and great progress has been made in both.
THE ELECTION OF 1900.--One of the signs of great prosperity in our country
has always been the number of political parties. In the campaign for the
election of President and Vice President in 1900 there were eleven
parties, large and small. But the contest really was between the
Republicans, who nominated William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, and
the Democrats, who nominated William J. Bryan and Adlai E. Stevenson,
indorsed by the Populist and Silver parties.
[Illustration: THEODORE ROOSEVELT.]
MCKINLEY ASSASSINATED.--McKinley and Roosevelt were elected, and duly
inaugurated March 4, 1901. In that year a great Pan-American Exposition
was held at Buffalo, and while attending it in September, McKinley was
shot by an anarchist who, during a public reception, approached him as if
to shake hands. Early on the morning of September 14 the President died,
and Vice-President Roosevelt [10] succeeded to the presidency.
THE CHINESE.--In President Roosevelt's first message to Congress
(December, 1901) lie dealt with many current issues. One of his requests
was for further legislation concerning Chinese laborers. The Chinese
Exclusion Act accordingly was (1902) applied to our island possessions,
and no Chinese laborer is now allowed to enter one of them, nor may those
already there go from one group to another, or come to any of our states.
IRRIGATION.--Another matter urged on the attention of Congress by the
President was the irrigation [11] of arid public lands in the West in
order that they might be made fit for settlement. Great reservoirs for the
storage of water should be built, and canals to lead the water to the arid
lands should be constructed at government expense, the land so reclaimed
should be kept for actual settlers, and the cost repaid by the sale of the
land. Congress in 1902 approved the plan, and by law set aside the money
derived from the sale of public land in thirteen states and three
territories as a fund for building irrigation works. The work of
reclamation was begun the next year, and by 1907 eight new towns with some
10,000 people existed on lands thus watered.
ISTHMIAN CANAL ROUTES.--The project of a canal across the isthmus
connecting North and South America, was more than seventy-five years old.
But no serious attempt was made to cut a water way till a French company
was organized in 1878, spent $260,000,000 in ten years, and then failed.
Another French company then took up the work, and in turn laid it down for
want of funds. So the matter stood when the war with Spain brought home to
us the great importance of an isthmian canal. Then the question arose,
Which was the better of two routes, that by Lake Nicaragua, or that across
the isthmus of Panama? [12] Congress (1899) sent a commission to consider
this, and it reported that both routes were feasible. Thereupon the French
company offered to sell its rights and the unfinished canal for
$40,000,000, and Congress (1902) authorized the President to buy the
rights and property of the French company, and finish the Panama Canal;
or, if Colombia would not grant us control of the necessary strip of land,
to build one by the Nicaragua route.
[Illustration: PANAMA CANAL ZONE.]
THE PANAMA CANAL TREATY.--In the spring of 1903, accordingly, a treaty was
negotiated with Colombia for the construction of the Panama Canal. Our
Senate ratified, but Colombia rejected, the treaty, whereupon the province
of Panama (November, 1903) seceded from Colombia and became independent
republic.
Our government promptly recognized the new republic, and a treaty with it
was ratified (February, 1904) by which we secured the right to dig the
canal. The property of the French company was then purchased, and a
commission appointed to superintend the work of construction. [13]
THE ALASKAN BOUNDARY.--By our treaty of purchase of Alaska, its boundaries
depended on an old treaty between Russia and Great Britain. When gold was
discovered in Canada in 1871, a dispute arose over the boundary, and it
became serious when gold was discovered in the Klondike region in 1896.
Our claim placed the boundary of southeastern Alaska thirty-five miles
inland and parallel to the coast. Canada put it so much farther west as to
give her several important ports. The matter was finally submitted to
arbitration, and in 1903 the decision divided the land in dispute, but
gave us all the ports. [14]
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1904.--The campaign of 1904 was opened by the
nomination by the Republican party of Theodore Roosevelt and Charles W.
Fairbanks. The Democrats presented Alton B. Parker and Henry G. Davis, and
in the course of the summer seven other parties--the People's, the
Socialist, the Socialist Labor, the Prohibition, the United Christian, the
National Liberty, and the Continental--nominated candidates. Roosevelt and
Fairbanks were elected. [15]
OKLAHOMA.--Among the demands of the Democratic party in 1904 was that for
the admission of Oklahoma and Indian Territory as one state, and of New
Mexico and Arizona as separate states. In 1906 Congress authorized the
people of Oklahoma [16] and Indian Territory to frame a constitution, and
if it were adopted by vote of the people, the President was empowered to
proclaim the state of Oklahoma a member of the Union, which was done in
1907. The same act authorized the people of New Mexico and Arizona to vote
separately on the question whether the two should form one state to be
called Arizona. At the election (in November, 1906) a majority of the
people of New Mexico voted for, and a majority of the people of Arizona
against, joint statehood, so the two remained separate territories.
PURE FOOD AND MEAT INSPECTION LAWS.--At the same session of Congress
(1906) two other wise and greatly needed laws were enacted. For years past
the adulteration of food, drugs, medicines, and liquors had been carried
on to an extent disgraceful to our country. The Pure Food Act, as it is
called, was passed to prevent the manufacture of "adulterated or
misbranded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and
liquors" in the District of Columbia and the territories, or the
transportation of such articles from one state to another. Foods and drugs
entering into interstate commerce must be correctly labeled.
The meat inspection act requires that all meat and food products intended
for sale or transportation as articles of interstate or foreign commerce,
shall be inspected by officials of the Department of Agriculture and
marked "inspected and passed." All slaughtering, packing, and canning
establishments must be inspected and their products duly labeled.
INTERVENTION IN CUBA.--As the year 1906 drew to a close, we were once more
called on to intervene in affairs in Cuba. The elections of 1905 in that
island had been followed by the revolt of the defeated party, and the
appearance of armed bands which threatened the chief towns and even
Havana. An attempt to bring about an understanding with the rebels was
repudiated by President Palma, who declared martial law and called a
meeting of the Cuban congress, which body gave him supreme power.
President Roosevelt, under our treaty with Cuba, was bound to maintain in
that island a government able to protect life and property. Secretary-of-
War Taft was therefore sent to Havana to examine into affairs, and while
he was so engaged President Palma resigned, and the Cuban congress did not
elect a successor. Secretary Taft then assumed the governorship of the
island and held it till October, when Charles Magoon was appointed
temporary governor. [17]
PANIC OF 1907.--The wonderful prosperity which our country had enjoyed for
some years past came to a sudden end in the fall of 1907. Distrust of
certain banks led to a run on several in New York city. When they were
forced to stop paying out money, a panic started and spread over the
country, business suffered, and hard times came again.
THE ELECTION OF 1908.--During the summer of 1908 seven parties nominated
candidates for President and Vice President. They were the Republican,
Democratic, Prohibition, Populist, Socialist, Socialist Labor, and
Independence. The Republicans nominated William H. Taft and James S.
Sherman; and the Democrats, William J. Bryan and John W. Kern. Taft [18]
and Sherman were elected.
[Illustration: WILLIAM H. TAFT.]
Early in 1909 Taft visited the Canal Zone, with eminent engineers, to
investigate the condition of the half-finished Panama Canal. He was
inaugurated President on March 4. In the selection of his cabinet
officers, and in his public addresses, he showed a determination to avoid
sectionalism and narrow partisanship. One of his first acts as President
was to convene Congress in special session beginning March 15, for the
purpose of framing a new tariff act.
SUMMARY
1. Our foreign relations since 1898 have been most important. In 1898
there was a short war with Spain.
2. The chief events of the war were the battle of Manila Bay, the sinking
of the _Merrimac_, the battles near Santiago, the destruction of Cervera's
fleet, the invasion of Porto Rico, and the capture of Manila.
3. Peace brought us the Philippines, Porto Rico, and Guam, and forced
Spain to withdraw from Cuba.
4. Cuba for awhile remained under our flag; but in 1902 we withdrew, and
Cuba became a republic. Later events forced us to intervene in 1906.
5. In 1900 events forced us into a short war in China.
6. In 1898 Hawaii was annexed, and in 1900 was organized as a territory;
in 1903 our dispute with Great Britain over the Alaskan boundary was
settled; and in 1904 a treaty with Panama gave us the right to dig the
Panama Canal.
7. Prominent among domestic affairs since 1898, are the assassination of
President McKinley (1901); the Irrigation Act of 1902; the pure food and
meat inspection laws of 1906; and the admission of the state of Oklahoma.
FOOTNOTES
[1] At the same time it was resolved, "That the United States hereby
disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty,
jurisdiction, or control over said island, except for the pacification
thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to
leave the government and control of the island to its people."
[2] When the _Maine_ was destroyed, the battleship _Oregon_, then on the
Pacific coast, was ordered to the Atlantic seaboard. Making her way
southward through the Pacific, she passed the Strait of Magellan, steamed
up the east coast of South America, and after the swiftest long voyage
ever made by a battleship, took her place in the blockading fleet.
[3] The storm of shot and shell from the forts carried away some of the
_Merrimac's_ steering gear, so that Hobson was unable to sink the vessel
at the spot intended. The channel was still navigable. Read the article by
Lieutenant Hobson in the _Century Magazine_ for December, 1898 to March,
1899.
[4] Among those who distinguished themselves in this campaign were General
Joseph Wheeler, an ex-Confederate cavalry leader; and Lieutenant-Colonel
Theodore Roosevelt, with his regiment of volunteers called "Rough Riders."
[5] The city of Manila was captured through a combined attack by Dewey's
fleet and Merritt's army, August 13, before news of the protocol had been
received.
[6] Our flag was raised over Wake Island early in 1899. Part of the Samoa
group, including Tutuila (too-too-e'la) and small adjacent islands, was
acquired in 1900 by a joint treaty with Great Britain and Germany; these
islands are 77 square miles in area and have 6000 population. Many tiny
islands in the Pacific, most of them rocks or coral reefs, belong to us;
but they are of little importance, except the Midway Islands, which are
occupied by a party of telegraphers in charge of a relay in the cable
joining our continent with the Philippines.
[7] Porto Rico is a little smaller than Connecticut, but has a population
of about one million, of whom a third are colored. The civil government
consists of a governor, an executive council of 11 members, and a House of
Delegates of 35 members elected by the people. The island is represented
at Washington by a resident commissioner.
[8] The Philippine group numbers about two thousand islands. The land area
is about equal to that of New England and New York; that is, 115,000
square miles. Luzon, the largest, is about the size of Kentucky. A census
taken in 1903 gave a population of 7,600,000, of whom 600,000 were
savages. For several years the Philippines were governed by the President,
first through the army, and then through an appointed commission. This
commission, with Judge William H. Taft as president, began its duties in
June of 1900; but by act of Congress (July 1, 1902) a new plan of
government has been provided for. This includes a governor and a
legislature of two branches, one the Philippine commission of eight
members, and the other an assembly chosen by the Filipinos.
[9] In 1898 the emperor of Russia invited many of the nations of the world
to meet and discuss the reduction of their armies and navies. Delegates
from twenty-six nations accordingly met at the Hague (in Holland) in May,
1899, and there discussed (1) disarmament, (2) revision of the laws of
land and naval war, (3) mediation and arbitration. Three covenants or
agreements were made and left open for signature by the nations till 1900.
One forbade the use in war of deadly gases, of projectiles dropped from
balloons, and of bullets made to expand in the human body. The second
revised the laws of war, and the third provided for a permanent court of
arbitration at the Hague, before which cases may be brought with the
consent of the nations concerned.
[10] Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York in 1858, graduated from
Harvard University in 1880, and from 1882 to 1884 was a member of the
legislature of New York. In 1886 he was the candidate of the Republican
party for mayor of New York city and was defeated. In 1889 he was
appointed a member of the United States Civil Service Commission, but
resigned in 1895 to become president of the New York city police board. In
1897 he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy, but when the war
with Spain opened, resigned and organized the First United States Cavalry
Volunteers, popularly known as Roosevelt's Rough Riders. Of this regiment
he was lieutenant colonel and then colonel, and after it was mustered out
of service, was elected governor of New York in the autumn of 1898. He is
the author of many books on history, biography, and hunting, besides
essays and magazine articles.
[11] Before this time many small areas had been irrigated by means of
works constructed by individuals, by companies, and by local governments.
[12] In 1825 Central America invited us to build a canal by way of Lake
Nicaragua, and from that time forth the question was often before
Congress. In Jackson's time a commissioner was sent to examine the
Nicaragua route and that across the isthmus of Panama. After Texas was
annexed we made a treaty with New Granada (now Colombia), and secured "the
right of way or transit across the isthmus of Panama upon any modes of
communication that now exist, or that may be hereafter constructed." After
the Mexican war, the discovery of gold in California, and the expansion of
our territory on the Pacific coast, the importance of a canal was greatly
increased. But Great Britain stepped in and practically seized control of
the Nicaragua route. A crisis followed, and in 1850 we made with Great
Britain the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, by which each party was pledged never
to obtain "exclusive control over the said ship canal." When (in 1900) we
practically decided to build by the Nicaragua route, and felt we must have
exclusive control, it became necessary to abrogate this part of the
Clayton-Bulwer treaty. The Hay-Pauncefote treaty was therefore made, by
which Great Britain gave up all claim to a share in the control of such a
canal, and the United States guaranteed that any isthmian canal built by
us should be open to all nations on equal terms.
[13] In accordance with our rights under the treaty, Congress (April,
1904) authorized the President, as soon as he had acquired the property of
the canal company and paid Panama $10,000,000, to take possession of the
"Canal Zone," a strip ten miles wide (five miles on each side of the
canal) stretching across the isthmus and extending three marine miles from
low water out into the ocean at each end. On April 22, 1904, the property
of the canal company was transferred at Paris, and on May 9 the company
was paid $40,000,000; Panama had already been paid her $10,000,000, and on
May 19 General Davis, president of the Canal Commission, issued a
proclamation announcing the beginning of his administration as governor of
the Canal Zone.
[14] Another event of 1903 was the addition of a ninth member to the
Cabinet,--the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. The Secretary of
Agriculture (1889) was the eighth member.
[15] By 336 electoral votes against 140 for Parker and Davis. The popular
vote was: Republican, 7,623,486; Democratic, 5,077,971; Socialist,
402,283; Prohibition, 258,536; Populist, 117,183; Socialist Labor, 31,249:
all others combined, less than 10,000.
[16] The central portion of Indian Territory was opened for settlement on
April 22, 1889, when a great rush was made for the new lands. Other areas
were soon added, and in 1890 Oklahoma territory was organized. It included
the western half of the Indian Territory shown on p. 394.
[17] Another event of 1906 was a great earthquake in western California
(April 18). Many buildings in many places were shaken down, and most of
San Francisco was destroyed by fires which could not be put out because
the water mains were broken by the earthquake. Hundreds of persons lost
their lives, and the property loss in San Francisco alone was estimated at
$400,000,000.
[18] William Howard Taft was born in Ohio, September 15, 1857, graduated
from Yale, studied law, became judge of the Superior Court of Ohio, and
United States Circuit Judge (6th Circuit). After the war with Spain, Judge
Taft was made president of the Philippine Commission, and in 1901 first
civil governor of the Philippine Islands. In 1904 he was appointed
Secretary of War, an office which he resigned after his nomination for the
Presidency.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Brief History of the United States
by John Bach McMaster
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